Donuts and coffee, anyone?

Sometimes we get some simple pleasures: the coffee provided in the teachers lounge is pretty good, considering it's a large percolator. And every couple of weeks, Barbara S. drives up from the district office (well, actually, of course, she doesn't drive herself, but you get the idea) to help with testing and advice with learning-support. She makes it her duty to bring us a stack of Krispy Kreme donuts. Imagine. Fresh Krispy Kreme donuts. Hard to resist, especially at coffee break time -- most classes have a break between 10 and 10:20.
A few weeks ago we went down to the big city (remember, the tri-cities area of Dammam/ Khobar/ Dhahran) and drove past the fast-food shrine. Notice the starry icon of CarlsJr (california) merged with Hardee's (their label here). Note also the pickup truck in the foreground with the omnipresent Saudi Aramco logo.

From 201010 Saudi scenes

Comments

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...

Scouting Trip to Porto in October

Now starting our time in Porto for finding an apartment and signing a lease. We have engaged RelocateToPortugal to help us. We booked a flight from JFK so we could be in Porto from 23 October to 04 November (we need to be back in NY in time for Coleman & Joyce's run in the NY Marathon!). First we drove from Carol Stream on Friday afternoon, just after Barb's long-awaited dermatology appointment -- only a few skin things frozen off, no problem. Overnight at Toledo, then back in Ossining by 7pm. Oct23 we took a 6pm Brussels Airlines overnight flight, no problem, connecting to another flight to Porto that arrived Tuesday noon (local time -- jetlag was tough. I slept 4 hours in the plane seat--Barb just occasionally dozed, little sleep). Relatively easy, though 15-20 minute waits at passport control at Brussels (our entry to the Schengen area) then for our luggage (it all arrived fine!), then to buy a metro ticket to take us from the airport downtown!...

Thomas journals

Search This Blog