Letting go

One of the things that sold us on choosing the villa that we did was the fact that one of the times we came by to check it out there were kids playing in the courtyard. With Stella being an only child she doesn't have a built in playmate at home, so seeing a group of kids outside running around was a big check on the pro side of the pro/con list for us. 

After a couple of nervous greetings on Stella's part, she finally decided to go outside and play with the kids and now we have a nightly routine! There are about eight kids out there every single night running and playing together and having a blast! It's a little 1950's-esque and it's amazing... except-- I have had to let go of some of my American sensibilities. None of the parents sit outside with the kids, they just let them out and they're expected home at some point. So I've had to give up a little control and just let her out and trust she'll be okay and make good choices. The compound is gated so they're not going anywhere and they all sort of look out for each other when cars pull in, but still- not standing out there watching every little thing is both refreshing and terrifying! I know it's a cultural thing because none of these kids are American. They're Bahraini or Indian and I know things are so different in their cultures so I'm letting go and giving her space and she seems to be thriving! Meanwhile, I poke my head out and peek out the window fairly regularly to make sure she's all good and not climbing on cars...Because that's a favorite pastime for these kids... car climbing. And there's a jaguar and Range Rover in our courtyard so yeah, no car climbing for Stella! 

I'm also learning that Bahraini and Indian accents on little kids who shout "Stella!" Over and over again is the cutest thing ever! And the first night we were out there, they were playing tag and one of the older kids was being chased by Stella and he kept yelling "holy shit Stella! You're so fast! Holy shit!" I was rolling laughing... and yes, we've had the talk about other kids using grown up words that she shouldn't use... again, this whole cultural difference thing! It's all been a huge and wonderful learning experience, that's for sure! 

Rugs and breakfast and pottery, oh my!

So it's not been too terribly exciting around here the past couple of weeks-- we've been pretty focused on getting settled into our house and figuring out our new normal. We're unpacked and mostly settled with a few small things here and there to do (and the one random box of crap we have no idea what to do with will eventually get sorted through.. haha!) 

I've steadily been finding my tribe out here and have met some pretty awesome people! I've been on a couple of breakfast and lunch "dates" with new friends and this morning I went with one of those new friends to a local place called Ammawash. They serve a traditional Bahraini breakfast and it was divine! We ordered eggs with tomatoes, something called qeema (ground beef with spices and peppers and peas and who knows what else) and bread with cheese and honey. It was so so good! 

They brought our food out quickly and we ate it in the traditional middle eastern way- tearing off pieces of piping hot flat bread and scooping up the dishes. Everything was absolutely amazing. I seriously can't get over the food here... all the flavors and textures and experiences. It's all so dramatic and wonderful! 

After breakfast we went to a place called Delmon Pottery-- Bahrain is known for its beautiful pottery-- and shopped around. You could walk all  around outside near the giant kiln and see all the Pottery out, drying in the sun. We saw them carving new pieces and sanding off pieces that were dried and almost ready to go. Some of the pots and lanterns were so intricate and I'll definitely be going back to add to our art collection! 

I did come home with a beautiful hamsa! 

On another breakfast outing this week a friend and I went rug shopping and I purchased our first handmade rug! It's a Kashmiri silk rug and it's gorgeous (Kashmir is a state in northern India)! It's a lot harder to pick out the perfect rug than I anticipated... all of them are works of art and I wanted to take my time to pick out the right one for our house. It came down to a couple of different ones, but in the end this one won out.Christophers favorite color is orange, mine is teal, and Stella's is pink, so this was just perfect! 

So that's about it on our home front. We're doing well and settling in. Stella loves her friends and school and Christopher is doing well at work! It's been an easier and quicker transition than I anticipated, so that's good! 

Home sweet home

Well it's been a whirlwind few days here in Bahrain! We finally moved into our villa and are settling in. 

The process for finding a house is a long one. We looked at around twenty different properties in a few different areas of the island before deciding on the house we chose. We saw everything from modern high rise flats to a giant villa with a living room on every floor to villas in compounds and villas alone and a whole lot in between! 

When we first got here we wanted to live a little further from base. There's a gorgeous area called Amwaj that we really liked and heard great things about. We got here and it was crazy expensive so we deep sixed that idea and moved on. Christopher wants to bike to work so it needed to be somewhere with that availability and after driving in morning and afternoon traffic to get Stella, I really didn't want to be too terribly far away. 

We discovered this cute area called Adilya and it's sort of the foodie area of Bahrain. There are tons of amazing restaurants and it's really unique and artsy and we really love it! So we asked our realtor to find a place in the area and he did! We are in a compound, so it's a gated community of attached villas and there's a common courtyard area in the middle of all our homes. It's smaller than other places we saw, but we gave up space for location. It's only a couple of years old so it's pretty pristine. We've got white marble floors, black marble countertops in the kitchen with all new appliances, the entire back wall of the living room is windows that look out to the private pool, there's a wall AC unit in every room, and our bedrooms and bathrooms are a great size. We saw it and decided that was it! 

After we found the place we had to wait for the tenants to move out and then we signed a pre-contract, security had to come out and inspect it and sign off on it, and then we signed our lease. It took about 3 weeks or so from seeing it to being in it. While we were waiting, our household goods got arrived on the island so we were able to schedule delivery of our stuff the same day we moved in! 

We moved in three days ago and I'm overwhelmed. The packers in Maryland did an absolutely HORRIBLE job on the pack out so it's just chaos. It took two days to find the screws to put the dining room table together... and when we did find them they were in the bottom of the dog food container (which was packed with essential oils...and table screws). It's been a bit of a nightmare. 

Now that we're in I am realizing my kitchen is tiny. Like, super small and is lacking a TON of storage space. I kind of hate it. The rest of the house is great-- the kitchen sucks. So I'm trying to buck up and deal with that but coming to that realization and being frustrated that we didn't spend more time in the kitchen looking around has not been fun. Hopefully we'll come up with some creative solutions and make it work. 

I don't have a ton of pictures because, again, it's chaos, but for now... the kitchen...

Oh and this... the fools I live with stuck the kayak in the pool last night for a float.. haha!