I got 99 problems but the heat ain't one

Well, not yet anyway... word on the street is that it will hit 130 degrees. We'll see how smart I am when that K-9 comes.

Enough shouts for Jay-Z and back to me...

I'm out in Bahrain where I'm happy to be

where the chicks are covered and the gas is free (almost)

and where the sand is flying but we're surrounded by sea.

Welcome to my first ever blog, where I'll chronicle the misadventures of my time here in the Persian Gulf and Africa. I'm here working with a small startup company over my summer internship from MIT Sloan.

On the last leg of my flight out here, the pilot announced that the weather in Bahrain was "sandy." Now I don't know about the rest of y'all, but "sandy" to me is the texture of sugar cookies, but I got off the plane I found out pretty quick what he meant. The visibility was probably less than a mile, and I couldn't walk more than a few minutes without sand blowing in my eyes or mouth. It's no great mystery why people here spend so much time in shopping malls.

I arrived here on Sunday night, and avoided my first social faux pas at the office on Monday morning. As I was introduced to the female office secretary (yes they still call them that here) I _did not_ extend my hand to shake hers! And it was a good thing else it likely would've hung out there unshaken like a martini forgotten by Mr. Bond. In the middle east men should not extend a hand when meeting local women, as many women here prefer not to engage in that traditional western greeting.

Well with the sand blowing around and the women and men in their flowing black and white robes, it's clear that I have arrived somewhere truly different. I look forward to keeping you all posted on the trouble I get into and how I worm out of it.

Keep rocking the free world (cuz Lord knows that I'm not),

Ananda of Arabia