Wedding Update & Life In Saudi

Wedding Update:

The wedding is quickly approaching, countdown timers on my Nexus 5 indicate the wedding is 43 days away, and the bachelor party is 35 days away.  I'll be contacting the DJ later today with our song list and doing other final alignments and checks.  This week I tentatively selected the three beers to served at the wedding, Amanda placed an order for a case of wine, and about a week ago we put together a rough draft of the seating.

I turned in my travel request for the honeymoon this week, amid a series of visa reform policies currently being administered here at site.  Essentially my company's HR department wants me to go home for a visa switch-out on my June R&R.  I don't know if that will translate into an extended R&R or some new documentation being delivered to my layover hotel in Miami, but it isn't going to prevent me from spending 10 nights in this room...

Arabia Update:

The weather is really nice right now in Saudi Arabia and that ought to hold true until about the time of the wedding, after which it will get ridiculously hot.

I've now been here for over a year, and am currently expecting another 8 months.  By the time the wedding is past I ought to be within 6 months of this being over.  When it is all over I will likely have been here longer than I was in Uganda.

The experience is both parallel and juxtaposed to my Peace Corps experience.  The boredom of nights and my days off here is very similar to my Peace Corps experience, except that Peace Corps was marked by 5  - 12 day stretches of boredom between getting out of my village.  There is also a slight pay differential between the two jobs.  Today is my first day off in a month, having worked through the last 3 Fridays, a normal week has me booking anywhere between 65 and 85 hours. I can handle the work load just fine... the bigger concern is that other than Skype nights, there isnt anything to look forward to when leaving work.

I've focused my boredom into some career development opportunities, really getting aggressive with Fluor online training and getting my Planning & Scheduling Professional (PSP) certification from AACEI.  I'm studying for my Project Management Professional (PMP) exam right now which I might be able to knock off in April. 

Hopefully the flurry of letters after my name make me an easy sell to a client for a Greenville position in the 4th quarter.