So Much to See

This time last year, I was feeling sorry for myself. I was going to miss my first Christmas ever with my entire family. Fortunately, there was a lot for us to do here and we spent Christmas with good friends. This year, we are preparing to travel back home to spend time with Scott's family in Colorado and my family in Los Angeles. Most of you know that I hate to fly. I get anxious and nervous. But, I just do it. What's my other option? Staying home.....I don't think so. So, off we go. We shipped most gifts ahead of time, so theoretically we should be traveling fairly light. However, going to these two different locations requires two separate wardrobes. I'll be in the snow for one week and sunshine the next week. I ordered a new pair of boots on November 2nd. It's exactly one month later and no boots yet! We leave in 10-days, so I may be slipping and sliding all over Colorado again this visit. I swear, sometimes I think Scott's family thinks I'm nuts! I can't help it. I grew-up wearing flip-flops 300 days a year. It would be unusual for me not to fall. It's just something we know will eventually happen.

Scott's been in Virginia all week at a conference. We decided to board Benny since I wouldn't be able to run him every morning and come home at lunch to let him out everyday like Scott does. Life has been very quiet around here.........and pretty boring. I miss them both. Thank God for Skype, so that Scott & I could make contact everyday. He was all smiles and looked really good in Virginia. I tease him that although he says he hates going so far away, deep down he loves it. The guy has gone back to the states 4 times in 14-months. It's like he gets a boost every time he goes back. I can't wait for my boost! I need it at this point.

I called to check on Benny the morning after we dropped him off. I called only because last time he was at the kennel he ended up in the hospital with emergency surgery. The report was mixed. He wasn't injured which was a relief, but he apparently caused some commotion with the other big dogs and they had to put him with the medium dogs. I didn't ask any questions. I don't want to know. I theorize that it must have involved his obsession...........tennis balls. We always put a few in his bag, but I know that he has a hard time sharing. I keep praying that the lady who runs the facility doesn't kick him out. I try to make my phone calls and interactions with her as quick as possible so that she doesn't have the opportunity to kick him out. He's the best dog & everybody who meets him loves him. He never growls or bites and is just a BIG teddy bear, BUT he is as hyper as they come and like I said before, he is obsessed with tennis balls. It can all be too much sometimes. But we love the guy.

Before Scott left, we went on a few fun excursions. The USS Abraham Lincoln was in port here for a week. Scott was able to get us a VIP tour of the ship. Along with Scott and I, our friend, Ralph, a fellow Seabee joined us and our friend, Jimmy, a Marine joined us as well. It was amazing. It was my first time on board an air craft carrier. We were greeted and treated so well form the first moment. One F18 pilot gave us a tour of the fighter jets and answered any and all questions we had. I was able to sit in the Captain's chair which is a special privilege not given to all people. It was a very comfortable chair and you could see everything from up there. Touring the USS Abraham Lincoln will stay with me forever. You can't help but be proud of our country when you see one of these in real life and meet its crew.

We also went to Dilmon Pottery. Pottery is one of the oldest traditions in Bahrain. Aside from pearls it is one of their economic traditions. It was a bit overwhelming. Everything looked beautiful. It was hard for me to narrow down my choices. I was able to see the man working in the studio which was a big room with clay pots all over the place. The craftsman was sitting on the ground spinning a piece of pottery. It was great to see. I can only imagine how hot he and the other workers must be in the summer time. One of the men I spoke with explained to me that they are all brothers and/or cousins. This pottery shop has been a family tradition for generations.

At school last week, I had parent-teacher conferences on Thanksgiving day. No holiday for me or the other teachers. All meetings went well. I had one parent come in and tell me that she didn't speak any English. I told her I spoke Arabic but not perfectly. Somehow we both survived. I definitely used my hands a lot and code switched all over the place. She spoke the Jordanian dialect of Arabic. It was tough for me, yet it wasn't. I don't know how else to explain it. I am so grateful that my parents and grandmother spoke to my sisters and I in Arabic growing-up. I can't imagine this experience without knowing the language. It has been amazing. Scott and I spent Thanksgiving evening on base. We signed up to volunteer again this year and then ate dinner. It was very nicely done again this year.

Saturday was our school carnival. This was my first one here. I started working last year in January, so I missed the carnival last year. What an experience! First of all, all teachers are required to work four hours........without pay. California teachers unions would never have allowed this to happen! Anyhow, I was given the 1-5pm shift. I wanted the 9am-1pm shift but no one would switch with me. The afternoon before the carnival a fellow 3rd grade teacher called to ask if I wanted to switch with her. She wanted the afternoon shift. I switched, of course. So we had to be there before 9am. We were there. We stood around until 10:45 doing nothing. As if anyone in the middle east would wake-up early enough to come to a carnival at 9am. No way! They go to sleep at like 4am. So, at about 10:45 we were told to go up to the auditorium to monitor the kids who were going to watch the juggling act and magic show. I'd say about 50 people showed up. The parents or nannies sat with their kids. We were not even needed. We sat in the back and laughed as the juggler kept dropping his balls and the magician did lame tricks. The kids liked it though, so I guess that's all that matters.

This carnival was like one I've never seen before. There were no rides aside from a motorized bike that pulled around two small train cars. There was also a jumper. I've been to birthday parties with more for kids to do. So, I soon realized what the carnival was all about. It was a chance for people to show off their designer clothes, shoes, and handbags. It was also a time to see who could wear more make-up. The funnest activity by far was the people watching. I went to the ladies room at one point. I could barely get in because of all the girls making themselves up. They wouldn't move away from the sinks so I could wash my hands. I had to push my way in there. In addition to all the fancy clothes it was nice to see many students come in their traditional clothes as well. Experiences, experiences, experiences!

There will be no post until January most likely. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas & Happy Hanukkah as well as the best 2011!

A trip to Remember

The highly anticipated field trip day for my 3rd grade class finally arrived Thursday the 11th of November. There are four 3rd grade classes at my school. Two classes went on the same field trip the day before. My class and another class went together Thursday. We loaded the buses at about 9:30am. We call them buses, but really they are large white vans with benches that carry about 40 kids. Thirty of my students went, along with myself and an assistant. There were about five less in the other class. Anyhow, our first stop was The Grand Mosque. We were lead on a tour by a highly skilled tour guide. Scott joined us since he had the day off of work for Veteran's Day. My class was so excited to have Mr. Scott with us. They love him!

We were all required to take off our shoes. Me and the other women were required to cover up in a hijab. I have never been so uncomfortable wearing anything in my life! It was hot and itchy. I looked horrible in it. I was embarrassed to wear it. Its job is to make women unattractive. Mission accomplished. Nothing I've worn before was ever this unflattering. It was horrible! One of my students came up to me and said, "Ms., you look strange." I replied by saying, "Well, I feel strange." I truly don't know how women wear these everyday, all day!

As a woman, I am often ignored when we go out over here. It's like I don't exist. The men acknowledge Scott and look right over me. So, during our tour of the mosque, the guide continuously went up to Scott to tell him what was going to happen next and to ask him questions about the classes. Scott would look over to me and I'd come running over to answer the questions. Scott was just along for the tour but because he was with our class and he was a man, he was in charge in the eyes of the guide. I guess the women here just have to get used to it, but it's hard for me. I never said anything, but I certainly wanted to.

The tour lasted about an hour. After the tour, Scott left (lucky guy). The rest of us boarded the bus and headed to McDonald's. I had called in our order the day before, so they had the tables set and the food ready as we entered. The kids ran in like wild animals, of course. We got them seated and served them their Happy Meals. They were then free to buy anything else they wanted, get their face painted, and play in the play area. I cannot believe how much more junk they bought to eat. McDonald's must have sold 50 Oreo McFlurry's and dozens of orders of fries. Many of them also bought food to take home to their parents or siblings. It was crazy! There were only a few mishaps in the play area, otherwise a fun time was had by all. My throat was hurting by the end of the day but we had fun. We have another field trip scheduled for March. I'm hoping it will be another good one.

Benny is doing well. He is definitely enjoying the cooler weather, as are we. We are now dealing with highs in the high 80's, sometimes low 90's. Evenings cool down to the mid 70's. So, we are very happy! It will get pretty cold in the next few months and then the heat again. At least it will be our last summer here.

Scott and I received some great news this week. We found out that we will be heading back to Port Hueneme, California. We don't have an exact date, but the time frame should be between July & November 2011. We are really excited to get back to the US and in particular back to California. Being an hour away from my family and friends seems unreal. Scott will be the Commanding Officer (CO) of the Seabee school. It's an important job and a pretty big accomplishment. I am very proud of my Scotty and look forward to calling him, Skipper. As we ate at our favorite Turkish grill for lunch today, we said we're happy to head home, but will definitely miss certain things in Bahrain, particularly this restaurant. We had also just spent the day shopping at the souq, which although overwhelming, is a fun experience.

I have next week off in celebration of Eid-al-Adha. This is an important Muslim holiday known as, "The Festival of Sacrifice." It commemorates the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son, Ishmael as an act of obedience to God, before God intervenes and provides a ram for sacrifice instead. Villages throughout the country apparently slaughter lambs in the street. I am pretty much freaking out that I will stumble upon one of these sacrifices. I just don't know what I will do or what will become of me if this happens. I am already a nervous wreck whenever we go out because of all the skinny stray dogs over here. I can't take all this anymore! I am hoping to make it to Dubai for a few days to see my cousin and his family.

My Weight-Up Call

So, I put on the Anthropologie dress I wore when I married Scott in Memphis (before our big LA wedding) 3-years ago. We were going out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary. Reality hit me BIG time! It fit. It zipped. It looked OK. But it didn't feel right. It just didn't fall properly. So, I have started to take charge of my eating and exercising. I workout 5-6 times a week, but I don't push myself. I need to push myself to the next level. I miss my personal trainer so much. He transformed my body. He knew what I needed and he pushed me to get there. The eating isn't that much of a problem. I don't pig-out. But, I am trying a lot more stuff since we've been living here & when we travel, which is every few months, I eat whatever I feel like. So, this time next year, that dress will look as good as it did on me three years ago! You'll see. Side note to Scott.... stop bringing home chips & nuts! My metabolism is nowhere near as fast as yours.

We've been celebrating our anniversary all week, pretty much. Why not? We certainly waited long enough to get married, so we might as well make-up for lost time. Some days it's hard for me to believe I got married at all. What a different life I led only four years ago. If I was given a choice, I would choose my life now. Scott is the best guy I could have ever asked for. We are enjoying all our adventures together.....and we have had many the last few years. I wouldn't change things at all. We just want to get back to southern California. We still have not heard where we go next. We hope to know within the next few weeks to months.

Tuesday night we went see Edwin McCain perform live on base. He was awesome. We really enjoyed every song he performed and he was funny, too. It was an intimate gathering which was nice. It was not advertised very well at all on base, so not too many people showed-up. I'd say there was less than 100-people there. It's odd because some things are overly advertised and others aren't. I don't know who's in charge, but they need to get their act together! As is typical, there were dozens of empty seats all over the place, but a group of teenagers decided to sit right behind us for a while. Their cell phones were ringing all the time and they were talking and laughing so much. I gave them a few dirty looks, but they could care less. Eventually they left. I hate when people talk so loudly during performances or movies. It's so rude & selfish!

Last night we went to a Thai restaurant, Monsoon. It also serves all other types of Asian food. The ambiance was great as was the food. Sitting next to us was an Asian couple and their about 2-year-old daughter. The girl never shut-up. She was going on and on and on and on! I think what bugged me the most was that I understood nothing of what she was saying and it sounded like babbling. It was like an annoying background noise that you could never stop. Her parents never even acknowledged her. So much for our romantic anniversary dinner! Fortunately the food was great and my fresh mango juice was very refreshing!

Both Scott & I are busy with work. We're just going week by week. Counting down, down, down! My kids were actually pretty good this week. They received their penpal letters from LA and were beyond excited about it. I threatened to stop the letters if they didn't improve their behavior. It seems to have worked, at least for this week. My kids were amazed at how much their penpals looked like them. I think they're realizing how similar we all are. The names were tricky for them, as I'm sure my students' names were for the LA kids. I really think this will be a great experience for them. So many have already told me that their penpal is their "best friend." The parents are just as excited as the kids. A few kids told me their mothers jumped up and down when they heard the letters had arrived. I can just see the drama now! The women here are highly dramatic people. Everything here is overly exaggerated.

Benny's doing great. There are 3 boys that live two villas away from ours. For some reason, their bus drops them off in front of our villa everyday after school. Benny rarely barks, but he always barks at these boys. The privacy screen on our front gate is customized so that Benny could have the bottom two feet open so that he can see what is going on outside of our place. I often see these boys walk up to the gate & kick the gate to make Benny mad & Benny barks like a mad man. His tail is wagging like crazy, but he's a mad man. I usually miss being able to catch them in the act and yell at them. Well, this week was different. I came home a little later than usual from work. Just as I let Benny out and turned to go in the house, they struck. I grabbed my keys and ran after them. I caught up with them just in front of their villa. I yelled, "Hey! Please stop kicking my gate and upsetting my dog!" The two younger boys, probably aged 12 and 10 immediately denied doing anything. I recognized the 12-year-old's shoes as the ones who had just kicked the gate. I told them to stop lying. I knew they did it and that I've seen them do it before. This local guy across the street was watching me yell at them. The oldest (around 16-years-old) stepped forward and apologized. He said they wouldn't do it again. I thanked them and went back home. Let's see how long this lasts.

Cooler Days...............Sort of!

We're finally in the 80's & 90's instead of the triple digit heat everyday. It's such a weird feeling. I'm so used to being so uncomfortable when I'm outside. Now, I rarely complain. My negativity is gone for the most part. I don't know what to complain about now. I'm sure I'll find something. Oh wait! I remember something......the 32 pains in my side I deal with 5-days a week at work. They will definitely keep me complaining for a while. It's still hot, don't get me wrong. It's just not miserable all day long anymore.

Since it's "cooled off" Scott, Benny, & I find ourselves doing a lot more stuff outdoors. We took Benny on base for the Oktoberfest event. He ate half my bratwurst and enjoyed all the attention he received. It's been a while since we've hung out on base and since he's been the center of attention. Needless to say, he enjoyed every minute of it. Scott started running with Benny again. All Scott has to do is approach the little bench by the front door and Benny knows it's running time. He gets so excited, he runs around the living room grabbing and spitting toys out of his mouth.

Today we took Benny to the beach to run around. He was a maniac, as usual. People around here always stare at him. I'd like to think that they are thinking to themselves, "Oh look at that really good looking dog." But, I think they're actually saying, "I've never seen such a fat dog here in Bahrain." Compared to the stray dogs around here, he is a beast! Plus he always has this wild look of excitement on his face. Anyhow, it was nice to spend time outside. It was a really nice afternoon.

Scott and I ventured out to the souq. The souq is an indoor/outdoor shopping area. You can pretty much find anything there. As you're walking around, you're constantly harassed by different store workers. That stuff bugs me, but I know that's how things are done here. We dealt with it in Italy & Greece & I've dealt with it in Egypt plenty of times. Still, it bugs me. I just like to shop at my pace and leisure without anyone attached to my back. I made a very nice purchase for Scott. Our wedding anniversary is the 20th of October. I know he'll like it, because he had pointed it out to me. I can't wait to see what he gets me. I'm constantly pointing things out to him, so he should have no trouble at all. I can't believe we'll be celebrating our 3rd anniversary this week. Boy have we done a lot in 3-years!

After the souq we went to our favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurant. It's a middle eastern grill. It's definitely a dive, which is probably why it's so good. We are never disappointed there. It's packed with locals and Americans. We've always been lucky to get a table, but then again we do everything earlier than most over here. We're asleep just as the rest of the population is starting their evening. My students tell me daily that they went to sleep at 1 or 2am. I just don't get it! It's funny because most days I'll get the same excuse from different students as to why they didn't do their homework. They'll tell me they needed help but their mom couldn't help them because she was asleep. That's nice. She stays up till all hours of the early morning and then sleeps all afternoon. Must be nice! Good thing all these women have one or more maids and nannies to help out!

Year One.....Done!

We've officially passed the one year mark here in Bahrain. It was a momentous occasion for us. We celebrated by eating at Coco's, the first restaurant we ate at on our second day here. What's funny is that our landlord owns the restaurant. We love this place! Lucky for us, we get to eat there for free now. Just one of the perks we get from our landlord. I guess it makes up for all the days we are without water and/or electricity.

We have not yet heard where we are going next. Scott says we can hear anytime starting now through January. So, I'm just planning to hear closer to January, otherwise I'd go crazy. I remember waiting to hear where we were going while living in Memphis. It was supposed to be Washington D.C. Then, a new detailer came in and changed everything on us. Scott was given the option of Iraq or Afghanistan for a year. Luckily, this position in Bahrain came up. Scott was originally coming here alone for a year, then they allowed me to come with Scott and changed it to a two year assignment. Was it the right decision? We think so. We've been together rather than apart and we've been able to get a lot of fun travels in. It was such a stressful time last time. I am doing my best to not think bad thoughts this time around. My fingers are crossed that we are going back to southern California. We shall see.

Scott is doing well. He worked until 8pm or later all week including Friday (which is a day off for us here). He gets Sunday (a work day here) off for Columbus Day. I have to work. I'm always so jealous when he gets the day off and I'm working. He deserves the time off though. This has been a demanding job.

Benny is his usual self. We're taking him to the local vet today. His skin has been dry and flaky for the last few weeks. We think it's from the chlorine in the pool. Hopefully she'll figure it out. He will be on cloud 9. He absolutely loves going to the vet. They can do anything to him and he wags his tail. I think he just loves that he's getting extra attention. I'm bracing myself for when she tells us he's too fat. She brought it up 4-months ago and I'm sure she'll bring it up again. Now that the weather is cooling down to the low 100's - high 90's, we'll start running and walking him more. We just couldn't do it before. As the months move on we'll be back to our routine of running and walking him several times a day.

I'm still busy trying to manage 32 wild kids alone at school. I am so exhausted at the end of each day. Some days I regret taking this job again this year. Last year was so fun. This year is mostly not so fun. We have many fun moments, but this group of kids are just wild. An exciting thing I started this year is a penpal program with my niece, Lily's, 3rd grade class in LA. My kids have already written letters to the LA students. They have received them and written back just this week. All my kids are super excited to have a friend in America. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the letters. My sister, Caroline, informed me that news of this penpal program has made the local paper. Exciting stuff!

My Big Fat Greek Vacation

One of the nice things about teaching in Bahrain, is that there are many week long Muslim holidays which translate into school closing for a week which translates into us traveling! Not a bad deal! We are slowly but surely hitting all our destinations. We recently returned from an 8-day trip to Greece. We spent 3-days in Athens and 5-days on the island of Crete. The most special part of the trip was seeing my family & introducing them all to Scott. We had a great adventure, as usual. The weather was perfect! We had highs in the low 80's and lows in the high 60's. It was like being back home in LA for a week. We hit all the main tourist spots in Athens. Although it was the middle of September, there were quite a few tourists, more than we expected to see. I would say 99% of them were German. We came across a few Americans. They are never hard to spot. They are usually loud, overweight, and wearing baseball caps. We ate like pigs the entire trip. Whatever we felt like trying, we tried. We loved every minute of that trip and feel very fortunate to be able to travel now. Our next joint trip will hopefully be to Cairo. Scotty needs to meet that side of the family as well. I hope to travel alone to Lebanon & Dubai to visit more relatives. Scott is restricted from traveling to those locations, unfortunately.

I'm starting my second month of teaching 3rd grade again this year. I have to say that I am not thrilled so far. I have 32 students and no help whatsoever. There are 19 boys and 13 girls. I think the best way to describe them is as a bunch of wild animals. I have never seen kids like this before. They are wild. I even threatened to quit. They shaped up when I made the threat. I may go through with it though. I also have a group of mothers who are driving me absolutely crazy! They hover around before and after school and just drive me nuts. I guess this is what I get since last year was a breeze. Who knew?!

We're dealing with the day to day realities of living in a borderline 3rd world country. Two weeks ago our air conditioner broke and we were miserable until it was repaired. Last week we had no water for about 10-days! That was horrible. The electricity stops when it feels like it and now our satellite dish is not working properly. Even with all these issues, we are enjoying our time here. There is one exception.....the heat. I don't want to complain too much because it has actually cooled off a bit, but we're still in the triple digits and will be for at least another month to month & a half. I've been knitting 2 scarves and hope to have them done by December/January when it cools down enough.

Locally, there are elections taking place later this month. For the first time ever they are encouraging women to run for office. We have seen candidate signs go up all over town. We can't read the signs since they are in Arabic, but you can imagine it's the usual stuff. There is also a big picture of the candidate. I wonder how the women will be recognized on these posters. How do you know who is who when all you can see are their eyes? It's easy with the men. There they are in all their glory. The women, it's another story. I often ask myself this question everyday at school. How do these kids recognize their mothers when they come to pick them up? For many of them all they see are the eyes. The black hijabs all look the same. Yet, these kids go running to the right mother each day. It amazes me!

Scott is doing well. He is working a lot and is very busy. He is riding his bike to and from work everyday now, since the weather has cooled off. We laugh because we think 110 is cool now. He's also keeping busy around this house as usual. There's always a project to keep him busy. Of course, he always has Benny boy right next to him trying to help, but usually getting in the way. Benny's up to his usual antics. He's as energetic & dramatic as ever. Nothing slows this guy down. When we picked him up from boarding after we returned from Greece, we figured he'd sleep all day since he had a week of non-stop playing & attention. No such luck! He was ready to play from the moment he stepped in the door.

This week we will celebrate our one-year anniversary of living in Bahrain. I'm amazed at how quickly the time has flown, while at the same time I feel like we've been here forever. We are grateful for every day we've had together & hope year 2 will be just as memorable. With that said, we are ready to get back home! The other day I realized that I haven't heard a lawn mower in a year. That horrible noise used to be part of my normal everyday. I used to hate the sound of lawnmowers. Now it's gone. It's these little things which remind us that we're not in Kansas anymore.

Melting Cactus

Well, this picture says it all! We walked out the front door last night and noticed our cactus was bent over as if weeping. Poor thing! Even she is finding this heat and humidity unbearable. She has surrendered to the weather. I thought a cactus would be the one plant I couldn't kill over here. Hopefully she'll perk back up soon. I too feel like just collapsing and letting myself melt nearly every time I go outside. The stickiness from the humidity is a horrible feeling to have daily. We just need to get through the next 2-months and things will cool off. I am counting down the days. Our nutty dog on the other hand, seems to enjoy laying in the sun for 10-minute chunks of time throughout the day.

I'm back to being busy again.....which is a good thing. I don't do well with free time, at least not with a lot of free time. I started work two weeks ago. Teachers went back to the usual dumb meetings and in-services that do nothing but waste time that could be used more productively. Because I started in January last school year, I missed these fun first few days of work. There was a huge turnover of teachers. Of the new teachers this year, four are American, one is Lebanese and two are South African. My students started school last week. I have another adorable group of 3rd graders. The way things are run over here is just....bizarre....yes, bizarre. Parents can request their child's teacher for the upcoming school year at the end of the current school year in June. I have a class of 32 students! Of the 32 students, 32 were parent requests. I know I should take this as a compliment, but the pressure is now on! I'm a speech therapist for Pete's sake! I will give the kids 110% but I would have rather had a room of kids whose parents don't care. Should be an interesting year! I've already told my class that Scott hid a camera in the room which feeds into the principal's office. They fell for it just as quickly as last year's class. They keep pointing to random parts of the classroom claiming to have found the hidden camera. This stuff cracks me up! One of my student's just moved here with his family from San Diego. It's nice having an American kid in my class. Of course he's allergic to peanuts! There goes my daily PB&J sandwich! He also needs speech therapy for his l's and r's. He and his parents seem unaware of this fact. I asked him if he went to speech last year & he had no idea what I was talking about. Pretty typical!

I already have a favorite student. His name is, Mohammed. He is just adorable, both looking and acting. His personality is right up my alley. He is a bit "all over the place" so I have his desk right next to mine. He is constantly telling me what I should do next....or where I should put things.....or how to do things. Finally, I told him to stop being so nosey! All the kids laughed hysterically & he looked like he was going to cry. I was pretty surprised. Then, I heard one of the kids tell another kid in Arabic, that I said Mohammed picks his nose. What?! Good thing I understand Arabic. I had to do a lot of explaining. I explained what the expression meant and that it had nothing to do with him picking his nose. Of course, I then went into my lecture on nose picking & how it is completely unallowed! I told them I will call them out if I see them digging. I will do it! Humiliation seems to end this bad habit!

The base sponsored a great Labor Day BBQ yesterday. They grilled delicious steaks and served corn, beans & watermelon. They did a nice job for the families. There were pony rides, a huge jumping thing, face painting, etc... It's amazing to see how many more families have arrived this summer. There was a huge turnover starting in June, of people leaving and new people coming in. We are just amazed that we have been in Bahrain for 11-months now! We just can't believe it. I don't know where the time has gone. I feel like I have so much to do before we leave. At one point it seemed like we had all the time in the world to see & do all we wanted and now I feel the squeeze. We have really enjoyed our time here, with the exception of the heat! We should find out where we go next within the next few months! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Southern California, but you never know!

Benny boy is turning into a fatso. Scott does not run him every morning anymore because of the heat. I no longer walk him for 45-minutes in the afternoons because of the heat. So, poor guy gets one walk a day & lounges around the rest of the day. I do take him swimming every day. He is such a good and speedy swimmer now. He went from total fear of the water to jumping in as if he's been swimming forever! He's sad a lot of the time because he can't go out running & walking, but we're stuck for now. We'll be back to taking him out regularly in a couple of months. He is still a spoiled and lucky dog.

The Heat is Still On & On & On & On

There is no relief in sight. The heat will be with us for at least 3 more months. I'd like to say that we are adapting nicely, but then I'd be lying. There is no adapting to this kind of heat. To top things off, Ramadan started this week. American Military people & their families were offered a 1-hour brief on Ramadan & what we were required to do. In a nut shell, we are not allowed to drink, eat, smoke....even chew gum in public from sunrise until sunset. If caught doing any of these things we could be arrested and/or fined. Men are required to wear long pants & long sleeve shirts. Women are to wear clothing past their knees and elbows. On a positive note, we are allowed to wear open-toe shoes. Yes!!!!! Scott has been training me to always find something positive rather than to keep complaining. So there, I did! All restaurants, even Starbucks are closed until the evening. Only 27 more days to go, but who's counting? I'm just being positive.

Scott worked 7-day weeks the last 3-weeks. I've had nothing to really share with you all because we've done NOTHING! We've had a few adventures during that time, I guess. The car battery just died one day. The adventure was in getting it changed. Poor Scott had to ride his bike to and from work a few days. He was a sweaty mess. There also seems to be a fly problem here in Bahrain, so I ordered these fly traps (that stink) on-line to try and get rid of them. It actually works really well. Unfortunately, though, it does have a stinky odor. We decided the odor is better than the flies. As usual, Benny was right by Scott's side, helping him set-up the fly trap. I ended up in the emergency room with a really bad urinary tract infection. I ignored the symptoms all week until it turned into this really bad infection. I could barely stand-up. The ER experience was truly an adventure. My doctor was Iraqi. Naturally, I was a bit worried he wasn't too thrilled to help an American, but he was actually really good. A few things seemed odd, but all in all I was pleased. I don't want to go back, though!

Today was the only day off Scott has had in about a month. It started off great. Then....half the house lost electricity. I called Kasim. He eventually found out that some construction workers shut off the electricity to our block for, "one hour." Three hours later, we still had no electricity. My biggest concern was the food in the fridge. Scott ran to a store and bought a long extension cord. We plugged it into an outlet that worked and voila problem solved. Comfortable that we saved our food, we went to City Centre Mall, the biggest mall here, to shop for some lightweight pants for Scott & to get some groceries at the mega store, Carrefour. All the lightweight pants were sold out! We have a suspicion they were bought up by all the Americans. There must have been a mad rush the last week or so before Ramadan started. This mall is great. It has every store you can imagine...American, European, & local. Some store names crack us up, though. I'm always amazed to see the lingerie stores here. This country emphasizes & encourages wearing the hijab, yet you walk in the mall & there are these "sexy" window displays. It's all very hypocritical to me. So much of what I see here, I find ironic, fake, & full of hypocrisy. Your eyes aren't truly open to it all until you're living in the middle of it & seeing it firsthand. Anyhow, we came back home about 2-hours later to find we had no electricity at all. The whole house was dead. No air conditioning & then there was the food! I called Kasim again. He rode his bike around and then came back to tell me that the construction guys told him it would be, "one hour maybe two." I thought we would suffocate. Poor Scott ran to the base and bought 10 bags of ice. We put them in the fridge & freezer to try and save what we could. Sure enough an hour later all the electricity came back. I'm now typing away with my favorite sweater on. Scott keeps it chilly in here. One week we lose water, the next we lose electricity. It all seems so random to me.

One thing I love about shopping at Carrefour is the nuts & spices section. They have these huge sacks of fresh nuts & spices. You tell the guy how many scoops to give you. He weighs it & puts the price sticker on it & you're off. Our favorite thing to buy are the lemon almonds. They are so good! We will miss them when we leave. I sent my parents & Scott's parents a bag to try and they love them. Initially, you think lemon almonds? That sounds weird. Once you eat them you're addicted. We also love the fish section. They have all the freshly caught fish displayed on ice. You choose what you want and the guy wraps it up for you. We bought some amazing salmon & grilled it for lunch today. It just melted in your mouth. I always buy a big container of spicy/lemony vegetables, usually carrots, cauliflower, jicama along with pickle chunks and green & black olives, from the cheese & special foods counter. I love this. In Arabic, we call it "torshi." Scott doesn't care for it. It may be an acquired taste. I grew-up eating it so it's yummy to me. I always get the one from Egypt. It is the best. They have a Syrian mix as well as a Bahraini mix. I don't care for either of those. Unfortunately, today, they were out of the Egyptian mix. When sharing my disappointment with the guy working the counter, I found out he was Egyptian & he found out I spoke Arabic. It was nice to use my Arabic. I don't get to use it that often. Most people I deal with are Indian, Pakistani, or Filipino. We all speak in English. Anyhow, once this guy found out that my parents grew-up in Egypt & that my dad was Lebanese, he took back this cheese I asked for and gave me another one. He told me the new one he gave me was fresher. It really is all about who you know that will get you what you need. Scott & I cracked-up over this. It was also hysterical that as he was talking to me he was clutching his heart the whole time.

Our maid, Mary, comes 5-days a week. She and Benny have this secret love affair. She has been coming to work around 6:30am the last few weeks since it's so hot. When Benny sees her, he is beside himself with happiness. She comes in and says hi to Benny immediately and is then on the floor rubbing his belly and giving him love messages. There is continual giggling the entire time she is here. I'll be upstairs & hear her giggling and hear Benny running around. I have no clue what they are doing. All I know is that she is supposed to work for 2-hours...I pay her for 2-hours......but she's here for close to 3-hours everyday. I can't help but wonder how Benny will deal with not seeing Mary when we leave & how will I deal without having Mary 5-days a week when we leave? It's been such a nice luxury. Oh well.

Ten months down, fourteen to go!

No Water, No Juice, NO WAY!

Whenever I come back home from anywhere, I wash my hands. It's just a habit. So, I went to wash my hands a few days ago. Low and behold no water came out of the faucet. Apparently, we used up all the water in the tank. I didn't even know we had water in a tank. I just thought the water came through the pipes from a central water location. It's much more complicated than that and although we get water from the city supply, we also have a tank of water. The whole thing was weird to me, but Scott seemed to understand what was going on. Long story short, we had water again the next day. Kasim came by and took a look & told us that if we didn't have water the next day to call him & he'd call the water people to fill up our tank. Since we couldn't run the dish washer, Scott was a good sport and washed the dishes by hand. He's a very handy person to have around during a crisis.

Benny and I pretty much stayed indoors the entire week. Other than meeting Scott for lunch on Thursday, I didn't go anywhere. I didn't want to go anywhere & I don't want to go anywhere next week either. Heck, I don't want to go anywhere until November! It is so hot, that it's truly painful to go outside. It really is a heat I've never experienced before. Memphis was hot & humid, but not like this! We're miserable. I have a few projects at home to keep me busy. I finished one which was to go through all my documents and papers I've filed away over the years. I kept only the most recent & important stuff and shredded the rest. I'm reading a lot & working out everyday, which has been nice. Benny also keeps me busy. I don't get to sit for long periods. He always pops his head on the sofa next to me with either a ball or stuffed toy in his mouth. He has me chase him around a little then he goes out and sits in the sun for a while. Ten minutes later, he's at the door to come in panting like a maniac. I let him in and he collapses on the cool floor for about 30-minutes.

As much as I'd like to just camp out indoors in the air-conditioned house, Scott and I decided to venture out today. We've been wanting to go to the Bahrain Museum since we arrived here 9-months ago. We figured it would be a good indoor, air-conditioned activity. Plus, it's about 5-minutes away from the house and right next to a Lebanese restaurant we've been wanting to try. So, we went. The place was pretty much deserted. There were only a few other people there with us. We always do things early, especially compared to people here, so maybe more would show up later in the day. Who knows?

We were pretty impressed with the museum. We first saw an art show of paintings done Rashid Al Khalifa. We know he's related to the royal family by his last name, but we don't know how he's related. Anyhow, the paintings were nice. Not great....to me, but I'm sure some people probably would love them. We then walked through the rest of the museum, which had areas related to ancient discoveries, burial grounds, early lifestyles, and documents & literature. We saw a lot of interesting stuff. Bahrain is known for its pearls and we saw a lot of "stuff" related to pearl diving of long ago. Bahrain is also known for its pottery and there were many pieces of ancient pottery that's been discovered and put on display. I think my favorite thing was the tombstones. When someone died, they made a clay sculpture of that person as their tombstone. I found that interesting. Another area Scott & I both really liked was the lifestyle section. They had these scenes set up depicting early Bahraini life. From outdoor markets, coffee shops, bread makers, pharmacies, mattress makers, etc... we really enjoyed walking through and looking at what life long ago was once like. I loved that they had a display regarding the evil eye. You know that you are definitely in a middle eastern museum when they talk about the evil eye. There were also displays that explain their sexist view points which I will never understand. I keep reminding myself how lucky I am to be an American woman.

After the museum and since we were starving, we drove a few minutes away to a Lebanese restaurant. As usual we were earlier than most when it came to eating. There were people at one other table when we got there and by the time we left there were about 4 tables of people. The menu was fairly large, but we narrowed down our order. I had been looking forward to ordering a freshly squeezed glass of mango juice. So, I ordered it. The waitress then told me they didn't have mango juice. They had all the other juices (8 choices) but not mango. A little bummed out, but I decided on watermelon juice. No problem. Then it was Scott's turn. Remember, she said they had all juices but mango. Scott ordered pomegranate juice. Oops! They didn't have that either!! I swear, we looked at eachother like, huh? Is this possible? So, Scott ordered watermelon as well. Next was the food ordering time. I ordered koshary, a typical middle eastern (really Egyptian) meal of lentils, rice & noodles. Scott ordered a seafood salad & we wanted to start with falafel. No falafel. What Lebanese restaurant doesn't have any falafel? OK. We ordered this bread with meat and hummus. After what seemed an eternity, our food came. As she was putting our food on the table, she tells Scott that there was no seafood salad. It was comical! She handed Scott the menu to choose something else, but he opted out of that. Really, there was no guarantee that they would have anything else we wanted to order. We shared the food we had which was more than enough. Needless to say, we will never be going there again! What a joke. At least the food that we ate was good.

Stars, Stripes, and Stitches

Reality quickly set in that we are no longer in Italy. Scott went back to work. I'm bored. Benny is as needy as ever. We're all HOT! It's going to be a long summer! As happy as I was to be done with work, I'm kind of ready to go back. I'm sure that once it's time to go back to work, however, I'm going to want to be off of work. It's a horrible cycle!

This was the first 4th of July that I didn't get to see any live fireworks. A year ago, we were sitting outside with neighbors in Memphis watching a spectacular fireworks show. The year before that we were at a minor league baseball game in Memphis which was followed by a fireworks show. The year before that we were watching fireworks from my balcony in LA, where I could see the show from Santa Monica, Venice & Marina del Rey. Scott had also proposed 3-days earlier, so it was our first "holiday" together. Time is just zipping by.

We did have a very nice treat this 4th of July here in Bahrain. We were treated to a delicious meal of grilled steak, baked potatoes, corn on the cob, potato salad, coleslaw, & watermelon. It was all thanks to Harris Ranch Steaks from Central California. A team of people from the restaurant came over here and grilled these amazing steaks in triple digit heat. We were really amazed at what a wonderful job they did. The steaks were apparently flown here on ice...not frozen. The plane had to land at one point just so that they could change the ice. The meat was so tender and juicy. We were really grateful. It was all free, too! I looked up their menu on-line later the next day & found what I believe was the steak we were served. It sells for $30.95 at the restaurant. Can you imagine what it cost to feed 4,000 of us? So, although there were no fireworks in the evening, we ate well! The fireworks were going off in our mouths.

Speaking of eating well, well, we really are! One of the main things to do here in Bahrain is to go to a Friday brunch which is usually offered at all the hotels here. Friday in Bahrain is similar to Sunday in the states. We're off on Friday and Saturday. We work Sunday through Thursday. So, since Friday is the muslim prayer day, these hotels offer these brunches so that people can go pray & then come eat. Needless to say, we all go to the brunches. Yesterday we went and pigged-out at The Golden Tulip Hotel. It's very hard for me to describe the amount of food that is put out. I can comfortably say there are close to 200 food choices. In addition to the prepared food, they have a raw fish and meat section. You go & choose your specific fish & meat & tell them how you want it prepared. They then take it to the kitchen and bring it to your table. Finally, there's the dessert section. There are probably close to 50 desserts to choose form as well. How do you narrow it down? It all looks so good. I went in with a plan and I stuck to it... pretty much. I went a little overboard with the dessert. Oh well! I worked-out for an hour when I got home & I was so full that I didn't eat anything else until this morning. Scott, on the other hand, took a nap & read his book! Although fun, they are not cheap. They cost about $50 per person. We have two other brunches we want to try. We've got 15-months to fit them in. So, we figure every 6-months we'll go to brunch. It's really hard to believe, but we have been in Bahrain for 9-months! We're hoping to hear of our next assignment before the first of the year... possible even late this summer. As soon as I hear, you'll know all about it!

Finally, Benny had his stitches removed today. He did great. He's the only dog I've ever had that loves going to the vet. His tail doesn't stop wagging. He makes friends with everyone. He was so cute. He jumped up on a seat and sat down in the waiting room, excitedly waiting for his turn. Scott took him into the exam room because I didn't want to watch the stitches being pulled out. We also had Benny's toe nails clipped, they had grown so long all of a sudden. Anyhow, Scott came out and told me that the vet said Benny's too fat! I'm so upset! He is pudgy, I agree...but he's not fat. Poor guy has nowhere to run around like he used to. Other than walks, he can't exercise. Now that the stitches are out, I'm hoping to get him back in the pool & swimming. So now, I have to limit his treats & cut down on his food. I can just see his sad eyes looking at me now. We have to do it, though. We want him around for as long as possible!