They tell you not to count your chickens before they hatch, but here in Saudi you can't even count them AFTER they've hatched. We announced a week ago that we finally had our tickets to fly home in August, but it turns out that wasn't true. Somehow between last week and Sunday, the travel agency or consulting firm managed to cancel the reservations. Yes, we're dealing with both a consulting firm and travel agency to book these tickets. I have no idea why it takes so many middle men to get this done, but we tell the consulting firm what we want/need, they tell the travel agency, the travel agency give the consulting firm a few options, the consulting firm sends them to us, and we pick the most desirable one. It's like one huge game of telephone, so it's no surprise that this got screwed up. It's extra unsurprising because they managed to screw up our tickets when we came to Saudi a year ago.
Aside from the fact that I was royally cheesed off that this got screwed up, the consulting firm somehow got in their mind that it absolutely had to be fixed RIGHT THIS MINUTE. That meant they did a lot of: send me an email, wait two minutes, and then call me to ask if I'd gotten the email. So this went back and forth for a few hours resulting in a option for tickets on August 8th. This wouldn't be a huge deal, except we were told in no uncertain terms that we had to leave campus by the 5th. Turns out they're more that willing to change this rule so long as it saves them money on plane tickets.
So after two hours of headaches, emails, phone calls, and a very unpleasant tone of voice, we once again had plane tickets home.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011
Happy 4th of July!
I hope everyone has a great day and enjoys good food, company, and loud fireworks! We're attending a small party hosted by one of the other American students, and while we won't have any fireworks, it'll still be a blast. I made a few decorations for the party and some tasty snacks too, so come back tomorrow for a few pictures and maybe a recipe.
Holidays here are always a strange combination of a completely normal day and a subdued celebration. I had homework due today, although I thankfully didn't have class, and tomorrow I have a final exam to look forward to. Life doesn't stop here unless it's a Saudi holiday, but students manage to carve out a piece of their days to celebrate their national holidays.
Holidays here are always a strange combination of a completely normal day and a subdued celebration. I had homework due today, although I thankfully didn't have class, and tomorrow I have a final exam to look forward to. Life doesn't stop here unless it's a Saudi holiday, but students manage to carve out a piece of their days to celebrate their national holidays.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Italy Day 6: Ponte Vecchio and Giardino di Boboli
Continuing on our trip down the River Arno, we saw (and I photographed) so many pretty scenes.
This is the famous Ponte Vecchio, which is really cool because of the shops built into the side of the bridge.
Love locks, although now illegal, are still found all over the bridge. The locks all have initials written or carved into them and after locked to the bridge, the keys are chucked into the river, since the lovers will never part. Although the basic premise of the locks is romantic and 'awww' worthy, the thought of all that extra litter in the name of love is just a bit uncomfortable.
View of a bridge from a bridge. That's got to be some kind of irony right?
After wandering down and then across the Arno we ended up at the Palazzo Pitti and the Giardino di Boboli. The gardens and palace were beautiful, but my two major complaints were that it was really expensive to get in and after you get in, there is no where to sit and relax until you climb all the way up into the gardens, which are built onto a very large hill. We had been walking around quite a bit by this point, and all I wanted to do was sit down, so the first few "Do not sit on the lawn" did not go over well.
Looking down upon the palace from the gardens.
Super cute little out building in the gardens.
Posing among the garden walls.
The view of Florence from the gardens was great, and it reminded me very much of our view of Cairo from Al-Azhar Park, which was much dingier, dirtier and generally less pleasant.
The gardens were huge and had a lot of themed areas. This was me posing in front of a tree tunnel!
Better look at the tree tunnel. I think it would have been more filled out later in the spring.
This garden wall was also really cool because it was also a series of waterfalls. We spent more than our fair share of time playing in the water and creating dams along the waterway.
Follow the rest of our journey:
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Italy Day 6: Palazzo Vecchio and the River Arno
These poor pictures have been siting in my computer too long, so we're going back to Italy sharing for a while.
We started our day by walking to the Palazzo Vecchio and the piazza della Signoria where the David statue copy is located. Steve liked these metal supported arches, and I thought the statues were a bit creepy. Several of them were violent/gruesome and there was a lot of awkward hand placement...
Palazzo Vecchio which was a town hall in old Florence
Hide and seek inside the First Courtyard.
The sky was just lovely the entire trip. I swear the sky just isn't this blue in Saudi (it really isn't but that's because of all the dust blowing around).
Fake David probably isn't blog-safe, but here he is anyway. It's culture right?
We then tried to walk towards a nearby bridge to cross the River Arno, and instead ended up at the Basilica of Santa Croce, which is totally the wrong direction for crossing the river. Alas, things like this happen when you choose to leave the map in your pocket, but we'll chock it up to dumb luck, since we never would have ended up here unless we got lost.
Very beautiful building, despite the sun sitting right behind the building making it hard to even see without that terribly embarrassing squinty face.
Finally on the way to the bridge, we stopped in front of this cool looking building. We need more buildings like this with huge protruding round rooms!
View from the river Arno. On the left is the remains of some kind of tower or bridge piece right next to modern buildings and housing.
I loved the houses and buildings along the Arno, mostly because almost all of them were painted bright happy colors and had great details.
Follow the rest of our journey:
Friday, July 1, 2011
Perspective
Would you wait at the register because the cashier forgot to give you change? Would you do it if it were only 53 cents? That's what happened to me today at the grocery. The cashier had forgotten to give change to the guy before me, so he stood there and waited until my transaction was over (so the drawer would be reopened) to get his change. It ended up being 2 SAR which is 53 cents. I made the comment that he was very patient to wait for such a small amount of change, and he replied that it was enough for a tank of gas in his motorcycle. How's that for perspective. Sure he could have walked away and written it off as incompetent workers, but instead he waited and got his gas money back.
I probably would have waited too, but I would have done it because I was owed the money, not because I felt it was worth waiting for.
My first summer class is almost over, and hopefully when it is, that will give me enough time to get some pictures ready to share. I haven't forgotten, I've just been swamped.
I probably would have waited too, but I would have done it because I was owed the money, not because I felt it was worth waiting for.
My first summer class is almost over, and hopefully when it is, that will give me enough time to get some pictures ready to share. I haven't forgotten, I've just been swamped.
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