Week One: The Flight

Salam!

Laura and I wanted to write a blog so that we could keep a journal of our experiences here in Saudi Arabia that we could eventually share with our children. We also wanted to give our friends and family some insight into our lives in the Middle East. If you have questions about life here or are interested in international teaching we can't offer too much insight yet. (Laura thought Saudi Arabia was near Cancun.) However, we are surrounded by, and encounter incredible people on a daily basis who have become invaluable resources for knowledge and support-so we'll just ask them.

Our first week has been intense and exciting. We flew out of Minneapolis on Tuesday night. I got lost following my father to the airport. It was pretty awesome. At the airport we dined at a little place called Chiles. I had a wonderful local brew called Miller Lite while Laura sipped on water garnished with exotic lemon fruits (they are like sassy oranges). Our flight left on time. I suggested we place Jack in the overhead, Laura disagreed. We flipped for it. Laura won.

Jack fell asleep shortly before takeoff and woke up as we descended into Amsterdam. He's never flown before, but on international flights they serve free booze, so it was going to be a relaxing flight one way or another.

In Amsterdam we had a few hours before our connecting flight left for Dammam. While waiting we met a number of couples working at with us, which was very exciting. We took off again (Jack fell asleep again) and we arrived in Dammam around 9 p.m. on Wednesday. (FYI: Saudi is 8 hours ahead of CST). A lot had been made of the difficulty of getting through customs. However the school sent a representative and it only took about an hour to get through. We were greeted by a number of ISG staff members who helped us load our luggage and put us on a bus to head about half hour to Khobar and our compound.

The bus ride to the compound took about 45 minutes. The entrance to the compound is flanked by 3 guards. A little bit further in there's another guard in a tent which houses a giant gun-I think it might be a cannon from a pirate ship, but I didn't really get a good look.

The bus dropped us off at our front door and we were let into our new house at around 11:00. Laura is going to talk about our house in the next post.