Worlds Colliding

I had some stories to tell you.

Perhaps about the day I spent with the 10th graders on a “field trip” to the local theme park. How I wasn’t really asked but told I was going to chaperone which I wanted to decline except for the fact that when the kids heard I was going, they cheered. Man, sometimes they have me wrapped around their fingers (however, not with homework). How the told me from the beginning that I “HAD” to ride all of the rides with them no matter how kid-like (giant swing ride) or unsafe and unsanitary (ride that jolts you all over, with about 25 other people while you are NOT wearing any form of safely belt or restraint). How I watched them argue with and sweet talk the ride operators into letting them go just once more. How we had it out in bumper cars and that opened up conversations to connect with students in new and deeper ways, hearing about their lives.

Perhaps about the Sunday I came in and two girls said “Miss! We haven’t seen you in a long time!,” when it had really just been the last Thursday of our regular school week. Warm and fuzzy.

Perhaps about the women that work at my favorite place to grade and work and sip a latte that started introducing themselves to me, opening up doors for more conversation.

I love those stories and they remind me of why I have enjoyed my time here, along with many other reasons and people. I like the retelling.

The reality though, is that today is just one of those days that being overseas is kind of hard. The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of colliding worlds as I went back to the US to be in one of my best friend’s wedding and see family. I knew it would be fast and that would make me sad but I didn’t realize that I would be as sad to leave as I was. I also didn’t realize how different it would feel being back in the States. It was strange sitting in the Dallas airport, surrounded by…white people – in western clothes….and…cowboys? I could understand what people were saying and service at Starbucks wasn’t quite as friendly as in Bahrain. It felt pretty surreal and even hearing the conversations people were having about different things in life was strange. A lot seemed so menial in such a big world, yet I know those are parts of life. I just wished people could get out and see the world. I felt out of place just taking it all in. Even sharing stories was weird because unless a person has experienced living abroad, there are elements that they just won’t understand.

The trip itself was great, wonderful time with some best friends, great new friends made, beautiful wedding, stellar time with my man, lots of fun with family. It was just hard to say hello and goodbye to some of the most loved and important people in my life after spending only 2-3 days with them. I dreaded getting back on the plane and dreaded even more the thought of the next three months.

I attempted to sleep most of the plane rides and in airports so I didn’t have to think about it. Almost right after getting off the plane, the evening call to prayer came through the speakers at the airport – I was back…home. It was very encouraging to be met by good friends Josh and Alison and little Eva. Reminders of why I love my home here too. Seeing more friends the last couple of days was also good.

Today’s Easter was pretty different from usual. Had breakfast at 6am of fish and bread (Galilean style) to start the day with friends, a new tradition. I then had some time alone to read. Spent a few hours at the pool with a friend and enjoyed great conversation and chill time. It was fun but as I drove home in the afternoon, I just was a overwhelmed with feeling really sad and down. On a day that usually was spent with family and best friends being at service and then the Easter meal and fellowship for the day. I just felt such a big hole of loneliness on this day that is usually full of people and missed people terribly.

I decided I would go to Caribou so I wouldn’t be alone – thought that might help. I went, decided no – it wasn’t what I wanted - it still seemed drab. I drove by home and then decided that that sounded even more depressing as that meant being totally alone so I drove back to the coffee shop and it was just overcrowded with people I didn’t know speaking a language I can’t yet understand and the sense of being alone in the middle of a full coffee shop almost felt worse. So I left and headed home. All this time I was rolling around in my mind what was wrong with me?!?! I seemed to be running around away from something. I was reminded of some very important things….1. I tend to not like being alone and silence sometimes scares me but silence and alone time are good – to truly think well and be in a good place spiritually. 2. I have for a long time felt created to work overseas and called to it. It won’t always be easy or fun but I will be sustained through it and always have been. 3. Nothing, no one in THIS world will satisfy the longings of my heart or can meet me in my places of loneliness or discontentment. I am grateful for One bigger than this world, every day and especially on this day.

So as I sit down to grade and plan some more, I will remember fondly a three way cuddle with my girls in MN - looking forward to the next one, remember fun games with my family and eat Scooby-Doo fruit snacks while thinking about my favorite person to eat them with who made me love them all over again. I will enjoy the momentary silence instead of run away from it, taking time to reflect on the Lover of my soul, remembering at I am not made for this world and that my longings will be fully satisfied one day.

Life Rambles On...

So I had good intentions of keeping up this blog much more frequently but life has gotten busy here I am not doing a good job. Sorry to those who would like more….feel free to email or skype. It is funny because often I have “blog” moments that I think I need to tell the world about – that really are noteworthy, but it is always at a very inconvenient time to sit down and actually blog. Like in the middle of a MUN conference or out in public. No halting to blog so I forget to. Thus my blogs are so long and a massive summary. My goal is to blog more frequently, less like novels, more along the lines of chapters  short ones…snapshots of my days.

Life as of late:

Learning and growing: starting to learn more about the realities – both joys and hardships of being overseas for an extended time. Out of the honeymoon phase for a while now. I will start with this:

The loss of a friend from the States recently has caused a lot of processing of life, including the implications of what it means to make the most of life and what that looks life for me living abroad. Learning what it means to make the choice to live abroad – the things you give up and the things you miss. Missing the joys of things like marriages, births, etc. in friends’ lives and being apart from friends in hard times. IT IS HARD sometimes. It STINKS sometimes.

As much as I have been walking through a harder time in life the last couple of months some things that I have realized through all of this are that I love being abroad. I want to do this long term. I love how the world is so much bigger. I love how I will never see people or places or food the same. I love how I am challenged to grow and change and live life fully. I don’t want to miss a beat and there are so many things to see and do and people to learn about and meet, teach and learn from. This I was created for in so many ways I feel. I LOVE the adventure!

I have loved the joy of new life as well. I seem to be surrounded by babies here and have done more babysitting since I have been here than I did in the last seven years of my life combined. I will be babysitting a baby baby next week – my favorite little Eva who is almost two months old now. Being around all of these babies has really good for me. I really used to have a baby phobia – they were boring to me and scary all in one. Afraid to drop or hurt them, I avoided holding them at all costs. NONE of that for me. Well this little Eva and all these little kidlets have expanded my horizons – watching them grow and change…..I like it and can kinda see what parents talk about

Speaking of kids, had one of my favorite memories here the other day. Was out bowling the other day and a bunch of kids came up and were watching us….no parents around - typical here. They loved watching us and would get so excited every shot. They didn’t talk to us but would just jump up and cheer and mimic things we did. I decided to try my very menial Arabic out on them and introduced myself and then asked their names. They looked at me surprised and one said, “Arabie?” (translation = you speak ARABIC?!?!?!? WHITE girl?!?!?!?!) It was great! I just love the kids here, they are so cute and I NEED to work on my Arabic again!

Another funny quote set from my students before our Model United Nations conference we hosted:

Student: “Teacher, since we are security at out MUN conference, do you have something for us to, you know, get people with?”

Me: “You mean like a tazer?”

Student (obviously excited): “YEAH, I want to zap people!”

Me: “Oh yeah, I will get right on that!”

I will post more of these more frequently, I promise!

FOOD UPDATE:

What I miss:
- CUBAN
- Chipotle
- Maggie Moo’s
- Amelies
- Good breakfast places

What I won’t try again:
- Vine leaf thingys
- Arab and Indian sweets – generally not my favorite – the spices don’t rock my world like chocolate and ice cream do

What I find interesting, yet not top 15:
- Tomato Ketchup Potato chips (though I don’t usually eat chips, I had to try these)
- Shwarma from street vendors


Top Fifteen, not in any particular order – they are all good:

1. Poulet Braise
2. Club sandwich from Cocos
3. Hummus from Al Abraj with Lebanese brown bread
4. Fresh Juices
5. Fresh calamari
6. Calve Peanut Butter
7. Beef Wellington
8. Butter Chicken with Butter or Garlic Naan
9. Chicken Tikka Masala
10. Peach Iced tea (especially from Cocos)
11. Indian coffee
12. Mille Foui (for all you French speakers, sorry for the misspell)
13. Chicken Halloumi Avocado salad with balsamic dressing
14. Pumpkin soup with lemon

Our Love Should Be Hands and Feet

What is life like living in the Middle East? Do you feel safe? Are the adjustments big? I have had a lot of these and similar questions from people as we have talked about what life is like for me here. It if funny how after even just three months, things become “normal” and a pattern. Yes, things are different in some big ways, you don’t normally see goat heads as you walk down a market street in the States and I still wonder at specific cross-gender interactions. I do feel safe and there are a lot of comforts that allow me to escape to a “home-like” place if I feel the need. I could easily just get in a “western” bubble. I am glad I teach at an Arab school and live in an Indian community.

As anticipated, I have become really busy between teaching all new subjects, taking Arabic, playing piano, trying to stay involved in community. I am not sure what I feel about that. I had a great conversation with a friend this morning about how easy it can be to just be anywhere and get so busy that you are just running circles in that place. It doesn’t matter where, I could do that here, in the States, in Switzerland . I have been thinking about what it means to live intentionally and again must learn the skill of saying “no.”

Some interesting or funny cultural observations and interactions…
So at Starbucks and Caribou, they have the Christmas decorations up as I am sure they do in the States which is ironic seeing as they don’t celebrate Christmas. Well, I asked the other day about pumpkin spice lattes seeing as it is the season AND Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday to eat at. “We don’t have those or other holiday flavors here Miss” Okay….then why are there adds all over for the holiday season? Of course, I should not ask such questions here…just accept that some things don’t make sense like that. Just like traffic lights that are not synchronized.

I have been practicing my Arabic letters and slowly growing vocabulary with my students and they usually have AT LEAST one good laugh at me as I attempt to pronounce several sounds that Westerners never make in English. Sounds we really don’t even know how to make in our throats or mouths. As much as I usually don’t love the idea of my students laughing at me because I am probably doing something stupid (though I have come to accept that in my career), I have to laugh with them and enjoy having them help me. They were very proud of me the other day because I successfully wrote my first word on my own by sounding it out. I used vowels properly and all! Baby steps….If I have to sound funny, however, it is worth the little moments that I treasure with my students in sharing culture and misunderstanding and us learning from each other.

Some of my favorite memories have been at recess duty, sitting with students, talking about life, practicing language, trying to figure out what to do for a career, where to go to university OR (very importantly) if the new shirt I purchased is peach or pink (the vote was unanimously pink, much to my chagrin). I love going to the games or introducing them to the flavor of pumpkin that we enjoy at Thanksgiving in the States through the medium of pumpkin muffins (they haven’t had that here) and then trying the homemade goods they bring me to test out. I love my students!

FUN experience: running a marathon relay where I was the only American (one of two girls  on a team of 16) in a race that had teams from all over the world: Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Saudi, other places….it was one of the coolest global experiences I have had, seeing the flags from around the world as teams came in. It was just one example of the beauty of the diversity here!

Well….that was long, and I apparently need to blog many times to make up for the lack of them the last month so I will post more soon! I would like to note that I have decided to take my food section of my blog to a new level…

Food:
Things I miss:
- Fall foods from the States
- Starbucks Pumpkin Spice lattes
- Reasonably priced sweet potatoes
- Lettuce and good baby spinach and good salads
- Cuban food
- Chipotle/Moes

Things I won’t venture with again:
- Ice cream from the street vendor (you know, the ice cream man that you begged mom to let you get a Chaco Taco from?). I know, this may come as a shock to some of you as you understand my passion for ice cream. HOWEVER, ice cream from the vendors here is comparable to….chalk. I will use chalk for writing on my chalkboard.
- Turkish Musakka – I don’t like mushy vegetables
- Anything with cardamom – not a favorite spice of mine
- Chicken tika sandwich


Top Fifteen Update:
1. Halloumi and avocado sandwich
2. Calve Peanut Butter
3. Hummus and Turkish bread, carrots, celery, anything
4. Indian food from Sangitas….wow
5. Halloumi cheese sautéed in lemon juice
6. Tzatziki dip
7. Turkish food in general…ESPECIALLY the bread (I am utterly Scandinavian at heart)
8. Frozen peach tea drink
9. Samosas
10. Fresh fruit juices – they just don’t come made fresh on the spot in the States like this
11. New Zealand cheddar on crackers with Swiss strawberry preserves (just goes to show that most good things do come from Switzerland, a lot of my favorite non-Arab food comes from the Swiss)
12. Moussy raspberry beverage
13. Somersby
14. Arab lamb and rice dish (that you eat with our hands while sitting on the floor
15. Calve Peanut Butter

Ramblings of a White Girl

You can tell some time has gone by in a foreign country when you are sitting drinking coffee and a Caucasian person walks by and you think, “WOAH! It’s a white person!” I reflected on that for a second and thought about how funny that sounded coming from a tall blonde haired, blue eyed girl who sticks out like a sore thumb.

Bahrain is back in full swing now that Ramadan is over. The implications of that are as a whole, amusing, exciting and annoyingly frustrating. We’ll start with the frustration – TRAFFIC. My word, I have never seen such bad traffic. Yes, the driving is horrendous as well but the traffic is just crazy here! It can take an hour to get what should take 10-15 minutes…every day! I actually had my first moment a couple of days ago that would be what I would call the closest thing to culture shock feelings that I have had.

To give a brief background from me and how I do away from home: I was the kid who went to summer camp or on a trip away from home and cried the last day or two, not because I missed home and my dog but because I had to leave and go home. I have always loved travel – was fascinated with airports and LOVED going to pick up and drop off my dad when he traveled. I have dreamed of being abroad for a long time since middle school and want to get my masters in cultural anthropology and be multi-lingual. SO I was not really anticipating culture shock and really have 95% of the time loved it here and enjoyed my experiences greatly.

The other day though….it was a bit of a long week last week going back to school and trying to get caught up on all of the grading…oh yeah, grading a lot of plagiarized essays….I had lacked sleep and was ready for the weekend. I had a hair appointment right after school and had to go a little way to get there – ideally and in a normal setting, this should have taken maybe 20 minutes to get to the location. Reality: 45. Not SO bad. Well, then I came home and because of construction, the path to get home changed and I did not know this. SO I spend and hour and a half coming home and sitting in traffic when it should have taken me maybe 45 minutes. Too bad traffic lights aren’t synced so that you can have a normal traffic flow to life. Frustrated? Yes. THEN to top it off, I went to visit some friends later in the evening. Missed the exit as I had not gone that way before and so I try getting off at the next exit and turn around but OH…you cannot do that here often!!!! Sure you can to u-turns wherever on regular roads but not the highway. So I get lost yet again trying to navigate back and there is no logic to the roads, few road signs and names – people don’t really use them anyway.

What do to as my internal frustration radar is maxed out after a long day, being lost three times and wasting time in traffic (some of my least favorite things)? Call mom….so I did. And she let me rant about dumb roads that don’t connect to highways or even allow you to go around the block and dumb lights that don’t work together so you can actually go somewhere in a decent time, no road signs, dumb traffic and feeling like I live in a backwards place (obviously my perception is a little off at this point). Shed a couple tears that are rare for me, take some deep breaths, apologize later for the rant. Yes, my mom is the best. And that is my story of what I think is the closest I will come to feeling the culture shock or whatever it is one “feels” when frustrated abroad. As you can tell, patience in traffic is one of my greatest virtues….

The amusing – Hearing students interact with their Arabish…(the Middle East version of the world Spanglish) they will talk and fluidly weave English in and out of their Arabic conversations – even within one sentence.

Also amusing – the perspective of education from some parents and students at my school: “You need to be their friend and be easy to make them like you so that they like the class.” “Teacher, you gave us TWO homeworks today!!!” Life is hard. VERY hard.

The exciting: this would compromise the majority of my view of Bahrain in her “normal” state. I love seeing all of the people out and just watching them function in every day life, from the. Lots of things start up at this time, one being Arabic classes! I will be starting Arabic this week 

I really like exploring the city and hopefully soon more of the country. Some of my hopeful future endeavors:
- Four-wheeling in the desert
- Camping in the desert
- Boating with the dolphins
- Boating in general – MAYBE wakeboarding 
- Kitesurfing???
- Running a race!!!

One note about Ramadan: it is MUCH easier to stay on a budget for eating out during Ramadan. I ate out one time during that month, maybe twice. Since then…well, my top fifteen food list has greatly diversified :D

Top 15 Food Update:
1. Hummous and the bread they serve with it
2. Calve Peanut Butter
3. Moussy Drinks (raspberry is the best)
4. Turkish food
5. Halloumi Cheese
6. Weetabix
7. Mango-orange juice
8. Kofta
9. Shwarma
10. Curry anything
11. Chocolate milk here – cannot describe the level of amazing to you
12. Egyptian food……wow
13. Calve Peanut Butter
14. Samosas
15. Baklava-like pastries

Picking Up Speed…

So the biggest update since I last blogged (still wondering how “successful” of a blogger I am going to be)….school has started! We started school on the 6th of September and had two weeks of classes as of yesterday. The set up is quite different from the schedule I had in the States. Instead of being on a block schedule meeting ninety minutes every day for a semester, I have the students all year and we meet three times a week at varied times depending on the class and the grade.

A couple of random quotes stories:
When I was substituting for a class of eighth graders and was having them teach me Arabic:
“Miss (they call me Miss or Ms. Melissa), WE all know two languages, why should we have to teach you a second one.” I proceed to answer in German. Silence…”what was that Miss?” …”German…do you speak it?” …”No”…”Oh, okay then – you teach me Arabic and I will teach you German.” We had a blast after that. Minus a common German word being an Arabic swear word…oops! Guess that’s life.

From an eighth grader in that same class: “Miss do you know you look like a Russian supermodel…do you speak Russian?” I had no good comeback for that one, just to say no and ignore.

“Miss try my brownies….Miss PLEASE be in charge of Model UN….Miss you give us a lot of hard homework ”

Sounds like my kids from home. LOVE It

I am teaching two tenth grade world history classes from Imperialism – WWI, an eleventh grade history from WWI to current history, two senior economic classes, a college preparation for juniors and a college preparation for seniors. Classes during Ramadan are 30-35 minutes and after will be 40-45 minutes. THUS teaching life is quite different for me and I think that the schedule has been the biggest adjustment for me in the whole process. I did feel after two weeks, however, that I have a better feel for lessons look like in those time frames. We now have a week off for Eid holiday (celebration after Ramadan) which probably starts Sunday, depending on the moon. I have heard that watching the celebration is a lot of fun so I will be trying to do that as well as a lot of planning.

I have REALLY enjoyed getting back into teaching and ironically enough for those who know me well, I am having a great time with economics in spite of having determined in college that it would be the bane of my teaching existence if I had to ever teach it. Wonders will never cease and my time here has seemed to be full of things like that so I look forward to the continuing story.

The students are GREAT and meeting them has been among the favorite things that I have experienced here thus far. We had our first Iftar (daily breaking of the fast at sunset) celebration along with football (soccer) games Thursday evening and it was quite a fun event. It is relatively reminiscent of a Friday night school American football game. A lot of the moms or relatives made a plethora of amazing Arab and other dishes and after the call to prayer, we ate together (YUM!) and then I went with a couple of teachers to watch the various grades play each other in football. I had some students attempting to talk me into running/sponsoring Model UN….we’ll see. I think I might have to be careful or they will steal my heart and I would probably have to live at school for all I would be involved with .

Overall, I have really enjoyed myself and the things I am seeing and experiencing. I am told by my students that “Bahrain will be much less boring after Ramadan”….I do have to say I wasn’t bored yet but I am looking forward to seeing what life is like during the rest of the year as well.

Noises, Netherlands and Navigation

Well, yesterday marked two weeks for me here officially…it feels like a lot more time than that has passed though, probably because a lot has happened and there has been a lot of sensory intake going on. It is interesting because in some ways there is so much to take in – sights, tastes, sounds, smells, etc. that are really exciting and cool and yet it is hard to compute at times. For someone who likes to know what I am doing, it is a different world – though loud in many ways with things I am unfamiliar with, silent at the same time because of language barriers when I am out and no roommates when I am home.

These things are not bad but totally different and I am trying to feel my way through that. I want to take advantage of the gift of rest and silence because I tend to underrate them and avoid them so I think this is very purposeful in my life!

So to give you an idea of some of my on-goings as of late

• Got settled into my flat and really like it (pictures coming on FB whenever I get good internet access)
• Haven’t started school due to Swine flu precautions but will in two days.
• Am adjusting to the heat – I actually thought yesterday, “Hmmm, it feels cooler today!
• I have started playing piano again on a team and REALLY enjoy it – realized I miss playing music!
• Much to everyone’s surprise I am finding myself with a lot of possible opportunities to stay busy that I could commit to – teaching English, playing piano, helping with different groups.
• I have officially fallen to the vice of Settlers of Catan….not QUITE as viciously as peanut butter, ice cream or outdoor activities but I am wondering how I let myself miss out on this wonderful world….I am pretty sure I am hooked and am in for some good competition – or I maybe should say that THEY should watch out!
• Learning what it means to be quiet and enjoy time alone – I realized I don’t quite know what to do with myself when I have the time I have by myself.
• Have been discovering the city little bit by little bit – getting oriented a little through runs and riding around. Have a long way to go…
• Enjoying the gulf breeze and smell of fresh salt water!
• Trying to figure out how to work air-drying clothes…they just don’t come out the same as a dryer. Additionally, I dyed my first clothes another color yesterday! Apparently the water doesn’t get cold so washing a couple of things that were lighter with a black skirt that hadn’t been washed gave me baby blue shirts that had been white and gray capris that had been khaki….hmmm, going to have to work on that one!

Some goals of mine:

• Read more – have a list…
• Get back to doing art – I brought my charcoal pencils and the other day was at a teacher store and found acrylic paints and canvas!!!! :)
• Not get too busy

On a side note, it was suggested that I blog about food – things I have found and enjoy here so far…GREAT topic. I thought I would make a top 15 list for you…pictures coming

1. Dutch Peanut Butter – made in the Netherlands, this stuff is AMAZING!!! I got it as a house warming gift and saw it at the store for the first time today – my jaw dropped at the price…I will be rationing.
2. Halloumi cheese
3. Hummus
4. Mango-orange juice (mango mixed with personally fresh squeezed orange juice)
5. Peanut Butter
6. Eggplant (yes, I had not had it before – tried it on amazing homemade pizza)
7. Crackers, Swiss jam and New Zealand cheddar cheese
8. Middle East yogurt with granola and fruit
9. Peanut Butter
10. Banana chips from India (reminders of Honduras)
11. Lamb
12. All of the AMAZING fruit selections (it helps to be near tropical places)
13. Peanut Butter!
14. Dates
15. Did I mention peanut butter?!?!

Seeing as it is Ramadan, I expect that this will expand greatly afterwards when there will be more open eating and sharing of food. I will revamp the list later again…though I am sure it will still have peanut butter on it at least twice.

There's a lot to learn in four days.....

Well right about now marks the four day mark for me in Bahrain. Here are just a few things that I've learned the past few days

1. Eating dates in the middle of the grocery store in the middle of the day during Ramadan is probably not the best idea....
2. Running on your first morning in August in Bahrain can be hot and by hot, I mean 100 degrees at 7:20 am with 100% humidity......oh yeah and if you are prone to exercise induced asthma in those types of conditions, I would suggest starting out with a shorter run until your build up your tolerance....don't have your first real asthma attack in a foreign country.
3. The call to prayer does really happen at 4:30am.
   
4. I am an OCD mopper....didn't realize that until I felt that my floors were perpetually going to be dirty after two days. Guess that happens when you live in the desert.
5. I don't want to wash another kitchen item for a LONG time...too bad that will be tomorrow.
   
6. Hummus is 100x better on this side of the Atlantic Ocean
7. Cold Stone DOES exist in Bahrain...Insha'allah! Along with Starbucks, Caribou and other things but I haven't gone to them....
8. I love air conditioning more than I ever thought I would.
   
9. Cold here is 40 degrees - at night - at the coldest. WOW
10. Stepping out into something new is one of the most invaluable experiences I have ever had!!!