Time for another update from Jeddah

Well I just completed my first full week of work and settling in nicely.  Everyone at post is extremely friendly and have made us feel welcome.  Jolene starts work this Sunday and is really looking forward to it.  This week we went out with some others from work and had a sea food dinner Bedouin style... sitting on carpets and sharing several different plate.  Here's the spread...

We had sea bass, parrot fish, shrimp, and calamari.  Crystal and Jolene ate a little bit of everything.  They actually like it.   I handed Crystal one of the shrimp above and she said, "What do I do with it... It still has the head on it, Dad fix it for me...."  So I pealed her shrimp for her.  Needless to say everything tasted excellent. There was 15 of us for dinner and we had enough food for another 10 people.  But we made good use of the leftovers, bringing them to the Marines on duty and the security guards.

So this is the beach we went to today, it's called the La Plage. For those of you that know French, yes the beach is called "The Beach".  I know very original.  There is another beach that we will eventually make it to called "Silver Sands"  For you back in the USDA, I'll let you know how it compares to the Silver Sands in NY.

The water is quite warm, but a little cooler than the pool in our housing compound.  As you get out about 5 feet or so it gets quite comfortable.  The tent in the distance is where you can rent snorkel and dive equipment.  There is a reef that drops off where the divers head out, but the reef is awesome with a snorkel. One of the Marines that was with us today, had an underwater camera, so if his pictures turn out I'll get them uploaded here.  But until then, here's what it looked like...

Obviously we need to rush out and get our own fins and mask so we don't have to rent them, but we are really looking forward to learning how to dive and exploring further out.  I hear there are several ship wrecks that are great diving places.

Well that's it for now ...

مع السلامة
Sounds like ... Ma’a salama
Translations... Good Bye

A Week in Jeddah

Okay so we've been here a week today.  Let's recap:
After an 18 hour trip to get here we zipped through customs thanks to our great expediter, our luggage arrived all in tact an the cat made it though he was a bit grumpy.

We were welcomed by many of our colleagues that work at the consulate and they have all been great in helping us get settled in. We've gone to one dinner party to meet consulate people that live on the compound that we live on and today we had our second pool party with a large number of the consulate staff.  The first one was at the other compound that the consulate uses.... Quick side note, compound is just another word for a gated or in our case walled in community.  There are many Saudis, Americans, and many other nationalities that live here.

So the consulate is closed for a few more days because of Eid holiday. The work/school week here is Sunday - Thursday so that will take a little getting used to.

Lets see what else,.... We've been out to a couple of malls and grocery shopping.  The grocery store is like a super Wal-Mart or Target.  Things are a bit pricier but not to bad.

Back to our house, we've got a nice 3 bedroom 3.5 bath town house.  All tile floors so we will definitely be getting some rugs while we are here.  we've got a small back porch area, and when we sit back there, we are surrounded by stray kitties.  Yeah we were suckers and fed them...next thing we knew there were a dozen of them swarming us and meowing.  But only a couple of them have been brave enough to come close and let us pet them.  And yes we have started naming them.  Here is a couple pictures.

This is "Schrödinger"  Yeah I named her

We call this one "Oreo"

This little Siamese is called "Nutz" because well they are huge... 

Crystal has been working on here dives.  Here are a couple of action shots from one of her dives.

And she is straight with her toes pointed ... must be from the years of gymnastics training.

All in all it's been good week.  We are figuring things out and getting accustomed to the new culture, the new currency (Riyals), meeting our neighbors and co-workers, and all the nice kitties in the neighborhood.  (I'll gather them up for a group shot sometime... should be as easy as herding cats...)

Back on the Blog Again

Okay so it's been a loooonnngg time since we've posted anything.  So just a quick update to get things rolling again.  After a short stint back in DC we are now settling into our new home in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.  It's a bit on the warmer side; well okay it's damn hot and humid, but we have a great house and a very nice pool to kind of cool off in.  The water temperature in the pool is probably around 85° F.  But here's a look at it anyway.

Well that's just a quick update for now, not much else going on.  Things are quiet here but the consulate is still closed for a few more days.  Jolene and I are both looking forward to getting going in work.  We are also going to be taking scuba lessons, hopefully pretty soon.  

Ciao for now.