Emmalee in the Desert

I recently went out into the desert with a group of ladies from work - we were saying goodbye to one of our coworkers who just ended her contract and moved to Spain/Lebanon. Best wishes to her as she begins a new adventure! We rented a space and hired a company to provide food. It was hard to find, but once we got there the fun began. The space is a bit challenging to describe, so I've included my photos. If you google saudi tents or red arab couches you'll get a better idea. As for the food.... we had an entire lamb cooked over a fire for us. It came with mountains of delicious rice and some yummy sauces. We sat on the ground (with a table cloth and real plates and forks and knives) and just went for it. 14 ladies ate that whole lamb (and a couple rotisserie chickens). Me and Caitlin getting cozy on the outdoor couch. preparing for dinner... waiting for the lamb to take its place. notice the suitcase sized speaker blasting great tunes. it has arrived! ...

Have you ever gone away for a while? It feels so familiar and different when you return. I'm finding that after going back and forth so many times, I love the return. No matter if I'm going back to Minnesota or wherever I'm living... the return is usually something I look forward to. Maybe that's a part of why I like this international life... I used to always count down to christmas and thanksgiving. Now I count down to my next plane ride. When I go home, I love how certain places feel like they're yours. Like you can say "this is my  life. this is my  place" and as a person who feels at home in a couple different places on this globe... I get to say that pretty often which is nice.... and also funny. Like, how do I have a certain janky shawarma shop I always stop at on my way home from Jeddah? Is this really my life? I was home in MN for about 3 weeks to celebrate holidays. It was fantastic and snowy and cozy and filled with lovely people who I mi...

Thanks to some fantastic friends/coworkers, we went on a great little explore recently. Towards the end of december, a friend shared  this pin  with us. It doesn't look remarkable in the normal maps view, but if you click on satellite (in the lower left corner of the corner of the map) you can see a structure. What I've heard from others is that it's an old deserted turkish fort. How we figured that out, I have no idea, but I'm going with it! It took us about 45 minutes to drive out there and we brought a picnic. Logan's FJ Cruiser got us up the mountain (maybe a hill by many peoples' standards?) most of the way and then we started climbing. Here are some photos of our time at the fort: here we go! keep on climbing! we made it to the top! Perfect time of day to visit - loved seeing the sunset. Here we are having a picnic. At the top center-right is the fort.  That was tons of fun to head out and see after school. The person wh...

A lot has happened since I last posted. First of all, we put on a 6-12 musical written by a couple teachers and many students. Writing a show is HARD, and I was just in charge of some  of the music. It took many hours and lots of demanding conversations but we did it! I was amazed at our final production. I say that not to toot my own horn, but to really say that I see how this IB stuff works. The singers, actors, and instrumentalists used different genres, arrangements, led rehearsals, advocated for musical choices (changing keys, planning choreography around musical phrases, etc), and in general used all kinds of skills to put their musical talents on display. Second of all, the first trimester ended. For me that meant that I got new groups of 6th and 7th grade students. They have drama, music, and visual arts each for a third of the year, rotating at the trimester. So now I'm repeating the units I taught at the beginning of the year and am learning so much. The trimester com...

a time lapse video of our drive from KAUST to the Red Sea Mall in Jeddah.  Thank you to my friend Logan for driving and sharing the video with me! As you can see in the video above, when we leave (or return to) campus we go through two separate checkpoints. KAUST requires you to be registered in some way before entering campus (it feels similar to visiting the army base in Seoul). Employees, students, and residents have kaust id cards that you need frequently for campus life (checking into the gym, running the copy machine at work, getting in and out of campus, etc.)  So what's kaust life like? It's so unique that sometimes it seems unfair to say that I live in Saudi Arabia. As you may have seen in recent news , women will soon be able to drive in the kingdom. In my previous blog post I talked about how shops and restaurants close during prayer times in jeddah (and the rest of the kingdom). Both of these things don't really impact life in KAUST - I can drive he...

No this is not an alphabet post, but it IS a post about the building blocks of muslim life in Saudi. AKA how I interact with Islam on the daily. First of all, I want to say that am an outsider and a learner - I am in no way an authority on anything except my own experience. This is really about how I encounter Islam within Saudi Arabia - this is not about any other country and I acknowledge that peoples' experiences in different cities or workplaces will be different than mine. Second of all, if you're curious about Islam/Muslim faith, here are some resources I've enjoyed or have been recommended to me: The Secret Life of Muslims  - a web series coproduced by Vice, using short episodes to talk about issues, share a perspective, and talk about muslim life.  If The Oceans Were Ink  - a book recommended to me by Maren over a year ago before I knew I'd be moving to a Muslim country. It took me a while to read but every chapter was informative and enlightening. This...