Zu lange; Strand

As I write this entry, I wonder how much of my soul I would voluntarily give in exchange for reliable fast Internet at BOTH work and home. Since I downloaded a new anti-virus software program on my laptop, though, I haven't been able to view web pages correctly, and often vital buttons like "publish post" are missing. There are places areound town that offer wireless Internet access, but they are mostly coffee shops and don't offer a "clean, well lighted place" for me to do the work I'd like to get done. The Internet world is against me this week, and it's bringing me down.

Unrelated to the Internet, today I was able to go to a part of the Khobar Corniche with a sandy shore. N, an Iranian friend, has a Mitsubishi Montero Sport, which makes traversing the lumpy sand a breeze. At the beach a sedan got stuck in the sand for nearly half an hour. We watched from afar as about a dozen young men and boys, in both thobes and Western style clothes attempted to dig out the car.

Interesting finds/experiences at the beach:
1. an empty tea cup half-way burried in the sand
2. four small sea shells
3. hundreds of dead jellyfish washed up along the shore -- clear and super gelatinous
4. a Saudi boy with Downs kicking a soccer ball with the family maid while the rest of the family sat on the carpet on the opposite side of their Land Cruiser
5. dipping feet in the Arabian Sea
6. walking on what looks like hard-packed sand, but turns out to be wibbly-wobbly sand at the shore
7. playing with a dog in public
8. different tints of stringy green and purple seaweed washed upon the shore, as if a purple and green Persian carpet were dissolved in the sea and spit up on the sand
9. feeling uneasy about how high to roll up my jeans and abaya, trying to avoid getting totally soaked, but also not wanting to create a scandal while walking along the shore
10. appalling amount of garbage along and at the beach
11. trying to convince N that it was sunny outside despite the minor dust storm