The Rundell Family

2012-01-22T18:08:00.005+08:00

Well life is still good here in Saudi. Even though we may not have the most exciting life, we are happy and still enjoying it. Our life is quite simple here but is filled with enough quality things that we can enjoy as a family.

Rachel has been here for 6 weeks and was supposed to go home this Thursday, February 2 but decided that since her new semester at BYU-Idaho doesn't start until April 14 that she would stay longer. She came in our room a few days ago and said that her job back in Utah was really slow right now and they didn't need her to work so she wanted to know if she could stay. Of course we said, YES! The next day I changed her flight and she now is going to stay another two months here. WOO HOO!

She has adapted to our simple life style here and having to wear the Abaya. The Abaya was the first gift we gave her when she arrived here. We really don't have to wear it that often because most of our time is spent at school or in our compound where it isn't required but she is getting used to it.
Nicole taught Rachel how to cover her head and face using just a scarf. We never have to do this or should I say we have never been asked to cover up. Technically they could tell us that we need to cover our hair but usually they leave the Westerner's alone.
Yes, Rachel can even make an Abaya and scarf look good.

One night we went out to dinner with our neighbors the Gerber's and the Brown's. We went to an Arab restaurant in the cultural section of town. They put us in this large room where they had pillows along the walls and carpets on the floors. Very traditional.
The came in and rolled out a long piece of plastic and set the table right on the floor.

We then all gathered around and ate right on the floor. Not quite the most comfortable way to eat for us old folks but we had to experience the traditional Arab feast. Of course the food was AWESOME!!!!!! We haven't yet tasted anything here that we didn't like.
Rachel being goofy. She caught this picture right as I was yawning. We were at Nicole's band concert at school and I guess Rachel was bored because she started taking goofy pictures with my phone. I really wasn't bored but obviously very tired.

Dead Sea and Karak

2012-01-20T21:14:00.007+08:00

While we were in Jordan we went to the Dead Sea. Even though it was December the water was still warm enough to swim so we took the opportunity to do just that. We found a place that had little chalets on the beach where we could pay a daily fee and use the showers. It was a little more than just paying to go on the public beach but we wanted to make sure we could shower off all the salt water afterwards. We were told the salt can really do some havoc to your skin if you left it on.
We had to walk down a little hill to get to the beach below. It was very rocky and with the waves and currents we had to be extra careful not to cut our feet or hands on the rocks in the water which were covered with very sharp salt crystals. We also were told to make sure to keep our mouths shut and not splash water into our eyes.
The rocks on the shore and under the water were covered with these sharp salt crystals.
Gavin, Rachel, and Jonny were the first to brave the conditions. The water was warmer than the air so it actually wasn't too bad. The hard part was walking out into the water and not falling on the rocks when the waves came in.
It was very strange once you got into the water. We jumped expecting to have to swim and paddle to keep afloat but that wasn't necessary at all, in fact, it was difficult to try not to float.

After a few minutes in the water, Nicole started complaining about her eyes stinging because water accidentally splashed in her eyes. We were giving her a hard time and telling her to stop being a baby about because it was just a little salt water. She had a hard time getting out because she couldn't open her eyes. A few minutes later water splashed in my eye and I felt bad for getting mad at Nicole because it really hurt BAD!!!! It was like someone literally poured a teaspoon of salt in my eye and there was nothing you could do about it but let it wear off. Not a pleasant feeling. Jonny, Nicole, and Gavin all got little scratches from the rocks.

After spending a few minutes in the water we showered and were off to see the crusaders castle in Karak.
We didn't spend too much time here because it is nothing compared to Jerash or Petra.

They even had double sinks back in 1400 AD.
Our tour guide helped us take some cool pictures with the different lighting coming into the castle.

Vika's hand is glowing!!!!! WOW!

Trip through the desert to Jordan and the Holy Land

2012-01-04T17:19:00.047+08:00

We decided that since gas prices are insanely cheap here, about 35 cents a gallon, that we would take a road trip this year during Christmas break. Rachel came to visit us during her break and so with six people, air flights can get pretty pricey. Gavin researched and talked to several people who have driven to Jordan from here so we decided to give it a try.

Rachel arrived here on December 19. She was a little jet lagged but since we weren't out of school until the 21st, she had a few days to get over it until our big adventure.

We were told that you could do the drive to Amman, Jordan all in one day. We got several different versions as to the amount of time. Some said 13 hours, others said 17 hours. We decided to give it a try.

We packed up our car with the basic necessities and were on our way at 4:30 in the morning. We had maps to help us along the way since our GPS chip for the Middle East was shipped to Gavin's sister's house in Utah and she didn't get it in time to send with Rachel. The road to Amman from Khobar is pretty straight going along the Iraq border so we weren't too worried about getting lost.

The terrain was very flat with lots and LOTS of sand and desert. Still we were able to see and do some interesting things along the way.

Along the highway are posted signs warning about camels crossing the highway. Not cattle crossings, but camel crossings.
Camels were walking all along the side of the road. They were in herds and seemed to mind their own business as they traveled next to the road.
We still couldn't believe that Rachel was finally here with us. We kept saying "Rachel is here". It was nice to be able to talk to her without the use of a computer or cell phone. Many of our conversations over the past few months were texting using Whatsapp or Skype. We sure have missed her and were so excited to have her here with us for 6 weeks.

The terrain was very dry and occasionally a small butte would appear. There were areas with sand dunes but Saudi isn't just that. Most of the area we traveled through was similar to driving through Las Vegas or Phoenix. Dry, rocky and very little vegetation.
The speed limit sign caused a little problem for us. We have tried learning to read at least the numbers and what looks like a 7 to us is actually a 6 in Arabic and a backwards 7 is a two. Well we must have been extremely tired or dyslexic because both Jonny and I read this sign as being 160 kph. Gavin kept asking us are you sure? And we said yes, it's 160, so........
He went 160 kph. We thought, "cool we can get there faster at this speed". So, for several hours we were cruising at 160 kph until a cop had to flash us down with his lights to pull over. We weren't sure why or what we did but with his broken English he explained " 120 speed, 130 ok, 140 ok, but 160 NO" Our act of ignorance didn't get us out of a ticket. Not sure what the fine will be since the ticket is all in Arabic. Not even sure how we are supposed to pay it. Good thing we have a Government Relations department at our school who will help us out.

We were a little embarrassed that we didn't read the sign correctly. Oh well, I don't think we will ever get the 6 and 2 mixed up again in Arabic.

Our dear sweet Rachel brought one of my favorite things in the world to us...Spitz Sunflower Seeds. I could live on these back home. We call them our "additional insurance policy" when we travel because they are perfect to keep you awake on long drives.
We saw miles and miles and spent hours and hours looking at this out the window. Sand, sand, and more sand.

The kids watched movies, read, listened to Ipods and slept most of the time. Vika thought she owned the seat. She has such a loving brother to let her sprawl out all over him.
We thought this was a funny picture. A pick up truck with two camels sitting in the back. I guess since they don't like dogs here, pet camels ride in the back of the truck. The guy wasn't the friendliest person and was getting mad at the gas station attendant so Gavin didn't want to get too close to get the picture, but it was very strange to see.

Yes, I know this is a gross picture but we had to document the entire trip...even the roadside toilets at the gas stations. Remember we were travel out in the middle of no where so we had to take any type of toilet we could get. Still these were much cleaner and nicer than some that we saw in China but thank goodness for hand sanitizer. We learned in China to never leave home without your own tissue or toilet paper and hand sanitizer. That is true here as well.
The driving was very long. We got to the Jordanian border around 7:00, 14 1/2 hours later. We pretty much were the only ones at the border but it took us about 45 minutes to cross because we had to get a visa for each of us, car insurance, inspections, and paper work. We still had about 2 hours of travel time to go. It was a little unnerving at times because it was dark and we were in remote areas so the roads weren't lighted very well. We had to slow our pace down and just prayed that we were taking the right roads. Most of the signs are in both Arabic and English so we just followed the signs to Amman. Once we got to Amman we were unsure exactly how to get to our hotel. We had the address and names of the streets we needed to take but couldn't figure out the street signs. Someone must have been watching over us because we just followed the signs towards the city center and prayed it was the right direction. Fortunately we happened to be on the right road and drove right to the hostel. We arrived around 9:30 (really 8:30 in Jordanian time because they are an hour ahead of us here in Saudi). The total drive time was 17 hours which included stopping at the border and all our potty stops. It was a very long day.

When we woke up the next morning we had a nice view of the city and were ready to go explore.
Above the city on the hill is the citadel which was an old site that Romans, Byzantines and Muslims built a temple, church, and a mosque.
As we were walking to the Citadel we were trying to find an old Roman amphitheater. We saw this site that was all chained up and thought it was it so we took a picture. We couldn't get it and thought it was just closed. We found out later that this wasn't the amphitheater and was just some old site with no meaning. Silly tourists!!!!! No wonder people were looking at us strangely when we were taking a picture.
This picture is out of order but is another shot of the lovely road side toilets we had the privilege of using on our trip.
This is the actual amphitheater that we were looking for. Why in the world did we think it was that other small site. This was huge and was right across the street from our hostel.
My pictures are a little out of order here but we were able to visit Mt. Nebo in Jordan where they believe Moses is buried or died. He left the people and walked up into the mountains and was never seen again. This is where they believe he went. Not much to see here except a memorial sculpture of the serpent staff.
Mt. Nebo overlooks valleys on one side and the Dead Sea can be seen in the distance on the other side. We can now say that we have been to the top of the original Mt. Nebo in Jordan, not Utah.
Back to our first day in Jordan.

On our walk up to the Citadel we passed a little meat shop with these in the window. Yummy!!!!! Are they lambs or goats? Anyone want some roasted goat or lamb head for dinner?
We were trying to find the way up to the Citadel and stopped to ask several people. The people here and in Saudi are some of the nicest people we have ever met. We were told to just walk up the hill and we would see the Citadel, so we did. We got to this fork at the road and couldn't decide which way to go so we guessed. A man called to us from an old abandoned building on top of the hill and motioned for us to come up that way. We weren't sure but we followed him. He was a very nice homeless guy and actually was showing us a short cut into the Citadel. We actually ended up jumping a fence into the area and felt bad so we walked back towards the entrance to actually buy an entrance ticket.

As we were walking to the entrance, there was an amazing view from an old wall of the abandoned building where each of the kids went out on.
Jonny overlooking Amman.
Rachel....

The Romans built a temple for Hercules in the citadel. Of course all kids have seen the Disney movie Hercules which gave this some sort of meaning.
Gavin....king of the hill.
The columns at Hercules temple were HUGE. The temple was destroyed by earthquakes which is amazing that and earthquake could actually knock over these huge columns. The crash of the columns alone could create an earthquake.

This is part of the hand and behind it is part of the shoulder of a statue of Hercules that stood 13 meters high here by the temple.
The kids were pretending to hold up the columns here.
The temples were all built with huge columns which are so inspiring as they rise up to heaven. These places are absolutely amazing.
We walked up to the Citadel and were amazed at the sites here. Little did we know that this was small potatoes compared to what we were going to see later in the day and in Petra. None the less, it was rather spectacular.
They had quite a few different artifacts here at the Citadel. This looks very Egyptian.
The mosque was built hundreds of years ago here at Citadel by the Muslim people. Just some incredible details everywhere we looked.

After spending about an hour at the Citadel we headed off to Jerash which is about an hour north of Amman. Jerash is a site of one of the best preserved Roman cities in the world. We were given directions on how to drive to the city but had a hard time finding the entrance. We took a wrong turn through the city that took us on some VERY narrow streets up and down hills. We were a little worried that were would get stuck because the streets weren't necessarily made for big four wheel drive vehicles like our Honda MRV (Passport). Fortunately we made it out of that area and asked some Jordanian police officers sitting in their car. They spoke very little English but were able to say "back, lefty, righty. Welcome to Jordan". That became our joke the rest of the trip. Whenever we didn't know where to go we'd say "back, lefty, right. Welcome to Jordan".

We finally found the entrance and spent the next three hours exploring one of the most spectacular places in the world.

This is the gates entering the city.

Everything here is huge. The Romans knew how to do things on a grand scale.

After entering the city gates, they had a chariot race arena. We missed the chariot races by about 30 minutes.

This is the road leaving the arena into the oval plaza at the entrance of the city.
It's all greek to me!
The oval plaza was surrounded by 64 columns to represent the year the city was built in 64 AD. The columns all had a rectangular stone which is hollow to make a musical sound when they were hit. When there was an earthquake, they would move and hit against each other to create a musical sound to warn the people of an earthquake.
This is the city road leaving the oval plaza into the shopping area. All along the sides of the road were once merchant shops. They even had sidewalks for pedestrians.

In one of the shops was this stone which was once a chopping block for a butcher shop. It's hard to see in the picture but you can actually see the knife marks made from chopping meat.

The streets were paved with large stones that were normally place diagonally. These stones were placed straight which indicated a cross walk for pedestrians. Even back in 64 AD then had crosswalks.
This was the plaza of a market place. In the center was a large fountain which the stones formed a cross in the center. While we were here in the plaza we met a young Jordanian boy who was about 16 or 17. He told us some interesting facts about the city and knew what he was talking about. He asked if we wanted a guide. At first we were hesitant but after talking to him we realized he knew a lot about the city. He worked selling souvenirs at Jerash but taught himself how to speak English, French, and Italian so that he could be a guide. He was only going to charge us half of what the official guides charged so we said yes. He was the nicest young man that we spent the next two hours with.

On the stones in the streets you can actually see chariot wheel marks. It is a little hard to see in this picture but these marks ran all along the street.

There was so much detail in the architecture here.

Another shot of the city street or colonnade.
These are corner markets on the colonnade. I'm guessing these are their version of a convenient store.
Vika always being her cute self.
Romans loved columns. They were everywhere and huge.
Along the street they had this small church.
Again...the details were amazing. They went all out in their decorating.

Up on a hill overlooking the city was a temple built for sacrifices. We took a little break here with our tour guide and some of his buddies who were selling tea. We had some sage tea which was very good and just sat and talked. One of the boys who was about 19 asked how much for Rachel? We told him "A 1,000 camels". He said he didn't have that much. They were very funny and we really enjoyed talking with them. We laughed at the phrases that they knew in English. He said "oh my gosh" with a perfect American accent. We taught them how to say "What the heck?" and "Sweet".
The Byzantine's built a church here that once had a huge mosaic floor. It was buried under dirt and once the dirt was removed they found this huge floor still intact.
Another shot of the temple built for sacrificing.
In the center of the city they had four roads meeting int he center coming from each direction. Traders and merchants would come from all over to sell and trade in the city. The road here once led to Iraq.
The kids climbed up part of the remaining wall at the Temple of Zeus.
Near the Temple of Zeus was a large amphitheater. What's so amazing about this is how preserved it all is. It is nearly 2,000 years old but looks like it still can be used today.
In the amphitheater there is a certain spot in the center of the lower level. It's hard to see in the picture but it is just below the man standing in black to the right. When you stand on this spot and speak, your voice echoes back and sounds like you are speaking in a microphone. It was so weird. Your voice sounds normal to everyone else but as you are speaking it is amplified back to that spot. Amazing!
This is shot from the Temple of Zeus looking down on the oval plaza. Had to give Zeus the best view in the city.
Vika loved climbing up and down the seats in the theater.

Like I said before...everything is huge here. This is a stage door.
While we were in the amphitheater there were some Jordanian men playing bagpipes. Go figure...but Rachel started just goofing around and clogging so the man came over and played right next to her while she danced.
The seats in the amphitheater were even numbered. Can't quite read greek but each seat had different characters or numbers.
Another view of the oval plaza.
The city was destroyed due to several severe earthquakes of the past two thousand years. They are slowly excavating the sites but it's amazing how much of the city is still in place.
City view from the Temple of Zeus.
Jerash was a very cool place. There is so much history in this part of the world that many people don't know about. We feel fortunate to be able to experience these places.
On Christmas Eve Day we traveled across the border to Israel. We had to be careful and make sure they didn't stamp our passports with an Israeli stamp because then Saudi wouldn't allow us back in. We knew several people who live in Saudi who have traveled to Israel so we knew it was possible, but still a little unnerving knowing that if something went wrong, we wouldn't be able to return home without a huge hassle.

We left our car in Amman at the hostel and arranged for a driver to drive us to the border where we had no problems crossing. The border opened at 7:30 a.m. so we got there at 7:00 so that we could be the first ones and could possibly get across in time to go to church at the BYU Jerusalem center at 10:00. Unfortunately our plan didn't quite work that way. We had arranged for a driver to pick us up on the Israeli side at 8:30 but we didn't get over the border until after 10:00. When you cross the border they put everyone on a bus to drive them the short distance between the Jordanian and Israeli side. Even though we were one of the first ones across from Jordan, we had to wait until the bus was filled before they drove us over, which took nearly an hour. Then we had to wait in lines on the Israeli side.

Our driver took us to the BYU Jerusalem Center anyway. Since it was Christmas Eve, they were only having Sacrament meeting so we arrived at the end of the meeting. The center is set up on Mt. Olive overlooking Old Jerusalem. We took a few pictures and met a girl that attended the last fall session there with Nick and knew him. What an amazing experience to be able to study the scriptures living right in the middle of it all. Nick was very fortunate to be able to do that. It has inspired Rachel to apply to attend at BYU Jerusalem sometime next year.

After visiting the center our driver took us up to a spot on Mt. Olive where we could see a beautiful view of the city and wall.
We are on Mt. Olive with Old Jerusalem behind us.

The driver then took us to our hostel in Jerusalem where we checked in and then headed off on foot to explore the city for the day.
We first walked through the Old City towards the Garden tomb. We came out of the Damascus gate then headed a few blocks to the place where the crucifixion took place and burial tomb of Jesus.
This is Skull Hill where they believe the crucifixion occurred.
While at the Garden tomb we followed a tour group from Nigeria around. They were some very cool people. They all wanted to take Vika and Nicole with them down into the tomb and a man started talking to Jonny. His name was Praise and kept telling Jonny that he needs to visit Nigeria. He said "You come visit my beautiful country and stay with me. I show you my beautiful country of Nigeria" They exchanged email addresses.
It was very humbling to be in these places knowing the history and story, but the one thing that seemed to be lacking was the spirit. We were reminded over and over throughout our trip that these were just places. Yes, miraculous events occurred here but it still is only a place. The spirit comes from our testimony, not necessarily from being in the place. It still was very cool to be here and to be able to put a place with things we have studied and learned our entire lives.
Here is the tomb and actual place where they believed the Savior was laid to rest. As we walked into the tomb, the group from Nigeria all started singing hymns. It was very touching.
After visiting the Garden Tomb, we walked back through Old Jerusalem. The old streets are filled with merchants selling just about anything you could imagine. Some streets had souvenir shops, while other sold your normal everyday items, other streets had restaurants. Earlier in the day it was packed and we could barely walk through the streets but later in the evening it slowed down a bit.

As we were walking through the streets filled with lots of vendors, Rachel looked up and saw a BYU pendant hanging from one of the shops. She stopped and commented about the BYU pendant. The shop owner happen to hear Rachel and asked if we were mormon and invited us in. He said he had many things for mormons in his shop. We were surprised that he knew about mormons. He pulled out some BYU Jerusalem sweatshirts and t shirts that he said he has made for the students that come from the center. He said they all know about his shop. He then showed us a papyrus copy of the drawings in the Pearl of Great Price pertaining to Abraham. They were so cool. We spent quite a bit of time talking to him and bought some widows mite for Gavin and Jonny. Then he pulled out this BYU banner with Steve Young's autograph on it. He said that Steve Young has visited his shop many times. It was so cool. He had scripture covers made from leather that say Jerusalem on them which we bought for Rachel, along with a t shirt that has BYU Jerusalem written in Hebrew with a picture of the Tree of Life from the Book of Mormon and the papyrus picture.
After visiting the Garden Tomb we walked along the Via Delorosa through Jerusalem to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which was built in the early 600 AD. Some believe that the church was built on the site where the tomb of Christ is.

We happened to be inside the church when they began the Christmas Eve mass. It was very crowded so we didn't stay long.

The next morning, Christmas Day, we had arranged to have a tour guide drive us around to other sites near Jerusalem. It was very rainy and cold which we really weren't prepared for but this was our only chance to see some of the sites.
We went to the Garden of Gethsemene. This is probably the most important site for us because of the Atonement of Christ. It was here that the most miraculous event occurred that saved all man. We were very humbled to be here.
Some of these olive trees are thousands of years old and were actually here at the time Christ atoned for our sins.
Near the Garden is another church.
Next we visited the room of the Last Supper. Above is the doorway into the room.
The room is very small and not what we had expected. It was just a simple room. Most of the pictures that portray this event show a fancy table that they sat around. After living here in the Middle East and seeing the size of the room, I imagine that it was similar to the traditions of this area with just pillows and blankets surrounding the room and food being served on the floor in the center of the room.
An interesting addition to the room of Last Supper was this column that was built later. On the column are three ravens. The two on the side are eating the heart out of the one in the center. This is supposed to represent the sacrifice of the Savior. One giving his life to save others.
We then traveled to the tomb of Lazarus. It was interesting that this tomb is now owned by a Muslim family who maintain it purely for monetary reasons, yet it seemed to be the most authentic.

We also visited the tomb of King David. This is owned by the Jews, hence the head coverings on Gavin and Jonny. At first this didn't mean much to the kids until we explained that this is the same David that slew Goliath. Then is clicked who King David was.
We traveled out to the area where they believe that John the Baptist was born. It was a little village outside of Jerusalem in the hills. When I heard or read the story of Mary visiting her cousin, the mother of John the Baptist, I imagined her traveling for days out to the middle of nowhere when actually it was only about a 20 minute drive from Jerusalem. I'm sure it was a long distance to travel and through the hills would have been difficult compared to now.
Our driver took us through a Palestinian area. Here is the wall that has been built to separate the Palestinians from the Israeli areas.
Since it was a rainy cold day, we shortened our day out and headed back to the hostel. They were having a Christmas party that night for the people staying at the hostel. We met this young man, Patrick, who has been living in Israel and working as a shepherd for the past 6 months. He had been attending West Point and decided to take a religious leave for a year to do service. He said that the mormons were the ones who started this at West Point for those cadets who wanted to serve a mission. Now they offer this option to any students who want to take time off as a service leave. He found this opportunity to be a shepherd in Israel for a year. He probably is the only West Point shepherd ever.
After dinner, the party started. They had a dj and we danced all night long...well at least until 11:30.
Nicole doing the Statue of Liberty pose.
Santa even came to visit. Imagine that....Santa Clause in Jerusalem.
Vika even had the chance to sing Silent Night and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer for the party. She had help from Nicole and another lady at the hostel. We met the most interesting people here and had a very enjoyable night celebrating both Hanakuh and Christmas.
Santa would disappear for a little while but would alway come back a little more jolly each time. He loved dancing with Rachel and the kids.
Patrick danced with Rachel all night long. Gavin and I even got out on the dance floor to show off our moves. The kids have always wanted to see their dad's dance moves which he finally let it loose and danced away. It really was a very fun and memorable Christmas. Probably one of the most unique one we have had but one we will remember. We all commented that it was the best Christmas ever. We were able to see some very religious sacred sites and met some of the most amazing people. We didn't have a Christmas tree, presents or any of the traditions we usually have during this time, yet it was one of the best times we have had because we were together as a family and celebrating with some new and interesting people.
The next morning we woke up early for our last day in Israel. Jonny is enjoying his breakfast of a Nutella sandwich.
After breakfast we were picked up by a driver to take us to Bethlehem. We originally wanted to come here on Christmas Eve but were advised that it would be very crowded so we decided to go on our way back to the Jordanian border.

This is the entrance to the church built over the cave where Jesus was born. There have been many different entrances built over the hundreds of years that this church has been here which you can see with the different stone and shapes on the wall.
Above the cave where Jesus was born is now a Greek Orthodox church that was built during the crusader time.
Above the actual entrance to the cave is a Roman Catholic church. This is part of the cave under the Roman Catholic church.
The star on the floor in the picture is the actual site where they believe the Savior was born. This part of the cave is under the Greek Orthodox Church. Since the entrance is owned by the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox church had to dig a separate entrance to this spot.
The cave was very small and filled with many different relics. It was a little distracting to have all these things around in such a sacred spot. It took a lot of the spirit out of it and just became another room.

It was interesting having the story told to us by a Palestinian. His family has lived in Bethlehem for hundreds of years and he explained how it was very common for women to give birth caves or stables. The Western perception of a stable is a wooden barn as we see depicted in many pictures and nativity scenes but the stables were actual caves under the homes. The area has many caves and families would live in the caves with their animals. Eventually they would build houses above the caves and the animals would live below the houses during the colder months of the year. He said that when women would go into labor, they would go down into the caves to give birth in order to find privacy because the homes were very small with lots of family living in them. Mary and Joseph probably weren't the only ones staying in the cave that night and it would have been very normal for Mary to go back into the cave where the animals were to give birth. Our guide said that his grandfather was born in a cave so it is very common for this to occur.

Old Bethlehem is pictured behind us. This is in the plaza near the birth site of Jesus. They had a huge Christmas Tree in the plaza that will remain up through January because their are three different Christmas celebrations. The western Christmas day is December 25, but the Orthodox Christmas is later in January and then is followed by the Armenian Christmas. Our guide told us that many don't believe that the actual birth date of Christ was in December because it was too cold for Shepherds to be out in the fields with their flocks and the weather would have made it difficult for people to travel to Bethlehem. They believe it was sometime in the Spring. I didn't realize that other religions believed that same thing.
Here is the field below Bethlehem called Shepherds Field where the shepherds were visited the night of the birth of the Savior.
The Shepherds field is behind us with Bethlehem beyond that on the hill.
After visiting Bethlehem, we headed back to the Jordanian border near the Dead Sea. We are below sea level here which explains Gavin holding his breath because we are under the sea.
Our time in Israel came to an end. It was a very educational and spiritual experience. We only had a few days here but plan to hopefully return someday.

We returned to our hostel in Amman and woke up the next morning and headed south. We first stopped at the Dead Sea and then went to Karak to visit a crusader castle. The pictures for the Dead Sea and Karak will be posted later. It took several days for me to upload the pictures for this post and I was really trying to be careful to keep everything in order but didn't realize until now that I totally left out the pictures from the Dead Sea and Karak. I've spent too much time to start this post over to get the pictures in order so they will be posted later.

We swam in the Dead Sea and then spent a few hours in Karak. We arrived in Petra about 7:00 at night. The hostel we stayed in was very backpacker style. We were able to get a private room with six beds in it but the room was just a partitioned section of the downstairs area where the kitchen and breakfast area were. It was not very sound proof so we heard every noise until around 2:00 in the morning and then the noise started again at 6:30 in the morning when breakfast started. It's true you get what you pay for, but at least we had a bed to sleep in.

We were only staying about 10 minutes from Petra so we took our time getting up the next morning. We arrived at Petra around 9:00 in the morning. We knew it was going to be a long hiking/walking day through some amazing sites but we had no idea how awesome our day was going to be.

The first part of the trail into Petra had several tombs along the roadside.
We were so excited to be here.
The road enters a canyon area where the street weaved through the canyon. They had built these troughs to collect water and transport it into the middle of the city.
The canyon looked very similar to something that we would see in Utah but better.

There were several artistic carvings along the road.
This is another picture showing the water trough built through the city.
This was once a sculpture of a man leading four camels.
You still can see part of the camel. The hooves are still visible and the belly of the camel.
The water troughs had terra cotta pipes that the water flowed through. Here you can still see a part of the terra cotta pipe.
Nicole and Vika exploring a structure in the canyon wall along the road.

After walking for about 30 minutes through the canyon it opens up into a plaza area where the Treasury is. This is the structure where Indiana Jones went into to find the Holy Grail. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was the first movie that Gavin and I saw when we were dating and Gavin loves Indiana Jones so this was a huge highlight of our trip. I didn't even know there was an actual place like this until a few years ago. Then last year after we had gotten our job here in Saudi, we were traveling on Jordanian Air home to China from the job fair in Bangkok and I was looking through the airlines magazine on the plane. I read an article about Petra and realized that we could actually go there and here we are....so cool!
It is absolutely amazing how these places were sculpted out of the mountain without the use of machines. They were all chipped away by hand by hundreds of people.

There were several Bedouin families that still live here in Petra. They get money from selling souvenirs and giving rides on their camels or donkeys through Petra. It was so cool...we were expecting Indiana Jones to come riding up on his horse any minute.

More tombs.

tombs...
and tombs.

There was quite a bit of Roman influence on the architecture. They even had a amphitheater in the city.
This was believed to be the city hall and court house. The rooms under the court house were believed to be jail cells.

This road once was lined with columns such as the one in Jerash.
The colonnade was lined with street markets, churches and a temple up on the hill.
The street in this area was once paved with large stones as seen here.
We hiked several hours and miles up the mountain to reach the Monastery. Several times I was ready to hire one of the boys with the donkeys to take me to the top because it was quite the hike. We were told that it would be well worth it and we would regret not going so we persevered and finally reached the top.
At the top we found this huge amazing Monastery. Again we were in awe of the craftsman ship and details.
Although the Monastery and other buildings looked so massive on the outside, they usually only consisted of one or two rooms inside. They couldn't carve out much inside for fear of it collapsing. The picture above is inside the Monastery that only had one large room.

We hiked up to the Monastery and Gavin wanted to continue up to another section of the mountain. We were all too tired so he went up alone and had this amazing view.

It was a long day of hiking but we were so glad we did it all. We went back to the hostel and crashed. The next morning we were on our way back home to Saudi.

We left about 6:00 in the morning for the first leg of our drive home. We are going home a different way which is estimated to take around 21 hours. We thought the first day would only take about 11 hours but it actually took about 16 hours. We had booked a hotel in Buraydah which is about 4 hours north of Riyadh. It was a little scary at times on the road because it was pitch black and seemed like we were the only people on the road at times. We weren't sure what we would find in between and tried to keep our gas tank full. The road was under construction several times where we had to take detours and weren't quite sure how to get back onto the highway at times. It was rather unnerving but fortunately we were able to figure it all out. We arrived in Buraydah not knowing where our hotel was and finally had to hire a taxi to drive us there. We stopped at a mall and found a taxi but he didn't speak much English. We called the hotel and had them explain to him where they were so that we could follow him. The driver was the nicest person and when we got to the hotel he didn't want us to pay him. So many times people here have helped us without any expectations of receiving something in return. We convinced him to accept our money and were able to finally get to bed around midnight.

The next morning we took our time getting up. We weren't in much hurry because this was the first night we had comfortable beds in a really nice hotel in over a week.

We left Buraydah and headed home.
We arrived home about 5:00 in the afternoon. We celebrated our Christmas as soon as we got home. Vika was very concerned that Santa wouldn't bring her presents so the whole time on our trip we had to reconfirm to her that Santa left them back in Saudi at our house. So it was a relief to her to find presents under the tree when we got home.

Not our traditional Christmas but it was one we will remember!!!!!
A few days after getting back we went on a dune trip with several other families in the compound. We headed out in our four wheel drive vehicles for a day on the dunes.
The kids had fun sliding, boarding, and sledding down the sand.
Vika was a little hesitant at first but after a few times with Jonny she had no reserves at all.

Since we were out in the desert we were FREE!!! No abayas and Rachel, Jonny and Nicole even had a chance to drive the car.

Catch up....

2011-12-18T00:51:00.006+08:00

I really need to get better at posting on our blog. I take pictures and think of things I want to post but just don't get around to it. Then I end up having to do "catch up" posts like this one here.

Several weeks ago we purchased a 51" Plasma TV for the family but as you see here it has mostly been used for football.....When Gavin has a chance, this is his favorite position and place to be. Right in front of the TV, remote in hand and either watching football or UFC in HD TV. Typical male!!!!
Nicole has grown into quite the beautiful young woman. I can't believe how grown up she is. Yes, she is allowed to wear a little makeup but doesn't really need it. She is absolutely gorgeous.
On Thanksgiving morning I (Coree) had to coach the middle school volleyball team at a tournament on Aramco and actually was able to come home and bake two pies before heading back to Aramco for our Thanksgiving dinner with some friends. Jonny's "girlfriend" Monique and her family invited us to have Thanksgiving with their family. Her father is from America and her mother is Lebanese but lived in America for several years. She has quite a bit of family here so we were able to join them all for Thanksgiving. It was awesome. Unfortunately, we didn't take pictures but we had some great food, great conversation, and made some new friends.
Nicole was so anxious to get an Abaya. Girls aren't required to wear them until they become of child bearing years (what we would call puberty). She is at that age where she doesn't have to wear one but still felt uncomfortable not wearing it. We don't have to wear the Bhurka (head dress) but she learned how to do it and came out dressed in the full attire. The real traditional women wear gloves and sunglasses as well.

Since the women here can only express themselves with their eyes, they pretty them up with lots of cool makeup. I have seen some gorgeous eyes here. Nicole doesn't need any makeup to make her eyes expressive.
A few weeks ago we were invited by Monique and her family to go sailing at the Aramco Yacht club. Aramcon's have some great benefits like their own private beaches where they can wear normal swimsuits. This was the Yacht club where only members who have boats can come. They can come pitch tents and camp if they wanted to. There were nice tables and bbq's along with a nice park, and restaurant. It was a beautiful sunny day with just the right amount of wind and temps in the high 80's. Perfect for sailing.
Gavin has always had a dream of buying a sailboat so this really was a highlight for him. Hopefully he will be asked to help crew for some of the members here.
It really was a perfect family day which we all enjoyed.
Not sure what these two faces are but they don't express how they really felt.
We got out into the bay (Half Moon Bay) and were escorted by a pod of dolphins. It was so cool. You always hear how dolphins enjoy leading ships and we actually were a part of it. There were about 6 - 8 dolphins with babies swimming and playing all around the boat. We tried to get pictures of them jumping and were able to get a few. They stayed with us for about 10 minutes or so then went off to play somewhere else.

This is the back crew. Gavin, Nicole, and Vika were on the front.
It was absolutely beautiful out on the water.
Vika's smiling face shows it all!
Yes, this picture below just looks wrong! We had a little Christmas party at our neighbors where Santa came to visit the kids and I looked over at the boys and saw this. Doesn't quite look right. Alcohol is illegal here but they love the fake stuff. They have fake beers, wine coolers, wine, etc. These were just sparkling juice but the way they were holding them and drinking just looked wrong!
Of course they had to ham it up for the picture once they noticed I was taking them.
The little kids were able to decorate gingerbread men. Vika and Lilly were having fun decorating but mostly enjoyed eating them after.

Santa finally came and the kids all gathered around to get their Santa gift. Vika was waving to Santa to make sure he knew she was there.
The older boys were Santa's elves and helped pass out the gifts.
Vika was so excited to get her Bratz doll from Santa. It was exactly what she asked for. Wonder how he knew?
It was a great evening. It has been a little hard getting into the Christmas spirit here because you don't see it all around you like you do at home. Most of the villa's on our compound have Christmas trees and decorations so it feels a little like Christmas walking around our compound. I try to play Christmas music as much as possible to get in the mood. Next year I'm planning on bringing lots of our decorations from home but this year is simple. We were fortunate enough to get a tree with a few decorations.

It's kind of nice to not be bombarded with all the commercialism of Christmas. We have been able to really focus on what it is all about. We will be visiting Jerusalem and Bethlehem for Christmas this year where we can really remember our Savior Jesus Christ. We don't need all the fluff to have the Christmas spirit.

Merry Christmas!!!!

Beach on the Arabian Gulf

2011-11-08T01:39:00.006+08:00

Today we headed off to a beach about 30 minutes from our house with a group from our church. We got there around 4:00 and didn't even think of bringing jackets with us. It's Saudi...it doesn't get cold here. HA, were we wrong. The wind was blowing and it was rather chilly. Some friends of ours were nice enough to let Vika use a blanket they had and she bundled up and hid on the chair for the first little bit until her friend came. Once she started running around she was fine.
The beach is a huge sandy beach that we had to use four wheel vehicles to drive down to the water. Several people tried in their regular cars and got stuck. Not fun! Yes, the women did have to wear their abayas at the beach but it was pretty chilly so we didn't mind.
Jonny and Franco practiced their juggling skills.
Looks like they are practicing for a show.
The sad thing about the beaches and pretty much most of Saudi is the amount of trash people throw on the ground. This was just some of the trash we had to pick up from our site before we could enjoy it.

It was pretty chilly but we had a great fire to warm us up. Yes, it can get cool here where we need jackets and fire to keep warm.

Happy or mad? Which is it boys?

Our nice warm comfy fire.
The food arrived late because the vehicle bringing it to us got stuck in the sand but when it arrived, it was YUMMY!!!! This picture doesn't do justice, but it was roasted chicken and rice. I don't know how they do it but the Arab people know how to cook chicken.

Had lots of food and fun times with friends.

Eid Al-Adha or Festival of Sacrifice

2011-11-06T23:40:00.005+08:00

Today was the start of the official Eid Al-Adha here in Saudi Arabia. We have the entire week off of school for this holiday. The Eid Al-Adha or Festival of Sacrifice is a Muslim holiday to remember and commemorate the trial of the Prophet Abraham, particularly the trial of being told by God or Allah to sacrifice his only son Isaac. During the celebration, Muslims will sacrifice an animal such as a goat, sheep, or cow. The animal meat is then divided into thirds, one third for the family, one third for friends, and one third for the poor. During this holiday gifts are shared and it is a time of celebration.

This morning I was walking our dog around our compound and heard the sound of a goat. I thought it was one of our neighbors iPhone apps that he has for his one year old daughter that has animal sounds on it. He was out walking with his daughter as well, so I thought the goat sound was his phone but I was walking farther and farther away from them yet the goat sound was getting louder and louder. I looked over in the front yard of a villa and saw a goat popping his head up and down. It was rather cute but yet sad to think that his life was about to come to an end later that day. We have only a few Muslims living on our compound so I'm not sure who's goat it actually was. Jack went down and took some pictures of him. Unfortunately, he is probably on someones dinner table right now.

We decided to stay here for the week and just enjoy our time off. We went out and bought ourselves an Eid gift yesterday, a 51" Plasma TV. We were a little tired of the tiny compound TV that we had in our villa and gave in and bought us an Eid gift to enjoy this week.
We woke this morning and had our first taste of Beef Bacon. Of course we can't get pork bacon here but the beef bacon is pretty good. We had it in breakfast burritos with my home made tortillas, scrambled eggs, hash browns, and home made salsa. Couldn't even taste the difference.
Our weather has been perfect with temperatures in the low 90's so we took advantage of probably our last day of swimming in the pool. It is supposed to drop 15 degrees tomorrow and will be in the 70's for the rest of the week. The water was a bit chilly but still was rather refreshing.

Of course Vika and Nicole had to model and take tons of pictures.

The compound has lots of flowers blooming right now. We went down yesterday and bought some flowers and two huge jasmine vines in pots to put out on our front porch and walkway. They should be delivered tomorrow. Even though it is November, we are enjoying the beautiful weather and flowers.

Halloween in Saudi

2011-11-06T15:28:00.003+08:00

Halloween here in Saudi wasn't much different from back home. Our compound had a Halloween party for the kids in the recreation room with pizza and treats. After the pizza the kids went trick or treating to the houses in our compound. It was quite the festive evening. I was surprised to learn though that Halloween isn't celebrated much in England. Most of our British friends weren't quite sure what it was all about but they joined in and had a lot of fun.
Jonny and his friends decided to dress up as rappers and gangsters. This was Jonny's dream to finally get to wear the rapper gear that we don't like him to wear.
Of course he had to show off his guns wearing his wife beater shirt.
Nicole dressed as Justin Beiber, why? I do not know. She doesn't even like him but it was a good costume.Jack did his usual biker dude get up. He actually had to make his own chops for his glasses this year because the Elvis glasses with the chops that he has used for several years broke last year when he wore them in a student/teacher basketball game at school. He took an old pair of black socks and cut them like sideburns and glued them to his glasses. Yes, he was wearing old basketball socks on his face.

Vika started off as wanting to be a zombie fairy but ended up being a cute kitty cat with long pink hair. Of course she was cute.
I wasn't going to dress up but at the last minute I put on my PJ's and stuffed a pillow in my butt. It was a crack up. We hadn't laughed so hard in a very long time. I then decided to go as a couch potato house wife.
So our theme for the evening ended up being the white trash family....or no offense to our Palmdale friends, but we joked that we were the Palmdale white trash family.
Jonny and his friends dressed up as rapper, gangsters. No Matt is not holding an alcohol bottle and Franco doesn't have a real gun.
Nicole and her friend Marisha.
This is the one thing I wish I would have brought more of back from China. We had found all kinds of cheap Halloween and Christmas decorations there but I wasn't sure if we would be able to ship them here in our shipment. They told us not to put any type of religious things in the shipment because they would be confiscated so I left most of our things back in China, like our huge Christmas tree. At the last minute I threw in a few small Christmas and Halloween items like this pumpkin and they made it here, no problem. Now I wish I would have sent the other things.
At school on Halloween day we had a costume parade for the Elementary and Middle School students. These are a few of my students. I thought these were quite creative.
The parade was fun to see all the different costumes. Vika was her pink haired cat again.
This is my 6th grade homeroom class in their costumes. After the parade we had a Halloween party in the classroom. Overall it was quite the normal festive Halloween day. We've heard that Halloween on the ARAMCO compound is CRAZY!!!!! Maybe next year we can try to go but they say the Arabs all come out just to get the free candy.

My Awesome Birthday

2011-10-17T02:36:00.006+08:00

Today was my birthday and it was one of the best I have had in a long time. It is Sunday but here in Saudi Arabia that is like a Tuesday in the States so I had to work today but that didn't matter much, it still was an awesome day.

My day started at 5:20 this morning with a kiss from my hubby as he left bright and early to take Jonny to seminary. I arrived at school and was greeted by several of my students with all kinds of gifts. Yesterday I let it slip that it was my birthday today in one of my classes and as I said it, many of my students grabbed their planners and wrote it down like it was a homework assignment. This morning they all remembered by writing messages all over my board in my classroom along with gifts. What sweet kids they all are.

All day I was greeted with smiles and birthday wishes.

After school I got to choose where we would go for dinner. The Corniche or strand along the Arabian Gulf (not the Persian Gulf here...they call it the Arabian Gulf), anyway it is only about a mile from our house with just about every type of restaurant along the Corniche. I chose to go to TGIF, that's right, they have TGIF here in Saudi. I really think they should change the name to TAIW (Thank Allah it's Wednesday). It was just the same as in the States.
It was nice to be able to take the family out to a good restaurant with good food and service. That's something that was very hard to find in China. Here we have many choices like Chili's, Applebees, Tony Romas, TGIF, Macaroni Grill, Burger King, McDonald's, Hardees (Carl Jr's), and KFC to just name a few.
The food was great! I was able to actually have a good Chicken Chimichanga.

As you can see we had a great time enjoying our food and each other. I wish I could have taken a picture of the family next to us though. After we sat down a group of four women dressed in the full Abaya's covering their faces and all walked in with their husband. Yes, he had four wives. They sat in the booth next to us but requested privacy so they brought out a room divider to put around the booth. Gavin asked why he couldn't have four wives. After some thought he came to the conclusion on his own that one was enough.
After dinner we walked along the Corniche. Yes, that's my Abaya I wear when we go out. It really isn't that bad. I just throw it on over my clothes and it's no big deal. It does get a little hot if I'm out in the sun because it is black.

The weather is getting a little cooler so it was nice walking along the Gulf. After dinner and our walk we came back to the house to open presents and then ended the day talking to Rachel, which was the best part of it all.

Happy Birthday to me......

The Thumb

2011-10-07T20:58:00.002+08:00

So we rented a car for the week so we can go look for one to buy. It was a little difficult taking taxi's or bumming rides from other people so we decided to just rent one for now. The cars here have cigarette lighters in them. Not something you see much in the US.

Well, Jonny, being the brilliant 15 year old he is, has never seen a cigarette lighter before. We were parked on the side of the road while Jack went to look at a car for sale and Jonny was sitting in the front seat so I couldn't really see what he was doing. All of a sudden he yells and I smell burnt flesh at the same time. I see this thing go flying from his hand.

Come to find out, he didn't know the lighter would get hot when he pushed it in. He took it out and wanted to know what it felt like so he put his thumb on it. I don't think he will ever do that again. Hmmmmm.....the glowing redness and heat coming from the lighter wasn't a good enough indication that it was hot?
What is it with teenagers? Rachel did a similar thing when she was 12 with a hand held blender. She wanted to know what it felt like while the blade was spinning. Luckily she only chopped a small portion on the top of her finger and not the entire finger off.

Now they both have a dumb silly story to tell about touching things. Maybe the lesson is, if your not sure, don't touch.

ISG Dhahran Campus

2011-10-07T20:38:00.004+08:00

Here is just a quick tour of the Middle School. The campus consists of DEMS (Dhahran Elementary Middle School), DHS (Dhahran High School), and then the British School.This is one of four gyms on campus. This is probably the nicest of the four but they all are good.

This is a very nice benefit. They have a Joffrey's Coffee and Tea shop literally 20 feet from my classroom. It's not just coffee and tea, they have pastry's, fruit smoothies, salads, ice cream, and other little treats. I can call them up to place an order and they will deliver it to my classroom. Only the High School students, teachers, and staff are allowed in. The elementary and middle school students can go once a semester with their homeroom teacher.
Just another shot of Joffrey's.
The building on the left is the cafeteria and straight ahead is one entrance for one of the four gyms on campus.
The door straight ahead goes into Coree's classroom. They are portables but are equipped very nicely inside with a very cold air conditioner. That is the important thing here. The buildings are so cold though, that you literally have to go outside to warm up.
Each school has a dome building for student's to use. This is the Middle School dome. Students come here for assembly's and during breaks to hang out and play games. They have several ping pong tables, fuzball, and air hockey. Quite the fun place to hang out when it's hot outside.

This is looking down from the middle school towards the elementary and preschool section.
The strange thing is the track. It goes around the center of the campus with classrooms in the center and all around it.
This is the walkway from the cafeteria towards one of the gyms.

Millionaire Road

2011-10-07T20:07:00.005+08:00

There's this street on the way to our school that is nicknamed Millionaire Road. The pictures don't do justice because these places are insane. Many of them have a main house and then several smaller 8,000 square foot homes right next to them for the "other" wives. They are all fenced off with security like most compounds so you can't get very close and they probably would not be happy that we took pictures but the size of them is unreal.The compound of homes had a huge probably 20,000 square foot home with three other large homes that we could see.
This is one gate to the smaller home on the compound pictured above.
This is gate two for the second home on the same compound. Maybe being one of the "other" wives isn't so bad.
This house looks exactly like the White House in DC.
Just another compound of homes. Again the pictures don't do justice but the amount of money these people have is insane. See where all the money goes for oil?

Girls will be girls...and more!

2011-10-01T00:08:00.002+08:00

Vika is quite the girly girl. She loves to play dress up as an "adult" version of Vika. She probably wears my high heels more than I do and jewelry is always an accessory in her wardrobe. She had a friend over to play one day and came down dressed up like this. Her friend, who is a boy, also came down with my heels on but wouldn't let me take a picture. Vika of course loves the camera and hams it up whenever a camera is pointed at her. Here she is fashioning skinny jeans with black high heel sandals, a large fashionable bag from Rue 21, of course lots of bracelets and the ever famous Dior glasses on her head. Quite the fashionable little girl.
One fun thing about living in different countries is trying the different types of food. It can be disappointing at times but occasionally we are surprised to find a gem. I saw these melons at the store and decided to give them a try since I love cantelope, I was hoping to find an orange melon inside. When I cut the melon open and saw a white fruit I was a little disappointed thinking it would be more like a honey dew which is one of my least favorite melons. The seeds were the orange color that you would see in a cantelope so I wasn't sure what it was. I was pleasantly surprised to find it tastes exactly like cantelope. It's like an albino version because the color is taken out of it but it is just as sweet as a cantelope that I'd get back home. YUMMY!!!!

Another surprise today was discovering that coriander is the same as cilantro. I love to cook mexican food and make my own salsa but just couldn't find fresh cilantro here and was really disappointed. I was told that coriander is the same but I just didn't believe it because it didn't have the same smell. I would go through the fresh herb section in the stores and smell all the things that looked similar to cilantro which coriander does but it just didn't have that same fresh smell. I decided to just try coriander and see. Today I made a Taco Salad for dinner and as I was chopping up the coriander, that strong beautiful aroma of cilantro crept it's way up to my nose and a smile spread from ear to ear. YES it is the same and I am so happy, Happy, HAPPY!!!!!!

For the past three years when we returned back to Utah for the summer I have craved GOOD peaches. I was always disappointed because we never were there for the actual peach season and the peaches from the stores just were blah! I was at Tamimi's (Saudi's Safeway) here and saw these Lebanese Peaches. They looked perfect so I thought what the heck, I'll try them. THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS! Who would ever had known that peaches grew in Lebanon and that they were so good. I am in love....
After enjoying some fresh peaches I decided to make my favorite Peach Cobbler. It was heavenly.... Utah may have good peaches, Georgia may be known as the Peach State but Lebanon almost out beats them all. Lebanese Peaches....AWESOME!!!!

Still love it here....all is good!

Life is good!

2011-09-17T01:16:00.006+08:00

الحياة الطيبة

Life is so good!. I know we have only been here less than a month but so far life is good.

Our experience in China for the past three years has made this transition to Saudi Arabia a piece of cake. What seems irritating and inconvenient to others here, doesn't seem bad at all. Yes, there are some things that can become frustrating but the difference here is that we can escape to our normal life in the compound. We don't have to live right in the midst of it all.

We have just heard that our Iqama's are ready which means we can now get mobile phones, internet, satellite tv, bank account, and most importantly a car. Once we get these things, life will be even better. It hasn't been too bad without a car. The compound has a van that will take us shopping to either the grocery store or mall four days a week and then Tamimi's (Safeway) has a van that will pick us up twice a week. The help of our neighbors and friends for all the other little errands has made it very convenient and easy to get what we need.

Having our Iqama's also means we can now get the process started to receive our shipment from China. It is supposed to arrive in the next few days but we weren't able to start the paperwork to get it cleared through customs when it arrives until we had our Iqama's. It may still take a few weeks but at least I know I will be seeing our things that we left in China four months ago in the near future.

The Iqama is like a green card in the US. It just shows that we have permission to work here in Saudi Arabia.

We are really loving the simplicity of our lives here. The school doesn't require us to give our entire lives to it. We are asked to offer an after school activity but it is only once a week from 2:30 - 3:30 and they pay you extra for it. Both Gavin and I will be coaching Volleyball starting this week which fulfills our requirement of the after school activities. I will be coaching the MS girls A team and Gavin will be coaching the JV girls team. Practices are only twice a week from 2:30-3:30 but we could have more if we want. Nicole will be trying out for the MS team and Jonny the boys JV team.

On Wednesday night, which is our Friday night here, Gavin and I walked down to Hyper Panda to do some grocery shopping. It is located in a small mall only a few blocks from our house. The mall has a food court so we decided to make it a date and have dinner. The food court had a KFC, Hardy's, Popeyes, a sub shop, fish and chips, an Italian place, Chinese (which we won't have too much), Lebanese food, and of course an Arab place with our favorite Shawarma's. We were able to have a great meal for only $8.00 for the both of us. The food court has two separate eating sections. One is only for men and the other is a family section for men and women. After dinner we just walked around Hyper Panda which is like a Super Walmart back home. We spent about two hours just wandering around seeing what is available here. We are finding that we can find just about everything we need. Most of it is cheaper or just a little more than back home but we don't have to pay sales tax here so it still becomes a bargain.

We left both agreeing that it was a very cheap and pleasant date, something that we would never have been able to do in China. Whenever we wanted to go out to eat in China it became just too much of a hassle. Our choices in China were McDonalds, KFC, cheap Chinese food that would always make Gavin sick, or foo foo expensive restaurants. We would walk around and become frustrated that we either had to pay way too much for crappy food or eat greasy unhealthy McDonalds. Our dinner out here was cheap, good and a very pleasant experience.

Shawarma's have become one or our favorite foods so far here. It is their version of a chicken burrito on flat bread. So instead of going to Taco Bell for bean burritos, we will be heading down to the food court for Shawarma's.

A few weeks ago it was Jonny's 15th birthday. It was only a week after we had gotten here and we felt bad because we weren't able to get out and find him a cool birthday present. We had brought a few things from home to give to him but he really wanted an iPod dock with an alarm clock. We looked here but just couldn't find the right thing for him. On his birthday we decided to take him to the mall and just let him walk around and look for something. He found some really cool Van high tops but of course they didn't have his size. Just as we were leaving the mall we passed a store that sold Apple products and he was able to find the perfect iPod dock with alarm clock and speakers. It was a little more expensive than what we would have paid back home but it was his birthday and we were glad to find exactly what he wanted. He had a great birthday with his friends here swimming and just hanging out.

I can't believe he is already 15.

Like I said, "Life is Good". We don't know why we didn't come here sooner.

Our Villa in An Nassim

2011-09-11T00:44:00.007+08:00

After 24 hours of traveling we finally made it to Saudi Arabia. We left Salt Lake at 2:15 pm on August 25 and arrived in Dammam Saudi Arabia at 9:00 pm on August 26. The time difference is 9 hours so that makes nearly 24 hours of travel time. We were a little tired but excited to be here.

Our school arranged for a government agent to meet us at our gate to take us through customs quickly. They had all the new teachers on the same flight from Amsterdam so we had a group of nearly 20 people. After several hours of waiting for the group to clear customs and get our luggage we loaded busses and headed for our new home on the An Nassim compound.

The school provides a completely furnished 4 bedroom 3 1/2 bath villa with nearly 3,000 sq feet of space. They stocked our kitchen with some basics and provided us with all our linens, dishes, kitchen ware, and furniture. It's not all exactly what we would choose but it's all free. I've created a little tour of our compound and villa with pictures and as you will see, it looks a little outdated like we time traveled back to the 80's. The Arabs seem to love pale colors on the walls and lots of gold and bling.
This is a picture of the front of our villa. We live in #113. The villas are all three stories and connected like town homes. We plan to add some plants and little touches to our porch to make it seem more welcoming.
When you walk into the villa you enter this sitting/parlor area. I have a huge Chinese banquet table coming from China that will look perfect in this room. This will be my Chinese room with our relics and things from China.
Just right off the sitting/parlor area is a living room. Right now it looks a little bare but again once our shipment comes from China we can add our own little touches. I can't wait to get all our Thai decor and Vietnam things out and on the walls.
This is the formal dining area which will never get used as a dining room. Notice the very 80's light wood furniture...this is par to the villas. Everyone here has this same dining room set.
Next is the kitchen. The exciting part of this room are all the American sized appliances including a dishwasher. That is something we haven't had for three years in China. Love having some of those conveniences back.
This is another view of the kitchen where we have a little eating area and door that goes out to our backyard.
The backyard needs some work. They say that we have a gardener that takes care of it but it doesn't look like they have done much lately. The trees and bushes are overgrown and desperately need trimming. We are so exciting to have a yard though because we promised the kids we would get a dog. Quite a few of our neighbors, which are all teachers at our school, have dogs so we are on the hunt for a friendly addition to our family.
Upstairs on the second floor is a loft area where the TV is currently. Once we get a better and bigger TV, we will move things around downstairs and make the formal dining room into a TV room. The dining room table will be moved in the living room which will become more of a music/sitting room. This room will then become a game room with the x-box and kid stuff.
On the second floor are three of the four bedrooms and two baths. This is the kids bathroom. Again notice the American toilet along with the "butt washer".
This is Vika's room. She has two beds in her room but they only gave us bedding for one of them. We will eventually take the kids to pick out their own bedding and will get extras for the other bed which Rachel will probably use when she comes to visit. The gold lamps really need to go. Like I said it's a time travel back to the 80's, plus the Arabs seem to love gold.
Each or the kids rooms have a huge closet and desk. This house had so much storage and space. More than we know what to do with.
This is Nicole's closet and desk in her room.
Nicole's room has a double bed and plenty of room for a teenager.
The Master bedroom has a huge King size bed, which looks small in this picture because the room is so large. It is called a "super" king which is about the size of a California King. We love huge beds because we need our space. The beds are pretty comfortable, way more comfortable than then beds in China. We have some memory foam bed toppers coming in our shipment so once those get here, it will be perfect. The ceilings in this house are all very tall so it creates a very open feeling.
The master bathroom...
equipped with our American toilet and the European "butt washer".
Upstairs is our laundry area. Again, notice the American sized washer and dryer. No more tiny crappy Chinese size that only fits two pairs of pants and takes two hours to dry clothes.
Jonny's room is on the third floor along with his own bathroom. He also has two beds in his room but only one had bedding.
Part of the third floor is a roof area. We can hang clothes out if we want. It's so hot that they dry way faster than the dryer. Right now it is too hot to enjoy this area but maybe we can find some good use of it. We had a large roof area at our house in China but never did anything with it. Had lots of ideas but it was way too hot. They say in about a month it will start cooling off and will be really nice outside.
This is the view of our compound from our roof. The center area is a circular driveway around the compound with parking in the center and in front of our villas.
Another view of the compound looking towards the guarded gate.

The compound has a club house with a large recreation room. Their are quite a number of kids on the compound and they like to come down here to watch movies. It's a great place for kids to hang out.
The compound has two tennis courts but one is used for basketball,
air hockey and fusball,
ping pong table and pool table,
squash court,
tennis court (but it's a little too hot right now for this),
weight room,
and a swimming pool. The pool has been a favorite spot for us. We come down here just about everyday for a few hours in the evening. We thought the water would be too warm but it actually is just the perfect temperature. The pool is open until late November and then closes for a few months because it gets too cold. Can't imagine that but they say it does get a little chilly in the winter. It will be a lot like Arizona weather which really isn't that cold at all.

So far we love the compound life. Many of the teachers from our school live here and there are kids all ages here. Jonny, Nicole, and Vika have all made some great friends. We don't have to worry about them because they all just hang out in the compound and have found plenty to do together. They go shoot pool, play ping pong, watch movies, swim, and just have fun.

We don't have a car yet because we have to wait until we get our Iqama's (green card) which should come in a few weeks but we can always find a way to get where we need to go. The school provides a bus from our compound to school each day and back. The compound has a van that will take us anywhere we want to go on certain days and Tamimi's (Safeway) provides a van to transport us twice a week to their store. We are walking distance to a little mall that has a huge grocery store called Hyper Panda with some other shops and a food court that has KFC, Quizmo's, Popeye's Chicken, Starbucks, Baskin Robbins, and some other food chain's. We are about a 10 minute drive to IKEA and another mall that has just about everything in it. We have been very impressed with the availability of products and stores here. It is like living in America but in Saudi Arabia. Things are very Westernized here.

We plan to do some decorating and painting of our villa so we will post pictures as those things happen.

This has been a great move for our family. We heard how much people love living here and now we know why.

Our Fabulous Summer

2011-09-09T21:24:00.016+08:00

Well, I have a lot of catching up to do again for the past three months. Someday I'll keep this updated and won't have to post these huge long posts.

Our summer was absolutely awesome full of lots of fun activities.

On our way back from China in June we stopped in Los Angeles to visit Grandpa Jim in Palos Verdes. The one thing that Jonny wanted to do was go to the Staples Center to see where the Lakers play hoping to see someone famous.

The closest they got to seeing someone famous was this statue of Kobe Bryant.

Gavin was able to sit next Chick Hearn and do a little bit of commentary.
We spent most of our time visiting Grandpa Jim and his girlfriend Giselle. We took them up to a park overlooking the ocean in San Pedro.

After a few days in Palos Verdes, California we finally arrived in Utah on June 18.
Our condo near BYU was vacant for the summer so we had a place to stay. These are views from our balcony. We loved waking up to this view each morning. Just south of the condo about 200 yards is a huge water park called Seven Peaks. The annual pass was only $49.99 so we took advantage of that and went at least 5 times a week.

For those people who seem to not understand why we like Utah or America so much rather than China, these are perfect examples. Traffic is light and people know how to drive and stay in their lanes.
The sidewalks are not all torn up with cracks and trenches. They are free of debris and people don't spit, pee, or poop on the sidewalk. Notice no trash and you can actually walk without having to go through obstacles. No bikes with riders ringing their bells for you to move out of the way. The sidewalks are built for people to actually walk on and feel safe.

For Gavin's birthday we went on a motorcycle ride up to Flaming Gorge Dam with my sister Ranell and her husband Mike, and my brother Keith and his wife Steph from Arkansas. It was a beautiful ride through the mountains and just an awesome day with my family. The only down side was we got caught in a thunder and hail storm coming from Vernal to Roosevelt. We had to pull over on the side of the road and wait out the storm. Fortunately it was only a few minutes but those few minutes drenched us. All and all, it was an awesome day.

Now they look like real biker's.
Gavin loves pie so for birthday's we usually have pie instead of cake. The kids decorated the house and had it ready for a little party after we returned from our bike trip.

This was an unusual year with tons of snow in the mountains when we came back. Snowbird Ski Resort was open until July 4th so Gavin was able to get some skiing in. That is one thing we have missed about Utah. It wasn't the best snow but after not having the real stuff for three years, it was still worth it.

We love the lake and take any opportunity we can get to go. Our good friend in our ward in Lakeview, Tommy Deaver, took us out for some time on Deer Creek.

The view is just amazing with tall mountains in the background. Just another reason why we love coming home to Utah each summer.
The water was a little cold which isn't surprising since there was still snow in the mountains but the temperature was hot enough outside that it actually felt good jumping in.
Tubing is always fun and the kids have just as much fun doing this than wake boarding.

Coree's better look with hair flying in her face.
Rachel always has to do some sort of pose or face. Not sure what she was trying to portray here.
Vika loves just about everything and is always the cutie pie.
Another favorite thing and tradition we have is to walk through Provo Canyon on Sunday afternoons. The river was so high this year because of all the snow. Still the most beautiful place on Earth.
Nicole.
Vika
and of course Coree and Gavin.

The kids at Provo Canyon.
Yes, there are times when we can get pouty and bored but it usually doesn't last long.
Thanks to my awesome sister and niece we were able to go to a Real Soccer game. They had an awesome firework show after the game to celebrate the 24th of July.
One rather irritating thing this summer was trying to get our visa's for Saudi. We had a visa company doing this for us back in Washington D.C. who were awesome but the lady who needed to approve our paperwork in the Saudi Embassy was a huge pain....Our passports were stamped with an exit stamp from China but since we are US citizens they didn't stamp our passports when we entered back into the United States. They have never done this when we have returned.

Well, the lady in the Saudi Embassy didn't believe that we were actually in the United States because we didn't have an entry stamp. Where else would we be? She would not approve our paperwork until she had proof that we were here. Even though we had notarized documents from the Provo Police Department giving us clearance, medical reports from our doctor here in the US dated after we returned, lab reports from a hospital in Utah, and various other documents; she did not believe we were actually in the US. HUGE PAIN! So we sent bills we received along with this picture of Gavin holding his Utah drivers license, a recent bill addressed to our Utah address, next to a car with Utah plates, and a date stamped. After this and actually talking to Gavin on the phone, along with another notarized document, she finally accepted the fact that we were actually in the United States and not in outer space.
Our renters moved into our condo August 18th so we had to move out and were homeless for about a week before we left for Saudi. We drove up to Rexburg, Idaho to show Rachel around BYU-I. We did some camping on our way back home. We camped out at the Sand Dunes near Rexburg and rented a few ATV's. It was the funnest time. Jonny is definitely hooked and we plan to do this again next year. Maybe even get our own ATV's. This might be something we can do in Saudi since they have an entire country of sand.
Gavin doing a little bit of hot dogging.

Coree getting a little braver doing donuts.
Jonny LOVED it!
Nicole and Rachel both became sand bunnies.

Vika just liked the park at the campground and was happy just doing this but also had her fun on the ATV's.
Vika even drove one with a little help from Rachel.
After camping at the dunes we stopped at this park near the river in St. Anthony, Idaho. They had a little swimming hole with this slide into the river.
It was a nice little beach and swimming area.
Jonny and Rachel would rather just play on their phones.

They even had a diving board into the river.
Gavin and his perfect dive????
Nicole was a little scared to jump but after lots of persuasion, finally made the plunge.
After a few days in Idaho we headed to the Grand Teton National Park and camped a few days near Jackson Lake. Another beautiful part of the US.

We weren't quite as prepared cooking wise but the foil dinners are always a hit. Doesn't matter where you are, foil dinners and S'mores always taste good.

A little storm came through the Tetons our last night there. It only lasted a few minutes.

We headed home from the Tetons on Sunday morning thinking we were going to be able to spend some time in Roosevelt with Ranell and Mike but ran into a little bit of a problem about 30 miles south of Pinedale, Wyoming. We didn't notice the car was overheated until it had already done some major damage. We pulled over and fortunately had some people stop to help us.

We thought it was just a simple fix of some hoses but couldn't get parts until Monday morning so a State Trooper stopped and called a tow truck for us and helped us get back to Pinedale in a hotel for the night. Pinedale is in the middle of nowhere and expensive because it is a oil town. The tow truck driver helped us get the car back but informed us that it sounded like we had blown the head gasket of the engine. Not good especially in a small oil town. We discovered the next morning that the mechanics were booked for weeks and it was going to cost us $2500.00 to fix.

Our suburban is over ten years old and barely even worth that. It has been a great car and we have loved driving it all over the country for the past 5 years but it just wasn't worth fixing. We were desperate because we had to get back to Provo to get ready to leave to Saudi a few days later. We tried to figure out how to get it back to Provo where we possibly could have gotten it fixed for cheaper or at least sold it for parts but it would have cost us nearly $1,000 with renting a car, towing, hotel, gas, etc. so we just left the car in Pinedale. Sad to leave it but we had no choice.

Gavin's sister in Salt Lake rented a car to pick us up in. Since we had 6 people stranded and a suburban full of camping gear and suitcases, we needed a bigger car than they had. Her son Riley drove five hours out to pick us up on Monday. We said goodbye to our suburban, loaded up the rental and drove back to Provo. Not a great way to end our summer but no big deal. We were leaving to Saudi in a few days and don't need a car until we return next summer.

We love Utah and enjoyed every minute we spent there with family and friends and can't wait to go back next year.

Our Final Chinese Trip

2011-07-30T04:33:00.021+08:00

On our way home from China to Utah we decided we needed to make one last trip through China. We hadn't seen the main things we had wanted to see, such as the Great Wall and Terra Cotta Warriors. I think we would have really regretted leaving China without seeing these historical things. We planned a very fast short three day tour through Beijing and Xian before we left back to the US.While waiting in the Shenzhen airport for our flight to Beijing, the restroom had a very clean western toilet but the sign on the door said it was for the "weak only". I guess we are weak because there was no way we were going to use the traditional Chinese squatters.

The airlines was a domestic Chinese airlines so of course we were privileged to be served Chinese food on our last Chinese flight in China. It was 8:30 in the morning and this is what was served. Actually it wasn't that bad but of course Gavin was very leery about eating it with his experience with Chinese food and the various issues it causes after he has eaten it.
Rachel just being her cute goofy self with an orange in her mouth.
We arrived in Beijing around 1:00 in the afternoon and after getting checked into our hotel, we walked to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. We were fortunate to find a hotel that was cheap and only a few blocks away.
This is Tiananmen Square where the massacre occurred in 1989.
At the square they had these communist statues. The kids were imitating the people in the statue.
The Forbidden City in the background is right across the street from Tiananmen Square. It was very sunny but really didn't feel very hot because it was not humid like Shekou.

The Forbidden City is one of their oldest historical sites but has sadly become very commercialized. We walked in through the courtyard and were hounded by vendors. It was rather annoying. You had to pay to actually go through the city but we got there too late to be able to do this.
This is in the courtyard in the Forbidden City. Behind the kids is the paid entrance for the other part of the city that we weren't able to see.
The same night we arrived in Beijing we arranged for an overnight train ride and tour of Xian where the Terra Cotta Warriors are. We had booked this several weeks in advance but were informed that we were only able to get the two upper bunks in three separate rooms. The rooms were rather comfortable and clean for China but we were a little irritated that we were being split up.
Jonny and Rachel were fortunate that the couple in the lower bunks were an older French couple. They just read and listened to their ipods before going to sleep for the night.
Nicole and Coree were placed in a room where two Chinese men were sharing with them. That was very unnerving. Gavin and Vika were sharing with two other Chinese men who asked if they could trade rooms with Nicole and Coree so they could drink and party with the other men. The trade was gladly made so it worked out but could have been a very uncomfortable situation.

The train left at 8:00 at night and arrived in Xian the next morning at 7:30 so we played games and just slept for most of the trip.

We arrived in Xian where we were met by our tour guide for the day at the train station. Breakfast was included with the tour and we were taken to a very dirty Chinese buffet at a nearby hotel, which was not a good situation. We politely but rather sternly requested they take us somewhere else. The bowls and chopsticks were greasy and not clean at all, along with other unsanitary conditions. The tour guide could tell we were quite upset. The sad thing is that the room was filled with other western tourists who were just putting up with the situation but since we had lived in China for three years, we were not going to put up with the dirty conditions. We eventually told the guide to just take us to the closest McDonalds and we would pay for our own breakfast which they did.
Our first stop in Xian was to the Muslim Temple. Muslim is the third largest accepted religion in China. There are numerous Muslim's who live in this area. The Great Mosque is one of the oldest Mosque's in China. It was built in 742 and has been renovated several times over the years and is still used today by the local Muslim's in Xian.
The buildings and structures were amazing with lots of intricate details.
They even had Master Uguay from Kung Fu Panda, at least that is what we told Vika.

This is the prayer room that holds nearly 1200 people who can come to pray 5 times a day.
The gardens in the Mosque were amazing with lots of character.

The building roofs all had animal faces around the edges. We asked why and the guide said that there is a different animal face depending on which direction they are facing.

After visiting the Great Mosque, we walked over to the Drum and Bell towers in Xian. The drum tower was built in 138o during the Ming Dynasty. It was used to alarm the people of danger and also at dusk to signal the passage of time. It isn't used today but now holds the largest drum in China which can be seen in the picture.
Near the Drum Tower are these beautiful gardens filled with flowers.

Across from the Drum Tower is the Bell Tower. The Bell Tower is the center of the city with four major streets going in each direction from the tower. It was built in 1384 by Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang as a way to warn the people early of attacks by rival rulers. We were also told that the bell rang every morning to wake the people of the city up.
Of course they have modernized the area around the towers. We had this picture taken in a large courtyard near the towers that was surrounded by modern shops. Isn't the purse backdrop cute? Coree didn't even notice it until she saw the picture after.
The girls just being silly with a statue near the towers.

After the bell towers, we went to the City Wall that surrounds the inner city of Xian. After the Ming Dynasty was established, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang in the 1380's renovated the old city wall that was originally built during the Tang Dynasty in the 700's. He wanted a higher larger wall built around the entire city to provide more protection. It is the most complete city wall that has survived in China and the largest ancient military defensive systems in the world.

When we arrived at the wall they were putting on a show in one of the courtyards. They had many large drums playing with dancers representing the warriors who protected the city.

The wall stands 40 feet high and is 40-46 feet wide at the top and 50-60 feet thick at the bottom. It is 8.5 miles in length around the inner city with a deep moat surrounding it. The government has required that buildings within the wall in the inner city cannot exceed a certain height to try to keep the historical feel of the ancient city. The outer city buildings of course were all sky scrapers and more modern.

All along the wall and at each corner were buildings where the ancient guards were posted to protect the city.
We decided to rent these tandem bikes to ride on top of the wall around the entire city.

The bike ride started out really fun with the kids going crazy and riding fast but towards the end after riding over 8 miles, we ran out of gas and just wanted to get back to the beginning. It was still pretty cool to be able to ride a bike on top of the wall.
After the wall we were taken to a very nice and clean Chinese buffet for lunch. I guess the guide got the message and made sure we were taken to a nice place this time.

After lunch we headed for an hour drive out to the Terra Cotta Warriors. On the way out to the site the guide told us the story of how the warriors were found. A local farmer was digging a well in 1974 and found the Terra Cotta head of one of the warriors. He was frightened and didn't tell anyone right away but eventually told a professor about it. They later excavated the area and found thousands of warriors. They associated this find to the Qin Dynasty. The first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, became the emperor when he was 13 years old. He was very concerned about his protection and wanted an army of 6,000 warriors to be buried around him upon his death. He initially wanted live warriors to be buried but was advised that that would not be a good idea so he then had life sized Terra Cotta warriors created. Each warrior was created with unique individual characteristics based on live people.

It took over 11 years for these warriors to be built. They were then set up in strategic positions surrounding the emperors tomb.

We asked the guide if the farmer was still alive who had found the first warrior. He said "Yes, he's usually around the museum in the gift shop." We didn't believe him until we got to the site and again asked if the farmer was around. The guide pointed to a building and said he sometimes is sitting in there. He acted like it was no big deal. Again we didn't really believe him but walked into the gift shop and there he was. We were able to get a picture and a signed postcard. Amazing that this one farmer discovered this incredible historical site and is just sitting in the gift shop like it is no big deal.
The first pit of warriors is twice the size of a football field and has over a thousand warriors. It was amazing. The details put into making the actual warriors and then setting them in was incredible. It was like a little boy was playing with his army soldiers but these were actual life size toys.

The above picture shows the arms extended out from some of the warriors. There were wooden chariots in front of them with the warriors holding the reins of the horses but because the chariots were made of wood, they had deteriorated to nothing. Some of the warriors were also holding weapons in their hands which also were made of wood and are no longer visible.

The sign in the lower right hand corner of the picture above is the site where the farming was digging the well.

This picture is of the "hospital" where the warriors are restored.

The second pit was smaller and deeper. The heads are missing from these warriors because they were stolen before the site was secured.

The picture above and pictures below are close ups of actual Terra Cotta Warriors. There were several different types made from the young 16 year old boys who were placed in the front lines, older warriors, generals, and the emperor.

Pit number three shows how many of the warriors were originally found before renovation. They have stopped the renovation and are waiting for better technology in order to preserve the site.
After our visit to Xian we boarded another overnight train back to Beijing. We only were in Xian for the day and boarded the train at 8:00 pm and arrived back in Beijing the next morning at 7:30 where we were met by another tour guide to take us to the Great Wall.
On the way to the Great Wall we passed the Bird's Nest stadium built for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

There are several different areas of the Great Wall to visit but since we were short on time we chose to see one of the more touristy parts that was a few hours drive outside of Beijing. This part of the wall was in the mountains and you had several options on how to get up to the wall section. You could take a gondola, walk, or a chair lift. We chose the chair lift which normally wouldn't be bad if it was in the US but this was a Chinese chair lift which made quite the unnerving ride to the top.

The chair was like an old vinyl chair with slats in it that who knows how old they were.

At the top we had amazing views of the mountains where the wall was built all along the top. Amazing how they would even had gotten the materials up there to build such an enormous structure.

We were able to walk all long the top of the wall which was rather difficult at times because of the uphill climb.

The wall had little buildings where the guards would stay who were protecting China from outside invasions.

It was rather hot so we only spent about an hour walking around the top. We had chosen to take an alpine slide down the mountain to the bottom which is pictured below.

Waiting our turn for the slide.
On our way down on the slide. It was really fun but because Gavin and Vika were in front, the kids couldn't go as fast as they wanted to.

We are all lined up in our slides behind Gavin and Vika.

After spending most of the day at the wall, we returned to our hotel for a short rest and then went to a Chinese Acrobatic show at night. The show was amazing. On our way home we were soaked by a heavy rain storm and then spent the rest of the evening relaxing.

The next morning we headed off to Tiananmen Square again where Rachel wanted to see Mao Zedong's body. Mao Zedong is considered to be the father of communist China and died in 1976. His body was preserved and is entombed in a glass case in a museum in Tiananmen Square. We left the hotel at 7:30 in the morning because it opened at 8:00 but were surprised to see a rather large line waiting to get in. We started to get in line and were told by the security that Rachel couldn't go in because she had flip flops on. We also didn't have our passports and you needed proper id to enter the building. We all went back to the hotel and then only Rachel, Gavin, and Nicole went back to see his body. Pictures weren't allowed so they weren't able to get any but they said it was a little strange.

After seeing the body, they headed over to the National Museum where they were disappointed to find very little actual artifacts but were able to take some cute pictures in the gardens near by.

Typical Chinese transportation? Not really but a cool little bike.

After a morning of site seeing, we headed off to the airport to board Asiana Airlines for our trip to the US.
These are our final Chinese departure cards. Happy to be going back to the US and on to another adventure in Saudi Arabia but a little sad for the kids to be leaving their friends in China. Although it has been a hard, interesting three years in China, we are leaving with some very good memories of friends and have been able to have some amazing adventures in Asia.

Good bye China....

Last Days at QSI

2011-07-30T04:27:00.002+08:00

someTeaching at QSI gave us the opportunity to get to know awesome kids from all over the world. Most of the students in this picture with Gavin, were also students of Coree's when they were in Middle School. We got to learn about many different cultures and make some very good friendships while we were in China.
The last day of school was also the same day as the NBA final games. If you look close, the game is playing on the board in the background.

Jonny's Eagle Project

2011-07-30T04:19:00.002+08:00

Jonny was able to complete and receive his Eagle Project before we left China. His project was creating a flyer informing Chinese fisherman on Hai Nan Island about the conservation of sea turtles. He then organized a group to distribute the flyers consisting of students from his school and a local Chinese school on the island. Rachel and Jonny were part of a group from QSI to go to Hai Nan Island to participate in the Sea Turtle 911 conservation group. Jonny was able to combine his Eagle Project with this trip.
Here Jonny is pinning the pin onto Gavin.
Gavin, who was also Jonny's scout leader, pinning his Eagle Project award on his uniform.
The scouting program is small but strong in China. Gavin was able to form the first international scout troop in Shenzhen China.

Prom 2011

2011-07-30T04:08:00.003+08:00

Rachel, Blair, and Nancy ready for their dates to the Prom. Aren't they the hottest girls ever? Their dates are the luckiest guys in the world to be able to go to prom with them.

Rachel and her date Dustin.
Blair and Luke.
Nancy and Daniel (aka Harry the Hungarian)

Rachel and Annie.
Rachel and Mahika.
Rachel, Wendy, Mahika, Gabriella, and Laura.

Graduation Day!

2011-07-30T03:38:00.005+08:00

On June 3, 2011, Rachel graduated as part of the first IB class from QSI in China with an International Baccalaureate Diploma. She worked very hard the past two years to achieve this accomplishment. We were so proud of her and still am today.
Her graduating class consisted of 45 students from all over the world.

Mr. Lewis presenting the diploma to Rachel.

A very proud moment for all of us. Rachel is awesome!

Since Gavin was part of the faculty he wore the robes for the graduation.
Mr. Galicia is a very dear friend to our family and Rachel was fortunate to have him as her IB Biology teacher.
Gavin, Jonny, Blair (Rachel's twin as everybody calls her, and our second daughter), and Rachel.

Rachel had the opportunity to make some very good friends from all over the world. Her she is with one of her best friends, Mahika, from India.
Vika, Graduating class of 2023?????
Rachel, Mahika (India), Gavin, Gabriella (Sweden), Blair (Portland, Oregon), and Wendy (Cleveland, Ohio)
Gavin, Laura (Germany), and Rachel
Rachel and Valeria (Virginia)

What a great day!

So Ready!!!!!

2011-06-06T12:55:00.002+08:00

We are so ready to leave China. Today is our last Monday here in Shekou. We leave this Sunday but will spend a few days in Beijing and Xian before we head out of China for good on June 16. We really are counting down every day, minute, second that we will be able to leave.

This morning was a typical "I need to get out of here" morning. The construction hasn't gotten any better and I was trying to carry some large items to school this morning and had to maneuver getting Vika, myself, and all this stuff onto a public bus. It was blazing hot with 1000% humidity which didn't make it any better. We finally get on a bus and of course I have to stand carrying all this crap with a bus driver that was CRAZY. The roads are completely torn up so it's like four wheel driving through the desert with dirt, mud, pot holes all over the place and a driver who doesn't want to slow down. So....I'm trying to keep my balance, keep my stuff from falling all over and rolling down the isle and making sure Vika is safe. At this point I'm already drenched with sweat and it's 8:00 in the morning.

We finally get to school and are dropped of in the middle of a sand pile with piles of bricks, rocks, and other debris all over the place. Again, I'm carrying all this crap and trying to cross a torn up street making sure that we don't get hit by any crazy drivers.

Not a good start to my day.

Then, I get to school and decide that I wanted to order lunch from a semi decent Chinese restaurant. I figure I'm not going to get much of the real crap so I might as well fill up on it this week. (It really isn't that bad and they have a few things I really like) So, I order my food through our receptionist and am looking forward to my lunch all morning, but of course it just can't be that simple.

My food comes and is totally NOT what I wanted. I wanted chicken with cashews but I get dried cold chicken with TONS of chili peppers. Not one cashew in sight, just dried chicken and chili peppers. YUCK!!!! I had also ordered white rice and dumplings so I thought "OK, at least I can enjoy that" but I didn't want just plain rice so I decided to put the sauce on it that they sent with the dumplings. It looked like normal soy sauce...but NO!!!!!! It tasted like barf. Really, I was eating barf seasoned rice and dumplings.

Of course that went immediately to the trash and I went to my ever favorite Charlie's where they sale imported food and am now having a lunch of microwave popcorn, Hershey's chocolate bar with almonds, and a Diet Mt. Dew. I know, not the most healthy but I deserved some of my favorite American comfort food.

Yes....we are SO READY to leave.

Sea Turtles 911....too cool!

2011-06-03T16:52:00.012+08:00

Jonny and Rachel went on a trip to a Chinese island called Hai Nan in June. There they learned how to conserve and rescue sea turtles. The hospital that the sea turtles were stationed at was on a floating hut. The hatchlings and post-hatchlings were stored underneath the dock which can be seen in the picture below. In the picture Jonny is holding one of the post-hatchlings that were stored underneath the dock.
Everyday the group, including Jonny and Rachel, performed a basic routine of cleaning and feeding the sea turtles. Before the sea turtles are rescued from poachers the turtles are stored in small nets with many other fish and turtles with terrible conditions. The sea turtles can receive stress related diseases that need to be taken care of due to the poor conditions they were living in. Everyday the group had to clean the turtle's shells and check whether the stress related diseases spread to other parts of their shell. In the picture below Rachel is holding one of the larger sea turtles to examine whether the turtle's shell is alright.

One night the group went out to the beach to absorb the beauty of the beach and to think about why we need to help conserve the endangered species of the ocean. While the group was out at the beach there were some friends that tagged along. Below is a picture of one of the friends that came along with them.
As mentioned earlier part of the group's daily routine was to help feed the sea turtles. At the hospital there were three species of sea turtles that were being taken care of. The three species were Green Sea Turtles, Hawksbills, and Olive Ridley's. The turtle below is a Green Sea turtle. One way to tell the difference between the sea turtles is to look at their shell. Green sea turtles have a brown or more earthy pigment to their skin. The foods that Green sea turtles eat are leafy greens. Everyday the group had to go down to the market and buy leafy greens for the sea turtles.
While we were at the hospital there were other necessities that needed to be taken care of. One of the most important things that needed to be done was cleaning out the sea turtle's nets. Since the hospital was a part of a floating fishing village in the ocean, many of the villagers threw their trash into the ocean. One of the main causes of death towards sea turtles is eating trash. Turtles have the amazing ability of being able to eat jellyfish, but sometimes plastic bags that float in the ocean can be mistaken for jellyfish. The sea turtles may eat the plastic bags, thinking its a jellyfish and become constipated and die. So it was important to rid the turtle's nets of trash such as plastic bags, straws, rice bags, and Styrofoam.

One day the group was taken to a local beach to clean up the trash that was washed ashore by the villagers from the fishing villages. Another reason why turtles are becoming endangered is because of the lack of clean and open spaces for turtles to lay their eggs. It is important to clean the beaches to help turtles find places to lay their eggs. So the group along with helpful police officers and local Chinese college students started picking up the trash along the beach. The main piece of trash that were found on the beach was Styrofoam. This day really opened up the group's eyes, especially Rachel's eyes, about the amount of trash that is being thrown into the ocean everyday. The trash that was picked up that day was sent to an Incinerator where it would be far away from harming the endangered ocean species.

While at the beach picking up trash another friend of nature's tagged along to see how the progress was going. A jellyfish decided to pay the group a visit. Luckily Frank Galicia was able to catch a beautiful shot of the jellyfish with his underwater camera.

Since Rachel and her friend Gabriella were the only blondes that went on this trip the local Chinese students were excited to take pictures with them. This is one of the many pictures that Rachel had to pose in while living in China.
For Jonny's eagle project he decided to raise awareness to the local Chinese people about the importance of conserving sea turtles. Jonny made flyers that were passed out throughout the village explaining why sea turtles are being poached and how we can stop the poaching from occurring. One of the main reasons why turtles are becoming endangered is because of the value in their shells and their meat. Green sea turtles are caught and killed for their expensive meat. Hawksbill sea turtles are caught and killed for their beautiful shells that can be used to make jewelry such as barrettes, bracelets, and necklaces. The local Chinese people were informed about this situation in Jonny's flyers that were passed out.

The local Chinese college students helped the group speak Chinese to the locals and explain to them what was on the flyer.
One day the group had the opportunity of going to visit whale sharks. Whale sharks are the world's largest fish and they are also becoming an endangered species as well.
These fish only eat plankton. They have a giant mouth with thousands of minuscule teeth. Their mouths act like a vacuum sucking in anything that is in front of them. A main reason why sharks in general are becoming endangered is because of their value in shark fin soup. Most of the sharks are killed only for their fins and not for the rest of their body. Some poachers even cut off their fins while the sharks are still alive. Without their fins sharks can not float and move around the water, therefore they sink to the bottom of the ocean where they drown. It is important to help conserve sharks in the ocean for they are an important part of the ocean's ecosystem.
These fish have evolved to obtain white spots on their skin in order to camouflage easier with the water.

Below is a picture of how they fed the whale sharks.

The students had the chance to swim with the whale sharks as well.

On the group's last day in Hai Nan they had the beautiful opportunity of being able to release one of the sea turtles from the hospital. The turtle's name is Ham and he is a Hawksbill post-hatchling. He was strong and big enough to be released on the groups' final day. May Ham be safe and be a part of the many sea turtles that are trying to repopulate their species.
Ham is on his way to the ocean where he will have the opportunity to travel around the world.
Ham is being taken by the waves into the ocean.
The group had the opportunity to write Ham a letter in their home language that would be taken by the waves to him.

Each night the group had a little break before they would learn more about the sea turtles. Right down the street from the market there was a little ice cream stand. The Hai Nan ice cream wasn't made the same way as regular ice cream. On the stand there were baskets full of fresh fruit. Someone from the group could pick as many fruits as they wanted which were blended together in a blender. After the fruit was blended together into a sort of smoothie, it was put onto a little pan.
The smoothie was put into this pan which instead of being cooked it would be frozen. This guy had two spoons which he would spread the smoothie around the pan until it became like ice cream. Afterwards you would have a wonderful smoothie/ice cream filled with fresh fruits and sweet condensed coconut milk.

It's almost over!!!!!

2011-05-30T17:12:00.006+08:00

Yes, that's two of the hottest men in China. We went out to dinner with our friends to a local mall and they still had Christmas lights up in May. It's freakin' sweltering outside and they were trying to keep the Christmas spirit alive. These two hot men (and I mean literally hot in case you were wondering) wanted to pose like some of the local Chinese men. When it's hot, you will see some of the men walk around with their shirts pulled up.
Somebody needs to tell them what scat really means. Frank was laughing because this is supposed to be a very hip store for teenage girls and it's called "Scats". If your not sure what the definition is...it's a scientific term for poop.
Vika had her last modeling gig a few weeks ago. We've estimated that she has done probably close to 25 modeling jobs over the three years we have been here. That's $150 per job. Let's just say she has a good start on her college fund.

These clothes were actually quite cute.
She has become quite the pro at posing.

Yes, we actually have a Dairy Queen here. It was quite the treat for us to actually have good old American ice cream.
They have your traditional chocolate dipped cone, banana split, parfaits, and of course the blizzard. They always have to add their Chinese versions but we stuck to the traditional blizzards.
Rachel, Jonny, and Mahika enjoying their ice cream.

We went to dinner with Rachel's friend Mahika and her parents. Mahika has been one of Rachel's best friends the entire three years we have been here. We went to Spaghetti House which was really good. Who would have known we could find good Italian food in China.
After three years here, we finally found a fun cool place to hang out and eat. We used to just stay here in Shekou and go to Seaworld but Coastal City Mall is now the happening place since Seaworld is all under construction. This was just being finished when we first got here and was finally all completed about a year ago. They have two movie theaters, tons of eating (Western food even), ice skating rink, and lots of shopping. The cool part is this open plaza. This is so much better than around our house and is only about 20 minutes away.
What's up with the crazy eyes Rachel? Just shows how much fun we all were having.

Last Chinese Beach Adventure

2011-05-03T14:44:00.004+08:00

We had a four day weekend because of the Chinese May Day holiday. We weren't planning on going anywhere but decided at the last minute to go out to Lantau Island in Hong Kong for one last beach adventure. Lantau is one of the outer islands in Hong Kong. The airport and Disneyland are on Lantau along with the Big Buddha that we have been to but we never made it to the beach side. Several people had talked about it being nice so we thought we would go check it out. Of course like anything else here, it isn't an easy task to get to.

We left the house at 7:00 in the morning and after a taxi ride, hour wait to cross the border, 45 minute bus ride, 10 minutes on the MTR, walking several blocks, and a 40 minute ferry ride we made it to Lantau 4 hours later. Since this was a last minute idea we didn't have a reservation for a hotel but thought we could find one to stay over night. We searched and since it was a holiday the prices were high or the places were full. We did find a place that had a VERY small room that barely fit a double bed in it for $80 US a night. We decided it just wasn't worth it so we stayed and played at the beach for a few hours.
We had a quick lunch of fried rice on the beach and after swimming and playing in the sand decided to take a little walk around the beach. Lantau has lots of trails to hike but we were short on time and just took a little walk along a path before we had to start our 3 hour trek home.

The day was cloudy and a bit hazy so the view wasn't as nice as it could have been.
Rachel stayed home to study for her IB tests which start this week and Jonny was in Hong Kong at Youth Conference for the weekend so it was just Nicole and Vika with us, along with the Galicia's, for the day.
This is the front of a dragon boat that was up on shore.

We took the 4:00 ferry back to Central Hong Kong where we could catch the 6:00 ferry to Shekou.
On the ferry to Central we passed this Junk boat. It isn't an original but a tourist boat that you can pay to go out in the bay on. It still was pretty cool to see.

A very long day full of travel for just a few hours at the beach. Just a typical Chinese adventure where it is a huge hassle, expensive, and just not worth it. We enjoy the beach but here they just don't cut it. They usually are dirty with no waves at all. I'd much rather just stay home and if I want to go swimming, I'll go to a swimming pool here. I'll save the beach adventures for California and cool places, not China.

A few weeks ago it was Nicole's birthday. She is not 11. I can't believe she is growing up so fast. For her birthday she wanted to play basketball and have a hair wash.

Nicole is our girly girl who wants to be a tom boy. She loves to play basketball and will mostly wear basketball shorts and shoes so that she is already to play but occasionally she pulls the girly stuff out. She got some very girly earrings and of course, basketball clothes.

Now she's a real superstar!!!!

2011-04-02T22:05:00.002+08:00

Yesterday I was talking to a friend of mine about Vika and the modeling jobs she has done here in China. Each time she has done a modeling job for a catalog, she has received a copy so we have several catalogs with her modeling. She has quite the portfolio now. Several kids we have known to model have ended up with pictures on billboards, busses, in malls, etc. I made the comment that Vika could be on a billboard somewhere in China and we probably would have no idea because the companies can do whatever they want with the pictures.

This morning we were on our way to a commercial shoot in Dongguan and the car stopped at an intersection. I noticed there were several large billboards advertising clothing. I just glanced around at a few and was completely surprised to find my own cute little Vika staring down at me from the side of a building. The other boy in the car with us is also in the picture on the far left. They were so excited to see their faces so large up on a building. They both started saying how famous they are now.

I would never have known about this picture and now wonder how many more are there that we have no clue about.

The commercial today was for one of the few clothing lines that I actually like for kids here. It always helps when Vika actually likes the clothes because if she doesn't the true Diva starts to show.
Not sure I would dress her in this outfit but she LOVED it. Can you guess why? Maybe the pink and sparkles all over it?
I don't know if this is a trend back home but for some reason the bunny ear looking head band is a big hit here. It is actually a metal wire inside so you can shape it however you want.

Our Life Savers

2011-03-31T21:48:00.003+08:00

Apples. Who knew they would be so valuable in our family. Apples first began as a healthy snack that we especially love with peanut butter and chocolate, to now a means of showing frustration and actually providing peace. Gavin has been very adamant about eating an apple a day. He strongly believes in the quote from Benjamin Franklin, “an apple a day, keeps the doctor away.” For years he has insisted that everyone of us eat an apple a day. Whenever someone begins to get a cold he says “it is because they haven’t been eating apples“. Apples cure just about everything in our family. We have seen the results of a healthy family with very few cases of the flu or common colds. But who knew that apples would also become a means of getting people’s attention and stopping a whole construction site to complete silence. As many of you know, we are living right smack in the middle of a construction zone which has been operating non stop. This has become quite irritating in that we rarely have a moment of peace around our house. Sleep has become a rarity which is having a huge affect on my happiness. Apples have become our way of sending a message of our annoyance of the noise and inconsiderate people who continue to feel it is necessary to keep us awake night after night. Last night the large trucks were at work again being loading by noisy machinery dumping concrete and debris into the trucks to haul away. This was going on all night again along with the constant sound of the drill or some other noisy machinery. At 3:00 in the morning as the trucks were driving out of the site, one honked. That was the turning point. People honk all the time here for no good reason. It really is annoying and then to have the trucks start to honk as they drove away on top of all the other noise for no apparent reason but to annoy us, sent Gavin over the edge. Out came the bowl of apples. He went up on the roof and starting throwing them at the trucks. Of course, they stopped and got out which started a yelling match with neither party understanding the other because they were yelling in Chinese and Gavin in English. He had enough of this lack of consideration for others. We have a family trying to sleep and they feel it necessary to continue working all night long keeping us up and then the honking. Really? Is that necessary? Well, Gavin grabbed his bike and took off to finally confront them. I was really nervous because he was all alone and there were quite a few of them out there. Who knew what would happen but what happens next is just too funny. The guys in the truck just stood there for a few minutes after Gavin stopped yelling and jumped on his bike. They were looking around like what do we do? Where did he go? They finally got in their truck and drove a few meters down the dirt road towards the main road and stopped. The passenger got out of his truck to fill out some paperwork. The driver was apparently in the truck looking in his mirrors because when he saw Gavin racing towards them from behind on his bike, he quickly started to drive off. The other guy not knowing what was going on ran “like a bunny” as Gavin explains it and jumped back in the truck while it was driving away. They literally were afraid of a guy on a bike and wanted to get the heck out of there. They couldn’t go very fast because of the dirt road so Gavin was able to keep up with them. When they got on the main road, they sped up; but Gavin kept going because he figured they would have to slow down to turn eventually. The main road only lasted about a ½ a mile until it veered sharply to the right so Gavin kept them in site but they didn’t slow down enough for Gavin to catch up but he was still in visual site. He kept going because he knew that there was a stop light a few hundred yards ahead after they turned where they would have to either turn right or left but that didn’t stop them either. The light was red and they just swerved around the other trucks and turned from the other lane. Remember it is 3:00 a.m. so there wasn’t much traffic but driving in the other lane here is a typical thing. Gavin knew that there was another light only a short distance away so again he kept going on his bike. The light was red which didn’t stop them. They barreled right on through the light. The chase continued for a few more minutes through town until Gavin finally just turned around and came back when he realized that they were not going to let him catch up. Quite the funny picture. A huge truck with two men trying to run away from a foreigner on a bike pedaling as fast as he could. Crazy. The crazy thing is, they completely shut down the construction after that for the night. We had a few hours of peace and quiet during the night but we were so wound up, we couldn’t enjoy it and actually sleep. Would you have ever thought that apples could stop an entire construction site? They truly are our life savers. Not only physically but now mentally by providing both an outlet of frustration by throwing them and then actually stopping the noise, even if it was for just a few hours. Of course the noise continues. It is almost 9:30 at night and we are again being serenaded by the squeaky drill, the jack hammers, the trucks, the bull dozers, and whatever else it is that is making noise out there. Good thing we have a huge stash of apples ready and on call if someone dares to honk there horn tonight.

Progress YES!!!! Inconvenience NO!!!!

2011-03-30T04:51:00.002+08:00

Here it is 5:00 in the morning and I've not being able to sleep due to all the construction noise behind us. I've been laying in bed for hours hoping to fall asleep but with the constant sound of a large drill squeaking and pounding the earth, that's not going to happen. On top of the noise, I've also been brewing about an anonymous comment made on my post about the construction here in Shekou. I was pretty pissed off because this person made a comment about how in this country all the construction is called progress and that the foreigners here don't want to see the Chinese people progress. They stated that the foreigners all want the Chinese people to continue being poor and living in their poor houses. THAT IS ABSURD!!!!! Are you serious? You think we are so racist that we would want to see a society not progress and continue living in a poor state? That really pissed me off!

The purpose of my post was to inform our family and friends what our life has become here in China. We have lived here for three years and have seen quite a lot of change which is great, but the annoying part is the lack of consideration for others and how their actions effect others. When we first lived here we had to endure the subway construction and constant blasting behind our first home. We moved after that first year to what we thought was a quieter place and it was until a few months ago when all the construction started. We literally live right in the middle of all the construction in Seaworld. What used to be a pleasant quiet view of the ship and driving range out our bedroom and living room windows, has been replaced with a warzone. Every night we are "serenaded" with the sounds of heavy machinery (like the drill that is keeping me awake tonight), trucks driving in and out being loaded with all the debris, and just noise. It all is within meters of our home. This goes on all night long and I mean ALL NIGHT. The other night along with the trucks and drill, they started destroying a small guard shack right out our window with a jack hammer at midnight. It wasn't just a small hand jack hammer, it was a large jack hammer attached to a caterpillar bull dozer. No consideration for the people trying to sleep only meters away. Like I said this was only meters away from our bedroom balcony. They were so close that we were able to yell at them to where they could hear. Gavin, Jonny, Rachel, and Saren went up on our roof and starting throwing apples at them to get their attention to let them know that there are people trying to sleep here. It was midnight and they felt it was ok to wake everyone up so that they could tear down a small building. That couldn't wait until the next morning? That's the type of inconsideration of others that is really annoying. They are so focused on getting their job done that they don't think of others. I don't mind the working seven days a week for long hours but not at 4:00 in the morning.

Yes I want to see progress but not at the expense of safety for others. Unlike many foreigners here, we don't have a personal driver at our beckon call to drive us where we want to go or a car, so we have to walk everywhere. The pictures I posted were to show what I have had to walk through with my six year old daughter to get to school that is only a few blocks away from our home. It is extremely unsafe and again, no consideration of others. No safety precautions taken to ensure the safety of people who have to get around it. The open trenches, piles of bricks, dirt, machinery was not a safe environment for anyone let alone children. Instead of thinking of others and providing an alternative route, they expect us to either just walk over the open trenches and debris or out into a busy street with traffic. We have had several kids at school who have been hurt just walking along the sidewalk trying to get to school. I personally have fallen several feet through a thin piece of plywood placed over an open hole. My entire leg fell into the hole up to my thigh. I was very lucky that I only walked away with a bruise and scratch. No consideration for the safety of others, that's my complaint.

I probably wouldn't be so upset if I lived in the plush Jing Shen houses, Coastal Rose, or Peninsula apartments, but we don't. Our school won't pay for those places so I'm stuck right in the middle of construction with inconsiderate people and have to walk and live in an unsafe environment.

Progress is great. Of course I want to see this society excel and yes it will look nicer when completed but it doesn't have to be at the expense of people's safety and health (such as the lack of sleep).

He also said that the foreigners want everything perfect with their maids and easy living. Obviously this person does not know me at all. I would happily give up my Ayi if I had another option for daycare for my daughter. My husband and I both work long hours and need someone to pick up our six year old daughter from school everyday. If I didn't need that service, I would probably not have a maid at all. She is a very nice reliable person but I could easily do without poor laundry and cleaning skills. No matter how many times I have tried to explain not to soak our socks in bleach, she continues to do so to the point that the elastic is ruined and my socks are now twice the original size. She once used so much bleach on a pair of my white pants that they literally fell apart and disintegrated while I was wearing them at work. Fortunately it was only at my knees. That would have been rather embarrassing to have my pants fall apart in other areas. She insists on using tons of bleach in our laundry and has ruined numerous items of clothing but won't use bleach to clean the mold out of our showers. The numerous complaints from my husband about his basketball shirts smelling like poo because our Ayi doesn't use enough soap in the laundry are easily things I could give up, but like I said she does provide a service of caring for our daughter which is the main reason we have kept her around.

and the easy living? Where is that? My life here is way more difficult than back in the states. Maybe some foreigners enjoy the easy life but not us. I have to shop everyday to keep just a small amount of food in our house for my family and without a driver or car, I have to physically carry it home. This has totally messed up my shoulder again by having to carry large bags of groceries home everyday. And the hassle to get anything done here can make a normal person crazy. Just the simple task of trying to buy decent shampoo and conditioner becomes a two hour ordeal with either riding a public bus or taking a taxi to Walmart. The other day Gavin and I were trying to purchase Ipads for prizes for the school science fair. What would have been maybe an hour task back home, if even that because we could have ordered them online and had them delivered to our house, was a whole day of endless hassles here. We left our home at 10:30 in the morning to go to Hong Kong. Three hours later after having to take a taxi and wait in lines to cross the border for an hour and half then sitting on a bus for another hour, we finally made it to an electronics store in the mall to only find out that they were sold out of the ones we wanted. We checked several other places, and they were all sold out. Eight hours later we returned home empty handed. Everything here is a hassle. Easy living? NOT!!!!!!

I blog to inform my family and friends about our life here in China and I don't appreciate ignorant anonymous comments, so please unless you really know me and our situation and have something positive and kind to say, keep your comments to yourself.

It is now 6:00 in the morning and I have to start another day with little or no sleep due to the lack of consideration of others. I have every right to be pissed off and upset. No sleep makes a very bitter and angry me. Look out world because this seems to be my life for the next few months and I'm not going to be happy about it.

Flesh eating fish

2011-03-27T14:54:00.002+08:00

Would you be brave enough to put your legs into a pool of little fish that eat your flesh? Yesterday we had a day off and Gavin took the kids to a spa here in Shenzhen with all types of different pools. From super hot to freezing cold. This pool has little fish that would eat the dead skin off your legs and feet. Gavin said it was the most stressful thing he has ever experienced in his life.
Just look at their faces...extreme discomfort

I guess Gavin had a lot of skin to eat because these little fish were chowing down.
The minute your feet get near the water they are ready.

Just stuff....

2011-03-22T19:13:00.003+08:00

We may not have Trader Joe's but we have something even better...Trader Zhou's. This is so typical of China. They hear about something that is cool in other parts of the world and slap the name on a business here. This is nothing like Trader Joe's but somebody thought the name was cool.

Our little Niki is playing basketball on the Middle School team as a ten year old. She is the only 10 year old and played the most out of all the other girls in their first game. She was quite the point guard and I'm not saying that because I'm her mother, but she really was awesome. She definitely takes after her father.
Vika had a modeling job in a commercial last week and the only thing she wanted with her money were these two wigs. We had to go to Hong Kong today for another doctor's appointment about the wart on her foot and right next to the building is a street full of costume vendors so we got these two wigs. It's quite the fun place to walk through with all the costumes. As soon as we got home they had to put them on and actually went out to dinner with them on. It was Taco Tuesday at the Mexican restaurant in Sea World so Niki and Vika really made it a fiesta in their colorful wigs.

The red wig is to go with Vika's Little Mermaid costume she got a few weeks ago from the costume alley. She is all set for next Halloween. I have to say the wigs are kind of fun.

Vika's Three Day Birthday

2011-03-15T19:30:00.009+08:00

Vika's sixth birthday was March 14 but we started the celebration on Saturday March 12 with her first time ice skating.
She was so excited to be an ice skater.
It only took a few times around the rink with Gavin and then she was ready to try on her own hanging onto the side. She was brave a few times and let go of the side to get around other people but mostly stuck to the side for the rest of the time.

After skating we went out to dinner to Ex-ta-sea. Yes, that is the name of the restaurant. It is in the ship near our house and has the best Western food in Shekou. These are little mini burgers that are the perfect size for Vika.
The Galicia's gave Vike this dancing donkey that was hilarious. Vika couldn't stop playing with it.
The restaurant has pool tables which Vika had fun playing with the chalk. Can you tell? She was covered with chalk from head to toe.
It wouldn't be a party with Blair. Yes, the restaurant is also a bar so Vika can say that her parents took her to her first bar when she was 6. We are such bad parents but we don't have much of a choice here.
On Monday, her real birthday, I was able to take cupcakes to her classroom to share with her class.

That evening Gavin and I took Vika to have her first hair wash. She was quite the princess and was very pampered.

It's not only a hair wash but a body massage. I'm really going to miss these when we leave.
After the hair wash they blow dry your hair.
Here she is.....the little princess after her spa treatment.
We then went home for cake and presents.

The happy little birthday girl with her "real" Barbie. She has gotten so many fake barbies here that it was a real treat to get a "real" one.

The New Seaworld in Shekou

2011-03-13T17:24:00.005+08:00

This is the plans for the "new" Seaworld Plaza near our house. It looks amazing but knowing how things get done around here, it probably won't look nearly as nice as this. It is going to take over a year for completion which we won't get to see but unfortunately we have to live through all the construction right now. There are plans to build high rises and malls all around us. This place will look totally different in a few years.

I thought I would give a tour of what it is like when we walk to school every morning. It's like walking through an obstacle course. This is a shot near McDonald's in Seaworld. China doesn't seem to care about the safety of people much because this is all right where people walk in and out of the restaurants. We actually have to walk under the scaffolding and who knows what can fall down on you.
This area used to be a fun hang out for the kids. It was an open plaza where you could rollerblade, skateboard, ride bikes, or just sit on the benches and people watch. Not really the fun place anymore which means there isn't much for the kids to do on the weekends. Again, this is on our way to school and only a few blocks from our house.
All the sidewalks and roads are torn up as you can see. All along our way there are open trenches, holes, and just debris everywhere.

Just about everything is done the hard way with manual labor. It's a little funny to see these Chinese men working in street clothes. I've even seen some with suit jackets and dress shoes digging trenches.
The every annoying jackhammer is a constant background noise to our lives here.
This is right in front of the Middle School and Upper Elementary building. Like I said it is construction everywhere.
Looking out my classroom window is a beautiful shot of cranes. I used to love my view because it was of the bay and was actually a pleasant backdrop, but that will change since they are building one of the tallest buildings in Shekou here.
Right in the middle of all this construction is actually a tent where some of the workers live. Not a place I would want to sleep.
War zone? Earthquake? NO...Construction! This was once restaurants, shops, and a plaza in front of the ship.

These are shots from our bedroom window. Just proof of how close the construction is to us.
Another tent for the workers out on what was once the driving range. I think this is the Kitchen or "mess hall".

All this construction has driven us crazy. It really isn't a safe place to walk anymore. Last night we were coming out of a restaurant in the ship near all the construction. The board walk in front of the ship is being taken out with loose boards everywhere. As we were walking to the ship I mentioned how unsafe all this was now and of course as we walk out after dinner I stepped on a board covering a hole that broke under my foot. My right leg fell in a hole all the way up to my thigh. The board they used to cover this hole was a very thin piece of plywood that just cracked under my foot. Fortunately I'm ok but I was one mad puppy. Who would think that a thin piece of plywood would be safe to cover a three foot hole? CRAZY!

noise, Noise, NOISE!!!!!!

2011-03-08T18:57:00.002+08:00

Awe, the beautiful sounds of the city....NOT!!!!!!!

Our life here in China has been filled with nothing but noise. As I was walking to school this morning I realized how noisy it is here. I've had a headache for four days now and no wonder with all the noise around me. For some reason the Chinese feel that they need to honk at everything. Instead of learning to drive like a normal person, they just honk to get you to move out of their way. Busses honk, cars honk, even the electric bikes and bicycle riders honk at you as you are trying to walk down the sidewalk. It is REALLY annoying. You don't know how many times I have wanted to stick my arm out as a bike that just honked at me rides by or purposely step in their way so that they have to swerve out of control.

On top of all the honking we now live in one massive construction zone. They are tearing buildings down and building new ones all around us. The construction noise starts at 6:30 every morning and doesn't stop until 10:00 at night (if we are lucky). The air is filled with jack hammers, machines, pounding, and just noise all the time.

If it's not honking or construction, it's the sounds of the bands playing in the bars on the weekends until 1:00 in the morning. Occasionally we can hear the elevator music that they play all day long in plaza next to us, but not often enough.

A person's life really needs to filled with beautiful sounds or none at all, not unwanted noise!