Day 4

So Thursday was basically a nothing day. I was able to sleep in, not having to wake up until about 10:30ish. We had nothing planned until 1:00 pm, at which time we were supposed to all meet up for lunch at the hotel. But I was informed by another member of the delegation that the lunch was cancelled because Dr. Anthony, Pat (the vice president of the Council), and Josh (that really tall kid from the Council that wore Converse’s with his clothes at the national competition) were meeting with a doctor privately. So nothing was planned until 3:45 pm, at which time we were supposed to go to a different doctor’s house, and then go to a party that was being thrown just for us. So we went shopping at the same area from the previous night around 11:00, which was a lovely idea, as it was hot as can be out there. We only walked around for about an hour, then had our private driver take us to what is called a “Pull and Bear”, a shop located mainly in New York, which had pretty decent clothing. I had zero interest in the shop, since a) I wasn’t here to buy American clothing, and b) I was starving. We made it back to the hotel by about 1:00 pm, and were then informed that our activity that was planned for 4:00 had been cancelled, so we didn’t have a thing to go to until 5:00 pm.
I had some pizza from room service, which was ok, and worked with my partner on our assignment- creating an outline to use in interviews and speeches given once we return- and was then informed that we didn’t have a thing planned until 6:15 now. Things were great: I had lots of relax and rest time, got caught up on a blog post, and then took a long shower and got ready for a party.
The party was at Dr. Salwa al-Hazza’s house, and it was a beautiful home. Dr. Salwa grew up in the United States, and she was very proficient in English. She was a very gracious guest, and her children, Hala her daughter, age 17, and Naif her son age 18, were very cool and had extremely good English. The whole delegation got to know them both better, and we all exchanged information and such over dinner and dessert. We stayed out quite late, and didn’t get back to our hotel until around midnight.
The night didn’t really end there, since a few of us planned to meet up at one of the delegation members’ room and watch game four of the NBA finals. I wasn’t really interested in the game too much, but I was interested in seeing some sports and hanging out with the delegation. The game didn’t start until 4:00 am local time, so we took a short nap, and met up around 3:30. We ordered lots of ice cream and coffee, and did watch the game among other things. The game ended right around 6:45 am, which was perfect, because I had to get back to my room by 7:00 am in order to have my suit jacket delivered from dry cleaning. After getting that back, I decided to take a short nap, wake up at 10:15 am, and pack my stuff, as we were leaving for Dammam on Friday afternoon.