Moving on: farewell to Saudi Arabia

We moved out.

The last day of classes was the 24^th, then a day of staff meetings and cleanup on the 25^th.

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.

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