Long time, no see

Our main goal when starting this blog was to keep everyone informed on all our happenings as we moved abroad.  It began to morph into topics that we enjoyed: travel and personal finance mostly.  We have been pretty bad at keeping any updates, but I think 2020 has a lot to do with it! Like everyone at this time, life has become hectic and we haven’t had much time to reflect.

2020 … well that was something

I find it quite humorous now that I titled the post to start the year as “2020 – the Year of Perfect Vision“.  This year would be anything but perfect!  Little did we know that the pandemic (and the birth of our second son) would cause us not to be able to leave Saudi Arabia for over a year.  Still, we made the most of our Summer in Saudi.

I would like to be able to say that we handled everything in stride, but that would be a lie.  Sudden virtual school with two teachers, a 5-year-old and a newborn was tough.  Still, we are lucky.  We have the means to support ourselves financially (probably even thrived a bit with the lack of travel), everyone we know is healthy, and Saudi Arabia has handled the pandemic relatively well.  We now only have a couple of hundred cases per day at most throughout the entire country.  Beer and pork is a small price to pay!

Being overseas, I have also looked at news from America in 2020 with a detached fascination.  Perhaps this isn’t the best mindset to have, but it was difficult for me to internalize all the things happening in the US with the COVID lockdowns, the protests over the summer, and the US election.  I did try to read up on things as much as possible, but survival mode kicked in and I constantly found myself pre-occupied with my immediate sphere rather than what was going on on the other side of the world.  I think because of it, I tend to have a more moderate view of things. (for better or worse)

Keeping Sane

It was been hard to stay sane here.  While we are lucky with our health, the pandemic has meant that we have not been able to see our family in the US at all.  Also, they haven’t gotten a chance yet to meet Alfie.

Speaking of Alfie, on Christmas Eve we celebrated his first birthday with a cake smash and burgers and mac and cheese.  We invited a few people from the compound over to celebrate.  It was a nice occasion since we were all away from our families.

Simon and I have taken a number of overnight trips to Khobar and Al-Ahsa.  Click here for our previous visit to Al-Ahsa. Mostly this was to break the monotony and try to do something fun.  Luckily we took full advantage of our IHG® Rewards Club Card through Chase. Not only does it give a great sign-up bonus but also a free anniversary night.  Because the card also comes with Platinum status, we usually are able to get an upgrade to a suite if the hotel isn’t busy!  We have taken three trips so far, and all of them were free (either with points or an anniversary night).

While in Al-Ahsa, we went to the Al Qarah Mountain again.  Simon loves to explore the caves.  We also went to Jawatha Park for the day. Jawatha Park is something like an amusement park. There are a few rides, a manmade lake with a number of food retailers, a rather depressing zoo, and shopping.  Simon particularly enjoyed the speedboat ride around the lake.

Al Buainain Farm

Another trip that we took as a whole family is to Al Buainain Farm.  It is about 35 minutes away from where we live.

It costs 100 SAR per vehicle to enter the farm, but you are able to recoup the costs at the farm market. Basically, it is free entry as long as you buy 100 SAR worth of produce.  (I guess that was mansplaining, huh?)

The produce is of good quality and pretty cheap compared to the supermarkets, and there are a few animals around that you can feed a well a nice playground.  There were some bounce houses not set up and a pretty unappealing looking water park/ splash pad-type thing that we didn’t use.

Overall, a nice day out and we got loads of fresh vegetables!

2021

I feel like 2021 is the year of survival.  While I could tell you about all the big dreams that we have, getting through the year unscathed will be an accomplishment. We have decided to move from Saudi Arabia at the end of the school year. (more on that in the next post). So we have summer back in Michigan to look forward to.  Our flight is already booked with hopes of no disruptions to air travel.

How are you coping with the on-going pandemic? Comment Below