Eid al-Adha

A couple days ago was the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha. Brendon’s good friend asked if we would like to celebrate with him and his family. We were very excited for this experience and we arrived promptly at 8:00am at our friend’s house the next day. We were told that this holiday was in honor of when Abraham was obeying God and was about to sacrifice his son but instead God provided a lamb to take the sons place. Eid was a special holiday that praises God for the substitute of the lamb. So every Eid al-Adha families come together and slaughter a lamb and have meals together.

When Brendon and I arrived I was shown the ladies door and Brendon walked through the men’s door. After coming into the house I was greeted by all the women with sided kisses and assalam wa alaikum (Peace be upon you). The women of the home showed great hospitality to all their guests. I wasn’t even allowed to throw my own trash away because they didn’t want me to have to get up. They had amazing food! They had a gigantic chocolate platter, another platter of pastries, coffee, tea, and dates! I loved it all!!

            

Brendon’s friend had the honor of slaughtering the lamb this Eid and it was a great privilege for him. By the time we got there the lamb had been slaughtered and skinned and now they were cutting up the meat that was hung in the backyard. They brought in a bucket of blood and meat from the lamb and I was told that for breakfast we were going to have the liver of the lamb. So about an hour or two later they brought out breakfast that consisted of liver, lettuce, bread, and Foul. The liver was interesting and I couldn’t eat a lot of it because my taste buds were thrown for a loop haha! We all ate on the ground which was really fun.

After breakfast we had more chocolate and pastries and just hung out and talked. There were about seven women and four younger girls. They all spoke Arabic but three of them knew English so they would help interpret conversations or questions. The family was so sweet and they had a lot of questions for me and vice versa. We had music on in the background the whole time and then there was a song that every liked so we got up and danced. If you know me….I was loving this!! I don’t know exactly what style of music this was – maybe Egyptian hip-hop? We danced Saudi style which is swaying back and forth and moving your hands. It’s a very peaceful/elegant way of dancing.

They served lunch which consisted of a HUGE platter of rice with lamb meat on top. I was so full by this time that I couldn’t eat too much. Everyone was so polite and kept me in the conversation by interpreting Arabic to English. After lunch ended it was around one so I was trying to feel it out to see if we had over stayed our welcome and it was time to go. I asked one of the sisters and she said, “oh no not at all!” So we talked a lot more and had a lot of fun talking about American culture and Saudi culture. Around 3:30 I heard that the boys were ready to leave so I got my Abaya back on and walked out the door to meet Brendon. We were there for 7 ½ hours and had so much to catch up on. Brendon also enjoyed his time with the men. They talked and played video games haha! The family was so welcoming and Brendon and I felt very honored to be a part of their day!

Heading Back

Well believe it or not but the Hunt's are going back! I know you all had your doubts but it's official! We got our tickets two days ago and are heading out today. We leave this afternoon and should be there by about 9 pm on the 11th. Seems like it should be a nice and easy trip but we are going during the Hajj, which means a few extra million people traveling to Saudi! Either way we are headed back and looking forward to starting up again. Love you all and would love to keep in touch!

Sa-udis in Au-dis

Ok so this is pretty cheesy but we thought is was really funny. My Saudi friend alerted us to the new internet phenomena in Saudi. Enjoy!

A New Way to Contact Us

Hello all! We now have one more reason to love Google. If you look over on the right hand side of our page you can see an icon that says "Call Me." That is a product called Google Voice and is now a  super easy way for us to stay in contact with you all. Here is a video to explain more about it -



So to leave us a message it is as easy as entering in your phone # and leave us a message. We will get it in our email and we can text back. Get this - it's all for FREE! No international phone charges or anything! So easy and such a fun way to keep in contact. If you want to see more, here is a link with some fun videos: http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html# Enjoy and hope to chat soon!

Summer 2010

Here are a few highlights from our summer!

Summer 2010 from Brendon Hunt on Vimeo.

What I learned on July 4th

Well everybody, Brendon's back!! Sorry there was no heads up beforehand but this was actually a pretty big surprise to all of us. I actually really didn't even find out about the flight until about 7:30 pm on July 3. That's 6 hours before I left!!! So in that six hours I scrambled around throwing the suit cases together, packed up the rest of Staci's bag (first time we have ever used skype to help pack), cleaned the apartment and tied up all loose ends before heading out. It was nuts but I got out just on time and I got home safe and sound on July 4th.

One of the things I enjoyed most on the trip was being able to come back to America on the 4th. Most of my life July 4th meant fireworks, family, and bbq, but this year was different. I got to see America more from the view of an outsider coming in. So for this post I'm going to list four different ways I appreciate America this year.

1. Freeways

I'm sure for most of you the picture above is not the most pleasant of sights. It probably reminds you more of headaches and long days than anything positive. But for us, what we see is: lines and order. It was almost funny merging onto the freeway once we got back and to see all of the cars completely in line, no one driving on the shoulder (or median for the mater) and everyone following the rules.

I got this next picture from the Holdermans and they took it in a parking garrage in Riyadh. Does anything look wrong with this picture to you? Looks like an open spot to me.

This is just one of those things you expect in a place where 4 lanes means 6, you can reverse on round when it's really busy, and where turning left can be done at a stoplight by jumping the right hand side median and swooping over four lanes before the light turns green (can't tell you the number of time we have seen this last one happen).

2. Ebonics

Oh ebonics, we missed you so much. Nothing says America like a good ol' foo, cap, or shawty. As soon as I heard the person checking my bag say, "Shevon, that is cazay" I felt right at home.

3. Reuniting with old friends

Sorry, I know that was cheesy. But seriously, this little toilet paper ring is AMAZING to see again. In Saudi you better have a back up plan because 9 times out of 10 you can bet there will be no toilet paper. Next amazing thing I saw... tissue paper seat covers. Is this heaven?

4. So excited that you can see fireworks from a plane!

I wasn't sure if I was really going to be able to see them but if look real close you can see little flashes of light below. I was lucky enough to be going over LA too, which I'm pretty sure is the city with the most bootleg fireworks known to man.

I didn't have my camera at the time but this video below shows exactly what it looks like from the plane. So crazy!

Top 10 things you don't see everyday in America

Hello all! For this post we are doing a top ten things you just don't see everyday in America. There are lots of things in Saudi we could put down, but here are a few that caught our eye. Enjoy!

#10 Little Rain = Big Problem

Yes, it does rain here in Saudi. Here are few pictures from one of the newspapers after a big rain a few months ago

Here in the desert, when it rains the ground does not absorb water very fast. Add that to a few sewage system back ups and it can be quite a mess.

All of this and it rained less than an hour.

#9 Class (hand) Pictures

Girls here never ever show their face in pictures, so class pictures can be difficult.

So how do they do it? The picture below says it all. I'd love to see the school's yearbook.

#8 Burqa Barbie

Not even Barbie can get break the law on this one.

#7 Anti-Woman Drivers Bumper Stickers

Yup that's right. That's a picture of a woman in an abaya with a steering wheel underneath.

#6 Cell Phone Mania

Sure you might be thinking that people are crazy about cell phones in the States too. Trust me, Saudi's are way more. How you might ask? Every Saudi I know has at least 2 on them at all times. It makes it great for teachers when you take away their cell phone for texting only to find out that they are now texting on their second phone. They aren't your run of the mill cheap phone either. About 80% of the students have Blackberries and another 15% have iPhones.

This was the lost and found at the school after one semester.

Just kidding

#5 Animals is the mall

I know this sounds crazy but in one the malls here they have all of these animals throughout the mall! Before you get too excited, they are all stuffed. But the malls here are immaculate. Not only are there tons of stuffed animals but there are also huge water falls and fountains. Oh and did I mention roller coasters? That's a whole different post in itself.

Where else have you seen a crocodile staring you down as you buy your Starbucks?

#4 Mosques in the malls

Hang a right after the food court.

#3 Full body bathing suits

That's right girls. Don't get a lot of sun in one of these.

#2 Sharpie time

We have mentioned this before, but here in Saudi, they blackout everything that shows women's skin. It can make for some really funny pictures. I think in this one that death is about to attack those children.

I'm guessing they were going for the black smoke from Lost look.

This one is my favorite. I like the teeth for effect.

And finally, the one you have all been waiting for...

#1 The Hunts are going all Saudi

Hope you enjoyed the list! See you all in 2 weeks!

Finally... The Food

Well it's been a long time coming, here it is:

The Food of Saudi Arabia

I'll post a little later about the details of how the meals go here, which can be pretty exciting, but today we will leave you with this thought. This was a little flier from a restaurant here and is super random. Don't know about you but "Fresh whenever feasible" sure makes me hungry.

Oh and by the way, brain is awesome. I had it with curry and loved it. There is really no taste to it and it has the consistency of tofu or scrambled eggs. MMMmmmm!

4 x 4 no spread ketchup and mustard instead with fries and 7up

Every time it's always the same: 4x4, no spread, ketchup and mustard instead, with fries and a 7up. It's been 4 long months since those beautiful words left my mouth. Sure we do have lots of amazing food here, but lets face it: no one knows how to make hamburgers like In n Out does. For those of you who have never heard of In n Out (and most likely have been locked inside your whole life), it is a burger place in California that has the most delicious hamburgers know to man.

The menu is simple:

double double - cheeseburger - hamburger - fries - drink

But the glory of In n Out is the beloved secret menu. I'm sure most of you have heard of the main ones (4x4 = four patties/four cheese, protein style = lettuce wrap instead of bun, animal style = extra sauce/onions + mustard grilled patty) but here are a few new ones that I have recently found during one of my In n Out cravings. Enjoy the delicious list you lucky Californias:

- Chopped Chilis Burger - adds some jalapeños to the bottom of the burger

- The Flying Dutchman = double double with no bun

- 4x6 = four meat - six cheese - this is actually the biggest hamburger they will sell now because of people trying to order 25x25

- Veggie Burger = everything except the meat and cheese --- not sure why would you go to a burger place and not get meat and cheese

- Extra toasted bun/lightly toasted bun/untoasted bun - note* this must be asked for first based on how they enter it into the register

- Fries well done/fries light well = fries are cooked more than normal for guaranteed added crispiness and heart attack

- Lemon fries = add a lemon slice to your fries

- Cheesy fries = Cheese + fries = beauty

- Rootbeer float

- Combine shakes - your choose what combo all the way up to Neapolitan shakes

- Extra syrup for your shake

This last one wins the prize for the best secret item:

- 4x6 Animal style w/ fries inside - that's a lot of artery clogging deliciousness

So did we miss any other good ones? I'm definitely going for a 4x6 w/ fries inside when I get back - followed by a long nap.

While not much comes close to that delicious burger, I think I might have found something that could make a pretty good attempt. This website is completely dedicated to cheeseburger goodness: http://www.cheeseandburger.com/. I think I found my new favorite website. I love the commentary on each burger. I'm definitely going for The Highwayman.

Later this week I will try and post about Saudi food. The food here can be very different but also really good. It's been a long time coming for the food review but there were a few things we wanted to try first before we wrote the final draft. One of them being brain. Stay posted!

GOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!

Hello all! It seems that everyday we have a new crazy story or interesting fact we learned about Saudi culture. A few weeks back Charlie and I finally got to experience one thing that we have been waiting for a long time to see: a professional football match here in Saudi. It was not just any game either; this was the semifinal match between the two biggest rivals in Saudi. Above is a picture of King Fahd Staium, where the match was held. Here are some of the highlights:

It was an amazing stadium and a great night for a football game.

We walked into the stadium and we immediately were hit with Al Hilal madness. We got about half way through the crowd above and got mobbed because everyone figured out that there were two American guys at the stadium. We then had about 20 pictures taken with us with different Saudi guys and were shuffled around the crowd. These two guys finally helped us out and let us have a few open seats by them.

The reason for the five everyone is holding up is because this season Al Hilal has scored 5 goals against Nasser and Nasser has only scored 3. It's random but when a game can end in 1-0, that 5 goals is a big deal.

This shows just a small degree of how loud it was in the stadium. In addition to just the crowd noise we also had a few guys that were about 4 rows behind us with giant bullhorns and drums singing and starting chants the entire game.

It was an amazing night and the game ended in a tie 1 -1. This was probably better for us though because our taxi driver said that fans have a tendency to flip a few cars if their team loses.

Below is the more of an official recap of the game. It's kind of funny watching a highlight on only two goals.

It was an incredible cultural experience and by far one of the biggest things we learned was the amazing generosity of Saudis. During the game we were given -

- Al Hilal scarfs from some guys in front of us

- a couple of bags of pumpkin seeds from the guys behind us

- noise makers/thunder stick things from some guys around us

- bunch of people who offered to give us a ride when we were walking to get a taxi

It blew our minds how open and friendly the people were with complete strangers. Think about it: When was the last time you were given anything at a sporting event in America from a stanger? It's an amazing culture here and we are loving learning from this side of the world. Love you all and we'll see you in 4 weeks!

Covering in Saudi Arabia

We only have 3 more weeks of teaching, then training until July 7^th, and then we are heading back to Cali!! We are getting excited to come home and see everyone, but we know we will miss our new friends from Saudi. We love our students and really enjoy being with them. We have learned so much about the Saudi culture by teaching our students. One thing that I have learned while teaching the girls is that they are so careful not to have their face exposed. When you walk into the University you have to have your hair covered and the Saudi girls always, always have their face covered too. Right when you walk past the walls and enter the University everyone has to uncover though. So the whole day at work the students and the teachers just wear regular clothes for the most part. All the teachers have to wear skirts down to their ankle and shirts that go to their elbow. Anyways, the students love to take pictures of anything and everything. While they love doing this, it is carefully done so that their face and hair are never in the picture. The most common thing to do is to give the peace sign and just have your hand in the picture. For example, my students and I randomly planted a tree one day and they all wanted to take a picture by it. So they all stuck their hand by the tree and they took the picture! So funny! This is one example but I usually see this every day at work. I’ve also seen umbrellas and books blocking my girl’s faces in pictures too.

Last week one of my students came in and asked me to step outside the class for a second. I stepped outside my door and she began to cry and tell me that she had lost her phone. I thought for a second “this is why you are not in my class right now?!” But then she began to tell me that her phone had a picture of her on it. She said, “Teacher, pictures of my face our on my phone.” She was so upset and then I began to realize how serious this was for her. Saudi woman have never shown their face to anyone but their family and other females. So the fact that she had a picture of her exposed face on her phone was pretty risky; now that the phone was in the hands of another person made her terrified. The good news is that by the end of the day she had found her phone and she made sure I knew. She ran towards me and starting screaming in excitement for like 2 minutes straight haha. In the end it was a funny story but this is just one example of how important it is for women to cover here.

I have asked my students multiple times if they like wearing the full burka and they always say yes. They told me that they feel safe and protected by wearing this. This is all they have ever known so it is completely normal to them. I’m sure there our women here who might not want to wear the abaya, headscarf, and face covering but I have not met them. My students love their culture and they don’t look at the burka as a negative thing at all. Everything is so different than what you would think, but being here you see how fascinating this culture is. Hopefully we can share more with all of you when we come home in a month or so! Love you all!

Father daughter bonding

Well I know that we have already done a "best things to do in Saudi" post but I just found one that trumps them all. Two words: lizard catching. May sound lame and something you did when you were kids but pretty sure the lizards back home looked a little different than this.

Now this is a real father daughter bonding moment. My favorite part is when he says "Hold his head down with all your strength. Don't let him turn around and bite you." And what, let the flesh eating dinosaur bite my hand off? Sure dad, I've got him. I'm pretty sure I would be running the opposite direction as soon as it started to do that hissing body shrinking thing.

Awww, isn't that adorable. Now she's holding the flesh eating lizard and named him Spike. I would have named him Terrifying. Have to say that's about the bravest little girl I've ever seen though.

Well another lesson of what to do if you ever find yourself in Saudi Arabia with nothing to do. My Saudi friend reasured me that lizard catching is a fun and exciting part of Saudi culture and one that he did all the time when he was a kid. It's a crazy place but I'm sure American culture seems crazy to everybody else too. Love you all and keep in touch!

Happy Mother's Day

To the most amazing moms.

Our moms give us some of the greatest encouragement anyone could ask for. They sacrifice so much and ask for nothing in return. Here is to two of the greatest moms ever. Happy Mother's Day!

H is for your hair, which is really, really stinky

Well it was my birthday yesterday and I got one of the weirdest cards I have ever received in my life. This is what it said:

Brendon,

For your special day, I thought I’d write you a special poem.

B is for being butt-ugly

R is for repeatedly annoying me all day long

E is for extra lame

N is for never shutting up

D is for how dumb you are

O is for obnoxious

N is for nasty breath

H is for your hair, which is really, really stinky

U is for undeniably awful

N is because nobody likes you

T is for being a terrific friend

Love you man. Just so you know, only one of these is true.

Charlie

Don’t you just love friends? I love it that he didn’t tell me which on was true. Who has stinky hair anyways? Anyhow, despite all of this, it was a great birthday and one I’ll never forget. Love you all!

The Call

In Saudi Arabia, one of the most important parts of life is prayer. So in Saudi, one thing that is impossible to miss is the call to prayer. Muslims are called to pray five times a day. The call to prayer is heard at dawn (it changes throughout the year but now it plays at 3:58 AM), midday (11:51 AM), about the middle of the afternoon (3:19 PM), just after sunset (6:21 PM), and at night fall about two hours after sunset (7:51 PM). It is announced over loud speakers from each mosque and during that time all businesses close and life stops for half an hour. In Saudi, mosques are strategically placed throughout the city so that at all times every person will be close enough to get to one in time. As you can imagine, that is a lot of mosques and a lot of calls being called out at once. From our apartment we can hear at least 4 calls going off all at once.

The video below is what the call sounds like here and the words of it also should show up in the caption -

-- the reason we picked this video was because if you listen close you can hear the echo throughout the city, which is very similar to what it's like here. Imagine four of these going off at once with slightly different voices and a few second apart and that will give you a good taste of what it is like in a Muslim country at prayer time

The video above is the call to prayer recorded from Mecca. The video shows the Kaaba, the most sacred site in Islam, and what all Muslims face during prayer no matter where they are. Also what can be seen in the video are thousands of Muslims walking around the Kaaba as apart of their pilgrimage (Hajj) to Mecca. They estimate that around 2-3 million people from around the world attend the Hajj each year.

As for us, we are very thankful for the call because we are always reminded when it is time to pray. Saudi has so many amazing and helpful things in its culture that continually remind us to pray. It's a fascinating culture and an experience we will never forget. We love you all and miss you more everyday. Keep in touch!

There And Back Again

Well this may be a surprise to a lot of you but I was in California a few days ago! It was a really quick trip and I did not get to tell anyone in advance. There was a good reason for the trip though… my sister got married! I was only there for 2 full days so I didn't have time to see anybody but family. Sorry for the late notice! It was a great trip though and here are some of the highlights.

The trip went as follows:

Departure – 7:00 AM Thursday April 8

Total Travel time: about 26 hours

Arrival in California – 9:55 PM Thursday April 8

If that looks strange to you, that’s good. The reason is that on the way back I gained 10 hours. It was officially the longest day I’ve ever had clocking in at 34 hours long.

It was a great wedding and my sister looked beautiful

The family and a few cousins

Me and my amazing sisters

The trip back was also pretty crazy with the total trip time at 31 hours. The reason for the extra hours was because I had a long layover in London. Definitely a highlight of the trip because during the layover I got to take a walking tour of London! I got to see a lot of big sites including...

Piccadilly circus

Big Ol Big Ben.

Big Brendon and Big Ben

Sorry about the sound, it was super windy on the bridge!

Found out that Big Ben is actually the name of the bell in the tower, not the tower itself.

Westminster Abbey

Trafalgar Square

Buckingham Palace

The gate to Buckingham Palace

A very tired Brendon in front of Buckingham Palace

Well those were just a few of the highlights of the trip. Sounds like I got out of London right on time before all the volcano craziness. It was a super fun trip and so glad I got to see my big sis's wedding. But have to say, it's great to be done with traveling and back at home with the Mrs again. Great seeing the family and we miss the rest of you all. Keep in touch!

Top ten things to do in Saudi Arabia on your day off

Well you may not think that there is a lot to do in the deserts of Saudi, but you would be surprised at all the cool things we have found to do in our free time. So here's a list of top ten fun things to do in Saudi Arabia on your day off:

1. Pet a camel

There are lots of camels here in Saudi and despite their dislike of humans and their nasty foamy mouths they can be great pets! Just look at how cute they are

We found one that was a little bit friendly.

Everyone started cheering when they saw the American get on the camel. I think I'm a natural. The video cuts right before I broke free and rode the camel off into the sunset.

2. Try new food

We could go on all day about the food but for this post we'll just show you a few quick favs that we have found just recently.

The first one is this amazing berry drink that comes from Mecca. It tastes a little bit like cherry kool-aid but a little more sugary. Before this point I wasn't 100% sure that it was possible for a drink to have more sugar than kool-aid, but this drink definitely takes the prize

The bread here is also really good, especially the flat bread. Here is a picture of one of the bread bakers in front of his stove.

Here is another one with the berry juice and then also Charlie is holding what they call Saudi chips. They start out as one giant chip in a bowl shape that's about a foot wide. You break the bowl apart and eat the chips. They taste kind of like a really thin waffle and are a fun little snack to tie you over.

3. Hit the town

Saudi has some really pretty buildings and one of the nicest is Faisaliyah.

Near the top of Faisaliyah you can see a huge black ball. Well inside that ball is actually a restaurant with glass windows all around it and is supposed to have one of the best views of the city.

4. Meet new friends

Staci with her new teacher friends

Staci in her office with her coworker friends

Brendon's new bff

See that camel smile?

5. Dance like a Saudi

Dancing may be haram but I guess traditional dancing is a whole different issue. Pretty sweet moves if you ask me

Next one is part 2 of the video. We saw this at one of the festivals with some new friends from work.

6. Eat Saudi style

One really cool thing that we have found here is how Saudi's eat meals. This is a picture of a typical Saudi home dining room. As you can see there is no table, chairs, or couches. Usually how a dinner would go is they lay a big plastic table cover on the floor and everyone sits around it and eats right off the table cloth. But by far the best part about it: no forks or knifes needed. You eat everything with your hands. Sorry mom, it's the culture here.

7. Hang out at the casa

Be it ever so lowly

There's no place like home

Greatest thing in the world to see when I'm coming home from work, my wife.

8. Swim

Having a pool here is amazing! As the weather gets hotter the pool gets nicer and nicer.

And this is one is a product of my hilarious wife who thought it would be funny to pretend she was just taking a picture. Isn't she just hilarious. Personally I think it was a great dive.

We are going to request that their will be no further comments about this video.

9. Fix your water pump

Ok, so maybe you might be thinking we are running out of things to do in Saudi, but fixing your water can be quite an adventure. First you get to climb our super safe latter to the roof

Next you get have to turn the water pump back on that magically turns on and off as it pleases and repeat these steps about once a week. Oh and did I mention that when the water pump shuts off you lose all water till you turn it back on again? Trust me it's lots of fun, especially when your running late for work.

10. Watch LOST

Oh Jack, what would we do without you? With the greatest show on earth, having the greatest season ever, there is a lot to be thankful for. We have to give a huge thank you to the good people at itunes that make it possible for oversears like us to still download and watch lost each week. Quick question for the losties out there: If the island is the cork holding the smoke monster in, what is happening in the flashsideways when the island is underwater? Also if the flash sideways people's actions can bleed over to the real timeline and affect them, can flash sideways John Locke's actions affect what Smokey is doing? Just a little food for thought.

Well I hope that our long absence away from posting has not driven everybody away. It is always great to hear from you all and definitely keep us posted on all your happening back at home. We are still doing so so good here and really do love this country and culture. Love you all and hope to talk to you all soon!