All Our Stuff Is Here Now

Well, the remainder of shipment of household arrived today. It just took 4 truck loads to get it all here. LOL The moving trucks here are a lot smaller than back home. So far, we only found minimal damage to our things, but we still have a lot of boxes to go through. The next week or so we'll be spending most of our time unpacking, sorting, and organizing our things to make this villa more like our home.
Below is a photo of myself at my "desk" that the movers constructed to keep track of the inventory as they were bringing everything in. LOL

Having a game of soccer in our front "yard".

Souq

Today we went down to the city centre where we walked through the souq for the very first time. The souq is filled with lots of different vendors with both indoor and outdoor shops filled with everything from spices to textiles to cleaning supplies and home decor. There's never a dull moment while walking through the souq. There are people constantly asking you if you would like to look or buy their goods, lots of people walking around, and bargaining going on. We ended up purchasing a hand painted plate made in Turkey. It's filled with detail and beauty. We'll have to find a special place for it in our villa. And because we were their first customer for the day, they gave Tyler a box made of real camel bone. We also bought several sticks of cinnamon. Here are a few more photos from our souq adventure.

First Bahrain Cache

This morning we found our very first geocache in Bahrain. Steve signed us up for a couple upcoming events, so we figured we better get started on our finds so we have something to talk about with the other cachers. LOL The caches were located near the Prince Khalifa bin Salman Park and so afterwards we took Tyler for some fun. The park is also located just the street from where we live, so we'll no doubt be back again. The past few days the weather has actually been a little cooler and breezy, but still warm. It's nice not having a constant sweat pour down our faces while we're out.

Then after we got back in the car to go to Fun City. It's our usual Friday event to award Tyler for his excellent work at school during the week. We took a different way to get there this time and we past a place that was selling some pottery. We stopped to browse a little before returning back on the road. 






This week at Fun City Tyler didn't even have to use his points to get prizes. He totally amazed us by winning 3 times in a row by playing those "Grab a Prize" games. First, he won a zebra, then a soccer ball and finally a gigantic stuffed Angry Bird. He was super happy! By this time, we were getting hungry and Steve and I needed our coffee, so we went to the mall for some Italian food for lunch. Overall, it was a great day in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

 

Lego Day

For every compliment Tyler's class gets from other faculty members in his school, they receive a link for their chain. They currently have a total of 25 links, making them eligible for a Lego Day. Each of the kids gets to bring some of their Legos or building blocks for some playtime. As they receive more compliments, they also get other special fun days. Tyler's teacher said because they have so many already that next Thursday they will be having another fun day with a Tic Tac Toe Marathon. Tyler's class is in the lead so far with the most compliments for 2nd grade.

Grocery Day

Up to this point we had been getting groceries as we needed them. Tonight we finally got our groceries for the next week and a half. We shopped out in town (actually pretty close to our villa) as it is cheaper than to purchase on base. It is always fun to shop for foods in foreign countries. I love seeing all the different foods they have. In Bahrain they have Arabic, of course, as well as a lot of Indian and Lebanese foods. Here are a few things we picked up.

A very important event took place tonight at our villa; Steve tested out the espresso machine and made a cappuccino. He said it was very good. It was much too late for me to have caffeine so I will have to wait. :(

Relaxing tonight in our "living room #1". "Living room #2" is waiting for our furniture to arrive.

Our Villa

So this morning after living in a hotel for 45+ days, we finally moved into our spacious 5 bedroom, 5 bathroom, two kitchen villa with pool and garage. Wow, what a difference space makes. No longer crammed into one room. With that being said, we had some cleaning to do. We mopped some floors downstairs, moved some furniture (it's semi-furnished) and gave the main kitchen a good cleaning. Tyler was very eager to help out too.

 It wasn't long after we started cleaning when the truck arrived with our Express Shipment. This was our first set of goods that we shipped to help get us by until the remainder of our stuff arrives. We now have our espresso machine, coffee machine, pots and pans, dishes, some utensils, pillows and some bedding to get us by. We unpacked and washed everything. There were only a few bowls and a cappuccino mug that got broken. Tyler was super excited to receive some of his toys he put in the shipment. He now has his very own playroom.

After lunch, we went outside for our first official dip in the pool. We love the pool a lot.

Then after dinner, we noticed that our water pressure was very low and so, Steve called the Property Manager and he came over right away to have a look at it. He fixed the water problem and even got our Internet connected. Yay!!! And Tyler went to bed a very happy boy. He loves it here so much. Overall, it was a pretty good day in our new home.

Fun City

Another trip was made to Fun City today and this time, Tyler had enough points to win a cool Lamborghini. Afterwards, we went shopping to buy some cleaning supplies to move into our villa tomorrow. Yay!!! We are super excited to move out of our hotel after staying in one for 45+ days. Then we finished our our day by celebrating the 9th birthday of our good friend, Gizelle.

Great Team Work

Tyler and his class group, consisting of two others, finished their group science project today on the digestive system. We had to meet after school at one of the girl's home a couple of times to work on it. Look how awesome it turned out!!!

2nd Grade Open House

Last night, we attended the 2nd Grade Orientation at Tyler's school. They provided a nice buffet for all of us to start the evening, before hearing presentations from Tyler's teachers. During the presentations, the teachers told us about what to expect this year including the curriculum for each subject they're teaching, teaching methods they use, and goals they expect to receive from their students. Steve and I were very impressed with the background of each of the teachers Tyler has this year; most were university professors. They all have a strong passion for their job and love their students.
Tyler was really excited to show us his new friends, though we already felt like we knew them because he mentions them a lot during his conversations. It was nice to see the faces with the names we hear so often.
Posted outside of their class were self portraits. We had to guess which one was our child. We quickly guessed Tyler's because of his blond hair and his love of riding his bike. LOL

Fish for Dinner

It's been over a month that we've been "hotel living" and eating out every night. We are so looking forward to home cooked meals when we move in our place. But until then, we are left with the decision of where to eat every night. Tonight, we were just so tired of the same old places that we decide to venture down the street of American Alley and we found this neat little food court that had train cars for each eatery. We ate at a place that specialized in fish. We picked out our fresh fish, what spices we wanted and then told them how we wanted them to cook it. They stuffed the fish with lots of deliciousness. It was so nice and refreshing for a change. This is our last week at the hotel. Yay!!!

We saw our first gecko today.

Girls Day

This doesn't often happen during a weekend because I like to devote my time to my family, but today I had lunch with the girls at the mall and later we got our nails done. I haven't had my nails professionally done since I went with Wanda last year. The girl who did them said I had very cute feet. LOL Later on, Steve and Tyler met us at the mall and took our photo. Oh and afterwards, when we were getting some groceries we saw the Nesquik Bunny. LOL

Tree of Life

Well, after breakfast and a walk to get a rental car this morning. We decided to do something different for a change and go for a drive out into the desert. Along the way, we saw our first hills since moving here and lots of oil refineries. We even saw a plant where they make aluminum. Dad tried to tell us that they take the camels in the aluminum mines, just like they did the pit ponies in the coal mines back in Cape Breton. LOL Anyway, we past a sign for the famous Tree of Life and so, we decided to go check it out. It's funny because we thought it would be the only tree out in the desert, but we pass several on the way there. However, there is no mistaking the real Tree of Life because if its' size.

The tree is said to be hundreds of years old and no one knows how it gets its' source of water to keep it alive. It's all a mystery. There were a few others visiting the site as well. One group of people, Japanese tourists, got stuck in the sand and needed help digging their car out. Us, along with some other Americans from the base helped them out.
Then we got back in our car and headed to a place Tyler had been wanting to go since last weekend, Fun City. Because Tyler got an A+ on his spelling test, we took him again to play some games and earn some more points for some toys. Both Dad and Tyler obtained over a 1000 points, but we decided to keep most of the points for next time so that we could win something even bigger and better. Tyler even won at a grab a dinosaur game where we thought for sure it would be impossible to win, but he surprised us! In the end, he picked out a couple of small toys to bring home, a camera and a water gun, and saved the remainder of the points for next time.
Here are some more photos from today's adventure. Enjoy!

A Camel Came!!!

So, this morning we came out of the hotel to find a camel in front of it!!! I was super excited about it and couldn't wait until we arrived home tonight to get a photo with it. Of course, Steve was trying to convince Tyler and I that the camel had been there since we first got here a month ago, but we know better. LOL

12 years ago, I was working at Plaza Ford in Sydney, when I heard the news of the terror attack. Extremely devastated, my boss let me go home for the rest of the day. I couldn't get a hold of Steve because his base was on lock down. He was stationed in Crete, Greece at the time. I stayed glued to the television getting updates while waiting to hear from Steve. I will never forget that day. God bless the families and friends of the victims and the troops that continue to fight for our freedom.

New Address

Here is our new mailing address:

The Smith Family

PSC 851, Box 10

FPO, AE 09834

Traditional Breakfast

Traditional Arabic breakfast typically includes yogurt, spices (a mixture of mint and thyme), olive oil, scrambled eggs, tomatoes, cucumber, feta cheese, olives, fried cheese, and beans. Healthy and delicious~

Matching MINIs

Tyler and Dad bought matching MINIs on the weekend. And if you noticed, they are not just MINIs, but Countrymans. Cool, eh? We just need to get some red stripes painted on them now. LOL

"Let's Get Fat" Friday

As I've previously mentioned, Fridays in Bahrain is 'Brunch Day'. Most of the restaurants offer huge a huge spread of various types of foods. We planned on going to the amazing buffet at our hotel, but it didn't start until lunchtime. Until then, we had breakfast at Columbia Cafe. This is where our "Let's Get Fat" Friday started. Our breakfast items included a s'mores coffee, caramel coffee, chocolate muffin, chocolate croissant, and a massive cinnamon roll.

To work off our "breakfast of champions", we decided to check out some malls that we hadn't been yet. We got some great bargains and Dad and Tyler also had fun playing at the play center. It was similar to Chuck E. Cheese's where you earn tickets towards a prize of your choice. Tyler was awesome at the bowling game and Steve played a game where you controlled an arm to pick up some tickets. He ended up picking up two sets in one try! Both won a total close to 600 tickets. Tyler used some of those tickets to get a motorcycle.

By this time, it was time to head back to our hotel for the brunch. There was quite the spread of food that made us quite happily full. We were unable to move after this, so basically it concluded our day. LOL

Here are some additional photos from yesterday: