Arrival

Picking up from where I left off. After my very expensive hour of internet usage was up, I befriended a Saudi man (who's name escapes me at the moment) who lives in Salt Lake City. He was very patient in answering all of my questions regarding like in Jeddah and KSA. According to him, life in Jeddah is really nice and relaxed and that the food is awesome (especially for someone like me who love sea food and doesn't eat pork!).

After chatting with my new Saudi friend we were approached by two other men, who turned out to be from Sudan. Our flight from Frankfurt would be stopping in Khartoum. Very nice as well. One of them tells me he knows people in Saudi (some prince or something I think he said) and that he was going to give me his phone number so that if anything ever happened to me, he "knew people who could help me." Clearly, I did not ask for his number and as soon as I boarded the plane, I fell asleep and didn't see him again.

Let's talk a little about the plane/flight itself, or rather the people on it. I think it is safe to say that over 80% (and probably closer to 90%) of the people on the flight were men. I guess this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, but it was definitely something you noticed (especially if you're a girl).The flight in and of itself was uneventful. I slept for most of it. Once we arrive in Jeddah however, a couple of things happened. First, as soon as we hit Saudi airspace the flight attendants came up and down the isles picking up any last remnant of alcohol and any magazine that might have a picture of a woman that is "innapropriately dressed" (a.k.a. any fashion/gossip magazine had to go). Secondly, once we landed in Jeddah I realized that I was the only woman who was not wearing an abaya (a.k.a. long black dress that all women have to wear when in KSA). Now I must point out that most of these women were wearing short skirts and fairly tightly fitting clothing when they got on the plane, but now they had all nicely covered up. That is, all of them but me. So clearly I got a lot of "she's clearly not from around here" and "what is she thinking?" looks.

Great, so I get on the shuttle bus to take to the terminal, where according the email I had received there would be a KAUST counter and someone to greet me. I arrive at the terminal and the KAUST counter is very visible and very empty. I stand there for what seemed like an hour, but was probably closer to a minute or two, when a Saudi immigration officer looks at me and says "KAUST?" and points at my passport. I promptly hand him my passport, which he looks at, looks at me and tells me to follow him. I arrive at the immigration desk where he hands my passport to one man, who just kind of disdainfully glances my way and hands it off to yet another immigration officer. This immigration officer tells me cut the line and basically really annoy the guy who was behind me. He then proceeds to talk to the immigration officer in front in Arabic while pointing at me. No idea what they said.

Finally I get my passport back, my picture taken and my finger prints scanned and I'm off to pick up my bags, but still no word or sight of anyone from KAUST. I'm starting to freak out. Fortunately an American comes up to me and asks me if this is my first time in Jeddah (again the abaya thing is a dead giveaway) and looks at me in some measure of concern. He asks me why I'm in KSA by myself and why there is no one there to meet me. I tell him about KAUST, which seems to relax him a bit. He says there are a lot of people from KAUST on the plane so I should be ok. He keeps telling me that the ex-pat community here in KSA is really small and that I'll probably run into him again at some point (we'll see).

In the meantime, I have somehow managed to find a baggage handler who is helping me load my three pieces of luggage onto a cart, then an x-ray machine, and then the cart again. I'm in the "lobby" area of the airport and still no one from KAUST is to be seen. Now I'm really freaking out. The luggage handler keeps asking me if I want a taxi (which is useless to me because I don't know where I'm going), and if I have a number to call (which I do, but not phone to call with and no Rials to use a pay phone with). After another painfully long ten minutes, I finally see someone holding a sign with my name on it. I am escorted to a car, the baggage handler is paid and we are on our way to the hotel.