Where we are living now

The Red Sea Housing Company operates our Desert Palms Compound, of about 150 prefab townhouses built about 30 years ago. One advantage of the age is that there are numerous large shady trees now, including a couple in front of our place. This photo catches our front door and the driveway that connects several units. The fitness center is visible on the right side of the screen, with outdoor basketball half-court and tennis courts beyond it. Our building is a duplex townhouse -- our neighbors are teaching colleagues with three young children.
The photo is taken from our small driveway where we will park our car (once I get my residence permit and can legally own a car).

To the left of our front door is our garden hose and trash (which is collected daily). Behind the unit is a fenced area of pebbled ground--some people manage to keep a few bushes, but the climate is quite harsh.

Inside are three bedrooms on two floors. Photos here of the master bedroom and Coleman's bedroom. Master bedroom has its own bathroom with bathtub, and there's another full bathroom on the second floor, with a half-bath on the ground floor.

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Riding the Bus often

From 201010 Saudi scenes It is ironic that this land of cheap gasoline has so much group transport -- buses. From 201010 Saudi scenes Our housing compound has a Toyota-Coaster bus that takes some to/from school (we usually go earlier and return later, on a similar bus that the school provides). Driver Yahya takes residents on the 90-minute trip down to the Big City shopping every Thursday morning. The above picture shows our group one Thursday, usually going to Ikea or the new Lulu's Hypermarket , or the Dhahran Mall. Coleman rides a different bus every day to and from school -- usually 100 minutes there, 80 minutes back. His bus is evidently an old tourist bus, usually comfortable but a bit dusty. The air-conditioning usually works too well. I've ridden it with him several times, to attend business meetings at the district office. From 201010 Saudi scenes There he is, at 5:45am every morning, at the start of the bus run. Fortunately only about 20 stu...

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...

Yikes! Russian Chocolate!

The other day we chanced upon a Slavic grocery store. We went inside, marveled at all the products from various eastern european countries, from Czechia to Poland to Yugoslavia to Russia to Kazakhstan. I grabbed a chocolate bar... and now I realize that it's Russian, imported via Germany. The ingredients list is written in Russian, Kyrgyz, and Uzbek; and a separate ingredients sticker pasted over it in German. No Portuguese or Spanish or English. Hmm. How did it get here? And what sort of sanctions are imposed on Russian confectioners? The chocolate itself is just okay, nothing special.

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