Sunday, January 24, 2016

Snowzilla

C was hit this weekend with a monster snow storm with around 20 inches of snow over two days.  I had to shovel 6 times and my car is still not out of the snowbank.  Work closed early on Friday - the whole city was shutdown over the weekend and work is closed again tomorrow.

Here are a few photos of the snow -
2:30 pm Friday - snow begins

4:30 pm Friday
6:30 pm Friday - after first shoveling
12:30 am Saturday - I've shoveled twice already
Saturday morning
Saturday morning - before shoveling
Our stairwell was a snow drift - Saturday morning before shoveling
Saturday morning from our bedroom
The dogs exploring the back yard
The aftermath on Sunday

The alley between our house and the neighbor's house - Sunday morning

Saturday, January 16, 2016

Learning Arabic

One of the most intimidating aspects of going to Saudi Arabia was the prospect of learning Arabic.  From the outset, the language is incredibly intimidating.  I think most of my fear was rooted in the new alphabet and reading/writing from right to left.  While this is a huge barrier to entry, it wasn't as bad as I feared.  After you learn the alphabet, the language becomes a lot less intimidating.  That's not to say it has become easy.  I still have to sound out words like I am a 6 year old.  There is no skimming in Arabic.  It requires complete concentration.

Speaking the lang