- My english is screwed. I feel like it's beginning to sound like Carlos Ghosn's and that soon enough I'll start pronouncing p's as b's (there's no p sound in arabic). I'm even making spelling errors! I need to find some Americans around here so I don't lose my non-accent completely...
- I'm being effed by the metric system on a daily basis. After spending a little over a year out of the States, I STILL don't know how to convert kilometers to miles and celcius to farenheit...and refuse to try to figure it out in my head. And why is the US the only country that doesn't use the metric system?? I'm starting to think that the Powers That Be enjoy watching Americans in foreign countries try to convert all that stuff in their heads while the locals get impatient and start cursing things I don't understand...(did I say I? oops...uh, I meant that happened to a friend....). Isn't it enough of a hassle having to convert currencies? Which brings me to my next point...
- I'm having problems with converting currencies. I finally got used to converting from Syrian Pounds to Dollars (about 47 SYP = $1) and now I have to deal with Saudi Riyals! I always find myself having to convert to dollars no matter what currency I'm dealing with in order to really understand its value. Like, do I really want to pay 40 Riyals for that shirt? Oh, thats only about $11...hell yeah, sold! Plus, Al always makes fun of me cause I always have to use my cell phone's calculator to make these conversions. He says I should be able to do that in my head since I have a finance degree. Ok, I have never claimed to be able to do math in my head...and being a finance major has nothing to do with being able to calculate in your head. Two words, baby: Microsoft Excel.
- People don't believe I ever lived in the States. Arabs have this preconceived notion of other arabs that have lived most of their lives outside their arab country that they are stuck up and hate everything about their arab culture and arab nation etc etc...so they're all pretty shocked when they realize that I'm not like that at all. Everyone at my job at EY in Damascus always had a good laugh and said that I was messing with them and that I never really lived in the US, I was just hiding out in the old city for the past 17 years. I embrace my culture and thanks to my parents, I have never lost my love for the food and the language. Even my Lebanese next door neighbor here in Saudi was surprised when I invited her over for dinner that I had cooked arabic food and not american. I drink arabic coffee, dance and sing to arabic music, and make arabic jokes. I just like to go with the whole "when in Rome" attitude wherever I am because the best way to enjoy where you are is to immerse yourself in that culture and way of life. Words to live by!!
- I get cold when the thermostat is on 78. Either the air conditioning in our house here is turbo-charged, or I've been living in the desert for too long...either way, living places where the average temperature is above 90 degrees in the summer is starting to have its homeostasis issues on me.
- I've gained more weight than I thought my metabolism would ever allow in this short amount of time.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Side effects of moving to 2 different countries in 1 year
Monday, September 13, 2010
Holiday Madness
Ok, I know its been a while since I updated this but only because I've barely been home since Eid started this past Friday. Eid is basically a 4-day holiday celebrating the end of Ramadan so its pretty much a food-fest. We've gone out to eat every day for lunch (Casper & Gambini's, Quizno's, chinese food, and Chili's). We hung out with some of our friends and also took Ziad (my cousin Omar's 5 year old son) out to play some games (which we took a part of as well as the pic below entails).
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| Bumper cars are for adults too!! |
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| Driving along the waterfront...that's a small lake in between |
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| Yes, that's a Starbucks!! |
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| Shops on the Cornishe |
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| Fancy water tower in the gulf. |
I can't wait till the weather cools off a bit so we can spend some more time out there...hopefully in the next month or so, the winters are supposed to be great here!
Thankfully, Al got to spend all of Eid here without having to go out on a job, but he's supposed to leave in the next few days for about a week or so, so I'll be getting my first shot at surviving alone here soon...although I don't really consider myself alone. My cousin and his wife have been amazing and I know I have them here if I need anything, and I've gotten to be really great friends with my neighbor May (poor thing her husband has been gone for 2 weeks now!) so I think I'm going to be ok :) I definitely need some time to catch up on my school work...one week in and I'm already behind! Where are my textbooks anyway?!?! They still haven't made it here...dammit.
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| Al and I at our favorite hangout...Ole Cafe! |
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Saudi Arabia
As most of you know, I moved here to Saudi Arabia a couple of weeks ago after my husband got transferred here with his company (Schlumberger, an oilfield services company). We are in the Eastern Province, on the Persian (or Arabian Gulf...depends on who's looking at it) in the city of Al Khobar.
Getting adjusted to the life and culture here has been interesting. Here are a few facts about the super-conservative Islamic culture here:
1) women can't drive
2) women have to wear long black robes (called abayas) when out in public places...thankfully, Al Khobar is the most liberal city here in Saudi, so we don't have to cover our hair in public like other cities such as Riyadh and Jeddah.
3) there are separate entrances and seating areas to every restaurant and cafe here: one for bachelors, and one for families. Mixing of the sexes is not allowed if you are not married.
4) there are no fitting rooms in any of the clothing stores. you have to go home, try on the clothes that you buy, then come back to return them if they don't fit (this is one I'm going to have issues with)
5) all stores close for the prayer times so the employees can go to the mosque and pray. this poses a bit of an issue when you're trying to shop...
Al and I live in a compound with other Schlumberger employees and their families. We have a 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom house that is pretty spacious. Its already furnished, but we're working on decorating it now (which has involved daily trips to IKEA...my new favorite store). In the compound, we don't have to wear the abayas and no Saudi's are allowed in. Its filled with families from all over the world. You basically don't feel like you're in Saudi when you're in the compound. Ours has 2 swimming pools, a restaurant, a tennis court, a supermarket, a gym, a basketball court, a small soccer field, a playground, and a clubhouse. There are buses that take the women out everyday to where they want to go (since we can't effin drive). Our next door neighbors are great and we have made great friends with them. They are a couple our age and the guy works with Al. The girl, May, is sweet and she feels my pain when Al leaves to the rigs for days or weeks at a time since her husband does the same...so its nice to have a support system right next door.
I've met so many interesting people so far and its been really great! My cousin and his wife have been living here for a while so they have helped us get adjusted to life here and its been wonderful having them here with us.
I started class this past Tuesday so I'll be keeping myself busy with that during most days. The past two days I've been out shopping with some of my friends here which has been nice. The malls here are HUGE and have every store you could imagine (which makes me really happy since I've been deprived of my brands while living in Syria for the past year).
Eid, the big 4-day holiday after Ramadan is coming up tomorrow (yay no more fasting!) and I'm hoping that Al doesn't have to go out to a job so we can celebrate together. My cuz (Omar) and his wife (Lina) are thinking about taking a trip to Riyadh for the holiday...so we may go too!
Anyways, thats just a brief summary of what's been going on and what life is like since I moved here to start off this blog. I decided to jump on the bandwagon and start one since everyone always asks me how life is like where I'm living and what I'm doing. So I'll be updating this (hopefully) periodically with all the (hopefully) interesting things I do and come across...I'll also post some pics whenever I remember to take them.
Bye for now!
Getting adjusted to the life and culture here has been interesting. Here are a few facts about the super-conservative Islamic culture here:
1) women can't drive
2) women have to wear long black robes (called abayas) when out in public places...thankfully, Al Khobar is the most liberal city here in Saudi, so we don't have to cover our hair in public like other cities such as Riyadh and Jeddah.
3) there are separate entrances and seating areas to every restaurant and cafe here: one for bachelors, and one for families. Mixing of the sexes is not allowed if you are not married.
4) there are no fitting rooms in any of the clothing stores. you have to go home, try on the clothes that you buy, then come back to return them if they don't fit (this is one I'm going to have issues with)
5) all stores close for the prayer times so the employees can go to the mosque and pray. this poses a bit of an issue when you're trying to shop...
Al and I live in a compound with other Schlumberger employees and their families. We have a 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom house that is pretty spacious. Its already furnished, but we're working on decorating it now (which has involved daily trips to IKEA...my new favorite store). In the compound, we don't have to wear the abayas and no Saudi's are allowed in. Its filled with families from all over the world. You basically don't feel like you're in Saudi when you're in the compound. Ours has 2 swimming pools, a restaurant, a tennis court, a supermarket, a gym, a basketball court, a small soccer field, a playground, and a clubhouse. There are buses that take the women out everyday to where they want to go (since we can't effin drive). Our next door neighbors are great and we have made great friends with them. They are a couple our age and the guy works with Al. The girl, May, is sweet and she feels my pain when Al leaves to the rigs for days or weeks at a time since her husband does the same...so its nice to have a support system right next door.
I've met so many interesting people so far and its been really great! My cousin and his wife have been living here for a while so they have helped us get adjusted to life here and its been wonderful having them here with us.
I started class this past Tuesday so I'll be keeping myself busy with that during most days. The past two days I've been out shopping with some of my friends here which has been nice. The malls here are HUGE and have every store you could imagine (which makes me really happy since I've been deprived of my brands while living in Syria for the past year).
Eid, the big 4-day holiday after Ramadan is coming up tomorrow (yay no more fasting!) and I'm hoping that Al doesn't have to go out to a job so we can celebrate together. My cuz (Omar) and his wife (Lina) are thinking about taking a trip to Riyadh for the holiday...so we may go too!
Anyways, thats just a brief summary of what's been going on and what life is like since I moved here to start off this blog. I decided to jump on the bandwagon and start one since everyone always asks me how life is like where I'm living and what I'm doing. So I'll be updating this (hopefully) periodically with all the (hopefully) interesting things I do and come across...I'll also post some pics whenever I remember to take them.
Bye for now!
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