Groceries

Anyone who knows me knows I love food. I love cooking, eating, and discovering new foods. I've even toyed with the idea of attending culinary school in the past. I touched on it already, but I was serious when I said before that I love going to grocery stores in new places. I think it's an interesting way of looking at people and how they live. What do they snack on? What are their desserts? What wildly different fruits and vegetables do they eat? What spices do they use to flavor their meals? And I could go on and on. It's another one of those curiosity things, I suppose. 

Anyway, we've been needing to go to the store for a couple of days now and just haven't gotten around to it. We made it a point to go last night and took our time wandering around. Because Bahrain is an island they import A LOT. I don't know that they produce much, if anything at all, on the island. So there are import labels from all over the world... grapes from the US (which were insanely expensive), onions from Spain, meat from India and New Zealand, fruit from Saudi Arabia, and on and on. 

In addition to seeing a whole host of countries represented, we saw fruits and vegetables we'd either never seen before or had only seen on food network! We saw bitter melon, fresh green peppercorns, weird squashes and roots, and loads of different types of dates. 

We even saw these weird things called black lemons. I had to look them up when we got back to the hotel and apparently black lemons are really dried limes and they owe their name to a translation from Arabic to English. They use them in soups and chutneys and the like for a sour-sweet element. I'm going to get brave and try them sometime! 

The store we went to last night, Lulu's, has a really good size bulk bin section with spices, dried goods, nuts, etc. They also have an entire spice aisle with things my little cooks heart has only dreamed of! Possibilities and ideas were running rampant! 

We got some basic things and then started to try and figure out dinners and what not. We're trying hard to get into some semblance of a routine (and failing miserably!) Well.... Christopher and myself drew blanks. I haven't been home to cook for the three of us since early June and with all our senses so overwhelmed we wandered aimlessly from aisle to aisle trying to figure out what on earth we used to eat for dinner. Kind of funny now, but frustrating last night for sure. Not to mention we're in a hotel with limited pots and pans and none of my normal stuff-- no spices or oils and vinegars or cans or anything to draw from. We're literally cooking from an empty pantry right now so my mind was just kind of all over the place... also throw in that it was the end of the day and we're still jet lagged as all hell and it was a recipe for disaster. Needless to say, we're going armed with a menu plan and a list next time! 

The Gold Souk

It's been an absolute whirlwind of a few days! 

Stella started school, we rented a car and started trying to find our way around, we've gone house hunting, and we've met up with one of our best friends whose ship is here for a port call. 

Today, after Stella got out of school, we ventured out to the Gold Souk (a Souk is an Arabic market or bazaar) to do a little shopping with the guys from the ship. 

Now, Christopher has been there before. Multiple times. But, he's never driven himself there; he's always taken a taxi. So we plugged it in to google maps and were on our way... and then google maps failed us beyond belief and took us through this INSANELY tight and twisty half streets, all around the city. It was absolutely wild, to say the least! We'd turn down one tiny street that was packed with people and muscle our way down only to turn down another street packed with more people. Other drivers would just stop in the middle of the road andget out or just throw it in reverse and start backing up. I literally can't describe how crazy this was... and it lasted for like half an hour (though it felt like a hell of a lot longer than that!!!). 

We finally got there and, mercifully, found a close parking spot (and even more mercifully, some super nice guys gave us their parking pass that still held 30 minutes on it when they saw us scrambling around trying to find change) and headed in. It was really neat! There were lots of different vendors who had rugs, shawls, scarves, pottery, jewelry, wooden boxes and trunks, treasure chests, figurines, lanterns, and so much more. It was a lot to take in and a lot to look at but it was really awesome! 

We talked to one merchant about rugs and he showed us some hand woven silk rugs and explained that each rug pattern is done by one family and it takes them up to, and sometimes over, a year to complete. Then they sign them. It was fascinating. And yes, before we leave we'll have a rug! Today we bought a Turkish coffee pot and a gorgeous handmade pomegranate for our bookshelf! 

We also were walking out of one shop and the merchants came walking after us and gave Stella this little green ornament as a gift! It was so nice! We've found that the Bahraini people absolutely adore children and will try to spoil them any chance they get! Stella gets offered dessert or candy ALL the time! 

After walked around some and the guys got gifts for back home we left and entered the chaos that is that part of Manama. It took less time to get out of all of it but it was still crazy hectic! Seriously. The Bahraini's give no shits. They'll walk where they want or do whatever they want in their vehicle. Learning to drive over here is going to be interesting, to say the least! But hey, it's all part of the adventure, right?

Curiosity

I am an extremely curious person by nature. I love long, involved back stories, gigantic tomes filled with wordy details, big, beautiful, descriptive words, and discovering new things. But I tend to want details and explanations and reasons why. So... being immersed in a completely new culture is only feeding my curiosity. 

We're still in the honeymoon phase of this new adventure so absolutely everything is fascinating to me. I am transfixed by the smallest details. I feel a little like Stella who,  at six, is still enamoured with all of life's little details that we tend to walk right past. 

Every little smell (and there are a lot), sound (including the call to prayer we finally heard today), sight, touch (like the almost tactile wave of heat that hits you as you walk outside) and experience are just... awesome. 

One thing I'm kind of fascinated with are all the different things the women are wearing. Bahrain is an extremely westernized middle eastern country, so the dress code is more lax, though still modest. We've seen everything from normal, American/European style clothing to full abaya with veil with only their eyes showing. 

I'm finding it extremely hard not to stare. Not in a malicious way, but in a fascinated way. Obviously I've seen middle eastern women before here and there around the states, and even in Europe. But here, we're surrounded. And I wonder why they choose the different ways to dress. What makes one woman choose to be fully covered and another one to leave her face bare and only cover her hair? Or to wear the abaya and no veil? Today at the mall I saw a few women who held coverings around their mouths, muffling their voices and others bared their faces almost boldly. It was an interesting experience. 

I've also found that those who choose to wear the full abaya don't make as much eye contact as those in just a hijab. Maybe that was just today, but I did notice it. I also realized that it must make it difficult to interact with strangers wearing a veil or full abaya. I tend to smile at people as I walk past and it makes me wonder... are they smiling under there or do they care about making contact with strangers? See? Curious as all hell... haha! 

I'm sure everyone's wondering what I'm wearing. When we flew in I wore breezy long pants and a nice tshirt. Our first day out I wore a short sleeved shirt and another pair of breezy, lightweight pants. And today I'm wearing a mid-shin length t-shirt dress with a lightweight kimono over it to cover my shoulders and arms. And I'm living in birkenstocks... it's far too hot for actual closed toed shoes! The rule of thumb is modesty... no booty shorts (though I did see a pair or two today), no super low cut shirts, and right now, til I get a feel for everything, my Venus tattoo is going to remain covered.  Stella can wear pretty much anything she wants. Until kids hit puberty they are free to dress however (to my understanding anyway). So she's dressing in her normal clothes. 

As for the men- we've seen a lot of thobes, which are long white robe/dress things with head coverings in all white or red and white or just regular clothes. It's been pretty varied. I wonder how the men in all white keep their thobes so clean when there's so much sand and dust in the air.  (Christopher is just wearing nice shorts and nice, lightweight shirts.)

We're two days in and I'm so far beyond fascinated it's not even funny. Everything is different and unique and still feels kind of surreal that I'm actually in the Middle East. I'm excited to see what all we'll learn in the time we're here! Two days in and we've already experienced SO much! I can't imagine where we'll be in two years! 

Bahrain... Day 1!

Well we have had an incredibly busy first day!!! 

After we crashed last night I figured we'd wake up at some random time in the middle of the night... nope! We all slept til almost noon! We actually had to wake Stella up! 

After we woke up and got ready our amazing sponsor came and drove us around all day. He took us to a couple of grocery stores, Starbucks, and the base first thing. We sort of got a feel for food and our location and then at the base we got SIM cards for our phones and a quick snack. 

Anyone who knows me knows I love food. And grocery shopping. So to see two grocery stores today was my idea of fun (seriously). It was also a relief to see all the Stella friendly food that we found! The only thing I didn't find yet was gluten free bread for her or dairy free ice cream. But everything else? Totally golden!  

I know everyone is curious so... YES- we can get pork products out here! At one of the grocery stores we went to there was an entire pork section off around a corner, by itself. It even had a separate section for preparation and handling of the pork products. Totally fascinating! Of course, I'm fascinated by just about everything right now. 

After we saw the base we went driving around and ended up in Amwaj. We ate dinner at a place called Lanterns and we got Indian food! Sooooo happy to have easy access to some of our favorite foods and to try new stuff! 

We drove around Amwaj a little bit and I have to say... I'm kind of in love! It's on the water so there was a wonderful breeze that broke up the heat! It's also quiet over there away from the main city AND there was some actual green space and plant life. The hotel we're staying in is downtown near the capital and there's not much besides sand, dirt, dust, and buildings. It was nice to see some plantlife. 

After that it was dark (sunset is kind of early here) so we headed back to one of the grocery stores we saw earlier and bought some groceries. I kind of wandered aimlessly with no real direction... weariness and jet lag were setting in for sure! We're back at the hotel now and Stella's asleep and we're just relaxing and wide awake... our bodies have no clue what time it is! 

So far, some first impressions... 

It's hot. Like... really hot. But everywhere has air conditioning and it's always running and working hard. The sun is kind of oppressive... once it went down the heat wasn't as bad, but the middle of the day? It was crazy hot. 

The people are nice and everyone speaks English. I know absolutely no Arabic aside from "marhaba" (greetings/hello) and "as salaam alaikum" (peace be upon you) so to know that I'll be okay to get around was a relief. I plan on taking Arabic classes but until then, I'm stuck feeling like an idiot American who doesn't know any of the language of the country I'm in. 

One thing I noticed when we were traveling... we got into a shuttle bus from the airport to the tarmac. There was a middle eastern couple sitting in two of the seats and another couple got on after it was filled up. The seated middle eastern man got up and offered his seat to the other woman. I'm not going to lie, I was kind of surprised. As an American, we see things on the news and have these biases built up in our heads about how people are... even me, who, if you know me know that I'm incredibly accepting and open, welcoming and supportive of everyone. I don't care about color or race or sexual orientation. But I've always heard that middle eastern men are selfish and rude and so I didn't really know what to expect. But I saw kindness on that bus and it made me really happy. I'm sure I'll run into assholes-- there are assholes everywhere-- that knows no color or creed. But it was cool to see a normal, kind gesture when it wasn't expected. I hope to have many more experiences like that! 

Marhaba

Marhaba and hello all the way from Bahrain!!!! 

We are finally here! We had a looooong couple of days, but here we are! When we boarded and found our seats we were pleasantly surprised to find ourselves in the economy plus section... not first class, by any means, but slightly more roomy and not back by the toilets, so, definitely a win!

We settled in and watched some movies (or played games) and after dinner we told Stella it was time to sleep and lo and behold, the kid who never sleeps climbed into my lap and slept for 4 hours!!! She and I stretched out over our two seats and I leaned against Christopher and she piled on top of me and we both slept pretty well. Poor Christopher barely dozed, but he drank lots of coffee to offset his lack of sleep. 

We arrived in Frankfurt, Germany around 730 am local time and wandered around the airport for a bit. We had some breakfast and then found a quiet spot to rest some more. Stella played tablet curled up around my legs while her daddy and I dozed on and off for a couple of hours.


She stayed awake the whole layover until the last ten minutes and she passed out! She fell asleep on the shuttle to the airplane and I had to carry her up the stairs to get in the plane. She stayed asleep for me to buckle her up and for take off! She slept for almost three hours-- a total god send on a 6.5 hour flight! 

She woke up for dinner and stayed awake the rest of the time.  Christopher was seated on the other end of the plane so it was just us girls but she was great! She colored and watched cartoons and was SO good-- especially to have been traveling for so long. 

I was dozing and she woke me up to see the sunset. It was GORGEOUS!!! I have no clue where we were flying over, but it was so pretty. The sky was amazing! 

And this is our first glimpse of our new home! We landed a little before 10pm and coming in to a city at night is always one of my favorite ways to arrive. There's just something so magical about city lights greeting you as you descend and arrive somewhere.


We got off the plane and through customs fairly quickly! We were all pretty tired and cranky, but we made it through. 

All our luggage showed up (yay!) and we headed out and met up with our sponsor. He drove us to our hotel and we got all checked in and settled in for the night. We all showered off two days worth of travel grime and muck and crawled into bed and promptly passed out. 

Here we gooooooo.... sort of!

Well... we're off. Kind of. We made it to the Charlotte airport and were on our way to the gate to board when we FINALLY got the message that we officially had plane tickets (because we didn't actually have any... just a hold on tickets for SATO to purchase). It's been a giant debacle with us not knowing if we were actually going to be able to leave or fly together or what. To say it's been stressful doesn't even cover it. As if moving overseas isn't stressful enough as it is-- throw in some incompetent and inconsiderate idiots at the travel office in Fort Meade and it's just been a mess. 

So we're off to Maryland and we'll end up there for two days instead of one thanks to the travel office's screw up. Luckily we have some great friends we're staying with and great friends we'll get to spend some extra, unexpected time with before the next leg of our journey begins. 

Getting ready...

Well we are finally ready to go. 

After waiting for months we have dates and plane tickets, and our household goods have been packed up and shipped out. 

Our Maryland apartment is empty and the keys have been turned in. This chapter of our life is coming to a close and we're excited to turn the page on this new chapter. 

You see, we're lucky. Luckier than SO many other people... we get to travel the world and experience so many new things and new people. I can't imagine what our life would look like if weren't living this lifestyle. We've wondered about him getting out of the navy and settled down into a civilian life but it's never felt right. Do I like deployments? Absolutely not. Who does? But standing on the edge of a new adventure makes all that worth it. I was born with gypsy feet and they are itching to travel the world! 

Logistics are settling into place right now and I'm getting... anxious. I'm ready to be there and see where our home is going to be for the next two years. I'm ready to see Stella's new school and meet her teachers. I'm ready to be immersed in a new culture with new sights and sounds, tastes and smells. I'm ready for new things around us and a new sky above us. But I'm starting to get nervous and a little weary... Stella will ride a bus for the first time. In a foreign country. And school starts four days after we arrive. How bad will her jet lag be? Should I wait and let her start late after we've acclimated? Will she be scared? How will I do while my baby is being driven around by a stranger? Will she sit on her little butt and behave on the bus? What on earth will I pack her for lunch? So many things rolling around in my anxious mind. I know it'll all work out, but now? Today? Today all the real stuff is seeping in around the excitement and adventure and I kind of want to bury my head in the Bahraini sand and ignore it all. Haha!