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Well, I thought I had written my final blog entry for this trip. I’m using this loophole: the previous entry was last EVENING in Dhahran and this is the last DAY in Dhahran. Think of it as like being an extra on a DVD. (However, there will be no director’s cut of this blog.)
The last day of the last assessment session is kind of boring because I usually use the afternoon to do the preparations for the next session. But of course on the last day, there isn’t a next session.
Koen had some extra time too because one of his two participants was a no-show. I then got the idea that if we hurried, we could go to the Saudi Aramco Exhibit, which is this multi-million dollar building that is all about drilling and finding oil. If you ever wanted to know anything about the Oil and Gas industry (and who doesn’t?), that’s the place to go. Except when it’s “Family Only” day. If you remember back to my last trip, it went something like this:
1. Squeeze five people into a car the size of a Gemini space capsule.
2. Drive to the exhibit and
find out that it doesn’t open for an hour.
3. Squeeze back into the car and go back in an hour.
4. Get there when it opens, but be told you have to wait 15 minutes for it to open.
5. Have the guard tell you that it’s family day, which means if you don’t have a woman with you, you can’t get in.
So it was time to try again. We avoided a near-disaster. We started to leave for the museum and I remembered that we had already handed in our Aramco security badges. Had we left without them, we would not have been able to get back in without in incredible delay and much embarrassment. Whew. I collected our badges and we headed out.
By some small miracle, it was open, and we got in. This is a pretty cool building and it’s filled with interactive exhibits. You push buttons, turn valves, watch videos, play video games, etc. The only problem is that we had about 45 minutes before Koen needed to get back and conduct his one feedback session. So it was sort of a museum drive-by. You know the type: “Can you please tell
me where the Mona Lisa is? Thanks. Well, gotta run.” So this is definitely worth a longer visit.
I uploaded some photos I took. There were some high school age kids that were as interested in taking our photos as I was taking their photos. I don’t think they ever had met a Westerner because they were from a small village in central Saudi Aramco. They enjoyed speaking English and wanted tips on learning how to speak more quickly. They seemed more interested in us than in going through the exhibit. It was fun to be an exotic foreigner for them. I also snapped a quick photo at prayer time from the balcony looking into a room below.
Koen and I made it back in time, so all was right with the world. It was a fun last side-trip. I’m typing this from Amsterdam where I have another 90 minutes or so before I need to head down to my gate for the trip back to Minneapolis.
Cheers.
-- Ted
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