We have been open for about two weeks.  Not a perfect two weeks but two weeks.  We started with 121 students and now have 122 students.  The goal was 125 to be registered and attending for the first semester. That might have happened between the 121 and the 122 but some girls decided to delay their attendance until next semester.
  
Some challenges are at hand - our technology will be delivered this week or immediately following the Eid holiday.  For a curriculum which is technology driven, it has taken humor, talent and flexibility from all the faculty to deliver classes and engage the students in learning.  And they are a talented faculty from all over the world.  More on the College as the semester progresses.

Today we went to Riyadh to Ikea and I took pictures along the way.  OK...they are bad pictures because they are from a moving car, but they give you some sights of the area.

First, because I forgot to post it, the architects rendering of the College itself (and this is what it looks like):

So, as you leave Kharj there is one local landmark which is the water tower (Birge Al Kharj) but I don't think it is being used as a water tower.  It was to have a restaurant in it but that is only in the write-ups there isn't really a restaurant there.  At night it is set with lights all over it.  Like a carnival.  And of course there are the other round about sculptures.

 What is interesting about this area is that it is very fertile by comparison to the rest of Saudi.  There is a great deal of water relatively close to the surface used for farming.  The following pictures (again, really bad pictures taken from a car) show you the palm date farms and nurseries which are around Kharj.  Hay is also farmed here and supports the dairy, camel, sheep and horse farms of the Kingdom.  It is a desert and yet it is a farming community.

 
And, finally, our day of shopping was in IKEA.  This is on the southern end of Riyadh, an hour from Kharj, just past the Industrial City.  What I can tell you about shopping in the Kingdom is that you can find anything in the stores (other than alcohol, of course). 

We are waiting for our apartment building to be completed.  Right now we are living in a furnished apartment hotel building which has tolerable apartments.  If I used my GPS correctly the coordinates are N 24 09.885  E 047 19.075  but, I was doing it out the window of the building and I will check it when outside.

cheers,  Betsy