living in saudi

Hello everyone, 

I have been trying to do different things in my free time this week; like getting a hair cut, bowling, and this weekend Adam and I may possibly go to the desert to ride 4-wheelers.  The hair cut I got was quite possibly the best hair cut I have ever received, no offence Dad (who normally cuts my hair), but they made me look like Captain America from the avengers movie. P.S. – it only cost me 3 dollars.  Now let’s talk about bowling.  Adam and I had talked about going to the mall to walk around /window shop after work.  As we were walking around the third level of the mall we stumbled across a random bowling alley with panoramic windows viewing the city buildings below.  It was like an American oasis!  It was a lot of fun, especially since I won, haha. After bowling we walked around long enough for Adam to get chased by a perfume kiosk man who wanted him to smell his cologne and I became a victim to a cologne dowsing. Honestly, my arm still smells like cologne… at least it helps me smell good. Finally, as Adam and I were eating kabob last night we talked about experiencing something adventurous. We decided a four-wheeler ride in the desert would fit that description.  It is still pending with our driver and liaisons if we can go, hopefully we can though.  On a different note, I’m adapting better to the life style over here.  The living and work environment over here feels less stressful than America.  But I do miss family and friends back at college and home. I would need a vacation every 2 months to keep from missing them too much. Regarding vacation, that reminds me that you’re required to leave the country at least once every 90 days because our issued working visas are only for 90 days. Although, some people manage to get 180 day visas, they are the lucky ones. Well that’s about it for now, I’m going to try and get out to the jobsite today to do some inspections. Thanks for reading!

Sorry about the delay..

Today i looked at the calendar and saw that we only have 2 weeks left of this trip. The other guys and I cant believe how fast this time has gone by. Today, Paul Richardson took us to Ad'riyah which is the site of the ruins of the old palaces of the Saud family (about 700 years old). Since the site is still under restoration, we had to get special permission to enter the area. It was really nice to be able to explore the area by ourselves.

As Mike said, we have been working on fire/life safety stuff at KSU. Peter Strother and Milton Ewell have been assigning us buildings to go and do inspections on and then compile a report on the items that are either missing or need correcting. Tonight, we are planning on going to some more markets and get some dinner out. Thanks for reading!

life in riyadh

Hello everyone, I must share my frustration about using the notes app on i-pads. I had a page long blog written up for the readers to enjoy and I pushed something that deleted the whole thing, this wouldn’t be a problem if there was an undo button, but there isn’t. So from now on when I write long blogs they will be from my lap top haha. So today I will continue to update you all on what I am learning and experiencing.  Lately, at work I have been evaluating paths of egress for emergency safety.  I was assigned my own building to evaluate.  It’s an important job and I have been very excited to do it. 

I skyped home last night and chatted with the fam. My Dad told me how excited  mom had been from being able to bargain for flowers at the greenhouse and it reminded me how much I am like my mom because of this story I am about to share.   A couple of nights ago we went to a computer market (the guys and I). My item of interest was an HDMI cable to watch movies from my laptop on the t.v. Long story short I bargained my HDMI cable really cheap and after that I was gun hoe on everything I could find. I found that I loved to bargain for things like; my external laptop speakers, new ear buds, a computer mouse for my laptop, an external hard drive, and a couple other items. Okay, maybe I got a little carried away, haha, but it was a great night. So now I need to talk about some things that may intrigue you guys back at home so here is part three.

Ramadan is approaching here. It is about a month long fasting period for the Muslim religion.  Muslims can’t drink, eat, or work from sunrise to sundown (first night prayer).  We will be leaving before then but the consultants will still be here. The consultants will take on night shifts from 7pm to around 3 am during Ramadan.  There are just a couple of rules during this time like; stores do not open until 3 or 4 pm every day and you aren’t allowed to eat in any public area until dark, out of respect for the people fasting.

Random news- I was not awaken by the sounds of jack hammers this morning.  They have finished excavation across the street finally.  The rock here is very hard so it takes a long time to dig here. Usually the top meter of earth can be removed by a bulldozer but after that they must use jack hammer attachments to break the rock up. I believe it took them a month and a half to dig 5 meters deep on a plot that had dimensions of about 200x100 ft.  That’s about it right now…. Until next time, Thanks for reading!

A Weekend in Riyadh

Tim Here-

Here are some pictures from this past weekend. Thanks Paul and Jim for showing us around the city!

Sweet bridge that spans across the whole Wadi.

We found a stream in the middle of the desert, and Matt told me he could skip any rock... I proved him wrong. 

Really really dry soil.

Camel poop!

Dinner

Little kids that kept on spying on us during dinner.

Paul Richardson says he's working on getting us all personal Ferraris...  I'll take that blue one!

A day of good exercise

On Friday we went on a walk with Paul, Jim, and Sunil.  We stopped on our way to the wadi to check out this pretty cool looking bridge.  In the picture from left to right is Tim, Sunil, Adam, Me, Paul, and Jim's finger on the top of the screen.  Shortly after we took the picture, we got a nice surprise when someone based jumped off of the bridge.   We went a a decent walk along the wadi (arabic for water) and got some sun too.  Later in the evening Mike and Peter joined us to walk around downtown Riyadh and the Faisaliah Tower.  We stopped at a hole in the wall resturant Indian resturant that was delicious even though none of us have any clue what the name of it was.  We finished off the night by checking out the Ferrari and Lambo dealership.  It was a lot of fun and a nice break.

Some of my learnings

Okay since we have been doing the same routine this week as the previous we I figured I would write about things I have learned here thus far.  So here are some differences and similarities between America and Saudi Arabia, Riyadh. The food, like America is really good and typically about the same price if not cheaper than American food. Their trade mark food is shawarmah which is a shaved meat sandwich, wrapped in a thin bread. They typically dip in in humus but I don't really care for humus. Next, The weather is hot, like 110 hot and midday can be pretty miserable if your out for awhile.  But I love walking to the grocery at night when it has cooled down to about 80 or so. There is little humidity if any here unlike Indiana where you drink in air.  Next, Muslims pray 5 times a day, during work they stop what they are doing almost instantly and shut down the stores. If your inside you may stay, but typically you can't leave. You can keep eating or shopping. But the prayer schedule is something we all must consider when planning our day. It seems like we are always running to a store when it is about prayer time and sometimes we just barely make it and sometimes we just barely miss the window haha. The schedule is something like 4am, 7 am, 12pm , 7pm , 8pm . The 4 am prayer, I've been told is for very devote Muslims typically. I will write more about my leanings next time, until then, all is well and fun.

New Jobsite

Tim Here-

Yesterday FTR International Inc., NV once again treated us to lunch. This time it was various types of rice, and delicious chicken, beef, and lamb meat. The meat was cooked to perfection and was consumed quickly leaving a ton of leftover rice.

Today we are planning on switching jobsites once again. We will be returning to the King Saud University job and work on completing a final report for SBG. I hope everything goes well!

More Fun in the Sun

This week has been a rush! We have been working hard on the SAFA project while making sure we get the most out of Riyadh. The other night, we went to Trader Vics for dinner with Steve Queen and Katie Morissey. It was great to get to know them more over a good meal. Tonight Mike, Tim, and I went to the mall to get some souvenirs and to get out into the city. After that, we went to McDonalds for dinner. We were going to go to get some shawarma but it was a little bit too busy. 

Mike, doing work son.

Doing take-offs/reading specs/living the dream

Seafood pizza

We went out for a nice dinner last night with Dr. Cox and some of the FTR International, Inc. nv employees. Today, we continued to check out quanities against the B.O.Q. and had pizza for lunch.  Over here they have a seafood pizza, and it's pretty tasty if I say so myself.  

Pictures

Tim Here-

Our internship has been underway for a few weeks now, but in our spare time we try to get out and explore Saudi Arabia. This past week we went to Batha and the Wadi Hanifah. Below are some pictures of our experiences.

Batha Markets

Super busy streets in Batha

Mike haggling for a blanket

Ancient ruins in the Wadi Hanifah

Hmm... scarecrow?

We survived the 2.5 hr walk through the desert with Paul and Jim!

Fun in Saudi sun

Wed Hello to all, Dr. Cox arrived last night. We have spent the morning catching up and talking about our experience here.  Tonight is steak night at the embassy and we are all going. It will be fun to catch up with the consultants at the KSU sight since we have been gone for a week.  Today, we are moving shop to a new set of villas with more room for the 4 of us, it is crazy how much space full size plans take up.   Friday Hey again,  Today we had a cook out at the new villas, the ones with a big swimming pool in the middle.  Well...  it was almost a cookout. We couldn't get the grill to work so we ordered kabobs and grilled chicken, it was delicious! To top it off we relaxed in the pool and played cards all day. This evening we went shopping. I bargained for a new phone case and the other fellas got some electronic goods, I think some headphones. Now, i must tell you about the highlight of the night! Upon my return home I sat down and opened my new iPhone screen that was sent from my family in Indiana. This was my third time trying to replace my screen. I must report the first two times I failed miserably. But my confidence and determination to return to my beloved iPhone would not die. I sat down at my operation table (my desk with a cereal bowl for screws) and after 20 minutes I brought my iPhone back to life! Now I must go play with it, thanks for reading, until next time.

Half way

We finished up with our second week of the internship, which also marks the half way point for our trip.  The last few days we were helping Steve do quantity take-offs for the Saudi Aviation Flight Academy.  We're going to continue doing the QT for the next few days and then we'll accept any challenges thrown our way.  

Our 4th week...

Its hard to believe that we have been here almost four weeks now. Tomorrow, we get to go back to the embassy for steak night and to hang out with some of the consultants. Dr. Cox is supposed to get in tonight, we are all looking forward to seeing him tomorrow after he gets some rest after his flight. This weekend (which is thursday and friday here) we are looking forward to walking through the old part of the city and a barbecue with Katie and some of the other guys. Things are definitely starting to pick up at work. We have been doing quantity take-offs of the SAFA project so its nice to see some real world applications of what we learned in our classes. We are all having a good time and learning a lot. 

In my routine

 (June 2) Hey everyone,  Lately I have been wrestling plotters and copying machines! We are moving quick with (safa) Saudi Arabia flight academy. We have a contract to build a new maintenance hanger. I have been busy printing off architectural plans. I also was assigned to find us a concrete contractor, and it's been very difficult because the distance they would have to drive to get to our sight is about 70 kilometers. And we all know about cure time with concrete, so no one is interested. But Steve (our boss lately) had a good idea of setting up a mobile batch plant, or using one from a near by construction sight.  So tomorrow I will be sorting that out. It's about 4:30 now, the guys put in a long day of work and I bet we all go to bed early tonight. (June 4) Today went fast, we are still estimating in the villas. It has been fun applying techniques I learned in school to the SAFA project. Adam and I usually take our lunch break together and talk to some of the veterans around the villa it is cool listening to their experiences.  Tonight we are venturing to Bota market. Hopefully I can pick up some souvenirs for the family. I have been going to the grocery store after work lately to people watch and pick up food that I don't need but it's fun to live the culture. That about sums it up, until next time.

Quantity Take-offs

Tim here - After spending three week at KSU which been underway for about two years, we are now working on the brand new Saudi Aviation Flight Academy project. Last Thursday we did some site utilization and excavation planning. The past two days we have been working on quantity take-offs. I have been taking off the rebar and masonry for the SAFA project. I'm glad that I took the estimating class at Purdue otherwise I would be so lost. I was even able to use the spreadsheets that Professor Hubbard made us develop! Looks like my tuition money is paying off after all.

Done with the first week of the internship

We've complete the first week of our internship, and things are starting to really ramp up.  Today we started doing quantity take-offs for the Saudi Aviation Flight Academy.  We went out the the job site on Thursday and discussed job site planning, plus Tim finally got to see his camels!!  It looks like we'll only get busier as our internship continues, but I look forward to the challenge.