Hotel Al Khozama Riyadh

... gets very blurred and not really any good. And then secondly, after much to-ing and fro-ing, I was informed that I can't get a little USB 'Connect’ device until I have received my residency permit (iqamah). This device would be similar to a flash drive and has a little sim-card which connects to a mobile network and gives me internet (3G) wherever there is a signal. I will have to see if there is a way around this as I don’t really think that I need to wait for ...

28th...bought an abaya in Dubai. The young woman at the shop showed me how to put on the sheelah (the head scarf)...an hour later i asked another nice young Saudi lady in the waiting area to show me again, because i took it off and couldn't get it back on properly...there is a knack to it. Met her family while waiting...really lovely people. Her mother said not to worry about putting on the ...

... to repeat it several times. After visiting the "watercloset" we went to the abutions area to perform wudu'. My 4 year old daughter sat and played in the water and gave a constant commentary ("Mommy, this water is hot! Why is the water hose pink? What is that in the drain? Can I put soap on my nose? Can I clean the drain? Yuck, this soap tastes terrible!") while I finished my ablutions, and when I turned I saw that there was an entire half-circle of ...

When you are entering Riyadh from the east, you pass a lot of agricultural spots -- date farms, dairy farms, fields with modern irrigation equipment. Leaving the city heading west it's as if you have come to the edge of a vast cliff and are now headed down into an enormous valley. Our ears ...

We reached Riyadh close to midnight. My husband's aunt's (by marriage) brother lives in Riyadh, and we usually sleep at their villa and have a meal before heading out again for the longer segment of our journey. Riyadh is a huge city; unfortunately it has only been a stopover point for us, we haven't had the opportunity to spend much time exploring.

After dinner and a night's rest we left, making a short stop at Starbucks for a Frappucino. I ...

Well, this time I thought I might write a little about the hospital that Im working at... I've finally begun work in recovery, after 3 long weeks of extensive orientation. It was tiring, as a lot of the stuff they covered wasn't all that relevant, but they did run workshops and lectures about settling into life in Saudi as well, which I found really helpful for easing my way into living and working here. The recovery is pretty big, has 16 bays for 11 theatres ...

... with Luke, and then head to Turkey for a week or so. Im already formulating tarvel plans in my head! The one rather large hurdle in all this is attempting to converse with the non-english-speaking arab patient... I think i'm doing alright with my arabic, learning new phrases every day - although im not sure my accent helps my cause all that much. It takes 3 times as long to ask a simple question because they cant understand me all that well, and if they give me a ...

... just fine. My villa is the MCX (Medical City Extention), number 173, room 3. There are two other girls living with me at the moment... One is a crazy south african who insists on us locking every door even when we are home during the day, and yells at me for leaving drips of water in the sink! The other girl is an east-timorese girl who has been living in Aus since she was 18. She is pretty cool, and has taken me out for drinks at a few other compounds around the city - but more ...

... difficult as this flight is off by more than 40 mins as of this writing, which should put me at the mercy of the two yet unknown faces in Cairo to still make it - the immigration and the cabbie. Was told by the enthusiastic lady (:Hannan) of sleepingtrains.com, that it takes at least an hour to do the 45km from the airport to Giza station which Train No 83 will ...

... working at Kinkos in Kuwait. We had a great conversation until finally the border agents came back out. All during this time and after, people were trying to cut their cars into line. Well SHOCK OF SHOCKS, the agents came out and told the people who cut the line that they had to go and get in line AT THE BACK! One guy in particular really had trouble with this concept. He went into the booth to rant and rave at the agent, then came around and tried to cut into line ...