Today we're just relaxing. We've seen all the tourist spots in this town. And there aren't many places to go. The movie theaters are all in Hindi. We are excited to take the kids to Kung Fu Panda and dh is dying to see Batman!

   So, Ds8 and I are in the internet cafe and the rest of our family are swimming. We have to pay almost $10 for all of us to swim at our hotel every day. That can get expensive. But, it's common for hotels to charge for that here.

   We went to McDonald's today (again)! We like it, but the staring can make me feel uncomfortable. I sometimes have to zone out and look out the window and forget that 20 people are staring at us while we eat. We have had to get used to this over the years. The kids don't even seem to notice it. My husband has learned that if he stares back, they will look away... I'm not that brave. I have to resist my strong urge to hide under the table!

     It's very rainy and muddy here. It's no fun going out in the rain, but we have ventured out a bit. We went to McDonald's! When we first got here, we told the kids that they weren't allowed to ask for the "M word" because they constantly wanted that instead of trying anything new. Well, in this town there aren't alot of good restaurants and the hotel restaurant is more expensive than the M word, so we''ll probably eat there for dinner tonight too! Dh bought me some silk today. That is all the rage in this town. You can't get in an autorickshaw without them insisting that they stop at a silk shop. It's very cheap here. He bought me some material that I can have tailored into a shirt. It's difficult to get conservative clothes that fit me right in Saudi. So, that will be nice. It's peach silk and I love the color. I got 2 meters for about $22. That's pretty good.

   Today we got up bright and early (7am)! Ugh!! We visited a university and a monkey temple. The university has 15,000 students and 2,000 of them being foreigners. I liked seeing it and the housing that is provided. It looked very nice. The monkey temple was neat because we love watching monkeys. Ds8 loves animals and could have watched them all day. I worry about them sometimes because they can carry rabies. And this country doesn't have the vaccine, so we would probably have to go back to America immediately if someone got bit. Most of them are oblivious to us, but some seemed a bit aggressive.

Here's a pic I took of a couple of kids:

     Being a tourist, isn't always easy for anyone no matter who you are or what country you are travelling in. You are more susceptible to scams and being cheated. We have travelled alot and that experience has helped. Yesterday, we had some issues at our hotel because all of the waiters were charging us different prices at the restaurant and cafe. We're lucky that DH was on top of this and had it changed every time. But, it was wearing him down yesterday and decided to speak with the manager. The man was very helpful and we don't expect to have anymore problems at this hotel. But, it is common practice at most places. There are many autorickshaw drivers waiting outside our hotel to take us places. They receive commission for taking us to silk shops and other places. Yesterday, our rickshaw driver took us to one of these places without us realizing what was going on and it was very uncomfortable walking out without buying anything. DH was a little upset about this incident, but we talked about how desparate these people are and we would probably do the same thing, if in their situation.

Dh and I have been very impressed with how well the boys have handled things. When we first got here, we took a boat to Elephanta Island and a vender tried to give ds4 some candy because they think if he has it in his hands and opens it, dh has no choice but to buy it. Fortunately ds4 is not your average tourist, he said, "I do not have any money. I do not want this. Why would you give this to me? I am just a kid!" We were shocked and very grateful for this attitude. It has really come in handy. He is a target everywhere, but he always stays strong and says "No. I don't want that." Never any hesitation.

Here are some more pics. We have seen many of these on this trip!

Happy boys:

In this picture, the kids are eating fennel. Here, they bring this out with the check after every meal. We loved it at first. It has a licorice taste. But then, I realized that they don't dish this out special for each customer, but everyone digs into the same dish. One time, there were bugs crawling in ours. But, it is delicious and helps with digestion. I would like to incorporate this into our after dinner snack when we get home!

This is a little dark, but it's a very cute monkey on a leash!

We have been to Mahatma (The Great One) Gandhi's house. That was a wonderful experience. I bought his autobiography at the train station and it was very educational. He even talks about homeschooling! He loved to learn and was constantly challenging himself. Here is his library.:

We are taking a day of rest. The kids are tired of museums and temples. We saw many yesterday. I thought that I would just post some pictures from the beginning of our trip.

Here are some pictures of our first hotel. Our hotels since then have been nicer, but I wanted to show what a lot of the hotel rooms and bathrooms are like in the big cities here.

We're having a nice time on our vacation. We're staying at the nicest hotel so far. My husband thinks that it used to be the Radisson according to his GPS. But, we're hardly paying Radisson prices. We have a deluxe room for about $40. It has a pool, internet, and a nice restaurant. The kids don't want to leave this place. My husband and I are afraid to leave the hotel to venture out. We have been surprised by all of the begging people. We have never been exposed to anything like this before. The second we leave, we are surrounded.

We hope to visit the Ganges tomorrow. People come here to have babies, die and get cremated or just to bath in it. 60,000 people come here to bath in it every day!

Sorry, it looks like no pics today. Photobucket won't work here in this internet cafe. I'll work on it more later.

     Today we visited a National Park and a palace. We had a good day. We took two autorickashaws up a huge mountain.

Yesterday we had to go to Riyadh for a visa. It was a nice little trip. The embassy was really neat. Ds4 wanted to go up and confront a man for smoking. I don't know what we did that programmed all our kids to want to fight people for smoking, but every one of them has gone through this. I had to grab him, get all his attention and explain to him that we don't confront strangers. I told him that smoking was wrong but that it was his decision. I asked him if he understood and he said that it's wrong for him, but that man can do it.

      We had another incident when my husband gave each boy a can of pepsi. There were many bees in this embassy and the bees wanted that pepsi. I didn't know that ds4 and ds6 were terrified of bees. They just screamed and screamed. It was not pretty. I had to get them out of there. Screaming is highly frowned upon in an embassy.

      I really need to post some more pictures. Dh bought me a new camera and I've been struggling with a little. But, I'm practicing. Hopefully, I'll have some awsome pics this week!

I downloaded this and it really helps with organization. Check it out!

    I've always been interested in Charlotte Mason. But, I never read up on it and I was under the impression that it wasn't structured enough for me. Boy, was I wrong! I have been doing a lot more research on it and it sounds great. I always liked the Nature Study, Shakespeare and Composer Study, Copywork and Narration, and living books. Now, I'm loving the habit training as well. I still like the idea of classical learning because of the memorization, but I would like to incorporate both methods next year.

    Unfortunately, this is my second post on the subject because my post got erased when my internet failed me. I don't have as much time now, but I have done a lot of research on habit training and it has already helped me plan the things we need to work on for next year and even the behaviors that need work right now. There are many helpful websites. I was really happy to find Ambleside online. I was so surprised that they had free curriculum. It really helps with the planning. It has links to other great resources too. Even though I had looked at Ambleside before, I had completely missed that.

       Well, I better post this while I can. Our internet has been sporadic at best. We're going to get Mobily in the fall. That should solve our internet troubles. There are too many people on the system here now and it's hard to get on.

       Hope you're having a great summer!

    Sorry for the long absence. I thought that I would check in and let all my friends in on what we've been doing. This morning, we did shopping to prepare for our trip this summer. We had to get backpacks, compasses, water bottles and some travel journals. I decided that it would be neat for the kids to start writing about the people we meet. We are always amazed by the wonderful people that God brings into our lives everywhere we go. Also, they are reading a lot of Magic Tree House this summer and they think it's cool to have a travel journal like Jack. We have a friend on the compound who volunteered to teach the boys how to use num chucks. So, we picked up some rubber ones, so the kids could practice. He's a very nice guy and I appreciate the time he's spent with them. They also went to a birthday party tonight. They're very busy boys.

     What I love about taking a summer break is that I get to see how they use their knowledge in more practical ways. I also get to know what they are really interested in. If they want to still learn about it in the summer, than there is a good spark there and it gives me a hint about what they really know and how they learn. They're doing lots of reading, which I love. We've also been doing Candy Math from the new site that gives away a free ebook every day! I love freebies and the books have a lot of good info.

    Tomorrow we are celebrating Father's Day because Thursdays and Fridays are the days off here. So, tomorrow is our Sunday. We'll probably have an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. I didn't realize that Father's Day was coming up so soon, so we'll have to wing it. I'm sure he'll have a relaxing fun day with the boys. I'm sure we'll go swimming!  And when I tell the boys they'll rush around and make him many wonderful cards. DS8 made him a lapbook months ago and has been saving it. It's very cute.  

Well, that's all for now. I hope to post some more pictures soon.   

Here is a picture of the newest member of our family, Whiskers (or Whiskey).

   I thought that I would post some pictures from our time in Thailand at Dream World with our very special Korean friends:

Here are some pictures from the museum. Rocks and the big one is a meteorite that fell in the desert!

Here's a picture of the boys riding camels on the beach! It was a great time!!

I want to thank Anissa and Bubbebobbie for awarding with an excellence award (2 months ago, sorry).

I finally figured out how to link without messing my blog up completely. So, in accepting this award, the receiver must award 10 people and it can include those who have already received it. The blogs I enjoy are: bubbebobbie, anissa, jimmie, kinley, jamin, harmonyartmom, EEEEmommy, LivingandLoving, bbullard, and skdenfeld.

     We had so much fun and we learned so much!!!

Here's the Floating Mosque:

We had a good adventure. We saw more camels than we ever wanted to see. Here's one that didn't want to get out of the road, but it gave me a great close up: 

 The game worked great for the kids. Mom and dad loved hearing the constant counting! LOL It was a great trip and very relaxing. We have a new view on this country now. For one thing, we realized that there is nothing to be scared of. It's like a ghost story expats tell to make things more exciting. I didn't see any Matawaa (religious police). We loved Riyadh. It's a modern city with an amazing history. We visited the National Museum and it was very enlightening. Here is a picture of the boys overlooking the Red Sea:

   We saw the white mosque. Our presence was quite the spectacle. Everyone was staring and some boys were staying stuff to us in arabic. A man even came up and asked us where we were from. That doesn't happen here very often. I think he had a bet with another man, because he turned to him right away. People don't usually think that we are American because we have 4 kids. Also, they have very blond hair. They usually think we are German. Swedish people are seen in a good light here right now because they are taking a lot of the Iraqi refugees. I think they thought we were Swedish. We will never know.

     I thought I would share this with you because I know that many Americans are confused about this and understandably considering the jargon that was used to explain the 9-11 attacks. And looking in the Webster dictionary or even on the internet can be confusing. I found this definition in a book called The Afghan. What I like about this one is that it explains everything very well. It states that Jihad is either a personal struggle within oneself to become a better Muslim (this is what most Muslims think of) or it means true holy war, armed struggle in the defence of Islam. But, this second part has very specific rules. True Jihad can only be declared by a legitimate Koranic authority. Osama Bin Laden is notorious for his lack of scholarship in this area and has never been considered an authority on the Koran. Saudi has even revoked his citizenship in 1994. Also, it is forbidden to attack and kill those who have done nothing to hurt you. It is forbidden to kill women and children. It is forbidden to take hostages, or to mistreat, torture, or kill prisoners. Another thing that my friends have told me is that hurting another Muslim hurts their chances of getting into heaven, even if it's indirect. For example, the swing on the playground was broken and my friend was very concerned about the kids. So, she pleaded with the compound supervisor by saying that another Muslim might get hurt. AQ has killed more Muslims than Christians or Jews. My Muslim friends compare Osama to Jim Jones. His group takes children who have been orphaned or people who are truly lost and angry and homeless in Palestine and convince them that they are able to take control and do something great with their life by dying in the name of Allah.

     Before I came here, I felt that Muslims were good people, but that Mohammed must have been a bad leader and very violent. I haven't completely changed my mind about this because I haven't done enough research. But, I have been convinced that he was a very intelligent man and a lot of his teachings were good. For example, at the time, people only wanted sons and were burying baby girls alive. Mohammed told them that daughters can carry them up to heaven when they die. He also encouraged people to take care of their neighbors and told them that drinking alcohol would ruin their liver (And this was way before any medical research was conducted.)

     I just want to keep my friends updated on what I am learning about this culture. It is fascinating to me. I am looking forward to finding out more in the next week. I know it will be interesting.