Welcome to Middle East

6 August 2012. The day I arrived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Took a 1.5h fast taxi ride from airport to KAUST. Checked into a super big house, with only myself and two suitcases. Thought the house was way too big for my liking. It's been slightly more than 2 months since I first got here. I didn't even realize time passes so fast. It seems like I have accomplished almost nothing. Still no permanent lab of my own and my major equipment are not in yet. Some of the chemicals and reagents that I have ordered in July only arrived after I continued pestering and making sure people along the supply chain aren't sitting on it. Here, it seems that things only move when you keep a hawk eye on it. I've started training my student DNA extraction and PCR amplification. Other than that, what have I achieved? Pretty much nothing... I guess the proudest thing I have achieved here is I adopted a cat, abandoned by his previous owner. I adore him, and I hope he loves me too. I think he keeps my sanity here.