Tuesday, June 22, 2010
June 23, 2010
The other day mom and dad bought us a trampoline which we promptly set up the next day... The next morning we found the foam poles that attach the netting to the trampoline looking like swiss cheese! Guess who..... The kittens had decided it was a wonderful toy while we were still asleep! Now we all have pulled stomach muscles from jumping too much and spray bottles for disciplining kittens...
Saturday, June 12, 2010
More Pictures.....
Camels Crossing
Kittens onMarch 5th one day old (they are 100 times cuter now)
Tatum's interpretation on me in an abaya...
Baboons on the side of the road!
More baboons...
Friday, June 11, 2010
June 8th, 2010
This week we took our mid-week day off on Tuesday. I may have mentioned that my dad broke his ankle about two weeks ago playing basketball. He had an appointment, I needed a vaccination, we were all going to get our teeth cleaned (the dentist is located at the hospital), and my mom wanted to get some moles my siblings and I had checked out. We arrived and immediately marched into the dermatologists office. The dermatologist told my mom it was not necessary to remove any of the moles but mom decided to "play it safe." Great!!!! I had to go first. They laid me down on an hospital bed in a stark white operation room. The gave me an extremely painful numbing shot and began the "surgery". First they took a little tiny saw and cut the mole out of my neck. Then they zapped it with purple fire, and then they took a corer and cored it out. They repeated the process about 7 times (for one mole) and finally it was over! They treated the wound and put a big band aid on it. Next was Will who sat through the whole operation completely alone (except for the doctors and nurses). After Will was Cam and then Tatum. During both of their operations you could hear them screaming bloody murder all the way down the hall. Cam held onto the door and refused to come in. My mom had to drag him into the room... Cam and Tatum each had multiple moles. cam had two on his stomach and one on the back of his neck and Tatum had two right next to each other on the side of her neck. We each have a bag of medication for everything from pain to antibiotic. Wow what an experience...
Sunday, June 6, 2010
More Pictures
Some more Pictures of the compound including another picture of our house(still not updated), a Saudi stop sign, and pictures of the baby and big pool...
June 6th, 2010
Last night Tatum and I had the opportunity to go shopping with my mom and dad. Our first stop of the evening was the grocery store. Apparently Tatum is a big hit in Saudi. The man at the deli gave Tatum two trays of turkey to snack on while we shopped the man at the bakery gave Tatum some Saudi chocolate treats, and at the checkout the clerk gave Tatum a pack of gum... I guess I am not as cute as a little blond girl in a pink polka dotted sweatshirt! Our next stop was the Philipeno restaurant inside of the crappiest hotel in Saudi Arabia. After a good Philippine dinner we went across the street to get some ice cream. We stopped at the Home Center were we got some reusable water bottles, memory foam pillows and two black and white canvases of Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower for my room. On the way home we once again noticed how uneconomically strategic Saudi salesmen can be. They put all the chandelier stores right next to one another so that there are literally about 50 chandelier stores right in a row. Now it is not like you can patronize any one chandelier store because one only buys a chandelier about every 20 years if that. Wow Saudi is definitely different!
Saturday, June 5, 2010
My Trip to Jeddah
Hello,
2 days and a few hours was certainly not enough! Who knew that life away from Khamis -Mushayt was so liberal, western and different... A breath of fresh air after being locked away on a compound in little, remote, and extremely conservative Khamis for 3 months... We traveled to Jeddah with our good friends and next-door neighbors, Christopher, Christelle, and their, son Gabin. The driving on the way down to Jeddah (especially down the escarpment) was crazy but not any different than we expected. When you live in the Kingdom you learn to close your eyes, expect anything but what you would expect if you were back on planet Western Civilization, and be ready to die at every corner... Some people think they know but you will never understand unless you come to Saudi and see with your own eyes... I cannot begin to describe how bazaar it is simply driving to the Hyper Panda (a huge Super Target or Walmart like grocery chain.)
In Saudi Arabia most gas stations look like Vegas Hotels. They are completely tiled in beautiful designs and often in amazing formations. The actual pumps are nothing spectacular and would be way out of date if plopped into the States. However the gas, as expected, is extremely cheap. In the States, to fill up our Suburban it would cost around 70 dollars, here to fill are car (slightly smaller than a Suburban) it costs 20 SR or about 5 dollars... WOW! Another strange custom in Saudi is that connected to most gas stations there will be a Mosque... Why not? Anyway at one particular gas station on the way to Jeddah there was a little tub/sink, exactly like the one I have in my basement back home in Indiana... hanging from the tub was a little plastic tea cup. It had obviously not been washed in over 10 years and was filthy. While we were filling up several groups of boys arrived. They were on their way to go play a bit of soccer at the field of dust and dirt across the street. One group of boys walked up and two more came- driven by a boy somewhere between the age of 7 and 12. We watched as each of the boys went up to "the cup" (as we had begun calling it) and took a drink. We cringed every time someone took a sip, and uttered “eww's” and “grose's.” Eventually, we moved on and spotted a oh so common (not sarcastic) filthy old mattress on a wire bed sitting in the dirt that we suspected was used for relaxation like a hammock. Anyway, we stopped for dinner at a little beach and then we continued on to Jeddah.
Jeddah is defiantly different from Khamis-Mushayt.... It is a lot hotter for one thing. And there are a ton of Western restaurants. For example, AppleBees, Burger King, TGIFridays, and several others. We went first to the hotel's breakfast buffet that included hot breakfast as well as fruit and pastries. Then we would go to the private beach owned by the hotel. There we were able to take of our abayas and feel like we were at a normal beach. We would order lunch and head back to the hotel at 2:00 to shower up and then go shopping. The first day we went to IKEA... My favorite store in the whole world. There, I purchased a throw blanket for the end of my bed, some lucky bamboo, a comforter cover, a clock, a vase (for the lucky bamboo), and my mom and dad bought me a huge mural on canvas of the Flat Iron Building in New York. When we were done at IKEA we went to a beautiful Italian restaurant we ate late like Europeans and didn't start dinner until about 9:00. Tatum, Tadhg, and Cam all fell asleep during dinner and were carried off by waiters. The waiters put them on couches located in the lobby and brought them pillows. The next day it was the same routine. But instead of IKEA, Mom, Christelle, Christopher, Gabin, and I went to the mall. We came home and dad had already taken the kids to eat at Burger King and then taken them for ice cream. Gabin, the adults, and I went to the hotel’s dinner buffet and then got to bed at midnight. The next morning was our last. We went to the breakfast buffet and then went back to our bungalow to pack. Christelle and Gabin would not be returning with our family and Christopher. They would be staying on the Jeddah compound with another friend who lives on our compound.
Lately, I have been more homesick as ever... I have also been a real slacker when it comes to blogging. I promise that I will try to be consistent once again...
Keenan
2 days and a few hours was certainly not enough! Who knew that life away from Khamis -Mushayt was so liberal, western and different... A breath of fresh air after being locked away on a compound in little, remote, and extremely conservative Khamis for 3 months... We traveled to Jeddah with our good friends and next-door neighbors, Christopher, Christelle, and their, son Gabin. The driving on the way down to Jeddah (especially down the escarpment) was crazy but not any different than we expected. When you live in the Kingdom you learn to close your eyes, expect anything but what you would expect if you were back on planet Western Civilization, and be ready to die at every corner... Some people think they know but you will never understand unless you come to Saudi and see with your own eyes... I cannot begin to describe how bazaar it is simply driving to the Hyper Panda (a huge Super Target or Walmart like grocery chain.)
In Saudi Arabia most gas stations look like Vegas Hotels. They are completely tiled in beautiful designs and often in amazing formations. The actual pumps are nothing spectacular and would be way out of date if plopped into the States. However the gas, as expected, is extremely cheap. In the States, to fill up our Suburban it would cost around 70 dollars, here to fill are car (slightly smaller than a Suburban) it costs 20 SR or about 5 dollars... WOW! Another strange custom in Saudi is that connected to most gas stations there will be a Mosque... Why not? Anyway at one particular gas station on the way to Jeddah there was a little tub/sink, exactly like the one I have in my basement back home in Indiana... hanging from the tub was a little plastic tea cup. It had obviously not been washed in over 10 years and was filthy. While we were filling up several groups of boys arrived. They were on their way to go play a bit of soccer at the field of dust and dirt across the street. One group of boys walked up and two more came- driven by a boy somewhere between the age of 7 and 12. We watched as each of the boys went up to "the cup" (as we had begun calling it) and took a drink. We cringed every time someone took a sip, and uttered “eww's” and “grose's.” Eventually, we moved on and spotted a oh so common (not sarcastic) filthy old mattress on a wire bed sitting in the dirt that we suspected was used for relaxation like a hammock. Anyway, we stopped for dinner at a little beach and then we continued on to Jeddah.
Jeddah is defiantly different from Khamis-Mushayt.... It is a lot hotter for one thing. And there are a ton of Western restaurants. For example, AppleBees, Burger King, TGIFridays, and several others. We went first to the hotel's breakfast buffet that included hot breakfast as well as fruit and pastries. Then we would go to the private beach owned by the hotel. There we were able to take of our abayas and feel like we were at a normal beach. We would order lunch and head back to the hotel at 2:00 to shower up and then go shopping. The first day we went to IKEA... My favorite store in the whole world. There, I purchased a throw blanket for the end of my bed, some lucky bamboo, a comforter cover, a clock, a vase (for the lucky bamboo), and my mom and dad bought me a huge mural on canvas of the Flat Iron Building in New York. When we were done at IKEA we went to a beautiful Italian restaurant we ate late like Europeans and didn't start dinner until about 9:00. Tatum, Tadhg, and Cam all fell asleep during dinner and were carried off by waiters. The waiters put them on couches located in the lobby and brought them pillows. The next day it was the same routine. But instead of IKEA, Mom, Christelle, Christopher, Gabin, and I went to the mall. We came home and dad had already taken the kids to eat at Burger King and then taken them for ice cream. Gabin, the adults, and I went to the hotel’s dinner buffet and then got to bed at midnight. The next morning was our last. We went to the breakfast buffet and then went back to our bungalow to pack. Christelle and Gabin would not be returning with our family and Christopher. They would be staying on the Jeddah compound with another friend who lives on our compound.
Lately, I have been more homesick as ever... I have also been a real slacker when it comes to blogging. I promise that I will try to be consistent once again...
Keenan
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