December 09, 1994

It's good to be back in the land of Christmas, and Thanksgiving for that
matter.  I know Madelyn was thankful when I stepped out of the plane
November 30th, back from 5 weeks in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.  They
don't celebrate Christmas there, in fact it's technically forbidden to
do so, along with pork products and alcohol (including vanilla extract!).
That's not to say that it wasn't an interesting time, it was.  Or that the
people weren't friendly, for the most part they were -- especially the shop
keepers.  

I spent most of my time in a town of about 50,000 people in the north
western part of the country called Tabuk.  There wasn't a lot to do
other than work (installing and testing an air defense system) and shop.  The
hotel did have pool and ping pong tables, so I did some of those,
too.  Gold is cheap there, locally hand-crafted jewelry in 21 karat gold
can be had for just about the price of 24 karat bullion.  Madelyn and
Nathaniel are both sporting new pendants.  

The fun part for me was in the bartering.  They'd see us Westerners
coming and start the price at 60 or 70 riyals per gram.  (A "riyal" is the
Saudi unit of money, you can get about 3.74 riyals for a dollar.)  But after
giving some absurdly low counter offers and starting to leave the shop a
few times the price would settle in between 46 and 52 riyals per gram.  The
difference between 48 and 50 riyals per gram on a 5 gram pair of earrings
is only about 2 and a half dollars (on a $65 dollar item) so it depended
on whether I was really interested in the earrings or just haggling for a
great bargain as to whether I worried about the last couple riyals or not.
Pretty much everything in the "souks" or small shops was barter-able, just ask
"Is that with a discount?" and go from there.  Sandals, toys, luggage,
watches, clothes, stationary supplies, oriental carpets, etc.  The supermarkets
and restaurants were fairly set prices.  One of my travel companions even
got a "discount" on a rental car when he asked for one.

The 5 times a day prayer got on my nerves most.  Restaurants and shops
all have to close for 15 to 45 minutes at each prayer time.  Plan your
meals accordingly!  I flew in and out threw London, England and Jeddah
(Saudi), and got to see a little in each of those cities.  I flew to the 
capital, Riyadh, to spend Thanksgiving at our project manager's villa.  
We had ham (shhhhhh, don't tell!).  Riyadh is a big modern city, with a 
lot of people who aren't quite used to the 20th century.  They're 
especially bad drivers.

I missed my family a lot, and Madelyn's been awfully sweet since I got
back.  Nathaniel gave me a big hug at the airport but was a bit shy with me
for a little while.  He's got the chicken pox right now, seems to be
coping with them pretty well.  That's part of the joys of kindergarten
I guess.  They should be gone by next weekend when we're going up to
a Bed and Breakfast place in Kentucky for a little quiet family time.

Other things are mostly the same.  I finished my M.S. in Management last
Spring.  Madelyn works at the hospital some.  My project has a few months
to go, I may need to go back to Saudi in March.  This weekend I plan
to visit the Mall and drink in the Christmas glitz, humming the last
carol from the car radio; I plan to enjoy it equally whether it's "Silent
Night" or "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer".  I hope you're similarly
appreciating the season.

Happy Holidays.

		-- Chip