Good Moring, Saudi Arabia!

I arrived in Dharan, Saudi Arabia on Monday morning at 5:00 am to start a 3 month consulting assignment. I left Houston after a month of frantic preparation. I left Houston Friday evening fopr an overnight flight to Frankfurt, Germany. I was in 1st class, yet I still have a difficult time sleeping on planes - I guess I did manage to get maybe 3 or 4 hours of shuteye. Service on Continental was just fine. Europe was under several inches of snow so Frankfurt airport was jammed with aircraft. Flying over the British Isles was beautiful with dusting of snow all over the couintyside, but once we got to the continent the cloud cover blocked any view. My flight to Bahrain was delayed 5 hours due to weather, so I imbibed in just a few German beers in the Business Lounge. Finally we boarded the aircraft only to wait for nearly an hour in line for the de-icing station. On this leg of the trip it as dark so I could not see anything, so I tried to catch some sleep - maybe an hour or two is all I managed - again 1st Class. (had a lot of fine wine). I did watch the movie "Julie & Julia" and thoroughly enjoyed it. Carolyn had seen it with some friends and they all talked about it, so I thought I had better take it in while I could. Meryl Streep has awsome skills with characters.
Once in Bahrain I was finally able to find my driver (who was asleep in the terminal when I arrived) and was driven across the Kig Faud Causeway to Dharan. Had to take about an hour to process into Saudi Arabia at the border gate on the causeway. Finally arrived at Steineke Hall at 5:00 am - just enough time to shower, shave and change clothes before arriving at the office to be given an orientation. More later...