Ya'll better be thankful, darnit!

As our American readers know, Thanksgiving is coming up. This is a holiday every American has grown up with, and each family has its own traditions that make this time of year special. Hollywood likes to satirize the drama that can sometimes come from having so much family together time, but being away from home during the holidays certainly makes one long for the days of family tension filling the air over the dinner table.

The hubs and I are hosting Thanksgiving for our colleagues. I've wanted to host Thanksgiving for years, but I've generally been overridden by family members with bigger houses and larger dining room tables. I'm really excited to finally get to have a house full of guests and yummy Thanksgiving aromas.

Well, hopefully my house will be filled with the usual aromas. See, some of the traditional American products are hard to find over here, making the typical dishes (read: dressing and green bean casserole) a lot harder to prepare than they should be.

A few of the things that are going to require a little extra searching: marshmallows (pork products are illegal, you know. google it.), celery, condensed soups (a la cream of mushroom and others), Jiffy corn bread mix, and any sort of cooking wine/sherry/alcohol at all.

Luckily, I don't think my guests will mind. All of the residents of the house are invited, including our Thai neighbor with mad skills in the kitchen. We're also inviting another family from down the street, and the matriarch is Mexican--tamales, anyone? Add to that our new boss and her billionaire husband, both Saudis, who have offered to bring a dish. I asked for the most authentically Saudi dish they could muster. It's going to be a very international Thanksgiving, and half the guests aren't going to miss the traditional dishes anyway.

While I might not be able to have the candied yams or the mashed potatoes with bacon bits, I'm pretty sure the first Thanksgiving I host around my table will be one for the personal history books.

Vicariously yours,

Stuff Arabs Like #1: Shiny tile floors

The hubs and I have now traveled to 4 countries on the Arabian peninsula, and I think this gives us the right to post a few of our observations. At first I thought some of the funny quirks we noticed about Saudis might have been limited to just our new home. But now that we've been to Bahrain, the UAE and Oman and we've seen a lot of the same quirks, I think it's safe to say that these are not unique to KSA.

Thus, dear readers, we give you the first in a series of posts: Stuff Arabs Like.

Our first entry: Shiny tile floors

Look how shiny!!

Anybody who has nominal knowledge of thermal properties knows that tile floors generally stay cooler than carpet or wood floors. That makes them a natural choice for flooring in the Arab world (cause it gets hot here). We have seen more tile since arriving the Saudi Arabia than we ever thought possible.

No matter where you go, most businesses have shiny marble tile floors. I'm not sure if they're all marble, but they are polished to a glistening shine regardless. It certainly gives the impression of opulence, but they also make dusty footprints VERY obvious.

Don't you worry, the Arabs have a solution for that!

Asian migrant workers! Whether it's a mall, a mobile phone store, a movie theater, or just a bathroom, Arab businesses have a diminutive Asian man dutifully following behind their customers with a cloth broom to wipe up those pesky footprints and make everything shiny again.

They're like the silent force of the Middle East. You never hear them say anything-wait! I lied. I did have one of them give me the creepy eye and say "Es Salam Alaykuum" (or however you would transliterate that phrase) in a mall in the UAE this week.

Anyway, they don't complain, they don't roll their eyes when you walk over the exact spot they just wiped, and they rarely look up from the surfaces they are polishing. These human Zambonis just do their thing and keep the floors sparkling.

So here's to you, Asian Migrant Zamboni. Thanks for doing the grunt work and allowing us to feel like we're always in the lap of luxury.

Vicariously yours,

We are in Dubai! Alternate title: slightly disappointed with Dubai

Once the hubs and I decided on a location for our Eid break, I went to my happy place and started investigating things to do in the city and creating a spreadsheet itinerary of our trip. I do this with just about all our travels, and I really do enjoy it. We haven't previously been able to travel much, so I've always wanted to make the most of our time away from home. I'd love to be one of those "Eh, we'll get there and play it by ear" kind of people, but I HATE being one of those "Man, I wish I'd made reservations in advance" kind of people. So I investigate, find out my options, and make sure we don't miss something we'd really like to do.

I'm not sure why I feel the need to explain away my neurosis to all of you, but I just did.

ANYWAY, I say all that because I think I might have to retire the spreadsheeting for a while. The past couple of trips we've taken have been a bit of a let down and I think it's because all my planning led to so much build up that when the trip didn't turn out to be as awesome as I thought it was going to be, I was really disappointed.

Such has been the case with Dubai.

Dubai is like the Las Vegas of the Middle East: it's got all kinds of things you wouldn't expect to be possible in the desert and their only purpose is for the shock value. Case in point: Ski Dubai.

Ski Dubai is in the Mall of the Emirates. It's a "ski resort" in the middle of a mall...in the middle of the desert. It possibly creates the biggest carbon footprint of anywhere in the world...but it's a novelty, and Arabs love novelty.

The hubs and I knew from the start that we had to go skiing in the middle of the Dubai desert 'cause....well why not!? Why go all the way to Dubai and not say you went snow skiing in the desert!? We knew Ski Dubai would be a tourist trap, but even paying for lessons and a day pass for both of us was going to be cheaper than one day pass and equipment at the slopes at home. We had to take the opportunity.

Well, when we arrived, we found out that we had to book lessons in advance, something the website didn't say (see first paragraph for proof that I, of all people, should know what the website said). Add to that the fact that the cost of the lessons was different than what was posted online, and I was so disappointed that we weren't going to get to ski in Dubai. BUT, they were offering a "super pass" to their snow park, and for just AED 200 ($55) per person, we could have unlimited chair lift rides and access to the other stuff that didn't include skiing/snowboarding. Why not? We came all this way, we had to play in the snow.

The snazzy outfits were included in our pass. We had to buy the hats and gloves. (That's Charles, one of the housemates. He rode down with us.)

It was so funny to see the hijabs and gutras poking out of all the winter wear!

We did have a great time- not sure it was $55 worth of fun- and we took some funny pictures, but I am still so disappointed that I'm going to be walking away from Dubai without having learned how to snowboard.

Then there was the Dubai Aquarium. Its website makes it sound like a legitimate aquarium, something similar to the Tennessee Aquarium that I love so much. And if there's one thing I love, it's a good aquarium. So of course it was on our spreadsheet.

You even have to pay to go past the rope behind us. That's the "VIP" section. VIPs get to touch the glass.

No no, in fact the Dubai Aquarium is just a super-sized version of a fish lover's salt water tank. It's literally just a giant fish tank. Of course that's impressive in its own right, but COME ON! I don't want to pay $30 to walk through a big tunnel with a bunch of tourists and then "ride" in a glass bottom boat, which is basically just a platform on the surface of this giant fish tank! I wanted to learn! I wanted a real aquarium.

Again, I was disappointed with this Dubai novelty. Too much build up, not enough delivery of entertainment.

Then today we went on a desert safari day trip. I went out on a limb and booked with a company that has mixed reviews on TripAdvisor. It's not that the company didn't deliver what they said they would--finally some truth in advertising! We went dune bashing, off roading on giant sand dunes, but only for about 10 minutes. Right when I was really enjoying myself, the bashing was over!

Malik, our driver, stopped at the top of a dune and let us take photos.

We went to a heritage village, which had creepy life size dioramas of what life was like in an old Emirati village. That was kind of cool, but I would have liked to have been guided around rather than just set loose for 20 minutes while our driver waited for us under a tree.

The fort was not actually under attack...don't worry.

Let's play "Write your own caption."

We went to a natural spring in the middle of the desert mountains which was ridiculously cool and beautiful, but as I was crawling out of the back of the SUV, I rolled my ankle like a champ and had to hobble my way down the hill to see the water. I was in too much pain to really enjoy it and I was afraid that if I took my shoes off, the swelling would get too bad for me to get them back on! (I know both of my mothers are cringing as I jump up and down on every nursing nerve in their bodies right now. Yes, I RICE'd it, Moms. I just waited until we finished our tour first).

This was taken post trauma.

Like I said, the desert safari being a disappointment was not the company's fault. They delivered exactly what they promised. But it just wasn't as fun as I thought it was going to be and I have this nagging feeling that if I had gone with a different company, we would have had more fun.

Anyway, we were supposed to go on an over night safari tomorrow, but since it still really hurts to walk, we've cancelled that reservation and I think we're just going to head back to Saudi Arabia early. The King has so kindly extended our Eid vacation (somebody's taking care of his Zakat!...little Islamic humor, folks), so we have a whole week before we have to return to work!

What will we do with ourselves? I don't know. I haven't made the spreadsheet yet.

Vicariously yours,

Desert Driving

The hubs, a housemate and I hit the road yesterday morning. Destination: Dubai. We're on a week and a half vacation from school because of the Muslim holiday Eid al Futr. We decided to take advantage of the time off and see some more of Arabia.

...SIXTEEN HOURS LATER, the hubs and I arrived at the apartment where we will be staying while we're in this particular Emirate. This city is sooo hard to navigate, the map we bought is total crap, and the SIM card we bought for my cell phone decided to putz out on us at the most inconvenient times!

The 10 or so hours that it took us to actually arrive in Dubai would normally make me groan with I-don't-wanna-be-in-the-car-anymore-Mom brattiness, but because we'd never been on a road trip in Saudi Arabia before, the desert portion of our trip flew by! Even though all we saw was just sand with the occasional bedouin-guided herd of camels, I couldn't get enough of the view out my window.

Here are a few shots (they got uploaded out of order):

This is the Burj Khalifa. The world's tallest building. We did a few circles around it trying to find our way back to the highway that would take us to the apartment.

Some sand and rock...standard Saudi Arabia.

At the border...it took us another hour at the Arrivals Hall at the border before we could actually BE in the UAE.

There they are! The first camels I've seen since arriving in KSA! (that's no lie!)

This was the view for most of the trip.

Today we venture out to the Dubai Aquarium and some much needed time with an American bookstore. I'm giddy as a school girl!

Vicariously yours,

Strange how it rains now...

I work at an Islamic school. That means we have gender separation. Obviously I work on the girls side. Some days my job description resembles that of a slumber party chaperone more than that of a teacher. Girls are the same here as they are at home, especially when you gather them in large numbers. I regularly hear peals of glee or gratuitous screams filtering in to my classroom from the halls.

But yesterday, just after the last bell had rung and the screams had started, the cries took on another tone and weren't subsiding as quickly as they usually do.

The teachers from the English cluster came out into the hallway to figure out what all the fuss was about. One of my 10th grade students came running by NASCAR style and stopped right in front of me long enough to say, "IT'S RAINING!!"

Yes. All the screaming, yelling, and jumping up and down was all because it had started to "rain" outside. At home we would have used the term "sprinkle," but I didn't have the heart to burst my student's bubble.

The excitement was contagious. I ran and grabbed my camera and headed outside. Ironically, these girls were having the most Biblical reaction to anything I've ever seen in my life. They were singing, they were dancing, and there were even some of them praying! It was so interesting to watch!

I'm told that yesterday was the first time it had rained since last winter. That's at least 7 months since these girls had seen rain in their country. There are so many things we take for granted in the West, and precipitation is definitely one of them.

The rain had stopped after about 10 minutes, but of course I made sure to snap a few pictures before it all passed. It's hard to capture rain in motion, but you can see the proof on the sidewalk around my feet!

See?! See those dots on the sidewalk?

This is my Canadian colleague. She thought the whole situation was just as funny as I did.

Vicariously yours,

CLOUDS!!

I thought it was so funny this morning when we emerged from our respective gates to find that there was a tower of clouds in the sky behind our house! At home, this would never be cause for alarm or excitement of any sort, but this morning all of the residents of my house were standing in the street, faces upturned, just looking at the ONE massive cloud and the sun rays bursting from behind it.

I was so excited I took a picture of it. I took a picture of a cloud. And it's not even a particularly spectacular cloud.

It was literally the first cloud I'd seen since the Mister and I left Amsterdam on September 13.

As we loaded up the car for our daily commute to work, I laughed at myself. I imagined our neighbors coming out to their cars for work and seeing a line of Americans standing in the street, in awe of a cloud and thinking how weird we must be. "Honey, look at the silly white people!"

I didn't think there would be any more fuss about it until I got to school and the first thing a student said to me in the hall was, "Teacher did you see the cloud today?!" My colleagues were all abuzz about it when I got to my classroom: "I know! It's the first cloud since last winter! And it's so big and pretty! Amber! Did you see the cloud this morning!?"

We all were like little kids at the circus! Over A CLOUD! ONE! CLOUD!

The thought struck me as so funny I've been chuckling about it all day. I just thought I would share it with those of you at home in the land of daily clouds.

Vicariously yours,

Pleasure Island

Our readers in Saudi Arabia already know that Bahrain is an island kingdom about 16 miles off the coast, and the bridge to Bahrain happens to be very close to where we live! Since the Mister and I hadn't activated our multi-entry visas yet, we decided to take a day trip.

In the distance is what we've decided to call "Border Island." It's literally an island in the archipelago where you cross the border from one kingdom to another. It looks like Tomorrowland.

The Bahraini flag.

We had no idea what to expect. By the way our students and fellow teachers talk, it sounded like Bahrain was Saudi Arabia's version of Pleasure Island: women don't have to be covered and they can drive, there are movie theaters, alcohol and pork. It sounded like we could go there to get our fix of Western sins if we got a hankerin' for a beer and some real brats.

In our excitement, we just left town blindly, with no idea where to go once we got to Bahrain. So we decided to drive around for a bit and see what we could see.

I probably have a hundred of shots like this from over the course of our relationship. He's just so cute!

We dubbed this "The Red Village." We're ridiculously creative.

The first proper skyscrapers we've seen since we left the States.

After taking a spin around Manama--we think that's the capital...at least it has the biggest dot on the maps--we decided to go crazy and visit the City Center. To most Americans, the term "city center" elicits mental images of public parks, market places, and other such attractions. Nope. In Bahrain, the city center is a mall.

We had left Saudi Arabia, land of the mega mall, and went to a different mall in Bahrain. But let's not dwell on the fact. This mall has a water park, something Saudi Arabia does not have.

AND it's on the roof of the parking garage! NO ONE has that!

The name of the water park is "Wahooo." In my head, I sing it like the old Yahoo commercials at home.

As we were walking around the City Center, we saw a lot of European tourists and American faces. Bahrain is a bit of a vacation spot--tourism is one of its main industries. It struck me that in all likelihood, none of these tourists would be able to go across the causeway to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain is as close as they were gonna get. I have no idea if any of them had a desire to visit, but it occurred to me that most of them might assume that since they had visited Bahrain, they were getting a good idea of what Saudi Arabia is really like.

That could not be further from the truth. By now ya'll know I love me some lists, so here is a list of the reasons why Bahrain is not Saudi Arabia 2.0.

1. The obvious. Bahrain has alcohol. Bahrain has pork. Bahrain has movie theaters. Bahrain has uncensored bookstores. Women don't have to cover in Bahrain, though many still do.

2. Bahrain is clean. One of the things that has made the biggest impression on me in Saudi Arabia is all the litter. There is trash literally EVERYWHERE! No one cleans up after themselves and it's disgusting. Children will throw trash out the car windows, and empty shopping bags are constantly blowing down the highway. The flattened left overs of someone's filafil is the road kill of Saudi Arabia.

But there was absolutely none of that in Bahrain. The sidewalks were clear. The walkways in the mall were not littered with discarded toys or straw wrappers. Yet we never saw a single janitor.

Now, the hubsy and I have been given the impression that the entire Eastern province empties itself onto Bahrain every weekend. All our students talk about is their weekends in Bahrain. The other teachers have a second home on the island. So if there are really that many Saudis on Bahrain every weekend, then you would think that the entire island would be just as trashed as their kingdom...but it's not! And since we didn't see any custodial staff, we can only conclude that 1). the janitors are ninjas or 2). the Saudis actually do know how to clean up after themselves. It's genuinely perplexing, and I think many return trips are in order to continue our anthropological research.

3. Bahrain has a dating scene. The Mister and I went to see movies during our visit, but we went to different ones. It's such a rare treat, I didn't want to spend my money going to see something I didn't want to see. He went to see The Town and I went to see The Switch (both were heavily censored, but we'll take what we can get). Because we got out at different times, I was stuck waiting for him for about an hour. That allowed for some great people-watching opportunities.

I saw people on dates. Young people. Arms around shoulders and obvious flirtation. That is totally haram in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (for those playing the home game, "haram" means "forbidden" in Arabic). We occasionally see couples holding hands in KSA, but definitely no other outward signs of affection. I felt like I was watching a typical movie theater lobby at home, but with a LOT more abayas and niqabs.

I felt so much at home that at one point I gave my husband a peck on the cheek. I immediately said, "Oops. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to do that or not." I had forgotten where we were for a second.

4. Bahrain allows women to work. Ok, that's not fair. According to a news article I read recently, 15% of the women in Saudi Arabia have jobs. That's significantly less than the surrounding Gulf states, but some women do work in Saudi Arabia. But they're not allowed to work in places where they are intermingled with men. That means none of the mall stores in Saudi Arabia are staffed with women. This proved to be most annoying when I went to Sephora to buy some make up, and I was faced with asking a man for advice as to which concealer is best.

In Bahrain, the make up stores, the lingerie stores, and all the other female-centered stores all had female employees. As did every other store and restaurant in the mall. You just don't see things like that in Saudi Arabia.

5. Traffic laws are obeyed in Bahrain. We weren't forced out of our lane by a drifting SUV once. The red lights meant stop, not creep forward a few feet every few seconds until it turns green. There were no crazy speeders that blew past us on the shoulder of the road. Again, if most of Saudi Arabia is in Bahrain every weekend, and the drivers in Bahrain appear to be sane, WHY CAN'T THEY DRIVE LIKE THAT IN SAUDI ARABIA!?

It sounds like I'm hatin' on Saudi Arabia right now, so I feel the need to clarify. My husband and I are very very happy here. The people have been very welcoming, and we are absolutely loving our cultural experience. There are obviously some things that bother me about our new home, but we are very quickly getting used to them. It's just that all these little things became very obvious today when they were absent during our trip to Bahrain.

Anyway, there are more photos from our trip on my Facebook page.

Vicariously yours,