Look who decided to come out of hiding....

We got a house kitty to share our Jeddah adventure with..... There are cats everywhere here. This one was saved off the streets by a teacher over at the American School. She has had all her shots and has been fixed after having one litter of kitties. Her previous owner is moving to Thailand and could not take all her kitties with her so this one needed to be adopted or turned out on the streets.... She has been adopted. :)  She was called Gina but we have not decided yet what we will call her... She loves to be petted and she loves to nibble on toes and fingers... she also talks alot.... well at least around bed time.

She loves to be petted....

Hey.... open the window here!

Here are a couple of group photos of the people we play street hockey with.... We enjoy this as an outing/ date night.... going out of town and goofing around.... the players vary from night to night but this is a steady core group... minus a few who were out of town.

Enjoy!

Ikea in Jeddah

a tunnel we drove thru in Jeddah

along the streets of Jeddah

part of our drive

can you see the Xerox building

one of the many sculptures along the streets in Jeddah

Hira Street

closed for prayer

a few more photos for you......

Well... Tim and I have sort of settled into our little routines here in Jeddah.... we play hockey... shop a little.... walk the corniche.... and take drives..... here are some of the pictures from our Jeddah life.....

taking a break during street hockey

walking the corniche

view from our walks along the Red Sea

out along the corniche which is on the Red Sea

along our walk

on our walk

Tim's dream trucks

another view of the trucks

out for a drive through Jeddah on a quiet Friday morning

along our morning drive

driving in Jeddah on a quiet morning

seeing the sites on a driving tour

on our drive...   do you see the white truck.... TATA

there are a billboards of the King everywhere

along King Fahd Road

These are just a few of the pictures along our drive..... we took this drive last Friday when it was relatively quiet on the road..... all the stores were closed.... and the residents were still just waking up....

Well.....lets see..... I have trained for filling in at the compound mail room for the month of June. That was fun... I will start June 2nd. .....My mom is on the mend back in the states after a prolonged trip down to Iowa and a emergency room visit on her way home to Wisconsin.... I got to go to the dispensary on compound as a patient myself last week.... got some meds and now I am about up to par myself.... little fever and sore throat ick...... hmmmm..... I bought some mystery meat at the grocery store..... it said beef sausage on  the package and I had seen a cat outside carrying one of the little red sausages around obviously protecting it as if it was a delicacy..... so what the heck I bought some and we tried it.... hmmmm .... it was dark red and very tangy tasting..... not what we expected.... Tim wont eat it any more.... maybe it was horse..... lol.... it did look and taste sort of funny.... so much for trying local meats.... tee hee.... Tim is at work now and I am just resting. I have not been subbing as I was down with a cold or something.... Last night we went to the US consulate for  a barbeque a the Marine house.... good food and a nice time to reflect on those who serve..... Tim was invited because he was a marine.... just military present or past and their  families were invited.... they had us stand and face the flag with our hands over our hearts as taps was played..... chill bumps.... it was good. I am glad we got to go. That is all for now. :)

Well I have been here two months now.... I had a call to sub yesterday but had made plans to go to Marjan Beach with some ladies from the compound. We had a very relaxing day at the beach and pretty much had it all to ourselves. That was nice. I went with 4 other ladies and two of the ladies brought their little ones. We each fixed up some grub and shared it on the beach. We had to take two different cars with drivers from the compound. The driver of our car spoke excellent English and shared pictures of his snorkeling and diving exploits... he spear fishes when he goes out and he showed us some of the fish he had gotten.... one picture was of a barracuda.... he told us that he would rather see a shark while out than a barracuda... the barracudas are a lot more dangerous, especially when he is fishing.... the barracudas are attracted to the fish he catches  and thus very aggressive and dangerous..... needless to say while at the beach, I went out snorkeling and of course I am convinced I saw a barracuda while I was out on the other side  of the island by myself in deep water.... freaky.... I told no one else at the time.... when I got back to the beach as I had no proof of what I saw and even to me it  sounded like a fish story......I Googled Barracuda fish when I got home and am now convinced that was what I encountered..... wish I had an underwater camera..... I did not even take my regular camera with me as I had other things I needed to keep track of and thought I had already taken pictures at Marjan Beech.... oh well.
I will be teaching second grade today...it is Wednesday and our Friday. Tim and I went to Kaust again this past week for ball hockey.... it is a nice way to break up the week and lots of fun. :) Well that is all for now.

we went on a tour of old Jeddah on Thursday night.... Tim hob knobed with the mayor of Al-Balad..... we took tons of pictures....

Jeddah Heart Tour group

building under rehab

Jeddah Heart Sponsor and Al-Ballad Mayor

Tim with Mayor

bathroom and water jar shelf

remnants of and old screen

tour party gathered in court yard of old housing units in Al-Ballad

rooftop view

another rooftop view

decorative stone work on old building

rubble of an old building

gathering of tour group in common area of a restored old home

This was a wonderful experience.... Tim took 127 photos..... I took several.... we met some very nice people.... ate some interesting refreshments...... just had a wonderful evening.