A month later ...

So I've given myself time to settle in, being honest the Internet has been pretty poor and as my laptop only connected while placed on the shelves next to my sofa I have not felt I could blog very comfortably bending down next to it.

The first month has been emotional, exciting and all new. Its not easy starting all over when you had a pretty good routine and lots of friends before. I am used to speedy Internet, phone connection and being able to step outside to go and explore and what we have here is broken connections, PAYG phone service and if I step outside I'm on a main road and here in Saudi you definitely do NOT want to be on one of those without the metal frame of a car around you. The driving is not like anything I have ever seen before. Only now have I started letting my hand relax on the door handle when we are driving, but let me tell you I cant comfortably let go yet. Road rules do not apply, now you may think OMG but actually it can work to your advantage too when you need to be on the other side of the verge... just drive over it or if you want to be going the opposite direction just do a U turn on a main road oh and if you see a nice place to sit park up and have a picnic ANYWHERE you like, yes really, even in the middle of a round about (ill try and collect some of the best places if i can when we drive round and some will make you giggle, no one picnics like the Arabs) hahaha.

Our home is comfortable, and you get used to drinking zamzam mashaallah from bottles instead of using the tap. Air con is a norm here and I've even caught my first cockroach. Next to all toilets are these nifty water sprays, great for cleaning everything including the bathroom as they are all tiled, which my kids love as bath time is like visiting a water play park.

So lets go through all the necessities (possible worries you might have and that I did have): 
1. shops: pretty much everything you could dream of from next, mothercare, toys r us to your American shops and big places like Carrefour
2. eating out: again you have everything from TGI Friday to home delivery Mc Donalds (tres lazy)
3. places to go out: Riyadh is so family friendly there are amusement parks all around, inside the mall is a roller coaster and even the parks have there family sections where you can relax with privacy
4. learning opportunities: there are talks in masjids, events for men and ones for women and private lessons in arabic if you look for them and prob so much more
5. will you be alone: a big worry of mine as I cant speak Arabic yet, there are many English speaking sisters and facebook is a very useful tool in locating them

This is a short list of all my blog will contain. I want to share places I go, people I meet, lessons I take and things I do at home (because I am going to get all art and crafty and try to bake and make all sorts of potions here at home! If my squishies will let me)

I want this to help those who have no idea what to expect and to show those who are curious what I get up to in this far away land what its like.

So next stop (when my Internet is a little faster inshaallah) the park.