Can't Sleep In

Our house is the biggest in the compound but it isn't really big. All four bedrooms open to one landing. The landing has a bit of a balcony overlooking downstairs and the entire house is marble floors and cement walls. That all translates to a very LOUD space - if someone wakes up you can hear them.

This morning was like many weekend mornings. Ashlyn is in her bed and starts yelling. This happens anywhere between 5:30 am and 6:30 am.  She isn't really trying to be a pest, that's just what happens when you are two years old and you're done sleeping. She yells as loud as she can from her room, "Is it time to get up?" When no one answers - because we are all asleep - she yells again. And again and again. She yells until someone answers. If you say "no" then she yells and hollars her disapproval until you change your mind about your answer. If you concur that it is in deed time to wake up then she happily gets up and talks as loud as humanly possible to everyone upstairs, planning who will do what for breakfast - who gets out the bowls and the spoons, the cereal and the milk.

Today was the best one yet. The typical wake up yelling insued and once Madison took pity on her to answer her high decibel babbling Ashlyn got excited and pronounced it was time to wake up dad. I guarantee he was no longer sleeping by this point but she came into our room at a full volume jabber with Maddie Mae. Then she flipped a switch in her little head realizing it was time to be quiet when you are waking someone up. She whispered as quietly as she could, "Dad, the sun is awake. It's cereal time." It was a curtious try at least to gently wake him but the deed had already been done.

How to File Medical Insurance Claims from Over Seas

Brian was working on finances and medical insurance claims came up because of some of the obscure deposits I hadn't accounted for yet. "How does this match to that?" was the general question...so I told him how I file our medical claims these last four years.

1. First you review all your medical receipts and add your own hand written notes about what things were for and why you saw a doctor and try your best to make their illegible chicken scratches on the junkie receipt understandable. Sometimes you have to write the ENTIRE receipt in besides the final cost and the name of the clinic because that's all they bothered to put on the paper. Oh yeah, and make sure it's all in English please.
2. Then you scan everything into the computer.
3. Email the receipt, a claim form and a bank deposit slip to your claim address and be grateful you no longer have to make photocopies of everything to use snail mail.
4. Congrats! You just filed the claim. But....it's still in a foreign currency.
5. Now the company will input your claim into their magic computers. They line item everything.
6. They convert to USD and DON"T show what it used to be in foreign currency - you must do that yourself for every single item.
7. Then they pay some parts of the claim straight away and deny others and ask for still more information on on others.
8. Next they process three different claims for three different people in the family. They choose to pay some of those line items for each individual - but not all.
9. The company then issues an explanation of benefits and mail it to us.
10. Three to six weeks later we receive the paper form in the mail telling me what was paid and what I need to respond with more information - within 30 days of course. So I'm already late.
11. While you were waiting for the explanation of benefits to see which things you must fight they issue a check for three random, unrelated medical expenses within those claims. You know, like child #1 cavity filling but not the doctor consultation, #3 child doctor consultation but not burning off the wart and #4 child pediatric MMR immunization but not chicken pox because it goes by a different name in your country of residence so they missed that they should have covered it in full.
12. The check is magically sent to your US bank and deposited. Thank the Lord again they don't send you paper checks overseas to wait 2-6 weeks to arrive and 2-4 weeks to go back to the USA for deposit.
13. Now you see on your bank statement a wild number of smallish deposits. You realize that not a single one of those checks has any information about what was paid for with those funds. Now the REAL fun begins.
14. Take each line itemed expense and try to match it to your original receipts in a foreign currency. It pays to be good at currency conversion in your head.
15. Realize you'll never figure it out anyway.
16. Go eat a cookie or two before your driver comes to pick you up to go pick up the kids from school.

And that folks is why I just gave up trying to get it figured perfectly. It's impossible. As long as they approved the expense, I just say a prayer the money ends up in my bank account. Rotten way to do it but it's where I'm at these days with insurance. And for the record, my sweet husband did not tell me I needed to change and do better. I think he is happy to hear I try at all.

 

Mostly I just thank the Lord we still have insurance!

International School Kids

All social media seems to be inundated with links that say "22 Signs You Are Southern Bell" or "15 Things Only Cheerleaders Would Understand" or "18 Most Famous Movie Quotes". A bunch of stuff to waste our time and simultaneously make is smile. Today I was snared by one that said "22 Signs You Were An International School Kid" and I couldn't resist clicking to read it and it didn't disappoint.

It got me thinking of how my kids reality is so different that my own as a child and I made a list of what I see in them as it compares to me in my school days.

You Know You Are an International School Kid If:

Someone in your class is always jet lagged.

If there is a three day weekend many of your classmates go explore a nearby country with their families.

It is a common occurrence for a classmate to miss 2 weeks of school to go on holiday with their family. Teachers actually expect it to happen.

Going to the embassy or consulate to sort out your passport and visa issues is as common a reason to miss class as a doctor or dentist appointment.

You talk to non-international school kids and realize just how awesome the stuff you did at school your international school really was.

Playing volleyball/soccer/baseball/swimming against another high school may involve passports, visas, hotel, chaperones, an entire weekend and a plane ticket.

Your class is like a meeting of the United Nations with at least 13 countries represented in every class of 22 students.

Your best friends native tongue isn't your native tongue.

You celebrate holidays and traditions you adopted from countries you have lived in across the globe even though they aren't your heritage culture.

International Day celebrations are amazing with the food and the costumes everyone has to show off.

Lots of the food at Internatioal Day was actually cooked by the live in house maid.

Your friends parents are seriously important people, either in business or government. But you'd never know they were important people because they get grounded just like you.

Being the new kid in school is hard but you know that a minimum of 25 % of the entire school is also new this year so your not alone.

On the first day of school you find out how many kids made it into the country and how many are "waiting for visas still but will join us within a week or two".

Ten percent (or more) of the student body misses the first day of school because the kids or parents were too jet lagged to get up that morning since they only landed in the country in the last 16 hours anyway.

You don't stay in your "home" over the summer because the entire expat community vacates for two months. Everyone goes "home" to somewhere else and it's all over the globe.

Lunch time in the cafeteria can really tell a lot about where your friends are from because of what their mom (or maid) packs in the lunchbox.

Kids you play with have maids, drivers, cleaners and gardeners. Enough that they actually refer to them as the "house staff."

It's hard for you to answer the question, "Where are you from?" You want to clarify before you answer the question by asking in return: Do you mean where do I live now? What is my passport country? Where did I spend most of my growing up time and therefore identify with that place? Or where were my parents living when I was actually born?

You have to practice fire drills like everyone else but you also practice and discuss, in age appropriate ways, what to do if there is a terrorist situation, bombing, etc at school.

You have had to add pages to your passport because it was full.

You get birthday wishes from across the globe for a few days before and a week or two after the actual day because time zones are complicated and people couldn't catch you at the right time of day thus extending the celebration and making you feel like a rock star for two solid weeks.

You run into friends from elementary/middle/high school while vacationing in other countries.

You meet people where you live now that knew your good friends from another country three moves ago when they were good friends with them.

When you move to a new location your parents start planning trips based on who they know that lives on the continent so you could visit old friends, some of whom you've never met.

Your five year old brother knows exactly what to do to get through airport security and immigration and asks before you leave the house for a trip if your parents have his passport.

You have opinions on what airlines are good airlines and have frequent flier miles on at least 4 different ones.

You think a 5 hour airline flight is fairly short.

You have opinions on McDonalds in different counties because you know they all taste different.

You know what meats are banned in certain countries so you can anticipate which McDonald's will serve hamburgers and where you can only get a chicken burger because the cow is holy but you also know which countries won't have bacon for the BLT because the pig is dirty.

When you see the Pizza Hut or KFC sign you feel a sense of relief because at least you will know what you are eating this time instead of the sketchy street food.

You catch yourself doing something in a new country that was illegal in the last country, like chewing gum in Singapore. You quickly ask your mom if you can actually do that here in Saudi Arabia.

When searching for a toy to buy with your own money you first query, "If I wait until we go home to America this summer how much would it cost me there instead?" Then you know if it's worth the cost to have it now or worth waiting.

The end of every school year means the loss of many close friends. Either they move or you do. It's a fact of life.

You had 5 or more stamps in your passport before you could even speak.

You probably won't learn to drive a car until you go to college because it isn't allowed and you won't be able to have a paying part time job in high school because you only have a dependent pass under your parent not a work pass in your country of residence.

When doing homework for the first time in a new country you have to ask your mom, "Do I write the date with month first then day or day first then month?" She doesn't always know the answer.

Your little brother hears your mom tell the store clerk she will pay for the groceries with a Visa (credit card) and interrupts her asking, "Do we need a visa to come to this store?" You are able to explain the confusion to him about Visa credit cards and visas that are granting permission to enter another country.

You collect coins of all the countries you have been to and get perturbed when a county uses the US Dollar so won't give you local change because your a foreigner or coins aren't used anymore and all you can get is paper bills. Now your collection is ruined because you have nothing from the country.

Your mobile phone has an app to tell you the time zone of each of your best friends and grandparents so you know who is awake when to plan your skyping.

Too New

We got this late last night. 

Dear parents,

 

According to the directive from the Government officials, all schools are closed tomorrow, Sunday, January 25th.  ISG will be closed on all the seven campuses tomorrow.

 

We are sending the condolences to all the local community upon the death of King Abdullah.

Kindest Regards,

(Admin)

It is interesting to be so new here. I feel bad not to be properly mourning the loss of the king but I have no history with him really. We are just too new in country. I do wish peace on all those of his nation however as they mourn their king today.

Overseas Kid Problems

At lunch with Ashlyn: “Here’s a cracker, Ashie.”

She takes it and turns it over and over. “Where’s the crack in it, mom?”

That’s what comes of letting her think they are called biscuits!

 

I am also beginning to think she is mourning the loss of Gina. Again. We haven’t left Saudi Arabia since we landed in August and she understands that Gina is a long, long airplane ride away. As we started to get closer to our winter break vacation we started talking about the trip to Switzerland more and more. And she started talking about Gina more and more and praying for her to come to our Saudi Arabia house. Poor girl was convinced that we were going to see Gina no matter what we told her we were going to do.

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Our Winter Holiday Fun Began Differently than Anticipated

Nothing is as planned yet on our winter holiday in Switzerland but it's still awesome! Flight delays = missed the last day of Santa's village in France. New Years Day = EVERYTHING IS CLOSED, including grocery, gas station, I mean everything all day long.

We spent the entire day with the kids playing in the parking lot of the little hotel and the small hill across the street in a construction zone with left over, refrozen icy snow.

Best sledding spot? The gravel pile.

Best place to find ice to build a fort? The gutter on the street.

What souvenir did they keep from a neighborhood walk? More ice chunks and trash for forts and snowmen.

It's 0 C/ 32 F or below and they don't care one bit. The big kids played outside for about 8 hours and are in heaven sledding on a card board box and finding rocks and sticks to decorate the snowmen. Ashlyn seems to be getting sick so she napped for 3 hours inside with a runny nose and cough.

There are six smiling faces heading to bed now.

Happy New Year!!

Eye Doctors

Eye doctor appointments done. Another country. Another procedure. Yuck, no one likes learning the ropes when they are the newbie.

Today we took everyone down to Saad Hospital and had appointments for Ashlyn, Madison and Jacob. I'm happy with everything except that we have to go back another day. They require an appointment with someone else to dialate the eyes then another doc appointment to read the eyes after the drops. So Jacob and Ashlyn will go back down with me on the 12th.

The nurse was trying to schedule me on the phone for jan 1. I tried to tell her we were out of town and she forcefully waved me away with her hand. Fine. She finished what appeared to be complicated planning to get both Jacob and Ashlyn same day, close timing for all 4 appointments. She brought me the papers and I kindly told her we were not in town. Haha. 

It took three more iterations because the next secretary did the doc visit before the dilation. That wasn't going to work and I knew it but we had language problems communicating. Another doc saw my insistence and came to the rescue. He understood the problem. Still took a few more tries but we are all set. I am just dreading the one and a half hour drive to the city again. Having three hours on the road plus appointment time makes for a full day. Today we left at 7:45 am and didn't return until about 2 pm. Sometime we need to have Ben seen as well but his yuck of the day is a tooth extraction tonight at 7:30 pm. Poor kid.