My New Normal

After being in the "Magic Kingdom" for almost 4 months I feel like I finally have a grasp on "normal".  Obviously life here is not the American standard of normal.  So, I thought I would give everyone a taste of what the Saudi version of "normal" is like.  Not all are good, not all are bad sometimes its just different:


- I wear my abaya EVERY time I leave our compound. This sometimes confuses Micah since I will be sitting on the couch in practically pj's 5 minutes before we are supposed to leave the house. He tends to ask me if I'm going to get ready to which I get to reply "I am ready."

My current favorite abaya

- This is the "normal" way to see people dressed in public. 

- We are STARED at everywhere we go. I pretty much ignore it but sometimes they are a little to blatant about their fascination with us. 

- I have a driver everywhere I go off the our compound.  As you may or may not know, Saudi does not allow women to drive!! But, on top of that, Chevron does not allow Micah to drive either.  Most of the time I LOVE this arrangement.  It means that I can go out during the day without Micah and you never have the stress of driving here with the other crazy drivers on the road.  Sometimes I hate this because I can't just jump in my car and drive to and ATM or other things that don't seem worth having to call a driver. 

Riding in our vehicle...I have no idea why I'm making that face

-To get to the best grocery store it is over an hour long drive.  This also means that we take ice chests with us to help keep cold things cold.  Also, when we find something from the US that we want first you check the expiration date, secondly we buy ALL OF THEM.  We never know when we will see that item again. On a random note, all 4 of the wheels on our grocery carts spin. On the carts at home only the front two turn and the back two stay stationary. This made maneuvering them a learning experience.  Now, I have gotten used to them and even get a little frustrated when I get a cart where all 4 wheels don't move.

Home after a small shopping trip

- We can't get Alcohol or ANY pork products in Saudi.  Even items that have any portion of pork in the ingredients are banned.  Products with ANY alcohol are banned such as vanilla extract.  Crazy huh?

- We always have to plan around prayer times.  The first prayer time to affect shopping is around 11:30am-12:00pm (there are 5 a day).  We typically try to get most of our shopping done between the hours of 9:00 am and 11:30 am.  After the lunch prayer many stores don't reopen until 4:00pm.  This makes shopping a very rushed crazy task. However, we  have learned what stores allow you to stay in and shop during prayer time and which stores stay open between Noon and 4:00pm (Ikea). I've also learned that sometimes its just easier to shop in the evening. 

a blurry picture of IKEA

- Toilets are NEVER what we would expect in the US.  Sometimes you have a hole in the floor (I have yet to use one) but usually if you keep checking stalls you will find at least one "western" toilet. There is pretty much NEVER toilet paper so now I carry a bag of my own in my purse all the time. They use sprayers instead of paper which means that the floor is almost always wet.....GROSS.  And, when you are wearing an abaya it is difficult to keep the bottom of your abaya dry.  

-  In the stores, items with pictures of women on them may be colored over with a black sharpie marker.  I find this quite hilarious. 

- Restaurants have "single entrance" and "family entrance".   Only men go on the single entrance side.  Us ladies always eat in the family section.  Also, in the family section you either have booths with curtains that close or they bring partitions to put around your table.  This is for ladies who cover their faces in public but want to take the coverings off so that they can eat.  We never actually close the curtain or use partitions. 

- Our weekends are Thursday and Friday.  Saturday is now like a Monday and Wednesday is now like a Friday.  We tend to refer to days as "Saudi _______" so "Saudi Friday" means the actual day is Wednesday.  

- We are always around people.  Living on a compound has actually been great.  We have great facilities and helpful workers.  I believe it has made living here 100x easier.  There is always someone very close by to help with anything I need.  However, occasionally you feel like there is no privacy.  People always know what your doing, if you worked out today, if you ate at someones house for dinner, what time you got home from the store,  etc.  Again, overall I love the compound and the people.  I can't remember the last day that I was bored. The lack of privacy is worth the feel of community.

- I play cards with a group of ladies once a week.  I do this because I like to play games but more so because I like to socialize with people outside of the Chevron bubble.  The ladies that I play with are from South Africa, Germany, Canada, and of course the USA.  Some of the ladies have lived in Saudi for 25+ years.  Some have lived in Korea, Singapore, India, etc.  I love getting to interact with people of other cultures and with such wisdom about Saudi.  

- Micah plays basketball every Tuesday with a group of guys.

-I have a house boy (man) who cleans our apartment every other week.  The other day Micah so lovingly asked me if I had forgotten how to clean yet :)

- We watch a lot of American television through "Slingbox".   This invention is the best thing we own.  My wonderful brother agreed to let us use his cable and we have our very own DVR box.  The slingbox transmits anything coming through my brothers cable or on our slingbox to us in Saudi.  This means I get to keep up to date with all my shows (very important, haha)!  It also means that we get to watch OSU football games live (usually at 2:00am).  Sometimes I even watch commercials now just to feel connected to the United States.  

- We have a fantastic group of friends who have made life here SO easy.  It's amazing how well we all get along and enjoy each others company.  It's great to have people that you love to be around.  Whats even more amazing is how much some of them love Gizmo.  This has made finding a babysitter for Gizmo while we are on vacation so much easier. 

Best picture I could find of the boys

The girls on a shopping trip

All these things are very minor aspects of our new life.  Occasionally I get that "trapped" feeling when I don't have a car or can't go buy a "drink" or want to cook pork, or NOT wear an abaya.  However, overall everything has been amazing and we feel very blessed to have this opportunity.  I'm loving to opportunity to experience new things, learn new cultures, meet new people, and travel.  Micah's job is great for his future in his career.  He occasionally gets to experience the other aspects with me :)  

Hope you enjoyed your glimpse into our new normal!