Nothin' Better Than A Finished Project

Not a whole lot to write about this week other then the fact I think my washing machine is possessed. I went to change the clothes from the washer to the dryer to find that the door to the laundry room wouldn’t open. What? I was in there just a couple hours earlier and the door opened and closed just fine. Well, it turns out that the washing machine itself was blocking the door- how did it move a good 3 inches you ask? That is what I don’t know- interesting, huh? I did hear a loud bang and I’m wondering if that had something to do with it, but again I am at a loss to how it could move so far in such a short amount of time. Oh, and earlier this week I went to change a load to the dryer to find a puddle of water on the floor in front of the washing machine… hmmm, what’s going on here? So, I got the bright idea to pick up the owner’s manual since that was just sitting there. Well, that would have been a great idea if I could read Arabic! The entire manual is in Arabic and the pictures didn’t seem to help much. Nice! So, I asked my co-worker who has the same model, and he said not to worry about it. Apparently the quality of the machine is such that the drawer where you put the detergent just blows open and water comes out from there. I feel like I am constantly doing laundry because the machines can only hold about 3 pairs of pants and it takes a good hour to wash the load (sometimes you have to put the load on an extra spin cycle to get the soap off which increases the time to 1-1/2 hours) and then the dryer takes a good 2 hours or more to dry. I’m just glad I have the convenience of having a washer and dryer in my apartment! I forgot to tell you that I got to play tennis last Saturday. Yeah, I think we picked the coldest day of the year to play! It was a high of only 55 degrees and it was a little windy. Sad when UT is warmer then we are here! Well, my week was long, but it was good. My workload pretty much doubled this week, so now I’m really busy which is the way I prefer it. I now feel like all the overtime I work is actually justified. I was able to finish up my coin holder this week. It turned out really nice and it was fun to make.

Here are some other tidbits about this country which I don’t think I’ve already shared:

- There is no Wal-Mart here. Shocking, but it is true. Kind of wish there was a Wal-Mart.

- You cannot find raisinetts here. I found a candy store which had chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate covered almonds, but no chocolate covered raisins.

- The freeway is very well lit with lanes clearly marked. There are many locations on the surface streets where no lanes have been painted. Oh, and I’ve never seen lanes in a traffic circle.

- I need to correct a previous blog where I spoke about the wide range of speed on the freeway. I said you will find people driving anywhere between 80KPH to 160KPH (50 MPH to 100MPH). Well, I came across someone the other day who was only going 55KPH (35MPH) and then someone flew past me so they must have been going a good 185KPH (115MPH). So, the wide range of speed is an understatement and I’ve no doubt that is a contributing factor to the amount of wrecks they have here.

- There are unmarked exits here. For example, there will be an exit number 500, then 501, then an unmarked exit and then 502 will be a mile up the road. Weird huh?

- There are U-turns on the freeway. In fact, I have to do a U-turn every time I am heading home from work. Luckily I’ve never encountered really heavy traffic by the time I am leaving work. Otherwise it would be a pain to get heading the right direction!

I’m taking an “Arabic Headstart” class for the next couple weeks, so I’m sure I will have more interesting tidbits to share. I get to learn about the culture, the dos and don’ts here, and I’ll learn some common Arabic phrases. Should be a good class, I’m excited for it.Until next week. Take care!