Marahba everyone! Sorry for not writing again sooner but we have virtually no free time and we are getting to bed well past midnight each night. It is 12;15 am and we just got back in after heading out today at 6:50am. They have set up a jam packed itinerary and we are hosted, toured and dined all day long.
They had a full sit down buffet lunch for us at a beautiful HolyDay Inn ( as they call it) Hotel overlooking a pretty swimming pool. We began the day with a tour of the Aramco Oil Exhibits and then later a trip to EXPEC their R& D development center.
After lunch we went to a small museum on the Aramco compound and then a museum in an Aramco Executives home which was amazing. We sat in one of those rooms with matching couches that reached around the room and sat all 26 of us. They fed us coffee, dates and little pastries. I took a sip of the coffee but it is like bitter tea and I really couldn't drink it all. Then after an hour they toured us through their museum and then when we thought we were leaving, we came back into their house to see their house servants bringing out another round of coffees, appetizers, breads and desserts. So much food, so little time.
We had 40 minutes before the bus to the dinner location, so we all ran to the commissary to pick up food items to bring home various food items to show everyone when we return to school and then it was time for our abaya fittings and dinner.
We had dinner at a long table that sat over 30 of us at a restaurant on the Arabian Gulf. A sea food fest.... if you weren't careful and turned away from your plate, the waitstaff would come along and put more food on your plate. Saudi hospitality at its finest. We ate with 3 amazing Saudi women who were incredible to talk to - very open and honest. I can't wait to share with everyone how interesting, intelligent and confident I found these women to be.
The women brought all of the women in our group these beautiful flowing gowns and the other places we went to each gave us books, music cds, dvds of the country.... my 2nd luggage bag will be very full and we still have 7 more days of travel. This is truly a once in a life time trip.\
I am not having great luck with posting to my blog here at the Aramco compound because they have filters on their internet so I might not be able to add all of this until Tuesday. Keep checking the blog to see if I have new postings or pictures.
If you wish to email me directly as we sometimes have problems with the internet connection, my email is dhinrichs@sprise.com and that I can access daily.
In'Shallah (God Willing) I will post again tomorrow night!
Sunday, April 1, 2007
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