Qatar, Boat Trip & More....

I can't believe it has been a month since my last update.  I would have gave up on this blog a long time ago if I was following it:)  I want to say I will do better but you must remember there isn't internet everywhere like in the great USA and there are two different kind of outlets in Egypt and sometimes I am powerless.  So that is my excuse even though not a good one....... So lets start with Qatar!!!!

I thought Doha was an awesome city.  It was so clean and all the buildings were brand new.  I didn't get to see all of Doha but I tried to see as much as I could in the short time I was there.  They have a great river walk and I would love to go back in a few years to see how much it changed.  My company has multiple very large projects in Qatar and hopefully more to come with the World Cup in 2022.  One thing I noticed was everyone had very nice cars and you could just tell there was a lot of oil money floating around.  I spent most of the week at one of our jobsites getting training on a new software program that hopefully we get in Egypt soon.  I learned alot but I am going to be honest being trained from someone whose native language isn't English can be exhausting.  One day I was trained by someone from India, Asia and Egypt.  Which definitely gave my brain a challenge.  Don't get me wrong though I think that is one of the coolest things about working abroad is getting to have coworkers from all over the world but when you are use to Egyptian English and then you have to switch over it can take some time.  I was also glad to meet some other TIME (Turner International Middle East) outside of Egypt.  Besides that I walked around the city alot and unfortuantely couldn't get into The Pearl becasue you have to have permission to get in that area.  I thought of my architecture family and friends when I was there too I figure they would really enjoy the site.  Now for the Boat Trip.......

This past Sunday I got invited to go on a friends boat for the day and it was amazing.  The boat went around the coast of Alexandria in the Mediterrian Sea.  I finally swam in the SEA!!!!  I have lived next to it for over 3 months and haven't got it until now.  Hopefully I will get more opportunities.  After the boat trip we went out to a seafood restaurant on the Cornish.  The fish was fresh and amazing.  My friends that own the boat left an open invitation to come and use it whenever.  It just shows how hospitable Egyptians are and of course I gladly with accept in due time:)

Besides that not a whole lot to report.  I went to Cairo for a weekend and met up with some friends and had a great time.  I am headed off to Sharm el Shiek on Thursday to do some diving in the Red Sea and have a nice little 4 day holiday so I am very excited since I haven't got a chance to travel outside of Cairo and Alexandria.  I also posted some photos of the job I am working on.  The water is the most beautiful I have every seen at the Marassi project.  I can't wait to use it this summer!!!

Miss you all

Adam   

Back to Reality

I have been back to Egypt for a few weeks now and things have been busy.  Work is finally starting to click and things are starting to pick up.  Unfortuantely I can't post any pictures of my work but I can tell you I am working on the Marassi Project.  This is a new development located on the North Coast of Egypt.  There are some pretty good websites for it on the internet just look up Marassi which is being developed by a company call Emaar.  I will try to put up pictures every now and then but I have to get permission before I can do that.

Anyways besides work I have moved into a new villa with another American guy named Eric.  Like me he worked for Turner Construction in the States and moved out here the same time I did.  Our new Villa is awesome.  At the bottom of my blog site there is a photo stream which includes all my most recent photos. I believe it will also take you to my flickr account which I just started.  I am slowly getting better at this blogging thing so hopefully my skills will develop as time goes on.

So besides moving not a whole lot to report.  I am heading to Doha, Qatar tomorrow morning for some training.  I am excited to see that city and hopefully can make a trip to the Pearl (look it up on the internet).  Miss you all!!

The Revolution (Part 2)

A lot of people have asked me if I saw anything crazy during the riots, but I was not close to any of the action.  The only thing that really changed for me is that they beefed up the security where I was living and the police abandoned all the checkpoints in my city and they were taken over by the bedouins.  The bedouins are the local people that live in the deserts.  There are hundreds that work on my job site and a lot of them stay in tents on the site as well.  So instead of coming to the checkpoints and seeing a couple cops there were about 10-15 bedouins and a few with some large weapons, but fortunately they like expats so there wasn't any issues.  Other things was I saw some tanks mobilized and a few military units assembling. Supposedly there were some buildings that got burnt down close to me but I never saw them.

This entire situation was very new and foreign to me so at the time was never worried or scared for my safety.  Actually the more I thought about it I really couldn't blame them.  Reasons being is that over the past decade or so it seems like a lot of foreign money was put in/invested into Egypt.  The problem was that the money doesn't work its way through the social classes.  In the Egyptian society there seems to be a lot of poor people and a few rich people but the rich are very very rich.  Workers barely make enough to feed their families and I heard something like 90% of people under the age of 30 are unemployed in Egypt.  Probably one of the main reason why the younger generation was so involved in the revolution.  It seemed like Mobarik was almost running a dictatorship.  All past elections over the last 30 years were rigged to keep him in office.  Now I know he has been portrayed as an awful guy but he was a big part of keeping peace in the middle east over the past few decades.  He has done a few good things but obviously they haven't weighed out the bad.  

All in all my feelings on the revolution are mixed.  I do believe it is time for a change, but the way it was carried out I don't agree with.  Although I know it wasn't portrayed in the media this way but it was for the most part a non-violent protest.  There was some rock throwing and fire starting, but before each large protest the protestors would have someone checking people for weapons before they entered the large crowds in the square (however this didn't keep them from digging up rocks).  Okay I am starting to feel like I am rambling so I will finish my story from the previous post.......

After a few days of house arrest I got a phone call from the Egyptian Embassy telling me its time to skidaddle.  I was relieved to be leaving for a while because the news of the prisoners escaping made me kind of nervous.  Then the next day I went to the airport at 11am..... flew out at 6pm..... landed in Jordan at 8 or 9pm........ flew out to Germany at 1am........ landed around 5 or 6am......... flew to Chicago at 11am....... landed in Chicago around noon.............. with all the time changes, layovers, and flight time it took me about 36 hours to get home.  Oh and lets not forget I got called into customs and had to sit in a waiting room for 30 minutes until I got interviewed before I could enter back into the states.

Then over the next few weeks I stayed with friends and family.  I had a good time just relaxing and getting ready for my journey back.  I know these last couple posts are short little explanations of what I experienced during the revolution and it is kind of neat to look at this situation and know that I was apart of history.  Let the adventure continue...............