Initial Reactions

I made it! My flight to Riyadh was scheduled to leave at 1:55 AM and it was packed. This time I had an aisle seat. Hooray! I was sitting towards the back of the plane and it seemed to be about 80% men. I found my seat without a problem and just watched back to back episodes of The Big Bang Theory the entire time. They served lamb for dinner. At least, I am pretty sure it was lamb because it tasted pretty much like what I had eaten on the previous flight. After we landed, I pulled out my new abaya and put it on while we were still supposed to be remaining seated. I left the head scarf in my carry on and I am so glad that I did because it is a pain in the fanny to be walking around in a full length robe! As I walked out of the plane and placed my carryon on the floor to wheel it out, I noticed that when I bend down, the darn thing drags all over the floor. Then, as I stepped onto the escalator , I realized that thing is just begging to get sucked into the motorized parts. I'm pretty sure that I just don't have the skills right now to be walking around in an abaya and a head scarf. That would have been just to much to deal with at one time.

As I came out into customs, I was extremely overwhelmed because there was one line that was really long and went all the way up the stairs. I had no clue where to go, after reading the signs, I decided to go with the "First time visitor" line. There were about 4 different choices, but since I was a first time visitor, this line seemed to make the most sense. Unfortunately, this line was also the longest. Also, about 4 men decided to cut in front of me in line ... but I just continued to keep my mouth shut and the lines just continued to not move. I did notice a guy pulling a western woman out of the line and taking her somewhere. After about ten minutes of waiting and not moving, a uniformed man motioned to me and waved me over. Of course I did the "who me?" hand signals and he shook his head yes and waved me over. So of course I went. Then I saw Matt waving at me from over the wall and he had some guy in a suit with him. Then the suit guy took my passport from me and walked it over to someone else and they waved me through! Easy peasy! Ha ha cutters!! The bags came out after about ten minutes and they screened them to make sure I wasn't carrying any alcohol on me and we were out the door and on our way to the compound.

It was about a half hour drive to the compound. It was weird seeing all the signs in Arabic. It was still quite dark so I didn't see a whole heck of a lot and I didn't take any pictures yet but it was quite something when we drove up to the compound. There is this big white wall surrounding the place and the top has two rows of barbed wire along it. When we drove in, there is this big steel bar blocking the entrance. Matt pulled up the car, turned off the headlights, turned off the engine, and popped the hood. Then, the man there opened to hood to search for bombs. Finding none, he then took a mirror and walked all the way around the car looking again at the underside of the car for bombs. Apparently, they do this every time a car drives into the compound. I was rather surprised that Matt never mentioned this. He said that he thought he did. And I said, noooo.... I am pretty sure that I would have remembered that! Anyway, finding no bombs, the man pushed the steel bar back and allowed us to pass through. We drove past two guards, then through a maze of cement blocks, then past two more guards and a security tower with a machine gun, and then into the compound. You know, I'm just not sure how safe this makes me feel....

Will definitely try to get some pictures today.