Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Marhaba everyone! (Hello in arabic)

Today was an amazing start to our trip. We were brought to the Aramco Headquarters where we were given an intensive 8 hour orientation to prepare us for the trip to Saudi Arabia. We were given very basic Arabic instructions so that we can say all the courtesy phrases such as:

Good Morning... Sabah el khair
Good Evening... Masa el khair
Yes... Na'am
No... La
Please... Min Fadhlak
Thank you ... Shukran

We are also learning to count in Arabic. We have to do a head count everywhere we go to be sure that we have all 24 of us together, so we are learning to count up to 24 in Arabic. I am number 11!

We fly out tomorrow, Thursday, around 3pm and have a very long 24 hours of flying and traveling ahead of us. When we arrive in Saudi Arabia, it will be Friday at around 8pm. For the first few nights, we will be staying at a hotel on the Aramco Compound. The very first morning there, the women in our group will all be measured for our abayas (the black robes) but we will not need to wear them until we travel to the capital city of Riyadh.

Our hosts have told us so much information already about life in Saudi, that I cannot wait to begin this trip. We have been given video cd's to show in the classroom and power point presentations to use when we return. Aramco seems to have thought of everything and keeps improving their program each year.

My next entry will be from Amsterdam during our 6 hour layover. Salaam.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Hello New Hampshire. I have successfully traveled to Houston, Texas for orientation. One by one, teachers from across the United States have been ,arriving at the hotel this afternoon to learn about how this program will operate. On our agenda this evening, we will be meeting with mentors, teachers from the Houston area who have recently taken this trip to Saudi Arabia. My roommate’s name is Nicole and she is a teacher from the state of Utah.

The orientation schedule has us meeting this evening and then again at 7:45am in the morning, where we will be transported to Aramco’s Headquarters in Houston. Everyone that I have met today is eager to begin our adventure in Saudi Arabia, but we are all dreading the long flight to get there.

Just in case you are wondering, it is a sunny 80 degrees here in Texas and the trees are green with leaves and the flowers are in bloom. I am hoping that Amherst will look like this by the time I have returned from this trip.

I will post again tomorrow and let you know what information they have given us to prepare for our journey. Take care.