A Surprise Holiday

We were surprised with a three day weekend!  On Wednesday afternoon (our Friday), we were given the news that Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz, who has been covering for King Abdullah in his absence, declared a national holiday on Saturday.  The King had back surgery in New York, and has been recovering in Morocco for four weeks.  He returned to Saudi Arabia this weekend and to celebrate his health, all government offices and schools were closed!  What a great idea.

The Healthy King

To celebrate the King's health, Jack and the other kids on the compound went swimming.  It is not quite warm enough, but he went in the kiddie pool for about 20 minutes.  The older kids were swimming all day. It was nice outside, but the pool water is not heated so it was chilly.

Jack with a post-swimming glow

Tomorrow we will be back to school.  We are keeping busy...besides teaching, Rob is leading the production crew for the spring play, I am brushing up on my rock climbing skills so I can start a high school climbing club, and Jack is learning to ride a tricycle.  Off to work...

Pink Turtle

Jack got a new pet today!  It is a turtle which he named "Pink Turtle."

 

I bet you are saying to yourself, "Why is the turtle pink?" Some neighbors on the compound found the turtle in their backyard, and it was painted pink and almost dead.  They nursed it back to health and were looking for a home when Jack walked by, looking like he could be suckered in to taking it.  (Or was that Rob?)

The theory is that someone had it as a pet and painted it pink, and let it go outside.  In any case, it still has quite a bit of pink paint on its shell.  All the kids on the compound were involved in finding rocks and pouring water in the tank after school today. Its name is Isabella but I think Jack gave her a more appropriate name.

I told Jack to make a "happy face" for this picture.

The weather here is warming up a bit, so we have been spending a lot of time outside.  One of the kids' favorite activities is drawing on the tennis court with sidewalk chalk, especially tracing each other.  Jack loves to play with the big kids and even lays still to be traced, as long as Bear can lay next to him.

Jack and Bear, kicking a soccer ball

Daddy and Jack on the tennis court

Jack also loves to open and close the front door of our villa

Hide and Seek

Auntie Angela requested more Jack on this blog, so here is a recent video of Jack playing hide and seek with Rob.  He's so cute...

The post about energy drinks and space travel. . .

Hey there,

Long time no blog.

One of my favorite things about Saudi Arabia are the wacky knock-offs of popular products.

Take Red Bull for example.  For those of you who have never experienced a frat party. . .

Red Bull claims to

• Increase performance
• Increase concentration and focus
• Increase reaction speed
• Improve vigilance
• Improve emotional status
• Stimulate metabolis

I also think it makes you better at doing push-ups.

It has becoming wildly popular with people who are into extreme sports (increased performance), long-haul truckers (increased focus) and security guards at shopping malls (improved vigilance).

I frequently drink Red Bull in the morning, but it's expensive so I've resorted to sampling cheaper alternatives.  

#1 Alternative:  Power Horse (http://www.power-horse.com/)

I don't know what a Power Horse is.  

I don't know if "power" is an adjective.  

I don't know why I get the meat sweats when I drink it.

But I do know it's cheap, it's tasty and it makes me feel manly.  The other day I gave Jack a  sip and he immediately tore his shirt off, grabbed a hammer and started building a garage in the back yard.  

#2 Alternative:  Bison (http://www.bison.com.sa/)

If the store is all out of "The Horse".  My backup plan is usually Bison.

Bison tastes like crushed up smarties, and makes my ears burn.  I found this on the website:

It has been said that Bison, more so than any other animal or bird, is a unique symbol of the strength and determination.

It is one of the only few animals who can face into storms and that can run thirty-five miles per hour inspite of its massive built. Typically the word Bison associated with forceful, powerful and robust - all perfect words to describe who we are and what we do at Bison Energy Drink.


#3 Pocari Sweat (www.pocarisweat.com)

Because "the amount we sweat is greater than we imagine".

 I'm not sure what a pocari is, but its sweat tastes like watered-down grape fruit juice.

In non-energy drink related news. . .

Heads up NASA!  

Al Khobar-where dreams of commercial space travel are realized!

That's all for now!
Rob

Superbowl Realization

Last week, as you know, was the Superbowl.  Every year we go to a Superbowl party, eat wings and nachos and other party foods, laugh at commercials.  Well, the game was on at 2:30am here in KSA.  Rob set his alarm but didn't get up.  I caught the last 4 minutes of the game after I got up for work.  I then woke Jack up and dressed him in the Packers outfit that Grandpa Dave bought him.

We got to school and I expected everyone to be buzzing about the game.  But guess what - only Americans care about American football.  Huh.  One of the other teachers (who is British) said, "Oh Jack, you have your green track suit on today."  I was like, "Hello, it's not just any green track suit...it's a Packers suit because the Packers won the Superbowl an hour ago" but no one cared.  She laughed, and at least knew what I was talking about, unlike most of the students and teachers around.

It's funny how I didn't care about American traditions like the Superbowl until I left America...hmmm...

WOW Week at School

This week was WOW Week at Dhahran High School.  I believe this stands for "World Without Walls".  We just finished final exams for first semester, and many teachers and students went on service or educational trips.  The Habitat for Humanity club sent groups to Kenya, Cambodia, and Romania.  Other trips went to Switzerland, Hong Kong, and Bali.  Rob and I were not ready to plan a trip in our first year, so we stayed back with the students who didn't go on trips either.  The week at school was like summer camp, complete with skits and songs and embarrassing competitions.  Students formed their own teams and we were each in charge of a team.  Most of the week was spent in team competitions, such as the Amazing Race around campus, tug of war, and various silly relays.  On two of the afternoons we got to teach whatever class we wanted.  Rob taught kids how to play Settler of Catan and I did volleyball one day and cake decorating the next.  Here are a few pictures from my cake decorating class.

On Tuesday each of our teams set up a booth for a street fair.  The booths ranged from fortune telling to henna to karaoke.  Rob's team set up a dart booth, where kids got a prize for hitting a bullseye.  My team did face painting and nail art.

My hand after hitting up the henna and nail art booths

On Wednesday, the last day of the week, we all went to the Ras Tanura beach.  Ras Tanura is a Saudi Aramco base that is located about an hour north of Al Khobar.  We have many students who take a bus to school from "RT" every day!  One of the families arranged for us all to visit the base.  Though it was definitely not beach weather - cold and windy - we had a great time!  They have an amazing beach, a bowling alley, a game room, and several restaurants and coffee shops.

Overall we had a very fun week.  It was tiring in the way that having fun and being with excited teenagers is tiring!  I got to know a lot more students than I did before, and we also had free time after school. I used this time to practice on the climbing wall, as I hope to start an after school climbing club soon.  Rob used the time to play basketball with other teacher and students.  Since we didn't have planning to do for school, we also played lots of board games and darts with other teachers in the evenings.  Tomorrow the second semester starts and we will need to focus on academics again, so it was nice for everyone to have a week of pure fun.

Random Things from January

It has been raining quite a bit lately.  Since this is the desert, people have NO idea what to do when driving in the rain.  It's like when it snows half an inch in the South and everyone freaks out.  There is no drainage built into the roads, so the roads flood and people drive way too slowly and don't know how to turn on their wipers or defrost.  On the bright side, the rain makes everything smell better and the vegetation is very green.

The view out our front door

Jack has been sick off and on lately - nothing serious, just a stomach bug and now a cold.  That means I've had to take off work a few days.  Unfortunately, it is also final exam time at school so I really need to be there.  Fortunately, we have found a wonderful Filipino lady to watch Jack at home when he's too sick to  go to nursery.  Best of all, Jack loves her.
A lot of teachers and kids have been getting sick, and the theory most people offer is the change in weather.  I adhere to the theory that everyone went to their home country or on vacation over break and returned with all sorts of new germs to share.

Jack's new developments are learning colors and shapes.  He also knows just about every animal name - from hippo to rhino to octopus.  He loves puzzles and shape/color sorters and anything he's not supposed to play with.  One day he grabbed our USA phone and ran away from me.  By the time I caught up with him he had called Grandpa Steve and was saying hello!



I forgot to put these two pictures up in the post about museums.  I took them at the SciTech Museum.  

I couldn't get over how weird this fish's eyes are! So creepy, but Jack loved it.

A camel skeleton

The compound we live on provides 5 cable channels for free.  One of the channels often shows professional darts, so when my dad was here we were inspired to get a dartboard and set it up in our dining room.  We've been practicing pretty often and often solve arguments by throwing darts - such as whoever gets the highest points in three throws wins.  One day Rob threw a Robin Hood which I thought was worth sharing.