Summer in Europe

When we make our way back to the Middle East in the summer, we like stopping somewhere about halfway to help break up the trip and take some of the punch out of the serious jet lag that comes from flying west to east. What’s especially cool is that we can usually manage to do this by finding a 5-6 day layover somewhere, which adds virtually no expense to the airline tickets.

This year we decided to stop in Ireland for one of these extra long layovers, splitting our time between Dublin and Wicklow. 

Our first hotel was on Merion Street in downtown Dublin, just a few blocks from the hustle and bustle. We began our own walking tour with a visit just across the street to St. Stephen’s Green - a beautifully landscaped park with rose gardens, curving walking paths and duck ponds (which curiously seemed to be overrun with seagulls). We visited the statue of Oscar Wilde in a neighboring park and then made our way down to the Guinness Storehouse - a 5-story circular building that provides the history of Guinness, the brewing process, Guinness advertising campaigns throughout the decades, and of course a sampling. The 5th floor and final stop on the tour is a sky lounge with 360 degree views of Dublin and a complimentary pint. Justin and I took turns feeding Harris some applesauce as we enjoyed the view.

The next stop was to a random pub for lunch. This turned out to be a horseracing bar where they were taking live bets and watching the races. There were only older men in the pub but nobody seemed in the least bothered that we were there or that we had a baby with us. We had a chicken sandwich and a corned beef sandwich as Harris discovered he was a fan of horseracing and bet 20 puffs on his favorite pony - Poppin Corks. Good ole Corks did not win, but no one tried collecting on his puffs. 

We then walked past St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin Castle and strolled around the Trinity College campus. There were a fair amount of cobblestone streets - much to Harris’ delight. Finally, we had an early dinner at The Ginger Man pub where I had a delicious Guinness pie (think Shepherd's pie but with a darker, thicker Guinness gravy). 

The next part of our trip took us about an hour and a half south to Wicklow - known as “the Gardens of Ireland.” We had reservations at an old hotel called the Glendalough that was previously a Monk settlement in the 6th century. The remains of a medieval cemetery and church were sitting just behind the hotel. From the back of the hotel you could pick up on of several walking trails ranging in distance from 3 to 10 kilometers. We took a different trail each of the 3 days we were here and had a lovely time strolling through the green hills and stopping to rest at one of the 3 lakes along the way. The weather couldn’t have been nicer, with temperatures in the low 70s, no rain, and a nice breeze. On our last day we took the longest trail to a rock quarry of an old abandoned mining village which was pretty cool and we managed to take Harris in the stroller almost all of the way and he seemed to thoroughly enjoy the ride and the scenery.

Something interesting we found was that there was a surprisingly high number of Russian and

Ukrainians working at the hotels and restaurants we visited. One wouldn’t necessarily expect to hear a Russian accent when staying in a medieval bed and breakfast in the countryside of Ireland. However, our local driver explained to us that as Ireland becomes an even more popular tourist destination, the country simply does not have enough locals to staff the high demand in hotels and tourist locations and so that it is not uncommon for Ukrainians and Russians to obtain work visas and come and work for the holiday season. 

Another interesting thing we learned from John, our driver was that the native Irish language, or as we may call it, Gaelic/Celtic was only spoken by about 10% of the population about 10 years ago. So the country made a concerted effort to preserve the language and it was again taught in public schools from the primary grades. So that now, the population who speaks Irish has doubled to about 20% and in another 5 years could be back up to half the population. However, he explained that some of the older generation were complaining that the Irish students are learning in school is not “proper” in terms of formal grammar, due to the whole language approach that has been used to teach school children. John joked that now his grandchildren sometimes speak to him in Irish, knowing that he cannot understand and that they get quite the kick out of this.

After having a flight canceled last minute, we made our connecting flight to London, where we had a day and a night to spend before making the last leg of our journey back to Riyadh. We stayed at a basic airport hotel since we had an early morning flight and made the most of our one day visit with a trip down to Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Big Ben and Parliament, and Westminster which were all conveniently located within a 1 square mile radius. We walked across Westminster Bridge over the Thames River which was incredibly crowded with street performers and onlookers playing shell games. We managed to visit all of these sites within 2 hours and made it back to our hotel for an early dinner and glasses of red wine from the hotel bar sipped slowly and appreciatively - our final adult beverage before returning to Riyadh.

Our original itinerary was supposed to be a direct flight from London to Riyadh, taking about 6 hours. However, the airline made changes to our flight a few weeks prior and we would first have to make a stopover in Jeddah. While this in and of itself would not have been a huge deal, the reason for this added stopover was that the Hajj season had just begun and hundreds of Muslims were making their obligatory pilgrimage to Mecca. Needless to say, the 3 of us really stood out on this flight. Some people wait their whole lives to be able to make the pilgrimage to Mecca and so for many of the passengers, they were elderly and this was perhaps their first time ever on a plane. The male pilgrims all dress in what look like white cotton towels - one wrapped around their waist and another slung over their shoulders almost like a shawl. Their chests are bare underneath. The women wear traditional black abayas. And because of the cleansing rituals that are required during this trip, the lines to get into the bathroom were long and constant throughout the 6 hour flight, which was problematic at times with a baby needing constant changing but we made it work. There was a real collective sense of community on the plane. As we came within 30 minutes of reaching Jeddah - the final stop before Mecca, several men stood up and led the passengers in a chanting sort of prayer, asking God to accept their offerings and bless their pilgrimage. Men on both sides of us were reading aloud from pocket-sized Qurans and if you’ve never hear the Quran recited before, it does have a lovely melodic sound to it that I found quite enjoyable and Harris was also quite intrigued to observe all the interesting happenings around him.

We arrived in Jeddah around 10 pm and virtually the entire plane deboarded, leaving the 3 of us to

have the entire cabin to ourselves for the remaining hour flight to Riyadh. The flight attendants passed the time by playing with Harris and passing him back and forth and after nearly 9 hours on an airplane, Justin and I were more than willing to hand him over for a bit. Finally we landed back in RIyadh and made it back to our villa which was just as we had left it in June. And after months of travel and exploring and adventures, it did feel good to be back in our own space.

Summer in the States

True to our past five years, we’ve gone a little while without a blog post in the summer. I think this time around we preferred to enjoy the time in the summer before sitting down to record it all, so I’ll do my best to include everything with as much accuracy as possible despite the lengthy break in between posts. 

After school let out, we stuck around for an extra day or two to get our stuff packed and get our house ready for no habitation for two months. This included stuff like making sure windows were fully sealed to protect from sandstorms, cleaning up a bit, and moving all of the house plants to one room of the house so we could leave some shades open for sunlight. 

The baby had traveled before this summer. He had gone on some shorter flights like during our trip to Egypt and Prague, but never anything as long or daunting as our trip to NY promised to be. We were in for fourteen hours on a plane. Even though it was direct, and we didn’t have to manage layovers or dragging extra baggage through airports, it still loomed large in front of us as a major challenge. In addition to all of that, we’d have to contend with the fact that he had just settled into a pretty consistent routine including bedtime. We were about to throw that for a loop with some serious jet-lag. 

The morning of the flight, we left for the airport around 3:00am. Things went as smoothly as anything can go when you wake up at 2:00am for the day. When we got on the plane, we were pretty comfortable because we had booked a whole row to ourselves. To make things even better, Shannon had researched and purchased an inflatable footrest cube thing that when inflated, perfectly filled the space where your legs go. It created a perfectly level platform with the seat, extending the seat to the seat back in front and created a bed for the baby. This was perhaps the best $20 we ever spent.

Since it was a Saudia flight, there was a square of space near the back of the plane meant for prayer for those who needed to pray along the flight. It was right in the center of the plane and was probably about 7 feet by 7 feet roughly. When people weren’t praying, it was a great place to stand with the baby. He did a great job of sleeping for much of the flight, but 14 hours is still 14 hours. We had to occupy him by taking turns walking up and down the aisles and by hanging in this space a few times. Another family even took their three kids to the area and had a picnic. I highly approve and encourage all airlines to create a similar space for the sanity of their flock of passengers. 

When we landed, we went straight to the rental car area at JFK Airport and sleep deprived and eager to be done traveling, I was nearly hypnotized/tricked into every conceivable add-on, insurance, toll pass, bell, whistle, and ribbon. It would have nearly doubled our rental car purchase. Luckily, my much saner and clear-minded wife corrected that before we were on our way. 

We drove to Shannon’s sisters’ apartment and let out a big sigh of relief. Here we were, finally. It was Harris’s first time being in the US. He is too young to know the difference, but it was nice to have this tiny American citizen set foot on a place he could always call home. When we got to the apartment, there were New York bagels waiting for us and we spent some time with the family. Luckily, by the time we got there, it was early afternoon, and probably only an hour or two earlier (local time) than Harris usually goes to bed. So we gave him his bath, fed him, and put him to bed. The length of the trip, and the serendipitous timing of the flight ended up working out. The tired baby slept through the night, woke up the next morning, and never had to struggle with jet-lag. 

We spent our next few days in New York walking around the local parks, watching movies with the sisters, and frequenting a favorite deli of ours. We had some unique to New York experiences along the way, like the probably mentally ill and certainly homeless man satiating some of his carnal pleasures by himself on the street one sunny afternoon, and the experience of having to move the car for street cleaning, only to realize that I had to drive around in circles for about three and a half hours to find a new parking spot. All in all our time in New York was relaxing and allowed us to recharge after the long journey. 

Then we drove down to New Jersey to see my family. This was something I was eager to do since my family was not able to come to Riyadh to visit the baby when he was born. This was the first time anyone in my family was going to be able to meet him. Due to the heavy concentration of my family, all living within about 20 minutes of each other, it was perfect. We stopped at our hotel, loaded up on some supplies and then went to my mom’s house to catch up where we were met by my grandmother as well. So baby Harris got to meet his grandma, and great grandma at the same time. It was pretty cool having four generations of family in the room at the same time. 

 

One of those first days, I went to my niece’s school and picked her up early. We went and got some subs and drove up to her first baseball game. She and I hung out, ate snacks, yelled at the opposing team’s players, ate more snacks, cheered for the Phillies, and had a great time. I was glad and grateful for being able to spend some time with her. I miss having the ability to do that throughout the year. 

After one or two nights in a hotel, we made our way to the beach house that we rented for two weeks.

Due to the fact that most of my childhood friends and all of my family live very close together, most of our trips to New Jersey involve us spending about 40% of each and every day in the car going to visit people. This year, with the baby in tow, we wanted to make sure we spent as much time with people as possible, and made it easier on ourselves with the baby. So our plan was to rent the apartment and have people come visit us. We had the top floor of a duplex that served us perfectly. We had enough space to set the baby up in his own room while we hung out in a large living room area. Our friends Justin and Megan came to meet us the night we got there and brought some food. We shared some food and drink and spent some time with their kids as well catching up. 

The following days were a bit of a blur. We spent days on the beach, and on the boardwalk. I grew up going to the beach nearly every day in the summer, so I really enjoyed taking him to the beach. He sat in the sand, ate some sand, played, went in the ocean, and did the whole thing and loved it. Days were spent on the beach, or having family visit. My sister even took him to the zoo for the first time. He was especially interested in the buffalo and lions. During the rest of those two weeks, Harris was able to meet many of my best friends, my aunts, my cousins, my sister, my uncle, and a whole slew of other family members. One weekend, Shannon’s sisters even made it down from New York to spend a few days with us. It was really special for me and Shannon. My uncle made the drive up from Washington D.C. to meet the baby and brought us a steaming plate of my Aunt Donna’s famous blueberry muffins, which Harris of course wanted to try. One of the things we miss the most about living in the states is our time with family. He was 8 months old before any of his family on my side even met him. But we enjoyed our visits quite a bit. They were the highlight of my summer. Evenings were spent with more visits, grilling swordfish from the fish market a block away, and hanging out in the backyard. It was everything I wanted from my time there.  

When our time in New Jersey was coming to an end, we checked out of the beach house and drove to a local vineyard with Megan, Justin, their kids, and Shannon’s sister Meagan. They all were doing a 5k race through the vineyard. It was great. The weather was beautiful and there was food and wine for anyone interested in partaking. I stayed with the kids and cheered them on as they raced. It was a really nice way to close the chapter on our summer in New Jersey. After the race we drove back up to New York and crashed with Shannon’s sisters again. The next day, we made our way to Florida. 

Our flight was relatively uneventful. We were greeted by Shannon’s parents. They had fully prepared for the arrival of their grandson. They had a crib, high chair, and some toys there waiting for him, which was helpful for us since we didn’t have to continue to lug that stuff around with us. We spent the next three weeks doing some online summer courses for professional development, hanging around and relaxing, and of course doing our summer errands. We got some things out of the way like dentist appointment and got Harris a Social Security card. We went out and bought some things we can’t really get in Riyadh. But mostly, we spent time playing with Harris and hanging out with my in-laws. 

Shannon ran another 5k race on the 4th of July, which was pretty great too. This time I joined her. We dressed up in all of the America stuff we could find, drove downtown, and ran the race through the cobblestone streets of Winter Park. At the end of the race, there were coolers and coolers of free watermelon for each contestant so Shannon and I each ate our fill. When we got home, we prepped for a BBQ that we hosted at Shannon’s parents’ house. Shannon’s sisters and one of their boyfriends came down for that as well so we were able to spend some time with them again. For clarity’s sake, one sister had the one boyfriend. He joined us for the weekend as well. 

The day after the 4th of July, we rented out a small cabana at a local river. This is one of our favorite things to do every summer. The place is called Wekiva Island. It is not an island at all, but a pretty cool hangout spot along a river that leads to some natural springs. It’s a great place to grill some food, or order from the food truck, swim, canoe, paddle board, and hang out. One must always proceed with caution in Florida as these rivers sometimes have alligators, but if you are vigilant, and you aren’t the slowest swimmer, you’re usually okay. They even have a bar with lots of craft beer for those who want that. In this particular case, we rented a small cabana for 8 people. But we were called the next day with apologies for overbooking. It turns out we couldn’t have that cabana. But to make up for it, we were going to be set up with a indoor/outdoor space with a private dock, waiter, indoor (and air conditioned) space, private bathrooms, and enough space for 60+ people. Also to make up for our inconvenience we were given a $100 gift card to cover any incidental purchases for the day. It was fantastic. We listened to music, went swimming, read books, played with the baby, and it was all free!

In addition to a few more beach trips, and some more time with friends, we also took Harris to Disney World for the first time with our friends Meg and Bethany. This being Florida, it was roughly 200 degrees outside, but we were able to go later in the afternoon when it was cooler, and we only stayed for a few hours. We mostly did inside stuff for the benefit of air conditioning. It was cool to see him on some of the iconic Disney rides. 

All in all, our summer in the US was fantastic. It was everything I wanted and needed it to be. We were able to introduce Harris to a lot of the people who mean the world to us. He met his family, made a connection to his home country, and got to go on many adventures. We were able to catch up with people, and see and do a lot of our favorite things as well. As our time in the US was coming to an end, we set our sights on another transatlantic flight and a trip to Ireland and England. But I’ll save that for another post. 

Mommy Musings

Here is a brief selection of some of my recent musings on new motherhood. Enjoy!

Murphy’s Law for the Morning Rush The operating of a baby’s bodily functions seem to have a direct correlation to how late his parents are running in the morning. It's as if the subtle rise of rush and anxiety in the morning is physically released into the air, hanging like an ether of dread, to ingested by said baby, and then immediately expelled in the most forceful and inconvenient matter possible. Not once has a blowout occurred while I’ve been casually lounging around the house. It is a scientific fact that 100% of baby blowouts occur as you are stepping foot out of the front door, arms leaden with bags and baby, with 3 minutes to get to work on time. And 85% of the time one or both parents will require a change of clothes as well. I don’t create the data, I just report on it. Of All the Things I Never Thought I’d Hear My Husband Ever Say to Me… “JUST SMUSH IT DOWN THE DRAIN!!” ranks as #1 on the list. For context, please read previous post. Rockin’ the Mom-Bod I recently did the closet-shuffle where I bagged up all of my maternity clothes to put into storage and simultaneously brought out my pre-baby wardrobe to see what fits and what I can start wearing again. I had dumped a bag of dresses on my bed that I was trying on one at a time and sorting into three neat piles: Fits Now, Will Maybe Fit Later, and Ha-Ha Will Never Fit Again. It was during this process that my housekeeper noticed the pile of dresses on the bed. “Madame give away?” she asked me. Oh, no, I explained. I’m just trying them on right now. She then frowned and said, “They are very small, madam. Maybe not fit. Madame bigger since baby.” She then turned to said baby who was sitting happily on my bed, chewing his fist as he likes to do and said to him in baby-talk: “Yes! Madam much, much bigger since baby! Baby make madam bigger!” She then happily walked out and left me to my piles of shattered delusions. I mean, she’s not wrong, but dang! Nothing like a little friendly body-shaming to snap you back into reality! Mom Shaming is a Real Thing and it Starts Before the Baby’s Even Born I mean wow, the way people think it’s acceptable to comment on everything from your body to your breastfeeding to your choices about childbirth and child rearing and sleep habits and nighttime routines and weaning and everything else. Sheesh! The worst part is I don’t even think people really realize they’re doing it at the time. We’ve just become so accustomed to inserting ourselves into the choices women make about their own bodies and their families it seems normal. I Am Afraid of Nothing and Everything All at Once I don’t know if it’s a normal mom-thing to randomly picture your baby in situations of great danger, only to then fantasize about how you would heroically rescue them from said danger? Or if this is the work of an overactive imagination. Or if I’m just an utter weirdo. But I have imagined swimming with my baby in a river, my baby being snatched by an alligator, and then me underwater-wrestling my baby from the gator’s jaws, blinding the alligator, snapping his jaws in half, and then emerging from the water with me and baby unscathed. What sort of sick sh*t is that?! I don’t know, but in my fantasy brain I’m like, “Oh yeah, I could totally destroy an alligator to rescue my baby….” Another scenario I have imagined is being in an Argo-style embassy hostage situation where I stick my baby inside my shirt, kangaroo-style, and then army crawl around the embassy, dodging bullets and kidnappers, to find ourselves both safely outside the building where we run to the safety of black SUVs, likely driven by Daniel Craig, Liam Neeson, and MI6. My baby and I are both heroes. We are interviewed for Nightline TV. But these bizarre fantasies also come from the same brain that mistook my husband coming up the stairs at 1:00 in the morning for Voldemort who had come to put the Avada Kedavra curse on the Boy Who Lived and just being frozen like a deer in headlights. (To be fair, he was shuffling up the stairs in a very creepy manner…) *Editor's note, totally normal walking up the stairs. Also I have avoided walking down the stairs at night because I’m afraid I’m going to see Teddy Perkins from Atlanta or Georgina from Get Out staring at me through the kitchen window. I have zero qualms about plucking a booger right out of my baby’s nose with my fingers, yet I also occasionally have to poke his back while he’s sleeping to make sure he’s still breathing. So….I don’t know. I guess maybe it's a maternal instinct to protect that manifests itself in weird ways. I wonder what Freud would make of my reptilian-mother-ID?

Year 2 in Review

So the time has come and we have reached the end point of our second year in Saudi. As a quick obligatory recap, this is the time of year and the annual post we make to summarize how our year went. We highlight the highs and lows, the challenges and the triumphs, and add any last minute thoughts on our year abroad in a reflective lens. This year has proven to be a difficult one and an incredible one for a variety of reasons.

Our primary difference this year was our expanding family. Having our baby here was the highlight of our year, and of our lives. Having him in Saudi lended itself to a different set of challenges and obstacles with regards to passport processes, differences in hospital experiences, and birth certificate stuff. Yet there were other challenges that were new to us this year and that would have been anyway. Things like maternity and paternity leaves from work, time management with an infant, and you know, figuring out how to keep a tiny human alive, were all challenges that we faced this year. There were some other challenges along the way with Shannon's delivery, and we're glad that those things are in the past. We had baby Harris in October of this year and seeing how much he has grown already, and how much of an impact he has had on our lives has been personally transformative. As any parent will tell you, having a baby adds a whole new level to your family, your relationship with your partner, and to your outlook on life. He has been everything to us, and the impact he has had on me in his 7 months alive has been amazing. Having him has changed me, has changed us, and has changed everything. So yeah, that's been new. But that's not all!

Despite our newest addition, and despite the warnings to the contrary, our travels and adventures have largely continued. Since we had a baby, we've been back to Bahrain, took a weekend trip to Egypt, met up with Meagan in Czech Republic (and Germany), and I even went to India. Not too bad for a busy year in and of itself. Our adventures and experiences still largely define our decision to move and live abroad. We very much cherish those adventures and new places. Getting to those places has proven to be a bit more challenging than before, but we're lucky to have the opportunity to go nonetheless.

Along with our own travels this year, we also had visitors for the first time! We got to see what it's like to get an exclusive visa to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as Shannon's parents came to visit shortly after the baby was born, and her sisters did as well on a separate trip. This was a really cool opportunity for us to see them, get a little bit of a break on the monopoly on baby duty, and a great way to see more of Saudi Arabia. I maintain that there is no better way of learning about, and seeing a place than to show it off to other people. Their trips here gave us some time to explore the hiking trails in the Diplomatic Quarter, the Edge of the World, the Janadriyah Festival, multiple trips to the Souqs, and some of our favorite restaurants in Riyadh. In addition, it was really great being able to kick back and spend some time hanging out in the house with the family. It's always great to be able to discuss life, work, or your home, and have the people you are talking to have a frame of reference.

In addition to our family lives, we also expanded our social circles a bit. Once we got a bit of a hold
on baby life, we were able to reconnect with some of our friends from the year we all came in as newbies. We also expanded ourselves into new friend circles through the introduction of baby Harris. All of the sudden we were getting invitations to baby birthday parties! Plus, many of the new teachers who came in this year are really open and friendly. Shannon joined the compound book club and has spent some time with the ladies from the club. With my weekly basketball games, I've spent some time getting to know some more people who aren't teachers, which is always nice given that we live with, and work with, and are neighbors with some of the same people all the time. We got to know a lot of new people this year and hope that trend continues next year.

I would also say that I have found more of my groove professionally as well this year. There has been less of an adjustment to new curriculum, a new school, new kids, and a new job in general. I was fortunate enough to have been given a schedule that allows me to work with many of the same kids I had last year. A lot of the difficulty in moving schools comes down to that first year of transition. Learning a new job while learning about a new place to live is always difficult. This year, context and expectations framed our school year so we know what to expect now. We know our content, we know our co-workers, and we know the ways of our school, so we can adjust accordingly. That has been a huge boost to our level of comfort living and working here this year.

Along with our increased comfort and familiarity with our school, I would also say I feel more comfortable in the kingdom as a whole. Due to countless baby appointments, and increased driving around, I now know where stuff is. I have learned how to navigate my errands around prayer time closings and I have even found out which places are good for hovering around locked doors during prayer times only to be let in when no one is looking. Living in Saudi has some challenges, but the longer we're here, the more aware of them we become, and the easier they are to figure out.

Lastly, not to be understated, the kingdom and some of the changes that are happening have been making our lives easier as well. For one, seeing women driving has been a welcome sight. Hearing conversations in public about new initiatives that are focused on more progressive and open-minded policies has been refreshing. There have also been real infrastructure developments that we have seen around us like paving of roads that were in poor condition before, installing traffic lights in areas that were previously quite perilous, and new stores popping up both in and out of our compound.

In short, this year has been one of great change and transition for our family personally. Professionally and personally we are continuing to get more comfortable living here and we are finding our way more and more. We are at a point now where we are on our way home for the summer soon and we have a lot more adventures to look forward to with regards to family visits, family BBQs, and trips to more cool places in Europe on our way back at the end of the summer. But as I conclude this momentary reflection, I say without hesitation that this has been one of the best years of my life in a lot of ways and I am extremely thankful for that and for the ability to use this blog as a tool for mindful reflection of those moments along the way.

Czeching out Prague for Spring Break

Well that time is here again. We are entering the fourth quarter of our school year and the race is on to prepare our students with the last of their lessons for their exams and before we lose them to the summer. It's a long stretch with a lot of hard days and nights of grading, lesson prep, and planning. But before the final stretch run, we get one last break to get ourselves rested and restored. This year we were especially looking forward to our break because we have spent most of our year in Saudi with the little one. While we have enjoyed it, we were ready for a break and for some travel. After hearing about our plans for spring break, Shannon's sister, Meagan told us she wanted to join us to spend some time with us and to visit her nephew so we all set off from our various locations to go to Prague, in the Czech Republic. It had been highly recommended to us as a place that is baby friendly, very walkable, and pretty easy to get to. It was all of those things and more.

We had tried our hand at traveling with Harris when we went to Egypt but given the fact that this trip was going to be for a much longer time, and was further away, we had to make some adjustments and count on some luck. We were fortunately provided with both as three our of our four flights (two there, and two back) were under-booked so we were able to work out a whole row for ourselves. What this meant was for the stretches where little man needed a nap, we simply laid him on the middle seat, set up a blanket in the tray table as a tent and let him sleep. It saved us, and probably the rest of the passengers a lot of heartache.

When we got to the airport, we ran into some troubles at the check-in gate so we got through security rather late. We didn't have time to change our cash or to do anything other than walk right on to the plane. We had the same struggles for our layover in Rome. When we landed and we tried to change over our Saudi riyals, we were shocked (stupidly so) that we couldn't and we went to the ATM where we would again find no luck with our debit cards in their machines. So we were unable to acquire any local cash, so it's a good thing that shortly after we arrived, Meagan got there to save the day. Otherwise, it would have been a long and very boring spring break in Terminal 2 of Prague airport.

When we finally got to the apartment we rented, we put the baby to bed and we were content with getting take out and bringing it back to the apartment to recover from the day of traveling. The next day was spent similarly with a bit of exploring, lots of resting, and kicking back to read. When Shannon and I ventured out into the city, we were amazed with the cobblestone everything, the mixture of old and new buildings, and the history. As we learned more, it made sense. Prague was occupied by Nazi Germany at one point, by the USSR for a long duration, but was never totally destroyed during the various wars for territory and domination in Europe, making it somewhat unique to the rest of Europe in that respect. So the end result is a smattering of 1000 year old buildings with new, high tech infrastructure project. It's absolutely stunning. There are castles, fortress walls, old cathedrals, and cutting edge glass facades side by side throughout the city. We spent the whole first day wandering around, solving our cash flow crisis, eating local foods, and exploring. We came across the castle, the famous St. Charles Bridge, the Prague Astronomical Clock, and countless public squares.

 


For our second day, Shannon had arranged for a private car to drive us two ours to a huge national park on the border of Germany and Czech Republic. On the drive, we stopped for some coffee and were instantly thrust into the European countryside with rolling green hills, bubbling rivers and streams, mountains, and cottages. It was magical. We set off on a hike up the side of a mountain ridge. The park, Saxon Switzerland Park, was one of the shooting locations for the Chronicles of Narnia movie and it did not disappoint. Harris was awed by 100 foot tall trees, the cool air, and the sounds of nature he had never seen before. (There aren't many magical mountain Narnia forests on our compound) He was so awed that he fell asleep for most of the trip up. When we got to the top, we took a break for some snacks and to admire the view. After our hike, we took a trip to a former factory that had been converted into a restaurant where we had Czech specialties like roasted duck and dumplings. After we finished lunch, our driver took us twenty minutes up the road into Germany where we explored an old Saxon castle atop these giant rock structures hundred of feet off the ground. It was amazing.

On our third day, Shannon and I went to something called a beer spa, which is a thing that exists in this world. It's a magical place that is basically a castle dungeon cave of stone and oak where they have built jacuzzi tubs, provide food, and refreshments to those who are interested, heated beds for relaxing, and massages. It was a pretty perfect way to spend a bit of time. It was also the first time Shannon and I got to go out and do something on our own together since Baby Harris was born. He stayed back with his aunt and napped and played for a bit until we returned.

We spent the next day walking around the city again. We visited the Prague Castle again, walked to a local vineyard to enjoy some snacks and the view of the city, we went to a few cafes, and had a laid back night at home again watching movies after we put the baby to bed again. The rest of our trip was spent reading, doing last minute trips like one more trip to the beer spa for Meagan, last trips to certain restaurants, and picking up a few souvenirs.

All in all, the city was incredible. The countryside was unbelievable. The people we met were very kind, the food and drinks and services throughout the city were relatively cheap, and it proved to be a perfect vacation for us all. It was a great place for us. We needed to take a break. We needed to be somewhere different for a short while. We needed some green nature, a chance to visit some European cafes, and some time with family. We just got back last night and we feel refreshed for the sprint to the finish. It was an excellent trip and a great way to make some memories during a few days off from work.

Weekend Trip to Egypt

This fall we had a baby. He's real cute and we love him. But as a result, we have been somewhat cooped up since then. This isn’t to say that we aren’t living our lives as we are. Harris is a flexible and chill little guy who behaves well wherever we take him. Rather, this is more of a statement on the kinds of things, and the timing of things that we can do. One of, if not the number one reason to work overseas is the travel. We travel to a new place 3-4 times per year. It allows us to take advantage of our wanderlust and our location. Due to how fresh and raw he was during our November break, we did not travel anywhere. Due to family visiting and Harris’ lack of a passport, we only traveled for a few days to Bahrain for the New Year. For teachers, it’s a long stretch between the start of the second semester and Spring break, so Shannon and I decided that we needed to break up the monotony and get out of town. So we planned a weekend trip to Egypt this past weekend.

We chose Egypt because it’s always been on my list of places I wanted to go, and it’s a short, direct flight from Riyadh. We wanted somewhere close to see how Harris would do on his first flight, and it doesn’t hurt that we had a chance to visit a continent we had never been to before, and to check off a bucket list location as well. Prior to going, we asked around for advice from some of our friends who had been before. The only bit of advice we heard from everyone was to make sure we stayed in a nice place. We were told of horror stories about hotels that looked amazing online and were terrible in person. So we decided to heed that advice and book a stay at a location whose reputation we trusted and we booked at the Four Seasons.

Since it was a three day weekend, we didn’t have to worry about rushing out of town to catch a night
flight and arrive all crazy late. Harris is just now developing a routine so we didn’t want to stray too far from that. So, we booked a flight that departed at 12:00 to make it easy on him and us. We figured if he was going to scream on the flight, at least he wasn’t going to keep anyone awake at night. We packed light, shunned the stroller, and brought the baby backpack instead with the intention of checking nothing. Somehow, despite all of the baby accessories that need to be accounted for while traveling, we pulled that off too.

We got to the airport and walked around a bit. We waited in our line to board when a nice Egyptian grandmother gestured to Shannon that she wanted to hold Harris, to which we politely smiled and said no thank you. Needless to say, this was going to be a theme for the weekend. When it was our time for our flight to take off, we were a little nervous about how he was going to react to the pressure change, but as we were taxied to the runway, he fell asleep cold. He took a 30 minute nap that conveniently got him through the ascent and we played until it was time to land. We made our way to our car after customs and immigration and we were told by our driver that we could and should anticipate many other kind grandmothers attempting to steal our baby for cuddles. Our driver was among the most skilled I have ever seen. With Cairo being a city of 20+ million, and our arrival at 4:30, we were in for some rush hour action, but he bopped and weaved his way through everything with the skill and precision of a surgeon. There were a few times where he pulled his car into a makeshift fake “lane” and we were so close to the cars next to us, that I would swear we could have put an index card in between the cars and it would have stayed pinched between them.

Once we settled into our rooms, we fed the baby, got his crib set up, bathed him, and put him to bed. Our hotel was beautiful and overlooked the Nile, which prompted some great dad jokes on my part. I’ll let your imagination run with that one. Then we had some delicious local food called koshery delivered to the hotel on a recommendation from some friends who had lived in Cairo. Koshery is delicious, and it is cheap. We ordered two medium orders and a small desert to split. Each order was essentially two KFC buckets worth of fried onions, and like five kinds of noodles with a tomato sauce, garlic oil, and chili sauce mixed in with chickpeas. It was absolutely incredible.

The next day we set out on our tour and brought some lunch. The ride to the Great Pyramid was less than a half hour. It was absolutely stunning. Shannon had been before so it was less of a surprise to her, but I was in awe by how big they were. I had obviously seen photos before, but I had no idea they would be so big. It stood at about 455 feet! We took some photos and climbed on the pyramid a bit and wandered around a bit as we took in the history from our guide.

After we left that site, we went to a beautiful panoramic vista point that showed the three most centrally located pyramids, including the Great Pyramid of GIza and had our lunch and took some more photos. Then we wandered over to the solar boat site, which was pretty cool as well. It’s a boat that was excavated and theorized to have been a vessel for a king to travel to the afterlife upon for his judgement to the afterlife. After the solar boat, we took a short drive to the Sphinx, which was amazing. It was way smaller than I thought though, standing at about 25 feet tall. It would have fit in a basketball court, with room to spare, which was in stark contrast to the pyramids. While we were there, a couple got engaged. (I think we accidentally got in a few of their celebratory photos) I have to say, hats off to the guy who planned that location for the proposal.

When we left the historical sites, we were taken to a essential oil and perfume shop where we were
given tea and shown how people make essential oils and perfumes. It was really cool to see how seemingly odorless liquids can be transformed and made into potent perfumes. At this shop, Harris was taken (gently but firmly) from my arms and played with and doted upon. He was cool with it and while it made me a little wary to have a stranger passing my baby around, it was clear to me that this was not going to be a Liam Neeson ‘Taken” situation so I relaxed a bit. I think I realized it when I was handed an iPhone and asked to take her photo, with my baby.

After buying some sort of sandalwood and eucalyptus concoction, we left and went to a nearby papyrus shop where we were shown how the first paper was made. It’s a pretty cool process and one that was neat to see in person. They start by soaking the papyrus reeds to make
them flexible. Then they split the reeds long ways with a knife, as one would with string cheese, and they soak them again to make them malleable. The thickness at this point resembles a yardstick so I wasn’t sure how they were going to turn that into paper, but they used rolling pins to get some of the water and sugar out of the reed, which thinned it out a bit and allowed it to be even more flexible. Then those strips were woven together and put into a press to create a woven, thin paper. It was really cool to see. We wandered around the shop for a bit until Harris decided that he was ready for a nap so we took him back to the hotel and got him situated. It turns out historical adventures are the secret key to getting him to sleep through the night! The poor, exhausted little man slept for the next 12 hours until it was time to get him up for our flight the next morning. Prior to the trip, he slept through the night one time. On the weekend of the trip, he did it three nights in a row! It’s a big world out there, there are a lot of new things to experience, and it can be exhausting.

After an uneventful flight back, we made it home in time to unpack and do some weekend errands before we went back to work for the week. I’m incredibly proud of our little trooper who hung in there for a big adventure and of us for taking the chance to travel with him. I’m glad we got to check out some really amazing sites and get out of our compound bubble for a little while. We enjoyed Egypt very much and we thank all of the kind grandmotherly women who were gentle and loving while snatching our baby from us and who treated him like a tiny pharaoh.

Trip to India

One of the many benefits of living and working as a teacher overseas is the ability to travel for work. In the past five years, I have attended professional development training in Brazil, Peru, Bahrain, and now India. It’s an incredible way to see the world, get better at my craft, and enjoy the company of my colleagues. 

One of the most attractive aspects of our school’s compensation package for teachers is the generous professional development fund for each teacher. Earlier this year, we were a little busy with lots of Harris related stuff, but the school published some possible options for our professional development including some regional conferences. I signed up for the conference in Chennai, India.  Traveling to India was always something I've wanted to do; ever since my senior year at college and my history professor made constant analogies to the exotic land of spice. Every assignment we had was "Leaving port for our long journey to India." It became a sort of symbolic destination that I suppose found its way into my subconscious. Shannon had no interest in going to India for a vacation, so this was the perfect opportunity. So I signed up, forgot about it in the chaos of living with a newborn and in the midst of it all, and it stayed out of my mind until the week to leave crept up.

My first concern the week of departure was getting the house and Shannon ready. See, while women can legally drive in Saudi now, we have not yet had the opportunity to get Shannon a driver’s license or added to our insurance. This means that she still can’t drive off of the compound, thus she can’t run any of our errands. So the week of the conference, I ran around trying to stock the house with food, medicine, diapers, wipes, and everything else I could think of. We were effectively preparing her for quarantine for the weekend, and every provision was key. 

After loading the house up, the next step was to pack and get myself ready. It’s truly amazing how having a baby makes you re-evaluate what sort of things you consider necessities. I had all of my clothes, toiletries, and work stuff packed into the equivalent size of a shoe box in less than five minutes. 

The day I left, I woke up with the baby and said my goodbyes. It was going to be the first time I haven’t been within 100 yards of him since we brought him home. I was a little sad and I definitely felt some guilt for leaving Shannon with exclusive baby duty for the weekend.

The trip to India took about a day. We had a layover in Dubai where we were able to begin the cross-divisional bonding with some early afternoon lunch. When we got to India, it was about 8:15pm due to some weird two and a half hour time zone difference. I thought time zones were usually in the “whole hour” measurement, but alas you learn something new every day. The process to get through immigration took another hour and change. We hopped into a cab and got to see first hand how Riyadh traffic and driving can be taken up to another level. Upon finally arriving at the hotel and dropping my bags off, it was time for a late dinner at the hotel. It was my first foray into proper Indian food while in India and it blew me away. The blend of spices had no equal to anything I’ve ever experienced. After dinner, it was time to crash. 

We started early the next morning with the bus leaving the hotel to take us to the school at 7:00. The training was good and the campus had a beautiful, open, outdoor layout with outdoor hallways and courtyards. . I had seen our presenter in a previous year in Brazil. During coffee breaks, the school arranged for some local snacks and some vendors to sell some hand crafted goods. It’s a good thing they did, because despite my ingrained desire to explore, I spent 0 minutes outside of the hotel, school, or airport. Having a slice of local culture available at the school was a great touch. The training went until 5:00 at which point we went to the hotel. When we pulled up to the hotel, there was an outdoor parade (I think that’s just called a parade) leading into the hotel. People were dressed in traditional Indian outfits and the colors and designs were awe inspiring. A few of us filed that away into the back of our brains and we all met up shortly after that and had dinner together. I'm also not going to pretend that I wasn't texting Shannon for baby updates every 20 minutes or so. The guilt was strong.

After a quick shower, a few of us wandered over to the main lobby and found ourselves at the wedding reception. We were invited in and enjoyed the music and scenery for a bit of time while hanging out. After we had been there for an hour or so, it came to our attention that a member of our group actually knew the groom through some sort of distant family friend of a family friend sort of thing. It was at that moment that we went from being the strangers in the corner, to regular guests. We stayed for a bit longer, toasted the couple, danced a bit, and retired for the night after a long day. 

The next day was a quick one as well. We set off for the conference at 8:00am and stayed there until 12:00 when we had to leave for our flight back. The flight back was a doozy, but everyone has troubling travel stories that I won’t bore you with. We got back to Riyadh at 12:30 and I was safely kissing my son’s forehead goodnight by 1:30 before another long day at work the following day. My whirlwind trip was fruitful from a professional development standpoint, I had a good time, and my attendance at the wedding of the couple whose names I never learned provided me with a cultural experience despite my short stay. 

Getting into a Groove with Basketball

We work really hard. Most of our work days are of the 10-12 range or more when you figure in time we spend grading at home, meetings, getting to school early to set up lessons and the like. One of my personal outlets in dealing with the workload is basketball. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but we have weekly games of pick up basketball that keep us in shape (sort of), keep us sane, and allow us a moment to juggle those goals with socialization. It is one of my refuges from the stresses of work and the wonderful responsibilities of family life.

I detailed in a previous post how we gained enough attention in our play to be invited to play the Saudi National team. We got smashed, as we should have. But that exposure also led to us getting some other games. In addition to our weekly pickup games, we have been contacted about scrimmages against local professional teams. Not long ago, we hosted a local team at our gym. They came in looking way better than us in warmups. Part of that is because most of their guys were 6’6 or above, and, you know professional athletes. We were a group of guys who like to play once or twice per week for fun. We played them in five games to 21. Their coach worked on some plays to help them with their league and we just got out there to have some fun. We ended up winning 2 out of the 5 games nonetheless.

About two weeks later, our school hosted a charity basketball tournament with different divisions for different ages. We showed up early that day and watched some of our high school students take on other local clubs. Then in the afternoon, it was time for the adults. Our team of teachers plus two parents of students at our school was prepared to take on all comers. We showed up and had to wear borrowed pinnies from the PE department, while various other teams rolled in with their custom jerseys and in some cases coaches. We rolled them. The first game was against a team of guys from the Phillipines. We beat them 78-30. The next game, against a group of Saudi guys was a bit closer at a final score of 74-33. The last game was against a group from Lebanon and was much closer. That game ended up being something like 52-38. It was weird how each team had a collective nationality. It was sort of a quasi-Saudi based basketball Olympics of sorts. But in the end we prevailed. We even had one of our tall guys become a sort of celebrity that other teams wanted to take photos with. It was surreal.

One of our well connected players was so excited about our recent performances that he had some jerseys made for us for future tournaments and exhibitions. So now we will be rolling into these tournaments with the same level of professionalism as the rest. Of course our team name had to be the "Compound Kings." But win or lose in the future, the games have been a great outlet and a fun way to get to know people outside of my usual social circle.

Going Back to Work

Ten weeks of maternity leave seemed to have passed in the blink of an eye. Granted, I was already two weeks in by the time little H was finally born, but still. I had such grand plans for how I would spend my mat leave: I’ll go to the gym and workout every day! I’ll just bring him along in his carrier and workout while he naps. It will be so easy!! I’ll clean and re-organize the entire house! I’ll take up macrame crafts! I’ll take the shopping bus and have coffee at a cafe twice a week! 

Ha ha ha ha! It was surprising to my naive self to learn how many hours of each day were actually taken up by, you know, like taking care of the actual baby! When you figure that each feeding, start to finish takes up about an hour, and that he eats about every two to three hours, well then there goes a good half of your day. Then take into account the diapers, the dressing, the singing and playing, the tummy time and cuddle time, and yeah, that’s a whole day. So while I didn’t get to accomplish all of the perhaps unrealistic projects I had planned, I was extremely grateful for the time I got to spend bonding with little man. So it was a bit of a shock to realize that my gift of time had come to an end and it was time to return to work.

As it would happen, I was due to return to work just 3 days before winter holiday. This actually turned out to be a nice little practice run before the real return to work in January. Harris and I took a tour of the nursery the week before and met all of his caregivers. We also met all the other babies or nursery mates that would be keeping H company during the day. He was given his own personal crib for napping and cubby for storing his personal effects.

The night before, we assembled the items that Harris would need for nursery, including a blanket and bottles, diapers and wipes, a change of clothes and a little rattle and picked out his first school outfit. Justin insisted on brushing his “hair” so that he would make a strong first impression. Though H is still sporting a very distinctive hairline - dark and lush around the nape, and barely visible on the top. I wore maternity clothes that sadly still fit and we set off for our first day back.

Even though the nursery ladies are sweet and kind and loving, and even though the other moms rave about how pleased they are with the level of care their children receive, and even though the nursery is filled with soft music and happy, smiling babies, it was still very hard to pass him off. We parked our stroller in the designated storage area and walked him in. Immediately we were greeted by the smiling team of caregivers, and several babies who were already placed in their highchairs and happily awaiting breakfast. Justin and I placed his items in the cubby and covered H in kisses before tearfully handing him over. Another mom saw me and gave me a big hug and told me she always cries when she sees moms handing over their babies because she knows how hard and sad it is. 

But we knew H was in good hands and would be fine. Outside we were given many encouraging smiles and hugs and pats of reassurance. It felt good to be surrounded by such a supportive group of moms and dads.

Because school was nearly out for the semester, classes for high school were already over and we were on an exam schedule. Therefore, I didn’t actually have to teach on these days back to work and instead just used the time to chip away and the mountain of grading that was awaiting me. Several students were still around on campus and a few of them came to give me hugs of congratulations and welcome me back.

During the first day back Justin and I ran over to the nursery five times between the two of us to check on Little Sir. Each time we found him to be either sleeping soundly, or being fed or cradled and rocked. This put us both at ease and allowed us to relax a little and focus on our school work. At the end of the day when we picked him up, he seemed happy and relaxed and he slept wonderfully that night. I on the other hand was absolutely exhausted, and for not having even been a real “teaching day” this was hard. But at the same time it did feel good to be back in my classroom, focusing on my craft and a part of the English team again.

All all in, I would say that both H and I had a great first few days and that we will be able to get into the routine soon. I’m definitely looking forward to being back at work full time because I love what I do and I enjoy the cognitive challenges of teaching and planning and working with students. Knowing that I have a wonderful nursery on campus only allows me to feel more relaxed about my transition back to work. Adjusting to the new hours and diminished sleep of course will be challenging, and I’m still not fitting back into my pre-pregnancy work clothes just yet, but I can only take it one day at a time. I think being a mom is only going to make me a better teacher and give me a new perspective on how I approach not only my teaching and work life, but my life altogether. So bring it on!