The last nine months

Spring 2011

Well we are finnished with one more year in Saudi! It has been a wonderful year and we have so many great times to look back on. Here are some of the highlights from the spring of 2011.



The end of spring means one thing for us: CALIFORNIA HERE WE COME! We are leaving today (6/28) and will land in the good ol' US of A at around 6 pm tonight! We will spend a few days in New York visiting family and will land finnally in California on July 2nd. Can't wait for the summer and to see you all soon!

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!

Winter 2010-2011

Wow it has been awhile. We are doing great here and tons of stuff has happened. Sorry it has been so long but here is a big recap of the last 4 months. Enjoy!

Winter 2010-2011 from Brendon Hunt on Vimeo.

We'll try and post a bunch of pictures and stories soon too. Thanks for keeping up with 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!

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!