Thursday, February 12, 2009
Dust Bowl?
We had our first sand storm yesterday. When we headed into the plant in the morning, the visibility was probably only 50 yards or less. When I first looked out the windows I thought it was just really hazy out. No such luck, instead it was the air being full of really fine dust/sand. Once we got to the plant and went inside for the training class, the visibility in the building was nearly as bad as it was outside. We were able to look down one hallway and it looked just like a smoke filled bar or something. The building we were in is not sealed all that well and people have a tendency to leave doorways open which made it even worse. One of the South African's in the class was joking that any time he washed his car it would either rain (what little bit they get) or a sand storm would roll in. The wind blew all day and the visibility never got any better that whole day. Didn't have my camera on me at the time or I would have tried to take some pictures.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Various Pictures
OK, I see none of my picture captions came through. Will do my best to describe what the *bleep* that thing is in the pictures.
Restroom pic - Yes, that is a 'standard' Saudi toilet. Yes, it is a toilet seat situated directly on the floor. No, you don't actually sit on it. Yes, I'm glad my living quarters has an American sytle commode.
Me in a tent. This was taken at Khalil's family's tent at a 'campground' outside of Bahrain. The base carpet in the tent was HUGE and spotless (not sure how they managed that one!).
Picture of part of the 'campground' outside of Bahrain.
Group of co-workers out for dinner at the Brazilian place.
Random city art located around Bahrain.
Raymond in front of the mosque that was located near Ric's.
The mosque located near Ric's in Bahrain.
Ric's dinner in Bahrain. Good American style food.
All of my stuff for 9 months in Saudi.....is that all I really need? Why do I have a house if that is all I need?
Dad and I at the airport in Tri-cities. Two 'large' pieces of luggage, one 'carry on' size piece, one backpack and one brief case. Not a lot of volume for my stuff, but I got all the neccesities in there (XBox, personal laptop, video games...oh yeah and clothes.).
Restroom pic - Yes, that is a 'standard' Saudi toilet. Yes, it is a toilet seat situated directly on the floor. No, you don't actually sit on it. Yes, I'm glad my living quarters has an American sytle commode.
Me in a tent. This was taken at Khalil's family's tent at a 'campground' outside of Bahrain. The base carpet in the tent was HUGE and spotless (not sure how they managed that one!).
Picture of part of the 'campground' outside of Bahrain.
Group of co-workers out for dinner at the Brazilian place.
Random city art located around Bahrain.
Raymond in front of the mosque that was located near Ric's.
The mosque located near Ric's in Bahrain.
Ric's dinner in Bahrain. Good American style food.
All of my stuff for 9 months in Saudi.....is that all I really need? Why do I have a house if that is all I need?
Dad and I at the airport in Tri-cities. Two 'large' pieces of luggage, one 'carry on' size piece, one backpack and one brief case. Not a lot of volume for my stuff, but I got all the neccesities in there (XBox, personal laptop, video games...oh yeah and clothes.).
Second Week in Saudi
Worked 6 days the first week here (5 days of operator training and one day of misc.). A group of us (Raymond, Rodney, Paula (Rodney's wife), Jorge, Bill, Tom and I all went into Bahrain on our day off to eat out and do some shopping. Well, realy only three people shopped the rest of us just looked at all the neat stuff. We started off the day by leaving town at 7:45am and were able to make it across the dreaded causeway without incident (it has takn upwards of 8 hrs to make this trip in the past). Upon arrival in Bahrain, we ended up at Ric's (a dinner Rodney knew about) for breakfast. They had a very extensive menu and we all ended up eating an American style breakfast. I had the blueberry pancakes and actual pork sausage patties and it was all very good. Next stop was to the shopping 'center', which in this case was an area of town with a bunch of shops all squeezed in together in the same area. Unfortunately, since it was Friday (Saudi's Sunday) all of the shops were closed until 4pm for prayer. We all piled back into the vehicles and headed to the "Gold City", sort of an indoor mall dedicated to jewerly and such. Can't count the number of times I had to say "I don't wear a watch" or "I don't need a watch" to the guys behind the counters as we walked around looking at stuff. I don't wear watches and when I do, I hate paying $20 for an authentic one in the States, let alone paying $100+ for a knockoff. Looked at lots of neat jewerly and such and was rather grateful (for once) that I'm not currently seeing someone, cause it would have been easy to spend a lot of money on several pieces for her if I was! After looking around the stores we meet up with Khailil for an early dinner at a great Brazilian resturant. For those who haven't been to one, it is heaven on earth for anyone on an Atkin's diet. They basically keep bring out skewers of different meats (chicken sausage, pork sausage, chicken rolls, chicken wings, beef brisket, lamp, steak, etc.) until you say no more. Me being me, I was the last one to finally say no and I didn't pass up on ANY of the meats as they came out!
I have added some pics from the trip to Bahrain and hope they come through OK.
I have added some pics from the trip to Bahrain and hope they come through OK.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Frustrations
Just spent the last hour putting together my first post from Saudi and what happens?..... The dang network crashes and I get to redo it again. Going to get some sleep and try again tomorrow.
Day 1 in Saudi
Phew........was able to find my 'Draft' version of my first day in Saudi post, so I don't have to completely redo it. Woot! Woot!
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The trip from Kingsport, TN to Jubail, Saudi Arabia was fairly uneventful. It was a little bit of a shock when the pilot came on the PA system on the Atlanta to Dubai flight and announced that thanks to a favorable tail wind that the flight would only be aobut 12.5hrs. For those that haven't taken this flight, it is normally a 14 hr flight. Needless to say, it was one heck of a tail wind that they found up there. It was so 'good' that we even got to strap in tight for some enterataining turbulence about 4 hrs or so it the flight. I reminded me a lot of the turbulence when you took a little puddle jumper airplane over the Sierras or Appalachians.
Customs and Immigration at the King Farrid Airport in Saudi Arabia was a breeze other then they were taking about 5 min to process one person through immigration. With a full 777 flight, that was a lot of people and a lot of time to have to stand in line and wait. Fortunately I was the 4th person in my line, so it wasn't too bad. Besides, after going through that i still had to wait for my luggage to come through.
We arrived at the living compound at about 1:15am and then we had to go in and sign paperwork for keys to an apartment that we had stayed in previously. As usual, when we got into the apartment everything from in the kitchen was sitting out on the counter. We haven't quite figured out if they just like to display everything for you when you arrive or if they pulled it all out so they can see if anything has been lost, stolen or broken. The big surprise came when we looked around for what I had come to expect as the 'usual' welcome here supplies, single servings of breakfast items (juice, milk, cereral, coffee). Not only had they forgotten to leave any of that, but they also didn't leave any toilet paper in any of the bathrooms. Fortunately, I discovered that little lapse in service prior to being 'caught in the act' and really being in trouble. However, my roommate, Raymond, was able to come to my rescue as he had the foresight to pack a single roll of TP in his luggage was willing to give me use of it. Went straight to bed after that and tried to get some sleep. Woke up around 4am and couldn't get back to sleep so I got up took my shower and watched some TV until we went into work.
The training class we are doing this week is for the new operators and there were about 16 people in the class or so. The class is a mix of different nationalities and it is taken some practice to get used to everyone's accent. As the first part of the training was to go over the basics of Eastman, chemical safety, and overall plant principles, Ty was doing most of the talking. Although I was glad he was going over all this material, it meant I had to attempt to stay awake in the front of the class that was overly warm in a half way comfortable chair. Although I know I didn't drool on myself, I'm not 100% sure if I was awake for the whole thing.
_____________________________
The trip from Kingsport, TN to Jubail, Saudi Arabia was fairly uneventful. It was a little bit of a shock when the pilot came on the PA system on the Atlanta to Dubai flight and announced that thanks to a favorable tail wind that the flight would only be aobut 12.5hrs. For those that haven't taken this flight, it is normally a 14 hr flight. Needless to say, it was one heck of a tail wind that they found up there. It was so 'good' that we even got to strap in tight for some enterataining turbulence about 4 hrs or so it the flight. I reminded me a lot of the turbulence when you took a little puddle jumper airplane over the Sierras or Appalachians.
Customs and Immigration at the King Farrid Airport in Saudi Arabia was a breeze other then they were taking about 5 min to process one person through immigration. With a full 777 flight, that was a lot of people and a lot of time to have to stand in line and wait. Fortunately I was the 4th person in my line, so it wasn't too bad. Besides, after going through that i still had to wait for my luggage to come through.
We arrived at the living compound at about 1:15am and then we had to go in and sign paperwork for keys to an apartment that we had stayed in previously. As usual, when we got into the apartment everything from in the kitchen was sitting out on the counter. We haven't quite figured out if they just like to display everything for you when you arrive or if they pulled it all out so they can see if anything has been lost, stolen or broken. The big surprise came when we looked around for what I had come to expect as the 'usual' welcome here supplies, single servings of breakfast items (juice, milk, cereral, coffee). Not only had they forgotten to leave any of that, but they also didn't leave any toilet paper in any of the bathrooms. Fortunately, I discovered that little lapse in service prior to being 'caught in the act' and really being in trouble. However, my roommate, Raymond, was able to come to my rescue as he had the foresight to pack a single roll of TP in his luggage was willing to give me use of it. Went straight to bed after that and tried to get some sleep. Woke up around 4am and couldn't get back to sleep so I got up took my shower and watched some TV until we went into work.
The training class we are doing this week is for the new operators and there were about 16 people in the class or so. The class is a mix of different nationalities and it is taken some practice to get used to everyone's accent. As the first part of the training was to go over the basics of Eastman, chemical safety, and overall plant principles, Ty was doing most of the talking. Although I was glad he was going over all this material, it meant I had to attempt to stay awake in the front of the class that was overly warm in a half way comfortable chair. Although I know I didn't drool on myself, I'm not 100% sure if I was awake for the whole thing.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Last US Work Week
I am down to my last work week in the US for quite some time. My flight leaves this Thursday afternoon. As usual, I have procrastinated enough that I still have a lengthy list of stuff to complete. However, I was at least smart enough to sit down and write up a check sheet of all the things I need/want to take with me. Granted, the list was two and a half pages long (hand written), but at least I have something to work from.
Making sure I take full advantage of the liquidation sale at Circuit City before I leave. Picked up some nice accessories for the XBox, like a 1yr subscription to XBox Live at 30% off, too bad I could find any of the XBox Points cards =( . However, it was nice to get tax software cheap, especially since my parents will have to do my convoluted tax returns (two companies, relocation expenses, international business travel income, sale and purchase of a home).
Have been able to spend at least some time with everyone I have made friends with since I have moved here and even made the trip to Salisbury to see everyone in NC before I left. Someone asked what I would miss the most when I'm in Saudi that they could send me in care packages. I had to laugh, because of regardless of where I go, I always miss the people I leave behind and didn't think I could get them shipped to me. Although, it would be interesting to see what would happened at Saudi customs if one of the ladies tried to ship themselves in =)
Since I won't be able to sleep much the first day I get to Saudi (this Friday US time), I will make sure I get a new post added when I land.
Making sure I take full advantage of the liquidation sale at Circuit City before I leave. Picked up some nice accessories for the XBox, like a 1yr subscription to XBox Live at 30% off, too bad I could find any of the XBox Points cards =( . However, it was nice to get tax software cheap, especially since my parents will have to do my convoluted tax returns (two companies, relocation expenses, international business travel income, sale and purchase of a home).
Have been able to spend at least some time with everyone I have made friends with since I have moved here and even made the trip to Salisbury to see everyone in NC before I left. Someone asked what I would miss the most when I'm in Saudi that they could send me in care packages. I had to laugh, because of regardless of where I go, I always miss the people I leave behind and didn't think I could get them shipped to me. Although, it would be interesting to see what would happened at Saudi customs if one of the ladies tried to ship themselves in =)
Since I won't be able to sleep much the first day I get to Saudi (this Friday US time), I will make sure I get a new post added when I land.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Prepping to Leave
Today is Jan 12, which means I leave for my short term relocation in 17 days. Have a lot to finish up before going overseas.
- Finish 4hrs of training material that is to be given the week I arrive.
- Get my home security system installed and operational (fortunately, I only have to watch the installation and not actually do it).
- Get my power of attorney set up (legal and medical).
- Eat at as many 'ethnic' restraurants as I can in the area. Rather limited selection being in the Tri-cities area (German, Italian, Indian, Thai, Japanese). :-(
- 'Winterize' my motorcycle as it won't be used while I'm gone.
- Travel to AL to see Scott graduate from helicopter flight school (finally!!!).
- Spend time with the few friends I have made in the area.
- Finish 4hrs of training material that is to be given the week I arrive.
- Get my home security system installed and operational (fortunately, I only have to watch the installation and not actually do it).
- Get my power of attorney set up (legal and medical).
- Eat at as many 'ethnic' restraurants as I can in the area. Rather limited selection being in the Tri-cities area (German, Italian, Indian, Thai, Japanese). :-(
- 'Winterize' my motorcycle as it won't be used while I'm gone.
- Travel to AL to see Scott graduate from helicopter flight school (finally!!!).
- Spend time with the few friends I have made in the area.
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