An RT Christmas

One word can describe Christmas here in RT - relaxed. Our RT Christmas kicked off two weeks ago as we sat out front listening to Jimmy Buffett's Christmas album while decorating our palm tree with lights.

This was followed up by a couple of weeks worth of Christmas parties. Marie and I have much more of an active social life here due to the ready availability of babysitters - and they are cheap!! The cheapest (free) and the kids most favorite sitter of all is their Aunt Ce-Ci who comes up from Dhahran to help us out when we are in a real bind. Parties in RT (and Aramco in general) are quite extravagent by my simple standards. I remember when I came to visit my in-laws in the late 90's and they threw us a party I was blown away that for a minimal cost the housing office will come out and cover your entire yard in "Persian style" carpets and put up tables and chairs for you. It is quite impresive to see.

By the time the Christmas party circuit had finished we were ready to settle down to a "warm winters nap." The weather had been perfect. 70's and sunny day after day. And then it was as if Father Christmas (shout outs to our British RT family) had flipped a switch and it got cold. Now when I say cold I'm not talking Philadelphia in January cold. We're talking highs in the 60's. But at night and in the morning it is down right frigid. We're talking temps in the low 50's. I know. I know. I am a big wuss. It only took me four months to get thin skinned. But I can't drink my morning coffee outside anymore not to mention I have to wear a long sleeved shirt to play golf. But once again I digress.

Christmas Eve was thankfully chilly. My Christmas wish was for a cold and cloudy day. Just the way I like Christmas day to be. The cold came now all I needed was clouds. A tall order. Cheri came up by bus on Christmas Eve afternoon. We decided to start a new Christmas tradition and eat Shawarma for dinner. As usual it was fabulous. I am pretty sure my foodie wife plans on dedicating an entire blog entry in the near future to my new favorite food. We then attended a Christmas Eve service and came home for a quiet family night together. The kids had received packages of gifts in the mail from all their grandparents so we let them dig into those on Christmas Eve. We then all sat down and watched a Christmas special. Quite a different night from what we were use to in the states.

Chirstmas dawned cold and.....sunny:( Oh well one out of two isn't bad. The temperature was in the upper 40's! The kids came down to find Santa Al Clause does in fact visit Saudi Arabia. We spent the night before tracking Santa's progress on the NORAD website as we have done for three years now. As you can see from the picture Sarah is still a firm believer. I love her to death and this picture makes me want to cry because I know our Christmas' with Sarah as a believer are numbered.

Jack on the other hand is 7 going on 4. Happy as can be and living large. He was so happy with all his gifts but couldn't understand why Santa would buy him games for his PS2 that would not work. Little did Santa know that if the PS2 was bought in the states games purchased here would not work in it. Smooth Santa. Real Smooth. One sign of Jack's impending maturity is the fact that he actually got excited about getting clothes as a gift.

Anna would have been just as happy to sit and rip apart wrapping paper all day. She loved her new shoes as you can see from the picture but Dora ruled the day. Now that I think about it Dora rules everyday at our house. It is all she ever wants to watch.

The day wore on in a very relaxed and lazy fashion. The kids played with the neighborhood gang out front. I took a nap and then mid afternoon took the dog we are watching for a walk on the beach. As I walked up the beach in shorts and my new Ocean City hoodie the wind picked up and to my great surprise the grey clouds came rolling in from off the Gulf. My Christmas wish had been fulfilled! Cold (chilly) and cloudy. Meanwhile back at the house Marie and Cheri did what they do best - talked. Ok - that is not fair. Marie worked her tail off preparing an amazing Christmas meal while they talked. It was awesome!! She did the Turkey in the chickenizer. For those of you who do not know what that means I will give you a hint - "Set it and forget it". The Turkey was amazing. The sides were perfect. The weather was Christmas-ish. All we were missing was all of you. So on that note I attach the below video clip:

Here Comes The Fish Man!

Where in the States could you get a guy drive to your house with the catch of the day, clean it, and bag it for you. All in your own kitchen. Here in RT we have just that. This fine gentleman comes to our house about once every two weeks with a cooler full of one kind of fresh seafood or another. He sold Marie the largest shrimp I had ever seen a couple of weeks back. This week it was red snapper fresh from the Persian Gulf. Needless to say having an arab guy cleaning a giant fish in your kitchen is a big hit with the kids. It is things like this that make living here so cool.

Shaybah

When people in the west think of Saudi Arabia many think of scenes from Lawrance of Arabia. This is my father's favorite movie of all time and I was subjected to watching it at an early age. Probably too early as I did not enjoy it the first time I sat through the 216 minutes of film. It was not until I watched it at a later age that the intrigue that infects so many as they watch this film infected me. Three scenes from the movie in particular really stick in my mind. The first is when Lawrence is riding the camel through the desert whistling and listening to the echo bounce off the jebals surrounding him. The scenery is so sweeping in that segment that it naturally sticks out. The other two scenes are when Lawrence is charging accross the desert to help take the port city of Aqaba from the Turks and when he is getting ready to head out accross the desert on what is deemed by his Arab couterparts to be a suicide mission. The quote in that scenes goes as follows:

Ali Sharif:There is the railway. And that is the desert. From here until we reach the other side, no water but what we carry with us. For the camels, no water at all. If the camels die, we die. And in twenty days they will start to die.

T.E. Lawrence: There's no time to waste, then, is there?

Anyway, when I first came to visit my in laws in Saudi some 10 years ago I came with those visions in my brain. My father-in-law took me four wheeling along the beach road outside Khobar and as I zippped along the dunes I couldn't help but feel like Lawrence charging into Aqaba. That memory has stuck with me. I plan on taking my father down to four wheel when he visits in March.

That being said, all those same feelings came rushing back because nothing can prepare you for what you see when you go to Shaybah. Shaybah is a large oil field in the south east section of Saudi Arabia. It is in the middle of one of the world's largest sand desert called the Rub' Al-Khali. This area is also know as the Empty Quarter and for good reason. When you go to visit you are completely in the middle of no where.

If you click on this link it will take you to a Google Earth iamge if Shaybah. You can make out the runway and town. The interesting thing is to zoom out. You will see just how desolate this place is.

Shaybah satalite link

Aramco runs lots of trips to Shaybah. We went down with the Dhahran Women's Group. We flew out of the Aramco terminal at the Dammam airport on one of the Aramco jets. You will notice that Marie made sure to color coordinate herself with the plane.

You fly two hours or so south and out of the middle of the desert pops an entire little town with power, water, AC and all the other modern touches. As you walk through the complex it is hard to imagine that you are literally hundreds of miles from "civilazation". The dunes were enormous. We spent a portion of the day touring an oil rig and meeting some of these extraordinary men who spend weeks at a time out there working in this amazing environment.

The latter part of the day was the highlight. We were given the chance to roam the desert, watch the sun set and take part in a traditional Saudi meal. The scenery was breath taking. After spending the entire day with the ladies I took the first chance I got to take off into the desert for some peace and quiet. And man was it quiet. The sunset was surreal enough but add the prayer call coming from the Shaybah mosque and it became an experience I shall not soon forget.

We finished the day off with a traditional Saudi meal of Lamb Kabsa, tea, dates and om-ali. I am a big fan of rice pudding and om-ali is as close as I am going to get here. All in all a fantastic experience. We will try to get back down there in the future with the kids. They would love it!!

Sarah turns 9!

I was actually okay with Sarah turning 9.....until someone said, "Oh - it's the last year before double digits!" Rats. That hurt. It goes so fast - so cliche, but so true.

Sarah is thoughtful, sweet, silly, spunky and has a great sense of humor. She has done so well with our big move and we couldn't be more proud of her. I love the way Sarah will try just about anything, whether its roller coasters or a new food. I love the way she loves to cook and likes Little House on the Prairie. I like the way she's always collecting scraps around the house to make a "bed" for her 5 million stuffed animals, I like the way she throws Anna on her hip and walks around with pride. I like the way she bosses Jack around (because thats what big sisters do:) I like the way she sleeps with her head propped up on 3 different accent pillows and a Diva eye mask. I love the way she listens to music with head phones on and belts out songs...out of tune. But most of all, I like the way she still needs hugs and kisses from Mommy & Daddy.

Sarah, you're a great girl and we couldn't love you more - Happy Birthday, Baby!

Hallelujah - our shippment has arrived!

We went without our stuff for over three and a half months. Last Tuesday that all changed as our Marco Polo came riding back into Venice! It seems that our shipment took longer then most to arrive. We are the last of the large batch of teachers hired over the summer to get our stuff. We were also one of the last of that group to actually arrive here in August. The feeling of anticipation of having our stuff back after so long in the days leading up to the delivery was torture. But when the day finally came and the 5 truck loads of crates pulled up it turned out to be all quite overwhelming.

The Aramco furniture that we have been borrowing (and despising) was picked up first thing in the morning. Anna kept a watchful eye over the workers as they moved the furniture out onto the truck. She also introduced some of them to Dora the Explorer.

Before the Aramco truck could pull out of the driveway the shipping company trucks started to pull up. In the end there were four short trucks and one trailor truck. Of course in true Saudi style one of the trucks was held up at a police checkpoint outside the gate and I had to go and schmooze the local police officer to let the truck through. Over the past months I have gotten pretty good at this and I had the truck through in no time. This is when things really got interesting. You see, in our move to Saudi we downsized a bit. We are living in a townhouse here in Saudi. There is quite a bit less space then we had at our palatial mansion in Collegeville. As the 16 crates arrived and were opened Marie and I quickly had that "oh crap" realization that we were going to have trouble fitting all this into the house.

Here is the before and after picture: (yes that is Anna laying on the floor watching Dora)

In the end it was a long day but we had our stuff. It's like your birthday and Christmas all wrapped in one. And everything made it through customs. Even our Christmas tree, which the Saudi customs officials are notorious for confiscating due to the Christian nature of the holiday, made it through. If you know Marie you know that a mere six days removed from the day it all arrived our house has officially become our home. There is still a lot of work to do but she has made a huge dent in making the house comfortable. We have slept in our beds for the first time in three months. Our couch is as comfy here as it was in the states. It is going to take some time to unload all the boxes and arrange and rearrange things to make everything fit but boy does it feel good to have all our stuff again. We have all our stuff again!!!

Thanksgiving 2007

For most Aramcons Thanksgiving is spent with friends. People host huge Thanksgiving dinners where they invite 50 or more people. We are one of the very few who actually get to spend Thanksgiving with family. We had been hoping that our shippment would have arrived in time for Thanksgiving but it had not and therefore our plans changed. Instead of Marie's sister coming to RT for dinner we would all be heading down to Dhahran for the day. It was actually kind of nice to be driving somewhere for dinner. It made it feel more Thanksgiving-ish. The deal struck was that Marie would take care of the food and Cheri would take care of the table. So it was that we struck out for Dhahran for our first holiday meal. Over the desert and through the sand to Aunt Ce-Ce's house we go....

Cheri did a wonderful job with the decor. Her house is beautifully decorated and going there from our empty house is a real treat. We ate dinner in her "Vietnam" room.

The weather was perfect and we spent a large part of the day hanging out on the back patio which overlooks the desert.

No American football to watch over here. So I did the best I could and watched Rugby!

As usual Marie's food was excellent and we all sat down to enjoy a great Thanksgiving meal together (Cheri invited her good friend Debra).

We hope you had as wonderful a Thanksgiving as we did. Happy Holidays and here comes our shippment

Little Miss Trouble

It's a good thing she's so cute. Like all children, whenever Anna is quiet - I know she's up to no good! Her latest favorite activity is drawing...on my walls! I usually find her in the act and she looks up at me with a scowl of disgust and says, "OH NO, Mommy!" As if she just happened to notice this vandalism and can't wait to help me find out who did it!

I was blaming Steve & the kids for leaving pens & pencils out, but one day I walked in on her on her tippy toes going through the pen drawer feeling around for the perfect writing utensil. Needless to say, that is no longer the pen & pencil drawer!

Before I have this closet door painted (one of her larger and more extensive drawings), I thought I'd take a picture of Little Miss Trouble showcasing her work: