Skip to main content

Moving on: farewell to Saudi Arabia

We moved out.



The last day of classes was the 24th, then a day of staff meetings and cleanup on the 25th
 We departed Jubail at 8pm on the 25th, in the hot evening, in a nice new Toyota SUV, to the Bahrain causeway one last time. Strangely, at both points – Saudi emigration and Bahrain immigration passport control booths – the officer made us go to the supervisor's office; and in both cases, the respective supervisor scolded us for bothering him, said to go back outside. No problem, except that the Bahrain computer evidently did not record our entry to the country, so when we – one hour later – went through Bahrain emigration control at the airport, they had no record of us. Another visit to the supervisor, who this time politely helped us, evidently by recording our official entry, so that they could officially stamp us out. Just smile and act patient. We then enjoyed a drink in the Irish Lounge, and coincidentally met again with French-teacher colleague Marie-Christine. Bon Voyage! 
 Gulf Air to Frankfurt where we tried to use our newly-purchased DeltaLounge pass, but found it required transiting from the international zone to the Euro zone – two very intrusive security checks and long walks later, we enjoyed the Air France lounge.  Then back out of Eurozone to board American flight to Dallas, no problem.   But we note that US carriers have older equipment without those nifty individual seatback video monitors – the old-fashioned way to fly.  The food/drink quality is slightly lower as well, than on Asian carriers.

Flight delays causes tardiness in reaching San Antonio, but still enjoyed greeting by sister Jan and father on arrival.   Our first order of business: to adjust to the time zone – Jan's swimming pool and hospitality ease our transition greatly.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Fleeing Trump, Americans go to Portugal

  Fleeing Trump, Americans go into exile in Portugal. “I'm afraid to go back” Not only minorities feel threatened by the Trump administration. Three couples, a mother and an academic tell us why they chose to live in Portugal. Some say: the American dream is over.      The above is today's headline article in our favorite trusted newspaper in Portugal, O Publico .  It's a centrist newspaper, owned by a big supermarket corporation.  Let's combine this with the recent news that Portugal's Air Force is now shifting away from its planned purchase of F-35 jets.  Even though Trump has not even mentioned Portugal in his various diatribes against former allies, Portugal and the rest of Europe are reeling from the attacks.  We hope it has the ironic effect of freeing Europe from American dominance and improving the chances for centrist leadership (against Trump-like parties that have been gaining prominence).  The original text follows: Em fuga de Tru...

EUA: tanto estrago em tão pouco tempo

 As part of my effort to learn about Portugal, both the country and the language, I'm subscribing to the centrist newspaper, O Publico .  There are plenty of newspapers: conservative tabloids, and socialist and communist-sponsored daily papers; I find O Publico to be most sober, with consistently interesting columnists and opinion pieces, in addition to some local (Porto) news, with just enough sporting news to keep me chatting with the taxi driver.   Today's opinion piece sums up, I think, European pundits' view of the U.S. government.  As the title puts it: so much damage in so little time.  I shudder at the rank incompetence and corrupt behavior, demonstrating a cynical attitude toward public service, showing indeed that the cruelty is the point. What scandal, what damage will be the tipping point to collapse this government?   And what will it take to recover from the damage?  Who will be able to trust the US government again, ever?   Only ni...

Captain America dominates the news, in many ways

KoreaTimes newspaper of April 5, 2014:  the front page features five items: a photo of the Avengers2 film shoot, with Captain America posed on the set; four stories with these headlines:   Japan adopts absurd claims in textbooks ; Obama plays favorites ; Ortiz’s selfie makes White House uneasy ; and ‘US knows japan at fault on row with Korea’ … all about America and Japan!  (Obama is said to be favoring Japan -- he even supposedly pressed the Virginia governor to veto the bill requiring Virginia textbooks to add the name “East Sea” to Sea of Japan!). And the Avengers2 filmshoot dominates public talk -- students and teachers alike discuss sightings of the film crew or actors, and the resulting traffic delays at the bridges in use. But it is considered worth the effort, to show the world that Korea is a hip, modern place, worth the effort for Captain America to defend against the villains (from the north, perhaps?).