Another fun day at AIS-R!

Today was an especially fun morning! It was the first day that we had a wellness session. From now until school starts (I think) we get to participate in an activity of our choice. They last one hour and range from reading to skateboarding to working out at the gym to talking tech stuff. I chose to go to yoga and really enjoyed it. The teacher that ran the session was amazing! It was a great workout and was really hard for me since it has been so long since I practiced yoga. Anne, Meagan, Michele and Jules- I was thinking of you the whole time (and of course Bob and his socks)!

After our wellness session we had a healthy breakfast. I love the emphasis on health right now. We got to choose from yogurts, fruits, museli and cereal. This was a really energizing morning. And today, we needed it!

Following breakfast we did a scavenger hunt with our team. There are only three people on my team right now since we are waiting for the other two (Krystle and Shelley) to arrive soon. It was Jon, Joji and me. We had so much fun! The purpose of this hunt was to really learn the new campus and find out where important things are located. It was so much fun running around trying to find things. To make it more interesting, you had to take pictures of each place you went to and put it on instagram. Those of you that follow me on IG probably noticed the pictures. Our campus is so big, we compared it to a community college campus, although maybe not quite that big, but darn close! Here are some of my favorite pictures from today.

 This is Jon picking up our HR director, Mike Laird. Mike helped us get into the country and has helped us settle into life in Riyadh and at AIS-R.

 This is in the faculty lounge area.

 One of our tasks was to go to the principal's office. Jon is sitting at Travis' desk and was worried he was going to get in trouble for doing it. ;) He didn't. The three leaders all enjoyed our little disturbance.

 I don't think they encourage climbing the flag poles, but we did it anyway!

This is my favorite one! This room is where we have all of our meetings. Usually our superintendent is behind the podium. I'm sure the school will use this picture at some other time in the year. :)

There was one more I wanted to share, but it won't upload for some reason. Anyway, it seems like a really fun school and my team is great! The rest of the day was spent in our classrooms. At the end of the day the three of us went into Krystle and Shelley's classrooms to rearrange furniture and figure out where to put bulletin boards and white boards. I think we will be great at working together!

2 more work days to go this week...
C

Classroom time!

Today was the first day back with returning teachers. This year we get 2 weeks to set up because of the new campus. School does not start until September 1. It was a great day with everyone there. We started with breakfast and coffee in the dining hall. The returning teachers were so friendly saying hello to their friends from the past, but also introducing themselves to new teachers. There was a lot of mingling and it was a very positive vibe. I always love the beginning of the school year. Everyone is excited for the upcoming year and a new, fresh start is always a good thing.

After breakfast we had a full staff meeting. Honestly, it was truly enjoyable. Our superintendent is fantastic and I really like what he had to say. He kept it fun, light, positive and gave out chocolate to teachers every now and then throughout the meeting. :) Each year there is a theme for the school to stick to. This year it is "True to Yellow and Blue". He talked a little bit about what that meant and told us we would be doing a lot with it.

Next, we had time to head to our classrooms for a short while. I was able to talk to the two other grade 2 teachers that were there. They were both very enthusiastic, welcoming and helpful. We will have 5 teachers on our team this year, 3 of which are new. I am really looking forward to a great team! And especially can't wait for Krystle to get here so we can finally teach together!

Each division had their own meeting for a short time before lunch. Elementary School (ES) started with a game about our two new assistant principals, Travis and Mike. She gave us 15 clues and we had to guess Travis, Mike or both. I thought for sure I would win, but I didn't! I couldn't believe it. I came in 2nd place. The 'both' answer through me off a bit. We learned some interesting stuff about our new leaders. :) Then, we talked about "True to Yellow and Blue". We did an activity and then brainstormed how we would bring this in to our classrooms. It was WONDERFUL to have such organization and collaboration right away. I truly felt like every minute of these meetings was worthwhile and helpful.

Now, let's talk about organization. Anyone that knows me, knows I like things to be organized, planned ahead, focused and purposeful. I can say, wholeheartedly, this school is ALL about that. I have been blown away by the organization in everything that has been done. Our new school is also all about helping and supporting each other. It has been an amazing feeling!

After our yummy subway lunch, from the restaurant on our campus, I spent the rest of the day in my classroom. I got quite a bit done and am happy with my progress. I will leave you with some pictures of what it looked like at the beginning of the day. I have already rearranged things, unpacked boxes and put some books away though. Bulletin boards, white boards and posters are coming soon. When I finish, I will post pictures again. :)

Oh, and if you are wondering what Travis has been doing...I don't know. He does whatever it is principals do during the day behind closed doors. Just kidding! He has been running around like crazy making sure everything is going smoothly and checking on rooms and people and doing lots of planning and organizing. Yesterday he worked 12 1/2 hours!!! Today he got to come home early, so that was really nice!

One more thing, we worked more on organizing the house and also got our new barbecue delivered. Also, our maid should start tomorrow or Thursday, which will be great. Things are dirty and need to be cleaned! ;)

Now, here is my classroom at the beginning...

Happy Monday to all!
C

IKEA and Prayer Time

IKEA...what would we do without it? Shop somewhere else? Probably. However, when living abroad, it's an easy place to go. I love the fact that you can get so much there. I love that everything is so cheap. I hate that everyone else in the world loves the same things about it, so it is always so busy. I hate that it is CHEAP stuff, but the convenience makes me buy it anyway.

Ok, now to my first IKEA trip in Riyadh. This was a trip without Travis because he had to work. I knew it wasn't going to be a pretty trip. IKEA is never fun on the weekends! And when you are alone, it's even worse. Everyone planned to go off on their own so they could get as much as possible while there. We planned to leave early so we could avoid prayer time problems and have plenty of shopping time. We ended up leaving late and then it took longer than expected to get there. This meant we only had a short time to shop because of prayer time...

Here is a little fact that I learned about Saudi Arabia. There are prayer times each day, five times a day. Right now as I write this, it is currently one of their prayer times. These times change every day according to the moon. When it is prayer time, stores close, everything closes. We had to be in line by 11:30am to make sure we checked out before prayer time started at 12. That only gave us about an hour and 15 minutes to shop. If we didn't make it before 12, we would have to wait at least 40 minutes to check out...

I had big and small items to buy. I was getting stressed without Travis and with being so rushed, I had to skip all the big items. Then I realized that I forgot my list at home, so that made even the small items difficult. In addition, I had a hard time finding many of the things I needed. Anyways, I got a few things, checked out and learned a few lessons from this trip.

1. Go shopping well before prayer time.
2. Take Travis when I want to get big things.
3. Expect IKEA to suck and not have everything you want. (The IKEA in Shanghai had so much more!)

I look forward (sort of) to the next IKEA trip and Saco trip so I can get all the rest of the stuff we need. In retrospect, we probably should have shipped more of our stuff from Shanghai...

xoxo
CK

Driving in Riyadh!

In Shanghai we loved the public transit. It was super easy to get almost anywhere in town. Taxis were cheap and there were plenty of them. The subway was a 5 minute walk from our door and was even cheaper than the taxi rides. Not to mention the many shops, restaurants and bars that were just a short walk away. Here in Riyadh, you have to drive. Now, first, I will say that we have a lot on the compound that can help us survive. The grocery store has plenty there and is not too much more expensive than the other stores. There is a Costa Coffee, Burger King and more restaurants coming. The pools are gorgeous and the rec center is fantastic! Here are some rec center pictures.

 indoor pool

 indoor basketball court

 Soccer field

gym

But, if you want more than that, you must drive. I know to those of you living in the suburbs that may not seem like a big deal. When you live in a big city, it's a pain to drive. When you live in a big city in the middle east, it's scary to drive! The drivers here are fast. Fast as in 180 kph! There are not many lights and other traffic rules are more suggestions than anything else. Now, add in the fact that we live in the newer section of town that is under major construction and is very confusing because of roads randomly closing or no street signs, or streets with names that are too long to remember and you will picture our driving situation!

Our first few days we were driven around in a bus. It gave us a chance to see things and understand a little bit about the driving. On Friday, it was time for us to do the driving. And by us, I mean Travis, because women can't drive in Saudi. All of the new teachers, that are currently here, got in their cars and followed our HR friend to Saco. On the way there, it was not bad. We were third in line out of six cars and the traffic was light. We all made it, surprisingly, without a problem. Then we did some shopping. Saco World is kind of like a Home Depot or Canadian Tire (I'm told) but without all the lumber (HD) or tires (CT). We spent some big bucks on a microwave, juicer, blow dryer, straightener, shoe racks and of course Travis wanted a barbecue. All went well until we had to stand in line for delivery and installation of the barbecue. Travis literally waited for 45 minutes to pay and tell them where we live. He only took 5 minutes, but the people in front of him were drawing a map to where they lived and it was taking a while. Finally, we were done. Oh, also, there were women working there. That was the first time I saw a woman doing some sort of job. On the way home, traffic was worse and we were last in the lineup. It was a bit scarier, especially because we had our friends' two kids in the backseat, so we were trying to drive extra carefully. It was not easy with others driving fast to pass you or cut you off, you having to cut someone off because you don't know where you are going and you don't want to lose the group! We made it home and Travis said it was much better than he expected, so that was great! There was only one really scary time when he had to floor the gas pedal to catch up, but then slam on the breaks as to not run into the car in front of us. ;)

Here is Travis driving and a picture of what it looks like ALL around us, sand, sand, sand, construction, construction and more sand and construction.

Travis did a great job driving! When we got home, we went next door to take a look at how they arranged their living room and dining room. We have noticed that the villa we live in is beautiful, but not really functional with the space and furniture provided. Tracy (teacher living next door) had explained to me how she did her space so I went to take a look. We ended up staying for hours and eating dinner over there with Tracy, her husband Ian and then two other friends (from Michigan that looked at the exact same lake house as us!!! How crazy is that?!?!) that also work at our school. The four of them came last year and were so welcoming to us. It was a great, unexpected night! 

One of my favorite things about living abroad is the people you work with. I have said it a million times before, but they become not just your friends, but your family. You are here alone and you need others in so many ways. When you live in your home country, you are usually a drive or short flight away from family. Abroad, it is so different. Everyone bonds instantly, and you rely on each other and would do anything for others. We were so blessed in Shanghai to have the friends and family that we had there. They will NEVER be replaced. But, it is so nice to see that this is another place where we will surely make more 'framily'. 

I will leave this post with a picture of our first sunset in Riyadh that we actually saw. :)

Love and hugs from the Riyadh Klumps!

The first two full days in Riyadh

After landing at midnight and getting to our villa after 1am, we didn't end up getting to sleep until 3. We had to wake up for a 9am breakfast the next day, Wednesday. After roughly 5 hours of sleep, we woke up and headed to our first day at 'work'. The new staff members that are already here joined the leadership team right on our compound. Just down the street from our villa is the recreation center and another building with restaurants, the bowling alley, movie theater, grocery store and dry cleaners. We had a catered breakfast there and were able to talk with returning leadership members and ask questions and just get to know everyone a little better. We also stopped at Costa Coffee before we left the building. I love that this is on the compound!!! Next, we walked down to the compound security center and got a photo ID card to enter the compound. No one is allowed to come into the compound without the card or an invitation (given ahead of time) from a resident. After that we had a little tour of the compound. The whole thing is pretty big, so we only saw part of it. We passed the outdoor pool, saw other villas and then went into the rec center. We loved it! It has tennis, squash and basketball courts, an indoor pool, indoor soccer field, two indoor tracks and a full gym all for our use. There will also be Zumba and spinning classes offered.

In the afternoon we had a group trip in a bus to the closest big grocery store, Tamimi. The one on the compound was plenty big, but Tamimi had much more. For this little trip, I wore my abaya for the first time. We didn't have to cover our hair or face, but had to bring a scarf just in case they ask you to cover up. I also learned that you can wear sandals (I didn't think I could) and I could go in and walk around by myself. I just needed someone to drop me off. While there, Travis and I got lots of food and other items. I was very surprised at how westernized it all was. I was thinking it would be like Carrefour in China, but it was the total opposite. I felt like I was in America at a store! You can get just about everything here that you can at home. They had a great selection and everything was in English. It was wonderful!

My new look when headed out into town.

It was nice to see outside of the compound as we drove to the store. Our part of Riyadh is a newer development so there is not much near us. There is a lot of empty land and construction everywhere. The downside to this is all the dust. The upside is that everything is new near us. As we drove it was so nice to see Baskin Robins, DQ and Subway. I also learned that there is a restaurant that is just like Chipotle!!!! 

We headed home and unpacked the groceries. Travis then went to real work at the campus and I stayed home to begin the unpacking. When Travis got home, we finished unpacking 8 suitcases and 17 boxes! We got so much done in one day. This place is still a mess and I need to do some shopping to make it more like home, but it has come a long ways in a short time. We called it a night and went to bed so we could wake up early the next day.

Thursday-

We had breakfast and a meeting at 8am today. Then we went to the medical clinic to give our 'samples' and get our blood taken. This was a quick trip because it was prayer time and the employees needed to leave. It was much quicker than the China one we had to go to four years ago. The rest of the day was spent at school. The campus is coming along, but there is still a lot of work to be done. There are approximately 1, 258 workers on campus finishing it up. It was crazy and VERY dusty. My favorite part of the tour was the dining hall. We have a legit salad bar, an actual Subway restaurant and a wood oven for cooking pizza!!! Are you kidding me?!?! How awesome is that? In addition to the tour, I was able to get into my classroom, so that was great. 

Here is my walk to work. I am standing right in front of our villa. Way at the end of this road is our school. It is about a 5 minute walk for us. 

This evening we all went to the superintendent's home for dinner. He has a gorgeous villa and the food was catered. His backyard was covered in red carpet and we sat outside to eat. It was a great night! We were able to meet some returning teachers as well. The teachers are truly wonderful and very friendly. I am really looking forward to working with them.

So there you have it, another quick summary. If you want to keep reading our blog, please follow us. I will not be posting them all on facebook anymore. I might do a few of the more exciting ones, but otherwise it will just be here.

And now, it's the weekend for me!

The first day in Riyadh

This adventure really began WAY back in November 2013. It seems like ages ago now. Brian Matthews, superintendent of American International School-Riyadh talked to Travis at the Bangkok leadership job fair. He wanted to talk to Travis, but Travis wasn't sure that I would even consider moving to the Middle East. When I first met Brian I told him to save his breath. I would never even consider moving there. A few hours later, my mind had changed. Not completely, but I was intrigued and wanted to know more. The rest is history. We were offered jobs, we took them with excitement and told our families and friends. Most of you thought (still think) we were crazy. So, this blog is to help you see we are not crazy. In fact, we are VERY smart. :) I will do my best to continue with updates often, but you know how life gets in the way of planned things.

So, here is how it all continues...

We finally left Detroit on Monday August 11. Our visas took longer than everyone thought, so our original flight was cancelled and moved. I was pretty excited about only having an 8ish hour flight, a break and then a 5ish hour flight. Compared to being stuck on a jet for 12-14 hours flying to Shanghai, it sounded like a breeze. I was wrong. It was a rough one for me. We got on the plane on time, early actually. The plane began to taxi and then it continued to taxi. It seemed like we were on there forever. Then finally the pilot got on the PA and told us to prepare for take off. I was relieved at this point. It had been pouring and storming and I thought for sure we would be delayed. So here we were ready to go. The plane picked up speed and then stopped abruptly. Here is when I begin to have a panic attack. Those of you that know me or have flown with me, know that I am not a huge fan of planes. I have gotten much, much better due to the fact that I have been on about 678 flights in the last 4 years, but I still panic during take offs sometimes. So, when this happened, I had a heart attack. I grabbed Travis and told him I was scared and prepared myself for death. Now, this lasted approximately 30 seconds. The pilot came back on the PA and told us he had to abort take off because of the weather. This made me feel MUCH better. I was convinced the left falange was missing and we were having technical problems. We ended up leaving about an hour late. The flight was pretty uneventful, but I was not happy with the movie selection and I could not sleep. I managed to watch "The Other Woman" and then right before we landed I fell asleep for a bit.

We landed in Frankfurt, Germany with a 9 hour layover. Lucky for us, we know someone in Frankfurt. That is one of the luxuries of living abroad. You end up knowing people all over. Lidel picked us up and took us to a really cute town just outside of the city. We had a great day and she was an amazing hostess!

 The view from our cable car ride.

 The narrow street with cute restaurants, beer gardens and shops.

After lunch, getting ready to head back to the airport.

The next leg of our trip was straight to Riyadh. This flight was also delayed on the runway. We sat out there for almost an hour again. We were so tired by this point, that we both fell asleep sitting straight up. This flight was quick. We landed at midnight and were absolutely exhausted, even after sleeping on the plane a bit. When we first landed my initial thought was, "holy crap, what did we do. I can't believe we live in Saudi." This was very similar to my thoughts when we first got to China. It didn't last long though. We got off the plane and started to talking to our friend Carolyn. She and her family were also in Shanghai and we met them last year. We walked towards customs and we immediately greeted by Brian and our principal Jenny. I can't even explain how that made us feel. It was so comforting to see people we knew and that live there already. The rest of the new teachers (that made it with a Visa) and the two of us chit chatted and went through customs quickly. The Saudi workers were so friendly and made us feel so welcome. I honestly wanted to cry, it was so unexpected and wonderful. Brian had workers come to help us with our 8 bags, so we did nothing. They got our bags and we began to leave baggage claim. 

The next part I knew about, but forgot. We came out and a bunch of admin and teachers were outside yelling and cheering and taking pictures and were so excited to meet us and help us. I had tears in my eyes (and I do again right now thinking about it). We couldn't have asked for anything better. But, it does get better. They loaded all of our luggage into another van and we journeyed to our compound. It was dark, so we couldn't see much. They dropped each of us off at our villas and took us in and made sure everything was ok. It was more than ok, our kitchen was stocked with plates, utensils, food, drinks, pots, pans, coffee, a coffee maker, a toaster...I could go on and on. Cleaning supplies were bought for us, laundry detergent, an iron and an ironing board. Upstairs the bed was made with nice sheets and clean towels were ready for us as well as soap. Our luggage was dropped off and added to our 17 boxes already delivered. We had working phones and wifi already hooked up as well. We got what we needed for the next day, showered and went to bed feeling REALLY good!

A few pics of the wonderful things they did for us and some things I am really excited to have here in our home!

 This was a welcome gift from our buddies. We had a couple that we talked to through email, several times before we came here. They left us this little gift and they live next to us.

 I have a real oven to bake delicious food! And the lots of burners!

 A dishwasher!!!! Yay!

 Our bed all made up for us.

 A giant soaking tub and a rainshower head! 

 This is our car. :)

This is our home!

I was going to write more, but I am exhausted. I will tell you about the next day tomorrow. It was a good one! More pictures to come as we unpack the last of our things and get more settled in.

Christy

PS- I am too tired to reread this. If it doesn't make sense, I apologize. ;)

25 Signs You Work at an International School

It’s still our Christmas break and we are really soaking up all the relaxation we can get! We arrived in Detroit on Friday December 20 and have spent the majority of our time here with our families. It’s Monday now, when most local public schools would have started up classes again. However, most cities in the area received over 12 inches of snow over the past few days. That, along with temperatures dropping drastically (real feel temps around -20 degrees) caused all schools to close on Monday and Tuesday. It made me miss the snow days we use to get in the winters. Honestly though, the snow days are not enough to bring me back to Michigan to work. Travis and I are loving life abroad. While home, I recently saw a post from a friend about international school students. As I was reading it, I couldn’t help but chuckle or shake my head in agreement with many things. I was not an international school kid, but because we work at an international school, I could relate to a lot of it. It inspired this post.

So here it is, 25 signs you work at an international school…

1. You have friends all over the world.

2. You plan your trips to see new places and see these friends that have scattered to new countries.

3. You get really excited to meet other people from your home.

4. You have heard of (and probably traveled to) countries and cities that friends back home have never even heard of!

 5. You have eaten (and probably love most of it) food that friends back home have never heard of.

6. Because of this new love of food, United Nations Day is your favorite day of the year! The food that you consume during this weekend is better than any Thanksgiving feast you have ever had.

7. When you meet teachers from all over the world, they ask you where you are from. You tell them. Then they say they could tell because of your accent. You then respond with denial of an accent. Two years later, you believe it and understand you actually do have an accent.

8. When you visit friends and family back home, they tell you that you now have an accent. (This is a different accent than the one mentioned in number 7).

9.  After a few years of making many new friends from all over, you WILL speak like them. Words like keen, fancy, lovely and gorgeous will come out of your mouth in ways you never imagined. It becomes normal to you, until you go home again and someone asks you if you just said lovely…

10. You learn that different countries spell things differently and say things differently. This is something that is hard to accept…so you continue to politely tell them they are wrong. For example, learnt is not an incorrect term. Also, potatoe is spelled correctly, just ask a Canadian.

11. You understand that moving to a country where English is not the primary language, does not mean you need to learn a new language. You learn the basics quickly.

12. When you’re drunk, you think you know the language well and you try to use every word you can. Also, you do this when you go home to try and impress your friends and family…nobody ever falls for it though.

13. You have the best vacations anyone could imagine. A week in Thailand is something everyone does. Maldives? Not so crazy for us. Isreal? Fiji? Anything goes. You get use to it and take it for granted, until you go home and most friends are excited to tell you about their Florida vacation. You almost feel guilty telling them about your trip to Bali or Cambodia…but then you do it anyway.

14. You love a good theme party…

15. You thoroughly plan Halloween and Christmas parties WAY in advance and they always end up being an epic event.

16. You get new students in the middle of the year, and it’s totally normal. Getting a new student in May is normal. No matter when they come, your current class welcomes them with open arms.

17. You use jet lag as an excuse to get out of something you don’t want to do. Except for when your friends talk you into going out so that you can help each other stay awake as long as possible.

18. You compare stamps and compare the number of pages filled in your passport as a new form of bragging. Also, you love to see passports from other countries compared to your own. It’s always exciting to see a new one.

19. You learn to say goodbye a lot, but you look forward to seeing your friends that are leaving on a future vacation. You cry a lot when saying goodbye, and every.single.time. it hurts and you look really sad with red, blotching eyes. Don’t worry though, someone took a picture and posted it on Facebook for all the world to see.

20. Your new life has so many stories. It’s hard to pick the best ones. Sometimes you feel guilty talking about the awesomeness that is your life.

21. You cry uncontrollably every time you are at the airport heading back to your new home, and question if you made the right choice moving abroad.

22. But then you remember all the positives to your choice and it’s all worth it. Especially when family and friends come to visit you and you can share your new life with them.

23. You often dream about what country you will live in next...and it's probably not where others would dream of living.

24. You go places and do things you never thought you would do. You are so much braver and stronger than you ever were. And have more friends than ever imagined.

25. These friends become a new kind of family to you and you can’t imagine life without them!

Working at an international school, really is amazing and you remember this daily! ;)

Original 22 signs you were an International Kid, via BUZZ Feed, can be found here: http://www.buzzfeed.com/autmnjones/signs-you-were-an-international-school-kid-grak