Waking Up in Dhahran

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Today is my first full day in Dhahran. I woke up at about 6:00 am, which I hope will put me back on schedule. So far, so good. We’ll see what happens as the day progresses.

Coming in last night, I saw the familiar Dining Hall and my hotel/dorm at Steineke Hall. I realized that although I don’t have quite the excitement of being here the first time, I do have that great feeling of being comfortable with something I know. It’s kind of like when we go back to our (rented) cabin in western Minnesota. It’s nice to see the familiar sights. So instead of Zorba’s Pizza, there is the Dining Hall. Instead of the Three Season Lodge, there is the mosque. Am I the first person to compare Dhahran to Battle Lake, Minnesota?

It’s 10:00 am and here’s what I’ve done so far:

Front Desk: The safe in the room was not reset to the default number, so I had to have someone use the key to reprogram the safe. The same thing happened last time. They seemed surprised that someone would reprogram the safe to a different number than appears in the instructions that are on the safe. How safe is the safe with the default combination of “123”?

My next task was to find out what room Bob is in. Bob is someone who is a safety expert from Oregon here for the first time. He had read my previous blog and I gave him some first-timer suggestions. I spent about 15 minutes at the desk trying to find out Bob’s room number. I wrote his name down on a piece of paper, but they said he wasn’t registered. They looked for his first name and his last name. Endless scrolling of the mouse and searching. Why can you find a million responses in .1 seconds when you Google, but can’t find someone in a hotel with 100 rooms? So I’m having them tell me that he is not registered and guess who walks up to the desk and recognizes me from my blog photo? Yup, it’s Bob. We made plans to meet tomorrow morning for breakfast. P.S. Based upon his room number, his last name in the computer was "C" which is his middle initial. Hmmmm.

Breakfast: Ah, those great weekend waffles (the weekends here are Thursday and Friday)! I decided to stoke-up and have two waffles (I live on the edge), fresh OJ and coffee (total price about $5 US).

Al Mujamba (Visitor Center): I picked up a bus schedule, prayer schedule, TV listings, Arabian newspaper, calendar, and advice about the malls. After handing me the bus schedule, I was told that it was wrong for some of the times because “it changed quite awhile ago, but hasn’t been updated.” I guess they’re a fixin’ to update it one of these days, which would seem like a good idea to me! For the calendar, I was handed a 2008 calendar, but then swapped it for a 2009, which seems like it would work much better. Note to visitor center: you can throw out the 2008 calendars now; it's April.

Bank: I got Saudi currency in Minneapolis from Wells Fargo, but they had only mostly very large denomination bills. If you’ve ever tried to buy milk with a $100 bill at Tom Thumb, you know what kind of looks you get. Since the bank is closed on Fridays and only open during the week during working hours, my only bet was to go there today (it closes at noon). Here’s another Saudi story: I walk in the bank and go to an open teller. He points me to a machine that dispenses numbers. It’s like a bakery, but this is an electronic machine like an ATM (with one touch screen option to get the number). There is a employee that pushes the button and hands you the number. Here’s the best part. There was no one at the teller. I got the number and went back to the same teller who originally told me to get a number! But I supposed it employs the person who pushes the button to dispense the number. Weird.

It’s great to be here. It's a bit on the humid side and probably about 80 degrees or so.

I’ll keep you posted on my new adventures. Thanks for reading this stuff! If you want, you can subscribe to my blog and it will send you an email when there is a new posting.

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Comments

[eve]

Ted--glad you made it there safely! Seems like it's a whirlwind already. Totally LOL about the bank's numbering system. I didn't know the US govt designed banking systems for Saudi Arabia...!

[Tiner]

let the games begin!
I didn't realize how much I missed your blogs until I started getting them again! Gives me something to giggle about in an otherwise ho-hum world of my job.

[TedTravel]

Let the Games Begin
Tiner - you are way too kind. Thanks. :)

[Manir]

Ahlan wa Sahlan.

[TedTravel]

Hello Manir
Wa alaykum is-salam. We will have to find a time to get together!

[Becky Rymer]

Are you an architect?
These are humorous tales of the Middle East. My father was there 11 happy years with Mom. He wrote a book called Jebel Dhahran by Walter Symonds Jr before blogs and e-mails existed. Becky