Monday, September 30, 2013

Life in Saudi Arabia 2013


Life in Saudi Arabia is much different from living in the United States. This is my initial thoughts and impressions of living in Saudi Arabia.

Life on the Las Dunas compound has been really good so far.  We are in walking distance to everyone and to the clubhouse that has lots of amenities.  At the clubhouse there is a restaurant/cafe', Mini Market, aerobic/ballet room, conference room, library, hair salon, gym, squash court, Sauna, steam room, Spa, swimming pools and tennis court.  In another area on the compound there is a play ground with 4 swing/play sets, a basketball court, and a walking path.  In another area there is a full size lap pool and more tennis courts;  this area is still under construction. There is also an empty building that use to be a bar/night club with a dance floor.  The parents are working on making it into a game room with a pool table, ping pong table, foosball table, music, movies, etc.  A fun hangout place for the kids!

The families try to have activities that we can do together.  We had a pool party , the kids have movie nights, and the girls have more freedom to go play with friends.  The ladies get together to do things often.  They get together for coffees, lunch, shopping trips, Bible studies, Zumba classes, and exercise together to mention a few things.

The Clubhouse!

The clubhouse pools!

walking back to our villa F-50

The light switches in our villa are opposite from what we have back home. To turn the lights on we need to push the switch down and to turn the lights off we need to push the switch up.  I'm still not sure if the switch is on or off just by looking at it.  I usually just push them until I get the result I'm looking for.  Also, we need to be careful plugging in things.  We need to pay attention to the voltage of the outlets and need to use special adapters.  It took me about an hour to figure out how to plug in my blender to make a smoothie.  I almost gave up!

Maintenance is taken care of by the compound so if we need something fixed we just let them know and usually within minutes someone comes over to fix our problem.  They have someone taking care of the yard, watering and trimming.  There is garbage service everyday!  Marty can get use to this!

I never thought that using a phone would be so difficult.  I think making calls is the most frustrating thing for me so far.  I still don't know how to make calls.  If we use the Villa phone we are limited on where we can call because of area codes.  To call another villa you need to dial a 2 the villa # then a 1 for calling family villas.  To call a bachelors villa you need to dial a 4 villa # then 1.  If we want to call a number outside the villa we have to first dial 9 to get out and then the number.  Then to add to my confusion I set up our phone from home here.  I got confused the other day using our home number to call AT&T back home.  I kept dialing a nine then realized I didn't have to do that because I forgot that I was not on our villa phone.  Both phones look the same.  Cell phones are not any easier to use.  If some gives you their cell number sometimes you have to add a 0 to the number but from your villa you drop the 0.  Saudi Arabia just changed area codes of some places.  Now we need to add a 1, 2, or 3 to some numbers that we called before without adding that.  Also, all land line numbers in the kingdom will be modified by adding the digit 1 after the zero in the current zone codes 01, 02, 03, 04, 06, and 07 will become 011, 012, 013, 014, 016, and 017.   First of all I usually don't even understand what part of their phone numbers are their area codes now I need to modify the number.  I feel so stupid when trying to make a call!

It is challenging to get out to shop or go to restaurants because of transportation and prayer times.  Muslims pray 5 times a day, starting around 4 a.m. If you are out and about you will hear the call to prayer.  The prayer times change everyday so it makes it harder to plan.  If you get there and prayer time has started you are locked out and have to wait until they open again.  If you are in a store you can continue to shop but, you can't check out until prayer is finished.  Prayer time is usually 20 to 30 minutes. Because they pray during the day most stores and malls have prayer rooms (one for men and one for women).  On some days places close for prayer around 12 p.m. and don't open again until 4 p.m.  And some places close for prayer around 10:30 and open again around 12:30.  So it takes a lot of planning or a lot of patience.

The grocery stores actually have a small strip mall inside and restaurants or cafe's.  Some grocery stores are also 2 to 3 stories with elevators and escalators.  The escalators are more like moving ramps because they don't turn into steps. The Hyper Panda by our villa has a strip mall and a food court in it.

Hyper Panda

Trying to grocery shop can be challenging and time consuming. There is no organization or system for where they decided to put things.  It can be hard to figure out what some things are because of the packaging , you need to search for the English writing amongst all the Arabic writing. You also need to do a lot of math to figure out how much things cost, but some stores have the American dollar amount available. We are able to find most foods that we like back home it just takes time and going to 2 to 3 stores to get everything you need.  I am open to trying new foods and some of the new things we have tried I really like better than what I was use to back home.  The fruits, vegetables and seafood are amazing here.  Sometimes the store you found an item at will not have it next time you go.  So, I've learned very quickly to buy 2 or 3 of that hard to find item when I see it. Rachael even found Tony's Chachere's seasoning for us.  There are a few foods that we do miss; Rachael misses grits, we can't find corn bread mix, or corn meal.

The wheels on the shopping carts are casters and the cart can be pushed side ways, but it can be hard to make turns when you are not use to the way it slides side ways.  I think it's kind of cool. The carts glide very easy and are quiet.  I have not heard a noisy shopping cart yet!  They call the shopping carts "trollies".

Shopping malls are everywhere and they are huge!  It seems as though shopping is the pass time here.  There are many stores in the mall that we have back home.  The malls are so big that they have amusement parks in them for the kids to play while parents shop.  The mall of Dhahran even has a small ice skating rink.  


Al Rashid Mall
 These pictures don't do it justice because this only shows a little section.  It was huge and went on and on and on.

There are many restaurants for us to choose from.  Most restaurants have separate dining areas and separate entrances. One entrance for families and one for men.  They also close for prayer times.  If you are in the restaurant before prayer time starts you can stay in and eat.  They might put up a portion for privacy during prayer.  There are many restaurants and fast food places that we have back home.  So it doesn't look like we will be loosing weight. There is a Chili's, Outback, Olive Garden, Applebee's, Red Lobster, T.G.I. Fridays, Cheesecake Factory, McDonald's, Burger King, Fuddruckers, Pizza Hut, Domino's, Popeye's, KFC, Subway, Quiznos, Starbucks, Krispy Kreme, Dunkin Donuts, Baskin & Robbins, & Haagen Das.  Their buildings are big and have very pretty architecture design. 

We were waiting for prayer time to end!

   

                                                   
McDonald's

Burger King

Popeye's 
The words around the big P are "Louisiana Kitchen"

Starbucks
Krispy Kreme

Marty said that gas is cheap here like 40 cents a gallon.  I thought this gas station was cool looking.  Almost looked space age to me.



We are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia.  We are driven everywhere.  When we want to go somewhere we have to arrange for transportation.  We call or email a service to let them know when and where we need to go and someone comes to our door to pick us up.  We get dropped off at front doors to places and if we shopped the driver helps load everything in the SUV and unload the bags when we get home.  Thank God these drivers don't drive like Saudi people on the road.  I'm actually glad I am not allowed to drive, it's much better that I get chauffeured around.  The crazy Saudi drivers seem to do whatever they want.  The only traffic law I've seen obeyed is to stop at red lights.  They usually drive with the lines of the road in the middle of their car.  So it makes a 2 lane road a 4 lane road.  They pass people on the shoulder, jump curbs, drive as fast as they want, turn in a non-turning lane across traffic going straight, cross four lanes of traffic to exit and turn exit ramps into a three lane highway.  To make things worst we have seen 10 year old boys driving with women in the back seat.  It is against the law for women to drive here.  Parking on the side of the road is just as bad.  Many cars park in all different directions and angles.  There is lots of honking at each other.  I thought it was because they were mad at each other but I have witnessed our driver honk to let a car know he will let him in.

The traffic lights are new to me.  They have timers on them.  While you sit at the red light, you watch it countdown minutes until it's green.  The green lights also have times so you can see how long you have until it turns red.  I also like the street signs here.  They are names of Kings and Prince's.  For examples; Prince Muhammad Bin Abdulaziz St., Prince Salman Bin Abdulaziz Rd., King Abdul Aziz St., and King Khalid St.  We were told that "Bin" means son of.  So, the first street sign would be Prince Muhammad (son of) Abdulaziz.

 



You need to do a lot of math in Saudi Arabia and it can get extremely difficult.  Trying to do math conversions can be really hard to do on the spot. We need to convert money from SAR into USD so, we need to divide by 3.75 to find out how much things cost.  When buying things in weight, they use kilograms, so we have to convert from kilograms to pounds.  When they measure something it's in centimeters, so we need to figure out inches to centimeters. Their temperature is in Celsius so we need to convert to know the Fahrenheit temp.  Time is in military time.  Keeping track of what day and time it is here compared to back home we need to subtract 8 hours.  The sun comes up around 4:30 a.m. in the morning.  So by 8:00 p.m. we are ready for bed.  Lonny and his two boys would do just fine here with that.  As you can see even if the girls didn't go to school they would be learning a lot.

The language barrier is frustrating for me and the person I'm trying to communicate with.  They usually just say no problem, ok, ok.  And we didn't get anywhere!  And most of the time that means you have to do most things around here 2 to 3 times.  We talk to people from many different nationalities everyday but I do like being called "Madame!"

OMG! the bathrooms! Or as they call them "Toilets".  I carry around toilet paper because some of the public restrooms don't have toilet paper.  They use sprayers to clean themselves, which means that the floors are usually wet.  Some of the restrooms have normal toilets but some just have a hole in the floor, (a traditional Saudi toilet) which I have been told are in most Saudi homes.  I usually decide to just wait until I get home.


I hope this has given you a little taste of what things are like here for us.  There are many differences and many challenges.  I am just going to try to learn and adjust to day to day life here.  I want to have an open mind about everything that we will be going through and grow as a person from this experience.  I do feel safe here with the security that is provided and the penalty for crimes.  I think it is safer here than in New Orleans.  Remember this is just my perspective!  Stay tuned for more from Saudi Arabia and our experiences.  





Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Off to Live in Saudi Arabia 2013


We officially moved to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Monday, August 26, 2013!  We left New Orleans Airport Sunday, August 25 at 8:00 a.m.  It was hard to say bye and leave behind my 3 older daughters, (Chelsey , Devin, and Heather), my Mom, my brother Lonny , and his wife Denise at the airport.  It was a 45 minute flight to Dallas, Texas where we were met by Paul and Kathy .  What a blessing to be able to see them and give them a hug bye before leaving the country .  I felt like we had a VIP service in Dallas because Kathy was great.  She knew where we needed to go, what we needed to do and even took us to McDonalds because Rachael was starving . Yes, we even left the airport for a while!  We had a 3 hour layover in Dallas, then a 14 hour 45 minute flight to Dubai.


We flew Emirates Airline and it was really nice.  I think Rachael and Hannah were pleasantly surprised .  There were monitors in the seats in front of each of us, so we could each do our own thing .  We could watch movies, TV shows, listen to music or watch the flight in progress.  Sometimes Hannah had 2 screens up at a time, watching the Big Bang Theory and watching the flight progress.  Hannah said it didn’t seem like a 15 hour flight and she didn’t sleep.  I guess there was enough to keep her busy and she didn't want to miss a thing .  We were served 3 meals on this flight; lunch, dinner, and then breakfast.


We had a 4 hour layover in Dubai .  I didn’t like this airport experience .  I think we were the only Americans on this flight and I felt so out of place .  I really would have felt more secure if Marty could have been there with us .  Rachael & I were both having sinus trouble and took medicine so we both fell asleep in the airport while waiting for our flight .  When it was time to board the plane I had my first experience with difference in American and Saudi manners.  I felt like we were all cattle trying to all get into a gate.  The men would even cut children off, separating them from their families just so they could get onboard the plane first.  How sad !  It’s not like the plane was going to leave them.  The flight from Dubai was a one hour flight and we were served a “snack”  a sandwich, a wrap, fruit, cake, trail mix, tea, and water.  I would have called it a meal but in Saudi a sandwich is a snack .       


The World view of our flight progress from Dallas to Dubai


Marty set up a VIP meet and greet service provided by     "Al-Fifa" which was paid for by DOW on this first trip to help us go through the custom process easier.  When we stepped off the airplane we didn't even go through the corridor and there was a man standing in a white thobe, a red & white checkered turban on his head and he was holding a sign with my name on it.  After 24 hours of traveling I completely forgot all about having this service and when I saw my name, I got so excited I could have hugged that man! He took us out through a side door.  He never said a word to us, he just held the door, led us to a car, opened the trunk for us to put our carry on bags in, and opened the car door.  I wanted to ask him so bad if my husband was there.  He only had to drive us about 50 feet.  



Once there we needed to go through a security check with our carry on bags but, Hannah spotted Marty and ran to him, bypassing the security .  The security guys just smiled and motioned that it was ok.  We were able to hug Marty and then we were brought to a very nice waiting area.  We were literally the only people there besides the security guards and airport personnel.  They took our passports and they did everything for us.  The really nice Al-Fifa guy named Monther brought us bottled water and offered us coffee and tea.  After a little while Monther asked me to go with him into a little office with some security guards who took my finger prints and my picture.  I couldn't understand what they were asking me to do.  Monther helped me understand .  To take finger prints he sprayed my fingers with something like water and I had to place my four fingers from both hands on a machine that was a glass box with a light inside.  Then I needed to do my thumbs.  We were there for about an hour then Monther came to get us and said we were done and that we could go.  He took us outside to 2 SUV's that already had all our luggage loaded .  We took off to our new home in the Las Dunas Compound in Al Khobar.  On the way to our villa we saw 2 herds of camels and lots of sand .










The girls were so glad to be with their Dad!


Going through security to get into the compound for the first time was a little unnerving .  The security guard looks underneath the car with a mirror and then checks under the hood.  Then there was a second security check point where the guard records the license plate number and checks credentials before opening the gate . 
Monther came back to our Villa later that night with gifts for me and the girls.  A beautiful bouquet of roses for me and an Abaya that was in a beautiful box.  For Hannah and Rachael a beautiful box with Abayas for them and a rose for each of them placed in the box on top of the Abayas.  He said that these gifts were from their Dad.  This was the beginning of our adventures so stay tuned for future posts....