I can't believe it's been over a month since we last posted a blog. I guess we've been busy.
We've spent most of our free time doing research into our next post. Yup, we've been here for not quite 10 months, and we're already trying to figure out where we're going next. We got the list of available positions on July 1, and it got pared down again about 10 days ago. On Monday, we finished our draft bid list of the top 20 places that we'd like to go. We submit the final next Wednesday. Hopefully we'll know where we're going by mid-September.
I know everybody always wants to know what's on our short list, but I don't wanna jinx it. Let's just say that countries in the Middle East, Africa, Central and Southeast Asia aren't, but the rest of the world is pretty much fair game. How long we'll be in DC, and when, depends largely on where we go next.
The dogs are still misbehaving, but I think they're acting out of a desire for more love and attention. They sort of listen at least some of the time. They haven't grown much bigger, but they're still chewing up their toys. We're not giving them any more ropes or rubber toys - the pieces end up all over the house. They're also not allowed on the couches, but they think it's a game to jump up on a chair and wait for us to tell them to get down. We've tried putting aluminum foil on the couches; it worked until they started eating the foil. Katie often tells them, "It's a good thing you're so cute." It really is nice to have them waiting for us when we get home. They follow us around the house, and often seem torn as to which of us to follow.
No pictures this time, maybe later.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Saturday, July 5, 2008
More puppies!
You may remember the above little puppies from pictures a few months ago. Well, we've finally gotten back to taking pictures.
The monsters aren't so small anymore. George is about 45 lbs. Gracie's a bit smaller, about 35 lbs.
At 6 months, the monsters were converted to impotent dogs. Gracie kept licking her surgery site, so the vet told us to put her in a shirt to protect the wound. Our next door neighbor's daughter, happily loaned Gracie her shirt!
George was jealous that he wasn't getting a new pic, so here he is!
See more pics here:
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| Dogs |
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| Dogs |
Friday, June 20, 2008
How do we get there?
As most of you know, when I get and give directions, I like to use landmarks - road names - hah! I don't need no stinking road names!
Well, boy did I come to the right place. The only way you can give directions here is by landmarks. The secondary raods here are all numbers - there is no Oak Street or Maple Lane. You would live at Road 3435. And good luck finding the sign for it.
The main roads are like the States - named after famous people. But for most of us Westerners, who are used to Martin Luther King Blvd. being shortended to MLK and Thomas Jefferson Avenue being just Jefferson, it can get a little confusing when the names are hard to shorten because they are so similar like "Shiekh Khalifa Bin Salman Highway" or "Sheikh Isa Bin Salman Highway" or "Sheikh Salman Highway". All different roads (and different people). Like naming one road John Adams Aveune and the one right next to it John Quincy Adams Avenue.
Anyways, yesterday we received an invitation for directions to a friends house. The directions were so funny and typical Bahrain. Below is a modified version:
"Take Highway that leads to Saudi to the KFC roundabout (that is what I call it). Turn on Jazayer or Jazier road (it doesn’t have a sign so it really doesn’t matter how I spell it). Once you pass the Jazayer Mosque take the first right (You can’t actually see the road-thanks to the sand, so my landmark is the gas station across the street). Follow that road (known as road 4231 – but you won’t see that sign for a while)… as I said, follow that road, it will curve to the right, go over a speed bump, you’ll pass an abandoned shop, go over 1 more speed bump and then my compound will be on the left. I’ll try to put a few balloons outside but I’m not sure how long they’ll last out there."
These are actually really good Bahrain directions - we should have no problem finding it!
Well, boy did I come to the right place. The only way you can give directions here is by landmarks. The secondary raods here are all numbers - there is no Oak Street or Maple Lane. You would live at Road 3435. And good luck finding the sign for it.
The main roads are like the States - named after famous people. But for most of us Westerners, who are used to Martin Luther King Blvd. being shortended to MLK and Thomas Jefferson Avenue being just Jefferson, it can get a little confusing when the names are hard to shorten because they are so similar like "Shiekh Khalifa Bin Salman Highway" or "Sheikh Isa Bin Salman Highway" or "Sheikh Salman Highway". All different roads (and different people). Like naming one road John Adams Aveune and the one right next to it John Quincy Adams Avenue.
Anyways, yesterday we received an invitation for directions to a friends house. The directions were so funny and typical Bahrain. Below is a modified version:
"Take Highway that leads to Saudi to the KFC roundabout (that is what I call it). Turn on Jazayer or Jazier road (it doesn’t have a sign so it really doesn’t matter how I spell it). Once you pass the Jazayer Mosque take the first right (You can’t actually see the road-thanks to the sand, so my landmark is the gas station across the street). Follow that road (known as road 4231 – but you won’t see that sign for a while)… as I said, follow that road, it will curve to the right, go over a speed bump, you’ll pass an abandoned shop, go over 1 more speed bump and then my compound will be on the left. I’ll try to put a few balloons outside but I’m not sure how long they’ll last out there."
These are actually really good Bahrain directions - we should have no problem finding it!
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Working 9 to 5 . . .
So I officially have a job in my field! Yeah!
I am working for Gulf Holding Company as a Project Manager. GHC is a development company here in Bahrain, so I am the client - sweet - nice to be in charge. The project I am working on is called Al Areen Downtown. We are the developers of a parcel of land within a master development. The land will be developed with shops, retaurants, a hotel, apartments, villas, townhomes, a spa, a fitness center, mosque and school. We have started construction of the first phase and have started the design on the 2nd and 3rd phases, so I get to see both processes, which is great. I really enjoy what I am doing.
My company is pretty much a mini UN of different nationalities. My boss is from South Africa, and the Senior Project Manager who is basically training me is a Brit. My boss' boss is Kuwaiti. The VP of operations is a woman from Jordan. We have people from Bahrain, Lebanon, India and Pakistan and all over south-east Asia.
So, a few things that are funny about work. First off, because Bahrain used to be a British protectorate, so everything in English is spelled the British way. I have already been corrected on my spelling, "''Color' should be spelled 'c-o-l-o-u-r' in your report."
There are also a lot of construction terms that are different. My favorite one for this week was punch list. This is the list the Architect makes of all of the things that need to be fixed before they will accept a building. So, when my boss kept talking about the "snag list", I had no clue what he was referring to.
They other thing that is weird is that all of the offices I have been in have a butler. It is this guy that brings you water, coffee and tea all day long. You can have European or Arabic coffee or tea. He will also take your lunch in the morning, and if it needs to be heated, will bring it to you at lunch time when you call. It is very weird. There are also no water coolers because you can get water from the butler.
The Master Developer of the project (the company we bought our land from) had the coolest set up -they actually have a Costa coffee kiosk in their office. So, when you are in a meeting and the butler asks what you would like, you can totally say "I would like a double shot, non-fat, non-caf, vanilla, no foam cappuccino" and you could get it. I say could, because everyone else is ordering stuff too, so something that complicated will probably come back wrong. Since our last meeting was in the afternoon, my co-worker recommended a hot chocolate - yummy.
I am working for Gulf Holding Company as a Project Manager. GHC is a development company here in Bahrain, so I am the client - sweet - nice to be in charge. The project I am working on is called Al Areen Downtown. We are the developers of a parcel of land within a master development. The land will be developed with shops, retaurants, a hotel, apartments, villas, townhomes, a spa, a fitness center, mosque and school. We have started construction of the first phase and have started the design on the 2nd and 3rd phases, so I get to see both processes, which is great. I really enjoy what I am doing.
My company is pretty much a mini UN of different nationalities. My boss is from South Africa, and the Senior Project Manager who is basically training me is a Brit. My boss' boss is Kuwaiti. The VP of operations is a woman from Jordan. We have people from Bahrain, Lebanon, India and Pakistan and all over south-east Asia.
So, a few things that are funny about work. First off, because Bahrain used to be a British protectorate, so everything in English is spelled the British way. I have already been corrected on my spelling, "''Color' should be spelled 'c-o-l-o-u-r' in your report."
There are also a lot of construction terms that are different. My favorite one for this week was punch list. This is the list the Architect makes of all of the things that need to be fixed before they will accept a building. So, when my boss kept talking about the "snag list", I had no clue what he was referring to.
They other thing that is weird is that all of the offices I have been in have a butler. It is this guy that brings you water, coffee and tea all day long. You can have European or Arabic coffee or tea. He will also take your lunch in the morning, and if it needs to be heated, will bring it to you at lunch time when you call. It is very weird. There are also no water coolers because you can get water from the butler.
The Master Developer of the project (the company we bought our land from) had the coolest set up -they actually have a Costa coffee kiosk in their office. So, when you are in a meeting and the butler asks what you would like, you can totally say "I would like a double shot, non-fat, non-caf, vanilla, no foam cappuccino" and you could get it. I say could, because everyone else is ordering stuff too, so something that complicated will probably come back wrong. Since our last meeting was in the afternoon, my co-worker recommended a hot chocolate - yummy.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Puppies!!
So, many of you know that we got puppies!! That is right, two ridiculously cute and slightly naughty pups.
Our friends at the embassy rescued a litter that was on the side of a road in Manama. They cleaned them up, took them to the vet for their first round of shots and then took them in until they all found happy homes.
It was pretty easy to know which ones we were taking since these two picked us - well, actually, they picked out laps to sleep when we first met them.
We had some great name suggestions from everyone - Cheech and Chong, The Fresh Prince and Jazzy Jeffrine, Peaches and Herb, Mac and Manco,
Woodward and Bernstein....even Courtney's cat Zoe had suggestions - we liked Zoe Jr. and Zoe III. In the end, we settled on George and Gracie. We have taken Dad's suggestion of the kennel names "Salah al-Din Yusif - Urchin's Iced Carmel Macchiato" for George and "Shajar ad-Durr Sultana - Symarun's Red Hot Kisses" for Gracie under advisement, but since they are Bahraini mutts I don't think we are going to need them. They are pretty quick learners, although not necessarily good listeners.
They love their treats, so crate training them has been relatively easy because they will fly into their crates for a treat and happily gnaw on it as they are locked in for the night. Our next door neighbor's daughter comes over after school to let them out, so they aren't cooped up all day while we are at work.
They fight/play with each other a ton and are very funny about who had what toy. You can give them the same exact toys and one will look over at the other's and decide that one has to be better and take it. Not that different from human siblings! The vet thinks that they are somewhere between 3-1/2 and 4 months right now. Looking on-line we think they are probably at least part Saluki - which is also called the "Arabian hound" or as our friend said "a greyhound with longer hair". They are very common here in Bahrain.
So, take a look at the newest members of the fam - we have their puppy pictures (above, probably at 6-8 weeks) and pictures we took today (below) - they are getting big!
Our friends at the embassy rescued a litter that was on the side of a road in Manama. They cleaned them up, took them to the vet for their first round of shots and then took them in until they all found happy homes.
It was pretty easy to know which ones we were taking since these two picked us - well, actually, they picked out laps to sleep when we first met them.
We had some great name suggestions from everyone - Cheech and Chong, The Fresh Prince and Jazzy Jeffrine, Peaches and Herb, Mac and Manco,
Woodward and Bernstein....even Courtney's cat Zoe had suggestions - we liked Zoe Jr. and Zoe III. In the end, we settled on George and Gracie. We have taken Dad's suggestion of the kennel names "Salah al-Din Yusif - Urchin's Iced Carmel Macchiato" for George and "Shajar ad-Durr Sultana - Symarun's Red Hot Kisses" for Gracie under advisement, but since they are Bahraini mutts I don't think we are going to need them. They are pretty quick learners, although not necessarily good listeners.
They love their treats, so crate training them has been relatively easy because they will fly into their crates for a treat and happily gnaw on it as they are locked in for the night. Our next door neighbor's daughter comes over after school to let them out, so they aren't cooped up all day while we are at work.
They fight/play with each other a ton and are very funny about who had what toy. You can give them the same exact toys and one will look over at the other's and decide that one has to be better and take it. Not that different from human siblings! The vet thinks that they are somewhere between 3-1/2 and 4 months right now. Looking on-line we think they are probably at least part Saluki - which is also called the "Arabian hound" or as our friend said "a greyhound with longer hair". They are very common here in Bahrain.
So, take a look at the newest members of the fam - we have their puppy pictures (above, probably at 6-8 weeks) and pictures we took today (below) - they are getting big!
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Who is Coming Here? Part 2
So, part two is the actual day of the visit.
The President had a few different places he needed to be over the whole 20 hours he was here. He was met by the King at the airport. After that the President went to one of the palaces for a ceremony where he received a medal from the King and they each gave a short speech. After that he went to the hotel for a meet and greet with the embassy staff and families. Then he had a "working" dinner with the King and each of their advisors. The next morning he went to the navy base to have breakfast with the troops, and then he was on his way.
For the palace ceremony the groups decided on "1 plus 30", which meant that there would be the President, plus 30 Americans, and the King, plus 30 Bahrainis. Most of the American delegation was taken up by people traveling with the President (Secretary Rice, the Chief of Staff, the Press Secretary, etc), but the balance was taken up by Embassy Staff. So, Steve and I were invited to come along for that. This meant we would not be able to make it back to the hotel for the "meet and greet", but that seemed okay because we would get to go to the ceremony and the palace.
So, everyone associated with the embassy that was not meeting the president at the airport met at the embassy and we took a bus to the palace, which was about 30 minutes outside of the city. The palace is a working palace, which means no one really lives there; they use it more as an office and a place for official functions.
It was really chilly and overcast that day, and we were going to eb outside for the ceremony - we were definitely glad we had our coats. The palace people led us past the area where the ceremony would be, which was this big outdoor courtyard. The chairs were set up on this raised patio overlooking a large stone area. We were led to a long, skinny room with a table down on side and a buffet at the other end. So, the embassy group was able to have a nice lunch before we were ushered outside to wait for the arrival of the President and King.
We were led to our chairs on the raised patio. Some of the Bahrainis were already arriving. We just chatted and waited for the people to arrive. A little before the time that the President was suppose to show up, the press corps arrived and began setting up. A little bit after that we heard the King's helicopter arrive, and then saw the President's motorcade drive up to the front of the palace. An honor guard played our national anthem and the Bahraini anthem, after which the King led the President to the raised area where we were all seated.
The President was awarded a medal from the King, and then both gave a speech. After the speeches, the King and President sat down, and in a large courtyard area a sword dance was performed for everyone. It was a few hundred men sort of walk dancing and chanting. There were a few dozen that carried swords and muskets and would swing them up and down to the chanting. The dancers kept on coming forward towards the raised area, at which point the King brought the President forward and gave him his sword so he could join in. So, the King and President swung the sword back and forth a few times. After that the dancers sort of moved back and danced away. During the dance, the audience was given the Arabic coffee, which was wonderful because it was so cold.
After the dance was over, the President and his staff headed over to the hotel, while the rest of us got back on the bus for the trip back to the embassy. It took us a while to get back to the embassy due to the jammed up traffic from the President's motorcade. After we picked up our car Steve and I headed over to the hotel to work.
Steve ended up working most of the night by helping the White House Gift Officer pick out gifts for all of the people involved in the visit. I ended up helping out around the hotel and at the control room for a little bit, and then I hung out in the bar with some of the other embassy staff, enjoying the fact that we were done!
So, all in all, it was quite an experience - it definitely kept me busy for a few weeks, which was nice, because I would have never seen Steve otherwise!
The President had a few different places he needed to be over the whole 20 hours he was here. He was met by the King at the airport. After that the President went to one of the palaces for a ceremony where he received a medal from the King and they each gave a short speech. After that he went to the hotel for a meet and greet with the embassy staff and families. Then he had a "working" dinner with the King and each of their advisors. The next morning he went to the navy base to have breakfast with the troops, and then he was on his way.
For the palace ceremony the groups decided on "1 plus 30", which meant that there would be the President, plus 30 Americans, and the King, plus 30 Bahrainis. Most of the American delegation was taken up by people traveling with the President (Secretary Rice, the Chief of Staff, the Press Secretary, etc), but the balance was taken up by Embassy Staff. So, Steve and I were invited to come along for that. This meant we would not be able to make it back to the hotel for the "meet and greet", but that seemed okay because we would get to go to the ceremony and the palace.
So, everyone associated with the embassy that was not meeting the president at the airport met at the embassy and we took a bus to the palace, which was about 30 minutes outside of the city. The palace is a working palace, which means no one really lives there; they use it more as an office and a place for official functions.
It was really chilly and overcast that day, and we were going to eb outside for the ceremony - we were definitely glad we had our coats. The palace people led us past the area where the ceremony would be, which was this big outdoor courtyard. The chairs were set up on this raised patio overlooking a large stone area. We were led to a long, skinny room with a table down on side and a buffet at the other end. So, the embassy group was able to have a nice lunch before we were ushered outside to wait for the arrival of the President and King.
We were led to our chairs on the raised patio. Some of the Bahrainis were already arriving. We just chatted and waited for the people to arrive. A little before the time that the President was suppose to show up, the press corps arrived and began setting up. A little bit after that we heard the King's helicopter arrive, and then saw the President's motorcade drive up to the front of the palace. An honor guard played our national anthem and the Bahraini anthem, after which the King led the President to the raised area where we were all seated.
The President was awarded a medal from the King, and then both gave a speech. After the speeches, the King and President sat down, and in a large courtyard area a sword dance was performed for everyone. It was a few hundred men sort of walk dancing and chanting. There were a few dozen that carried swords and muskets and would swing them up and down to the chanting. The dancers kept on coming forward towards the raised area, at which point the King brought the President forward and gave him his sword so he could join in. So, the King and President swung the sword back and forth a few times. After that the dancers sort of moved back and danced away. During the dance, the audience was given the Arabic coffee, which was wonderful because it was so cold.
After the dance was over, the President and his staff headed over to the hotel, while the rest of us got back on the bus for the trip back to the embassy. It took us a while to get back to the embassy due to the jammed up traffic from the President's motorcade. After we picked up our car Steve and I headed over to the hotel to work.
Steve ended up working most of the night by helping the White House Gift Officer pick out gifts for all of the people involved in the visit. I ended up helping out around the hotel and at the control room for a little bit, and then I hung out in the bar with some of the other embassy staff, enjoying the fact that we were done!
So, all in all, it was quite an experience - it definitely kept me busy for a few weeks, which was nice, because I would have never seen Steve otherwise!
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