Week Three: Downtown Al-Khobar

First of all, if you already read Rob's post, rest assured that he does not need to share the bidet with anyone...I avoid it, and the sprayers. The bidet in Jack's bathroom is actually a sink for Jack to wash his hands, if you ask him.

I had to return to a downtown hospital for more medical tests for our Iqama (resident ID) application, so I had the opportunity to take a few photos of downtown Al-Khobar. By the way, the hospital bathrooms had sprayers only, no toilet paper. Not like the toilet paper was gone, more like "why would you need anything but a sprayer?"

So here are a few pictures, in as good of quality as you can get through a bus window:

Yes!  I can decorate our house exactly like our Mpls house!

McDonald's, complete with a separate "family" and "men's" entrances.  Behind it is a mosque tower.

Toys Toys Store

Translation: STOP

Also, two stories from school:

1) You'd think children going to an international school would be a little more worldly...I overheard this on the quad while kids were talking about their summers. 

Student A: "I went to America for the summer."

Student B: "Dude, America's like a whole other country."

2) In study skills class today, I was talking about good habits and bad habits.  For an example, I said I have a bad habit of leaving things out instead of putting them away.  My students, who normally have a comment about everything, stared blankly.  I explained more: this is a bad habit because I sometimes don't know where to find things, and the house looks messy.  Still nothing.  I kept explaining. Finally a boy said, "But, doesn't your maid put the stuff away for you?" 

Next time I'll post some Jack videos.  

Love, Laura

Week Three: Bidets and Bidet Sprayers.

I'm pro-bidet.  Like inoculating for Small Pox in the 1700's--they are a sensible, commonly used practice in the East that has failed to catch on in the Western world.  Bottom line: they've revolutionized my bathroom experience.  

The bidet in our master bathroom

However, I don't totally have a grasp on bidet accessories.  Next to our bidet there's a towel rack and a soap dish.  I assume they are meant to make bars of soap and towels accessible for bidet users. . .multiple bidet users.

Personally, I don't have any issues using a random bar soap designated for public use.  I'm straight-up gross.  That's been well established.  But I love my wife too much to expose her to any soap that I've contaminated.


In review: bidet--thumbs up, bidet accessories--undecided.

The bathroom in the staff lounge

At school and in other public restrooms, there isn't room for bidets, soap dishes, and towel racks.  Instead they've installed sprayers, which are similar to those you'd find next to your kitchen sink.   I'm pro-sprayer.  Again, they make sense.

Using the sprayer, on the other hand, is going to take some practice.  I assume it is a skill you have to develop from early childhood-like speaking Chinese.  My first attempt didn't go so hot.  Again, I won't get into specifics but it was a lot like that prank people play where they put a rubber band on the kitchen sprayer.  Basically, it was unexpected, hard to control and messy.

A close up of the sprayer

In review:  bidet sprayer--thumbs up but need practice.

That is all for now, I hope you've appreciated my deep insights into the rich culture of Saudi Arabia.

Week Two: Q&A

A friend of ours emailed a bunch of questions that she had that we had not yet answered on the blog, so I thought I'd put her questions and some answers for all to read...



What do you wear to work? Is it more formal?

To work we wear about the same clothes, a little more formal I guess. The sucky thing is we have to wear shirts with short sleeves, no sleeveless, and it is 115 degrees out. I wear heels everyday so I look less like a high schooler. The students have to wear collared shirts, whatever type they want. Men can't wear sandals for some reason, but all the Saudi men do all the time. Rob wears pretty much the same thing he did to Ramsey, shirts and ties and khakis.

How far is the school from the compound?
What is the commute like?

We ride the bus every morning from the compound, and we will until Rob gets a drivers license and we can buy a car, which, like everything else, won't happen until after Ramadan. It is about a 20 minute ride, and the bus is air conditioned. It drops us off in front of the nursery where Jack goes. On the way back, they will drop you off at the grocery store or wherever you want and then you can get a taxi home.

How much does a Coke cost? Are the soft drinks sold in smaller sizes?
What American brands of pop and other foods are you finding there?

Food is interesting...there are a lot of American brands and similar foods. You can buy Cheezits that come straight from the States and they are more expensive, or Cheetos that are packaged here so half the writing is in Arabic and they aren't too expensive. Each store is a little different and people stock up on certain stuff when you see it...word on they street is that there was a shipment of tostitos at the Hyper Panda once and someone bought ten bags and then told everyone else, and the shelves were totally emptied within hours. Tostitos have not been seen since, which is hard for Rob. But there is Coke and it is 2 riyals in the machine at work, about 45 cents. Rob says it tastes different, but still good. The cans are the same size as at home. There are a lot of cadbury and Lipton products, lots of things you'd see in Europe like Nutella. There are of course also wonderful foods like hummous, Lebanese flat bread, tabbouli, lebna (like healthy cream cheese), and Laban (drinking yogurt/buttermilk).

Are you adjusting to the heat?

The heat is unbelievable. I am shocked every time I step outside. Right now at 8pm it is probably still over 100 degrees. And so humid, your glasses fog up like crazy when you go outside. Jack can only handle 10 minutes at the playground. We honestly spend very little time outside so we aren't adjusting. But it is supposed to get better in a month or so.

Do people dress much differently in the compound than on the street? Do women wear abayas around the compound?

People dress normally on the compound, shorts and tank tops. No one wears abayas except to go out. I have learned to put mine on before I walk out the door because once I'm in the heat, it is even worse to put a black polyester robe on! Men wear pants in public, but otherwise they are okay. Almost all the Saudi women are fully covered, even their faces and sometimes an extra scarf over their faces to cover the eye slit, and most men wear the traditional white thobe and red and white head scarf. That may be only during Ramadan, I'm not sure yet.

And… after the post on the trip to the grocery store and due to my hatred of underpacked bags…
Does anyone use reusable cloth grocery bags there? How do you think that would go over?

I am for sure getting reusable bags once I can find them, and I think they'd be fine with that. Everyone is very nice so far, both our coworkers and the locals we've met here.


And a side note...I have a goal of baking something every Friday (aka Sunday) and I didn't bring many recipes. Rather than trying to find recipes on the Internet, will my friends please email me your favorite recipes?! Thanks!

Week Two: Student Personal Inventory

كيف الحال؟ (How's it going?)
On the first day of school I assigned my students a two page "Personal Inventory" assignment that I found in the garbage can of the copy room.  It contained a number of thought provoking questions like "Where do you picture yourself ten years from now?" and "How tall are you?".

The second page used a likert scale to assess the student's comfort level with topics like evolution, human birth and medical surgery.  I selected a few of the questions and compiled the student's answers in an excel spreadsheet (posted below).  Straight stats homey.

 Click on the image to enlarge.

As you can see, my classes contain a diverse group of students, the majority of which have parents working for Saudi Aramco (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Aramco), the large oil company nearby.

On average the students seem comfortable discussing human reproduction and contraception, but are on the fence about medical surgery.

I was surprised by the distances some of the students travel each day to and from school.  Students living in Jubail spend three hours a day round trip on the bus.  My first thought was of the big, yellow school buses we're used to, but they all ride in shiny, new coaches.

Click on the map to enlarge

For a few of the questions on the survey: "What's your nick-name?", "What are your special talents?" and "Where do you see yourself in ten years?" I didn't get quite the degree of ridiculous answers I would expect in the States, but I did get a couple of good ones:

Nick-names:
Heraclitos Letcuchilus Phugelquist goes by Max.  Conversely, David's nick-name is David.  Good to know.  Another young man didn't have a nick-name but he wanted me to know his "pen name" is Johnathan Parker.

Which raises the question: What are the qualifications for getting your own pen name?  How do I get a pen name?  Can it be Kevin Sebastian? (Fact: Having two first names triples how intimidating you are.)

Special Talents: I was taken aback by the wide array of talents the students have.  But by far my favorite was, "I never get bored in science."

Where do you see yourself in ten years: I received a lot of ambitious, but fairly general responses like "a doctor working in the Congo" however the most specific was "1200 Park Avenue, Emeryville, California." (Which I later interwebbed to find out it is Pixar Studios.)

Week Two: School Begins

We just finished our third day of school (in case you haven't caught this, the work week is Saturday through Wednesday), and we are both so impressed with the students and the staff.  I for one am also impressed with the coffee shop in the middle of campus, where I walk in and the manager says, "Hello Laura, another caramel latte?"  Um, YES!  And a caramel latte is 10 Riyals which is about $2.50 so that is not too bad.  He'll deliver to my room so I don't have to leave my air conditioning, but that means he has to walk in the heat, so I'd rather just go over there myself.  It's not far, but it is very hot out!

Anyway, about the students...they are all so polite and motivated, and really smart.  True, it is only the third day of school.  The students have a dress code of a collared shirt and conservative skirt/shorts/pants.  They can wear any colors, it just helps to make them look "polished".  So I make sure to wear shirts without collars and high heels so that I don't look like a student!

About my job--I am developing special ed resource program.  The program has been, um, loosely run in the past and it is my job to make it work.  I have basically unlimited resources to buy curriculum and materials; the only difficult part is that everything is ordered from the States so it takes a long time. I am loving my job.  I have five students, plenty of time to work with each of them, and no special ed laws to follow---which means less paperwork.  I actually use my planning time to plan instruction instead of filling out pointless forms.  My students are all very sweet and very motivated.  Also, I am going to coach junior varsity volleyball!

Jack has been going to the nursery on campus and doing well.  He of course doesn't like when we drop him off, but while he's there he plays well, sits at a little table to eat with the other kids, goes to the gym, and has circle time.  It is an amazing daycare, and it is right on campus which is great.  He only bit two kids so far...


Now, a little more about our living situation:

An Nassim Village, our compound

I went outside to take pictures of the compound and my camera lens instantly fogged up!  I finally got some pictures though.  The kids are all out playing in the rec hall, playing ping pong and pool and wrestling in the library.  Jack has lots of playmates at home too!  Some of the kids from nursery are here, and older kids who love to babysit.

The pools and rec center on our compound

The area is very safe.  I took the compound bus by myself to go grocery shopping on Thursday night.  As Rob mentioned, it is Ramadan and nothing is open during the day.  Therefore the best time to go shopping is at 8:30 when the last prayer is almost over.  But apparently that is when everyone goes shopping!  The store was PACKED and crazy.  I was the only one on the bus so the driver waited while I shopped.  I thought an hour would be plenty but it took a full two hours to navigate the store, and I still came out with about 3/4 of the things on my list.  One overwhelming thing is that there are four or five men who unload your cart, bag the groceries (usually one item per bag....might as well use lots of petroleum), bring them out, and load the car/bus.  Then the driver helps you carry the groceries into your house.  I don't think I'll ever get used to that, or to being called "Ma'am" all the time.  Oh, and for those of you still wondering, I have to wear an abaya when I go out shopping, but not at home or school.

Well, I need to eat dinner before our Monday night Settlers of Catan game!  We are hosting this week so we can play after Jack is in bed.

Here are some pictures of Jack:

Playing in his new playroom with a neighbor

Jack and Daddy

Of course he still prefers Mommy and Daddy's toys...

Thanks for reading,
Laura

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Hope that helps.  

Rob

Week One: The School

Dhahran High School

Salam Dudes

We just finished our first work week at Dhahran High School (www.dahs.org). Laura is developing an inclusion-based special ed program and I'm teaching 10th grade Honors Biology along with a couple of Microbiology and Anatomy elective courses. The school's campus is large and houses an elementary and middle school as well. Many of the district's offices are on-site too. There isn't a central building for each school but rather a number of smaller building clustered by school and then further into department.

This is the tree lined road that borders the campus.

The high school is moderately sized at around 500 students and about 100 cats. Its crazy-I left work late yesterday and walking to the bus stop I saw at least 15 feral cats-it was like the movie Birds, but with cats! CATS!

My elective courses have around 15 students and my Bio courses have no more than 20 students. Evidently, 20 students is a pretty big class by the standards here-which made me giggle (fact: 80 % of grown men giggle)-but I guess the kids are very engaged so they keep you hoppin. Laura's got five kids on her case load. She already seems to be getting along well with the counselors and administrators. Most people call me Mr. "Laura's Husband".

Before I forget, another couple started work with us this year. They spent the previous two years in China, but they have a house in Georgia. Their blog is: http://ericandjamiebrown.blogspot.com/ They are a lot more informative than I am, with better grammar, more videos and less Danny Tanner humor.

The coffee shop on campus

I can't give too much insight into Laura's situation, she seems to be implementing a lot of positive change.  She's got a sweet office, with wood paneling.  I stole her scanner today, I bet she won't notice it is gone until October.  Booya.

I'm very excited. The facilities, equipment and resources we have to work with are absurd. Our department has its own lab tech. Evidently she'll set up labs, pour plates and wash equipment. I have a brand new room, which was designed by the science teachers working in the department. Tons of technology-smart boards, projectors, document cameras etc. The other teachers in the department are really organized, driven and skilled. The physics teacher here actually lives 10 blocks from us in Minneapolis and student taught at Armstrong.

Laura's Building

Building H7 (My classroom)

School starts Saturday, and we've got classes for three weeks and then Ramadan is over and we have a week off for Eid, which is a big celebration when Ramadan is over.

The work so far has been stressful, but in a good way.  Expectations are very high, and the courses are rigorous, so we both have to step up our game.

Gotta go.  I'm going to go bag an extra feral cat for Jack.

Rob

Week One: The House

So…the Schlesingers live in Saudi Arabia…woah.


We spent so much time talking about what we think it’s going to be like here for the last six months…it is a relief to finally be here and stop speculating! We were told when we were hired thatour house would be big, and the compound would be safe, and there would be other kids to play with, etc. We have been blown away by how accurate that is!

Dining Room

First, about the compound. There are about 40 villas on the compound, each with three floors.There is a wall around it with guards at the front gate to monitor and restrict who comes in and out. We are at the far end of the compound, next to the tennis courts and pools. I thought we would spend all our free time in the pool, but it turns out that the water is approximately 90degrees (makes sense, since the air temp is 105 during the day and 95 at night!), so it isn’t very refreshing. We’ve been told (promised, really) that the humidity and heat break in September and then it will be beautiful weather all winter. The pool water actually gets too cold for swimming in January! Near the pool is a rec hall with a nice weight room, treadmills, ellipticals, pool tables, squash courts, and a large room with couches and tables for parties. Near the middle of the compound is a playground with a sun shade, but Jack can only handle about 10 minutes before he’s dripping with sweat. Every time he looks out the window he says, “Hot, hot.”

Jack's Drinking Fountain

Living Room

Some of the villas are divided into two apartments, for single people or couples. But we got a whole villa! It is about 3 times as big as our Mpls house! When you walk in, you are instantly refreshed by the A/C. On the first floor there is an entry/sitting room, a living room, a dining room, a kitchen, and a bathroom. We moved the dining room table and china cabinet into theliving room. Then we put up gates to close off the dining room to make a huge playroom for Jack! The neighbors have been so generous and keep bringing over toys that their kids have outgrown. We acquired a ride-on fire truck, a tent, a play kitchen, etc. The gates were given to us by neighbors too, and we just had a man from the school come over and install them for 130 Riyals ($30). They are custom built wooden gates that fit perfectly. Whenever you want something here, it is too expensive to import things so they just custom build everything. Forexample, at school, my classroom needed a computer table and my desk doesn’t have drawers. I asked if there is an extra table somewhere and a filing cabinet, because in St. Paul you just had to scrounge around for other people’s unwanted furniture. Oh, just sketch up what you want and Roy will custom build it for you. So I did and he came by hours later with a shiny wooden computer table. He measured, cut it to size, installed it, asked if I want anything else made. The only drawback of the first floor is that it has shiny tile floors that get dangerously slippery when wet. Jack has fallen a lot, but then our neighbors gave us a rug. We will get more rugs and paint the walls so it feels more homey. Right now it is pale yellow and the floors are white, but all the other villas are painted really nicely. We just need to pick out colors and have the compound painters come.

First Floor Hallway

I haven’t even gotten to the second and third floors! The second floor has two normal size bedrooms (one is Jack’s—and they gave us a nice wooden crib too) with built-in cabinets. There is a bathroom and another living room that has a balcony looking over into the downstairs living room. The bathrooms include a bidet, which Jack finds to be a convenient height for washing his hands. Then there is the master bedroom, with a bathroom, walk-in closet, and super-king size bed. I honestly can lay with my arms outstretched and not reach Rob. It is wider than it is long.


Then the third floor is the live-in maid’s quarters. No, we do not have a live-in maid, but we did just today hire a cleaning lady for 3 hours a week. I’m not cleaning four bathrooms! Actually, everyone has a cleaner and it provides work for people who need it, it’s not just me being lazy. The maid’s quarters (which will be where our parents stay…) has a bedroom and bathroom and that is where the laundry is. It opens up to a roof-top porch that we can’t go to yet because it is so hot up there!


So that is our house. I can’t wait to buy all sorts of stuff to fill it up with!

Laura

Week One: The Flight

Salam!

Laura and I wanted to write a blog so that we could keep a journal of our experiences here in Saudi Arabia that we could eventually share with our children. We also wanted to give our friends and family some insight into our lives in the Middle East. If you have questions about life here or are interested in international teaching we can't offer too much insight yet. (Laura thought Saudi Arabia was near Cancun.) However, we are surrounded by, and encounter incredible people on a daily basis who have become invaluable resources for knowledge and support-so we'll just ask them.

Our first week has been intense and exciting. We flew out of Minneapolis on Tuesday night. I got lost following my father to the airport. It was pretty awesome. At the airport we dined at a little place called Chiles. I had a wonderful local brew called Miller Lite while Laura sipped on water garnished with exotic lemon fruits (they are like sassy oranges). Our flight left on time. I suggested we place Jack in the overhead, Laura disagreed. We flipped for it. Laura won.

Jack fell asleep shortly before takeoff and woke up as we descended into Amsterdam. He's never flown before, but on international flights they serve free booze, so it was going to be a relaxing flight one way or another.

In Amsterdam we had a few hours before our connecting flight left for Dammam. While waiting we met a number of couples working at with us, which was very exciting. We took off again (Jack fell asleep again) and we arrived in Dammam around 9 p.m. on Wednesday. (FYI: Saudi is 8 hours ahead of CST). A lot had been made of the difficulty of getting through customs. However the school sent a representative and it only took about an hour to get through. We were greeted by a number of ISG staff members who helped us load our luggage and put us on a bus to head about half hour to Khobar and our compound.

The bus ride to the compound took about 45 minutes. The entrance to the compound is flanked by 3 guards. A little bit further in there's another guard in a tent which houses a giant gun-I think it might be a cannon from a pirate ship, but I didn't really get a good look.

The bus dropped us off at our front door and we were let into our new house at around 11:00. Laura is going to talk about our house in the next post.