The picture link to the left is now working!

The links to the left now work. The top is a map of where we live. The second is where I will post loads of other picutres above what is posted on the blog itself.

The Grand Arrival

When the second flight finally landed in Dammam KSA everyone was feeling better after some sleep and relative relaxation on the second flight. Anna literally skipped her way into Saudi Arabia and had all the Saudi police and airport workers smiling. We cleared immigration and moved on to baggage. We had 10 pieces of luggage and only lost one peice. I suppose that's not too bad. It turned up three days later. Some people that came in that night are still waiting for bags. When we finally cleared customs and make our way out to the arrival area we were suprised to see a large contingent of Saudi Aramco teachers from the Ras Tanura school waiting to greet us. This included the superintendent of schools, the principal of the RT School, the vice principal of the RT School and 5 other teachers. It was quite overwhelming. Lots of hand shaking, names and conversation. With that Sarah screamed and out of hiding comes Cheri who came up to the airport to greet us as well (see pic below) What an arrival. After going through Armaco processing at the airport it was off to RT - about a 35 minute ride. The kids fell asleep and Marie and I preceeded to drill the teacher driving us about life in RT.

We arrived at our house at about 10:30 (I think - It has been a week now) and were greeted by some friendly gecko's running around the front entrance. Sarah smiled and started speaking in an English accent like the gecko in the Geico commercial. The house is really nice. Not nearly as big as what we had in C'Ville but nice all the same. It came equiped with new everything. New fridge, dishwasher, washer and dryer, oven, tile floors, corian counter tops, ac unit, carpeting upstairs all brand new. Very nice. The company is renting us furniture to use for now. Marie and I are sleeping in a double bed. We are used to a king. Oye. The best part is we all fell asleep at 11:30 that first night and slept through until the next morning when we were awakened by the gardener ringing the doorbell. We have slept through the night since and have had no jet lag at all!! People we talk to keep saying "just wait it will come" but it has been 8 days and nothing. I think we beat it - this time.

So the first week begins. I have worked a lot and Marie has done her best to get the house togther. Cheri has been a huge help and has lent us a lot of things we did not realize we would need. The people of this community are amazing. They are constantly dropping off food. Fruit, banana bread, shwarma, chicken and rice among other things. The community holds 3200 when full. It is at about half capacity right now but on every street they are gutting houses and putting in the all new everything like they did for us. There are a lot of people on the way. Just to give you an idea the school enrollment at the end of last year was 130 K-12. Right now it is at 190 and by next week it will be 210. By November they anticipate 250 with a total of 300 by years end. They are talking about building and new school building. That's it for now. I will write more tonight as I find I really enjoy doing this.

Happy Birthday to my sis Missy!

Steve - Ras Tanura KSA 8/29/07

We Are Here!

We have arrived and are slowly settling in to our new digs. What an adventure so far!

The plane trip: We leave Bluebell at 8:00am for a 11:25 flight to Atlanta.

The flight from Philly to Atlanta was uneventful. God's infinite sense of humor shone through once again as we boarded the plane with temperatures in the upper 60's. This is practically unheard of for Philly in August. It is a mere 113 degrees here today. Thank God I don't have a sweating problem. We flew coach to Atlanta with all the poor people. It went fine and the kids were good. This flight lasted from 11:25am - 1:05pm(EDT) We were lucky enough to meet up with Marie's parents at the airport in Atlanta for a last goodbye. They were coming home from a wedding in Kansas via Atlanta and we had a short 15 minutes together before we boarded our KLM flight for Amstertam. Total layover in Atlanta 1:05 - 4:45pm(EDT).

The flight to Amersterdam was fantastic for 85% of the trip. Goodbye to the peasants in coach

and hello to first class luxury. They call it business class now but we know what it really is. We thought we had died and gone to heaven. Seats that recline to a flat sleeping position. Individualized attention during meal service complete with real glass and silverware. The kids only broke one glass during the entire two flights on KLM - not a bad track record. Movies, tv, music and video games all at your seat. Sarah and Jack fell right in line and began ordering soda's and snacks at will. Jack would proceed to use the bathroom a minimum of 10 times on the leg to Amsterdam. I hit up the free drinks as I knew the clock was ticking on my alcohol consumption and I needed to get in all I could. Good red wine. All was great until it was time to go to sleep. The older two stayed up the entire flight jacked up on sugar and travel adreniline. The baby hit a wall somewhere over the eastern north Atlantic and while all those who had payed out the wazoo tried to sleep Anna blew her first gasket. We finally got her to sleep and a hour later they turned on all the lights as it was time for breakfast and our decent. Rats. She was up again and really unhappy. The last hour or more was tough. She sceamed and I mean screamed all the way into the gate. People on that flight hated us. 4:45pm - 1:15am(EDT)

We now had a 6 hour layover in Amsterdam's Schiphol International Airport. This is where Jack came undone. What I have failed to tell you is that Jack came down with the worst case of poison oak I have ever seen the day before we left. It was everywhere. Face, neck, head, arm, leg, tookus and his most private of all places had it the worst. We spent too much time in a tiny airplane bathroom applying anti-itch creme to his hey-na-nee-na-nee. But I digress. Jack was in a bad place between his itch and lack of sleep. He lost it and wanted the entire airport to know it. We found the KLM executive lounge and we all settled in for some rest. The kids fell asleep after some food and drink and Marie and I sat tight for what seemed like an eternity. That is until I found the Heineken on tap. I know it was 7:30am Netherlands time but on my watch it said 3:30am and that meant it was happyhour. Good lord were they good. I like Heineken at home even with the slightly skunky after taste. But here it was super -d-duper fresh and amazing. I could have had 8 but after just two and a serious lack of sleep the room started spinning so I stopped. Good bye beer. You have been a good friend and I will see you again soon. Onto the next flight. The kids can barely walk as we wake them to go to the plane. Jack is moaning. Anna is not happy. But Sarah has been a trooper through the entire ordeal. I think she has her mom's travel gene's. 1:15am-7:15am(EDT)

The last leg of the trip was the best. We were back in our first class digs but we were split up. Jack and I were 6 rows back from the girls. Jack, Marie and Anna fell asleep immediately and Sarah and I hung tough and stayed up. Finally able to enjoy the good life I watch a movie and ate a meal. We arrive at Dammam Airport at 8:25 local time. That would be 1:25(EDT). Our entire trip took us 26 hours door to door. Longer then usual due to the flight to Atlanta.

Rats I am out of time. We are off to al-Khobar for shopping and dinner. The pic above is from today at lunch at the Dhahran Horse Farm. It is the weekend here are we are visiting from RT to use her computer and watch some TV as we have neither at the moment. Enjoy.

Steve - Dhahran Saudi Arabia 8/23/07

Thank You

Well it is our last night in the states. The house in Collegeville is empty and our suticases are all packed. We have spent the last three nights in Bluebell and we are on our way at 7:30 tomorrow morning. By the time we walk in our door in Ras Tanura is will be close to 2:30 on Monday afternoon. That is a long trip. A two hour flight to Atlanta. A three and a half hour layover in Atlanta. A seven and a half hour flight to Amersterdam with a six hour layover there. Finally a six hour flight to Dammam KSA and a short half hour ride to our house. This is going to be interesting. The up side is we do get to fly business class which is very similar to and in some cases is first class. I can't wait to see the look on the faces of the people who payed all that money for a nice seat on the plane as our clan comes barreling down the aisle. I am attaching some pictures of the move below. Those guys are efficient. And that is it!! Thank you so much to all of our friends and family who have shown us such support and love through this entire process. The numerous goodbye parties and get togethers reinforced just how special you all are to us. The next entry will come as soon as I can find a computer in the next bunch of days. Keep us in your prayers and we will be in touch soon.



Steve - Bluebell Pa. 8/18/07

It's Time

After almost 7 months of speculation we have finally gotten the go ahead on August 19th. The last hurdle has been cleared and now things go into high gear. We have said all our goodbyes. We have quit our jobs. We sold our cars and hopefully soon our house. Yesterday the moving company came by for a preliminary walk through. Tomorrow our house gets packed up and we move to Marie's parents house. The departure is set for Sunday morning at 11:30 via Atlanta and Amsterdam and on to Dammam, KSA. All in business class. This will be the last blog from our Collegeville Pa local. Once we get to Bluebell I will update on how the move went. For now, we have a list of about 800 items to cover and the boss is calling me back to work. Goodbye from Collegeville.

Steve

OBX

The Outer Banks have always been very special to me. The first time I came here was enroute to Key West with group of guys on a fishing trip. We camped in the dunes and lived on the beach from 8 in the morning until 1 in the morning. That part of the Outer Banks was called Oregon Inlet. We would fish all day and build a fire at night. Sitting in the middle of the Hatteras National Sea Shore at night gives you a new appreciation for how many stars are out there. I liked that part of our fishing trip so much (Key West is a whole other story) that I brought Marie back with me for our first married vacation together. She also fell in love with this place. So in the following years we started to bring friends along for the trip. Of course Matt and Paula made the trip to the dunes with us and the rest is history. Our two familes have been coming to the Outer Banks on vacation ever since.

The biggest difference between the days when we would live on the beach for 15 hours a day and coming now of course is the kids. Between the two families we have 6 children and that does not lend itself well to camping. So now we rent a house and for all the years we have been renting we come to the most northern part of the Outer Banks called Corolla and Corolla Light. This year we are just about a 1/4 of a mile from where the road ends and you must have 4 wheel drive to go any further north up the beach. There are houses up there but you have to have 4 wheel to get to them as well. Rumor has it that Tom Cruise owns a house up there somewhere. I suppose that's why people keep stopping me on the beach and asking me for autographs. We are easily confused for one another.

The week started off with some rain but it lasted just a few hours and we got about an hour and a half of beach time in. The clouds looked quite tropical and lived up to there part with a brief shower in the afternoon. The kids enjoyed themselves in the hot tub and have found all sorts of interesting ways to keep themselves entertained.

Matt and I got to golf on second full day at a course called Seascape. Those same tropical clouds hung around and helped make for a beautiful morning. While standing on the tee box of the 10th hole in rained on us. The weird part was that the sun was shining and the sky was blue. Very cool. The freak rain was followed by a beautiful rainbow. Might as well have been in Hawaii. In the end Matt and I held hands and enjoyed the moment.

With golf out of the way our days have fallen into a wonderful relaxed routine. Up in the morning for a walk on the beach. Off to the community pool until lunch. Spend the afternoon relaxing at the house while Anna naps and then off to the beach for the afternoon. Each day we stay later and our return to the house is now pushing 7 o'clock. Feed the kids and put them to bed and then the grown ups get our chance to have some fun.

This place is great. The house is nice and the beach and pool have been great. We are cherishing each day with Matt and Paula and the kids because we know we will miss them dearly. When we return we will be down to less then two weeks until we depart for Saudi. Rumor has it that the fall in Saudi is very similar to the weather we have had here this week. I sure hope so.

Steve - 8/2/07 The Outer Banks of North Carolina