1. What about homeschooling ?? Did you do that anytime while you were in the States? Aramco does not allow children on the compound to be home schooled, at least for the elementary and middle school kids - I honestly don't know about the high school kids. I never checked into it because, to answer the second part of the question, we have never home schooled. I absolutely do not have the temperament for it - I can barely hold myself together during the 30 minutes of homework every night. I might be able to teach other people's kids, if I enjoyed doing teaching that much, but do not have the patience to teach my own. I respect the choice to home school but it's not the right choice for our family.
2. Is it OK to send Christmas cards?? I believe so, though obviously I haven't tried it yet. To my knowledge they don't open our outgoing mail so I don't know how they would know if something is a Christmas card or not. DHL sends us the mail that is sent to our Florida address, and it has never been opened when we get it. Steve just mentioned that this question may mean is it OK to send US Christmas cards. Same answer though, I 'm pretty sure they don't care. I think customs is looking for booze, drugs and porn.
3. Can you get everything where you are? Nope, and I wish. Aside from the obvious no-no's like pork & alcohol, everything is hit and miss as far as supply. I'm beginning to learn what is widely available most of the time (such as eggs), where to get special things that aren't widely carried (like whole wheat pasta), and what is not available here whatsoever (my vacuum cleaner bags). Here is a portion of the list of items that we can't find here (or don't like the quality of) that Steve's parents will be bring in December when they come to stay (Oh, by the way Mom, did I tell you that you are bringing a bunch of stuff for us? :o)
Neopsorin ointment / fabric bandages
deodorant
tampons
Cub Scout uniform
single cup coffee filter
printer cartridges
chili powder / various other spices
110 volt answering machine & cordless phone
food coloring
my favorite shampoo & conditioner
4. Where do you do grocery shopping? Mostly I shop at the small grocery store here on the compound. It carries all the basic stuff we need and the produce is fairly dependable. There is a store off the compound that carries Safeway brand stuff and has good quality meats. We shop there a lot when we are having company for dinner. There are also a couple French supermarket chains here that carry odd things I can't find other places. I don't go to them very often, just when I run out of those few odd things.
5. Do American foods there taste different, i.e. Coke? I haven't noticed that the soda pop tastes any different. All the Kellogg cereal we can get that is made locally has more sugar than it's American counterpart. The Hellman's Mayo (or Best Foods for those of you on the west coast) seems whiter and thinner I think - it just seems different. The sugar is not as fine as our granulated sugar. If we buy things that have been imported from the US, they of course are exactly the same. But even at that, we bought some imported Jenni-O turkey sauage and it was weird. We think it was frozen, thawed and then refrozen or something. Yuck!
Ok...that's all I have time for today. Ted, I will still answer your questions if you still care. Have a good weekend everyone!
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