My upcoming visit to Saudi Arabia

For an American, travel to Saudi Arabia requires a visa. Part of the visa process includes signing a code of conduct. Below is a copy of the statement:

I hereby certify that, during my stay in Saudi Arabia, I shall abide by all the laws and regulations of the Kingdom and I shall respect the morals, customs, values and feelings of Saudi society. I also should not smuggle in any prohibited items. I am aware that alcohol, drugs, narcotics, pornographic materials and all types of religious, political or cultural leaflets, pamphlets, magazines, books, audio tapes, video tapes, films, or other references of all sorts, contradictory to Islam are prohibited from entering the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, whether for personal use or otherwise. I should not participate in or call for gatherings, whether for sectarian, religious or political purposes. Any types of illegal drugs and narcotics smuggling in and distribution inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is punishable by DEATH.I agree that if I am convicted because of violation of the laws and regulations of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, I shall be subject to penalty.

I guess I'll have to take my other suitcase this trip.

Thanksgiving in RAK

Last weekend, we went to Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) to celebrate Thanksgiving. RAK is another one of the seven emirates in the UAE, about an hour away from Dubai. No one really celebrates Thanksgiving here and Nick didn't even get the day off, although he used a vacation day so we could go on our weekend getaway. The kids did get the day off of school, but only because they go to an American school. We pretty much just sat on the beach and ate. It was relaxing, especially with no turkey to cook. We were hoping that the Hilton would have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but no such luck. Here are some pictures:

Cole holding a starfish that he found under a rock - just like Patrick!

Cole on the waterslide. Naturally, both boys prefered the waterslide over the beach.

Bret and Cole in the Persian, or Arabian (as they call it here), Gulf.

Bret trying to catch crabs on the rocks.

Drew didn't like the beach that much. It's not a good place for thumb suckers who crawl. He would suck his thumb, crawl around in the sand with a wet thumb and then try to suck his thumb again. You get the idea.

Drew finally taking a rest - pooped from spitting out all that sand.

Big boys in the pool.

One highlight of the weekend was when Cole locked himself in the bathroom. The door knob was broken so we had to call maintenance to come fix it. Two Indian men showed up and worked a couple minutes to try and open the door. I don't think they realized that someone was in the bathroom (Cole was surprisingly calm through the ordeal) because when I asked Cole if he was OK both guys turned to me, with a little panic in their eyes and said in unison "No problem, Ma'am." It was so funny because that is their (all Indian workers) response to EVERYTHING, and they said it in perfect unison. Maybe you had to be there, but it was funny. Anyway, after about five minutes, they knocked down the door and Cole was free.

Overall it was a nice weekend - didn't feel like Thanksgiving though.

"Winter" Ball

The Dubai Little League season begins in November and ends in March. This is the first year that both Bret and Cole will be playing. Bret is in his first year of pitching machine while Cole is in his first year of T-ball. In true Wiseman style, Nick volunteered to coach and will be coaching Bret's team.

At this age the draft does not include try outs so the coaches have access to family name only when choosing players. Since we are new to the league he had no idea which kids to avoid (read: which parents to avoid). Because of that, Nick decided to employ a similar strategy to the one that was so successful in Sugar Land: choose based on ethnic origin of name. In Sugar Land, he drafted as many Hispanic kids as possible surmising that their parents would be more committed to baseball than their neighbors. Here in Dubai, he drafted as many Asians as possible. The end result is 3 Japanese boys, 1 Korean boy, a British boy, a British girl, 2 Arabs, and 4 Americans. So far so good, no soccer players on the team!

The complex is made up of four main fields and 2 small tee ball fields. The fields are very nice and have a great view of the Burj Dubai (a.k.a. the world's tallest building).

Texas or Dubai

Here is a conversation I had with Bret yesterday after looking at some pictures of Texas.

Me: What do you like better, Texas or Dubai?
Bret: Texas.
Me: Why?
Bret: Because Texas isn't as hot as Dubai.

Who would have ever thought that we could live somewhere that would make Houston seem cool.

Fall in Dubai

According to the calendar, it's Fall. To us, it feels like a never ending summer. Although, this last weekend, we got a taste of some "wintry" weather (according to a local radio announcer). The skies were cloudy and there was a trace of rain. This was the first time we had something other than sun and blue skies. We were all excited. And, the temperature stayed just below 90 degrees, which was quite lovely. We know nobody really cares, but we just had to include our cloud and rain pictures.

So, along with Fall, comes the typical Halloween stuff. The kids carved (very expensive and hard to find) pumpkins. They dressed up for the school parade and trick or treating, which, they did do here in our neighborhood. Someone was thoughtful enough to pass out papers with info on trick or treating, which we have learned, is mostly an American and British thing. If people were going to participate in trick or treating, they would leave their porch light on and hang this piece of paper on their door. Surprisingly, we had a lot of traffic, maybe a little less than what we had in Sugar Land. Our three bags of candy lasted about an hour and a half. Our Pakistani neighbor across the street, was outside walking around passing out chocolate bars to the kids. She came over and asked more about Halloween and if kids in the US ask for money. I told her to just give them candy and that they shouldn't ask for money, unless this is a British thing I don't know about.

Bret dressed up as the Emperor from Star Wars and Cole was a skeleton. And poor little Drew, we looked hard to find any baby costumes here, with no luck. Costumes are hard enough to find, especially baby costumes. We have plenty of boy costumes from about age 3 and up, but our baby costumes we put into storage because they were all for cold weather. Nick had a great idea of dressing him up like a future Dubai American Academy student, tie and all. We had all of the supplies on hand and since I was at the school for most of the day helping with Halloween parties, everyone there would know what he was. It was a hit. Lots of people were taking pictures of the future student.

A couple of days after Halloween, the school held it's annual Fall costume carnival. The crowds were out of control, but the kids had fun doing the games and big bouncy slides. At one point, I waited in line for 45 minutes for some cotton candy. Once I finally got it, I had to search through the masses to find Nick and the kids. By the time I found them, the cotton candy was a sticky, drippy, melty mess because (surprise!) it was hot. The kids enjoyed it anyways.