I am bad at updating this blog but moving internationally is stressful!  As I write this from our new home in India, I realize that there is a ton of catching up to do!

Finishing the school year

Well, our journey in Saudi Arabia has finally come to an end! After two long years stuck in Saudi Arabia due to COVID, we have finally made it out.  Actually, it wasn’t too bad of a place for the pandemic, although boring.

I suppose the end of the school year was just as hectic as in most years.  On top of that, we had to pack most of our belongings to ship to India and pack the things that we would need for our summer in Michigan. That is on top of all of the reports we had to write, grades that we had to finish, and goodbyes we had to say.

Our Visa Process

Moving internationally during the time of COVID is especially difficult.  Most of the last months of our time in Saudi Arabia were consumed by trying to get a visa for India.  I would like to say that it was an easy process, but that would be wrong.  It appeared from an outsider’s view that we might be fortunate in getting a Visa.  The Indian embassy has outsourced its visa process to a third party.  That meant instead of having to go to Riyadh for a visa, we could just go down the street in Jubail. I think this office dealt mostly with Indian passports and not work visas as the workers there were unsure of what to do with us.  Little did we know that we would have to go three separate times.

On our first trip, after an hour of waiting, we were told that we didn’t have the correct paperwork.  I didn’t realize that in addition to the clear list of documents on their website, there was a secret list of documents that we didn’t know about.

Our second trip lasted a bit longer. (about two hours total). It involved going through all of the paperwork and entering all of the information into the system.  We got through the entire process and even paid for the visas, only to find out that the biometric fingerprint machine was down.  After a week of back and forth phone calls.  We were advised that the machine would be unavailable and to go to their office in Dammam (about 45 minutes south of us)

Our third trip to Dammam took another 2 hours.  We went through the same exact process of entering information into the system and got to the same exact point as we did in Jubail.  I was able to enter my biometric information into the system, but it broke again when it came to Lindsey. So as we left Saudi, we were stressed with the fact that we didn’t have employment visas and would need to apply in the US.

Once we got back to the US, it was a very easy process. The Indian Embassy here did not ask for fingerprints at all and it was a simple mail-in procedure.  Still a head-shaker as to what they were doing in Saudi!

Moving process

As I sit typing in our India home, we have all of our belongings from Saudi Arabia.  This part of moving internationally was a fairly straightforward process. 19 boxes in all came with us.  It was mostly kitchen items, toys, books, and some household goods.

We decided to err on the side of caution, and basically take everything.  The shipping company we used (Four Winds) was excellent.  A few days before we left, they came and boxed up all of our belongings.  The only casualty from the move is our Weber meat thermometer (which no longer works). They did overdo it a bit, environmentally.  As we were unwrapping, I noticed that they wrapped each piece of Tupperware individually in paper.  A bit ridiculous if you ask me.

The Two Trips

We knew that this summer would be a rather quick trip because the prospect of a 14-day home quarantine in India to start the school year meant we had to arrive there by July 14.  For our last trip home, we made a short stop-over in Amsterdam to break up the trip.  Unfortunately, due to COVID, we would not be able to leave Schipol airport and so had to fly straight through both times.

Normally, I would say that this wouldn’t bode well for any of us, but in hindsight, both boys did wonderfully.  On all of the plane trips, they slept.  Our worst experience was right at the end of our trip to India.  We had been traveling for 30 hours and had to go through Covid tests at the airport at 2 am.  There were tears for everyone.

Summer in Michigan

As stated above, our summer was short.  Our last day of school was meant to be June 16.  Luckily, we decided to end early and we flew back to the US on June 9.

We had a few priorities upon returning home.  First, we wanted to make sure that we were fully vaccinated for our move to India.  We also needed to make sure that we got our India Visa.  Alfie still needed a Social Security Number, and we wanted to make sure to spend some quality time with friends and family.  They had never seen Alfie before.

We luckily were able to accomplish all of those goals.  Surprisingly, we never were able to make it to Ann Arbor this summer, although, Simon was able to go up north with his Papa for a few days as well. Most of our days were spent visiting Grandma or going to playgrounds.  Simon and I made it to the Henry Ford one morning.  We also went to an exhibit in Detroit called Beyond Van Gogh.  It was a pretty neat experience.  It was mostly mundane things, even despite the pandemic.  We explored the joys of Doordash and spent too much money (including new iPhone 12’s for both of us and a new Macbook Pro for me)

Lindsey and I were able to get to Detroit for our first night away from the kids in two years.  It was short but sweet. We already have a trip to the Dominican Republic on the planning board for our 10th anniversary next year!

So that about wraps up this summer.  Much too short, but hopefully we will make up for it next year!

Here is a collection of photos of our time: