Al-Khobar

I flew in on the morning of Saturday the 3rd. Khobar is a lot like Riyadh- traffic, trash, and cats. Only it seems to be warmer here and since we are on the Arabian/Persian Gulf it is very humid. I have been told that the presence of Saudi Aramco and the bridge to Bahrain has made this a fairly liberal city by Saudi standards. I have seen a handful of men wearing shorts around.

I am staying in a much nicer hotel and from my hotel I can see the Gulf in the distance:

There are mosques all over. In the middle of the picture is a minaret. This guy wakes me up around 4:30 every morning:

I was very excited to discover a universal power outlet in my room. (I neglected to bring any kind of adapter for my laptop and in Riyadh I wore out my battery trying to connect to the Internet. The cord I bought in Riyadh that should have worked from a sketchy store that of course did not work.) Now I was able to recharge my computer and reconnect to the world! I got a phone call from work: take the afternoon and we will come get you in the early evening. So I wandered around, stopped for lunch, and went back to the hotel to get into professional attire. I waited and waited and waited some more and no one came to get me. I have read that punctuality has a different meaning over here so I was patient. After a few hours, I figured out how to call in. They forgot all about me! We'll come get you in the morning.