Quarantine Chronicles (pt. 4)

As the curfew has been moved up and up over the last few weeks and the pools remained closed, the temperature has been slowly creeping up and we are now hitting daily temps of 100-103 degrees. It’s a great time to be in the inflatable pool business as I have seen pools of various shapes, sizes and depths popping up in every single backyard around the compound. I’ve also seen several families buy a modest-sized pool, and then within days post it on the sales chat to upgrade for a larger model. Several families even have a semi-permanent situation now - complete with pool pump and chlorine! After springing a leak in our first inflatable pool, Justin quickly upgraded us to a tarp-lined model and we bought a second cheap inflatable pool to keep as an emergency backup! Although H isn’t much into swimming per se, he does enjoy standing in the middle of the pool and playing with the hose, discreetly sneaking drinks from it every once in a while when he thinks we aren’t looking.

Basketball hoops are also a top item in the summer quarantine survival kit and I’ve seen about half a dozen adult-sized hoops go up around the neighborhood. So H also has a mini-hoop currently sitting in our living room. Justin has been trying to get him to work on his jump shot lately and progress is slow but coming.

When we were afraid that we were going to be cut off soon from delivery
services as well, we did a panic order on Amazon to stock up on toys and activities to keep the little sir busy. Puzzles, wooden toy cars, a magnetic fishing game, a play kitchen, and a teepee are among our latest additions and we have dedicated a corner of the living room to a play area for him. It seems that we got our order just in time because Amazon is no longer delivering to Saudi and even local carriers like Souq are now estimating delivery times of 30 business days.

So we’ve set up our play areas and our swimming pool and we are ready to stay hunkered down until things clear up.

Quarantine Chronicles (pt. 3)

We are now approaching week 6 of virtual learning and working from home. And governmental guidelines and mandates regarding curfew and quarantine have been steadily growing more strict in the last 2 weeks, with the decision being made March 5th that Riyadh is now in a 24-hour curfew situation until further notice. With these mounting restrictions and the continuing challenges of working full time from home while simultaneously entertaining and educating their own children, stress, anxiety and cabin fever have been taking their toll on all of us. However, it is said that necessity is the mother of invention and while there are certainly some new stresses to manage, we have also seen a wonderful bubbling of innovation and creativity from our community members. Our community started a daily challenge game to keep families active and entertained and to foster a sense of togetherness while still maintaining our social distance. 

One of the first events was the “Bear Challenge” where families placed a teddy bear in one of their villa windows or doors. Then, either on family walks or bike rides, the kids would circle around the neighborhood hunting for bears. The kids get very excited that they are finding the “hidden” bears and the parents are happy because it's getting everybody out of the house for a little while. We walked Harris up and down our little street and showed him the bears in the windows which he found thoroughly exciting. One one door he spied a bear that looked almost identical to his bear and this caused a slight scuffle as he kept walking up to their door, removing the bear and trying to take it home. We had to bring his own bear outside to prove to him that his bear had not been kidnapped but he seemed unconvinced. 

Another event was the “Rainbow Challenge” where families put a rainbow somewhere outside of their villa. Some popular choices were watercolor paintings hung on front doors and giant rainbows drawn in sidewalk chalk on front porches and patios.

The “Joke Challenge” had families post a silly joke on their doors and kids could walk up to the paper and flip it up to see the answer revealed. A “Door Decorating Challenge” had families design quarantine-themed displays for their front doors. What’s so fun about these challenges is that it gets the whole family involved, gives them something new to look forward to each day, and at different points throughout the morning and afternoon you can find several families on bike rides going around the compound and checking out the living art displays. 

Not all of the challenges are outdoors, however. There is a WhatsApp chat group where families can post pictures and videos of their daily entries and some of these challenges have included a cupcake decorating contest and even a live talent show hosted through Zoom!

I’ve realized that if you’re going to be quarantined and curfewed, a fully-appointed compound is not a bad place to be locked down. And while the facilities like the gym, sports courts, pools and playgrounds have all been closed, we fortunately still have the ability to walk the sidewalks around the compound (about 1.5 miles around) and we have something to look at while we walk. We are also incredibly fortunate to have a small grocery store, bakery and coffee shop on compound that are all still operating so I think that our situation is probably a lot more comfortable than most people’s and we are grateful for this.

Quarantine Chronicles (pt. 2)

As we're concluding week two of our distance learning program and our new normal system. We're beginning to settle into a new normal with our schedules and the expectations that come with that. It's a little difficult to find time to get in 8 hours of work per day, but we have been purposeful about sticking to a strict schedule or sorts and that has helped us find a system that works. Since we have some flexibility with when we get our work done, we have been able to take advantage of the idea of alternating days to sleep in since only one of us goes into work early every morning. So yay for silver linings in a pandemic ridden world. I usually go take on the morning work routine and Shannon does morning baby duty. I have been able to get into a pretty consistent workout routine in the mornings as our school's gym has been available to us, and kept super clean. I have never been in there for more than 20 minutes without having seen someone from our school's custodian staff come in and clean. Plus, there are lots of cleaning solution bottles around for those civilized among us to clean up after ourselves. Having an option for exercise has been huge as there are definitely times where we go a little stir crazy. So I'm thankful for that. The rest of my routine usually involves me going in to work at 8 and working until 12. During that time, I have virtual meetings, lesson plan writing time, grading time, or video office hours so students can check in with me if they need to talk face to face (on the internet). Physically going in to work to do that is super convenient because a home with a one year old running around is not a quiet place. It's also convenient because we live about 30 yards from work. School has been doing a pretty great job of disinfecting, fumigating, wiping down, bleaching, and cleaning any and everything. So I don't feel like being there has been a safety concern at all so far. Plus I don't really see many people along the way, and I definitely don't see anyone in close quarters. 

We are doing our lessons in a week by week module style now rather than trying to adhere to our previous schedules. That makes sense to me and my students have been receptive to that for the most part. It is hard though as the best part of teaching, and the most fun part about teaching is the interaction with students. We have been deprived that to an extent. We record video tutorials for our lessons and provide feedback but the interpersonal connections have been difficult. I recently began the process of emailing check ins with students and I have found them to be in dire need of that so far. Many of my students are really struggling with the lack of socialization and boredom, which is a totally fair complaint. They have been rising to the occasion however on their academic expectations. I have had students doing their work for the most part, and completing it all at a high level. They have really pleasantly surprised me with their self-management and their maturity in all of this. It really brings to light the fact that many of them are deserving of more autonomy like this all of the time. 

When I go home at noon, I have lunch with Shannon and the baby and then she goes off to do the same at work. I have really enjoyed having so much extra time to be with him. During the school day, when things are normal, I see him for an hour or two in the morning before work and an hour or two at night before he goes to sleep. With him being at such an interesting and fun age, it's been great to see him for like 8 hours a day. I've been able to show him new things, teach him new words, play with him, and really get to enjoy the highs and lows of spending quality time with him. It's not always easy, obviously, but I feel pretty confident that I'm going to look back at this time fondly and without regrets and not being able to be around him. 

During our time together, our routine usually consists of eating lunch together and then going to play outside. Right now, for us, playing outside involves walking around and exploring things like trees, neighborhood cats, kicking a ball, sometimes running, and pointing out things he knows, like cars. Occasionally, he'll spot a little basketball hoop and we spend twenty minutes with me lifting him up to dunk various objects through the hoop. Then we go back inside and try to take a nap, to varying degrees of success. After our nap, we usually go on a walk (with him in his stroller) around the neighborhood. Unfortunately, the playgrounds in our neighborhood have been barricaded off as a precaution so we are mostly left to our own devices with regards to what we can play with and how. Recently, we have been going to the school's track, and soccer field to provide him with a giant open space to kick a ball around or run around on soft grass. But aside from that it's been a lot of reading and playing inside. It has recently started to creep up in terms of temperature, so that has me worried about the long term viability of outside spaces as this thing continues to go on, but for now so far so good. On a few rare occasions, we have gone over to play with one of his friends who lives down the street, whose family is in a similarly isolated situation. We're doing the best we can. 

When Shannon gets home we all eat dinner together and after the baby goes to bed, we have been continuing our work at home emailing kids, grading things, providing feedback, and lesson planning. We have found some time on occasion to get some movie time in together. For the near future, this seems to be what our lives will be like. But on the whole, I would say we are settling into the new expectations we have and we are making the most of it. 

COVID-19

So as I mentioned in our previous blog post, we began seeing the impact of the COVID-19 virus a month plus ago. At the time, we did not really have any idea how widespread it would be become or what the impact would turn into for us. Similar to last post, I won't use this space to summarize the entirety of the case except to clarify that I take the recent developments of the virus seriously. I recognize and empathize with those afflicted with the virus. I also empathize with those who have been directly impacted by the effects of the virus as I can now say that I have as well. At the time of this post, there are over 156,000 cases confirmed, with hundreds of thousands more suspected but not reported. Over 5,800 people have died and 75,000 have been confirmed as having the virus, but have fully recovered. Over 140 countries have reported cases as well. For live stats, this site is very helpful. The virus is very serious. For the purposes of this post, I am going to write down, for posterity's sake, our own specific experiences as I imagine this is something we will want to remember in detail later.

Speaking for myself, I can say that I largely experienced the COVID-19 case with some distance. I was following the news, and intellectually aware of what was happening. Yet to me, my concern still mostly remained on my own experiences with an underlying assumption that it would all go away soon. I spent time expressing frustrations and hopes that the virus would be finished spreading in time for me to take my Spring Break vacation. Then as cases kept spreading, my focus shifted more towards the inevitable loss of that time and more towards a wary observation of the stats and spread. Now I find myself jumping back and forth between my responsibilities and worries as a parent, my role as a teacher having to figure out distance learning for the first time, a partner to my wife with all of the roles that come with family responsibilities and I find myself compartmentalizing. I feel that I am shifting my focus, roles, perspectives, and responsibilities to each of the groups of people I am committed to, and care about. It's a surreal experience to be responsible for the life and entertainment of a toddler in a time like this, to be in charge of planning and food procurement as the only driver in our home, worrying about the health of my wife and child, and also worrying about the educational experience of my 120+ students. All while being aware of my shift in responsibilities depending on the context of my tasks at hand. Previously, it seemed like these things were automatically sorted for me by location. In school I am the teacher. At home, I am the father and husband. But with this new blended approach to working from home and balancing child care duties with work responsibilities, all while surrounded by the same things, I have found it odd code switching between perspectives.

To briefly summarize our experiences so far after the cancellation of our 'Week Without Walls' trip, I can summarize it best in order of events. As news continued to trickle in about the spread of the virus, the government Saudi closed religious tourist visits. That's a big deal for the government of Saudi Arabia as those visits are of significant religious importance in addition to the economic boom they provide. It signaled to us that the government was taking their responsibilities seriously. If anything, at that point, I felt a little relieved to be living on a compound, in a country with a somewhat restrictive access to visas. Basically we are living in a country with walls, inside a community with walls and all along, at every checkpoint, there are restrictions to get in.

Shortly after that, the first case in Saudi was reported. It was reported in Jeddah, which is a flight away but it was a shock to the system that it had arrived in the same country we were in, although we were aware with our surrounding countries all involved that it would happen here too. Not long after that, our school cancelled after school activities as per Ministry of Health and Education requirements. At that point it seemed inevitable that we would be taking alternate precautions at school. We had a planned 'Virtual Day' that was moved up so we could practice, and well, regroup and come up with a plan. Shortly after, we started virtual school. This is a practice our school isn't new to. As I mentioned, we've been conducting virtual school days twice per year since long before I got here, so that gave us a helpful framework of systems that work and don't work. I read about and hear about schools trying these systems for the first time now and I am grateful for the opportunity to work at a school that has experience with these systems. As someone who regularly follows the happenings at other schools around the world, I was seeing all kinds of plans. Some schools sent their teachers and students home. Some teachers left the countries. Others were required to go to school. Some decided to try to hold daily lessons virtually. Then, as the school anticipated government mandated shut downs of schools, we re-worked a lot of our systems and procedures for online school, meetings, etc. We spent a week or so fine tuning our online program while providing lessons, and figuring all of that stuff out. While it was nerve-wracking, it was an exciting and fulfilling time as I love the creative aspect of problem-solving. At least exciting from that standpoint; I don't mean to misrepresent my intentions and imply that I was looking forward to this. It just put me into a mindset of problem-solving in an authentic way. Something needed to be done, and I had to help figure it out.

During this time, Shannon and I would cope with the stress and anxiety of this transition period with lots of walks around the compound while talking out our thoughts. Then, as we watched the cases continue to grow within Saudi, I started stocking up on groceries and medicine and baby products. I made frozen breakfasts, emergency frozen dinners, and loaded up on as much as we could regarding supplies in case things ran low or we were prevented from getting out later. Then this past weekend we woke up to the government shutting down the borders. There are no international flights now for the next two weeks at least. That's a whole new situation too as we have never been in a position where we COULDN"T leave even if we wanted to. There is a level of peaceful resignation to the fact that one of the possible scenarios has been taken off of the table, so we're left to deal with our current reality. Again, I'm not happy about it or excited about it, just aware of how these changes and decisions are impacting me personally.

Now we're somewhere in the middle of this process. We have officially begun our long term plan for distance learning. Shannon and I have worked out a system of shifts to rotate and cover all of our required responsibilities at work, with the baby, with our students, and everything else. It's going to be a time where we need to be flexible, and one where we wish we had some extra childcare help. But one day, we will hopefully look back at this and view it as the happy medium between being stay at home parents, and working full time. We are certainly going to be getting a lot of stress relieving (and inducing) playtime with the little guy.

Now as recently as last night, there has been a confirmed case in the compound. I hope that person recovers quickly. But I would be lying if I didn't say that news made me a little nervous. My previously held facade of walls creating a proverbial nesting doll structure, a protective cocoon, is shattered. Most of the compound facilities including stores, gyms, etc. are all shut down as a precaution.

So that brings us to here and now. We are doing the best we can with what we can. We are taking care of each other. We are taking care of our responsibilities. We are hoping for the best. We are hunkered down if need be with all of the resources we need and we know as much as anyone about how we need to treat this from a preventative standpoint. So until otherwise noted, we will be sitting in our homes, doing our jobs, and entertaining our one year old to the best of our ability, all while trying to take it all in stride.

Week Without Walls...Just not how I expected...

What a weird year we’ve had with regards to travel. Mind you, we’re still incredibly lucky to be in the position we are in and to travel as we do. I acknowledge that but I can still complain about the way this year has been a total mess. For our fall break, we had to cancel a long-anticipated trip to Beirut due to political unrest. We made that up with a wonderful trip to Florence, that we were totally under-prepared for, and got caught with some weird weather and some serious baby teething issues. Then, on a delightful trip to Istanbul and Athens, we ran into some other severe baby sickness combined with even more serious baby teething issues. Now we’ve got the CoronaVirus. I don’t mean to make light of this topic as I recognize and acknowledge that as of the writing of this post, there have been over 72,000 cases confirmed, and nearly 2,000 deaths. I empathize for those who are living in areas that are more directly affected and whose lives are being permanently changed by this virus. I also intend to use this space as a way to discuss how the virus has impacted Shannon and my life, at a significantly smaller scale of impact.

Every year, most international schools participate in a “Week Without Walls” experience. For some schools, that includes local camping trips, or local community service oriented trips. Other schools offer international trips to students as a way to experience the cultures of new places and to engage in community service in a host country. On this blog, I have highlighted past Week Without Walls trips that I have had that featured camping at 15,000 feet on the edge of a volcano, getting lost in a jungle, and building houses in the Philippines. The programs are wonderful, fulfilling for students, and usually quite enjoyable for the supervising teachers as well.

When the time came this year for volunteers to offer supervision on specific trips, I was chosen to help chaperone a trip to Thailand. As the weeks passed, our trip itinerary was built up and our tickets booked. Then the Corona Virus hit. As it continued to spread, our school, to their credit, did their due diligence and kept in contact with the local embassy, other international schools, and kept up to date on World Health Organization recommendations. Ultimately, our school decided to cancel all of our trips we had planned to Thailand, Cambodia, and Nepal.

Our students were disappointed, but the inability for the international community to get this virus under control makes it a decision of caution. Our school rightfully, didn’t want to get stuck in a situation where we were exposing students (and teacher chaperones) to any heightened level of risk by traveling through airports and other bustling locations with many travelers. While disappointing to me and to our school as a whole, it was the right call. It was also a nice wake up call. People tend to think of their own perspectives from the scope and context of their own experiences. If they aren’t in a position to face an international crisis, it’s easy to put it from the forefront of their mind. Whether those events are earthquakes in South America, Tsunamis in the Pacific Islands, or a sweeping virus. But being faced with the realities of those situations forces us to confront those problems, or at least acknowledge them, in ways that go beyond simple awareness in a news feed.

Now I am spending my week driving around Riyadh, checking in on students as they intern at various local and international businesses. For many of them, they were forced to forego their trips to various countries, only to be thrust into the workforce for the week. But regardless, I think the learning that they will take with them from this week will benefit them greatly in the long run.

Now here's to hoping that we don't have some other weird obstacles to overcome before our spring break trip we have planned...

Call to Attention

This blog has been a great sounding board for me personally to vent on things I have found frustrating while living abroad. Often, these frustrations belong to me and how living within the parameters of a new culture can be challenging only because of expectations formed by my own previous experiences. There were language barrier issues, and pace of live concerns  in Ecuador. Living in Saudi has been a different set of circumstances, again, defined by my own expectation to living in a new culture. Keeping a running log of the singular moments and details that coalesce into our lives here is something I value greatly. I don’t want to look back in 40 years at the amazing things we’ve been able to experience with no memory of anything beyond the broad strokes of our experiences. Writing my thoughts in this way serves as a reference point to the individual moments that will inevitably slip through my fingers like sand, faster and faster the harder I try to hold on to it. So I hope that writing here will serve as my record of all things wonderful and frustrating that make up my (and our) lives abroad.

One such frustration that I have expressed, yet understood, has been the closing of businesses for prayer time multiple times per day. I won’t go into it at length now, but my frustration has taken on a new tone and context. Recently, a new mosque near our home was built. It was under construction before we got here, but it is now in operation. I think this is a great thing, and having more, and more abundant places of worship for people to pursue their relationship with God is a good thing, especially when the land wasn’t being used for anything constructive previously. My new qualm is that the calls to prayer from our new neighborhood mosque are quite loud. From a cultural standpoint, I can see the rationality to a communal call to do something, especially a collective act. From a personal standpoint, that 4:50-5:05am prayer call that interrupts the dark silence of the night is super inconvenient with a baby. I have obviously learned to live with it and sleep through it, but apparently the toddler cannot. I realize that is my own problem to own, but since this blog is a place to vent my frustrations, and a way to record my experiences after we leave here one day, I really needed to get this written down. Those peaceful mornings fading in and out of sleep as the morning takes me over and prepares me for a new day aren’t really ideal when started with the exclamation point that is a 5:00am mandatory wake-up call. This particular problem may fade away when H learns to sleep through it, or maybe not. But in the meantime, that’s a grain of sand that I anticipate I’ll remember long after we are gone.

Sri Lankan Guest of Honor

I recently had the privilege of being invited to attend a debate competition held at the Sri Lankan International School here in Riyadh and act as an official judge. I went with the activities director from my school. We left our campus first thing in the morning and arrived at the Sri Lankan school about 30 minutes later. The school has about 700 students ranging from grades K-12 and is segregated into a boys section and a girls section. As our driver pulled up to the front of the boys school, we noticed a stream of female students and teachers walking over from the girls school. This debate, it turns out, was to be the main event in a multi-act annual literary festival and was to be attended by all students from Grade 3 and up.

My colleague and I were greeted at the door by the school’s superintendent and brought directly to his office where we chatted about his school and their recent athletic and academic awards. Competition, ceremony and recognition, he explained to us, are extremely important to their school community. The event was also to be attended by the Sri Lankan ambassador, the guest of honor. When the ambassador arrived, he was greeted to warm applause and presented with a flower necklace. Having received no information prior to the event and not having a ton of experience with official debate rules, I was a little nervous to see what a big deal this event was to be.

The acts began at about 9:30 in the morning and did not conclude until after 1:00. Students performed cultural dances and musical numbers, comedy acts and sketches, all with a focus on showcasing their understanding of and the nuances of the English language as well as their own native tongues. It seemed that each grade level had some sort of performance so that in effect, the entire school was represented in the fair.

The venue was what had once been the paved plot between two of the school buildings that had been covered with a corrugated metal roof and made into a gymnasium. An elevated wooden stage was constructed in the front and rows of chairs with an aisle dividing the boys section from the girls section filled two thirds of the floor. I got to sit in the front row of the girls section with the other female teachers and occasionally looked back to smile at the tiny little 3rd grade girls whispering and giggling in the row behind mine - all of them wearing in cultural dress and adorned with flowers and even lipstick on a few.

When it was time for the main event, my colleague and I were each handed a manila folder with an official scoring sheet and the lead English teacher explained to us the format. Each team was made up of four students - mixed grades - one girl on each team. There was a team captain whose job it was to go first, then a rebuttal given by the opposing captain, then the first team’s second member, followed by the opposing team’s second member, and so on and so forth until a final closing argument at the end. There was strict 4 minute speaking time for each member. The students had only been assigned the topic the week before and had just a few days to research, prepare their arguments and collect supporting evidence. The topic was “Global Warming is Not a Crisis.” Points were to be awarded for criteria such as as argument, presentation, clarity, delivery, rebuttal, and spontaneity (being able to think on the spot).

The debate began and my partner and rapidly scribbled notes into our folders. Every single student spoke with a passion and fervor that I have not seen in some time. Their command of English vocabulary, clarity of argument and confidence, eye contact and body language was exceptional - all of this, mind you, performed in their second or third language! The performance was beyond impressive and my partner and I could barely keep up with scoring, so enthralled were we in the debate.

When the debate had concluded, the student audience cheered and chanted their favored house name (this school runs on the house system, so imagine Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff). Students held homemade signs and banners touting the colors of the two house names. As my partner and I were going over our notes, I heard my name called over the speaker - I was being asked to say a few words about the performance without revealing the winner. Cue internal screaming! I was NOT prepared for this in the least and was already sweating trying to figure out the complex scoring rubric. Mercifully, the high school principal noticed my discomfort and bought me a few more minutes while I hastily scratched some speaking points onto the pack of my scoring folder. Then, with what I hope was not a noticeably shaky voice, I congratulated both teams on the amount of preparation and commitment they showed today, the confidence and passion with which they spoke and the generosity of the school for entrusting me with the honor of judging such a high profile event. The audience clapped and I happily sat back down.

Rejoining my colleague, we realized we had quite the task ahead of us. Without a true grading scale we just had to decide on a number for each student on each criteria (1-5, 1-7, 1-10) etc. Though we were in agreement that there was a clear winner. We finished up our scoring and with much pomp and ceremony, our folders were collected by the principal and handed to the two-person accounting department seated on the sidelines whose job it was to tally and verify our scores. The anticipation in the gym was palpable. The high school principal fed off of this excitement and really drew out the announcing of the winners. We were not prepared for what happened next. Screams. Literal screams of joy, surprise, outrage and various other emotions filled the gym. Out of nowhere a giant flag of the winning house produced itself from the crowd and was being waved up and down the aisles. High-fives, embraces, claps on the back were awarded to the winning team while the losing team crumbled into a heap of tears and sobbing as they attempted to comfort one another.

The winning team, we had judged, was the team who argued that global warming was in fact, NOT a crisis. And while I personally disagree with that statement, I could not deny that their team had collected more evidence, better evidence, and had presented their claims in a more effective way.
As the celebration continued, the principal and superintendent escorted my colleague and I back to the administration offices where we enjoyed a little banquet together consisting of salads and fried spring rolls and a delicious fluffy vanilla cake with pink icing. And as if this wasn’t enough, we were then presented with award plaques commemorating the date of the event and our participation as judges. The treatment we received was just over the top and incredibly kind and generous and I was so impressed with the prestige and formality with which this event was held, as well as the incredible school spirit around the entire competition.

I look forward to our continuing partnership with this school, especially when we will welcome them to our campus in February for a community-building day.

Winter Break: Turkey and Greece

After a long first semester this year full of ups and downs and stresses, triumphs, and milestones, this past few weeks finally yielded a long Winter Break. We had two weeks off for the winter holiday this year and we really wanted to try to get to see some family for Christmas. The trip to the US is too expensive and too prohibitive for us traveling with a one year old, so Shannon’s family graciously agreed to meet us somewhere in Europe for the holiday. After some discussion, we ended up settling on meeting up in Greece. It was supposed to be one of the warmer options in Europe during winter, and cheaper options, and it afforded everyone in the family with a reasonably priced plane ticket and direct flights.

While booking, Shannon and I discovered that we would have to make a layover somewhere so we decided to make that layover Istanbul. Instead of a few hours we opted for about four or five days in Turkey. What a good decision that was. We left a few days after our break started and got a direct flight to Istanbul. When we arrived, it was immediately clear that the city was one of the most unique and beautiful we had been to. It is such a blend of Asian, European, Christian, Greek, Muslim, Ottoman, and many other cultural influences. Mosques next to churches next to restaurants next to shops and such a unique blend of eclectic influences made Istanbul, in my estimation, a true melting pot. In my perspective, Istanbul was able to take all of the culture that encompassed it and blend it together to create something wholly unique and special.

The food was amazing. We live in the Middle East so we are quite familiar with some of the flavors
of the region including grape leaves, kebab, zataar, various teas and coffees and such, but each of these had its own variation that made it uniquely Turkish. I think we ate some variation of kebab for nearly every meal we had. We also made sure to load up on Turkish delight, baklava, and various other sweets along the way.

We stayed in an apartment in the Sisli area, which was close to a lot of cool restaurants and walking areas, but far enough away from the old town district that we didn’t have to contend much with traffic or loud noises. The apartment we stayed in was perfect for the baby as the owner lives in the US and has children of her own. So everything was soft surfaced, carpeted, minimal corner exposure, and all of the other things important to people in our walk of life. It even came with a crib, high chair, and a toy chest that H really loved. His newly developed walking skills were put to the test as he ran up and down the hallways throughout the week. Nights were filled with the quiet comforts of an early bedtime for the baby and some Netflix on the couch for us.

On our first full day in Istanbul, we arranged for a private walking tour of some of the main sights.
We saw the Hippodrome, various Greek spoils of war, the Blue Mosque, the Basilica Cistern, and the Hagia Sophia. Each place had a huge line, which we were able to conveniently jump in front of due to the baby being with us, and some light, cold rain. Harris especially loved the Blue Mosque where he walked around on the carpet and wandered from person to person admiring the architecture. After seeing those sights, we stopped for a Turkish coffee and then went to the Grand Bazaar, which was utterly overwhelming. We didn’t even see a fraction of the entirety of the place but the various colors, smells, sounds, and shimmering lights of lamps and goods was incredible. We made sure to buy way too much Turkish delight, some pomegranate tea, and went back to the apartment for some afternoon naps.

The next day was Christmas morning, so we took it slow to start. Shannon had arranged for a fancy Christmas lunch at the Four Seasons but we ended up scrapping that plan to go and do our own city exploring. We ended up going to a few restaurants and walking around the city for a few hours. Harris made a few friends along the way. It’s amazing how friendly and kind everyone was. The younger adult Turkish men were especially friendly with Harris, which was somewhat unexpected. He managed to bring out the cooing playful side in various bartenders, waiters, and passers by.

Our last full day was occupied by some more city wandering. We tried to visit the old town area again and continue our exploring put we were put off by some rain and cold and ended up mostly staying inside that day. All in all, we had very high expectations for Turkey and they were all exceeded. The people were friendly. The food was amazing. Travel was easy and affordable. But most importantly the culture was something to truly behold.


After we were done with our trip to Turkey, we made our way to Athens. When we got there, we took a taxi to our apartment. We had booked a giant penthouse suite in Athens that was big enough to accommodate us, Shannon’s parents, her sisters, and her sister’s boyfriend. So 7 adults and one baby total. The place was pretty big and had huge windows providing a fantastic panorama of the city. There was ample space for everyone and it was close to a variety of amenities we needed. The only problem is that everything was sharp rocks, slate, glass, and cold. So the place would have been ideal for an aesthetically minded traveler, but traveling with a baby, and having just recently left the most perfectly baby friendly place possible left Shannon and I, a little disappointed with the apartment. We settled in and did a little exploring the first day, including a nice trip to a restaurant that we had a nice lunch at.

The next day, the rest of the squad arrived. It was fantastic to have Harris be able to see and play with some of his family members, and obviously it was great for us to spend time with them as well. He was showered with love, and Christmas gifts and toys (thank goodness) and we spent the rest of the day in the apartment.

The next morning, we went out to a tour that we arranged to the Acropolis to see the Parthenon. The weather was a little chilly and wet but we went out resolute to take on the day in our winter gear. We started at the museum and got the intro from our guide. Then Harris decided it was going to soon be time for his nap so we pivoted to the Acropolis visit hoping to see it before I had to leave early. Alas reader, we did not. We got about halfway up the hill when he decided he was done for the day and I went back to the apartment to get him settled. The rest of the family was able to venture up to the top and take some great photos though and explored the museum as well. There were nothing but rave reviews about our tour guide, and I resolved to check it out on my own in due time. That evening, we went out to a fantastic restaurant with a view of the Acropolis and took in some more Greek culture. My in-laws were kind enough to stay home with the baby while we ate.

That night and the next day were a little tough as Harris decided that these were the three to four days
that he wanted to pop out 4 new teeth. So there’s that. There was some crying, poor sleeping, and some general moody baby behavior. On one hand I feel a little bad that his carrying on kind of threw a wrench in the relaxed mood of the family hang-out. On the other hand, we would have gone out of our minds without the family support we got, so I guess these are just the things you deal with when you go on vacation with a baby.

The following day, the in-laws ventured out to the town of Nafplion for a tour of the port city, the streets, restaurants and sights. We decided to stay back because of the unpredictable nature of Harris’ mood at the time. However, we were able to make it up to the Acropolis on our own since he was feeling much better that day. We heard the tour guide for that day, and Nafplion as a whole were fantastic.

That night was New Year’s Eve and Shannon’s parents were gracious in staying home with the baby while we went out to eat with the sisters and Mike. We enjoyed another nice night out but due to our previous nights’ poor sleep we came back early and rang in the New Year with aforementioned teething, sleep deprived baby.

The rest of our trip was filled with some lazy days around the apartment, playing with Harris, family time, some more fantastic meals, and exploring the city of Athens. Our winter break was cold, wet, and full of trials, but was adventurous and we had a fantastic time. I am grateful for the opportunity to have had some time off of work, some time with family, and to have explored the great cities of Istanbul and Athens.

Christmas Sprint

It's that time of year again. We are bogged down with grading, exams, lesson planning, supervision duty, and all of the usual stresses. But alas, we're also on the time-frame where we can look forward to our upcoming Winter Break. Along the way our house is filled with the smell of spiced pumpkin scones and hot chocolate. Christmas music fills the house and movies follow at night. We're also at a fun age where Harris can get in on the action. He was a largely passive participant in our Christmas celebrations last year due to developmental restrictions. This year, he's old enough to enjoy it and we are doing everything we can to make sure we do so. I even made his stroller into a sleigh, complete with the traditional eight reindeer and Rudolph leading the way. He has even been chased around by neighborhood kids while we were on a walk, and he was called "Baby Santa." So there's that. The compound had a Christmas festival and tree lighting ceremony (kind of lame, but the effort is still applaudable), and I am sneaking in every opportunity I can to wear my Christmas tie to work.

Now I am sitting here listening to Christmas music, awaiting the pending doom of 86 essays headed for my desk tomorrow after exams conclude, and my self-imposed exile until I finish grading them. But soon, on the horizon, is time with family again, and a few trips to explore some more cool places. Here's to getting through it, and getting to the fun stuff on the other side of that pile of papers.

Florence

Having endured what may have been the longest, most excruciating quarter of school since we were both beginning teachers, Justin and I limped, crawled and hobbled our way to fall break. We had originally planned to spend our week in Lebanon exploring Beirut and Byblos but we decided to cancel after watching the protests grow over the past couple of weeks. Fortunately we found some last minute flights to Rome and found ourselves in Florence for the break. Interesting fact - in Italy, Florence is not even called Florence, it's called Firenze. 

Maybe its nerves or anxiety, but for whatever reason none of us ever seem to sleep well the night before a trip and this time was even worse. The three of us each managed about 3 hours of sleep. Then we had to leave the house at 4:30 in the morning to catch an early flight. This made the perfect recipe for a really rough flight for the little man. Justin and I basically spent the duration of our two flights walking up and down the aisles with Harris and trying to get him to sleep. Finally after sheer exhaustion he fell asleep on my shoulder as I was pacing the back of the plane. And if you’ve ever known the dilemma of deciding whether or not to risk setting down a baby you just got to sleep so that he might be more comfortable and so that you may regain feeling in your arms and neck, you will understand the drama and suspense of the maneuver. Imagine the scene in Indiana Jones “Raiders of the Lost Ark” where Indiana snatches the golden idol and leaves a bag of sand in its place as to not trigger the booby trap. Justin basically got kicked out of his seat so that Harris could sprawl across the row and sleep soundly. 

Rather than dealing with checking into a hotel and out the next morning, we bravely opted to go straight from Rome to Florence via train. While this would add another 3 or so hours to our already arduous day of travel, we reasoned that it would be better to just get all the travel over with and then once we arrived at our apartment in Florence we would be settled. On the 2 ½ hour ride to Florence, Justin and I enjoyed a craft beer from the refreshments car and once again took turns wrangling Harris who, turns out, hates sitting still on trains almost as much as he hates sitting still on planes. Coincidentally, Harris reached a new level of independence and strong headedness at exactly the same time as our trip was scheduled. Neat. Unable to really fully walk on his own, yet also feeling too grown to just sit in a lap like a baby, he alternated climbing up our fronts by using our rib cages as footholds, then attempting to repel backwards with the gusto of a base jumper. Failure to execute his attempted back dive would result in furious wailing and much to our chagrin, even some biting. I was amused to learn that due to Harris’ current dental arrangement, bite marks closely resemble that of a little rat’s. And by the end of the train ride, Justin’s shoulder looked like he had been attacked by an angry little rat. Justin was understandably less amused.

Finally we arrived in Florence and checked into our apartment, which was about a 30 minute walk outside of downtown in a quiet residential area. Justin dashed out in the rain to find us a margherita pizza for dinner while I bathed and fed Harris and tucked him in. The next morning I located a moka pot and boiled us some espressos on the stove. After we were able to pull ourselves together we walked back into town and found a little panini shop called I Fratellini that served simple, fresh, delicious sandwiches of mozzarella, prosciutto, tomato and arugula, and mini glasses of wine. There are no tables, just a small stand-up bar that can only fit about two people side by side. We paused to eat our sandwiches, little flakes of crusty bread falling all over us. We then took another sandwich and a small bottle of wine to go for a picnic once we got to Pisa - our big excursion of the day.

We decided that we would jump on another train (because we are masochists, I guess?) to get up to Pisa for some sightseeing. Once again, Harris voiced and mimed his displeasure in rail travel. It rained the whole way over but after arriving at the train station we decided it was raining light enough that we could probably manage walking the 30 or so minutes it would take to get to the leaning tower. The town of Pisa was quiet and sleepy, maybe because it was a Sunday. After winding around some lovely cobblestoned streets, there it was - the leaning tower of Pisa! We hurriedly snapped our family photos - you can see how thrilled Harris looks in them! Then suddenly, the skies opened up and it dumped cold rain. A forceful wind also came up out of nowhere, which actually blew peoples’ umbrellas inside out and sent the sightseers scurrying for cover under any possible ledge around the church. We sheltered in the lobby of a museum and looked in vain for a cab or a way to call an Uber. As soon as the rain slackened to a reasonable level, we decided to just make a run for it and speed walked all the way back to the train station and headed back to Florence.

Our next adventure took us to the Castello Trebbio, a Tuscan castle built in 1185 by the Pozzi family - rivals to the Medicis. We booked a small group tour but it wound up being only the three of us. We learned about the history of the Pozzi family, the conspiracy they planned against the Medicis and the bloody revenge feud that it resulted in. We got to visit the cellars and of course, no castle is complete without its very own dungeon! We learned about the Chianti region and the functionality of the little straw baskets you traditionally see around bottles of Chianti wine. The tour then brought us to the kitchen where we had a private pasta making lesson - well I had a private lesson. Justin was in and out of the kitchen keeping Harris occupied. I learned how to make a well in the flour for the egg and how to slowly incorporate the egg until the dough is formed. I learned how to tell when the dough is ready - when you poke it and it no longer springs back. I also learned how to make some pasta sauces; how the ingredients should be added one at a time - to properly honor the taste and flavor of each one; how you should transfer the sauce to a fresh pan if you’ve left it simmering for too long and the bottom is scorched - so as not to scrape the burn tomatoes into the sauce. And I learned how it is a misconception that you can use bad or cheap wine for cooking, because this will only result in bad tasting sauce. And finally, I learned that when making sauce you always need two bottles of good wine - one for the sauce, and once for the cook. 

Once I had kneaded the dough and sliced it into fine noodles and the sauce was happily simmering, we were brought into a dining room that had a huge crackling fireplace in the corner. We were seated at a round table and given a wine tasting. Then we got to eat the pasta and sauce that I had made. Even Harris got to pull up to the table and was given a small plate of plain pasta noodles. But why eat freshly homemade pasta when you can instead just gnaw on the edge of medieval dining table? I’m afraid to admit that I think our son may have damaged a piece of antiquity by marking it with his little rat teeth, but perhaps it will just blend in with the other nicks and scratches… For dessert we enjoyed crunchy biscotti cookies dunked in honey-sweet vino santo. Then on our way out, we bought two bottles of wine to enjoy over the next couple of days. 

Having taken our obligatory momento photographs and completed our pasta and wine experience, we relaxed on our final day in Florence. We had a slow, easy morning and for the third time this week visited a local panetteria that had delicious sweets and cappuccinos. A favorite treat of mine was a multi-layered, crunchy cookie dusted in powdered sugar that resembles an oyster. I found out later these are called sfogliatelle - which means “lobster tail” so I wasn’t far off. We took a pleasant walk into town following the Arno river all the way down and ducked into a craft brewery for a couple of beers and some delicious fried mozzarella sticks.

To make the journey home a little more manageable, we decided to head back to Rome a day before our flight. We stayed in a cute little boutique hotel and managed to find a gelato shop right around the corner. We spent our final evening savoring our last bottle of special castle wine.

The Embassy Awaits

In each of the past few years that we've lived in Saudi, and also in the time we lived in Ecuador, we have been occasionally invited to various events at the US Embassy. These are usually a lot of fun, pretty casual, and also different from our every day routines. Last week, Shannon, who teaches the parent of a high ranking official at one of the embassies in Saudi (not the US Embassy),was invited to go to an independence day celebration with her spouse.

Interested in the opportunity to break up the monotony of our last few weeks, we jumped at the chance. After some hemming and hawing, we found a babysitter who we felt comfortable with and got him all set up for the night. Our only two other date nights since the baby was born were both covered by family members. So this felt a little weird at first. But we got over it and got ourselves ready for the night. We got somewhat dressed up and met up with another couple of teachers who had also been invited.

When we arrived at the embassy, we quickly realized that our kind of dressed up look, which can mostly be described as 'business casual' was simply not going to cut it. We walked up to a red carpet and people donning tuxedos and ballroom gowns. We, the teachers, among the dignitaries, ambassadors, business moguls, and other important folk, stood out.

It was a little uncomfortable to be honest but we enjoyed ourselves. We had some delicious food, had some time out of the house, and got to immerse ourselves in what seemed like the clandestine gathering of various Bond villains. I believe I heard multiple conversations about keeping untraceable money in offshore accounts. All in all it was a fun night, and an opportunity that doesn't come across too often.

Do I stay or do I go now?

The time is here for us to take another trip for Fall Break. We have worked hard and held our noses to the grindstone for a while now. So this year, in an effort to continue to explore more of the Middle East, we booked trips to Beirut for our break. We did research on all of the local foods to eat, restaurants to visit, and neighborhoods to check out. We went through the process of finding an apartment for rent that would be close to the sights we wanted to see, but that was still baby friendly. 

Well, now we’ve got a choice to make. Following a path of many countries around the world recently, and of countries in the region specifically, the people of Lebanon have risen up and decided that for a variety of reasons, they no longer want the government structures, systems, and people who are in charge to be in power any longer. Protests began over the last weekend and quickly escalated. As recently as last night, there were reports of 1.5 million people protesting. The streets are full of protesters exercising their rights and fighting for political change.Admittedly, I have to say, it looks like the protesters are having a great time. Spirits are high in the streets, and some protests have even featured DJs and turned into all out parties.  

While we have been lucky to have not been directly put in the middle of too many political movements, we do acknowledge and appreciate the rights of citizens to seek better lives for themselves. But...we’ve been put in an admittedly weird position. Our flights are booked, our apartment paid for, and tours are arranged. In two days, everything could blow over and be fine. Or it could continue to escalate and turn into a scene that we don’t want to be involved in. The risks of going range from not having access to restaurants and grocery stores due to protesting, or as severe as return flights being cancelled. The risks if we cancel include the fact that we will lose a lot of money that we’ve already paid, and we would risk the opportunity to see a really amazing country and city. So now we’ve got about four days to decide if we are going to rebook a trip to somewhere else, or try to ride it out and go for it. Yet another in a long line of unique experiences to living overseas. We aren’t planning our trip with weather or activities in mind. We’re trying to predict and account for the will of the people, the concessions of a government, and the whims of fate. 

Dubai

I was recently reviewing the most recent posts we've made since we've lived in Saudi Arabia and I thought back to our experiences in Ecuador, and the posts from that time. I thought to myself how most of my posts since arriving in Saudi have been mostly about going to other places. I regret that and I feel that this fact is a bit reductive. In reality, our lives are full and complex. They are more than our vacations and our travels. But honestly, so many of the things that make up our day to day lives do not focus on adventures that I would state as particularly noteworthy to readers of this blog. The truth of the matter is that we work for a very high performing school, with very high standards in terms of our efforts professionally. Accordingly, nearly every night, after the baby is bathed, fed, and put to sleep, we both stay up and work. Every weekend, we both work. We have not had the opportunities to enjoy the fruits of "free time." This is not exclusively due to the demands of our job, as we did have a baby by choice and that was the best choice we've ever made. However, this does explain the absence of stories feature llama pugilism, volcano hikes, trips to the Amazon, and local villages and markets. We have explored Riyadh and Saudi as a whole a bit, and we hope do to so more in the coming months. In the meantime, awareness of that fact, and stories of the limited time we do have to do things of note will have to suffice, and posts about various trips will probably serve as the only stories of note; unless a groundswell of support for teething, diaper, and nap time stories comes flooding in.

All of that being said and acknowledged, I did get to take a pretty cool trip recently, for work. There was a leadership conference in Dubai last week that I was told about and recommended to attend. Given that we are provided with a generous professional development fund yearly, and that I had never been to Dubai, I talked it over with Shannon and booked it. We are at a point with the baby that we are really trying to figure out some routines and habits that will help facilitate his sleeping through the night. It is a team effort every evening, so I certainly felt bad leaving for a weekend without reinforcements available to Shannon. But she thought it would be a great idea for me to go, so I did.

I left straight from school on a Thursday afternoon and arrived at the airport rather quickly. I sped through the security line and immigration and found myself in the lounge at the Riyadh airport with a quickness. This being the first time I have traveled alone and without a baby since, well having a baby, I was kind of surprised by how quick this all took. I guess the days of breezing through airports are gone for me for a while. But I enjoyed it last week nonetheless. After a smooth flight, we landed in Dubai around 9:00pm. By the time I got to my hotel, got dinner, and unpacked, it was getting rather late. I took all of the room service, laundry, and spa service pamphlets off the bed, and I turned off the lights to go to sleep. My thumb caught on something that I presumed was another pamphlet or something but it felt peculiar. I turned on a light to find a woman's bra locked around my hand. I quickly threw it to the floor and called the hotel front desk. While the presence of a piece of clothing is no problem, the implication this sparked, that the bed had not been cleaned, was clear in my mind. I told them I was fine for the night but that I'd like to have the room cleaned the next day.

When that next day came, I went to my courses and classes all day. We started at 7 and went until 5. I stopped by the front desk during lunch and was given a new key and a promise that my things would be moved from one room to a new room for my inconvenience. After my classes, I asked where my room was, and I was told that I would have to go to the other tower where the Royal Executive Suite was, which was my new room. Upon entering my new room, I found a sprawling space, with jacuzzi tubs, tvs in the mirrors, and a massage chair the size of a dentist's, or of a cockpit in an F-16. It was glorious. I sent Shannon some photos of my new digs (which in hindsight was probably a bad idea since the previous night's sleep was awful due to a sick baby).

After that, I fought my greatest urge to sit in the dentist chair of luxury and go to bed early, and I shared an Uber to a local spot where a colleague and I stopped to see the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building. It was amazing to stare up at it from the foot. I couldn't shake the story of Jack and the Beanstalk as the building climbed higher and higher beyond clouds, birds, and seemingly possibility. Feeling sufficiently satisfied at my adventuring, we went back to the hotel where I had dinner and an early bedtime.

The next day we attended courses all day until 4. At that point, I left from the hotel and went to the airport where I killed some time until my flight. I was eager and anxious to get home to Shannon and the baby. I was graced with the luck of an empty row and eager to try to sneak in an hour of sleep on the two hour flight. But after boarding and rolling out to the runway, our captain told us that someone in the front of the plane had been behaving badly and was violating plane safety regulations. I still have no idea what happened, but I like to imagine he was vigorously dancing and could not be convinced to sit. We went back to the gate and for some inexplicable reason, we stayed there for about two hours. We eventually left and after our flight landed, our two hour flight had turned into a four hour journey.

After clearing customs, I called my ride I had arranged only to be informed he decided to leave and didn't want to pick me up. I ordered an Uber and when he called me and found out I didn't speak Arabic, he hung up on me, and then started doing laps around the pickup area, refusing to cancel the pickup. So I had to cancel the pickup and get another ride, eat the cancellation charge, and I was in a mood. After getting in a new ride, a guy tried to charge me double the rate, so I told him to pull over. He slowed down and as I opened the door he sped up again. We went back and forth arguing until he agreed to the original rate. I was not a guy to be messed with on that way home. I eventually had him drop me off at the front of the compound, not wanting him to come in, and walked myself the last ten minutes home at 1:30am. It was a crazy trip home, but a good trip to a new place nonetheless.

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.