Monday 4/2

Greetings from the students of Saudi Arabia. These boys were visiting the Aramco Oil Exhibit Museum.

Asalam a lai kom (Greetings)...
Your reply Aliakom Asalaam ( and greetings to you)!

Hi everyone. My apologies for delaying in posting but the blog and chat room formats are censored on the Aramco compound so I could not access my blog to update it. I have been able to email my family daily and thanks to my sister, Barbara Bellipanni, who teaches first grade at Clark School, I have been able to update my site through her. Thank you Barb! We have been incredibly busy these last two days so let me fill you in.

My beautiful abaya was tailored and ready for me in a few hours. Each female teacher received an abayba which we are required to wear in most cities in Saudi Arabia. The embroidery on each garmet is lovely.

We start each day at 6:30am and never get back to our rooms until 11:30-12 midnight. Tonight we got back at 11:30pm and while it has only been 2 days here in Saudi Arabia, I feel that we have seen so much. Our hosts are men dressed in long white robes and red scarfs on their heads, named Khalid Al- Amoudi and Abdullah Al-Ghamdi. Each day there is a schedule planned, but as of today, we have never followed that exact schedule, so we never know exactly what we are doing next! We just get on the bus and they take us to the next spot. They are trying to coordinate speakers and lunches and dinners, as well as take us to key sites and also museums and other sites. At most, we have 5 minutes before we take off to the next place.

Last night we ate at a seafood restaurant, Al Sanbok, in the city of Al-Khobar, at a long table that sat 30 of us! It was enormous and I felt like a princess at a palace. The meal is served on big trays and they continue to offer you more and more until you feel like you might explode. I have been trying to be so careful with my stomach, eating a simple breakfast and taking small samples at each meal so I don't overeat. So far so good, but there are still many days ahead.

Today, the men in our group need to shop for the thobes- the white robes to wear for a formal banquet tonight. So we all were driven to a local men's shop and I bought the entire garment that men wear and a few that children would wear, and a muslim prayer rug which has a compass in it so you can point your rug towards Mecca as you pray. Later in the day, we got to go to an arabic book store and I got lots of items to display at school... books that show how to count in arabic, the Saudi flag, and a Fula doll.. this is their version of a Barbie doll and it is a modern doll with modern clothing and it comes with a Burka (abaya), the black gown that the Muslim women are required to wear.

Here is a photo from our Arabian feast at the Heritage Gallery Museum and Restaurant. We were served a delicious feast consisting of large platters of lamp, shrimp, and chicken. Hummus, taboule, salads and other appetizers along with pita breads and fruits were served. Absolutely delicious!

After our quick (everything is quick) shopping spree, we were taken to the Heritage House, which is a museum and restaurant which looks like an old terracottta sandcastle. We sat on pillows on the floor in a rounded room for more coffee and appetizers, then took a tour of the musueum. Then we were brougth outside to a large tent for the banquet. This super sized tent the size of the AMS gym was divided into 3 sections. Carpeting was on the floor and sofas lined the walls of the room. MORE coffee was served along with dates as a predinner snack. Then we were brought into the most amazing room. This part of the tent looked like a banquet from the movie "Alladin". A 30 person low table was in the middle of the room and pillows surrounded the table. We all sat and feasted for 2 hours on a meal of lamb, rice, salad, taboule, humus, pita, shrimp and more. It was incredible. We ended the night with a celebration for one of the teachers who was turning 50 today.

It has been an incredible 2 days so far, and we still have 7 more days and two cities to go. Tomorrow night, we will be flying from Damman to Jeddah on the Red Sea for four days and then we fly to Riyadh for another 3 days before flying home.

Before we fly out tomorrow night to Jeddah, we are going to have one more terrifc day here. We are going to get to ride camels and then we are visiting an oasis in the desert. We are all so excited. Our flight is not until 9pm tomorrow so we have all day to enjoy this region of the country. I will tell you all about it in my post late tonight. We don't land in the next city until 11:30pm (Saudi time) so it will be very late by the time we check into our hotel.

Well, thanks for sending me such an awesome update. I will update my blog tomorrow night (InShallah- God willing), when we arrive at the Jeddah Hilton Hotel. Hopefully, I can post more pictures to the blog and you can see how it all looks. We are meeting some incredible people and are learning a lot about Saudi lifestyle and asking a lot of questions.