The last nine months

Trip to Jeddah

Hello all! Well it's been awhile since we posted last but we've stayed really busy. One of the things we got to do was spend a weekend in Jeddah! It was our first time traveling inside Saudi and hopefully it won't be our last. We loved it! Here are some of the highlights

 We flew on Saudi Arlines and it was great. One interesting thing is that happened was that they read a prayer over the intercom that was intended for travelers. Never seen that before on a plane! The food on the plane was definitely Saudi too with kabobs, falafel, and humus!

We are not sure how many stars our hotel was but we are guessing it was on the lower end of the scale. However, they did have a very unique fountain in the lobby.

Next we had an amazing beach day with friends! First time to the Red Sea for us!

It was so nice going to the beach and realizing the water was warm! You can see how there was a really long shallow area and then it drops off about 40 feet. Right at the drop off there was the most amazing reef and fish! There were fish everywhere!

Here are some of the fish we saw when we were snorkeling! It was unbeleiveable how colorful the fish were and there were hundreds of them!

After we finished hanging out at the beach (and getting really sunburnt) we drove around exploring Jeddah a little bit. One thing that really stood out and that was differnt from Riyadh was there was so much art around the city. It seemed like almost every roundabout had some new sculpture or statue. We really liked this gaint camel one.

This is King Fahd Fountian and is a cool attraction in Jeddah. We were pretty far away, which shows how tall it is. The fountian shoots up 1024 feet in the air!

This was definatly a big highlight for us. Name that restaurant...

It was so nice having good Mexican food again! We ate way too much and left moving much slower.

This was another restaurant that we sort of discovered because every taxi driver we talked to said that we had to eat here. I guess "Al Baik" is one of the most famous food places in Jeddah.

They are most famous for their chicken so we had to give it a try. We really liked it!

Next we got to explore the old city of Jeddah. This was one of the old city gates that originally was built by the Ottoman Empire.

 

These were some of our favorite buildings in the old city of Jeddah.

Many of the buildins date back to 1800s. It's amazing that people are still living in them today.

We also learned that the white stones you see are actually made of coral bricks! I guess that is what you make your houses out of if you live in a desert next to the sea.

We absolutely loved our trip and hope to return again soon! Love you all and see you soon! July 2nd!!

Mud Brick Houses and the Attack of the Killer Horse

Charlie and I got to go out with some friends to a small town outside of Riyadh a few weekends back. We meet a Saudi man that was from this town and he wanted to show us around how Saudi living used to be. Hard to believe that as little as 50 years ago the even wealthy people lived in mud brick houses! The first part of the video was the tour of his house that he grew until he was about 10 years old.

The second part of the video shows the epic horse bite (go to about 10:00 min in). He took us out to a horse farm and as we found out, not all the horses were too friendly.

The last part is one of our favorite parts of being in Saudi - desert camping. We drove out to a quiet part of the desert, threw out the blankets and BBQ, and had some amazing kabobs, humus, fresh dates, Arabic coffee, and tea. It was a great night and is one more thing we have to to love about Saudi!

Also if you have not seen our other video with Saad, here is our dune bashing adventure

Dessert Camping

Two weekend ago we were able to do some more camping in the Saudi dessert. The weather is still nice so we wanted to get one more camping trip in before the weather becomes unbearable haha! Here are some pictures of our adventure!

So the first thing we saw was a herd of goats. We were excited to see some animals in the desert.

Next, we started setting up camp in a wadi which is a dry river bed. After setting up camp we decided to go for a hike up to these plateaus. The view was absolutely beautiful!

We had a good time climbing up to the top!

  

Soon after the guys returned we had some unexpected visitors to our campsite!

The camels were actually quite friendly and quite smelly haha!

The guys with there newest friends

The camels came through a couple different times with their herder who rode on a donkey.

Here is a video of one of times the camels came through 

Camels in our camp from Brendon Hunt on Vimeo.

After the camel invasion we sat down by the campfire and had some delicious Kabsa (chicken and rice). When we had finished the Kabsa we busted out the S’mores!!! 

After some amazing food and great conversations we headed for bed – our sleeping bag under the stars!!! Yep, no tents! I have to say, I did have one worry……. I kept thinking about the camels and I was hoping we weren’t going to get trampled haha! Luckily they waited until the morning to return and we were able to move our stuff out of the way for them. 

The camping trip was so much fun but it wouldn’t have been the same without the amazing people we spent it with! We love our new friends here and the old friends who have now joined us!

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!

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!

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!