Planes, (airline) Trains, and Automobiles

Everything had gone so smoothly up to this point.  Now we hit a glitch.  When we arrived at our gate at the airport to fly to Detroit, we learned that the plane coming to Washington to take us to Detroit had been delayed.  Our layover in Detroit before we left for Evansville was to be just a little longer than an hour.  It became obvious that we would not be making our connection.  Mark went up to the desk and got in a long line of people trying to figure out what they were going to do.  We learned that the only way we could make it home that day was to change our plans and fly in to Indianapolis from Detroit.  The main problem with that was that our car was at the airport in Evansville so we had to rent a car and drive to Evansville.  The airline was supposed to get our baggage all changed to go to Indianapolis, but that didn't get done.  There was no luggage for us.  Luckily, we found out that our luggage did make the connection and ended up in Evansville.  That was ok since we were going to Evansville to get our car anyway.  We went and picked up Becky at her apartment in Indianapolis and had lunch with her.  We went to a cajun restaurant.  Katie decided to spend the night with Becky in Indianapolis.

We arrived in Evansville about 9:00 pm and got the rental car returned.  When we went to the Delta desk, there was no one to be found.  The sign said that the desk closed at 6:00.  There was a doorbell on the counter and I decided to ring it just in case someone was there.  Luckily a man came out.  We explained to him that our luggage was supposed to have arrived from Detroit and we were there to pick it up.  It made us a little worried when he said "Just one suitcase?"  We said "No, there should be 5 of them."  He had a funny look on his face when he went back in his room but when he came out, he had our luggage.

We finally got home about 10:30 pm.  We had originally thought that we would be getting home about 2:30pm.  Mark and I both had to work the next day.  But that was ok.  We had been on a wonderful vacation of a lifetime!

Going Home

We left Jeddah on Sunday morning, May 19, about 7:30 am.  This time the plane was much more crowded.  Soon after taking off, we were served breakfast.  Then, as soon as breakfast was over, they closed all the window shades and turned off the lights like they were expecting everyone to sleep--and many people did!  Katie came home with us.  She had stayed up all night so that she would be able to sleep the whole way to Washington D.C. and she practically did sleep the whole way!  I guess that is the way it is done!

This flight was 13 hours.  The flight to Jeddah was 12 hours and 15 minutes.  Even though we were crowded, this flight seemed easier to me.  I think the difference was that the flight to Jeddah was overnight.  I felt like I needed to go to sleep but I was too excited to sleep.  This flight being in the morning, I felt like I could stay awake and watch shows.  I watched a movie called "Chasing Mavericks" which was about surfing in Hawaii.  I also tried to watch "Guilt Trip" for the 3rd or 4th time and still saw some new parts.

I learned something quite useful on this flight.  When you are flying on Saudia Airlines to and from the Middle East, when your show choices are "Western Comedies" they are not talking about "F Troop" or "The Wild Wild West."  I had run out of things to watch so I decided to click on Western Comedies.  I was surprised to see "Friends", "Modern Family," "Big Bang Theory," "Rules of Engagement," and I think maybe one other one.  Two episodes of each.  I watched every one of them.  Five hours down!  I was excited!  Then, in my new found brilliance, I decided to check out "Classic Western Movies."  JACKPOT!!  Two and a half hours to go and I found all kinds of movies I would like to watch.  I decided on "The Fugitive" and almost got it finished.

Arriving in Washington D.C. on an international flight is so much easier than arriving in Jeddah.  The passport check went very fast.  Of course, it helped that we got to get in the line for American citizens and we were the only American citizens on the flight!  But the United States actually had enough people working that the lines moved too.  Customs was also very easy to get through. 

We had planned to spend the night in Washington D.C. so Katie had contacted one of her "Bridesmen" who lives in Washington and made plans to go out to dinner.  We met Tyler at Texas Roadhouse and had a good time hearing about his impressive job and catching up with him.  He graduated from Purdue with his masters in Nuclear Engineering.  Once he was at our house and we were watching the Big Bang Theory.  They were talking about string theory.  I asked Tyler if he knew what that was.  He just nodded.  I said, "You even understand it, don't you?!"  He just nodded again.  He has got to be brilliant!

We had one more day of flying ahead of us so we went back to the hotel to get some sleep before we caught the 7:00 am shuttle back to the airport.

Last Day At Jeddah :-(

 

Today was our last day in Jeddah.  Katie and Moe said that we could have the day to do whatever we wanted-- either what we wanted to do again or what we hadn't had a chance to do yet.  We started off with breakfast/lunch at Starbucks.  We had the same guy making our coffee but Mark ordered a cold drink in a clear cup so he didn't give him an empty cup today.  I feel like we know him now.  He is very pleasant looking with a big smile.

 

After Starbucks we drove around looking for a few things that I hadn't gotten pictures of yet.  We have "George" from the Vincennes Sun Commercial and there were a few pictures with him that I had decided would be good.  I also wanted to see a different part of the Red Sea boardwalk.  We found a pretty mosque and a nice place to stop and take some pictures.  I think most of the Red Sea in Jeddah has a very rocky shore and its not really possible to walk along the beach.  The water is more polluted too so people don't really swim here.  But it is very beautiful and I got some more pictures.  The water had some waves today which was nice to see.

 

 

 

After I got all the pictures I wanted we headed back to the first private beach that we went to  the first day here.  I'd say there were less than 10 other people there.  The water was very pleasant.  Katie, Moe and I just went out and floated around and talked.  Mark sat in the shade but he was prepared with music and earphones this time. 

 

 

When we went back to shore, I decided to walk down to the end of the private beach to see what it looked like.  They build like peninsulas out into the water to separate the private beach areas, so I was walking out to the end.  At the end it was so gorgeous!  I decided to just sit on one of the lawn chairs for a few minutes to enjoy the view.  I wiped my finger across the chair and picked up this salt residue.  Its not sand, the sand is light brown.

 

This is a picture of some more of the beach area.  You can see the emptiness and how beautiful it is.  I got in the water a little bit more and looked for shells and fish to take pictures of.  We decided to leave so that we would have time to shower and clean up before going out to eat for our last meal.  We are going to "Outback" for steak.

We fly out about 7am tomorrow so we have to be at the airport about 4:30.  Katie is coming home with us for about 10 days.  That will help in leaving this vacation--that she is coming home with us.

It has been a wonderful vacation.  Katie and Moe have entertained us in grand style.  We can't express our thanks enough for this experience.  We also want to thank Uncle Marv, Reema, Othman, Sarah and Jude, Reema's parents, Reema's friends, Aunt Jehan, cousin Sarah, and Uncle Hisham and the other cousins and aunts that we met.  Thank you for welcoming us, showing us around, feeding us and making us feel at home.

Friday--Back to Jeddah

Today we left Riyadh and flew back to Jeddah.  I actually got a little teary because it means that our vacation is almost over.  We got to see Moe's grandfather one more time when he came over to the house to tell us goodbye.  We also had time to talk to Reema a little while and said goodbye to Othman and Jude.  I am going to miss them all so much.  They have been so kind to us.  We were made to feel at home and like we are family.

 

This was taken out my airplane window.  We flew on Saudia Airlines from Washington D.C. to Jeddah and also for our trip to Riyadh and back.  That is a very good airline.  They feed you well.  Once again, even though our flight was only a little over an hour, we were served Arabian coffee, dates, juice, a full lunch, and more coffee or tea.  They have a prayer over the speaker before you take off.  If you look closely at the front of the airplane above, you will see in English, "God Bless You."  Above that, I assume it says "God Bless You" in Arabic.  That was on every Saudia Airlines plane that I saw.

 

 

Nothing but desert!

 

The airport in Riyadh is nicer than in Jeddah.  Security went much smoother today.  I was ready if there were any problems.  I had my passport and ticket in my hand.  We had to go through two lady's security checks today.  The people working security were nice.  In Riyadh they have skywalks to get to your plane.  In Jeddah they don't have those.  You have to use those rollaway stairs in Jeddah.  Also in Jeddah they have busses waiting for you to take you to and from the terminal and plane.

 

 

 

More artwork from the streets of Jeddah!  This is in the median.

 

After arriving in Jeddah, Katie and Moe dropped us off to check into our hotel again.  I did my blog from yesterday and then they picked us up to go to Uncle Marv's house.  We picked up Pizza Hut pizza on the way to his house and then we ate it while we watched the finale of Survivor.  We started watching the after show reunion but we lost the internet signal and couldn't finish it.  They brought us back to the hotel when we finally gave up on getting the internet connected again.

 

A little bit about the Muslim religion:  Muslims worship the same God that Christians do.  They call him Allah which is Arabic for God.  They have some of the same stories that we have from the Old Testament.  Moe and I have had some Old Testament discussions and he knows it better than I do. The Quran also has some additional stories not in the Bible. They believe in Jesus and hold him in high regard.  They believe that he was a profit and teacher and performed miracles but was not the son of God.  They also hold Mary in high regard.  She is one of only 2 women mentioned in the Quran and the only one mentioned by name.  There is a chapter in the Quran named after Mary.  They believe that she was the mother of Jesus and was a virgin.

 

There are a lot of mosques in Saudi Arabia.  We pass them frequently.  On each mosque are speakers that call the Muslims to pray 5 times a day.  At the designated prayer time, music and chanting are broadcast from these speakers.  You can hear it all over no matter whether you are outside or inside a building.  The five times for prayer are: 

 

                                   1.  "Fajr" which is an hour before sunrise.

                                   2.  "Dohur"  which is at high noon

                                   3.  "Asr" which occurs in the afternoon but the times vary

                                   4.  "Maghrib" which occurs at sunset

                                   5.  "Isha" which occurs 1 and 1/2 hours after sunset.

 

Each prayer time lasts for about a half hour.  All the businesses and stores close for prayer time so that the employees can pray.  They have prayer rugs that they lay down on the floor or ground.  They take off their shoes and face in the direction of Mecca for their prayers.  They have blinds in the windows that they pull down to show that they are closed.  Everyone closes--gas stations, restaurants, stores, businesses.  You have to plan your activities around prayer time.  And yes, we have frequently been woken up by the Fajr call to worship an hour before sunrise!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday--Old Riyadh and The Globe

On Thursday we slept late after the long night of partying.  Katie and Moe brought us Elevation Burgers again for lunch.

We decided to drive to the desert. (The real desert with lots of sand dunes)  A lot has changed in Riyadh since Moe has lived there.  New construction of buildings and roads kept us from getting to the desert.  That will have to be a side trip for the next time we are here.

We did make it to Old Riyadh, the home area of the royal family.  In Old Riyadh there is an actual oasis or "wadi".  It was beautiful with lots of green and palm trees.  People build summer homes in the wadi just like people in the states do at the beach.  An oasis is where the water runs when it does rain and there is underground water there.

After seeing the oasis, we headed back to regular Riyadh.  We had reservations at The Globe for appetizers just in time to see the sunset and the lights come on in Riyadh.  The Globe is a landmark in Riyadh, which is one of the main, unique, tall buildings that you see.  Below it is the Al Faisaliah Hotel.  We went up to the 31st floor in the hotel.  Then we got out of the elevator and got in another one to go up some more into The Globe.  We had different appetizers and a pitcher of Saudi Champagne which we had had once before. 

All alcohol is banned in Saudi Arabia.  You can get a pina colada or marguerita etc at a restaurant but they are non alcoholic.  Saudi champagne is sparkling water with lots of orange slices cut up in it.  It is very refreshing.  When we ordered our airline tickets to come here we had to read a warning and agree to it.  It said that anyone caught smuggling alcohol or other illegal substances into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law--up to and including the death penalty.

When we left the Globe we headed back to Moe's parents' house and then straight over to the grandparents for dinner.  Uncle Hisham was there and we got to talk to him some more.  Also some more aunts and cousins who had come from Jeddah for the celebration.  I think there were about 18 people for dinner.  We had 2 salads, meat pies, hummice and pita bread, a good casserole that was made out of corn flakes, I think, and lamb.  There was a whole lamb (bones and head and all) laying on a platter.  It had been stuffed with grape leaves.  For dessert there was a tray of fruit, pastries and this really good dessert which seemed to have shredded wheat that was sweet along with a filling.  After eating we went back into the living room and enjoyed talking to everyone, and especially the grandfather.  He has a lot of interesting stories to tell.

We left there about 12:00 or 1:00 am.  I had blogging to get caught up on!

Wednesday--Wedding Day--Part 2

Wedding celebrations in Saudi Arabia are segregated with the women having their own big party and the men doing whatever.  The women really dress up in mostly long fancy dresses and have their hair and makeup done.  Then they put on their abayas and head and face coverings to go to the celebration.  Once inside the building, safely away from the eyes of men, they can take their abayas off and show off how nice they look.  There was an "abaya check" right before entering the ball room.  They have lots of zip lock bags that are numbered.  They give you a number and you put your abaya and scarf in the bag which they keep until you are ready to leave.  

 

 

 

 

The decorations were beautiful!  There were lots of flowers. There were white couches lining a long wide aisle where the dancing took place.  On the other side of the couches were chairs with white chair covers arranged in sitting areas of 7 with a little coffee table in the center.  There was a stage at the end of the room.
 

 

As soon as we got there I met Reema's very close group of friends who had helped her with all of the details.  They were all very nice, beautiful women who were very friendly.  I think they all speak English but they mostly spoke Arabic after saying hi to me.  They had about 6 chairs lined up at the door where we greeted everyone who came to the celebration.  We mostly stood but we could sit down when there was a break in the crowd arriving.  It was Reema and me all of the time and then most of the time Othman's sister Jehan was on the other side of me.  She was a big help talking to me and explaining things to me.  Also Reema's group of friends were around and cousin Sarah was there and helped me a lot.  Ladies just kept coming in!  We stood there for about 3 hours while they all came in.  I think about 11:30 (pm!) most people were there.  While we were greeting people, there was a lot of very loud middle eastern music being played.  Lots of ladies were dancing in that aisle.  They were doing middle eastern type of dancing.  It was very interesting to watch.  Occasionally the music would call for mild belly dancing.  I enjoyed watching it all.  Also during this time there were workers passing out Arabian coffee, water and treats.  There were fancy dates, little cup cakes, chocolated from Belgium and just LOTS of snacks.

The middle eastern music was live.  There were about 4 female singers on the stage.  There was a group of several men who were singers and instrumentalists.  Since they weren't allowed to be in the room with the women, they were in a separate room.  There were cameras in that room and it was transmitted to a screen in our room.  That way, the women could see them and they couldn't see us.

 

 

About 12:30 am the DJ announced in Arabic that Moe was about to enter the room.  There was a wave of black as about half of the women there covered themselves with their abayas and or scarves since a man was entering the room.  We watched a shortened version of the video from the wedding at Purdue on a screen.  Then Katie and Moe walked slowly down the aisle to cheers and "A-la-la-la-la-la-la-la" chants.  When they got to the front they sat on the "throne" and then had their first dance to the same song that they had their first dance to at Purdue.  That song was written especially for them and the lyrics are about their romance and life together.  A songwriter from one of their favorite shows, Shark Tank, wrote it for them.  Moe's mother and sisters did a middle eastern dance up on the stage in front of them.  Moe stayed for about a half hour and some of the ladies greeted him.  Then he had to leave so that the ladies could take their abayas back off and get back to partying.  Katie stayed a little while longer and ate with me when dinner was served at 2:00 am.  Then Katie left.  She had commented earlier, "This is a weird wedding where the bride and groom aren't invited."

 

 

Ice sculptures and fruit

 

 

These are bread statues

 

 

The wedding cake that Moe never even saw

 

There was soooo much food there.  After Katie left I walked around and took pictures of the food.  Then I went  back into the party room and watched some more dancing and texted and sent some pictures to Stacy, Becky and Mark.  The party wound down about 4:30.  Some of the workers cut the wedding cake and brought some plates over to the remaining partiers.  I got back to Reema and Othman's house a little before 5:00

 

Several of the ladies who spoke to me asked me how I liked the Saudi Arabian wedding celebration.  Here are my thoughts:  I would rather have my husband there and the bride and groom to participate in the celebration.  There was lots of good food.  I enjoyed the music and watching the dancing but the music was so very loud that you couldn't really hear anyone talking to you.  It started very late and lasted very, very, very late.  The wedding celebration at Purdue was over before this one began.  The Purdue celebration was more on my time schedule.  It was a wonderful experience and I am so glad that I was able to be a part of it.  It was just a little bit lonely for me. 

 

 

 

Wednesday--Wedding Day--Part 1

 There can be some confusion here over the hot and cold water.  When I tried to take a shower Tuesday night and wash my hair, I couldn't get any hot water.  I decided to just get a quick shower and wash my hair Wednesday morning.  Same thing on Wednesday morning--no hot water.  So I skipped washing my hair for a while and texted Moe about the hot water.  While waiting for his reply, I decided to go out and sit by the pool.  IT IS HOT IN SAUDI ARABIA!!  I enjoyed sitting outside for about the first 15 minutes.  It wouldn't have been too bad, but there was no breeze to help.  I decided to try to push myself to stay out for 30 minutes.  I would guess it had been about 25 minutes when I picked up my phone to check the time. On my phone was a big yellow triangle with an exclamation point in the middle of it.  Below that it read, "Warning!  Phone must cool down before attempting to use."  I decided then to go ahead and go back inside!  By then, I was so hot that I actually wanted a cold shower so I got my hair washed.

 

After I was done I got a text from Moe saying "Cold is hot and hot is cold."  The explanation is that water is held in tanks on top of the homes.  That water gets so hot that they use that for hot water.  They turn their water heaters off.  The water in the water heater will cool down since it is inside so that is your cold water!  We sometimes run out of hot water at home.  I guess they would sometimes run out of cold water here.

 

Lunch on Wednesday was provided by one of Reema's very good friends.  And she provided a lot of very good food!  There was a delicious hot (temperature) shrimp dish, wonderful stuffed onions, two types of pastry pockets that were beautiful and delicious, a really good salad, and a rice and lamb dish.  I hope I am not forgetting anything.  I later met this lady.  She is very beautiful and a good cook!

 

 

Wednesday was the day for the Saudi Arabian wedding celebration so the rest of the day was getting ready.  There were 2 hair ladies, a makeup artist and some ladies doing nails.  They all came to the house.  Very out of character for me, I had my hair fixed fancy and also had my nails done.  (Sorry, still no makeup!)  They started about 3:00.  Pictures were to start at 7:00 when the photographer came to the house.  We were running a little behind with them finishing up Katie's hair so Moe's family started taking pictures first.  When Katie's hair was finished, we came upstairs to put her dress on.  When we took it out of the dress bag, we found that they had sewn plastic all around the bottom ruffle either to keep it clean or to hold its shape or both.  I asked for a pair of scissors and we had to cut the stitching about every 4 inches and the circumferance of her dress was quite large.  When finally I had all the stitches cut, we discovered that the plastic was also sewn around the fabric on the inside of the ruffle too!  We were a little late for pictures!

 

We met some new family that came for pictures.  We had already met a nice cousin named Abdul Ramon at the first night poolside dinner.  Also here was Reema's brother Hisham and 2 more of his sons.  (Abdul is his son.  I like his nickname which is Aboudy.)  The other cousins were named Raad and Omar.  They are all such polite and good looking boys! Hisham was very nice ane friendly and funny, too. There is one more cousin in that family but he is away studying in Dubai.  Also here were Sarah and Faisal (Uncle Marv's children who we had already met), Reema's parents, and Moe's family.  We took lots of pictures, just like in the U.S.

 About 8:30, the ladies left for the hotel where the celebration was held.

 

 

 

 

 

I don't think that I have mentioned that women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia.  They have drivers who take them everywhere.  They have to take the daughters everywhere they go, Reema everywhere she goes, and also the maids where they need to go. And then pick them up and bring them home! Moe's sister Sarah (there are a lot of Sarahs around here) mentioned that her friends in Boston where she attends college say that it must be nice to have a chauffeur.  She said she would like to be able to just drive herself where she wants to go.

Answers to the Business Logos

1.  Hardees

2.  Subway

3.  Baskin Robbins

4.  Cinnabon

5.  Kentucky Fried Chicken

6.  Starbucks

7.  McDonalds

8.  Pepsi  (Bebsi)

9.  Dunkin' Donuts

10.  Burger King

11.  Sheraton

12.  Papa Johns

13.  7 Up  (Sefen Up)

May 14--Becky's Birthday

Today was Becky's 22nd birthday.  I was very sorry not to be with her in the United States to celebrate.  But I did get to call her on Katie's phone and talk a few minutes.  She was on her way out to eat with Tanner and another friend at Mug 'N Bun in Indianpolis.

Happy Birthday, baby girl!  I'll love you forever.  I'll like you for always.  As long as I'm living, my baby you'll be!

Discovering Riyadh

 Today we had an authentic Saudi Arabian homemade breakfast.  It consisted of 2 kinds of foul, an egg dish, a bread pudding like thing with bananas, a fruit tray, olives and cheese and bologna.  Oh yes, we also had a dish with camel liver--and we both tried it.  Mark thought that it tasted like any other liver.  I have never had liver so I wouldn't know.  It was ok and I'm glad we tried it.  Everything else was delicious.  I wish I knew all the authentic names, but I can't figure them out. Othman came in as we were finishing eating and we sat around the table talking to him.  About 2:30 or 3:00 Moe took us driving around Riyadh to see the sights.

 

 

We had lunch at Elevation Burger.  It was really good!  There's one in Indianapolis so I am sure we will be looking for it.  Once again, we entered through the family entrance and went upstairs to the family dining room to eat. 

 

 

 

This building is the Ministry of Interior.  This is the building where their marriage was approved. 

 

 

 These are some tall fancy buildings in downtown Riyadh.

 

 

Another very tall fancy building.

 

We also went to the Diplomatic Quarter.  This is an area where all of the embassies of the foreign countries are grouped together.  It was very nice and had lots of landscaping and pretty buildings.  We saw the American embassy from a distance.  The road to the American embassy has been closed at the request of the United States.  I think for security purposes, they don't want any cars getting close to it.

 

After driving around we went to Othman's clinic called "The Swan",  While Katie and Moe had their teeth whitened, Othman gave us a tour around the clinic.  It was very interesting.  After Katie and Moe were done we headed back to Moe's house.  Katie went to shower, Moe went to play pool, and Mark and I just enjoyed sitting out by their pool in the gentle breeze.  We were soon joined by Reema, Jude, Katie and Moe.  We heard an unusual noise while sitting out.  Reema said that it was a lizard.  Today was cooler and very pleasant.  (By cooler I mean around 100 probably for the high)  It gets dark fairly early here.  I've never actually watched for what time it gets dark but I'd say about 7:30 or 8:00.  They don't want it to stay light later because they want it to cool off.  Therefore, they don't have daylight savings time.

 

Reema ordered Chinese food for dinner and we had a wide variety of choices. (We ate dinner about 10:30pm.)  I tried something new called shrimp balls that I really liked.  I don't remember ever seeing them in the United States.

 

 

 

This is Sarah's cat with the very fitting name of Garfield!  Sometimes you see him in surprising locations watching you.  People seem to like cats here more than dogs.  There are lots of wild skinny cats running around in the streets.

 

In Riyadh, I have noticed that most of the women cover their whole face except for their eyes.  Only a few of us aren't covering their hair.  I see more women covering their entire face here than in Jeddah.  I've noticed that some of those women who cover their entire face are also wearing black gloves.

 

Trivia for today:  About 1/4 of the country of Saudi Arabia is uninhabitable.  It is called "The Empty Quarter."  It is located in the Souteast corner of Saudi Arabia.  It is the world's largest contiguous sand desert.  It consists of only sand dunes. 

 

 

CORRECTION FROM YESTERDAY:   It takes 9 hours to drive to Riyadh from Jeddah, not the 5 hours I said yesterday. 

 

Flying to Riyadh

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today we left Jeddah and flew to Riyadh where Moe's parents live.  I had my first scary experience.  When you go through security, the men go one place and the women go inside curtained rooms.  Inside the curtained room was a woman sitting at a desk in a uniform.  She waved Katie to go on through.  As I was following Katie through the curtain, she said, "Excuse me, Maam, where are you going?"  That was even hard to understand and then I didn't know if she meant through the curtain or to Riyadh.  I didn't want to get into a conversation with her that I couldn't understand so I stuck my head through the curtain and said "Katie!!!"  Katie came back and told her we were going to Riyadh and she asked to see our identification which Moe had with him in the men's line.  Katie went out and got it.  The lady looked really good and our pictures and then at us to make sure we were us.  Then she waved us through.  It doesn't sound so bad here but I was scared. I really just wanted to go to a room and cry.  After we described it to Moe, he started singing, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger...."

 

 

 

From Jeddah to Riyadh would have been a 5 hour drive.  It was an hour and 20 minute flight.  During that hour and 20 minutes, they served us dates, juice and lunch.  There wasn't much time for reading or looking out the window.  But when I did look out, it was just brown desert.

 

 

 

This is a beautiful fountain inside the Riyadh airport.  Those little white things are filled with flowers.  Driving to Moe's parents house we went to a drive in coffee place that was just as good as Star Bucks called Java Time.  Then on to his house where we were greeted by his mother, Reema, and his sister, Jude.  Later his sister, Sarah came.  His father, Othman, was at a medical clinic somewhere else and his flight got delayed so we haven't seen him yet.

 

We drove to downtown Riyadh for Moe to get fitted for this robe like thing to wear for the ceremony here.  It is black with gold trim so it looks like it could be for Purdue.  Riyadh seems less crowded than Jeddah and the driving is better.  It is hotter here than Jeddah but it is less humid so it seems cooler.

 

For dinner tonight, about 9:00, we ate outside by the pool.  Moe's maternal grandparents came and it was so nice to meet them.  His grandfather speaks more English than his grandmother.   He sat by me at dinner and he is a character!  All of the homes in Jeddah and also in Riyadh are surrounded by about 10 foot walls to prevent people from looking in and seeing the women in their yards.  Moe's parent's house and his grandparents house are right next to each other and the same wall goes around them both.  They share the yard and pool between them.  After dinner, Moe's grandfather took pictures with us and walked around with us showing us his yard and then his house.

 

We have been made to feel so welcome every step of this journey by all of Moe's family and everyone we meet.  They are all so kind!  We feel better everyday about Katie living in Saudi Arabia with this family and know that they will be taking good care of her.

 

 

 

I'm learning how important a good logo is to a business.  See if you can figure out what these businesses are.  Answers to come later.

 

 

 

Mother's Day at the Aquarium

Today we went to the aquarium after lunch at Starbucks.  The same Egyptian guy waited on us.  He gave Mark an empty cup again.  Mark said "Empty again!"  The guy said, "AGAIN?" 

 

 

 

 

Before we went into the aquarium, we went to their dolphin show.  First they had a little bit with their sea lions.  Then the dolphins started.  It was very good.  It was very hot.  Before the show, some of the dolphins just layed in the water not moving like they were very hot too.  Then the trainers blew a whistle and the dolphins livened up. 

  

 

This poor little boy looked terrified.  They put him in the boat and tried to get him to touch a dolphin and he wouldn't do it.  I expected him to smile after he was done but he did not smile at all!  All of the announcing was done in Arabic.  There was a group of school girls there like they were on a field trip.  There were probably 30 of them and they looked to be high school age. 

 

 

 

 Moe said that the announcer said that these were Saudi Arabian dolphins.  Yesterday when Moe was SCUBA diving he could hear some clicking noises and whines.  He knew that there were dolphins nearby.

 

 

 

I always hesitate to take pictures of the women because I'm afraid if they see me they will say something to me.  I'm more likely to do it behind their backs!  Almost all of the women cover their hair.  Not half, but a good many cover everything but their eyes.  I am surprised at how many cover their whole face.  Those women seem kind of scary to me.  The aquarium was nice.  They had quite a few sharks and some nice tanks with coral that looked a lot like what we saw yesterday, but I think the coral was fake.

 

 

 

We finally left because we were done and because it was so hot, even in the air conditioning. 

 We went to the Red Sea Mall and walked around for a while.  There are so many designer stores around here.  When we left the mall, we went to Uncle Marv's house and watched last week's finale of "Splash" and last week's episode of  "Survivor."  Then we went to supper at Benihanas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Trivia

Just a little bit more trivia before we get started for the day:

The Arabic alphabet has no equivalent for the letters P or V.  Moe says Bebsi for Pepsi and Sefen Up for Seven Up.

There  are 28 characters in the Arabian alphabet.  Mark is trying to learn their numbers by watching license plates which have both Arabic and American numbers.  He will conquer the alphabet when we come back.

There are TV shows here called "Arabia Idol" and "Arabia's Got Talent."  We had not turned on our TV until last night and we watched the movie "Heartbreak Kid".  There were Arabic subtitles.  There will be words missing where it is censored.  Occasionally I am surprised to hear a word that they missed.  I like the commercials.  They are in Arabic with Arabian actors.  One was for a laundry detergent.  A little boy was wearing a thobe--thats the long white gown that men wear.  He was outside playing and had another little boy standing on his shoulders getting something out of a tree.  His shoulders got all muddy from the boy on top's shoes.  His mother washed his thobe and it came out clean.

There is lots of art work and sculptures along the roads.  There is something to see everywhere.

The palm trees here grow dates instead of coconuts.  There are some palm trees with coconuts but they have been transported here.  Palm trees with dates need very litttle water.

There are no car manufacturing plants here.  Every car has been shipped here--and there are a lot of cars!  More about the traffic later...

You can't drink the water but you can use it to shower or brush your teeth.  Moe said there is too much of a mineral in it that will make you sick.  I'm guessing it might be iron.

There is construction going on EVERYWHERE!

Boat Trip, Snorkeling and SCUBA Diving

 

This morning Katie and Moe picked us up about 7:00 for our day of boating, snorkeling and SCUBA diving.  We had breakfast at Krispy Kreme Donuts and then headed to the boat place.  We had a boat almost to ourselves.  Also on the boat was a skipper, who drove the boat, a first mate, who did most everything else, and a dive master so that Moe could SCUBA dive.  No one is allowed to SCUBA dive alone.  You have to have a dive master with you.  We had to wear our abayas until we had stopped at the coast guard office right at the mouth of the Red Sea.  The boat place kept our passports and the coast guard got a copy of our passports when we stopped there.

 

 

 

The boat ride out to the coral reef took about an hour.  Mark used GPS location on his phone which showed that we were located about 15 miles out in the Red Sea.  He had 4 bars of signal on his phone out there!  There was no land in sight.  We 3 snorkelers got in the water first.  You could see all the way down to the bottom which was about 20 feet some places.  The crystal clear water amazes me!  The coral reef is beautiful and there were also quite a few fish.

 

Moe and the dive master and the skipper all SCUBA dived.  It was neat to watch them as long as we could see them while we were snorkeling.

 

 

 

 Eventually, we got out of the water and then waited for the SCUBA divers to come up.  While we waited, we watched the first mate fishing from the boat.  He would throw in a little fish or two and a bunch of fish would come up and start nibbling on it.  Then he would throw his line out past those fish and pull it in.  The line was just that.  Just fishing line with a hook tied on the end with a little piece of bait that he through out by hand.  He did pretty good fishing that way.  He caught a real pretty grouper among a few other things.

 

 

 

 .When the divers came up, the first mate fixed our lunch.  They had all kinds of sandwich fixings and also a cooler of drinks.

 

 

That's Moe on the right and the dive master on the left.  The dive master was from Turkey. The other two guys were from India.  Moe said it was funny to listen to them because they were all speaking broken Arabic to each other.  After we ate our lunch we headed to a ship wreck of an oil tanker.  The snorkelers got in the water first.  When the dive master got in he told us to get out, that the water was too rough and we would wear ourselves out.  We got to look at the ship wreck for about 10 minutes.  It was very cool looking but very eerie while I was wondering how the ship wreck had happened.  It was an old ship wreck because there was coral growing on the ship.  The SCUBA divers went ahead and dove the shipwreck.  Moe said that the bottom was about 40 feet.  The water was still crystal clear and we could see all the way to the bottom.  There were some bigger fish swimming around the ship wreck.

 

 

This is Moe in this picture.  Moe ran out of air after about 35 minutes so he and the skipper came up first. The dive master stayed down for about 10 more minutes doing some fishing.  He came out of the water with one more grouper and 2 beautiful parrot fish that were I'd say were about 18 inches long.  They are real pretty shades of blue and lavender and have a beak which is why they are called parrot fish. 

 

We left the ship wreck and headed back toward Jeddah to go to another coral reef so that we could snorkel a little more.  This one was also beautiful.  We saw about the same fish plus a few sting rays that were on the bottom.  Sting rays that are 10-15 feet below you are not so scary.  If they had been on the top, I would have been right out of the water!  We snorkeled for a little while but then saw a few jelly fish so we got out and came back to Jeddah.

 

While we were boating in, we were sitting on the front of the boat.  (Its hard to explain.)  It was a fun ride and every now and then we would get sprayed with water.  When we could see the coast guard station, Katie and I started putting our abayas back on.  That is very hard to do when you've been wet and you're all sticky and the abaya is a lot of material to get situated.  We were not done more than a minute when we got to the coast guard station.  There, a man in a uniform got on the boat to make sure that we weren't smuggling anyone extra in to Saudi Arabia.  We were cleared to go back to the dock.  Our entire boat trip lasted from 9:00 to 5:00.  It was great!

 

We stopped at TGI Fridays for supper and then headed to the hotel for showers and blogging.  I still feel like I am swaying on the boat and I still can't get the water out of my right ear!

 

Trivia for today:  All public education is segregated from after kindergarten or first grade.  (Moe couldn't remember which.)  The boys go to one school and the girls go to another all the way through high school. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Breakfast with Uncle Marv and then the Beach

 

 

Uncle Marv took us out this morning for a traditional Saudi Arabian breakfast.  From left to right:  Mark, Moe, Katie, Loy, Faisel, Uncle Marv and me.  We had a great time and some great food.  The only thing that I can remember what it was called was Saudi Arabian Foul.  The first time Moe came to our house he made Egyptian Foul for us.  The other stuff was good but I never did really understand what it was called.  Uncle Marv is quite a story teller.  We enjoyed good food and good conversation.

 

We aren't quite sure who Loy is.  We met him at Uncle Marv's office.  Last night he was at Uncle Marv's house.  Today he came to breakfast.  He was even on the flight with us from Washington D.C.!

 

 



 

After breakfast we made a quick trip to the big fish market.  That is where the fishermen unload their catch and then sell it at the marker.  (Souk)  We got there, walked in and saw just a few things when it was time for prayer and they started closing up so we left.  Really, it was so hot and smelled so bad that we wouldn't have stayed very long anyway.

This was an octopus.

 

 

There were a lot of wild skinny, scrawny cats running around.  This one got a little fish.

 

As we were leaving, there were several fruit stands.  This one had a table full of watermelons.  They looked just about like Knox County watermelons.

 

 

We had no plans for this afternoon so we decided to go to the beach again.  This time we went to another private beach where Katie and Moe have their application in to join but have to wait on a waiting list for people to not renew their membership or move away.  It was nice. It even had 2 giant resort pools.  They had brought in white sand which is nice because it reminds us of Alabama.  The other beach was brown sand.  This water was even clearer than the first beach.  When I was in up to my shoulders I could clearly see my feet just like it was a swimming pool.  I only saw 1 six inch fish and a group of about 50 minnows.  I was taking pictures when we first entered but a worker came up to me and said no cameras allowed--so sorry, there are no pictures.  I did learn that even if you go out over your head you don't have to move or tread water to stay afloat.  You can stand straight up and down, without your feet touching anything, and not move a muscle and still keep your head out of the water.  I was amazed.  We stayed at the beach for a few hours but it was very hot.  We left and had lunch (at 4:30) at a steak house.  We are skipping supper to rest and catch up on our sleep because we have an early start for tomorrow.  We are going on a boat trip and going snorkeling at the coral reef.

 

Gas here is very cheap.  It is a higher octane than what is even available in the United States and it is only $0.50 a gallon.  Moe has a 20 gallon tank and can fill up for $10.00.  The first time we stopped to get gas, the station was out of gas!  That was a surprise to me.  Here we are in Saudi Arabia where gas is cheap and oil is plentiful and the gas station is out of gas!  We just went further down the road to another station.  All stations are only full service.  Every gas station has the same price.  It is subsidized by the government so there is no price competition.

 

60% of the population in Saudi Arabia is under 25.  In the United States, 35% of the population is under 25.

 

There have been 6 kings of Saudi Arabia since the first king in 1932.  Moe's maternal grandfather worked for every king except the current one, because his grandfather is now retired.  The crown prince is the prince who will become king after the current king dies.  We drove by the palace of the crown prince who approved of Katie and Moe's marriage. He died not very long ago so he never became king.  After he died, the royal family chose another crown prince.  He is a brother to the king.  They go through all of the brothers before they move down to sons.  Each man in Saudi Arabia is allowed to have up to 4 wives at a time.  Then when they want another wife, they just divorce one of the 4 they already have and they can marry another one.  No one in Moe's family has more than one wife.  Moe said that he didn't think it would be worth the trouble.

 

 



Dinner At Al Anbariya

We had dinner tonight at Al Anbariya.  It is a fish market where you pick out your fish and they cook it and bring it to you.  This is a Red Sea Grouper.  We had some other little fish that Uncle Marv said to get and shrimp, rice and fries.  We had our own little cabana which was shaped like a tent.  Normally you sit on the floor on a rug to eat but they set up tables for us.

 

 

                            
                                                                       BEFORE

 

AFTER

Look at the teeth!!!

But it was delicious!

 

 

 

Nader went with us.  Nader was Katie's classmate at Purdue who introduce Katie and Moe.  Without Nader, we wouldn't have been on this trip!

 

Since we were the only 5 in our tent, we were able to remove our abayas for the dinner.  Even though the tent was air conditioned, it never really cooled down.  It was extremely humid today and we saw the car thermometer get up to 108.  They tell us this is just the beginning.  The worst will be in August and September.

Another interesting tidbit--the closest way for our trip to Taif would have been through Mecca.  Mecca is where the holy Mosque is located, where the Muslims go on their pilgrimage.  It is against the law for someone who isn't Muslim to go to the holy Mosque.  It is also against the law for anyone who isn't Muslim to even drive through the town of Mecca.  We had to go a round about way to Taif to keep from driving through Mecca.  On our way back, there was a big overhead highway sign that pointed to 3 lanes that said "Mecca  -  Muslims only".  Then on the right side of the sign it said in red "All non-Muslims must exit here."

We met a new relative tonight.  Moe's cousin Faisel, Uncle Marv's son, is home from college in Florida.