Boring Bahrain (Day 17)

In the Gulf region, Thurday and Friday are the weekend. Therefore, we have no school visits set up. There is not much to see and do in Bahrain, especially if you have been before. I did the souk thing on my last trip. I ended up sleeping in and then catching up on some e-mail and such. At 5pm we all met downstairs for a briefing from the US embassy on the Bahraini education system. We generally get these in every country we visit. The fair itself started at 6. It was packed. Joseph Humadi, the organizer (a quick aside - Joseph is Iraqi by blood. His dad is the chief of staff of the interim gov't and will probably end up being minister of education!), advertised widely for the event. We even had kids and counselors drive in from Saudi. I went through all my materials and talked myself hoarse. When it ended at 9:30, we would all kill for beer, so we met again downstairs for a few pints and some more Filipina entertainment. We were all too beat to check out the clubs again, and didn't want to deal with explaining Nasser's practical jokes. I read some and hit the sack.

By the way, I finished Cryptonomicon back in Delhi. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys good historical fiction, especially about WWII. That is, if you are not afraid of books as long and complicated as the Old Testament. I'm now reading Book II of the Emperor series (about Caesar), The Death of Kings. It's ok.