Pictures of our Car

The time has finally come to post pictures of the vehicle I put money down on six weeks ago!  I didn't say anything about it at the time because I thought that if something happened and we ended up not getting the vehicle or had to wait a long time, like we did, you all would be wondering what had happened.

Let me tell you about the vehicle buying process.  It is not an easy process buying a used car like it is in the U.S., Canada, or probably many other places in the world.  I needed a blood test and a letter from my employer's Government Relations Office (GRO) to get a drivers license.  Then I had to wait for our very slow GRO to process the paperwork (another 4 1/2 weeks).  Finally, I received the license after some of us talked to our superintendent (who we really love) and she had a chat with GRO.  Last Monday, our principal took myself and another guy down to start the registration process of the vehicle.  We again had to bring in a letter from our GRO office.  The letter was missing a stamp it needed (of course it couldn't be perfect).  We paid the dealer a little money to get the stamps for us and the next day the letter with the correct stamp was mailed to us, which was then worthless.  Anyways, the dealer said they should be ready by Wednesday because they have to take them to a government office to process and that takes about two days.  They weren't ready on Wednesday (now I'm not surprised anymore).  I called again on Saturday and I got the O.K., but Dave, the other guy, is still waiting even though we did everything at exactly the same time, poor guy.  I went down with another guy looking for a newer car and another new teacher still looking for a car last night as Tara said.  When I got down there the dealer was going to get tires put on for me at his price, but my expense.  We get to the tire place and, you guessed it, they only had two in my size.  We left and the ride home was only slightly eventful, but I won't elaborate for my mom's sake.

So maybe it wasn't the fastest journey to getting a car, but it is just a car and we finally have it!  I hope you now get an idea of how Saudi Arabia can work.  But I must say that people in other companies have gotten drivers licenses in less than a week so we had a unique situation.

Before I show the pictures, I have to tell you that we haven't had the A/C on all week!  The weather is awesome!

O.K. now for the pictures and thanks for reading my rant.

Jamie

Tara is being rebellious on the compound!  She drove 10 feet into our parking space.

Here is the chauffeur in the 2006 Hyundai Tuscon 4x4.