Laura's Trip to Berlin

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  We celebrated Thanksgiving twice, on Thursday at the compound rec center, and Friday at our neighbor's house.  I was in charge of pumpkin pies yesterday, and turkey and gravy today.  I will post pictures later...today my post is about my recent trip to Berlin.

First of all, it was really, really hard to be away from Jack (and Rob) for a whole week.  It was hard because Jack is learning new words daily, so while I was gone he learned to say "cookie monster" and "santa", and how to give hugs!  Rob (aka Super Dad) kept him busy during break, and then got him ready in the early mornings for school. He employed a few of the compound teenagers to help out, filled the house with new toys, and taught Jack some new dance moves (videos to come another day).

On the other hand, I had a good time on the trip.  As I mentioned before, I was co-chaperoning a group of high school students for a Model UN conference.  The students were incredibly focused on the conference, and they were all very well-behaved.  We had a good mix of fun and work.  The weather was cold and a little rainy, which was a refreshing change from Saudi's heat.  (Side note: the weather here has cooled down quite a bit (65-75), so that Jack is required to wear a sweatshirt when he goes outside at nursery).

On the first day, we had a bus tour around Berlin before going to our hostel.  We stopped at several Berlin icons, including the remains of the Berlin Wall, the Brandenburg Gate, and Checkpoint Charlie.

This brick line marks where the Berlin wall used to stand dividing East and West Berlin.

The high schoolers in front of the remains of the Berlin Wall.

The entrance to the Berlin Zoo.

The next four days were spent at the JFK American School for the BerMUN conference.  Students play the role of delegates from various countries to the UN.  They research their country's stance on current world issues and write resolutions to present.  They then lobby to get other delegates to back their resolutions, debate, and vote.  Our students represented Venezuela and the USA.  The students were amazingly knowledgeable in world affairs and represented their school well.  We took the subway from the hostel to the school everyday, and in the evenings we went to dinner or ordered pizza.

One of our students giving a speech at the opening ceremony of the conference.  Seated at the front table are students from various schools who were chosen to serve as president of the UN, secretary-general, and other positions.

The students had to act as their country's delegation the whole time, putting their personal views aside.

After the conference was done, we took the kids to see the new Harry Potter movie and the Blue Man Group, and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe.  We spent some time in the Christmas Markets that are set up all over Germany, shopping for Christmas items, eating bratwurst, and even sledding!  Some of the students had never been sledding before.  Even though it was a wooden hill with man-made snow, it put me in the Christmas spirit.

This bear is the symbol of Berlin, so they were everywhere.

Sledding!

A public toilet... 1 Euro ($1.40) for the toilet, 7 for a shower.

The last day we were there, we went to Potsdam, a town near Berlin.  We went to a museum about the Holocaust and stopped at several palaces.

Sanssouci ("no worries") Palace

The gardens of Sanssouci

The windmill at Sanssouci

Schloss Cecilienhof, the location of the Potsdam conference between Truman, Chuchill, and Stalin.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves at Legoland

All in all, it was a busy and fun trip.  It is nice to spend time with students outside of school, and a good challenge to lead teenagers through a foreign city!  The students are so sweet, always offering to carry my bags and asking if I missed my family. These students are literally world-travellers, but I was surprised that several of them have no street sense!  They walk in the bike paths, don't understand the subways, etc...I guess that's what living on compounds in Saudi does.  This is a very safe, sheltered place for kids to grow up, and I'd rather have a polite, caring, sheltered child than a street-smart one :)

Thanks for reading! 

A Trip to Bah'rain

This week is Eid al-Adha, the holiday when Muslims around the world flock to Mecca for the Hajj so we (again!) have the whole week off of school.  The celebration of Eid al-Adha also includes sacrificing goats, and Jack has made friends with a goat tied to a post at the end of our compound.  Hopefully he won't notice tomorrow when it disappears.

On Wednesday afternoon, the last day we worked, Rob and Jack both got their exit/re-entry visas (I had mine already) so we decided to leave the country!  T.G.W.G.S. and his family invited us to join them on a trip to the Kingdom of Bah'rain.

"Bah'rain" means "two seas" which is fitting since it is an island country.  We only needed to drive across the King Fahd Causeway which runs from Al-Khobar to Bahrain.  Along the causeway are five tollbooth-like stopping points where we had to pay a small fee and get our passports and visas stamped.  On the way back, there is a customs checkpoint as well, but we'll get to that later.

Bah'rain is not really that different than Saudi, as it is still a Middle Eastern Muslim monarchy.  The draw is that it is not nearly as strict as Saudi.  People drive over mainly to have a beer and eat pork, which are both haram, not allowed for Muslims.  To get pork in Bah'rain, you have to go into the "Non-Muslim Section" of the grocery store or restaurant.  The shopping is also better in some ways.  For example, there are no fitting rooms for women in Saudi, so women like to go to Bah'rain to shop for clothes.  Also, there are Christmas items and a certain things that are hard to find here, like swim diapers.

My main goal for shopping was to buy a Christmas tree and sneak it back across the causeway. We took the label off the box and put it, along with Christmas wrapping paper and nutmeg, underneath our luggage and other purchases.  The border guard asked, "Do you have any whiskey or meat?"  We said no, and he sent us on our way.  Now this daughter of a Wisconsin Christmas tree farmer has a beautiful fake contraband tree in the living room!  Jack helped Rob put it together and is really proud of it.

Life in Saudi Arabia is not difficult by any means.  It is just sometimes inconvenient, as life in any country other than the one you grew up in would be.  Our visit to Bah'rain was relaxing.  We could walk to restaurants from our hotel, and there was even a Caribou Coffee (a MN company).

Jack and Rob in Bah'rain

A lot of the restaurants have bicycle delivery.

There were a lot of interesting skyscrapers along the road.

A view of the King Fahd Causeway

All in all, it was a very nice trip.  We will return to Bah'rain in a month to pick my parents up from the airport there!

Tonight I leave for a school trip to Berlin for seven days.  I will be chaperoning the Model UN club as they go to a conference there.  I'm excited to go, but it will be hard to be away from Rob and Jack.  I'm sure they will have a great time fixing things and jumping, Jack's two favorite activities.  Here is a sample of what they did last time I left the house...

Trick or Treating Saudi Style and Jack's First Haircut

On Thursday we had Halloween on the compound.  Jack was dressed as a giraffe, but he was not keen on wearing the hood that looked like a giraffe head.  He sat nicely for group pictures with all the other kids, and then he and Rob made it to about 4 villas to get candy (which I obviously ate).  If you couldn't tell, in the video above he is saying "trick or treat."

On Friday, Jack went to our neighbor's 6-year-old birthday party at a play area about two blocks away.  Every mall and shopping center has a huge play area with rides.  I think this is because the hot weather prevents kids from playing outside, or maybe just because Saudis love kids.  There is a kids' barbershop inside the play area so I took the opportunity to get Jack's first haircut.  He sat really still, maybe because there was a tv with Tom & Jerry playing right in front of his face!  Then he and the other kids played on rides and ate dinner and cake.

Before...notice the chair is a bicycle!

Apparently it was necessary to style it also...Jack amazingly didn't mind the blow dryer!

This is what it looked like the next morning when he woke up...

The play area included lots of toddler rides, as well as bumper cars, a water ride, and a roller coaster.

Jack and his friend on a ride.

Jack's favorite, the train ride.

On Sunday, the kids at school all dressed up.  Not so much high schoolers, but everyone from nursery to 8th grade had costumes, and they had a Halloween parade that was really cute.  Jack went as a Minnesota Gopher with big muscles.

Tomorrow and Wednesday we have the ISG Conference.  ISG is International Schools Group, the district we work for.  All the teachers from the seven ISG schools across Saudi Arabia are coming to Dhahran High School for this conference.  There is a guest speaker and we will do small group activities.  I'm excited that breakfast and lunch are provided AND it starts half an hour later than usual!

Hope everyone had a good Halloween!  The weather here is much cooler and actually feeling slightly fall-ish.  There were pumpkins for sale here for $60 each!  One thrifty teacher carved a watermelon instead.