A Morning Reflection

Since we have lived here I am always thinking of things that I want to remember to write about on my blog, but, with the boys and the school schedule, not to mention Mike actually being home in the evening I always seem to run out of time.

Well, I want to try and write it today! It is Tuesday morning and I have woken to a bit of excitement as Eid El Fitr officially starts today!! Ramadan is over for the year!! Why is this so great for me? I am not the one fasting as the locals are day after day from sun up until sun down in 110 degree heat (even the outside workers)...

I know I shouldn't complain but it is a HUGE relief to know we can drink and eat outside again. During Ramadan almost everything is closed during the day and does not re-open until the evening. The malls are a ghost town (which in my new found freedom I like to visit often) no food courts or restaurants are open and many stores are closed. In fact no restaurants are open in the city during the day and most hotel restaurants have different hours. The most exciting thing though is to be able to drink in the car! I have missed my morning coffee on the ride to school, diet cokes after the gym--or at any point during the day, and even though children are exempt from the Ramadan laws, they are really not supposed to eat or drink in public as well, so it has been difficult when they are thirsty to deal with making it home from wherever we are to get a drink!!

At any case, because of all these reasons I have woken up feeling a happy freedom, I can walk outside with a bottle of water!! Yeah!! Although, I have to say like many of the other adjustments I have made here I had kind of gotten used to it, but it only took a whining hungry child to remind me that I couldn't wait until Ramadan was over!!

The good news this week as well is that the government issued that the entire week be a public holiday, therefore, Jake and Jett get a nice break from school and Mike worked Sunday, but is off all week as well, he gets no option!!!

With all that said, Ramadan has been my only severe complaint. I also woke this morning and thought...as I do many mornings, how much I like it here. I think our whole family is benefitting from this experience in so many ways.

I can only explain it this way....we are more relaxed here. Everyone comes here to be an expat for not only the international experience but for the financial package, that is a given for a certain amount of lifestyle ease. I also have more help than I have ever had, my housemaid comes three times a week, she cleans, does laundry and ironing, or whatever I need (at a fraction of the cost of a US maid).

Mike is home. A simple sentence but one that makes a world of difference. We were a family so used to Mike working 9 months out of the year on weekends and holidays, with extended hours on each of these days. Here, he gets home around 6:30 or 7 (going in about 8am) and has had more time off than he has had in the last 10 years. This may not last forever, as his projects get closer to completion but that is a good two years away!! The boys get their wrestling time every day. And when Mike is home, he is home, mentally and physically. When running a park that is open 12 hours a day, seven days a week you never really feel relaxed until it is closed for the season. With all this both of us are more relaxed and I feel that our family time is of a higher quality because Mike is not exhausted from work and I am not exhausted from feeling like a single parent (and cleaning my house)!!

We enjoy being home and being with each other. With less TV options we are playing games, working on puzzles and reading together more, all things we should have been doing anyway but with the stress of our US life, we often just did not have the energy!! So, to sum it up, as Mike and I were playing tennis yesterday, a weekday at 4pm, he said, "Why would you ever want to leave here?" A good question!

Alright, I know we are in the Middle East, but it doesn't feel like it in some odd way. But, there are negatives...
-Driving, I have done well at adjusting but will never get used to cars zooming by me at 100mph, three left hand turn lanes, getting honked at constantly, cars getting right on my tail when I turn, and the overall speed of drivers!! This makes me most nervous when I am anywhere with the kids--parking lots, close to busy streets, etc.
-Groceries. There has been more available than I thought there would be for sure! But you never know when they will have a certain product. One week it is there (for instance goldfish) and then you don't see it for weeks. We are slowly learning what local brands the kids eat but I often go to three different stores to get all that we need!
-Clothes. You just pretty much have to make sure and come here with what you need!! They do have Gap and Banana Republic, but the prices are outrageous! I have been looking for a new pair of tennis shoes and every place I go never has my size, I guess everyone has smaller feet here!
-Old houses. We love our villa, but we can pretty much count of some type of maintenance issue at least once a month. We are however lucky that the maintenance men come right when we call and are pretty good at getting it fixed. Although, yesterday they came to fix a water leak, they left and told me that it had something to do with the hot water heater, I said "everything is fixed, right?" they said "yes," well I go upstairs to learn the fix was to turn the hot water heater off...interesting way of going about it!
I honestly think that is it for now, but I am sure there will be more as we go along!

Ahhh, I finally got that written! I feel much better now! the boys are up and need breakfast, so off I go...