Sunday March 22nd

Sunday March 22nd

I am actually sitting on my stoop at 130 am here. Writing about yesterday. Today I woke up and played some playstation, fed one of the cats that are around and watched half of a movie while I ate a bowl of cereal. Yes they have cereal here; Dig em Smacks MMM. The good thing about today was that it was kind of cool I think low 80s high 70s all day. I did find out a fun fact about Saudi Arabia today. KSA ( Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia) is one of the few places on earth that can reach up to 140 degrees in the summer. Ouch!
Anyway, one of the medics from Australia, Tony came over in the3 morning and said he was going into town to look at a car. So whenever I hear someone is going into town I ask to go. It’s nice to see people. So we hopped into this guys cab to check out a Chevy Blazer we drove for 20 min looked at the car went to McDonalds and turned around and came back. It’s a funny feeling to sit inside McDonalds and only see a bunch of men, because there is a Single men section and a family section. This society is set up for families. Even in the mall after a certain time at night they usually stop men from walking in because it’s family time. It truly is another world. You start to become conscious of the time because if your in the mall and trying to get some food and if the call to prayer comes all the shops close. So you better have your food or purchases taken care of. If not you have to wait about 30 min for everything to open back up. The pace people do things is different too. If you ask someone well when do you think my paperwork will be ready they will say real soon “Insh Allah” (God willing) So it’s important to not be in a rush.
So after we left McDonalds we came back to the compound. But I had to go out again. I just need more interaction with people than just a quick visit to Mickey D’s
So about 3 hours later I went back into town with one of my American neighbors Abdula and his wife Susan. I call them my family because in the compound they are some of the few people that speak English. They are really nice people from Louisiana.
So we got food in the mall and I got to sit in the family section. It was real nice to sit with people and eat dinner.
After dinner we split up and I went to go visit my buddies Tom And Allen at the hotel that SRCA put them in downtown. I walked around for about a hour before I found the hotel. I started off so sure of myself in the wrong direction. Anyway was able to chat with those guys for about a hour before I had to head back.
Here I notice that sitting down and talking to people who speak the same language and have relatively the same culture is a very big deal. It makes the day better.
On a much brighter side I was invited to got to a party or a get together at the American Embassy. An American lady that I met on the plane introduced me so now I have a hook up to go to Steak and movie night this Wednesday. I can’t wait to speak to more Americans it should be real cool. Well I will write again real soon and post more picture when the internet wants to work with me. I did get some pics to upload onto facebook today so you can see some of what I have been talking about. Thanks for reading…writing you makes me feel like I am talking to you somewhat it helps with the fact I don’t know many people here. I look forward to when I can tell you stories of work. Til then I will still keep in touch.

Carlos