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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
If you're bored: Ask me anything about Saudi Arabia...
Because I'm bored and the board has been slow. I'm not claiming to be an expert here, but if you have any interesting or wacky questions, maybe we can entertain each other.
Any takers?
Re: If you're bored: Ask me anything about Saudi Arabia...
I just talked to one of my best friends who lives there. Her husband works for Aramco. Her dad is a doctor for Aramco so she used to live there as a child/teen. She is having a bit of a hard time adjusting now.
Anyways, she was telling me about Ramadan and how her husband can't eat or drink anything at his desk at work. There is a 'sin' room for such things during daylight. What? A sin room? It was originally placed next to the pray room, but that caused some problems.
Then she had to walk 20 minutes in 110 degree heat to the doctors. When she got there she was thirsty. She took some sinful water from the fountain and got bad looks.
And then she was driving with her Dad and had a to-go coffee cup and her dad said, "don't let anyone see you drink that."
So, tell us how Ramadan effects you in your workplace?
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It is actually illegal to eat or drink in public between sunrise and Iftar in Saudi Arabia. When we walk to work we put our lunches in my purse so that no one on the streets sees them.
At work everything is normal. I do feel a little bad because there are Muslim locally-employed staff (mostly non-Saudi) at the embassy, but the cafeteria is open as usual and nothing has really changed at work.
DH has found it a little more difficult though because he is on a two week assignment in Jeddah and the man doesn't cook so he has no food in his apartment. He gets out of work and none of the restaurants open until 9pm.
What I can say is that there is a military installment nearby and they receive military shipments... It is illegal to have alcohol in your dwelling or on your person. You can't drink at hotels here. I've heard that certain western compounds have watering holes fed by bathtub chemistry sets, but I haven't been to any of those yet.
What has been the most challenging adjustment for you?
What about the kids, how are they adapting to such a big move?
Hmmm, most challenging adjustment is a good question. For one thing, it has been tough being far away from our closest friends and family. We missed the wedding of our best friends and it sucked. If I had to pick on thing that has been toughest about the culture though, I'd say that it's getting used to the prayer times and now Ramadan hours. You really have to plan out your outings and can't just go out and do things whenever you want.
The kids are adapting really well. Imogen sees the women (including me) in abayas and thinks that they're pretty. They have milk and bananas here, so Ezra's cool with the place.
What do you miss most about the US?
What is something about which you've found yourself saying "Hey, I wish we had/did that in the US"?
my read shelf:
The thing I've been missing most about the U.S. this week (after family and friends of course) is a real Sephora. I was so excited when I found out that they had a Sephora here. I went there and they don't have most of the brands from the U.S.- no Urban Decay, Bobbi Brown, Stila... And all of the clerks are men, which is weird. In Riyadh they are just now liberalizing the laws so that for the first time women will be able to work in retail lingerie shops. It's kind of odd to have to buy underwear and makeup from men in a culture where men and women are not supposed to mix.
My "hey, I wish we had this in the U.S." thing this week is the formal wear here. I know most people probably think that women only wear abayas here, but that's not true. Formal gowns are very big for weddings and other formal events. They're women-only events usually, of course, but you can find some pretty racy stuff here. And there is so much variety. Riyadh could blow any city in the U.S. out of the water for prom shopping. I only wish I had had so many cool options in high school! I want to walk around the mall one day with DH's iPhone and take pictures- you'd be floored.
From what I've been told, weddings are a really big deal. I also went to a Sahour, which is a Ramadan celebration, and all of the women were decked out- hair and makeup flawless. Most were wearing galabias though, which are traditional dresses of a sort. I'd never seen so many stunning women in one room. So cool to have a chance to see the "behind the veil"- there are a lot of Saudi women that are very into fashion.
I'm taking DD this week to check out the school we'll probably send her to. It's an American international school so it has an American curriculum and doesn't have to abide by Saudi regulations about religious instruction and separation of the sexes. In most Saudi schools, females can't teach boys past second or third grade. Many schools are all male or all female.
There is another school we are considering that is not an international school. At that school, dads are only allowed on campus during certain hours and can't pick up and drop off their kids. Saudi public schools (and some private ones) also incorporate Islamic teaching as a central part of their curriculum.
DD really does want an abaya because she thinks they're pretty. Most girls do not start to wear them here until they hit puberty, but you'll see the occasional tiny girl with one on. I'll probably buy DD a galabia instead because there are more options and some neat designs for kids.
What's the best and worst new food you've tried?
Any new foods you've been eating a lot since you've been there?
The best food I've had so far was at this Turkish restaurant in the city. I went out with a group of women and we ordered family style and everything was great. My favorite was the bread, which was thin and covered in sesame seeds and was served warm in this long loaf that was like 8 inches wide and 6 feet long.
I haven't really had any bad food yet, but we did both get a little sick after we went out to a Pakistani restaurant. I think our stomachs just weren't ready for the spiciness.
As for food we've been eating a lot of, our maid cooks a lot of curries and chicken biriyani and things like that. I might have to start meal planning with her though because, even though he cooking is really good, she tends to cook with more oil than we're used to. I don't want to be 400 lbs when we leave here!
I'm really excited about DH's birthday next month because we're going to make reservations at the Globe restaurant which is one of the fine dining places here.
Yum, I love curries and biryanis. Ooh, I would be excited about the Globe restaurant too!