Farewell, Saudi Arabia

This is a sad blog for me because it is my last.  I have moved back home from Saudi Arabia.  My time in KSA was quite the adventure.  Things are very different there.  It was interesting learning about the culture, exploring the landscape and learning more about its history.

I would have loved to have met more Saudi people, but that is a bit difficult.  But.....I did meet many interesting people from all over the world-Belgium, Portugal, France, The Netherlands, Germany, England, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, Poland, Serbia, Venezuela, Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Korea, Japan, Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Egypt, Yemen and probably other places that I have forgotten to mention.  Also, I met many lovely fellow Americans who had experienced interesting journeys all around the world.  And, since one of my favorite past times is trying new and interesting food, the compound was a perfect place to do that.  There were so many people interested in sharing their food and culture.   If you needed something on the compound, there was always someone to help you.  If you were sick, people would bring you food and medicine.  If you were sad, the ladies would cheer you up.  It is a wonderfully supportive community.

 I do think that it takes a certain type of person to decide to go there.   Basically, you need to be flexible.  It was a bit intimidating on my first entry into the compound.  You have to go through security check points manned by soldiers with automatic weapons, around barriers and into a compound surrounded by a wall topped with razor wire.  You have to be flexible about everything.  You need to substitute or forgo certain food and other products that you are accustomed to using.  A favorite cereal (or your top 10 favorite cereals) may be difficult to find.  Meats taste very different.  Vegetable selection is a bit limited.  Sometimes, walnuts and hazelnuts are hard to find.  When I was first there, I couldn't find things like sour cream,  cream cheese, good goat cheese, strawberries, broccoli, etc.  My network of friends would tell me where to find them or with berries, which day of the week and time you need to go to the local grocery to find them.  You had to get used to not being able to try on clothes in the store, but needed to go down the hall in the mall to the Ladies room and changing room.  Sometimes you needed to checkout in the ladies line.  Etc.  There were new rules to learn:  whether you could wear nail polish, any type of shoe, the length of your abaya, where women could not go or what you could not do.

You learn to expect things to take more time. I could not just pop over to the grocery.  The grocery bus ran only certain days or times of the week.  You could take a cab, but then of course, you would want to get the groceries done quickly.  All shopping had to be done around prayer times, so  often times you would have a small window to get things done.  If you weren't finished grocery shopping when prayer time started, you would have to leave your groceries in the cart and come back in 20 minutes or so.  Therefore, a task might require a few trips.  Whereas, at first this was very frustrating, you eventually get used to the change in pace.

I was always treated kindly by  Saudis.  Although I was not able to actually befriend any Saudis, I was often approached and asked where I was from.  When I said "America", it was always received positively.  It seems like many Saudis have either been to the US or have relatives living here. One Saudi lady came running out of a store in the old part of town to ask me where I was from.  She seemed very proud to tell me that two of her children were Americans because they were born in America.   And it was interesting what people thought of Americans.  One time when I designed a centerpiece for a going away party that included a picture of a person going through a finish line with a goal post, the honoree (from Jordan) told me that it was very American.  When I asked her why, she told me that Americans are very goal oriented.   I saw her point.

I did have odd reactions sometimes. When Saudi men would come around a corner at the grocery store and see me, they would sometimes look surprised or shocked, but then recover themselves quickly.  I guess this was because I was not veiled or wearing a scarf, but I WAS wearing an abaya.  I remember laughing aloud one time with friends in a 5 riyal store and all the Saudis in the store turned and stared at me.

I was fortunate to be invited to a few wedding celebrations and the  Saudis could not have been more gracious or welcoming. 

Writing this blog has been an interesting surprise.  I have had so much positive feedback, not just from family and friends, but also from strangers.  Before going to Saudi, a friend had suggested that I write a blog and then have it bound when I got home after the assignment as a souvenir.   I thought about it and decided that it would be an easy way to communicate with my family and friends back home about what I was experiencing in Saudi.  Also, when I had found out about a site that posted expats blogs, I submitted mine and it was accepted.  I have received so many interesting responses and feedback from people that I don't even know.  Before this current post, I have not posted for many months, but still every day there are several people reading the blog.  I can see statistics as to how many people have read the blog each day and where they are from.  And they are from everywhere, here are the top readers:

United States	5983
Saudi Arabia	2024
Canada	312
United Kingdom	160
Russia	96
France	92
India	70
Netherlands	55
Italy	39
Turkey	33

Also, it has been read in Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Brunei, S Korea, Algeria, Russia and Oman.  This was crazy to me everyday to wake up and look to see where my blog was that day.  :)  And people are still reading it every day, 5 months after my last posting!

In the US, people are very interested in what it is really like in KSA.  I have gotten many questions about it.  I have even been asked to speak at a book club that was reading a book about life in Saudi.

As hard as it was to leave so many friends in Saudi, not knowing if I will ever see them again, it was also wonderful to return to the US to my family and old friends.  One of the things that I love about the US is there is such an open expression of joy.

I have been very fortunate to have these experiences and am so thankful to my wonderful, sweet husband for taking us on this journey.

Hailing a cab in Hong Kong and other things

Today's blog was supposed to be about another aspect of Hong Kong life, hailing cabs to get around.  But as I re-read it before publishing, it is another rambling discourse on my travels.  So, here goes...

When my son and I arrived at the Hong Kong airport, we found it very easy to get a cab, as is usual at airports.  We walked outside to the taxi stand, got in the taxi line and had a cab within 2 minutes.


For the next few days, we did not need a cab.  From the hotel on Kowloon, we walked to the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade, to the Star Ferry to get to the funicular for Victoria Peak, to the Sampan cruise, etc.  Then, my son and I moved to Hong Kong Island.   We thought that the hotel in Kowloon would hail a cab for us, but they don't do that.  So, we went outside in front of the hotel to start the process.  There was already an Asian couple out there looking for a cab.  We went further down the line to wait our turn.   A cab stopped, the couple told the driver where they wanted to go and the driver said no.   The lady looked surprised and looked at us and said maybe he will take you where you want to go.  So, my son went up to the cab, looked in the window (the driver is on the right side of the car) and told him the name of the hotel and that it was located on Hong Kong Island.  Again, the driver said no and drove off.  Both the other couple and my son and I tried to hail down other cabs.  But as the cabs drove by, they shook their head "no" at us and kept speeding by.  My son noticed that there were more cabs on the other side of the street.  We went on the other side of this very busy street, Nathan Rd, and nothing.  We were right next to the Metro so I suggested that we take the Metro.  Of course, I had a very big and heavy suitcase and my son's was very light.   I felt I had to pack for many activities:  light clothes for sightseeing because it was hot and humid, hiking clothes and shoes, business casual clothes because my sister and my brother in law were taking everyone to the Four Season's hotel restaurant named Lung King Heen, which means "View of the Dragon".    Devin and I hiked Dragon's Back a few days later.  This is the beautiful cover of the menu from the restaurant.   A few days later, my son and I went to the Hong Kong Museum of Fine Arts and saw that there was a recurring theme in ancient art about a dragon chasing a pearl.  I wonder if that is what inspired this cover.

 

 

 

 This restaurant is the first Chinese restaurant in the world to receive 3 Michelin stars.  Below is a picture of bird's nest soup.  I had heard about this soup for a very long time and really wanted to try it.  I had always thought that it would be crunchy like the typical birds nests that you see in the trees.  Well, that is not what it is.  This is how About.com describes it:


Authentic bird's nest soup is made using the nests of the swiftlet, a tiny bird found throughout southeast Asia.  The swiftlet lives in dark caves, using a method of echolocation similar to the bat to get around. Instead of twigs and straw, the swiftlet makes its nest from strands of its own gummy saliva, which hardens when exposed to air.  Humans who harvest the swiftlet nests often come from families that have made their living this way for generations.  Prying the nests from the cave walls is extremely dangerous, and many harvesters die each year.
Once the nests are harvested, they are cleaned and sold to restaurants, where they are served simmered in chicken broth.

 

 

Here is a picture of it.  The bird's nest is the brown substance floating in the soup of almond cream.  To purchase bird's nest, they are around $2500/kg.  So, you can see why only a small amount is used.  When the waiter came around, I asked him how the birds nest were prepared for the soup  to make sure (i.e, was the hardened saliva cleaned up) that I would be OK with it.  He was really sweet describing the process and answering my questions and didn't act outraged or offended at the question. :)

 

 Here are some of the other dishes:

A pork belly:

 A foie gras dish:

Crushed chrysanthemum petals in gelatin:

 I didn't know ahead of time, but this turned out to be a belated birthday present (2013) for me!!!!  What an absolutely wonderful surprise and present!

 

 Well, I guess that I have really digressed from my cab stories.  I was trying to talk about why my suitcase was so big and digressed again onto my favorite topic, food and family.  :)  Back to the story...

 

 

 

The Dragon is the mountain range that my son and I would be hiking a few days from then.  Anyway, I needed nice clothes for that incredible restaurant.  I also needed hiking clothes for our hike of Dragon's Back with good hiking shoes. I had my huge bag of vitamins that I take everyday. I needed bathing suits for swimming.  (One of the reasons that I had picked our second hotel was because it had a gorgeous roof top swimming pool.  I thought that after our hikes and touring, we would come back to the hotel, have a nice relaxing swim and have cocktails on the roof looking over the city.  My son had been having a lot of stressful travelling for work and I thought that this would be perfect for him.  The only problem was that we never got back to the hotel early enough to use the pool at night.  It closed at 9:30 pm!!  :)  ) 

Long story to say that I had a big suitcase!  Even though my son had been travelling for a couple of weeks by the time we got to Hong Kong, he had a very small suitcase.  Go figure...  Anyway, he very sweetly volunteered to take care of my suitcase.  On one of my last few flights, the two rollers were badly damaged and now it no longer rolled properly on the streets.  And of course, going into the subway, he had to carry it up stairs going into the subway and then down stairs to get the tickets, then down more stairs to the train.  It was very sweet. 

The directions on the hotel website were to take the Metro to the Central station and then take a bus.  But we found out later that you could take a Metro to within a few blocks away.  Anyway, we took the Metro to cross the harbor and get in the general area of the hotel.  Then we thought we would take a cab.  That is when our cab odyssey began again.  I thought there would be cabs outside the station.  Well, there were rails all along the sidewalk there and we wouldn't be able to access a cab.  We walked to corner to try to hail a cab-that they would turn the corner and go to a safe location to stop.  Again, no luck.  They just whizzed by.  A lady came up to us and said that cabs could not stop there, but if we went to the building cattycornered to us, they would be able to stop.  So we went over there and started the process all over again.  No luck, just whizzed by.  A beautifully dressed Australian woman came up to us and explained that only certain cabs would be able to stop for us there.  They had to have a cardboard sign on their dashboard.  But they whizzed by so fast, I could never see the difference.  I suggested to my son that maybe we should walk over to the Mandarin Oriental hotel two blocks away and get the bellman there to hail one when out of the blue one stopped and agreed to take us to the hotel.  Hallelujah!!  I didn't see a cardboard sign on his dashboard so I don't know why he stopped. 

Our last adventure with hailing a cab occurred on our last touring day in Hong Kong.  We had spent most of the day getting to our hiking trail, hiking and getting back.  We decided to try a Szechuan restaurant that was recommended by a friend of my son's wife.  My son determined a Metro route that would get us into the area.  Then we began walking.  We walked and walked, up and over pedestrian overpasses over streets, over highways.  We tried to hail cabs, but again nothing.  We thought this was crazy!  Finally, we found the restaurant.  We decided that when we were leaving, we would ask the restaurant manager and also the police officer outside how to catch a taxi.  Well, to digress to food again....We ordered a bunch of interesting foods...Marinated wild mushrooms,   shrimp on a bed of cellophane noodles, and I ordered Szechuan spicy pork.  I would have loved to order a few glasses of wine after the walk, but I thought that I might have to have my wits about me if we could not hail a cab again and we had to walk all the way back again.  So, I just ordered a beer.  When the waitress brought the spicy pork dish out, I thought "Oh, no.....".  First of all, it was a BIG bowl, probably 20" in diameter and deep.  Secondly, the whole top of it was covered in chopped hot, red, chili peppers-not like the Szechuan at home where there are whole chili peppers scattered about that you can easily put to the side.  When the waiter saw our faces, he said that this was only a 2 in hotness.  They went up to 10.  So, he fished out the top layer of chili peppers.  :)  It was still very hot and I like hot foods.  I forgot to take pictures of this.  I think because I was so tired from our walk.  :)  Anyway, when we were finished eating, I felt revived, ready for our cab adventure. 

We asked the waitress about how to find a cab and she said to go around the corner to the front of the YMCA.  We asked a man downstairs (22 floors down) and he said the same thing.  We went around the corner and saw a line of people waiting for cabs.  We thought YES, we are finally in the right place.  We WILL get a cab!!!  And then the process started again.  Cabs would stop and let people off but say no to letting people on.  My son ran down the street to cabs letting people off at the corner and they said no.  Finally, some cabs stopped and the people in front of us got in.  We were next.  A cab comes by us slowly looking. He passes us up and the people at the end of the line get in.  I look at the girls in horror and she says "Sorry, I called him!" and motions to her phone.  My son has now resorted to using all kinds of hand motions to stop the cabs-holding out his arm,  waving in a sort of hacking motion, using 2 arms in sort of a "help" sign, on and on.  It was becoming so ridiculous, I started giggling.  I didn't let my son see it because I thought that he would think that I went off the deep end.  :)   Then.....a cab stops!!!  We just jumped in.  We didn't ask him if he would go.  We would just sort of have a "sit in".    We told him where we wanted to go.  He didn't know the hotel, but my son told him the nearest Metro which was a couple of blocks away.  The cab driver nodded his head and off we went!  I could not believe it!  We had successfully hailed a cab in Hong Kong! Luckily, our new hotel did have a concierge that WOULD hail a cab for the airport.  What a relief!

When writing this blog, I decided to look up what the proper techniques is for hailing cabs in Hong Kong.  It turns out that there are a series of rules.  They cannot stop at the side of the road that has double yellow lines between certain hours or single yellow lines between other hours.  They can drop off in some places, but cannot pick up there.
 double yellow lines are no pick-up, no drop zones even for taxis if they are 24-hour zones. If they are 7am to 12am, then they can only pick-up and drop-off between midnight and 7am. The rest of the day is off limits.
This is the suggestion from the CNN Travel website that I found.
To get a cab that is willing to cross the harbor, you could do the obvious and look for one of the rare signs for a cross-harbor taxi stand.
Or you could just randomly flag down cabs and have an awkward shouting negotiation through the car window with the driver who will be seated on the far side of the car.
Or use the cross-harbor arm wave.
Extend one arm in front of on-coming cab, use the hand and wrist to make an ocean wave motion, indicating that you want the cab to metaphorically brave the harbor waters.

Interesting...I never thought of mimicking a wave motion to go across the harbor.  To go to the airport, should I mimic flying? 

This is what the Geoexpat website said as to how to hail a cab to go cross harbor:
If you want to go cross harbour (through a tunnel) make a "walk like an Egyptian" type gesture to indicate that you want to go through the cross harbour tunnel.

I don't quite get the connection between the "walk like an Egyptian" gesture and going across the harbor, but it is nice to know if I ever go back.  And maybe when we were in front of the YMCA and my son resorted to all kinds of crazy arm gestures, maybe he hit on the right one which means "In the name of all that is right, please take us back to our hotel!"

 

The interesting people of Hong Kong

I just returned from a trip to Hong Kong.  There were some interesting things about the people in/from Hong Kong.  It began on the flight there.  The passengers were 90% Asian.  I assume that they were either from Hong Kong or mainland China. 

I had upgraded my seat to a preferred seat.  They gave me a seat at the bulkhead on an aisle.  I had plenty of room.  I was in the center of the plane, with no row to my left.  So, there was an empty space to left of me where an emergency door was located and right behind the bathroom. 

There was a nice gentleman from Hong Kong seated next to me on the plane.  We chatted for awhile and then the plane took off.  I read for about an hour.  I had started a book that my son recommended, Heart of Darkness.  The airline had served drinks and a snack.  After that, one or two people at a time began to line up for the bathroom.  They would wait in the empty space between me and the exit door.  I began noticing that when it was one person waiting, they were almost always exercising.  The first was a woman who bent over and was lightly punching with her fists all along the outside of her legs.  Later, there was a man who put his hands on his hips and was doing leg squats.  There was a dwarf who pressed the front of his body against the wall of the airplane with his right arm extended above him, stretching against the wall.  Then, he switched arms.  There was a lady who leaned over and grabbed the exit door arm and alternately stretched her legs behind her.  I have to say that this one worried me.  I needed to know what it took to open that door.  It was dim in the cabin by now, so I had to really squint my eyes to see the directions for opening the door.  It seems as if there are a few steps you need to do before rotating the arm to open the door.  So, I was relieved.   Then, there was a lady who lightly punched her shoulders and arms over and over again.  It was very interesting to watch all this activity and made the time go by very quickly.  I am sure this was done for health reasons to keep the blood flowing and so that muscles did not get stiff.  I have heard many recommendations that on long flights, you should walk around the plane, do exercises in your seat, wear compression sox, but I have never seen this parade of exercises before.  To be honest, even if I thought that I should do it, I couldn't because it would be as if you were performing in front of an audience.   The exercises were done in front of the first row of seats on that side of the plane.  When I do my exercises at the Fitness class, which has a wall to wall mirror, my plan is usually to be directly behind the instructor so that I really cannot be seen.  I could not exercise in front of  200 or so people in that section of the airplane.  But I am sure that all those exercising people felt great when they arrived in Hong Kong.

I didn't remember this happening when I took a flight from Saudi Arabia to Beijing last year.  But I wasn't sure if it was just that I didn't see it because I wasn't seated right next to that open area.  On my return flight this time, I was seated far to the back.  I could not see that area to tell what was happening.  But, about a half hour before the plane was ready to land, a man across the aisle from me, got up into the aisle put his hands on his hips and started rotating his hips around and around as if he was doing the hula hoop.  So, there you go. 

There was another very nice thing that happened during the trip.  My son and I decided to hike a trail called Dragon Back.  We took the Metro to a bus station where we were to take Bus 9.  We found it and used our "Octopus card", which is a pre-paid card.  My son had printed out the map and bus stops and was counting the stops as we went to know where to get off.  You are out in the country and at one of the stops, you just head up into the trail.  At one point, probably 30 minutes out, the lady next to me says, "Aren't you going hiking?".  I guess she knew that because of our backpacks and clothes.  I said yes we were.  She said, "Well, we just passed the bus stop where all the hikers normally get off.  You should ask the bus driver to stop immediately.  Then you can walk back up the hill to the bus stop and entrance to the hike.".  My son went and spoke with the driver and yes, we had missed it.  It turns out they don't stop at all the stops unless you let them know.  So the bus driver pulled over and told us it was just a 5 minute walk away.  I wasn't too crazy about this.  We were out in the country.  What if we couldn't find it?  Did they tell us the correct info?  etc, etc.  But we got off and did find it.  There was even a port a potty to start the hike off right.  We sprayed up with "Off".  I sprayed up so much that my son commented that I was going to leave a trail of dead insects as I went along.  But there WAS a sign at the beginning of the trail warning of dengue fever.  So, mosquitoes, beware!  Anyway, it was very nice of the woman to notice that we were going to hike and advise us of our mistake.

 It was quite a long hike.  It was supposed to last 2.5-3 hours, but because I am a slow hiker, it took us 4 hours.  There were beautiful vistas, interesting areas of vegetation and flowers.

  It ended at a lovely beach.  My son went swimming and I laid out on the beach.

  Around 4 pm, we decided that we had better start back to Hong Kong.  First, we had to find the bus stop.  Since we had come off the mountain, we had no idea how to get there from this little village.  I began asking people and a young man pointed the way.  We saw the bus stop for Bus #9 and there was a group of people waiting.  After about 15 minutes, a small bus stops (which has a sign saying Bus #10) and everyone standing there goes to get on.  I ask a Russian guy if he knows if it goes to the Metro.  He says that it goes to the same place as #9.  You just can't use your Octopus card.  You have to pay cash, $7 Hong Dollars.  We decide to get on.  As we are going along, we see Bus #9 pass us.  This route becomes a little different.  We are stopping at lots of places in the village.  I ask a young girl seated next to me if this bus goes to the Metro.  She says yes, it is the terminal stop.  So, I relax.  As long as we get to any Metro stop, we can get anywhere.  We get to the end and we are the last to get off.  I give the driver my fare and he says NO, it is $10 Hong Kong.  So, we go through all our change.  We are short 10 cents.  After a long day of hiking, I am thinking, I am just going to overpay him with the lowest denomination of currency that I have $20 Hong Kong. I just want to be back at the hotel now.  Then, suddenly,  the young girl who had been sitting next to me on the bus,  gets back on the bus and asks what the problem is.  I tell her that we are going through our change, that we are 10 cents short.  She hands the driver a $10 HK note and says OK, it is fine.  I say to her, let me pay you!  She says it is fine, but if I really want to do it, get off the bus so that the driver can go.  We get off the bus.  I give her the $20HK.  She gives me $10HK and then points us in the right direction for the Metro.  I just wanted to hug her, but I did not want to scare her.  :)

Everywhere we went in Hong Kong, the people were so very nice to us.  The people were just about the nicest part of the trip and the trip was great!

 

Our fun and salty food adventure in Scandinavia

One of my favorite things to do is to try new foods.  Our trip to Scandinavia gave me an opportunity to try an ethnic food that I have not experienced very much, maybe a few restaurants over my lifetime.  So, I was eager to try the "real thing".

When we were in Alesund, Norway, getting ready to take our trip along the Geiranger fjord, we received a tip that the best restaurant was XL Diner (in no way was it like a "diner").  So, we tried it.  It was a pretty restaurant that looked out on the sea. 

 I was surprised that they had several bacalao dishes.  The first time that I had tried this was when I was in Barcelona, Spain.  Bacalao is salted, dried cod.  This restaurant had a dish called Royal Bacalao, which had 3 styles of bacalao.  I liked the curried one the best.  The traditional style did not have much flavor to me.

Historically, drying food is an easy way of preserving food.  A dried fish can be stored for several years.  Initially, cod was placed on scaffolds or on cliffs and dried by sun and wind.  This process preserves the nutrients.  In the 17th century, cheap salt became more available from southern Europe  and was more economically feasible for northern Europe's maritime nations.  The drying process became easier with salt and could be done by the family and transported to market.  For Scandinavia, this was very helpful to preserve fish for the long, cold winters, when the fish would not be available. 

The first time that I bought salted cod at a grocery store was at Central Market in Houston.  I had wanted to fix my mom's famous codfish cakes.  :)  Mom used to get codfish in a can, like a tuna fish can.  But you can't get that anymore. ( I thought that I couldn't get it in a can anymore because it was being overfished, but cod is certainly plentiful in Scandinavia.)  After I bought it and opened up the wooden box, the codfish was covered with a thick layer of salt.  My recipe had said that it was necessary to soak the fish in water for 40 minutes for several times to get rid of the salt.  I did that and after cooking it, the cod was still salty. 

Anyway, back to the food tasting.  We had lots of fish:  lots of salmon, lots of cod, shrimp, crayfish (crawfish for Louisianans),  mussels, etc.  One of the dishes at a wonderful restaurant in Bergen, Norway, called BOHA was gravlax.  It was a fish terrine of gravlax flavored with juniper and the liquor aquavit.  I had to ask the waitress what gravlax was.  It turns out that it is salmon cured in salt, sugar and dill.  Fisherman, during the Middle Ages, made gravlax by salting it and then fermenting it by burying it.  "Grav" means grave and "lax" means salmon (buried salmon).  Now, with the availability of salt, it is placed in a marinade of salt, sugar and dill and cured in a couple of days.


Needless, to say, most of the dishes we tried were pretty salty to me, and I really LIKE salt.  Even for breakfast. With the soft and hard boiled eggs they placed a little tube next to the eggs.  I opened it and put it on my soft boiled egg.  It was fishy, but salty.  I thought that it might be anchovy paste, but when I posted a picture of it on Facebook, a Norwegian friend told me what it is and that she has 3 tubes in her Houston pantry.  It is fish roe.  Another way of using fish.  :)

Anyway, it got me to wondering how the Scandinavians could consume SO much salt and be healthy.  They certainly looked healthy.  People were out and about hiking, biking, skating, kayaking, walking, running.  It was not unusual to be looking out of the window of the train and see a lone person appearing out of nowhere in the forest.  There were often very elderly ladies walking by themselves in the bustling city using ski poles to help with their balance.  There were two elderly ladies, with their bike helmets and backpacks, biking along the Gota Canal in Sweden, observing the lock systems.   So, what was up with the contradiction of not ingesting too much salt for health?  I did a little armchair research.  It seems that there are at least three ways to take care of a high salt level.  The body is a very complex system and it is necessary to maintain a good balance of sodium and potassium.  So, if you have a high sodium intake, you need to balance it with a high potassium intake.  So, I was curious whether the foods that we were served in Scandinavia also had a high potassium level.  Well, it turns out that high potassium foods are:  salmon, halibut, potatoes, dried apricot, yogurt, etc-everything that we had on a daily basis when were there.  Also, exercise is a good way to help with high sodium, I guess sweating it out.  And that is what people are doing there.  They are definitely exercising.  And Vitamin D is known to help regulate blood pressure.  As I said, Scandinavian people outside in the sun all the time, walking, biking, etc.  They are definitely getting their Vitamin D from their sun exposure.
So, even though they are taking in an enormous amount of salt, they are balancing it out in other ways.  It is a reminder that the body is a very complex system.

And I read an interesting article about the dubious benefit of drastically reducing salt intake in the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/health/panel-finds-no-benefit-in-sharply-restricting-sodium.html?pagewanted=all&module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar%2C%7B%222%22%3A%22RI%3A12%22%7D

Other interesting food that we had was reindeer in Sweden, surprisingly good and whale ,from the minkle whale,  sashimi (very good) in Norway, lots of delicious fish soup, shrimp salad with dill on toast, herring at breakfast, lots of rhubarb...

In Stockholm, Sweden, we had the best pork tenderloin that we had ever had.  It was at a little restaurant, The Grill next to the Photo museum,  recommended by our hotel clerk.  Ken chatted with the chef.  His method was to put the pork with marinade in a vacuum sealed bag, then cook it at a very low heat, approximately 175 degrees F, for a long period of time. I don't remember how much time.  :)  It was so flavorful and tender.  They also charred leeks and sprinkled the pieces on a garlic sauce for the pork.  Yummy!  The restaurant overlooked the area where the Baltic Sea meets the lake and overlooks the big amusement park.  In Copenhagen, we had very good steaks.  One of the interesting things at that restaurant, Nimb, was that the butter was served in a bone, with course salt sprinkled on the top and with bread that had salt crusted on the top.  (Again, salt was everywhere.)

We basically had fish everyday for 3 weeks. It was at breakfast buffet, lunch and dinner.   I love seafood, so I was OK with that.  :)  It was a very interesting culinary adventure.

The boy with the girl with the red shoes

We have just returned from a 3 week trip to Scandinavia.  One of the things that I like to do when I am in airports is people watch.  I will watch a couple and then tell Ken what I think is happening with that couple.  He normally just smiles when I tell him my scenario.

Well, we had a couple of hours at the Copenhagen airport before we could check in to even go to our gate area.  So we went to a pub in the airport to have a snack and a beer (wine for me).  Ken was facing the window and I was facing the interior of the pub so that I could people watch.  Ken says to me, "There is a couple outside that is having a hard time saying goodbye."  This is strange for him to say because he is not a people watcher, but maybe I am finally rubbing off on him.  :)

I turn around and look.  It is a young couple. She has light red hair, pulled back in a casual ponytail, is wearing olive colored pants and tan top, but bright red shoes.  He has shaggy, somewhat long hair.  They are sweetly kissing.  Normally, I would not watch people kissing.  Often times for public kissing, you either see short perfunctory kisses OR the one where they are trying swallow each other.  But this one had us riveted.  He suddenly drops his backpack that he has on his shoulder and she leaps into his arms.  She is much shorter than him so her feet with red shoes just dangle in the air as he holds her upper body in his arms.  They are not kissing, just holding each other.  Even from about 30 yards away, I can see that she is crying.  (She is facing us and he is facing the other way.)  She is softly stroking his back.  It makes me cry watching them.

Ken says, "Why don't you take a picture?" because he knows that I take a picture of everything-my food, sewer covers, interesting walls, etc.  I said, "No, I can't take a picture of it.  It is too intimate.  Too personal."

When he puts her down, they are still standing facing each other.  He is ever so gently running his hands up and down her upper arms.  They kiss again.  He picks up his bag again, signaling that he is about to leave.  After a minute, he suddenly drops his bag again and literally sinks down behind a 3 foot metal traffic barrier, with his head in his hands.  She gracefully sits down next to him and encircles his head with her arms in an embrace.  Then I thought that I could take a picture of this because they are mostly concealed, but you can see her red shoes.

 

I am thinking, "This is better than a romance on TV!".  So, we are sitting there, drinking our drinks, occasionally looking over to see what is happening.  We can just see his head, but we can see all of her, even her red shoes,  because she is on the end.  We order food, Ken goes off to the bathroom, etc.  They are still there.  It is getting close to the time that we will be able to check in with our luggage, when suddenly they get up and come into the airport.  Ken says, "Well, now it is your chance to see them and what finally happens."  I said, "I have to go to the bathroom, so I will just glance at them to see the finale and go off to the bathroom."  I go out of the pub and I see them.  He is walking in front, looking at the check in counters.  She is following, her face all red, obviously trying to contain herself.  I think that I can't go to the bathroom just yet.  The final goodbye will be happening any minute.  So I step back by the newspaper rack and surreptitiously watch.  I have to say, strangely enough, I do not feel guilty doing this.  He seems to see his counter, the Transavia airline from The Netherlands.   They come back together, alternately holding each other and sweetly kissing.  This is going on for another 10 minutes.  I decide, OK, I have got to go to the bathroom, we have GOT to check in.  I need to leave and go downstairs.  Chances are, the way things have been going, they will be here when I get back.  But they weren't.  :(

I would love to know the back story of this couple-what was happening, why was he leaving, did they just meet, would they ever see each other again.....  I hope that everything works out for them.

Anyway, their love story made our time waiting to check in more interesting.  And the most interesting thing about this is that Ken (not a people watcher) spotted this!
 

Les femmes de l'atelier du soleil

Our embroidery class now has a name, L'atelier du soleil, which in English means Workshop of the Sun.  This is not traditional embroidery.  It would more aptly be described as embellished embroidery. 


L, literally, has a room of old fabrics.  This is her passion.  Wherever she goes, she likes to collect fabric, especially old fabric.  Here she is, in her glory, surrounded by her fabric.

 

 

 It starts with choosing an assortment of fabrics that you like.

 

 Then, L begins teaching us, in different sessions,  various embroidery stitches-point de gougere, point d'arete, point de feuille, point de gribiche  and French knot.

Different embellishments are added:  beads, ribbons, crochet flowers, etc.

 

Some people are doing purse bags.  One lady is doing a wall hanging.  I am still working on my Carnet Cousou, a covered journal.  What can I say?  I am slow.  Here is my progress so far.

Here there is straight stitching, French knots, a little beading (actually one):

 Beading:

This one shows how much work I have left to do.  :)

It is a lovely group of ladies.  We are learning and laughing in the Workshop of the Sun!  I will have "skills" when I leave Yanbu!

Musical chairs on the compound

This is my second time living an expat's life.  The first time was more 20 years ago.  We lived in Waterloo, Belgium for almost three years.  It was very interesting.  I loved the food, wonderful and fresh.  There was something of a love affair with food there, not only for Belgian food but for all food.  We had the best Thai food that I have ever had, until my Thai friend fixed it here.  I loved the incredible  flowers every spring, the outdoor food and brocante markets every weekend.  There were the frustrations of not being fluent in the language, French.  I was able to get by, but it was not pretty.  :)  Also, it took time to learn how to get the products that you were used to using, not only what they were called but where they were or whether they were there at all.  My kids loved Kraft macaroni and cheese and Skittles.  They had to be brought back every time we went back to the US or we would have to make a trip to the "American" store in Antwerp.

Now, all these years later, we are doing an expat assignment in Saudi Arabia.  Again, it is interesting.  I love the varieties of bread and watching the baker bring the puffy Arab bread out of the fired up brick oven.  There are a lot of "rotisserie" chicken places.  I don't know what they are called here.  There are two kinds, regular chickens on a spit or flat on a spit.  I don't know how they get it flat, but it is a whole chicken about 1" wide.  I think the bones are removed.  I can't remember.  I only got it once, because I like the regular rotisserie better.  Of course it is served with the flavored rice from these huge round vats and a type of salad.  Then there is a Lebanese style restaurant where the food is very good.  There are bakeries that sell tamis bread, a big round flat bread, and ful medames, a dish of  fava means cooked with vegetable oil, cumin and other spices.  I think that is the range of Saudi/Middle Eastern cuisine that I have tried, except for that prepared by friends.  Many of the restaurants here serve Chinese and Indian food.  At wedding celebrations, I have had hashi, camel meat.

It has taken more time in finding what I need here.  A lot of info is through word of mouth or friends on the compound just giving you things.  And of course, now, we have the handy "Living in Yanbu" guide.  You can rarely find corn meal, nutmeg, grits, the breakfast cereals that we like and other things.  According to my husband, you cannot get US style Cheetos.  They taste similar to me.  But he IS the Cheeto king, so ....  

In Belgium, I developed a very tight knit group of friends.  I saw them almost everyday.  We not only socialized together, we travelled together and we depended upon each other.  When I returned home, I had an intense sense of loneliness that took awhile to get over. 

Friendship here is really the topic that I wanted to blog about.  Again, I see many of the ladies here almost every day.  It is a very close network of friendships and everyone supports each other.  We don't usually travel on the grocery bus by ourselves.  We help each other with projects.  And we have been very lucky that everyone gets along.  No one talks about the other.  At this point, there is no Queen Bee, as I have heard that there has been in the past.  But what is different is the revolving door of friends.  When I was in Belgium, there was the occasional person who left while I was there.  Here, there is a constant exodus of friends and then a constant entrance of new people.   From the time that I arrived 14 months ago, there are only two people here now from that time.  Right now, a few are on vacation and will return mid to late August.  By my count there have been at least 20 who have left for good over the 14 months.  Thankfully, there is some overlap of those coming and going.  From the beginning, there has been a schedule of regular activities:  Sunday:  Fitness class, Monday:  Exxon coffee, Tuesday:  Mahjong, Wed:  Fitness class and Mahjong.  Everything has basically remained the same, except for the Monday Exxon coffee.  There are not many Exxon people any more.  But now, it has been replaced by an Embroidery group.  A French lady has an open door policy on Mondays to teach a French style of embroidery for covering a journal, called Carnet Cousou.  Here is an example:

It seems strange, but you go about the same set of activities, but it is with a new set of people.  It is a bit like musical chairs except that every time the music stops, it is a different set of people. 
A week or so ago, it was the first time that I was taking the bus after so many people had left.  I didn't know of anyone going and I thought that it would just be me on the bus.  Of course, since I am a time nut, I am always on the bus early.  I was just sitting on the bus by myself, just feeling lonely thinking that it would just be me.  (Back home, this probably seems odd to feel this way about being on the bus by yourself, but here it is best to do things with someone else.)  Anyway, right before it is time to take off, I notice that there is a Chinese lady in her abaya, quickly making her way to the bus.  And I just breathed a sigh of relief.  When she got on the bus, in her limited English, I found out that she also was feeling very lonely and was worrying about taking the bus alone.  Her three best friends, whom she played mahjong with on a regular basis and with whom she went out to eat, etc, had left in the big June migration.  She was  happy that I was there!  From that moment on, I decided not to look back, just to look forward and start again.  Although my new Chinese friend wasn't very enthusiastic about joining us for Mexican train,  I have gone to her villa on the last two Wednesdays and strongly suggested that she come with me.  Now, she loves it.  And she has fixed me fabulous homemade dumplings with a special dipping sauce.  It made me stop and realize how lucky I am.  I have had two French ladies, a Belgian, a couple of Italians, a lady from Scotland, an Australian, a Dutch lady, a South African, a Lebanese lady, a Canadian,  a Jordanian, an Egyptian, a Korean and a Syrian embrace me.  And more will be back in a month or two!

So, the circle begins again!!