Day 0 is in the books

My flight arrived in King Khalid Airport (north of Riyadh) at about 8:35 PM, local time.  After finding out my bags hadn't made the trip with me, I met with the two NCOs that came out to pick me up.  Since I didn't pack my carry-on for the contingency of not having my bags make the trip, I needed some necessities - cereal, milk, shaving kit, etc.

We drove straight south through the middle of Riyadh (since Eskan Village, my destination, is 12 kms south of Riyadh).  After several u-turns on the every-driver-for-himself streets, we made our way to the HyperPanda.  This grocery store was immense!  Think Super Wal-Mart times 15....and all groceries.  I bought what I needed, tried not to notice the women in their ninja dresses (I'm not cultured enough yet to know what they are really called - all you could see were their eyes), and we headed back out to the car.  I made a comment to one of the guys about the ninja dresses.  He replied, "Yeah you'll see a lot of 'T & A' around here!" My inquisitive look was enough to trigger the coming punch-line: "Toes and Ankles".

We finally made it to Eskan and I endured, for the first time, the crazy gate security process.  While I obviously can't post specifics, let's just say the security principle of redundancy is well-abided by.

We made it to my "villa" by 11 PM.  Eskan Village was original built by the Saudi government to settle the local Bedouin tribes.  Long story short, nomads like being nomads.  Additionally, the village was built without any accommodation for the tribes' camels, a staple feature and necessary resource for their culture.

So each villa was built for large families.  My villa, in particular, has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2 living rooms, 1 formal dining room, and 1 kitchen with 2 refrigerators.  As of now, I have no roommate.  I've been told that may change soon.  Oh well.

This morning, my first in country, I awoke at 10:30 AM, poured my cereal and milk from HyperPanda in a bowl and took a huge first bite.  Apparently, I bought buttermilk.  At least that's what I gathered in the millisecond it took me to spit it into the kitchen sink that I was thankfully standing right beside.  Now that's how everyone should start their day.

The rest of the day was spent getting a tour from one of my Soldiers (actually he's my one Air Force airman in our office) and buying more agreeable dairy to pour into my cereal tomorrow.  The place has quite a bit going for it.  I'll snap some pics and video to load here in the near future.

Good night for now.

Chad