School Open House

Three days after we arrived in Bahrain Stella started first grade at the DOD school here. We had missed the meet and greet so she was going in blind and she's done phenomenally well! We lucked out big time this year and she's got an amazingly sweet teacher who welcomed her with open arms (literally). She's warm and kind and seems to be a great fit for Stella. 

Last night we had open house at the school and an opportunity to see the classroom now that the kids are all settled in, learn about the years curriculum, and talk to the teacher again. It went really well and reaffirmed my thoughts about her teacher. She talked about the class and how she'd lucked up this year and really ended up with a great group of kids. It's a small class- only 16 kids- and there's only 5 girls but she said everyone gets along really well and they're all sweet kids. 

We're a month in to the school year and Mrs. Z said Stella is doing great and the only thing she ever gets in "trouble" for is talking in class (just like her mama did!)... and apparently she likes to sing. A lot. Which, we already knew... my life is like a musical most days between her power ballads and her daddy's whistling.  And let's not forget about the constant tapping out beats, violin practice, and the singing of what they're doing each moment of the day. Seriously. So on one hand, it was nice to know someone else gets to enjoy all the music, but on the other hand, obviously singing in the middle of math problems probably isn't the place. 

I'm excited to see how this year turns out. Already being back in a routine has been great for Stella and she's made lots of friends so I can only imagine how happy she's going to be at the end of the year when it's all normal and no longer new and unknown. But even with everything being new, she's done so, so well and I can't say enough how proud of her we are and how well she's done with this transition! Here's to first grade! 

Food

When we got orders to Bahrain we knew we'd have some new culinary adventures, but I wasn't quite prepared for the diversity that we've found! Anything and everything you could possibly want seems to be on this small island... smoky Bahrain mixed grills, greasy shawarmas, spicy Thai, indulgent French, flavorful Indian, and on and on. We've only had maybe one bad meal since we've been here and even that was passable! 

For the first few weeks of our stay, our hotel fridge kept a constant temperature of lukewarm, so we've done a lot of exploring of the food scene. We've also taken advantage of an app called Talabat--a food delivery app. And yes, what you've heard is true... everything delivers. And I do mean everything! We are going to be so spoiled when we get back to the states! 

So far our favorites or most memorable have been:

-The lamb place. I couldn't tell you what it's actually called, but this is what our sponsor calls it and he's the one who introduced us. It's an awesome restaurant with a beautiful interior and absolutely phenomenal food. We ordered stuffed grape leaves, a mixed grill, and a lamb byriani (which I didn't snap a picture of). The lamb in our mixed grill was to die for. It was intensely flavorful and tender and just incredible. And the kofta, which is one of my favorite things, was the best I've ever had. 

-the yellow shirt shawarma guys. Our sponsor, Tim, tells us that this isn't THE best shawarma place on the island but it's pretty good. (He says we can't have the best at first or we won't know it's the best...). This is the place with the sexy juice, so that helps it as one of my favorites! 

Breakfast and brunch are apparently a big deal here, which is fine with us. We went to brunch this past weekend and found ourselves at a cute French cafe and had some delicious egg dishes and freshly baked English muffins. 

I had something called shakshuka which is poached eggs in a tomato sauce spiced with harissa (decidedly not French, but ce la vie) and it was wonderful! Spicy but not hot, full of flavor, and that sauce and runny yolk just begged to be sopped up by the English muffin. 

Christopher had Turkish poached eggs (also not French) which were eggs on a bed of labneh (which to my understanding is a type of cheese strained from yogurt) and harissa and some other type of sauce. It was... indulgent and creamy and garlicky and divine! Stella had scrambled eggs and French fries but kept taking bites of my shakshuka, discovering she liked it very much! 

We've also been indulging in our Indian food addiction that was started in England. It was our favorite take away and we never found a place in the states that even compared to our local place in Brampton. So we've been eating our way through quite a few of the Indian restaurants nearby and are thrilled that it lives up to our England memories and palates. I don't eat chicken (yeah, yeah, yeah) so I typically go for vegetarian offers and I've discovered and am obsessed with Indian cheese called paneer. It's delectable! They call it cottage cheese, but it's not those disgusting little curds in a plastic tub. It's cubes of soft, but firm cheese that simmers in the most delectable sauces. My current obsession is paneer makhani which is paneer cooked in a tomato gravy style sauce-- similar to a tikka masala; savory with a hint of sweet. Just... yum! 

And I can't leave out our favorite dessert that we've had so far. A baklava cheesecake from a French pattisserie called Madelines. The first bite of this almost left mespeechless. There's no traditional crust to this cheesecake... it's chopped pistachios mixed with sugar and rose water and nestled on top of that is the lightest, airiest, most incredible cheesecake I've ever had. It was slightly sweet and floral (rose water definitely was in it) and just divine. It was topped with crunchy puff pastry so it hit all the crunchy, creamy textures I'm fond of. It was, in all seriousness, the best cheesecake I've ever had. The same night we also had a saffron cheesecake that, bless its heart, absolutely fell flat after the baklava. Had we only had it I know I'd be waxing poetic, but we didn't. And the baklava one blew it out of the water. 

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the drinks. Besides copious amounts of water to stay hydrated in this heat, we've discovered some amazing drinks! Juices and smoothies, coffees and teas all with flavors you can only imagine! We're loving trying all the new things we're finding! 

My current favorite juice is from one of the local shawarma stands and it's called the "sexy" juice... it's a mix of watermelon, grape, pomegranate, mango, and who knows what else. But it's SO good and refreshing and just the right amount of sweet. Absolutely divine! Stella is loving all the fresh juice as well! Her current favorites are sweet melon and thus pomegranate and honey slush she had. 

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a tea drinker. Sure, I'll occasionally drink coffee (for effect) but my heart is made for a strong cuppa and there's no shortage of wonderful tea here in Bahrain. This tiny island seems to be picking up the mantle started by another island in ruining me for crappy American tea bags (for real, I blame England for my inability to tolerate Lipton tea bags anymore). 

I've had karak tea-- a sweet, milky, spicy chai tea. 

Turkish tea-- strong and malty. 

A surprising and refreshing iced orange tea- freshly brewed earl grey poured over freshly squeezed orange juice. (This one wins for best delivery-- I do love interactive food stuffs...lol)

Also on the list (but, alas, no pictures) is a Turkish tea latte flavored with coconut and rose syrup, and an Indian iced tea that's a black currant tea with lime juice and something I can't put my finger on that sweetens it. So, so good. 

Checking out the drink part of menus has been just as fun as the food side. I could definitely get used to all the wonderful things we're tasting and experiencing! 

Rugs

So, most people know that the Middle East is sort of known for rugs. Specially Persian rugs. I had the chance over the weekend to visit my first rug shop and learn a bit about these gorgeous pieces of art. 

First of all, there are rugs from all over the Middle East. In the shop I visited I saw rugs from Iran (Persia), Turkey, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, and I'm drawing a blank on the rest. Each look and feel different as they use different materials and have different designs specific to the area. For instance, afghanistan rugs are more tribal looking and the ones I saw were made with wool while the Persian rugs made in Iran were brighter, floral patterns made with 100% silk or a silk blend. 

The guys who own the shop were incredibly nice and helpful and were eager to teach us about the rugs and all the different components. They pulled all different styles and let us walk on them to feel how different they felt. They explained that the higher the knots per square inch, the softer and more luxurious a rug will feel. And boy was that absolutely the case! My absolute favorite rug was a Persian beauty made of 100% silk and had over 1,000 knots per square inch. It was absolutely incredible-- it was so so soft and the detail was amazing! It also came with an amazing price tag at 2800BD, which translates to $7420!!! Not happening in this lifetime! 

Up close detail on the rug

The really interesting thing about these rugs is that they are designed and hand knotted by a family. It takes months to finish (and in the cases of high knots per square inch rugs, a year or more) and each member of the family takes turns working on it until it's finished. There is a section for the family signature at the top of a lot of the rugs so you can easily identify who created it. Each family has their own designs and color schemes that are unique to them, so it's not a mass produced type of thing- you're not going to walk into your friends home and see the same rug you've got in your living room decorating their floor. They really are pieces of art. 

It was a cool opportunity to learn some more about the rug making process and sort of get my feet wet as far as figuring out what I like. We'll definitely be bringing a rug or two back with us from this tour... now it just comes down to deciding which one! 

The souk... take 2!

On Friday we headed over to the Bab Al Bahrain Souk again. This time we found parking directions and didn't get lost in the crazy streets around and through it which made for a much less stressful trip there, to say the least. 

We parked and got to walk into the main entrance area instead of coming in from side, so that was nice. The entryway has this really awesome ceiling filled with coins and metal discs hanging from it. The I ❤️ Bahrain sign is also at the entrance and of course we had to get a picture. 

We walked around for a little bit, wandering through all the different shops and street vendors and then I set out on a mission. I was determined this visit to find the alleys and streets that held all the spices. Since finding out about moving to Bahrain I've been envisioning all the amazing spices and herbs I'm going to get to add to my pantry! We found it. And I wish I had smell-O-vision so I could get across how amazing it smells! It's this mix of cinnamon and anise and saffron and other things I've yet to put a name to. It wasn't overpowering or anything like that, it just smelled GOOD! One vendor even let us try some ground black lemon-- it was delicious! Citrusy but in a savory, not super strong way. It was odd but really good. 

The bundles of what look like sticks are actually giant cinnamon sticks! I've never seen such huge cinnamon sticks in all my life. There were some the size and width of my forearm! It was crazy! 

After walking around a bit more we decided to stop for dinner. We had heard of a place called the Haji Cafe and it's supposed to be one of the oldest cafes in Bahrain. We lucked out and parked near it so we saw it as soon as we walked out of the parking garage and could easily navigate back to it. 

It's nestled in an alley between some shops on the edge of the souk. There are two different entrances; one for families and one for men only, and they offer outdoor seating. We decided to eat outside and it wasn't too bad, heat wise. They had fans blowing from the roof and it was covered (though the sun was down by this point so it wasn't unbearable anyway) so it was outdoor dining with some indoor niceties. 

There isn't a menu here, the waiter just asked if we wanted lamb, chicken, meat, or a mixed grill and what we wanted to drink. We chose the mixed grill and waited. It wasn't long before our waiter brought out plates and plates of food... tomatoes and cucumbers, onions, peel stalks sliced up, hummus, curry sauce, fresh tandoor baked bread, and our mixed grill plates filled with tandoori grilled chicken and vegetables, chunks of marinated steak, and a type of lamb kofta. We dug right in! It was absolutely phenomenal. This is true Bahraini food. 

Bahrain had an incredible array of foods to choose from. There are restaurants representing pretty much any cuisine you can think of. But we love trying local flavors and this is supposed to be it. And it was delicious! I have no clue what the meat was marinated in, but we couldn't get enough! It was tender and flavorful and incredible. 

After we finished they brought us cups of chai (delicious) and we had seen some people from another table go look at the tandoor oven so we asked if we could see it and they happily obliged! Y'all know I love cooking and food and have had some pretty cool culinary experiences in my life... this was up there! It was so awesome. There were about a half a dozen men in the little kitchen area- some kneading and making the dough, others patting it out, others slapping it on the inside of the oven, and someone pulling it out. I got to get right up in front of it and it was HOT! You could feel the fire just radiating-- I don't know how those guys did it but they were sticking their whole arms in to slap the bread against the interior walls of the oven. It was fascinating! 

After I snapped some pictures one of the men offered me a special cheese stuffed bread and it was so good. It was crazy hot and fresh-- it literally came right from the oven.  Such a cool experience! Next time we go back I'm asking if I can slap a piece of bread in there! 

After that we got in the car and headed for the hotel. We were in a bit of traffic and just chatting and Christopher said something about gold city- a part of the souk where all the gold and jewelry are located. We ended up driving right past it and there happened to be parking right outside of it so we parked and headed in to look. 

It is huge. Two floors of jewelry stores with all different kinds of jewelry, gold bars and coins, gemstones, and the like. It was awesome! It's our anniversary so we actually did a little shopping and looked for something special to commemorate our current milestone (16 years together today-- which marks the time where we've officially been together longer than we haven't been!). We didn't find what we were looking for but we did find out they'll do custom jewelry from any design you want! So that's pretty exciting! 

After that we headed back to the hotel and crashed. It was such a fun night and we're excited to take anyone who comes to visit down into the souk. It's definitely an experience not to be missed!

Driving

It's no secret that I'm slightly enamoured with our new place of residence. Bahrain is new and exciting and a huge adventure. I know that there will be things that come up later that knock the shine off, but one thing that's working hard to tarnish it a little bit is driving. Ugh. Driving. I hate it. Like, a lot. 

I'm pretty type A when it comes to certain things... Driving is one of those things. I like rules and regulations and laws and all that jazz. I like knowing what can and can't be done so I can feel prepared to handle situations. Driving in Bahrain is chaotic, to say the least. I'm trying to come up with a funny metaphor but I can't. There's no real way to funnily describe the shit show that is driving in Bahrain. 

The rules here are pretty clear... there are no rules. You can do a u-turn in the middle of the damn street, drive through dirt lots to get to where you'd rather be if one connects you to somewhere else, if you've left more than two inches between your front bumper and the car in front of you-- that's enough space for someone to pull out in front of you. There's honking of horns (though, oddly, it's not malicious), pedestrians not giving a shit, cars coming out of nowhere, and people riding your butt because that's the way it is. And that's just driving. Navigating is just as harrowing. 

There aren't really street names, everything is numbered. There's a road number, then a block number, then a house or building number and that's the address. It's SO much. 

I've driven on the wrong side of the road in England and driven all over Europe and the United States. But nothing. NOTHING compares to driving in the Middle East. It's stressful and chaotic and crazy and bizarre and it makes no sense for my little type a brain. I don't like it. At all. 

Christopher on the other hand? This fool was made to drive over here. He's the king of making up his own driving rules so he loves it. Me? I'll just be sitting over here in a cold sweat driving the 8 minutes it takes to get to Stella's school from our hotel!

First impressions

Well we've been in Bahrain for ten days now and I want to write down my first impressions and compare them a couple of years from now when our adventure here comes to an end. 

The weather...

It's hot. Like... crazy hot. We arrived during the hottest part of the year. Every day has been in the 100's, the humidity has been through the roof and the heat index has been close to 120 every day. When the sun is high in the sky and beating down on you it can get downright oppressive. The heat during that part of the day is absolutely inescapable. However... when the sun goes down in the evening (which, blessedly, is early), it's tolerable. As a night owl, this is totally fine by me. As a mom of a young child, it kind of sucks- Stella loves to be outside and we're having to learn how to be inside more during the afternoon when she's not in school. 

The food...

Holy wow, the food! We've only had one mediocre meal and that was room service from the hotel. Everything else has been phenomenal! We've had middle eastern food, shawarma, Indian food, burgers, etc and it's all been great! Also... everything delivers. Everything. There's an app called Talabat and you order through it and within an hour- dinner is served! Or dessert (we totally ordered crepes last night and had a dessert date on the couch after Stella had gone to bed)!  Stella, who is your average 6 year old and prone to pickiness-- has tried everything and really liked it! 

The sights...

I've been surprised at how pretty everything is. Im not entirely sure what I was expecting from the desert, but the architecture is really neat and varies SO much! The amount of detail they put into the concrete (or stucco... not sure what the actual building material is) is gorgeous! There are beautiful designs cut into the domes and even the walls around the buildings.  

And the sunset... oh I could go on and on about the sunset. That great, giant oppressively hot ball of gas descends down in a moment of stunning glory here. The sky goes orange and pink as this huge orange ball dips down and has vanished in mere moments... its breathtaking and ten days in I haven't gotten tired of it yet. It's one of my favorite things about Bahrain so far.

When the sun first goes down the sky puts on a show... pink sticks around for a bit then plays into teal and blue before the dark night sky takes over. It really is a wonder. We don't have the good camera with us yet (it's on its way with all our stuff) and my iPhone pictures just don't do it justice.  After the sun goes down the city lights up and looks like a totally different place. 

We've been to the main Souk and it's really neat. So many different shops and stalls filled with everything from rugs to lanterns to trinkets and wooden boxes. An absolute feast for the eyes. Everywhere you look there's something else to see! And we've only been to a small section. We're headed back soon to delve even deeper and find more! 

The people...

The people have been SO nice and so welcoming. I've not felt unwelcome or like an outsider at all. We've not run into a language barrier yet- everyone we've met so far is fluent in English. Which, to be honest, is a huge relief. I've heard very, very little Arabic in my life-- Christopher knows a few words and I've heard one of my best friends moms speak it once or twice to my godson but that's it. So to know that I'll be able to get around on my own without a problem is a huge relief! 

I've been pleasantly surprised to see the Arabic couples being affectionate towards each other. Weve seen couples holding hands, arms linked, laughing with each other... just acting like normal couples. As Americans we have this view of the Middle East. We see oppression and assume there are loveless relationships where the men hold ownership over the women. I'm not going to lie and pretend that that's not a bias I wondered about. But here, in this little part of the Middle East, we haven't seen that. I'm sure, in more oppressive and strict parts of the Middle East the culture could be like that, but in this quick snapshot we've had here, it's been nothing like I imagined. 

In addition to being friendly and affectionate towards each other- everyone here seems to absolutely LOVE children. Stella is absolutely spoiled here! Waiters fuss over her bringing her candy or wanting to bring her dessert, the hotel staff constantly want to talk to her and high five her, our maid has left her sweet notes, and people on the street wave at our little dancing queen as she twirls by them. 

Overall...

Overall, I kind of love it here. I am already ready to be out of the hotel and settled into a home of our own (but it'll still be a while... our things aren't due to be delivered until later this month, hopefully) but I feel like, if things continue the way they have been, I think we'll be really happy here! It's definitely an adventure but it's exciting and amazing and I'm so happy we got to come here and have this experience!