This view is one of the outside views of our compound. You can see the cement Jersey barriers that surround the compound.
On the opposite corner is the entrance where the security guards are stationed. All western compounds have this (and sometimes more) security surrounding them.
The best way to describe returning to Riyadh comes from Diane: Good News – You have been there before; Bad News - have been there before! Mick had made arrangements for a villa (apartment) where we used to live. They have completely redone the interior. They have added a great deal more lighting, replaced all the carpets with tile, repainted and textured the walls, all new appliances, new toilets, new sinks, new bidets (a useless piece of equipment), new beds. It still smells of paint and we are just about settled in. It is amazing how much "stuff" it takes to set-up a household in way of things like towels, sheets, silverware, etc.
My biggest challenge has been the new washer/dryer. It is about the size of a peanut butter cup and is supposed to be a washer-dryer combination. Yeah, right! It is Italian. Sorry, Gerald, but the Italians aren't noted from the technical whizadry. (Love their food, though,) I have still yet to be able to dry in it. The manager is going to replace it soon, but in the mean time I get the fun.
The compound where we live is truly international. Our neighbors are British, German, Egyptian, Turkish. Church is mainly made up of Philipinos, but there are several western families here right now. It has been great seeing so many of our friends that we didn't think we would ever see again.
Mick's job is keeping him really busy. When he was here before, even though his contract stated that it was a 48-hour per week job, he rarely worked more than 30-35 hours and very rarely worked on Thursdays (virtual Saturday). This time, however, the group he is working with is putting in the required 48-hours and he will be working most Thursday mornings. They are keeping him very busy, but he is loving it. The other difference from before is the dress code at work. Before it was very casual, but this time he is having to wear a suit and tie to work. He only brought one suit so I brought another suit for him. He is going to have to have a couple of more suits made on one of our trips to Bahrain. (He can order a suit first thing in the morning, and it is custom-made and ready to be picked up by the next afternoon!) (One of the good things about being here: It cost 17 riyals to get his suit cleaned in one day and pressed--$4.50!!)
I have been spending my days getting the apartment set-up and just puttering. I brought some cross stitch to do (David & Tami—I am working on your wedding sampler), studying some of my computer programs, and just plain old puttering around. The compound has a shopping bus that goes out every morning, except Friday (virtual Sunday). So I have taken advantage of that. It sure is different than getting in my car and driving to Walmart. The bus leaves the compound at 9:15, drives to whatever shopping mall or area and returns to pick us up at 11:30. If you only have a few items to get, that is a LONG time to spend wandering around the store. All the malls here have essentially the same stores with the same clothing—mainly for skinny teeny boppers. It does get me out of the apartment, though.
The compound has a "library," of sorts. It is where the residents have dropped off their used paperback books. It is in total disarray, so I volunteered to organize it. The manager is putting in some more shelves and having it cleaned up. When he has that done, I will spend a few hours there reorganizing it.
We finally have the internet here in our apartment, but we haven't set-up a wireless connection yet. The internet connection is upstairs and our only table is downstairs. I am going to take the ironing board upstairs and see if I can use that for a computer desk and get this sent off.
We hope we find you all well and that you had a great Christmas. It was fun to talk to everyone on Christmas Eve and after the twins' baptism. I wish that we had Scotty's transporter here and we could travel at the speed of light so we could have been there with everyone.
Know all is well here and we love all of you and keep you in our hearts and prayers.
Our Arabian Adventure Continues: It is about time I came out of hibernation and let you all know that we are doing well here. Since I left home on 14 Dec, I have only been on my email VERY briefly.
My flight over was, thankfully, uneventful and on time. I had a 6-hour layover in Amsterdam and was able to get a couple of hours of sleep on a bench in the airport which really helped. I arrived in Bahrain on the evening of 16 Dec and our friends, Wayne & Diane Shurtliff, picked me up and took me to their home in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Dhahran is just over the causeway from Bahrain.
Mick drove from Riyadh to Dhahran on the 18th and the four of us left for Europe on the 19th. My poor body didn't know what time zone it was supposed to be in. Nevertheless, we had a great trip. We flew into Vienna and caught the train to Budapest.
Budapest was a great place to spend days leading up to Christmas. It is still politically correct there to celebrate Christmas, not the Holiday Season. There were Christmas fairs set up all over in their squares and the one in front of their parliament building was complete with a live, out-door nativity scene that showed every hour on the hour. The actors were beautifully costumed and they had live animals, including two camels. We could tell they were reading the account from Luke, even though we didn't understand the Hungarian language.
Sunday afternoon we took the train to Zabreb, Croatia. We found this an absolutely charming city even though it was very cold and extremely icy.
Monday afternoon we took the train to Ljubljana, Slovenia. This was a perfect place to spend Christmas as they celebrate the real reason for the season. On Christmas Eve we stood on the steps on their Town Hall and listened to a live concert of a quartet called The New Swing Group. Their back-up group was a group of children ranging in ages from what looked like about 8 to 16 years in age. A lot of the music was in English, some in Sloven, and some a combination.
One of the highlights of our trip was that we were invited to a Christmas dinner at the home of Dora, one of the friends Mick made while serving as the Public Affairs Director for the stake. She fed the four of us and we had a great visit with her. She lives right in the main part of the city. Her apartment is about the size of a postage stamp, but she welcomed us with open arms.
We were going to return to Vienna via Graz, Austria, but we made a last minute change and on Wednesday went to Salzburg instead. It is still one of my favorite places. We mainly walked around and did go up and see the castle. The chess set is still there in Mozart Plazt, but is chained up awaiting better weather.
Thursday afternoon, we again caught a train to Vienna where we flew back into Bahrain. After returning to Wayne and Diane's home in Dhahran, Mick and I left for our return adventures here in Riyadh. Mick has rented a small Chevy. Believe me when I say small. After driving The Beast here before, we feel like we are driving in the bumper cars at Lagoon.
