Adventures in Social Communication

I've been having some camp adventures and meeting new people.

I've mentioned Martin, the geologist who came in at the same time I did. He's going to have me and the dogs over in a day or two for dinner. I want to keep up that friendship because he is a nice guy and it's helpful to have a guy to go into town with.

There's the single female geologist who lives in the apartment behind mine. She has two cats and adopted a young feral who started hanging out with her cats. One of that little one's litter mates started hanging around last week so I think she adopted it too! She rides the same bus to work that I do so I've chatted a bit with her.

My office mate is a reservoir engineer. She came over here as a single woman in the late 1980's or early 90's. Talk about a trail blazer! She met a chemical engineer here, they got married, left, got some degrees in the U.S., had a couple of kids--and came back! She's been a veritable font of great information. Best of all, she gave me the number of the private driver she uses. He's taking me to Bahrain on Monday, the first business day after the e'id holiday. I have to leave the country to activate my multiple exit/re-entry visa and most people do so by heading to Bahrain for the day. Jenny also invited me to join her book club--all women, most of them working professionals. They are going to be a wonderful source of information, I'm sure. The first meeting is in early December. Jenny gave me a copy of the book: Florence of Arabia by Christopher Buckley. Interesting but I wouldn't encourage you to rush out and buy it.

Yeah, I know. A book club. Those of you who know me well know that I'm not a joiner. But I've already discovered that the best way to get information (where to get your hair cut, how to get to Bahrain, etc.) is to keep asking people. In fact, I've found that after I ask three or four people about the same thing, I've got a pretty good idea of how to buy it/cook it/find it/get to it. And the best way to find people to talk to is to join some of these groups. The book club is the tip of the iceberg as you will see.

The wife of one of my bosses invited me to the November meeting of the Dhahran Outing Group. We listened to a guy give a fun talk about his family's trip this year to Pamplona (of running bulls fame). Members of the group organize high quality group trips such as 10 days in Kenya or 2 weeks cruising the Orkneys. The trips aren't cheap but are an excellent way to visit a new place without having to do a lot of the logistical work. I joined this group.

After the holiday, I plan to join the Saudi Aramco Employees Association. They are putting on a New Year's Eve ball in Bahrain, heavily subsidized by Aramco, that will simply be flowing with food and drink (of the adult kind). Not that I give a shit about balls or even New Year's Eve, but again--another place to meet people.

Two of my co-workers are members of the local theater group. That group did a week of performances of Mamma Mia! and Peyton was in the chorus while David was one of the stage managers. Peyton encouraged me to get a ticket, so I did, and none too soon. They sold out a 500-seat theater for 6 evenings and one matinee performance. And for community (that is, all volunteer) theater, it was a wonderfully amusing production. I would NEVER go see a play or a musical in the U.S. Not interested in that sort of thing. But life is different here. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

And get this: I joined the Dhahran Women's Group. It is a very old club on camp that was originally for nonworking spouses but with the increase in working single women, they are having more evening meetings and events. Just this week, they sponsored an evening trip to a local furniture/carpet/art store in Khobar called Desert Designs. We had finger food, tea, and some nice discounts on the goods. They bussed 50 (!) women to the store where we had two hours to look at the exhibits, finger the carpets, and spend some money. On that trip, I met three very fun women who, like everyone else, have a ton of advice and information to share about any topic you'd care to mention. Diane in particular was quite fun and invited me and the dogs to join her and her dog Sprout (a very cute yorkie-maltese mix) for a stroll around the circum-golf course path this morning. We then went back to her place where we had a yummy breakfast of fresh bread, fruit, and tea. Her husband, John, is a geologist and he and I made plans to meet up during the holiday and talk some shop. He said he'd put me in touch with some other folks I could meet at work as well.

Just to be clear, I don't live for shopping and I find genealogy jaw-droppingly boring (it was the topic of this month's Women's Group meeting, which I passed on), but I think the time I spent at the Desert Designs trip was pretty successful. I met some friendly people who have already helped me with all kinds of advice and information.

No, I'm not a joiner but I'm trying to act like one!