Life here runs very different from life in the US. First the work week runs Saturday through Wednesday. Thursday and Friday are the weekends.
In all Muslim countries Friday is the Holy Day, so here is Saudi they use Thursday and Friday as the weekend. Most other Muslim countries use Friday and Saturday as their weekend. there is prayer call 5 times a day. We don't here them except for the last two of the day the one at sunset and the one at night.
There is what is called a work haul bus that picks employees up in the mornings and takes them to work. It also runs in the mid day to take they who wish home for lunch. then it brings them back at the end of the work day. Mike gets picked up and dropped of right in front of the house. He leaves about 6:30 in the mornings and is home by 4:30 in the evenings.
There are circuit buses that run on a schedule to carry people around the camp, but we haven't have much success with them as yet. Alos they have shopping buses that take you off camp to the shopping malls and groceries stores in town. Women use these mostly during the day as we are not allowed to drive in town. We can drive anywhere on camp we need or want to go.
There are also taxis that are very cheap to take you around. They only cost about $2.50 for a single trip.
We are on the eastern edge of the time zone so it gets light every early in the morning and dark by about 6:00 at night. we are also right beside a Saudi Military base. The planes fly right over our house when they take off and land. So sometimes during the day I hear these jets screaming overhead. It really adds to the exotic feel of the place. But I love it here. It is a really great life for me.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Sunday, September 6, 2009
HOME SWEET HOME
This is the outside of our new home here in Saudi Arabia. It is much more house than we were expecting. Those are date palm trees in front of the house, the one on the right is loaded with about 5 bunches of dates. Mike is hoping to get them harvested for us.
When you enter the door the first thing is the large living room on the right. Right now it is furnished with Aramco Furniture. As you can see this furniture is from the 70's. It feels a bit like a cabin in the woods but works fine until our shipment comes.
On the left inside the door is the dining room. It is plenty big enough for our table and hutch. I will be glad when I finally get to put my furniture in here.
Behind the dining room is the kitchen. It is so much bigger than the one in the apartment. I do like it. Not much in there right now. We get very few dishes supplied here but we are making do, more on that later.
When you enter the door the first thing is the large living room on the right. Right now it is furnished with Aramco Furniture. As you can see this furniture is from the 70's. It feels a bit like a cabin in the woods but works fine until our shipment comes.
On the left inside the door is the dining room. It is plenty big enough for our table and hutch. I will be glad when I finally get to put my furniture in here.
Behind the dining room is the kitchen. It is so much bigger than the one in the apartment. I do like it. Not much in there right now. We get very few dishes supplied here but we are making do, more on that later.Off the kitchen is a family room. We plan to put a loveseat, two chairs and my computer in there.
There are three bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths. The master bedroom is quite large, with avery large walkin closet. We have plenty of room for our bedroom furniture and also my glide rocker here in this room.
There are three bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths. The master bedroom is quite large, with avery large walkin closet. We have plenty of room for our bedroom furniture and also my glide rocker here in this room. One of the extra bedrooms with be Mike's office. We plan to continue renting a single bed from Aramco to keep in there. The other bedroom will be my sewing. It is large enough to hold my sewing machine, craft table (even opened up full) and the day bed. I am really excited about that.
Both bathrooms are quite large, with tub/shower combos, toilet, bidet, and double sinks. The master room had a linen closet it it.
We feel very lucky with the house we were assigned. We didn't expect quite that much space. We do enjoy the house a lot. We have been spending the last couple of weeks painting come of the rooms to make it more personal to us, more on that later.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
DAMMAM AIRPORT
Now to continue our trip with arrival in Saudi Arabia. Sorry, but I was not allowed to take pictures at the airport but it isn't much different than any other airport you might see.
We landed about 8:30pm local time, I was glad because finally the long trip would be over. Little did I know that there was still another 3-4 hours before I would be at my new home.
After we deplaned we had a very, very, very, very, very,(get the idea), long walk to get to immigration. This was our first stop in the airport. Here there were only about 3 windows, 1 window for Forgein citizens, and the other two for everyone else. Of course we were in the single window line.
It seemed that most of the flight was in our line. After about 15 minutes another window was opened for each side and our line was split. That put us closer to the front, about 5 people back. Yea! maybe this won't take long at all (my misguided thoughts). we were still there for at least another hour or more waiting our turn.
I don't think the official wanted to be working thebooth, because he spent most of his time on the phone talking while he was processing people. When it was finally our turn Mike was processed rather quickly, but they had trouble getting the computer to read my fingerprinits.
Yes we were fingerprinted at the airport. They have this really neat optical reader that you press your fingers on, a green light shows if the fingers are pressed properly. I had all green lights but for some reason the computer wasn't cooperating. Finally we got my fingerprints and moved forward.
The next section we were met by a representative from the company who was our driver. A porter came and helped us load our bags on a cart. With immigration taking as long as it did there was no wait for our luggage. It was already through and removed from the carosel. We loaded our luggage on the cart and headed for customs.
I thought this part would take a long time because they would have to inspect our luggage. Well, all they did was x-ray it and we passed right through. Our porter put the luggage on the conveyor belt and picked it up on the other side. There were no problems. That was great.
Our next stop was the Aramco offices at the airport. We had paperwork to do there. We turned in our passports, reeceived our temporary ID badges. These were yellow and only good for about 3 weeks. We were given the papers we needed to begin the process of getting to permanent residence status. Our visa's were a one time only visitor visa.
This took about 30 minutes. Then we were ready to leave. We followed the driver to the car, loaded our luggage, paid the porter and headed for Dhahran Camp where we were dropped off at our new home.
We went inside, unloaded our luggage and finally went to bed at about 12:30am. Mostly the time at the airport was hurry up and wait. But we finally got to our home. But more about that tomorrow.
We landed about 8:30pm local time, I was glad because finally the long trip would be over. Little did I know that there was still another 3-4 hours before I would be at my new home.
After we deplaned we had a very, very, very, very, very,(get the idea), long walk to get to immigration. This was our first stop in the airport. Here there were only about 3 windows, 1 window for Forgein citizens, and the other two for everyone else. Of course we were in the single window line.
It seemed that most of the flight was in our line. After about 15 minutes another window was opened for each side and our line was split. That put us closer to the front, about 5 people back. Yea! maybe this won't take long at all (my misguided thoughts). we were still there for at least another hour or more waiting our turn.
I don't think the official wanted to be working thebooth, because he spent most of his time on the phone talking while he was processing people. When it was finally our turn Mike was processed rather quickly, but they had trouble getting the computer to read my fingerprinits.
Yes we were fingerprinted at the airport. They have this really neat optical reader that you press your fingers on, a green light shows if the fingers are pressed properly. I had all green lights but for some reason the computer wasn't cooperating. Finally we got my fingerprints and moved forward.
The next section we were met by a representative from the company who was our driver. A porter came and helped us load our bags on a cart. With immigration taking as long as it did there was no wait for our luggage. It was already through and removed from the carosel. We loaded our luggage on the cart and headed for customs.
I thought this part would take a long time because they would have to inspect our luggage. Well, all they did was x-ray it and we passed right through. Our porter put the luggage on the conveyor belt and picked it up on the other side. There were no problems. That was great.
Our next stop was the Aramco offices at the airport. We had paperwork to do there. We turned in our passports, reeceived our temporary ID badges. These were yellow and only good for about 3 weeks. We were given the papers we needed to begin the process of getting to permanent residence status. Our visa's were a one time only visitor visa.
This took about 30 minutes. Then we were ready to leave. We followed the driver to the car, loaded our luggage, paid the porter and headed for Dhahran Camp where we were dropped off at our new home.
We went inside, unloaded our luggage and finally went to bed at about 12:30am. Mostly the time at the airport was hurry up and wait. But we finally got to our home. But more about that tomorrow.
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