So, it would only make sense to blog something about what happened last time I went to the states, prior to leaving back on vacation again. Otherwise, they all blur together, and it's all confusing. Of course the same problems that plague those who are lazy about blogging will plague me, namely, forgetting what I did in the last 10 weeks. I'll focus on the previous vacation first.
Hitting the ground running:
So as usual, I do better/worse when I'm in a rush, the things I focus are get done well, the things I don't focus on, well, it's like the duct tape method. My goal was to get out of work around noon or so, and to take a taxi over to Bahrain, as my flight was out of Bahrain. I was going to meet a friend I had met the other day for lunch, and take a plane right out. Once I was to land, I would then get home, shower, rent a car, and go on a blind date in Chinatown, and then after that, to the bars, to meet up with friends and remember what American brew tasted like. A lot of crap to do. So onward ho!
We have a weekly staff meeting that usually goes until about 11:30, this time no exception, possibly a little bit longer, but I had already had my transport ready to pick me up at 11:30. So 1/2 hour late already, not the end of the world, my bags were packed already. Just had to grab them. I had spend the night before going around the city of Jubail buying random trinkets, and silly things that I thought were pretty cool. They were all mostly made in China, but kinda looked like they were Saudi. The cool things I thought were wooden egg, rugs, 2 hookahs, a lamp, candle holder, tea pot set, date bowl, a small rug looking thing, Hijab, and sand in a jar. Of course, ultimately, it was all silly stuff no one needed, but I think everyone buys a bunch of crap the first time they come back, well just because. You know better the second time.
So anyway, I had a bag full of crap, and 2 weeks worth of clothing. I realize that unless you don't have access to a washing machine, there's no reason to bring that much clothing. You'll never get to it. Each bag weighed around 60 lbs each, still within weight limits, they were just a pain in the ass to carry around. Anyways, we head out, my driver, Aktar, very cool guy, mellow, and very helpful. He mentions this puzzle thing that he saw someone else had, that he wanted. It was made from cardboard, and cut into a bunch of pieces, that made a picture. 10 minutes later, jig-saw puzzle crossed my mind, and I had another item on my list to purchase. So the way it works with our company, is that there are designated days in which you go over to Bahrain, and if it isn't one of them, well then, you have them drop you off at the bridge, and you find your own way over. Aktar was good enough to walk around with me until we found a driver. He had never done this either, so he was able to see how the process worked as well. Not a bad deal, it's a little expensive to cross over, about 200SAR, or 53 bucks per car. If you have buddies that go with you, no big deal, if you go solo, it's a bit pricey. I went solo. The budget rent-a-car was the place that had the driver, and off we went. The guy was very calm, and cool, spoke 3 or 4 languages fluently, and had been a driver both in Saudi and in Bahrain, for something like 10 years. So he had seen some pretty interesting things. He was cool enough to drop me off in Juffair, and pickup my friend G.
G is a sweet person, she works at a pizza place, I think I mentioned before, I got her a slice of cake on her birthday since she was working it. Anyways, we had lunch, talked about life, our hopes, dreams, plans, all that good stuff. We are completely opposites, but she's a cool person to talk to, and always helps us out when we get drunk, and feel like eating pizza, so it's a good thing. We went to a great little coffee shop near the Gulf hotel, in the kind of European place to eat, Le Chocolate I believe, pricey, but delicious. I had something with a bunch of caramel. Couldn't beat it. Good company too. Maybe a bit too serious in looking for relationships though, no offense. It was just lunch. I wouldn't pop serious questions until at least maybe a month in at a minimum. Oh well. So back at the airport. Nothing very eventful actually. The only thing was the freaking super anal security. I might have stumbled when they asked where I work, and from there, I was subject to every freaking possible check point. I'm glad I got there with 3 hours ahead, as I needed a good 2 hours of it just for that. First security is initial metal detector, lie detection, (which you should not stutter, or try to be cute at the security lady. Apparently they're not allowed to have a sense of humor). Second metal detector, explosive powder testing, and then checking of bag. After that, they rinse and repeat with your carry own, including 2 tables of emptying the bag, and an addition explosive powder check. I'm pretty sure it was just me, as people were buzzing by me, as I sat there trying to figure what the heck was going on. Oh well, I didn't have anything I was worried about. I did have all my stuff on locks, so I would have been pissed if they had cut out the lock. I told them that, but apparently the language barrier didn't help the situation, and I just had to hope that they didn't cut locks. And they didn't, so it was fine. Flight was fine, there were a lot of military guys on the plane, as the US has a big naval base there. Ha, I really didn't fear about there being any kind of terrorist situation, because there were a bunch of Jacked dudes, who really really wanted to get home, no matter what. Haha. Layover in Kuwait didn't have air conditioning, which kinda sucked, but it was only an hour. Back on the plane with the rest of the navy dudes to DC. Long flight, I slept most of the time, don't remember much. Dinner was curry lamb. Pretty tasty for economy. DC I had a few hours layover, so I had enough time to eat, drink, walk around. First thing? Of course, a burger with bacon, and a beer. It was 11:00, so it's ok. Yeuling beer. Very nice. I also got a chance to see the discovery before it got placed in the museum. It was sitting on a plane. Nice. Also bought Rosetta stone in Arabic. Yup, need to open that. Flight to Houston was on a tiny tiny plane, 2 seats one side, and 1 on the other. No big deal for me, but more for the guy next to me. I had been on a plane for 12 hours, without showering. Sorry dude.
Houston - Houston's nice, I haven't been gone long enough for anything significant to happen really, so I wasn't really expecting to see major changes. And they didn't really happen. Blind date went OK, went to go get pho, which was tasty. Just not much of a connection. Eh, it happens. It could have been worse, but could have been a little better. Drinking's always drinking, cheaper for sure. It's nice to drink Jack Daniels at a regular price. Make mine a double. Saw Jennifer's baby. He's so fuzzy! And slumpy. Just kinda melts into whatever position you put him in. Unless it's in the baby seat. Then it's squirmy crying. Mom and dad didn't look as haggard as I thought they would have. After that, went to a wedding. I got to be an usher, which is nice, rehearsal dinner was good, Mexican food at Cadillac Bar. No one went out surprisingly, preparatory for the next night I suppose. I think I went out that night, I can't remember, if I did, then I had fun. Danced a lot more than I normally do. Sweated as much as I danced, so I broke even. Wedding next night was quite nice, the preacher shortcutted the "you may now kiss the bride" which was weird. He just kind of stopped. And then they stared at each other before kissing. Haha, it got the point across. Reception was nice, lots of forced hilarity and awkwardness. Open bar though, so no problem. Tried to buy someone a drink, friend's wife got it instead. She liked it at least, haha. Pulled the awkward "be my friend dammit" thing on someone, didn't work too well. Over all lots of ups and downs, but many more ups, good catching up with friends, and lots of drinking. Can't really go wrong there. We did go to brunch the next day again at Cadillac's. Yummy, the bloody mary bar is nice. And then it was time to go back home to Denver.
Denver - I miss Denver. I miss mountains. I miss being cold. I freaked out on a friend that owed me money. I think it was fair. I won't go into details, but there was a good reason. Although I'm still waiting for it... grrrr. Hung out alot with that friend. There's things I like about science, and there's things I don't. Psychological drugs for one thing, I think are terrible. Just because you can block some of the synapses and connections between certain parts of your brain, doesn't mean that it makes the person better. For the most part, it numbs out the things that make the person unique, and it really sucks. I hope I never have to been in that situation. As long as it doesn't cause violence, or hurt/abuse another person, keep that stuff away. It strips away who we are as a person, and puts in a zombie, which scares me honestly. But, I got to hang out, and I was happy to spend time with a good friend. I also got to eat noodles and company which is also nice. Yum! Mac and cheese, with a hint of truffle oil. So rich and bad for you! Yum! It was nice to see mom and dad, making sure everything is working properly, tweaking this and that, reading, etc... Very relaxing. I also bought a nice shirt, saw a movie, bought some American stuff to buy for friends back in Bahrain, and Saudi. Tight jeans too. Boot cut, so it wasn't awful tight, just mildly. I guess I looked good. I didn't really feel like hitting on anyone, just hanging out, trying to see if I could cross my legs. Haha. Thanks to a couple of friends that gave me advice for buying clothing. The soon to be mom was much more helpful. Or at least more direct. Yes, no, too tight, too loose, buy that one. Saw hunger games. AWESOME! Can't wait for the next one.
Washington DC - What a city. Very busy, everyone is intelligent, has a clearance, and they have great beer halls, and food. I was lucky enough to have a friend that worked in DC. I was able to chill and he was amicable enough to drive me around a couple of places, and to tell me where to go. I didn't get to see everything I wanted, as you need to book ahead. Especially tours such as the white house don't really allow for spontaneous trips. Plus the area's freaking huge. I was able to check out a good amount of sights. All the pictures are on hudang6234.smugmug. Saw the Udvar-Hazy Museum, which is where the discovery had just arrived, saw the washington monument, Vietnam War Memorial, the Holocaust Museum, Lincoln Memorial, a really fat squirrel, and the reflection pool, under construction. Korean Memorial too. Got to eat at a burger place that Obama ate at, Dogfish Head, and smoked alot of hookah. Saw the Avengers! Also, very nice. Scarlett Johanson is a FOX! The movie was also very well done. Got to play with a dog, which was a very long time ago. I miss Kiki, I hope she's gotten skinnier than me, haha. Thanks a great deal to a good Fraternity Brother that was able to help me out with a ride, advice on where to go, and just being a bad ass and hospitable.
The flight back was nice, business class actually. Pricey, but man, the rest was so worth it. I didn't have any jet lag, which was nice. Had a day to recover, and went back into it for work.
Well, what happened for the previous 10 weeks you ask? I wish I could say a lot of things happened, and I'm sure if I thought about it very deeply, I could write a bunch of stuff that happened, but for the most part it was very much rinse and repeat. We ended up going to Bahrain a great deal more, I had a more pg-13 reason of going, hanging out a lot with a friend; "P" I met online. She's been really great to be around with, and it's been real great so far, so I hope it lasts. Other than that, working drinking, working, and drinking. We did go to a wedding the other day which was awesome.
I wish I could give better details for the Saudi wedding, but it seemed pretty straight forward. All the guys on one side, all the women on the other. You don't see the women of course. From there, you proceed to drink tea, eat dates, socialize, sing outside if you choose, there are skin drums, that you heat up by the fire, so people dance with swords, lots of guys hold hands, more tea, eat Kapsa, sing some more, congratulate the Groom, and at some point he disappears in the night, and everyone goes home. We got to wear thobes, which was definitely something that caused many guys to look at us Americans. We wore it with pride, and in a way to show respect, rather than giggling about how different we look. I liked it actually, very cool, even in the heat. The second we bought them, and were trying them on, a bunch of Saudi guys asked to get our photo, so maybe we do stand out a bit.
We went to Movenpik the other weekend, the best brunch on the Island of Bahrain, by far. Unbelievable amounts of every type of food and drink you would want. Booze out the wazoo, including the good stuff, Jameson, Cuban Rum, and Champagne. Also, there was food. I had lobster, steak, thai food, oysters, pork belly, sushi, and a bunch of other stuff. The rest of the night got blurry, we had to sit 7 people in a car at some point, some people fell into a pool, and I had to take a $160 taxi back home. It was a pretty crazy night, and I could have definitely done without it, but hey it was fun.
This last weekend, we stayed at a nice place, as P had the weekend off, and I wanted to celebrate appropriately. The room included a separate lounge that had a food lounge with happy hour, and a very nice breakfast spread. The pool was unbelievably nice, especially as hot as it was, the room was beautiful with a great view, and I couldn't have had a more relaxing/fun weekend. Got my hair cut, had a snakebite drink (Guinness and cider) I did lose my passport at the Chili's which made me crap my pants for about 1.5 hours, as I made our driver go all the way back from the causeway to the mall for me to cross my fingers that it was there. Glad it was there. Per my quote when I got back in the car, "Luckiest M-effer ever."
This will be the last weekend before my next trip. Ticket's set up for Alaska, and I hope it'll be just as fun, my sister'll be there, as well as some other friends, from old, and recent, so I'm quite excited for it too. And no mater what happens, mafi muskila. No problem.
