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!
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