So yes, its been over a year since I've last posted a blog.
I'll catch you up on life so far.
In Oct. 2013, I moved back home to El Paso. My husband was being medically discharged and we weren't sure what we wanted to do after he got out. There was talk about moving to Saudi Arabia if he got a job with a good company.
Since 2 of his Army buddies had been hired, it made the decision a lot more tolerable for us knowing we would have people we know in a different country. The money was the main reason I said "Let's go for it", besides what did we have to lose? We always have a plan in place for our family (my son, myself and my husband), and after praying for some months, I felt it was the right decision for our family to take the steps necessary to get to Saudi Arabia. So my husband was out of the Army in May 2014. He took some time off (which is what I wanted him to do) and was hired in July. A month later he moved to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It took 3 months, and a lot of prayer for my son and I to get over here as well (Saudi).
I was praying fervently, along with my family, that my 21 month old son would make it through 3 flights, totaling 18 hours! God did answer our prayers!!! (Thanks Lord!) Zalen would sleep during take off and did so wonderfully, especially during the longest, 12 hour flight from the States to Saudi.
My first impression:
So we flew Saudi Airlines. During the months I was waiting and going through the process to get here, I had prayed that the culture wouldn't be much of a shock. Once we were on the plane, the pilot only spoke in Arabic. I thought it was awesome, and weird at the same time. Of course since I was dressed differently than everyone else on the plane, I did get odd looks, but honestly, it didn't bother me. The plane had screens on the seats, with pre-loaded movies/games/live maps on it. It was a night flight, so we left the States at 6pm. I couldn't see the ocean which was good because I was a bit nervous flying over it. I had never had a meal on a plane before, and this one had 2 meals. Dinner and breakfast; they also had a mini buffet of snacks available which was nice. The stewardesses were super friendly.
Once we landed in Saudi, we had to take a bus to the terminal. There are no gates for the planes to pull up to the airport. You walk out of your gate to a bus and take that to your plane. Once we got to the terminal, we were directed to a different area than the other people. I'm not sure if its because we were foreigners or what, but there wasn't any waiting to get our passports stamped to enter the country. They took my picture, fingerprints, and we waited about 5 min before getting our passports stamped. I haven't yet researched why they take fingerprints, but I figured maybe a background check?
We then went to the baggage claim. Once we got our luggage (with the help of a person we had to pay, thanks to my niceness, I didn't know we had to pay for the help, sorry husband) we had to put our luggage through customs. That didn't take too long; they did have to open 2 suitcases (out of 6) but thats because I had my oils in them! Then we met with our driver. I had been baby-wearing the whole time, and I think Zalen had had enough already. He was tired and hot and just wanted to stretch. Traffic at the airport was crazy! We had to wait for the baggage guy for about 10 min to get through the parking lot to our car. People here park crazy, there is regular parking then people will just pull up behind your car and just park there, all crazy like.
I had the carseat on a small luggage dolley, so that it was easy to roll around the airports. Our driver was nice enough to help carry that to the car. He had put it in the back trunk with all our other luggage, so I had to put Zalen in the back seat without the carseat. O....M....G.......
My husband had told me they drove really crazy but I didn't believe him. I had also heard from some friends too that people are nuts when they drive. I still didn't believe it. Watching our driver drive through the parking lot to get out of the airport was alright. But once we got on the road to our new apartment, that's when I thought I had seen it all. Saudi drivers were not using the street lanes, and love to cut each other off and use their horns. You will always hear a car horn no matter where you go!!! Drivers here also love to get really close to each other, like I can roll down my window, not have to stretch my arm out fully, and give the next car a high 5!!! There were a couple of times when I thought there would be a car crash, but I'm so glad God watches over us because wow.......
Looking at the buildings while driving to our new place was nice. I was just in awe and felt like wow, this is really happening. When the plane was descending, I noticed everyone and their dog had a car here. There were cars everywhere! And the city looked run down. Once we were driving through the town though, yeah, it looks run down, trash in streets and the buildings look old. (Remember this is just my first impression).
Arriving on the compound, I felt so much better. We arrived on the compound to our new apartment, around 230pm. Zalen was happy that he could run around now. Honestly, after that I don't really remember much, the rest of the week was a bit hazy, trying to get myself and my son adjusted to the time was a bit of a challenge. But as always, God answered my prayers.
My birthday was 2 days after we got into the country. That's when my husband (since women aren't allowed to drive here) took us to go grocery shopping. The grocery store we went to was called "Panda". Its about a mile or less away from the compound. Women here have to dress a certain way, and the dress they wear is called Abaya. It a long sleeved dress that goes down to the floor. You must cover your ankles here, as well as your hair/neck. Since Jeddah is more lenient on foreigners I do not have to wear the head scarf, aka: hijab (or tarha). But I do have to wear my abaya when going off the compound. On the compound I can wear whatever I want. So going to the grocery store: I was so nervous going off the compound for the first time, that inside the store I wore my hijab. It made me feel more accepted in a way, and people didn't look at me weird.
Finding foods you are used to in a different country is trial and error. You don't like the brand, try another one. We are still finding what we like and what to buy. While we were shopping the store kind of "closed" because it was prayer time. This country has prayer time, 5 times a day. Some stores will lock the doors and people will disappear to go pray. You can hear the prayer sometimes, because they announce it on a loud speaker, all over the city. It doesn't take too long before places open up again, and everyone goes about what they were doing before prayer. Some women (I'm pretty sure married women) cover their whole face except their eyes. My husband says they look like ninjas. A nice lady checked us out and the bagger took our groceries to the car.
I'm starting to learn Arabic, slowly, because even though most places/people do speak english, I would still like to learn!! I'll try to blog once a week, since it seems like thats when I'll be going out and having adventures. I'll be writing again this week to talk about my first experience out in the town for dinner with our friends.
Thanks for reading and I'll write again soon! Until next time....
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