Christmas Week Recap

Well, I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! Christmas was very different for me this year being away from family and in a country that doesn’t really celebrate Christmas. I had to keep reminding myself that it was actually Christmas! Oh, and the fact that it is about 70 degrees here and there is no snow also makes it feel like anything but Christmas. I’m not missing the snow or cold though- sorry all you who are having to deal with that! Okay, so here is my week. On Monday, I went shopping with my friend from church. He was on a hunt to find some groceries for Brother Meeks to make some Christmas goodies. Yes, I braved the crazy traffic and after about 30 minutes even found a parking spot! Here is a picture showing you how they like to park and block you in. It really is “fend for yourself” type attitude here.

Look, Its Snowing!

Okay, and the picture after I cleaned my lens off...

Anyway, we did a lot of walking around and then stopped in and ate at a nice Indian style restaurant. They had great tortillas which you wrap up the chicken and this sauce concoction, it was pretty tasty!

If this video works it is my "Christmas Lights"

Tuesday, Dec 23rd, I didn’t have to get up early since my shipment of household goods finally arrived. They packed up my stuff on November 13th, so I was very happy to get my stuff! The movers showed up around 9:30am and were gone within 40 minutes. Everything but a full length mirror and a clothes drying rack made it without breaking- pretty impressive! As soon as they left I headed into work so I have a lot of unpacking to do still.

My Simple Christmas Decorations

Christmas Eve was a normal work day other than our little work Christmas party in the middle of the day. Everyone had a sock made up for them which had an orange and candy in it. I want to say a group of school kids from the States sent over the goodies basket with all the socks made up for everyone-very nice. It was a fun little party. Well, I left work at 7pm and went and enjoyed a steak dinner at the dining facility with some co-workers. There were Generals sitting on both sides of me… I didn’t talk to either of them (since they were not in our group), but not too often does one get to say they dined with Generals on Christmas Eve!

Christmas day was a fun day. I got to sleep in until 7:30am which felt so nice, especially since I typically get up at 4am. I was going to go out and about with a coworker and a friend, but my coworker called saying she had a migraine and wasn’t feeling all that great. So, it ended up just being me and my friend from church. I picked him up around 9am and then we went and had a nice breakfast at Johnny Rockets. After breakfast we wandered around the area shopping and exploring. It was nice to see the town during the day… that was a first. We stopped by the Hilton to get information about any tours they offer. While we were there we walked outside and sat on the beach for a few minutes just soaking in the wonderful view. It was such a beautiful day! Enjoy some pictures of our day…

After walking around and shopping, we came back to my apartment and put on a movie. It was nice just to sit and do nothing for a couple hours. After the movie it was back to exploring. I was on a mission to find a converter that would work with my hair dryer… success! (Side note: I just plugged in my toaster oven and got a loud pop and a bright flash of light. I thought I was going to start a fire... it was kind of scary!)

Christmas evening I got to chat with my family… it really didn’t feel like Christmas until then. I am so grateful for technology that allows us to keep in touch. I got to join Jared, Katie, and Cayden while they opened presents- I love skype! Thanks guys for letting me join you for Christmas morning! I got to talk to everyone in my family, too. So, it was a good Christmas. I love you all and enjoyed chatting with everyone! Thanks for enjoying a cinnamon roll for me, too. I definitely missed Mom’s cinnamon rolls this year!

Friday was declared a federal holiday, so I had two days off in a row- NICE! I again got to sleep in and enjoyed the morning unpacking some of my stuff and doing laundry. I know that the 26th is Boxing day, but in my world it was Tennis day! I challenged some co-workers to a friendly tennis match and beat both of them…. 6-2, 6-3 and 6-2, 6-2. They were both good sports about getting beat by a girl! I am sore still from playing though… I must be getting old! It was great fun to play.

After playing tennis and grabbing some lunch I went to the woodshop to work on my project. I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned the woodshop before, but I get to do craft projects for free… all the wood, materials, and even the one-on-one help is provided- its awesome! I had the initial idea and sketched out what I wanted to build and my helper took it from there. He did an amazing job! I made a few cuts, but I really can’t take credit for making it. I’ll post a final picture after it has been stained, but for now this picture is after only 4 hours of work… not too shabby, huh? It is a coin holder made out of walnut wood. The rest of my Friday was spent unpacking.

Saturday was back to work… just a normal day. After work I watched the movie Mr. Kruger’s Christmas while I sanded my coin holder. What a classic Christmas movie with the delusional old man. Good times!

Well, that brings me to today. I got to talk to Mom this morning and now I’m updating my blog- I love Sundays! I’ll continue my unpacking/organizing and hopefully have that done soon. Then I’ll head to church in a few hours and we’ll call it a day!

Okay, so, I’ve been here for over a month and it wasn’t until this week that I saw a bug… two in fact. Don’t worry I captured them both. I don’t think the picture does the cockroach justice- the thing was huge! Pretty Good Sized Spider

Have a great week everybody! Make your New Year’s Resolution, because its coming quick!

Humbled

Hello all! I’m afraid I don’t have anything really exciting to share with you this week, so you get my mirror flapping story… Okay, so when I had my SUV I was driving home from work one night and my mirrors starting going crazy. They were seriously flapping in the breeze! Well, I thought to myself, this is definitely a hazard not having any mirrors- especially in this country! So, when I got to work I marched into the car place to see what to do about this problem. I was told that the maintenance folks were in, so I was to take it to them to see if there is an easy fix before they will switch out the vehicle for a new one. Okay, so I head over to maintenance to find the 3 workers sitting there eating. It was only 10am! It must have been their break time, and they were not about to help me, so I sat in my car and got ignored for about 10 minutes! Okay, so they finally got around to helping me, and I finally understood what it was they wanted me to do (their English with a heavy accent is extremely difficult to understand). Well, it took them all of about 2 minutes to say, yep it needs to be sent downtown for repair. So, back I head to the car place. Before handing over the keys they send an inspector out to make sure the car is clean, fueled up, all the personal belongings are out, and you hand them the proper paperwork. So, the inspector walks out and the first thing he said (pointing to the mirror) was, “is this what is wrong with the vehicle?” I replied yes, and it needs to be sent downtown for repair. The inspector said, “hmm, no it doesn’t, let me show you.” He proceeds to show me a button that I must have hit accidently and if you hold that button down it will lock the mirror in place, so the flapping will not happen anymore! Neat! So, my vehicle did not need maintenance after all. What makes me the most nervous about this story is the maintenance people didn’t know the simple fix and they are the ones who are constantly working on the vehicles. Leave it up to an inspector to know more than the maintenance guys! Not so sure I feel really confident when my vehicle is in the shop! Well, I don’t have the SUV anymore. I was given a car, which has a lot more power than the SUV and it has a CD player and not a tape player. Yes, the SUV had a tape player- nice, huh? So, there are some benefits to having a car. Here is a picture of me and my car…

Well, I was humbled last Sunday and realized how extremely blessed I am. Church is good, there is a pretty good size group which I was surprised to see. About 25-30 people show up each week. I can hear myself sing though and I don’t like that!

Anyway, I met a guy at church and learned that he lives in the same area as me. Well, his normal ride was not there, so he asked if he could catch a ride from me. So, on the way home I learned his story. He is from India who has been here for the past 3 years. He works at the same location as me, but is not offered the same “luxuries” as I have. Specifically, he does not have a car, he does not have his own place, and he has to go through a lot more hassle to go to work and to leave work then I do, and I’m pretty sure he is earning next to nothing in pay. He walks a few blocks each morning and catches the bus at 4am. He gets to work and pretty much works from 6am to 6pm where he catches the bus home and does it all over again the next day. The only day he has off is Sunday and that day he still catches the bus, but then hangs out all day until church. Church meets from 4:30pm until 6:30pm. He has been getting a ride home from the group leader who has to get special permission each Sunday to leave the area, take him home and head right back. That is about an 1-1/2 hour round trip drive! So, here I was pretty sad that I don’t get to go shopping very often or get to do a whole lot of sightseeing since the only day I have off is Sunday as well. I at least get some holidays off and I’m not so sure my friend does, I have a car so I can go out if I choose, I have my own place so I can enjoy some peace and quiet and my friend shares a place that has one bathroom with 7 people. Oh, and I’m only here for a year. :^) So, I stopped being sad for myself and realized how extremely blessed I am- spoiled even!

My friend got baptized on Christmas Day 10 years ago and is a faithful member of the church. He does not celebrate that anniversary, he does not even celebrate his birthday. He really doesn’t have a great life and I asked him what was next for him. He doesn’t know… he said it is hard to get to a place where his quality of life will improve. Makes me sad.

The more I’m here the more I learn about some people in this country who really don’t have a great life, yet it is a better life than if they were in their own country. These people make probably about $150-$200 per month and some send money home to their families to help improve their life. Wow! It makes me wonder why I have been so richly blessed in my life! I got word that my shipment of household goods is here and ready for delivery. Yeah! That means I might see my stuff before Christmas! Also, since I will actually have a day off here this next week, I hope to have some pictures and good stories for you! Talk to you soon.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Happenings

Well, another week gone which means it is time for another blog entry. I am sorry I don’t have many pictures for you this week. The picture above was taken at the temporary lodging place when I first got here. I do like Jessica’s idea of getting a video of the driving here. I’ll see what I can do to capture the real-life race car video game for you. Seriously, if you like playing car video games, you should definitely come here- it is an adrenaline rush every time you get behind the wheel! Here is what I observed this week when it comes to driving:

· A bus turned left from the far lane across 3 lanes of traffic where there is only one left turn lane. Everyone calls them “sweepers” here.

· On a narrow, two lane, busy street, there was a car parked on the side of the road with no one around. Let’s just say, a narrow two lane road became an even narrower 3 lane road!

· Traffic lights take an eternity to go through their cycle (seriously 10 minutes later….) so you get a lot of people turning or going through the yellow/red because they don’t want to wait.

· A cause for so much craziness on the freeway is the huge range of speeds. The speed limit is 120 Kilometers per Hour which is about 75 Miles per Hour. Well, you will have some people going 80K (about 50 MPH) and others going 160K (about 100MPH).

Other interesting things about this country: · The people running the stores are awesome sales people who are fabulous at stating the obvious. Seriously, it makes me laugh, but they are so happy to point out that the watch you are looking at is “a square watch with a blue face” or “here you have a round watch with a silver band”! It would be helpful if they told you info about the product you wouldn’t know simply by looking at it, but that might be asking too much! In another store I was looking at a binder containing a list of movies for purchase and the sales guy proceeded to read to me the titles of all the movies. Thanks, but I do know how to read English! It cracks me up! A similar situation happened when I picked up a menu at a café or when I moved into my apartment and they were going through the binder of information with me, so I guess it is a common thing to do.

· If you are looking at something just to find out what it is, they think you are interested and want to buy it. They immediately begin displaying 20 other similar items so you have a wide variety to choose from.

· If you are near stores, every five feet you hear “Ma’am, would you like to buy a purse?” or “Sir, we sell watches!”

· A common very common phrase is “No problem, I show you”. The sales people are very polite.

· When buying fruits or vegetables you have to write down the price before taking it up to the cashier. If you don’t, the cashier looks at you and says “no price”. They don’t send someone back to do a price-check either. Live and learn. Needless to say, I didn’t buy any fruit that day.

· The prayer song gets broadcast and you can hear it pretty much wherever you are at. I wish I knew what they were saying so it was more than just sound to me.

· The cheese here is a little off. Okay, it tastes pretty nasty actually. I went to a bakery this week and was so excited to get some cheese bread. The bread part tasted pretty good, but I had to tear the little veins of cheese out. I was kind of disappointed. Again, live and learn!

· The number one seller from the bakery were little pizza things. We heard what was in it, and it definitely sounded interesting, but if they can’t keep them on the shelf I am willing to try it. Yeah, I took one bite and threw the rest away! Pizza made with the interesting cheese and ketchup didn’t quite cut it for me!

· The cars here start dinging if you are going over 120K (or about 75MPH) and it does not go off until you go below 120K again. So, either you don’t speed because you can’t stand the constant bell or you turn up the radio to drown it out!

· For the most part, everyone speaks English, or at least knows enough to communicate. I did ask a sales guy where the toilet cleaning stuff was and he took me to floor cleaning supplies, but we eventually got on the same page! Anyway, at work there was a situation where we needed to talk to the city. Well, when we called the emergency number the person who answered did not speak a lick of English other then, “no speak English”. Nice! One would think that is when you definitely need to have someone who speaks English. Hey, what do I know?!

· For this next story it is important to keep in mind that there are a lot of dust storms here and heaters don’t get used very often. Okay, so yesterday as I got to work it was a little chilly (yes, 48 degrees seemed pretty chilly to me and a co-worker). Anyway, my co-worker decided to turn the heater on, which hasn’t been used for probably a year, and almost immediately there is a nasty burning smell and the fire alarms went off. Nice! We called the fire department to save them a trip and let them know we turned the heater on, but the dispatch said that since the alarm went off she still had to send them out. So, the fire fighters told us to turn on all the heaters to let the dust, dirt, and grime burn off while they were there and wouldn’t have to respond again. It was a fun way to begin a Saturday morning! (Just for the record, it was not me who turned the heater on and I told my co-worker not to!)

Well, there were about 30 people at church last Sunday. It was actually a really good meeting being testimony meeting and all. I think I've mentioned before that we only meet for two hours. We have Sacrament and then we alternate between a Relief Society/Priesthood Lesson from the Joseph Smith Manual or a Sunday School Lesson from the scriptures. Because of this, we are really behind on lessons!

This morning I watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. It's the small things that remind me it is the Christmas season. Easy to lose track of what day it is over here! I am very grateful for technology that allows me to watch the devotional a week later. The talks were wonderful. I truely don't know what I would do without my laptop and the internet. I love the fact that I still feel connected to family and friends. Its always fun talking/chatting with everyone!

Okay, that is pretty much all the stories I have for you this week. Next time, unless there is something really exciting to write about, I will share my story of mirrors flapping in the breeze- stay tuned!

For all you who are traveling this week- be safe! Love you all!

Craziness Continued

Hello all! Before I get into my blog, I wanted to wish my nephew a very happy first birthday! He is such a cutie, wish I could be there with him to celebrate. Love you Cayden!

Well, I have now been here for two weeks and I am still amazed at the craziness of this place, referring only to the driving here. This is what I witnessed this week (yes, all are true):

1. In a busy street that was inching along due to wall to wall traffic, there was a guy who got out of his car to put something in his trunk. Hello!

2. In a parking lot that has straight parking spots, everyone disregards the lines and parks angled. I don't think I've seen anyone park within the lines yet.

3. In a parking lot people will pass you if you are going too slow. Seriously, I can understand cars going around if you are waiting on a car to back out so you can have their spot, but is it really necessary to pass people in a parking lot just because you are impatient?

4. People park wherever they can find space big enough for their vehicle... they don't care if they just blocked 3 cars in! Or they just create their own parking space by parking on the curb or sidewalk.

5. This was my favorite--> A truck in the far left lane cut across three lanes of traffic to barely make the exit. Jared, I know you will be amazed at my artistic ability, but I tried to capture the awesomeness of the situation in my drawing. The red illustrates the path the vehicle took. Cutting it close, don't you think?!

Well, it is the Christmas season, even though it definitely doesn't feel like December. Thanks to my good friend, Katie, I have a little Christmas tree which I put up the other day. I'm still waiting on my shipment of stuff so I can hang my Christmas sock up as well.

The other day, as I walked outside to head home, I saw a smiley face in the sky that was created by Jupiter, Venus, and the moon. It was a really cool sight actually. I tied to capture it, but my camera wasn't strong enough to get a really good picture. You get the idea though.... If you want to see a better picture go to http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/12/081202-venus-jupiter-photo.html . In the article from that link, National Geographic said, “People in Asia witnessed a smiley face, while skywatchers in the United States saw a frown”. Interesting, huh? Did anyone see it?

On Friday we had an organizational day where we had a little picnic and then played softball. It was a fun afternoon. We got released a little early so since we had time to actually go do something, a co-worker and I went out shopping. The malls here are amazing, they are huge! I was looking for a new purse after I had picked one up the sales guy said it was 40KD, which is approximately $155.00! I promptly put that down! Then I picked up a tennis racquet that was about $300.00. Yeah, no thanks! So, we left the mall and walked down the street where there are a lot of little stores. We came across one that reminds me of Big Lots. It probably is not the best quality stuff, but it was in my price range, so it made me happy. I found a purse which was only 6KD or about $24. I also bought another bag, an ironing board, a garbage can, cleaning supplies, and a plant. Altogether I spent about $65.00- not too bad. I'm just excited I finally have a plant! :^)

After doing some shopping we found a cafe to get some dinner. It was the cafe's grand opening that day- very fun! In the picture below we sat in the red chairs that overlook the ocean. How cool is that to eat outside overlooking the ocean in December?!!! I ordered the best drink with my meal. I got a drink called “coconut land” and since there is no alcohol allowed in the country I don’t have to worry about ordering drinks here! The sandwhich was okay, but the drink was really good!

Well, here are a few other observations about this country:

1. You don't see many cars with dings in them showing they have had a fender bender. The reason is this, when there is an accident here the cars are totaled, it is not just a fender bender!

2. This country smells- I can't describe it, but it definitely does not smell clean!

3. Often times you will see the whole family out, but it seems like it is more common to see a father out with his kids rather than the women out with the kids. They do seem to be a family oriented people.

4. It is very rare to see any PDA here.

5. After they finish a meal, they still stay for a long while and visit over some coffee and the men also smoke their pipes.

6. The buildings here are beautiful- colorful and a fun design. However, don't look too close, because the attention to detail is lacking. Just those little finishing touches that make all the difference seem to be missing (a little hole in the wall, paint splattered on floor, etc).

It is kind of fun to experience the culture here. Since this is not a touristy country you really do get to see the normal ins and outs of everyday life. I really do stand out here though... in the short time I've been here, on two separate occasions, I've been whistled at and honked at by a group of guys. Yeah, I'm not going to venture out on my own here.

Church is interesting here... we meet in an auditorium style room for a two hour meeting block (Sacrament and then Sunday School). There were about 20 people there last Sunday.

Well, thats about all I have for you this week. Until I write again! Laters!