The first few days.....

Well Tuesday morning was a great start, I woke up around 5:30 and knew I needed to get started. I was told that since we got in so late that I was not expected in at the regular start at 6:00 AM. I got up and showered got dressed and walked across the street to the Dinning Hall. I had made arrangements the night before with Ray the Sr. Construction Manager to ride in with him. He was the other passenger we had been waiting on. He had just come off his rotation and was not really in a hurry to get in. Breakfast was nice and cold, almost like it had been sitting out for awhile. Well since it opened at 5:00AM I would imagine, this was like 6:45 or so. Anyway it was a breakfast of scrambled eggs, Beef sausage (of course) coffee and orange juice. I forgot how watered down juice tasted in the Middle East but oh well.

After breakfast I walked over to the room and got my bag and headed back to wait for Ray. He strolled out about 15 minutes later and I was glad because it was beginning to heat up and I could feel the wetness on my skin. Ray wanted some coffee so he headed in for a cup and then we were off. The drive was another typical, through Eastern block buildings to the highway. It took about 30 minutes to get to the site but the scenery, well prety much the same, sand, palm trees, wrecked cars, and oil and chemical refineries in the background. After giving the guard at the gate my drivers license and temporary gate pass, we were there.

As we pulled up to the office complex, I noticed the familiarity of the style, and another typical of the Middle East, canvas covering to park the cars under so they wouldn't burn up in the heat. We went in and I was introduced to a nice chap from the UK. He was the F&A (Finance and Administration) guy and Ray asked him to show me around and find John my new boss. As we walked down the long hallway heads turned to see who the new guy was and I met a few of the people I would be working with. Most seemed to be in a good mood so that was a good start as well. We made it to John's office but he wasn't there so Mick called him on the Cell and told him I was there. He said he would be along shortly he was down at our Superintendents building. It is another complex that is closer to the site where we are building the units. As we waited he introduced me to a couple of the guys that would be working for me, and some chit chat about IT stuff. He eventually left me because John was taking longer than expected. I told him I would be fine I sat down got out my Laptop and started logging in to check email.

After about 10 or 15 minutes John came in and we introduced ourselves and sat and talked for quite awhile about what he expected and what they had been working on. We immediately hit it off and I knew that I had hit a gold mine in a boss he was going to be very easy to work with. You know you never know what to expect when you are going into a new environment but God provided. While we were talking there was noise in the hall and finally he said that he guessed they had finally got my furniture moved in and was I ready to settle in. I said sure and we went into the IT office and talked for a few minutes more. It was a little akward with Ardie my lead who had been there for quite awhile, I wasn't sure how he was going to take having a new boss and all. He is from the Philipines as are one of the two guys that works for me the other is from Napal. I immediately tried to break the ice with him and I think he responded fairly well.

The rest of the day was getting settled in and going through all the emails waiting on me, and the new things I needed to start working on. Around 4:30 Mo our local guy who takes care of getting our clerances, drivers license and Agame (i'll explain this one later), came and got me and said we needed to go to the clinic. I asked him what for becuase I had already done my medical in Houston. He said that it was a new Saudi law that all new Expats (Expatriot)who come into the country must have a Hepititis test, eye test and chest xray before they could submit their paperwork for home status. We stopped by and told John and Mo said he would drop me off at the camp after we were through. We went out to his car and headed to town. The ride was about 20 minutes and we talked about everything, his family, where he lived, how long he had worked for KBR, etc. He even was shocked that we were paying $4 a gallon for gas because they were paying somewhere around 45 cents a gallon here. I was floored I knew it was cheaper but had no idea it was that cheap.

We arrived at the clinic and went inside. Typical Middle Eastern clinic, tile floors, concrete walls, everything painted white. We went upstairs to a waiting room next to the check-in desk where three lovely fully dressed in their buca's including facial veil. He told me to take a seat and he would take care of everything. He knew his way around and he knew EVERYONE. He got us in and out in less than 30 minutes. As we were walking down the stairs he said see I told you it wouldn't take long, ya if I had tried to do that by myself, I would still be sitting there waiting. We got back in the car and headed back to camp. The drive was short considering we had traveled three quarters of the way to town and he dropped me off at the front gate. Before he left, he got in his trunk and handed me a selection of the local fruit, dates. He said you wash these and you will love them, eat them with your coffee and you will have tastes you have never tasted before.

I proceeded to my room and put down my items I had been hauling, my backpack with Laptop and other essentials which weighs in the neighborhood of about 40 lbs. I quickly changed into a pair of shorts and headed across to the dinning room for dinner. To my pleasant surprise, they were serving curry chicken and rice, one of my absolute favorites. They did a good job on it and the green salad and tomatoes with your choice of French, Thousand Island, or Blue Cheese dressing. Now remember we are in the Middle East so they look like what we have at home, but don't nearly taste as good. Anyway I finished up with a quick pice of Apple pie for dessert and a cup of coffee to wash it down with. I headed back to my room and chated with Diane for about an hour before it was time to hit the hay again.

Wednesday and Thursday left nothing to the imagination, pretty much the same ole. Oh we carry a packed lunch everyday because there is no place close to get lunch, usually consist of a couple of sandwhiches, a couple of juice boxes a piece of fruit and a piece of fruit bread. Not bad when you are hungry but I wonder how fast that is going to get old. Well Friday is a day of rest so I will hopefully be able to sleep in and get some much needed rest. Hope you are enjoying, please be sure to leave comments if there is any questions or ideas you have.

And we're off

Well the day finally came to head off on my new adventure. Got up around 7:30 had a lite breakfast, tried to get my thoughts together, look at my list and scratch off anything I had completed already. Of course the last day you always forget something so we added that to the list as well. Josh and Cassie came down Saturday night and we had a nice quiet evening, well other than me stressing that I was running out of time and I couldn't find everything.

We decided to get all the things we needed at Walmart and would meet them for dinner at Lupe Tortilla's close to Intercontinental Airport. Diane and I took off for Walmart and Radio Shack around 2:30 and we were going to try to be back in time to leave by 3:00 ;) ya I was pretty sure we wouldn't make that one, but hey we tried anyway. Of course it took way too much time at Walmart and then the stop at Radio Shack, well you guessed we weren't even close to being home, and we still had to pick Kimber up at her apartment. Long story short, we got home and I repacked all my suitcases, each weighed less than what they were supposed to and off we went, at 3:55. Ya I was pretty sure that we wouldn't have enough time to get there and eat and be at the Airport an hour and a half before the flight.

We tooled out on 45 North and called Josh to find out where they were. It was too late to eat so we told them to just meet us at the Airport. We arrived about the same time and found a parking place. As we loaded a cart with my ton of luggage, we trugged through the cars towards the elevator. After waiting about 10 minutes, we were on and headed down to check-in. I decided we had enough time for a quick Starbucks, probably would be my last for awhile. We got our drinks and went back upstairs to sit and watch the security line. That is one thing that will get you in trouble if it is too long, it can keep you from your flight. We just sat and talked for a few minutes and then I decided we couldn't drag it out any longer so I said my good-byes and got in line. Good thing I did too because all of a sudden behind me were about 15 people. Went through with no issues, got my stuff and put it all back in its proper place and waived bye.

Well I will spare you with the other details but the incoming flight was late so we were late. When I finally got on the plane, the Continental Flight specialist came on the plane and said well you are our only issue. I said really why is that? He said that if we didn't get to Amsterdam in time for my flight to Saudi I would be in Amsterdam for 3 days before the next flight. Nice, really nice and me with nothing to do but sit back and wait and see.......

The first leg of the flight was really quick we had a nice tail wind and got there about 10 minutes after we were supposed to be there before the flight was late. We landed on the farthest runway from the terminal so it took like 15 minutes to get there. At least I slept about 5-1/2 hours and felt pretty good. As we pulled up to the Jetway, it took them forever to get it pulled up to the plane and finally they opened the door. They were all saying Good Luck hope you make your flight...... nice don't help me get there or anything, oh well I was off to find the monitors. I ran down the Terminal hall, which is another crazy thing, you have to park at the last gate in the last Terminal so if you wanted to make a quick flight, no way, nearly impossible. Doing this mind you with a new pair of steel toed boots which I am breaking in for the first time.... ya you guessed it, very uncomfortable. Found the checkin desk for KLM and she pointed me in the right direction. I made it to the gate and they had just started checking people through security so I was good. A matter of standing in the cattle line for about 15 minutes and I was on the plane. Had to call Diane and tell her I made it so we were chatting while I was getting on the plane and finding my seat. I got all set in my seat and we talked for a few minutes until they shut the door and then we were off again.

The flight was estimated at 5 hours and 36 minutes and the plane wasn't as full as it looked when I got on. As I looked around there were a lot of seats vacant. Oh well not to worry we were in the air and that was all that mattered. I skipped lunch because I was feeling pretty hot still, for some reason I couldn't seem to cool off. Anyway I watched a couple of movies on the way which made the time go by relatively quick. Before we knew it we were heading down and making ready to land. It was interesting watching the Tracker as we got closer to ground, the temperature of course is colder in the upper atmosphere but we went from -41 degrees F to +98 really quick. After about 10 minutes the pilot came on and said we were landing. We touched down at 7:59 PM 24 hours from when I had left.

Once in the terminal you have a very long walk to customs, every country does that including the US no clue why because you are already dead tired from the long flight so it really takes a lot to endure. After about 10 minutes of walking we finally arrived in Customs, the wait wasn't bad and I was through and retrieving my bags. They came off pretty quick too so I loaded them on the cart and headed to the Xray machines. I made it through with no check and headed out into the lobby where my driver was to be waiting. I found him and he said he was waiting on another passenger so we waited about 5 minutes for him to show up. Once he arrived we headed for the garage and waited for the driver to bring the car around. After finally getting all of my luggage in the car, well I am going to be here for awhile, we headed off for Al Jubail Industrial City.

The drive wasn't bad, you couldn't see anything with it being night and of course the dust storm. We arrived at the Al Razvat Residential commpound about 9:30 ish. They had my room all ready so I gave them my Passport and signed the papers and they showed me to my room. Not much to it a bed, desk, a couple of chairs, a coffee table, tv, bathroom and a bureau to put my clothes in. It was all good, I was just ready to get unpacked and go to sleep. I was pretty excited about that because normally my trips West end up with me being up for a couple of days while my body tries to adjust. I unpacked got ready for bed, popped an Advil PM and fell fast asleep.