(Our group of 24 educators from across the United States standing in front of Aramco Headquarters in Houston, Texas.)
(Mrs. Hinrichs and a few new friends she has made on her trip to Saudi Arabia.)
(A Picture of myself and a teacher from Houston who has traveled to Saudi Arabia twice as part of the Educators to Saudi Arabia program. We are standing in front of the many materials she collected for during her travels.)
Assalam' alaikoom! (This is the formal greeting which means " Greetings and peace be with you" The correct reply to this greeting would be "A laikoom assalam".
I have just arrived in Amsterdam after a long, long, long 9 hour flight. We now have a 6 hour layover and then continue on with a 6 hour flight into Damman, Saudi Arabia. I am thrilled to see so many postings and will try to answer many of your questions in this posting.
Presently, I am having difficulty uploading pictures to this blog, but I hope to work out the bugs in the next few days. In the meantime, writing to the blog is working out just fine so I will continue to post daily in the locations that have Internet connections.
Amanda, you asked about setting up accounts to use the blog; You don't need to set up individual google accounts to make a comment. Click on the anonymous button and then you can type your comment and include your name in the comments so that I know who it is from.
I hear that we will get to see camels at a local camel market, but I am not sure if we can ride one. If we can, you can be sure that I will. So far, the food that we have been given has been typical American cuisine, but far more food than I am used to eating. We have been told that we will need to learn to pace ourselves because the Saudi's enjoy entertaining over long meals and elaborate buffets.
The weather here in Amsterdam is very foggy and unfortunately, we don't have time to go exploring. There is the possibility on our return flight from Saudi that we could take a 2 hour tour of Amsterdam during our layover, so I may explore that option.
Our Aramco hosts have given us a rough itinerary which looks like this:
Friday, March 30- Monday April 2nd City of Dhahran
Here we will stay at the Aramco Compound which is like a military base. On this compound, we will be fitted for our abaya's (the long black robes) and we have typical western freedoms to do as we please. We will take day trips from the compound and stay in a hotel-like facility called Steineke Hall. This city is located near the Persian Gulf ( which Arabs refer to as the Arabian Gulf). We will get to see this large body of water and hopefully collect some sand.
*** Late flight to Jeddah
Late Monday night, April 2nd- Friday, April 6 City of Jeddah
In this city, we will stay at the Jeddah Hilton which is located right on the Red Sea. We will be spending 3+ days in this region and on Friday, we will spend the day at a westernized resort, as Friday is the holiest day of the week for the Islamic faith. At this resort, we can jet ski, snorkle and scuba dive. (I will not have to wear the burkini!)
****Late flight to Riyadh
Late Friday, April 6th- Monday, April 9th City of Riyadh
This is the capital city of Saudi Arabia and the last city on our tour. Here we will be required to wear the head covering piece (called a Hajib) along with our abayas as the religious police are quite strict in this region.
I wish I knew more about our itinerary within each city, but even our American Aramco guides have only a tentative schedule. We will be meeting with a variety of important individuals representing a variety of aspects in Saudi society. We will be escorted by two guards during our entire trip and are treated as important diplomatic guests. It really is quite an experience so far.
OK, for Mrs. Leknes (lover of all things math-like)- let's try some arabic counting!
1 wahid .........................................11 hidashar
2 itnayn......................................... 12 itnashar
3 ttalaata....................................... 13 talatashar
4 arbaa ..........................................14 arbaatashar
5 khmsa......................................... 15 khamastashar
6 sitta ............................................16 shtashar
7 sabaa........................................... 17 sabaatasha
8 tamanya..................................... 18 tamaantashar
9 tisaa ............................................19 tisaatashar
10 ashara...................................... 20 ashriin
We'll, I think it is time to end this entry for now. It is 2am your time right now and 9:30am Amsterdam time( a 7 hour time difference). When we travel to Saudi Arabia, there will be a 9 hour time difference; I will be 9 hours ahead of you.
I hope I have answered all of your questions.
Shukran (Thank you) all for traveling with me.
