Well folks, its officially been one whole year in the land of sand! I'm not sure where the past twelve months have gone, but here we are at the one year/halfway mark of this adventure.
Some lessons learned along the way...
-Driving in Bahrain sucks. There's no other word for it. Its chaotic and some days harrowing, and there are some days that I just don't feel like getting out and dealing with the terrible drivers or the atrocious traffic.
-Black flag areas aren't scary. When we first got here I knew the black flag areas were off limits for us and just knowing that made me assume the worst, but its not a big deal at all and if I get lost in and around the small side streets, its not an emergent situation and no reason to freak out.
-115 degrees with 60% humidity feels like the tenth degree of hell. This summer has been a lot "milder" than last, but its all still hot. Just not two-showers-a-day-hot like last year.
-Bahraini breakfast is one of our favorite things... bread with cheese and honey, queema, eggs with tomatoes, lentils... karak tea.... its all so yummy!
-Talabat is going to be hard to leave behind... the food delivery app gets a pretty frequent workout in the Koenig household (though we're trying to get better about that...lol)
-Air quality sucks here. Like, really, really sucks. We've all been sick or sniffly the whole time we've been here and Christopher has even succumbed to daily allergy meds because its so bad.
-Dirt and dust and sand get EVERYWHERE! I feel like I'm constantly dusting, sweeping, mopping, etc and theres still dust all over this house (and our shoes come off as soon as we walk in the door)!
-No matter where you are in the world, what your religion is, kids are the same. They fight with their parents and act like jerks sometimes. Today at the grocery store a lady made a comment about Stella (she was laying her head down and swinging around at the end of the checkout counter and she asked if she was tired and I jokingly said, No, never...) we ended up talking about kids and how she's ready for school to start back up so her youngest will stop frying his brain on the playstation since thats all he ever wants to do. I laughed and told her I felt the same way about Stella playing on her tablet and thats all she ever wants to do and we talked some more while she checked us out. It really and truly doesn't matter where you're from... we all have struggles in the same areas. Kids with access to electronics will always want to push the limits of whats healthy and parents will always feel like they're frying their brains by letting them. And there will always be fights about it. Its one of my favorite things about traveling- seeing that life has so many parallels with people from all different walks of life.
-Friends and community are the biggest things that make this place enjoyable. Now, its been a great experience and I wouldn't trade it for the world, but its also hard to be this far away from friends and family (seriously, the time difference alone is awful!), in the heat and shitty air quality, and with Christophers work schedule. This is not the easiest place to live. Sure, there are conveniences that are totally awesome (again, Talabat), but its not always a walk in the park (mainly because there are no parks and theres no walking in this damn heat). The friends we've made are the reasons that life here doesn't suck.
-Travel and adventure absolute feed my soul and I didn't realize what was missing when we were in the States and not traveling as much. Seriously. The world is a vast and amazing place filled with incredible people, food, sights, and brimming with life. I am so very lucky to be able to see as much of it as I can and to have a partner in life, and a daughter, who also feel the itch to travel and see the world!
Here's to another year, more travels and adventures, lots of Bahraini breakfasts, and another adventure on the horizon!
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