Trippin'

well as you might know i was in kuwait for the past two weeks ... supposedly completing a training program for my new job ... i say supposedly because i didn't really learn anything ... although it was kind of interesting at first to see the company's facilities and what not ... and i did walk away with a bunch of reading material ... so it wasn't entirely pointless but overall it was a snooze ... i'm talking about the training of course ... the trip on the other hand was actually fun ... for those who don't know kuwait is very similar to saudi arabia ... only it's a little more liberal ... they have churches ... women can drive ... they can show some skin if they want ... ya3ni ... but they're not on the same level as dubai or bahrain ... they don't have alcohol for example ... but i think the reason i enjoyed it was simply because it was such a nice change from the rut i've been in for the past year ...


enter flashback mode ...
picture becomes blurry accompanied by the sound of a harp ...


i got to riyadh friday evening ... spent the night at the apartment that the company had reserved for me ... it was a nice apartment ... i ordered some food from the room service, showered, prayed and then stayed up all night watching sitcoms (showcomedy) ...
the following day we traveled to kuwait ...
i didn't hang out much with the group outside of training hours ... i spent most of my free time hanging out with my older brother ... he took very good care of me ... each day he would pick me up and we would go somewhere nice to eat dinner ... we had every kind of cuisine ... italian, tex-mex, chinese, indian, lebanese, etc ... all very delicious ... although on a few occasions we just stayed in and ordered something ...
aside from stuffing our faces we didn't really do much else ... but there's not much to do anyway ...
well we went to the movies just once ... we saw ironman ... it wasn't bad but it wasn't special either ... although i did get a kick out of the arabic speaking bad guys ... and the 'new look' for jeff bridges ... i wanted to go again to watch indiana jones and or forbidden kingdom but i didn't get the chance to ...
i did some shopping but that was on my own ... my brother was not interested in accompanying me ... i got some clothes ... and i got some books too ... i got heavier than heaven ... i also got gate of the sun by elias khoury ... and i got confessions of an economic hitman ... i also got a couple of funky protective covers for my iPod ... and one ps3 game which i think i will come to regret buying ...
speaking of books ... i finished reading 1984 during the trip ... i mean it's good and all ... but animal farm was better in my opinion ...
anyway ... on a few occasions we went to a cafe and watched the euro matches ... being a holland fan it felt pretty damn good watching them destroy italy the way they did ... they will do the same to france today inshala ..
although i don't usually smoke shisha ... i think the last time i had one was six years ago ... i think i smoked around five or six during this trip ... i always got peach flavor ... except once when they didn't have it ... so i got lemon and mint instead ...
on the last day i decided to go walking around ... i hadn't walked at all during the trip ... if i wasn't at home i was in a vehicle being driven somewhere ... so i decided to just go out and explore ... of course it was very hot so after about an hour of walking around i decided to call it quits ... however i did discover a deserted area of abandoned buildings that was full of graffiti ... so i'm glad i did it ...
after flying back to riyadh ... i tried to book a flight back home to dhahran ... but only managed to find one that was departing in 12 hours ... so i spent the night at the airport ... without sleeping ... i wanted to sleep ... i even tried to sleep ... but i couldn't do it ... i was afraid i would go into a deep sleep and miss my flight ... anyway ... several redbulls and teas and cigarettes and sandwiches later ... i finally got my boarding pass around 3 am ... the flight was at 7 am ... so i just sat there listening to my iPod ... i tried reading but i couldn't ... my eyes were too tired ... and my head hurt ... and i had a cold ... needless to say i felt like shit ... so i just sat there ... and whenever i would feel myself starting to doze off ... i would get up and walk around the terminal ... maybe get something to drink and or eat ... smoke a cigarette ...
and so on ...
once they opened the gate ... i boarded the plane and proceeded to pass out ... i slept through the entire flight ... takeoff, landing and everything in between ... my brother picked me up at the airport ... and i didn't sleep in the car on the way back ... however, i fell asleep shortly after getting home ... i said my hellos then went upstairs and ... zzzzzzzz ... 7 hours of blissful sleep ...
flying back to riyadh tomorrow morning ... i will go to the head office first to sort out some paperwork with the HR department ... then i will probably spend the rest of the day trying to find a place to live ... most likely i will be staying in riyadh for the rest of the week ... and then i will come back on the weekend to take my car and the rest of my stuff ...
and then my move will be complete ...


as far as the photos are concerned ... i uploaded a few of them on flickr ...