Still here ...

Greetings friends and family,

First, I would like to say how much we appreciate the comments many of you are making either on our blog or directly to us via email. We read all the comments and really enjoy knowing that you are reading what we write. We love to hear your comments and questions. So thank you.

We are still here in our adjoining hotel rooms at the Marriott Jeddah. Everyone is still here as well, but some people have visited their homes today, those whose homes are complete. No one has really moved up yet, but we hope to sometime at the end of August. Inshallah. Since it is now Ramadan, the holy month of fasting, reflection, prayer, and the haj to Mecca for Muslims, our options have narrowed a bit. Because many of us KAUST people are non-Muslims, the Marriott is offering us breakfast and lunch in a small side room each day - or we are welcome to order room service as well. This is so we are not openly eating in front of those who are fasting. One night we opted for room service, enjoying pizza and Caesar salad in our room. It was relaxing and family-centering. We may do that again tonight because it allows us to eat together with just our family, like at home. Nearly every restaurant, store, mall, and office has very unusual hours. They seem to have some hours each day during the daytime, though I am not clear as to what those hours are, then they close for the afternoon, opening again for a meal to break the fast (iftar) or afterwards if they do not serve food. So, IKEA and malls, for example are open from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m., when people like to shop and socialize after their big evening meal. We have to work at 8 a.m. so the idea of going out from 9 - 11 p.m. is not tremendously appealing at the moment. The Marriott hotel offers an amazingly diverse array of food for each evening's iftar such that people and companies make reservations to come here just to dine. We have never seen the hotel as full as during the evening meal. Typically, we have been told, Muslims will break the fast with some tea or water and some dates and dried apricots. They then eat a large meal throughout the evening before heading out to shop or visit friends or family. A colleague went out last night to shop for a car and found the car dealers absolutely packed at midnight. We have learned to greet people with "Ramadan Mubarak" during this time of year.

Ramadan ends with a large feast thirty days after the first day of the lunar month. It is an Islamic holiday, for the final week of Ramadan, so we have a week off of school - before school even starts! We have decided to head to London for that week, to relax and regroup a bit before coming back and actually starting school on September 26. We will spend three nights at a hotel in London and three nights with a family in Surrey with whom I stayed during college for one week. I have not seen Angela and Martin for more than 20 years, though their son Clive did visit me in Vietnam and us in Michigan years ago. I think of this family as 'my English family', and I am so excited to reconnect and introduce my own family to my English family, ironically named the Marriotts.

We also plan to spend Christmas skiing in Austria. We welcome friends and family to join us?! We have rented an apartment in a small village outside of Innsbruck, a location known for its cross country ski trails, as well as downhill skiing. We are totally excited to get to some snow.

Thanks for reading. Jennifer