To the Land of Sand....

A couple of weeks ago I (Midge) ventured to the country of Saudi Arabia for professional training. While I didn't get to see much (because is was learning a lot) I did find that yes, there are friendly people everywhere you go.  Here are some pictures of my short adventure.

Since I flew in after dark this was the first view I saw when I got there. Outside of my hotel room

Something we don't have in Lebanon. I wish we did. 

My very nice hotel.

This is at the school I was thinking WOW! This place is HUGE! But then I realized how flat and spread out it is compared to where we are. We are just more vertical. I took this picture because there sure is a lot of sand on the campus. With all of the cats we have, it would be a SERIOUS litter box!

Another picture of the school

This and the next picture are a little blurry because I didn't want to make a scene taking a picture in the mall. This was a mall on steroids. Some wonderful people that teach in Riyadh took pity on me (being alone) and invited me to go with them to the Outback Steakhouse here. We walked from entrance #2 to entrance #11 for 45 minutes until we found the restaruant.

This mall seemed to be the place for women to go. The only men I saw were with women or they were boys.  I guess this is tradition here.

This was a lovely sunset I saw.

Many of the shops have this kind of entrance. Sorry it's blurry. Taking pictures in the car is tough.

I did successfully get some Starbucks mugs. This was a challenge since women cannot drive in Saudi Arabia. I had an hour before someone was taking me to the airport. When I was at the hotel I asked them if someone could get me a taxi to go. This man came up and said he would take me for free because I reminded him of the English tutor he had when he lived in the U.S. for 6 years. This was very nice. He rushed me to Starbucks and I ran in to get the cups. While I was buying them the Call the Prayer happened. This means that all businesses lock their doors. I thought I was going to be stuck there for 20 or so minutes but a nice Indian man that worked there let me out. YAY!

I found that not only was going to Saudi Arabia an adventure. Getting into this country was an adventure in and of itself.  You have to be officially "Invited" to be able to go to Saudi Arabia. This is a challenging thing to do for foreigners in the Kingdom so the school hosting the training could not help me.  It took the efforts of many people here at ACS to get me there AND the help of the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Lebanon as well. This was some of the best professional development I have had in a few years and so I truly appreciate all who helped me to get there!