Finally!

When you move over here with Aramco, you are responsible for shipping your own vehicle. It can't be older than 5 years old and you have to have a free and clear title. Hisham's car was out because it was too old. It hurt his heart to sell it. We were going to ship mine, but decided against it at the last minute. We were able to sell it before we left. It seemed like it would have been a hassle to ship it and deal with customs, so we figured we'd get something when we got here. We were looking at SUV's, but I really wanted another minivan (NEVER thought i'd say that). I love the ease of getting the kids in and out with the sliding doors, love that I can open the trunk and doors with the remote, with this heat, the quicker everyone gets in the van the less irritable I am. I probably sound like a drill sergeant when i'm telling Adam over  and over "get in the van, get in your seat! get in your seat!! buckle up! buckle! why aren't you buckled yet?!".

So, we got a 2013 Honda Odyssey, exact same kind I had back home (except I had a 2011). The inside is exactly the same, except for a few tiny differences. I'm feeling more and more at home here. :)

It's amazing the things that make you comfortable.

Oh, and guess where the van came from.....Alabama! Maybe that's why the van makes me feel more at home here. I have something from my old home at my new home. 

He can't read English, can't read Arabic, but he knows Toys R us when he sees it

Adam saw the sign and said "can we go to Toys R us?!?!" It's like my niece Chirihane, when she was 2 years old, she knew the McDonald's arches from a mile away and we always had to stop.

We did go into Toys R us because there was also a Babies R us in there, and I needed to see if they had wipes for Sophia. 

Most of y'all remember when Adam was doing some baby modeling in Atlanta. His picture was on 4 or 5 toys I think.  walk around the corner and the first thing I see is one of the toys Adam's picture was on back home. I went over to see if his picture was on the toys here. I wasn't expecting to see his face, but I did! He's on the toys over here, lol. Hisham and I thought that was hilarious.

Good ol' Ikea and The Home Depot

If you need a toilet bowl brush, a bed, a shoe organizer, a plant and a package of Swedish meatballs, where do you go? Ikea of course! We went to Ikea a few days ago to get a few things. It's exactly like ours in Atlanta. They have Small land (where you leave your kids to play), but here they get to play for TWO hours instead of the 45 minutes you get at Ikea! I was nervous about leaving Adam at first, not because we are in Saudi Arabia, but because i'm always slightly nervous for him to be away from me in places like this. Honestly, I was more worried about the nasty ball pit in the play area than anything else. Anyways, I dumped him dropped him off and gave him a big kiss and hug, and I went and did my shopping. I had about 3 women stop me to ask me something, and three times I had to say "I don't speak Arabic". I do speak Moroccan, but it's a different dialect that Saudi's don't speak. One woman seemed confused that I was wearing hijab and had on a black Abaya but I didn't speak Arabic, lol. Another woman asked me in broken English where the cash register was, and I told her in broken Saudi dialect which way to go. We worked it out.

Door to enter the mosque in Ikea (in the baby section)

Women's mosque inside of Ikea

Bacon!!

Germs! Virus! Yuck! Fun!!

Sister fell asleep on her daddy

Meatballs, anyone?

I was walking around in this section in the front of the store waiting for Adam and Hisham to come downstairs. They started closing up for prayer. I had to tell the guy to let me out (I had the stroller and the chain was pulled too tight for me to get under it with the stroller and sophia in the baby carrier without bending down real low). I would get tired of putting this chain up and taking it down every day for each prayer.

This is a Bentley, for those who don't know. This car starts at about $180,000. No, that's not a typo. One hundred eighty thousand dollars. o-n-e h-u-n-d-r-e-d e-i-g-h-t-y t-h-o-u-s-a-n-d d-o-l-l-a-r-s
This place is heaven for car lovers.

We didn't really go to The Home Depot, we went to a store called Abyat, they have got to be affiliated with The Home Depot (I actually sent an email to ask on their FAQ page). It's a home improvement/furniture store. Their main color in their sign is orange. Hmmm.

In the furniture section, they have the rooms already set up for you. They have very European, or very Arab styles. They even price match! 

This is from their website: Our Lowest Price Guarantee that ensures you get the best value for money, regardless of what you buy from ABYAT. This means that if you find an identical product at a local retail store a lower price within 30 days of purchase, we will not only match the competitor's price, we will also give you an additional discount on that item.

It's a huge store. Huge.

I thought these were curtains until I got closer. Rows and rows of wallpaper. Some of it was actually really nice.

Everyone in the world needs a can of WD40

This is a boat, not a tub!

Adam kept trying to sit in the sink displays, he thought they were seats.

Outdoor lighting section

They couldn't have all of that modern stuff and not have a selection for the old school folks

Dinner at the Hobby Farm

We had dinner at the Hobby Farm the other night. The Hobby Farm is the horse stable where people that live here on camp keep their horses. There were a few young girls in their riding boots and jodhpurs (isn't that what the brown riding pants are called?). I felt like I was in Western Supermarket in Mountain Brook, when the moms would stop by the store to pick something up after their daughter's riding lessons. We had burgers and fries while we watched horses going back and forth (Adam had a whopping three french fries). I'm not sure if people bring their horses from home (can you even ship a horse overseas?), or they buy them here. I've read if you know someone with a horse, they may let you ride. I'd love that for Adam. Maybe i'll start stalking the hobby farm to make friends with a horse owner. Just kidding, i'm not a crazy stalker. Not usually.

                        

         

    

Do y'all SEE what is in this trash can?

I took the trash out last week, and when I took the top off of the can I heard some scratching. I thought it was the leaves blowing around in there. Umm, it wasn't. I put the top back on real quick, then took it off and peaked in, then slammed it back on, then took it back off long enough to snap a pic and quickly launch my trash bag in there, then I ran back in the house. I'm sure my neighbors think i'm crazy. I don't like bugs, or critters, or animals that sneak up on me. Ain't nobody got time for that!!!!

House video!

Finally! I got to take a video of the house a few days ago. It was easier to do a video than to take pictures of everything. We can make almost any changes to the house we want, there are carpenters and painters that do some side work. I have some plans, but they won't be done for awhile. I'll post before and after pics as we get our furniture in and make a few changes. 

I forgot to add that all of the houses here are not the same style as ours. There are some very traditional american style houses, I believe those may be 4-bedroom houses. There is bachelor housing, apartment style housing, etc. I *think* ours are supposed to be newer, or updated, or something like that. I actually like the style of ours compared to the others i've seen on camp because I can walk outside to the backyard, or the front courtyard area and not have to put on my hijab.

How we got here

A few people have asked me how we ended up here, so I thought i'd explain. Years ago, pre-kids, I told Hisham "why don't you apply for a job overseas?". I think that was before our Chicago stint (we moved to Chicago and moved right back to Alabama within 5 months). I found out I was pregnant with Adam a few days before we left for Chicago. When we got there I was miserable, feeling depressed and missed my family so much, so we moved back home. It turns out that we needed to do that to end up here. So, the overseas thing never panned out. We weren't totally serious about it, or seriously pursuing it. Fast forward to last August, Hisham was at a health care conference in Philadelphia. He went to the area where they had various vendors, and he saw the table for Aramco. The sign said "Saudi Aramco" in both English and Arabic. He said the Arabic caught his eye (he reads and writes it), so he went over to speak to the recruiter. He wasn't interested in a job, he was just curious why an oil company was set up at a health care conference. The recruiter explained to him that Aramco has it's own hospitals and clinics, so they employ all kinds of support people, in addition to the oil/petroleum workers. And that's where it all started.
I was sitting at work and I got a text from him saying something like "I'm going to dinner with a recruiter from a company in Saudi Arabia". At first I was like "ummm, no". But, the recruiter gave him a website for Aramco expats so we could read about it. We read, and read, read again and read some more. And googled, and you tubed, and googled again. I won't even lie, I searched to see what kind of stores were here for shopping. The more we read, and initiated contact with people already living here, the more comfortable we were. One of my main concerns was school for the kids. Once I learned the school is excellent and comparable to private schools in the states, I started feeling better about it. Literally, from August of 2012, until the day we left, April 30, 2013, we were reading, investigating, asking questions, etc. We have gathered so much information that we really haven't had any major surprises since we've been here. We've kind of known what to expect. Another thing we learned is how many people try for years to get a job with this company. There are people from all over the world here. Some have been here for 2 months, some have been here for 30 years. That was another thing that made us feel comfortable about coming here. There are Americans that have been here for 15+ years. We figured they wouldn't stay that long if there wasn't *something* good about this place. Also, there are many non-Muslims here from other countries. That made me think it wasn't that bad, and I actually felt it was a plus for us being Muslim. So we started the long application process. We had to fill out what seemed like one million forms, orientation in Houston, TX, blood work, background investigations, more paperwork, visa approval, packing up our whole house, and getting on a plane. From the day we arrived, it has been better than we expected. We weren't expecting anything bad, but it has pleasantly exceeded our expectations. This camp has been here since the 30's or 40's. It was designed like an American military base, and it feels like being on a nice base when you're walking or driving around. You have to have your ID card to get on camp, and get into the various rec centers, schools, pools, etc. The homes are all American style homes.
There is no contract to sign regarding how long you will stay. If you want to leave, you just give your employer the notice they require, and you/re on your way. Hisham and I agreed to stay 5 years, whether we like it or we don't. After 5 years, if we don't like it anymore, we go back home, if we do like it, then we will re-evaluate.
Adam is doing great. He loves that he can just run to the back yard and there is a playground. He LOVES that he gets to ride a bus to school and he loves that we have so many kids living around us. I know he will thrive here. There are so many activities and things for the kids to do. We have more time together as a family. Hisham gets off of work at 4pm, and he is not checking his work email all evening. We are also in a good location for travel. Inshallah (God willing) we plan to take some trips in the future. We can go places that we couldn't have gone to from the states because it would be way to expensive. We are in driving distance to Dubai. Do you KNOW what kind of shopping is in Dubai? ;)
Seriously though, we are in the vicinity of Mecca/Medina. This is HUGE for us. Hajj is the pilgrimage Muslims must make once in their lifetime if they are able. We are HERE! This is our Motherland! :)
We could drive if we wanted to. It would be a long drive, but still, we could drive! Alhamdullilah (thankful to Allah), just this alone is worth living here. It's also nice to experience living in a Muslim country, and for our children to have the same experience as well. It's nice to not have to ever ask at a restaurant if something has pork in it, not to worry about where you will pray when it's prayer time (there are mosques all over the place), the whole country will be fasting during Ramadan, not just our Muslim community like back home, We will celebrate Eid (Muslim holidays) with the whole country, the list goes on.
We miss our friends and family like crazy, but this is one of the best decisions we've made. We were given this amazing opportunity, and we are going to make the best of it, Inshallah.

Oh, and the weekend here is Thursday and Friday. Saturday is the beginning of our week. We are 8 hours ahead of the states (Central time) :)

I have some pictures for y'all!

This is the mini mart close to our house. You know how people in Europe leave their babies outside in their strollers? This is where I leave Sophia when I go inside.

Little Mosque outside of the gate at Adam's school

Cub Scouts building

Saturday through Wednesday, not Monday through Friday :)

Ice cream truck at the park (minus the annoying music!)

Camera shy

People have their cars washed daily, otherwise you can't see out of the windows because of the dust that settles

Like this dusty car

Hard at work. The gardeners rake the leaves daily.

Neighborhood street

How is my driving?

The huge air conditioner at our house. Thankful for this!!

Swim Practice

Oh, and I was just kidding about leaving Sophia outside of the store. I take her in and leave her stroller outside. :) :) :)