One of the features about living here in a small city in Saudi Arabia is the lack of activities or options for things to do. Not only can women NOT drive, but there are many places where women can't go. Also, there are no movie theaters, live theater, music concerts, normal activities for most Western women. Not all restaurants allow women and if they do, it is in a specially segregated area or "family room". So, on the compound, we make our own social activities. Otherwise, you would go crazy.
Since I returned back here the first week of March from my trip to the US , I have hosted a goodbye party, a St Patrick's day lunch, co-hosted a joint birthday party for 3 ladies whose birthdays were in March, co-ordinated a goodbye lunch at a local restaurant for 2 ladies leaving next week, will go with a group to a local restaurant this week, will host a goodbye party for a lady who was extremely helpful to me before I arrived here and afterward, and a Tapas dinner for my husband's fellow workers and us. This is a very social life. I thought that I had had a very social life in the US!
Last week, we had the St Patrick's Day celebration, which was basically about decorating everything green, eating, and enjoying each others' company. It was a potluck where everyone brought a dish. I asked everyone to bring Irish or at least green food. We had potato soup, shepherd's pie, cottage pie, colcannon, mashed potatoes, Irish stew, smoked salmon, an Iranian rice dish, hot dogs, empanadas, etc, etc for the main dishes. For dessert, we had lucky shamrock cookies, Irish apple cake, Irish apple pie, a trifle and an amazing cake from a local bakery and green lemonade and ginger drinks.
We had 17 ladies attending. Of those 17, at least 5 people told me that they had never been to a St Patrick's Day celebration. I suspect that there were several more. It was very multinational which makes it interesting. We had:
one lady from The Netherlands
one lady from South Korea
one lady from Italy
one lady from Germany
one lady from Lebanon
one lady from Pakistan
one lady from Venezuela
three ladies from Canada
one lady from Scotland
one lady from England
five ladies from the US
Then, we had a special visitor, a big leprechaun.
My next blog is about how difficult it can be to organize a group activity off the compound.
Since I returned back here the first week of March from my trip to the US , I have hosted a goodbye party, a St Patrick's day lunch, co-hosted a joint birthday party for 3 ladies whose birthdays were in March, co-ordinated a goodbye lunch at a local restaurant for 2 ladies leaving next week, will go with a group to a local restaurant this week, will host a goodbye party for a lady who was extremely helpful to me before I arrived here and afterward, and a Tapas dinner for my husband's fellow workers and us. This is a very social life. I thought that I had had a very social life in the US!
Last week, we had the St Patrick's Day celebration, which was basically about decorating everything green, eating, and enjoying each others' company. It was a potluck where everyone brought a dish. I asked everyone to bring Irish or at least green food. We had potato soup, shepherd's pie, cottage pie, colcannon, mashed potatoes, Irish stew, smoked salmon, an Iranian rice dish, hot dogs, empanadas, etc, etc for the main dishes. For dessert, we had lucky shamrock cookies, Irish apple cake, Irish apple pie, a trifle and an amazing cake from a local bakery and green lemonade and ginger drinks.
We had 17 ladies attending. Of those 17, at least 5 people told me that they had never been to a St Patrick's Day celebration. I suspect that there were several more. It was very multinational which makes it interesting. We had:
one lady from The Netherlands
one lady from South Korea
one lady from Italy
one lady from Germany
one lady from Lebanon
one lady from Pakistan
one lady from Venezuela
three ladies from Canada
one lady from Scotland
one lady from England
five ladies from the US
Then, we had a special visitor, a big leprechaun.
My next blog is about how difficult it can be to organize a group activity off the compound.
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