Bulletpoints

My goings-on over the past few weeks in bulletpoints:

• finished winter mini-term classes, then got a whole 2 day break before starting two more classes for Spring semester...this MBA is starting to get on my nerves.
• speaking of Spring semester, my finals end on May 3 (once again, on my birthday). I know that's still a few weeks away from my due date, but I still have to pray that baby Omar holds off his grand entrance until after finals...
• Al and I bought all our baby nursery stuff from IKEA (of course) and my project now is getting everything in its place and organized before I leave for Nashville. We've also gotten new coffee tables and are in the process of getting our couches re-upholstered in the living room, as well as trying to fully decorate and  'fill up' the house. I feel like we're going through a scaled down version of 'Extreme Home Makeover' sans Ty Pennington...
• got a couple of "Real Housewives"-style events coming up with the Schlumberger Spouses Association:
• Jan. 26: Ladies Night (Open buffet? Yep, I'll be there)
• Feb. 3:  International Day (representing the homeland, Syria...pictures should be interesting!)
• Feb. 13: Valentine's Day party (which I probably won't attend if Al goes out of town)

• Al's got a job coming up possibly on the 12th of February, which means he's not likely to be in town to take me to the airport on the 18th :( its at times like these I wish he had a normal 9-5 job...
• went to the doctor last week and got my labwork back...thankfully, everything is normal :) We also got to see Omar in 3D again which was even more amazing this time. He has grown so much and you can see his facial features pretty clearly now...he looks just like his daddy! Doc said I shouldn't have any trouble with the overseas flight next month so that was a relief.
• 27 days until I'm back in the US!! I can almost smell the Mexican food...

 

Baby Omar at 21 weeks!

New Year's: A Look Back While Moving Forward

While getting ready for a get-together at our neighbor's for New Year's Eve, I took some time to reflect on the crazy year that was 2010. My whole life changed, AGAIN, and while I prepare for yet another life changing experience in 2011, here is my 2010 in one blog post:

• Back in December 2009, I started working at Ernst & Young in Damascus, which was a great experience for me. Through August 2010, I made amazing new friends, and I learned a lot about businesses in Syria and got to work on some interesting projects which helped me learn that I like being in the service business. Hopefully I'll be back doing some of the same kind of work in the near future.
• Living away from my husband during the first half of the year was difficult. He was living in Derezor while I was in Damascus, and we tried to find him a new job so that we could actually live in the same city but to no avail. Luckily, his same company ended up notifying him of his transfer to Saudi in June, and he moved there in July while I moved there at the end of August. The transition seemed much more difficult than it actually was, and now we are very happy here in Saudi and living a somewhat normal married life together (even though he goes away a lot for work).
• Travel-wise, 2010 was an exciting year considering I got to visit 4 new countries. In March, Al and I spent a week in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates which is now officially one of my favorite places in the entire world.

Al and I in front of Burj al Arab- Dubai, March 2010

 At the end of May, I got to go to Kuwait for a training course for work. Kuwait was pretty, but I felt like it didn't have any character. The shopping was great though! 

View from the top of the Kuwait Towers- Kuwait City, May 2010

In August, I moved to Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia to start a new life there with Al after he got transferred there. It was interesting getting used to all the rules and customs of Saudi, but Al Khobar is a surprisingly open and beautiful place.

With our wonderful friends at our Saudi compound pool- Saudi Arabia, Sept. 2010

Living in Al Khobar has the advantage of being only a 30 minute drive away from the small island country of Bahrain, which gave me the easy opportunity to visit another new country in October. 

Downtown Manama, Bahrain- October, 2010

• Weddings and engagements: my best friend Katie got married in July in Hawaii (an event that I was devastated I had to miss) and my friend Sally from work also got married in July in Homs, Syria. I was glad I at least got to attend that wedding! My good friend Matt from high school also got married in October, another wedding I sadly had to miss. My best friend Lindsey and sister-in-law Afraa both got engaged in December, so hopefully I'll be able to attend both their weddings in 2011! Congrats to all of them!
  

  

  Sally and I at her wedding- Homs, Syria July, 2010

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

• Speaking of weddings, Al and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary on August 7, 2010 :)
• Even though I didn't get the chance to make a trip to the US of A in 2010, my sister Hanya and best friend Jill brought a little bit of "Amreeka" to me when they came to visit me in Damascus in May. It was great seeing my sister and so fun showing Jill around our crazy city and introducing her to our even crazier family.
• On September 16, 2010 our life changed when we found out that I was pregnant. It was definitely a surprise, but our joy and blessings cannot be described. A few weeks later, we found out that we're having a baby boy, Omar Alaa Kabalan on May 26, 2011. Now about halfway through the pregnancy, I am thankful, feeling great, and preparing for my homecoming back to Nashville in February so I can give birth there in May :)

Overall, 2010 was a great and exciting year full of surprises and new experiences. Although being away from my husband during the first half of the year was a very difficult and trying time for me, I focused on adding more work experience by getting a job at EY until we had to move to Saudi Arabia. I learned a lot about myself this year...I learned that the first year of marriage is indeed the most difficult, but if you can make it through those hard times together, you can make it through everything together.  I learned that I am pretty good at adapting to new lifestyles, and it helps to surround yourself with wonderful friends, old and new. I learned that I can give up coffee and hookah cold turkey just for the sake of the little being growing in my belly. And I also learned that ready or not, I'm going to become a mother.  

I'm so excited about 2011, and am praying for a healthy and safe delivery of our precious baby boy. I constantly wonder what he will look like, what his personality will be, how Al and I will deal with the pressures of parenting, what he will want to be when he grows up...If any of my past experiences in life have taught me anything, it is to expect the unexpected, and that you can never thoroughly plan and be prepared for everything. It is with this open mind and excitement for the new and unknown that I am welcoming in 2011. And I am lucky enough to have rung in the new year with some of my best friends here in Saudi.

Our little New Year's Eve party!

My lovely neighbor, May

Al, me, and baby Omar in my belly: Our first family picture of 2011 :)

 Here's to a happy and healthy 2011 for everyone!!!

 

Trip to Damascus

I'm back!! After 3 weeks in Damascus, we made it back to Saudi in time to ring in the new year here with our friends. But first, here are some highlights from our trip...

The Highs 
My sister-in-law's engagement party was gorgeous! She did an amazing job of picking out all the decorations and centerpieces, and it ended up being one huge dance party that went on till 2am. For me, it was so fun but exhausting. I spent maybe a total of one hour in my heels (which is blasphemy to pre-preggers Noura). Luckily, I was prepared enough to face the horrible truth that my new body simply can't be held up on 4 inch stilettos anymore and I brought some flats that I spent the rest of the night dancing more comfortably in. Everyone was also worried about me dancing so much so I kept trying to take frequent breaks, which involved sitting down and eating whatever was on the table. In the end, it was a great party and I'm so happy for my sister-in-law and her fiance, Tarek. 

With my handsome hubby at the engagement party!

Al and I with my sister-in-law, Afraa and her new fiance, Tarek.

We also got the chance to meet Tarek's family. His sister, Dana and her husband and kids came in from Chicago, and his brother Ahmad and his wife and son came in from Egypt so it was a nice blend of cultures and experiences. We got to spend some time with them (over dinners, of course) which added to our already hectic schedule but was well worth it. I love meeting awesome new people and we had a lot of fun with them.


Oh! Did I mention that it snowed there?? Yeah, it was INSANE! It snowed for about 12 hours nonstop, and apparently that hasn't happened there in decades. So of course, the entire city went into total chaos. Streets closed, trees and power lines went down, and kids ran amok. This picture was taken of one of the main highways in the city. 

Definition of clusterf*ck

Needless to say, after everyone enjoyed the snow for a few hours, the general consensus after the storm was 'snow is definitely not our thing'.


Now some highlights of the rest of the highs:

• My uncle came in from Cyprus so it was good to see him
• I also got to see my friends from EY, it was great seeing them and getting all the updates of what's going on from work (and nice to know that I've been missed, hehe). From all the changes I've heard about, I'm kind of glad I'm not working there anymore, even though I really miss our shenanigans back at the office...
• On Christmas Eve, we went to my in-laws' villa out in the country and had a great turkey cooked by Afraa. I was so happy since I didn't get to eat turkey on Thanksgiving so that was a nice way to spend the day. Afterwards we had to make it to 2 other family gatherings, one with Al's family and one with mine. That was a fun but exhausting day.
• My mother-in-law is an OB/GYN so we went to her clinic with Al's dad and sisters so we could all see baby Omar on the ultrasound. He has gotten so BIG! My mother-in-law was trying to take some measurements of him but he wouldn't sit still! He kept rolling over and kicking and at one point we saw him sucking his thumb. It was soooo cute, and I was glad that we all got to share that together.

The Lows 
Unfortunately, there were a couple of lows on the trip. I really didn't mind all the running around and trying to make enough time to see everyone that we needed to see...I'm pretty used to that. But with being pregnant, it took its toll on me after the first week.  I mentioned in my previous post before I left that everything we do in Syria involves eating. Well, despite my looking forward to that particular detail, it ended up being my Kryptonite. I know there is such thing as self control, but when the food you love and have been deprived of for many months is so deliciously spread in front of you, dammit you gotta eat it! In the past, my body was totally ok with that. But I guess even though I'm supposed to eat a lot and gain weight while preggers, turns out there are some limits, and I definitely crossed those limits with the quickness. End result: angry angry stomach.  I felt like those first three months of pregnancy when I didn't get sick at all, I made up for in one night. It was awful, and I was so worried about the baby since I couldn't keep anything down. But turns out I was suffering more because he was soaking up all the nutrients he needed. He was fine, chillin, fat and happy. I felt like dying. It took me an entire week to start eating normally again, and I had to turn down so many plates of awesome food which made it worse. It kind of took away from the whole 'back to the homeland' experience, but I learned my lesson: My God, have some self-control, woman! But wait, there's more...once my stomach started feeling better, the rest of my body attacked. I got the flu, and when you're pregnant, you just have to suck it up and take it because OD-ing on Nyquil is NOT an option. When my fever picked up my mother-in-law had to give me some (baby safe) medicine to keep it down cause running a high fever also isn't so bueno for el nino. Being sick is sucky enough as it is. Being sick while pregnant is 10 times worse. Hopefully all that crud is out of my system now and it doesn't happen again!

Another low was the cold. I guess spending 4 months in the Saudi heat makes you cold-averse. I've never had a big problem with the cold, and I don't know if it was because my body is all weird now or because I just got used to the heat, but I was absolutely miserable whenever we had to go outside. I just couldn't handle it, and considering I'm going to be back in Nashville in February, its taking away some of my excitement about that. Coming back to Saudi and to beautiful 75-degree weather made me sooo happy, and the fact that I'll never have to wear yucky winter clothes here makes living here that much better.


Overall, despite my stomach and flu problems, I had a great time in Damascus.  It was a nice way to change some scenery and see all the family. But by the end of the trip, Al and I were ready to get back to our house and the warmth in Saudi. After all, it is our home sweet home now :)

Back to the Homeland...

I've been living in Saudi for almost 4 months now and I'd say I've done a damn good job of adjusting. All my friends here have been surprised at how quickly I've adjusted and how much I actually like it here. But it is about time I paid a visit back to the homeland...I miss the crowds, the traffic, the chaos, the car horns, the food, and most of all my crazy relatives.  Everything here is sooo...organized. It's almost like being back in the States (well, with a few exceptions). So it will be nice to be back in Damascus and get a change of pace, cause over there, you just dont stop. Let me fill you in on what happens when you come in to Damascus for a visit:

•  With Al and I, we've got my mom's family, my dad's family, and his mom and dad's families that all want to see us. Numerically speaking, thats like 400 people that we have to make time to visit. Now we usually only get a short amount of time being in town (in this case 3 weeks) so seeing hundreds of people in 21 days....like I said, non stop.
• Not only does everyone want to see us, they want to EAT with us. In Damascus, a visit doesn't count if you haven't shared 4 appetizers, two types of salad, 3 entrees, dessert, fruit, coffee, and tea together. So even if we went to my aunt's house for a short visit and some coffee, we've automatically obligated ourselves to another visit for lunch or dinner since we did not partake in a massive feast on our first visit.
• And even if we did come and gain 4 pounds in one sitting with them, there's the question "so when are you guys coming over again?". Yep, even when you have a limited amount of time, they still don't accept only one visit.

I know that this is all done by our families out of love. Syrians in particular show their love and hospitality by always wanting to take care of you and feeding you until you cry uncle. It really is nice to be catered to like that, but sometimes it is tiring to get pulled in all sorts of directions so time management is key on vacations like this.

This time around, Al and I are going to Damascus particularly for his sister's engagement party. So add another family (his sister's new in-laws) into the picture described above, and you get 100% pure, Arabic chaos. I'm stressed but excited at the same time. I thrive in chaos and being busy all the time. It's going to wear me out, but I'm willing to accept this since I'm going to be eating massive quantities of the best food in the world and zipping around to see people that I've dearly missed these past few months.


I'm leaving this Thursday and will be back on Dec. 30, so I thought I'd post this update before I leave since my internet time will be severely limited while I'm there. Also, mark your calendars cause I've officially booked my flight to Nashville and will be there from Feb. 18- June 26....woohoo!!! So much time, so much food to eat! Seriously, why does everything I talk about always end up being about food in some way?? 


Anyways, until my return to Saudi, I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and New Year's!!

By popular demand...

Ok, I heard you...you wanted a picture of my baby bump, you got it! This is my bump at 13 weeks :)

And yes, those are maternity pants! Love those elastic waistbands...I feel like I can finally sit and eat comfortably. For some reason, I couldn't get a good full-length picture of myself so maybe for the next baby bump picture Al will be home to lend a hand. I'll try to post more pictures as I inevitably get bigger. Omar's going to be a big boy! :)

Misadventures in Maternity Pants Shopping

The past few weeks, I've started gaining some weight...and noticeably. I've had a love-hate relationship with this weight gain. For one thing, it makes me happy because it makes the pregnancy more real for me. With no major symptoms during my first trimester, its been hard to believe that I actually am pregnant (even with seeing all the ultrasound pics). But now that I have a little baby bump growing, I can tell he's really in there! On the other hand, my belly is not the only thing err, expanding. My trunk has been gathering a bit more junk which has caused a few wardrobe malfunctions. As a result, my rubber-banding-it-instead-of-zipping-and-buttoning-it method is now obsolete. 

So, with my drawstring linen pants now being the only bottoms I have that are big enough in diameter, it was time to go shopping for some real maternity pants. Lucky for me (and not so much for him), Al was on hand for me to drag along to the shopping spree. The first store we went to was Mothercare. It was hard for me to distract myself away from the cute baby clothes but I was on a mission. I desperately needed some pants that didn't require an antelope mating dance to get into. 

Mothercare had a pretty good selection of jeans, but when I started looking through them I realized I had no idea what size I am now. And further, I didn't even know how maternity pants were sized! So naturally I went for the smallest size I found, which was a 10. Ok, so I know that I've started widening in some areas, but no way did I move up 8 sizes. Now remember that there's no fitting rooms to try on clothes for women here in Saudi (which made this whole expedition even more difficult), but even just by eyeballing it I knew I'd have to multiply myself in order to fill out those pants. Al and I went through rack after rack of maternity jeans trying to find a better fit but with no luck....so I started panicking. What if all the stores are like this? What if I can't find a size that fits me? I'm finally shedding my stick-figure and I still can't find pants that fit right? What am I supposed to go pant-less?? THIS. IS. NOT. FAIR!!!!!!!

While I was throwing my mental temper tantrum, my more resourceful husband had found other types of pants for me to look through. I found a pair of black maternity leggings which I thought would be cute with some long sweaters and boots in the winter. They looked like they could fit, and the sizes were much simpler to work with...small, medium, large. See? Now why can't they make everything like that? (That was a rhetorical question). So I came out with a small pair of black leggings from Mothercare, some relief, and hope that they will actually fit once I get home to try them on. 


We went through a couple of other stores with no luck. Not because of the size issue, but because they didn't carry maternity clothes at all. I had no idea which stores had or didn't have maternity clothes here so that was another problem. I heard that H&M had a small maternity section, and with it being my favorite normal people clothes store, I had high hopes that I'd find something cute that would fit me there. 


I immediately felt better with the first pair of pants I picked up. Cute grey corduroys that actually looked like they could fit perfectly (size 36 in European sizes...can't we use some kind of universal sizing system?). Then I found a 38 which looked like it would give me some more room to inevitably grow. But dammit, I couldn't try them on to see which fit better! Solution: buy both. I had to try them on at home anyway, and I didn't want to risk getting the wrong size then going back and not finding the right size. I also found a pair of jeans, some dark khaki pants, and some comfy black pants that I called my "overseas pants" because they looked comfortable enough to travel overseas in. I was sooo happy and felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders (cause obviously it hadn't been lifted off my butt or belly) and Al was happy because that meant that this shopping trip was over with hopes that my nagging would be over with it. I was still nervous about going home to try all the pants on, but was confident I had done well.


Turns out, I got some mad eyeballing skills because all the pants I bought fit great, and I was right in thinking that the size 38 corduroys fit bitter because they'd still fit even if I continued to gather some more junk (which I will). So I only have to return one pair (the size 36 corduroys). So far I'm doing ok with the tops that I have, but I'll probably have to start buying some maternity tops within the next month or so...so stay tuned for that shopping trip adventure! I think Al will probably purposely try to be out of town on a job for that one...hehe :)

 

A blog about nothing...

Hey guys remember me? Yeah, it's been a while...to be honest I haven't had anything remotely interesting going on in my life worth blogging about lately. So I've waited until I had enough random tid-bits to put together to make a semi-interesting blog post. Plus, its Monday and you know you weren't going to do any actual work anyway...so enjoy!

Ok first and foremost, Eid Mubarak* to my family. Inshallah* next year we can go to Hajj* together :)

Pregnancy update:

• Yes, we're having a boy! Thanks to 3D ultrasound technology we were able to find out the sex of our baby at only 11 weeks. His name will be Omar, and I've already started buying clothes for him hehe. 
• I'm slowly getting bigger (from the front and rear unfortunately) and now I'm having a hard time wearing my jeans even with the rubber band holding them together instead of the zipper. I should probably go look for some maternity pants...

School update:

• Still kicking my ass.

Bahrain update:

Awesome building in Bahrain

• Me, Al, and our neighbor Walid went to Bahrain for the day a couple of weeks ago. It was Al's first time there (my second) and he loved it! It really is a breath of fresh air from the suffocating closed-mindedness in Saudi.

• We went to a restaurant on the beach that served awesome Lebanese food and I officially out-ate both the guys. Then we went to this street called Shabab* Avenue which was awesome...it had every kind of coffee house and fast food place you could think of all on one street. Definitely one of my favorite places in Bahrain so far.

Al and I at the Lebanese restaurant

 Other randoms:

• Hoping to be back in Damascus in a few weeks...my sister-in-law's engagement party is in December and I can't wait to go back there to celebrate with her and see our families. I really miss the organized chaos of the city, and a part of me even misses my daily cab ride adventures there. Let's hope they actually give my husband some time off...
• The weather here has finally turned from blistering hot to almost-fall like! And quite suddenly too...we had a barbeque a few weeks back with some friends on the beach and once it got dark I was actually shivering cold. I sort of forgot what feeling cold was like. And then one day last week I heard a weird noise outside which turned out to be rain! Apparently, I forgot what rain sounded like...I love the desert.

Arab wordage: (as used in this post)

• "Eid Mubarak"- Blessed Holiday. Islam has 2 main "eids"...One after Ramadan (called Eid Al-Futur) and one at the end of Hajj (called Eid Al-Adha). Eid Al-Adha officially starts tomorrow and lasts for 4 days.
• "Hajj"- Pilgrimage. Muslims are supposed to make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lives. Mecca is about 16 hours west of Al Khobar, where I live. Saudi is a ridiculously huge country...
• "Inshallah"- God willing. We say inshallah for everything...like, "are you going to Damascus anytime soon?" "yes, inshallah".
• "Shabab"- slang for a group of guys...usually teenagers or 20-somethings. The counterpart to this would be "Sabaya" or a group of teenaged or 20-something girls.