It is amazing how similar life in Saudi Arabia can be to North America. The shorter members of the family start school tomorrow, so we’ve been school supply shopping. All the supplies were familiar; the primary difference was handing our list to a nice Pakistani man who found everything for us and filled our cart. You don’t find that kind of service at Wal-Mart! The bookstore that was recommended to us is a popular chain here; sort of the Barnes & Noble of the Middle East. I was expecting a dozen rows of different Qurans, which they had:

However, the next row over was a little less conservative:

I think the religious police must not read in English, because this stuff is even offensive to us lewd Americans!

Another familiar experience this week; the president visits, and traffic is a mess. He didn’t stop by to say hello while he was in town, but I did get some quality time staring at the bumper of the truck in front of me while the highway was closed.

Not surprisingly, people were honking constantly, because that usually helps in a traffic snarl like this. It gave me some time to think about how much of my tax money was being spent on this little trip of the POTUS. In the end, I was able to smile at the symmetry; we both ended up in Saudi Arabia trying to balance our budgets. At least I didn’t have to spend the afternoon with Nancy Pelosi, which makes this view of the Toyota in front of me seem OK after all.