Friday August 14

Arabic Word of the Day: saakinah (female) – living

Ana saakinah fee Jeddah.  I am living in Jeddah.

The living room.

     Arrived yesterday to Jeddah on time after a nerve wracking start in Mystic, CT.  The bus I wanted to catch at 4:30pm was and wasn’t at the “bus stop”.  The bus was in the huge parking lot but did not swing by the designated stop as told to me by the PeterPan bus person.  That meant instead of relaxing on the 4:30pm bus arriving at Logan Intl airport in Boston at 7:05pm in plenty of time for my 10pm flight to Germany, I scrambled with my mom to get to the Providence train station by 7:19pm for a train to Boston.  I did make it with an hour to spare but too close to comfort for me.  Thanks to my sister playing info assist at home with her laptop giving us updates, train schedules, and directions and to my mom for making the drive to Providence and back.

     Sanwar was at the airport with his brother-in-law and we made the necessary stops to get fruits and vegetables, juice, water, and rice & chicken before stopping at the apartment.  Besides a few ants scurrying about, the place was as I left it with no major surprises.  Nice to see Sanwar’s smile again.

     Today was a day for cleaning, unpacking, visiting, swimming, and washing clothes.  I met three of the new teachers: Harry from CA, John from Kansas City, and Jim from Pittsburgh.  Two of them have taught in Saudi before and were even roommates during their stay.  They also know other teachers here so that will make the transition easier. 

     Despite being yelled at by another teacher ("you had no right…"," what were you thinking…"," I told you not to…" as you can see she won me over with her kind words) I am glad to be back in Jeddah and ready for another school year. 

     Tomorrow abaya shopping because I left one of mine on the dining room table at my mom’s house by mistake.  A few glances came my way at the airport with me wearing a skirt.   Good thing I was at the foreign airlines terminal where it is a little more forgiving than at the Saudia Airlines terminal.