Average day

Mariam and I have been here for twelve days now. We are starting to get into a pattern of normalcy. Here is how it goes:

4 AM: Mariam wakes us up. She is still not quite used to this time change, but this gets better each day. We play and read books till it is time for Michael to get up for work.

6 AM: Breakfast of bananas, cereal and peach nectar eaten on our rooftop patio. We watch the sun rise. Mariam and I try to make friends with the doves that live on the roof by talking to them and leaving them bits of food. It's not really working, but we will keep trying. Mike goes to work.

7 AM: More playing and books. These things never get old with this little girl.

9 AM: I clean off the white tile floor of our patio with buckets of water and a squeegee. It gets dusty here quickly with all this sand! I open the window and let Mariam play in the living room as I do this. She usually stands in the window like a fastfood worker and throws blocks and things I left on the floor inside out at me. She gets mad she can't come out, but she will slip and fall with all the wet tiles.

10:30 AM: Mariam goes for a long nap. I think she takes this as her night time sleep still. I use this time to pick things up and clean or put together Ikea furniture. I am still getting used to all the quirks of the apartments here. The toilet flushes by pulling up a knob on the top of it. Saudi Arabian's don't seem to do the whole shower curtain thing, the middle of the bathroom floor has a drain instead. (this makes me dizzy when standing in the bathtub for some reason) The kitchen also has a drain in the floor, this makes it easy to clean as well. The water is delivered each day to the apartment building in big trucks because there is no city water line. They hook the truck up to the building and fill up water tanks. Water is included in our rent, but we buy drinking water. No one seems to conserve water here either, it feels strange, but we have never run out.

12 PM: I fall asleep. This is totally normal here. Stores and things are not even open at this time because most people are at home, sleeping away the hot part of the day.

3 PM: Mike gets home from teaching first grade. He falls asleep.

4 PM: I get up and look at the internet.

6 PM: Mariam and Mike wake up.

7 PM: I make dinner. Tonight I made pepper chicken with green peppers and onions and fava beans with tomatoes. We ate this with flat bread and my new favorite food Labnah We usually have lots of water and either guava or mango juice to drink too. Typically we eat out on the patio on a blanket. They eat on the floor here a lot, and even sell special plastic cloths to put down that you can just toss out when you are done eating. They throw out everything here, and everything comes in it's own plastic bag.

8:30 PM: We go out. Stores are all open till at least 11, and most till midnight. They have a store for everything it seems. The main roads are lined with an unbelievable amount of upscale malls, colored lights, fountains, and sculptures. In a way it reminds me of Las Vegas, without the naked ladies and gambling. My first night driving by all this I thought there were about 100 chandelier shops, and then I looked closer to realize that a lot the stores just have huge chandeliers all over. I only saw like two real chandelier stores. The side streets are filled with tiny shops and hole in the wall restaurants that all look tasty. We live right by a more traditional Souk. That is an open air mall with specialty shops and vendors on the sidewalks with a little area in the middle that has carnival rides and picnic tables.
Tonight we went to a very nice pet shop called Pet Oasis in a huge strip mall. I wanted to see if they sold monkeys. They do, three kinds. They also had something that looked like a meerkat, cats, dogs, fish, bunnies, lizards, snakes, and a huge selection of exotic birds. Mariam enjoyed it. After that we walked down the mall and peeked into a huge lounge/night club where you drink fake cocktails (no alcohol here) and smoke out of a hookah. We explored yet another grocery store, and got some milk for Mare. On the way home we stopped at a little restaurant and Mike bought us some fruity nutty dessert drink I forgot the name of. I should have taken a photo, it looked very decadent.

Mariam with the ferrets at Pet Oasis

11 PM: Mike reads books to Mariam and goes to bed.

12PM: Mare falls asleep. I do internet stuff and eventually fall asleep too.