Day 1- Arriving to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Thursday September 17th, 2009

My husband and I finally made it safe and sound to Saudi Arabia. It was still Ramadan, but we didn’t fast. We started our journey from Ohio to Washington D.C. by car. We rented a car and packed our boxes and headed to D.C. at 8:30 am. After a nice 6 hour drive, which didn’t feel that long, we arrived to Washington Dulles Airport.

We arrived at around 1:10 pm to Saudia. The weather was warm, not too hot though, yet very dry. For some reason the plane didn’t go to a gate, so we had to exit the plane and get on a shuttle that took us to the airport. There we had to go through Customs. Since there weren’t many people, the wait was very short. They just asked to see our passports and visas. Afterwards, they took pictures of us and we did fingerprints.

The airport was practically empty, aside from those few people that were in our plane and a few more boarding other planes going to Lebanon or London. We went to find our baggage in the baggage claim area, and it was pretty easy as there was only one belt turned on with suitcases and boxes from our flight. An airport worker helped us load our baggage into a cart and take it outside where my husband’s friend was waiting for us. After their “salams”, my husband and his friend loaded the SUV with our belongings and we headed to our apartment.

My brother and his wife and their adorable little son came to say hi and welcome us. They live in the same apartment building so we are neighbors (something I’m very grateful for!).
Home sweet home (for at least a year).

Love, HKA in KSA