The past week has let to a little more settling in here in Saudi Arabia, and most importantly I was finally able to get a taxi to take me to SACO to get tools to fix up my bicycle for camp transportation! It is now roadworthy and the parts bike has been modified enough that I can be sold now. I also picked up my moped so that I have motorized camp transportation (and ride around and say "ciao" - and I will be impressed with anyone who knows the reference) which needs a bit of work, but the mechanic will pick it up on Saturday from my office and hopefully resolve the transmission issues. I've also decided that once the Iqama arrives I will rent a car and use that for transportation for a month or so - the cost is only around 2600 Riyals per month including insurance! That way I can wait until I find exactly what I want for a car for a fair price; Majed has some good connections in Riyadh so it may be possible to get a nice, small car if I can be patient!
Well the trip to SACO was about what I expected, but the store was a tad underwhelming; once the new location SACO WORLD opens up in Dhahran Mall it will be much better! SACO is basically Ace Hardware in Saudi Arabia and good for most stuff. The store is near the main part of Khobar, meaning traffic is completely insane. I managed to get a taxi from Majestic and they assured me I did not need to book an appointment for the return trip; I figured I would be in the store for about an hour. Well, my timing was about perfect and when I called Majestic I got the usual response of "no taxis available, call back in half an hour". So thanks to some previously intelligent thinking, I called Akter (his number is in my cell phone) who was not available, but his brother was and was close by! So I met Akter's brother who has a car as well and found his car much better than the taxi that is normally used! So Makther brought be back to camp in style and the trip was not a total loss! Goes to show how important it is to keep in touch the people who help you out - and to help them out as much as you can too! I can say that now I pretty much have a driver and will just make an appointment with Makther when I need to make a shopping trip - the only thing is I have to remember to get him a gate pass ahead of time ... the guard was very kind last night and did not hassle us for failing to go into the security office for the gate pass! It seems that as long as the guard is a Saudi there is usually not a problem :-) Most Saudis are nice people, although the police checkpoint prior to the first Aramco gate can be a tad unpredictable ... last week when I was out with Gusai and Rajan, they were impressed I carried all my papers with me (and so was the policeman who stopped us at the gate - he seemed eager to find someone with incorrect documents). It does help to listen!
The house problems all appears to be solved for now and I am starting to focus on work more. We are supposed to move to the new building, Al Mistra (?) next month. This building is quite amazing ... not as pretty as the new R&D building architecturally (the R&D building is absolutely gorgeous - utterly brilliant architecture that is aesthetically incredible, very functional and fits the landscape unbelievably well). The new building is the tallest Aramco building and near the highway so the commute will be around 3km further. The really cool thing about the building is that it has every amenity in the North Park area, like a new dining hall, a huge gym, important vendor services (travel, AMEX, STC cell phone, etc.) ... I'm hoping to take advantage of all of this stuff ... but back to what is incredible ... they will have covered parking, which is not unusual, but the covering will be solar panels that will generate up to 10MW for the company! That is very green for a petrochemical company! It is good to be part of a company with such a vision :-)
I've also finally got back to using my Rosetta Stone software for learning Arabic; actually, I have restarted because it was easier to just start from the beginning again. It will take a while before I am comfortable speaking Arabic, but I will have a better chance of understanding my coworkers in the near future :-) It really is difficult because the writing is completely different and I am simply learning sounds and associating these with pictures. It does work and I am recognizing a few things - but it is slow! I will learn this language and be functional within one year (or less)!
So the plan for today will be to take the moped out and go to the coffee house for a bite to eat, mainly so I escape the hills for a while. I will also search for the pool and gym that is near my house and start on that either today or tomorrow. It has been a difficult transition, but I think that getting exercise will make a world of difference to me ... and I've wanted to swim for a very long time as part of an exercise routine. It is great for cardio!
So that is the news for now ... feel free to ask any questions if you have any!
Well the trip to SACO was about what I expected, but the store was a tad underwhelming; once the new location SACO WORLD opens up in Dhahran Mall it will be much better! SACO is basically Ace Hardware in Saudi Arabia and good for most stuff. The store is near the main part of Khobar, meaning traffic is completely insane. I managed to get a taxi from Majestic and they assured me I did not need to book an appointment for the return trip; I figured I would be in the store for about an hour. Well, my timing was about perfect and when I called Majestic I got the usual response of "no taxis available, call back in half an hour". So thanks to some previously intelligent thinking, I called Akter (his number is in my cell phone) who was not available, but his brother was and was close by! So I met Akter's brother who has a car as well and found his car much better than the taxi that is normally used! So Makther brought be back to camp in style and the trip was not a total loss! Goes to show how important it is to keep in touch the people who help you out - and to help them out as much as you can too! I can say that now I pretty much have a driver and will just make an appointment with Makther when I need to make a shopping trip - the only thing is I have to remember to get him a gate pass ahead of time ... the guard was very kind last night and did not hassle us for failing to go into the security office for the gate pass! It seems that as long as the guard is a Saudi there is usually not a problem :-) Most Saudis are nice people, although the police checkpoint prior to the first Aramco gate can be a tad unpredictable ... last week when I was out with Gusai and Rajan, they were impressed I carried all my papers with me (and so was the policeman who stopped us at the gate - he seemed eager to find someone with incorrect documents). It does help to listen!
The house problems all appears to be solved for now and I am starting to focus on work more. We are supposed to move to the new building, Al Mistra (?) next month. This building is quite amazing ... not as pretty as the new R&D building architecturally (the R&D building is absolutely gorgeous - utterly brilliant architecture that is aesthetically incredible, very functional and fits the landscape unbelievably well). The new building is the tallest Aramco building and near the highway so the commute will be around 3km further. The really cool thing about the building is that it has every amenity in the North Park area, like a new dining hall, a huge gym, important vendor services (travel, AMEX, STC cell phone, etc.) ... I'm hoping to take advantage of all of this stuff ... but back to what is incredible ... they will have covered parking, which is not unusual, but the covering will be solar panels that will generate up to 10MW for the company! That is very green for a petrochemical company! It is good to be part of a company with such a vision :-)
I've also finally got back to using my Rosetta Stone software for learning Arabic; actually, I have restarted because it was easier to just start from the beginning again. It will take a while before I am comfortable speaking Arabic, but I will have a better chance of understanding my coworkers in the near future :-) It really is difficult because the writing is completely different and I am simply learning sounds and associating these with pictures. It does work and I am recognizing a few things - but it is slow! I will learn this language and be functional within one year (or less)!
So the plan for today will be to take the moped out and go to the coffee house for a bite to eat, mainly so I escape the hills for a while. I will also search for the pool and gym that is near my house and start on that either today or tomorrow. It has been a difficult transition, but I think that getting exercise will make a world of difference to me ... and I've wanted to swim for a very long time as part of an exercise routine. It is great for cardio!
So that is the news for now ... feel free to ask any questions if you have any!
So do you have a parking spot for your moped/bike(s)? Is there a garage type place for you to work on your bike? How big is your apt?
ReplyDeleteI have a parking spot near my townhouse apartment ... no garage though :-( I need to move up the food chain a bit to get a place with a garage. I am working at a temporary building right now so parking is just a surface lot ... and the apartment is somewhere between 800 and 900 square feet on two floors ...
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