The Start of the Three Day Weekend Let me start by saying that I’m still having trouble with the concept that we have a Saturday holiday. I think the concept of Saturday and Sunday being the weekend is so ingrained in our heads that it’s hard to conceive that it could be different somewhere else. There is so much that we take for granted as “normal” without realizing that it’s normal for us but not for others. Alternate states of normal is something very hard for most Americans and no doubt this is the source of many misunderstandings we [View Full Entry]

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Another Day, Another Riyahl I think I’m actually catching on to what I’m supposed to be doing here. Well, most of the time. Pat stopped me in the hall and said that Esbjorn was having trouble with the Excel Workbook that we are piloting. I went to the coaches room to see if I could figure out what was going on. I’ve never touched a Mac and it’s a bit like driving a stick if you’ve only driven an automatic. It didn’t have left and right mouse buttons and the controls were different than your basic (Microsoft) PC. It’s kind of [View Full Entry]

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Dinner in Khobar Tonight I had dinner in Khobar with a friend I met who is from Bangladesh. He is a professor at the local university and has been in Saudi for about four months now. We ate at a Thai restaurant that was excellent. I was not brave enough to order from the spicy food part of the menu, but perhaps next time. The shrimp soup was really fantastic, but I’m not sure they deliver to Minneapolis. Bummer. It was fun to talk to Manir, whose English is better than mine. We discussed our jobs, families, and experiences in Khobar. [View Full Entry]

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Today was the end of SAC III, so that means we are half-way through the six assessment centers. Wow! Kim set out breakfast today and imagine my surprise when it was bagels, lox, and cream cheese. They may have been the last thing I expected for breakfast. And it was delicious! One of the things I like best about day 2 (of the two-day process) is that it is a bit more relaxed because by lunch time, all of the assessments have been completed and all that remains for the candidates are a couple of briefing sessions and their feedback from [View Full Entry]

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Every day, especially in the morning when I’m walking to breakfast or the SAC Center, I hear sounds that sound a lot like an owl. It’s pretty loud and it comes from all over. You can hear these birds at all times of the day, every day. They sound louder in the morning perhaps because it’s quieter. I asked one of the Participants what the sound was and they said it was a desert pigeon (not a dessert pigeon, by the way). See www.drhashimbehbehani.com/desertpigeon.html for a bit more detail. The sand storm has blown away and it was bright and sunny [View Full Entry]

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A More Relaxing Day Off Breakfast today was the specialty of house: waffles. They have about 12 giant waffle irons and everyone says they are the best. Well, when in Saudi Arabia, do what the Americans do: eat the waffles. So I had a huge waffle and a mug of coffee for about $2.00. The dinner plate sized pancakes are a $1 each. Not only does the Aramco compound look like 1959, but the prices match too. (Including the price of gas, of course). After breakfast, Esbjorn (the unofficial tour leader with 20 trips here at 3 weeks per trip), Glyn [View Full Entry]

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The Weekend It’s the weekend (here) and I’m in a really good mood this morning. Yesterday my hotel phone alarm didn’t go off (user error, I’m sure), but fortunately I have an alarm clock back-up and that jolted me awake. Thank God for back-up systems! I was looking forward to sleeping late with no alarm clocks. So I slept to 6:30 and then got up. How decadent. :) I went to breakfast this morning at The Dining Hall. I’m embarrassed to say how inexpensive the food is there. Obviously it is highly subsidized. I had an “everything&rdq [View Full Entry]

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Did I say Today was a Day Off? It's now almost midnight and today turned out to be a bit more work than I anticipated. I went to the Center to setup for Saturday and do a training session for the Consultants. That lasted from noon to 4 pm. But some technical glitches meant calls to Minneapolis, St. Louis, and work for me until 11 pm. :( But the good news is that it’s all fixed and all is right with the world. Tomorrow I’m going with Esbjorn to the beach. I think that must be on the Persian Gulf (aka [View Full Entry]

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Would you say "It's Sanding Out"? It’s been great interacting with the Participants because I’ve never talked to a Saudi before. I had a pretty long discussion today with a guy who is a helicopter pilot for Aramco. Ironically, he was in Grand Forks, ND during 9/11 and his mother was worried about him (she didn’t know that Grand Forks isn’t anywhere near NY)! Of course my mother is worried about me being here, so perhaps mothers are the same the world over. Today was a sand-storm and the sky turned a beautiful golden color. Everyone from here laughed a [View Full Entry]

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A New Cycle Begins Today was the start of a new assessment cycle. It’s kind of like the movie Ground Hog Day. There will be a total of six cycles in the three weeks that I’m here. It’s kind of weird. I did the Logistics piece of the orientation as well as the briefings for the simulations. Although that doesn’t mean anything to most of you, it does show that I’m starting to feel part of this thing, instead of an observer. So although today was still crazy-busy, it was less stressful for me personally. I think that this may be [View Full Entry]

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