The first week

Our first week was filled with errands and figuring things out every day.  We got to have Tate home for that first week which made both of us very happy.  It was nice to have one week at home with both of my boys to relax and play and adjust a bit before jumping into the new school routine.  Glenn's first day at work was the Sunday after we arrived.  He left at 6:15ish and came home around 4:30 so excited about what he's going to be doing.  His department basically told him that he probably won't have much time to get around to actual work for about a month.  And that's been pretty accurate.  There are so many papers to fill out then you have to get them signed one place and stamped one place and there is a blood test and all sorts of papers to file for us too and appointments to make every time you want to get something done.  Tons of hoops to jump through and I'm SO grateful he's had the freedom at work to get it done.  It's been hugely helpful, which is basically par for the course for Glenn.  I love my man.

The boys and I spent the first couple of days checking out our compound.  We went bowling a couple of times.  We have a great little bowling alley just a 5 minute or so walk away at our little community center.  It's free for us.  All we have to do is tell the guy at the window our ID number and he turns on a lane for us.  Every time we've gone we've been the only people there, which the boys think is kinda cool.  And they LOVE bowling so it's a pretty cool perk.

One morning we went with some friends and they showed us the ping pong room.  Finn was more excited than Tate but both of them lost interest after about 10 minutes.

Tate has been doing a lot of coloring.  We had to buy a pack of white paper and some crayons so he could have something to do his coloring on every day.  This is my favorite creation to date.

He's so darling about coloring lately, and Finn loves to sit down and color with him but he doesn't last as long.  Tate draws his friends, his cousins, characters and scenes from movies.  And now that I know his style, they're pretty easy to recognize too which is fun.  It's really great to see him be excited about creating something.
On Wednesday we got an appointment to go to Tate's new elementary school for his assessment.  We rode the school bus, which means we all had to get up and to the bus stop which for us was all the way across camp by 6:40.  It was kind of crazy to wake up that early for the first time after adjusting to the time change but we made it happen.  Tate got on the bus with Finn and I and immediately started talking with two kids across the aisle from us.  He asked their names a few times and he couldn't figure out how to pronounce them so he just gave up and kept calling them, "hey guys". That's gonna take some getting used to.  Hearing different sounding names all the time and just asking a few times until you can say them right.
Glenn met us at the school and helped me wrestle Finn while Tate went back to talk to the admissions lady.  It was pretty quick.  They told us they'd hopefully have him placed in a class by the next day and he could start on Sunday.  Then the called two cute little 4th graders to give us a tour of the school.  Glenn told Tate that we were going to get his blood drawn after our tour and that freaked his freak so he didn't pay attention much to the tour.  I was really impressed with the school.  There are TONS of classes.  I think just in kindergarten there may be 10 teachers so they can keep the class size down which I absolutely love.  Tate liked the art and music rooms and the playgrounds looked cool too.

Everyone who comes to Aramco has to have their blood drawn to check for a bunch of diseases in the first couple of weeks in order to get paperwork pushed through so it wasn't an option and the poor kids was pretty scared about it.  After  the school tour Glenn drove us around camp a little bit.  I'm a little overwhelmed at this point by Dhahran camp.  It's big.  Which will eventually be so great because there will be a lot more to explore and do without needing a driver or taxi.  Then we took the boys to lunch and then headed to the medical building where they draw our blood.  Glenn had already done his so it was just Finn, Tate, and I.  Both boys kind of lost it and had to be held down.  But both boys said afterward that it wasn't so bad.  Little sillies.  It would have been even less painful if they had just relaxed and not squirmed the whole time!  We promised the boys, mostly Tate, that they could pick a toy at ikea that night if they tried to be brave.  It was a pretty traumatic experience for the poor kiddos and we didn't bring many toys at all so we didn't feel too bad bribing them.
So that night we headed out on our first outing solo as a family.  We went to ikea to get a few things for the house that we didn't have and didn't think could wait until our eboxes or shipment arrived.  More silverware, more kids plates and cups, a rug for the kids to play on.  The floors are all so hard. I'm just waiting for someone to split their head open.  The kids just love to wrestle and everything hurts on these floors.  It was strange and exciting to be out on our own trying to navigate the culture.  Here are the boys and I in my super hot abaya.

We had to make sure we went in the family line.  There were a couple of lines that were unmarked, and then there was the family line.  The unmarked ones are for single men.  No women allowed.

After Ikea we drove over to the Dhahran mall and wandered around for a bit since we arrived at prayer time.  After prayer time we ate dinner at Chili's which wasn't too different from the States.
The next day we drove to the Corniche to try to find Zamils which is a craft store where we needed to get Tate's school supplies but we couldn't find it.  I took a few pictures as we were wandering around.  I need to remember to bring my camera when we go out so I can take nicer pictures.  There are so many sights that I need to take pictures of here.

That night we went to a Halloween party at a member's house on Dhahran.  We had talked to this family before we moved and it was so great to meet them, and a bunch of other people too.  They had a great house and it was a really fun party.  I was glad for another chance to celebrate Halloween and put the kids in their costumes.
Here are the boys on Tate's first day of school here.  It was an early morning for us but the boys did pretty well overall.  I'm trying to figure out more ideas for fast breakfasts.  We don't have time for pancakes or waffles or any other of their favorites.  Even cereal they eat too slowly so we resort to eggs and muffins of some sort most days so they can get food in them fast enough to get to the bus.

Finn and I rode the bus with him just that first day and made sure he was okay to get on the bus on the way home.  He did great.  He was a little nervous on the bus but then once he got in his classroom I couldn't even get him to say goodbye to me.  He was so excited to meet his classmates and see his room and meet his teacher.  His teacher Ms. Karr seems wonderful.  I wish that we lived closer and I could help out in the classroom more and get to know her.  Hopefully I will be able to eventually, once we get to main camp.  But of course then I'll have twin babies...hmmm.  One day at a time.  

I felt so comforted that the teachers and administration and pretty much everyone involved with the school are so good with new kids because they get new kids all the time.  The classes are really small and have a teacher and an aid in every class.  They take good care of the Rakah kids and get them out to the buses after school every day.  Tate came home from that first day so excited and it eased my worries so much.  I'm so glad that he's happy at school and seems to have good friends and caring teachers so he's comfortable and happy there.  He came home from his first day talking about this beautiful girl in his class.  He just kept saying how she was, "beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!"  It was darling.  It took him a few days to learn her name because she has a foreign name (the next week he learned it was Amani) but it was pretty darling to hear him talk about this girl and how nice she was and how much he liked her. 

I just can't delete this picture.  This is Tate's little backpack disappearing into the bus all by himself on his second day of school.  He was a little sad when I told him we weren't riding with him that day but he still gave me a hug and just walked right on the bus all by himself.  I cried a little on the way home.

It was especially hard that first week but it's still not fun every day to put my teensy little boy on a huge bus to ride to school all by himself and then trust that he'll get home a whole day later on his own too.  I've been so impressed with Tate through this whole transition.  He had a harder time the second week and cried every time he got on the bus in the morning.  I think a lot of that had to do with how tired he was so early in the morning because he always gets off the bus happy and telling me how much he loves school.  It's really hard to put him on the bus when he's crying for me.  Really hard.  I hate having to be strong and encouraging when I feel the same way and I really just want to cry with him.  To yank him off the bus and say, "It's okay.  You can stay with me today.  I don't want you to go either!"  But I can't do that.  Because I'm the parent.  Sometimes being the parent kind of bites.

Finny and I have fun trying to fill our days.  We went swimming a lot those first few weeks.  The weather was perfect.  It was nice and warm and the water felt so nice, especially on my big prego belly.  It was bliss to be able to play with Finn for a bit in the big pool and then get out and lie in the sun for a bit while he plays in the kiddo pool.  It's a lot of hours to fill from 6:40 when we get Tate to the bus, and then lunch and naptime around noon.
We sweep up after we get home every morning because it gets really crumby under the stools by the counter and Finn usually grabs another broom and helps me.  This particular day he decided to help me sweep with his goggles on.

Sometimes he helps me sweep while dancing to music, sometimes he's tired and he lies down on the ground and pushes the broom back and forth.  But he always helps me sweep.  Cute little kid.
Another one of my favorite Tate drawings.  This one he drew at school and it's a picture of him, Mya and Sadie riding Radiator Springs Racers together.  I love that you can tell who is who by the color of their hair.

Finn greeting Tate after a long day of being separated.

Overall, our first two weeks went about as smoothly as can be expected.  Tate started school, we got a lot of things crossed off our lists and started getting to know people and figuring out how to get around.  They've been filled with adjustments, culture shock and confusion for sure but we feel like that's pretty normal. Especially for Saudi.  One day at a time.