Weekend in Bahrain

The kids and Allen had a few extra days off this weekend in celebration of Saudi National Day. We decided to spend the weekend in Bahrain. Bahrain is an island right off the Saudi coast. There is a 16 mile bridge that connects the two countries. It took us about an hour to get across and through customs and it was interesting to see the similarities and differences between the two countries. We were all about relaxing this weekend and enjoying a slightly less restricted culture in Bahrain. We headed straight for the mall on Saturday morning and caught a movie. We saw Turbo and it was cute. I took a picture in the movie to show the subtitles - Arabic and French:

We enjoyed lunch at PF Changs and did some shopping after the movie.

We stayed in a very nice hotel that had great amenities. Here are the kiddos with the camel right outside the hotel entrance. Emery was in love with this thing and we had to stop and look at it every time we passed.

We spent hours and hours at the gorgeous pool at the hotel. The kids could (and did) stay all day swimming and playing together.

There was a mini water park at one of the pools:

Emery especially loved the poolside food service. We ordered her a few treats when she got tired of swimming but the big kids were going strong.

We met up with some friends from our compound for the afternoon to swim together:

We had a lovely couple of days just playing at the pool and eating at yummy restaurants. It doesn't sound like much but it was perfect for us and so relaxing.  Yesterday we decided to forgo the pool because I found out that the big mosque in Bahrain is open to the public. I was so excited to go inside for the tour and because I am so interested in Islam. This is the mosque from our hotel room:

 
It is HUGE! That dome is the width of a football field. It was so so amazing to be able to see inside and learn more about the religious beliefs. When we entered the mosque, Allen, Makenna and I were given robes to wear since we were all in shorts. I was also given a scarf to cover my head. We were asked to remove our shoes. I always thought there was religious significance to not wearing shoes but it is only for cleanliness. A wonderful woman who is from Egypt but spoke flawless English gave us our tour. She was so kind and informative and answered our millions of questions.  I only had my iPhone with me so my pictures did not turn out great and I am dying to go back with my nice camera. The scope and intricacies of the architecture and art blew my mind. Here are a few of the pictures I took:

 The star window coverings were on every window and opening in the mosque - so beautiful

 This gigantic door was hand carved from wood from India and the glass lights/orbs were blown by hand in France. There were over 900 orbs in the mosque. This isn't a great picture but shows how large the door is:

We were able to watch a man sing the call to prayer (done in person for each of the 5 daily prayers) and then were able to watch the prayer from above. It was very spiritual for me, especially since the guide had explained the significance of each of the physical aspects of the prayer. After the tour Carter said, "Mom it is amazing how many similarities there are between their beliefs and ours." I was struck by the same thought many times throughout our tour.  I am so grateful we were able to spend a couple of hours taking this tour. All of the mosques in Saudi are closed to the public so this was a treat and the highlight of my weekend. I'm also so glad my kids are being exposed to so many different religions and cultures while we live here!

Directionally Challenged

An interesting fact about Saudi Arabia is that there are NO addresses here. At all. Let me tell you, finding anything here is quite an adventure. We've been lost more times than you can imagine. People always give directions using landmarks. We recently went to a friends house for dinner. Here are the directions they gave Allen for us to get there:

1. Take the right exit off the rainbow roundabout
2. go left at the traffic light but stay on the access road, don't get on the highway
3. After an empty dirt lot turn on the street to the right (no street name)
4. When you pass the school on the left, turn right
5. When you get to the compound go through the left gate, then through 2 more gates.
6. Once inside the last gate take 2 lefts and 2 rights to our house

For real. These were the directions. (The compound has a name but for the sake of privacy I will not include it here.)  Using our GPS device is always pretty funny too. We've resorted to marking our frequent locations ourselves since there is no way for the GPS to find them without an address. If we're going some place we haven't been before we get directions and hope for the best. A few weeks ago we tried to find the fruit, flower and seafood markets and because of bad directions we had to give up. Unfortunately you can't really stop to ask for directions since most people don't speak English!

Every day we learn and experience something new here in Saudi!

A toilet story

To kick off my posts about living in Saudi Arabia I thought it would be fun to tell you guys a little story. We arrived in the KSA during the holy month of Ramadan. In Saudi this means that the local people fast during the daylight hours and then eat during the night. It is the holiest month in the Islamic faith and everyone takes the fasting very seriously. It also means that nothing is open during daylight hours - no stores or restaurants. It made for some interesting first few weeks in the country.

On our 3rd night here we were dying for some familiar food. The food here is VERY different and it has taken us a while to figure out what to eat. We knew there was a Chili's at one of the local malls so we decided to brave the crazy traffic and headed out to find some food. We enjoyed a great meal that tasted ALMOST exactly like it does in the states and left the restaurant full for the first time in days and very happy. And then Addie and Makenna announced that they needed to use the restroom.

I took all 3 of the girls into the restroom with me and then I realized that all the toilets are "eastern toilets." Meaning... a hole in the ground. Here's a picture of the toilet in the mall bathroom:

The other interesting thing about the bathrooms here is that the locals do not use toilet paper at all. See that hose to the left of the hole? That is a squirter like you would find on your kitchen sink. The Saudis turn the water on and squirt themselves off after they go potty. Yeah. Consequently, the floors in the bathrooms are ALWAYS soaking wet and I find it so disgusting.

So there I am with the 3 girls, hole-in-the-floor toilets, nasty wet floors and no toilet paper. It was just more than my poor jet-lagged, culture shocked self could handle. So I turned around and marched us all out of the bathroom and told the girls to hold it until we got home. Allen was not amused and could not understand why I would not let them go potty. I tried to explain to him that I had no idea how I would get everyone's clothes off to squat over the hole and not get everything wet in the process. A few days later we were at IKEA and I took the girls to the bathroom again. There were western toilets but still with the squirters and wet floors and so we walked out with very wet clothing. After that he began to understand my dilemma of taking the girls to the bathroom. 

After a few weeks here we now know to use the restroom before we leave home every single time. I've also learned to always carry my own toilet paper and hand sanitizer. And I've also learned where the western toilets are in most public places. We have yet to use an eastern toilet! Just one of many crazy experiences we have had in the last 5 weeks!