ok so maybe cairo isnt quite utopia parkway but dammit its close enough.
so yeah. ive decided, after much heartfelt deliberation, to start a blog. get excited.
this blog was actually started by my older sister when she was living in jeddah last year so she might be posting from time to time. but i have confidence that you all will not be overly confused - the name of the person writing is at the end of the blog. my blog will be slightly different from libby's, for those of you who have read both. she was a bit more...intellectual in her observations then i will be. do not read this blog if you are looking for deep thoughts. i have none that i could broadcast without feeling like a pretentious git. this will be something more along the lines of a cross between a mass email and a record of what ive been doing for my own amusement. but i do it for love of mes amis who, surprisingly enough, seem to care enough about what im doing with my life to give my blog a place in their procrastination schedules. read email, check. read aim away msgs, check. stalk ppl on facebook, check. aaand read rachel's blog, check! beautiful.
sooo where to begin. i arrived in cairo (for those of you not in the know im taking a year off and spending it in cairo. thats in egypt.) at 4:45pm this afternoon - with a 7 hr time difference to the east coast. those on the west coast can do their own mental math. i went through paris and after the amount of time and effort my parents put into preparing me to miss my transfer flight in paris, i was almost disapointed when i had absolutely no trouble getting to my plane on time. life is so cruel. but i slept. a lot. and pretended i knew french for most of the trip which worked pretty well unless the ppl expected me to respond to them.
stewardess: -incomprehensible frenchy babble-
rachel: -smiles. nods. feels ridiculously sophisticated. considers buying a cigarette just to complete the image-
stewardess: -pauses and looks on expectantly-
rachel: -continues to smile until pause reaches awkward length-
stewardess: -more frenchy babble, presumably along the lines of, "whats wrong with you woman! answer the damn question!"-
rachel: -finally realizes the stewardess wants an answer. looks around frantically. makes rolling dive for the exit-
cairo is beauuutiful. looks suspiciously like riyadh. less dry. very hot. it has that same chaotic feel to it, like nobody really knows quite what theyre doing, but theyre doing it anyway bc also, nobody really cares. and i understood arabic at the airport!!! -patpat patpat- of course, despite understanding it, i didnt speak any of it. nope. not a word. when i had to get my luggage i went looking for a cart, and found a bunch but there was this official-ish looking guy sitting in a desk next to them so i wasnt sure whether or not i had to rent the cart, or if i could just take it. and i didnt really want to start out my cairo experience by being wrestled to the ground by the poor cart owner whose children would go dinner-less tonight bc the stingy american female stole his cart. (and i was sure he would call me "imrah" in his stories. "al-imrah al-amrikia al-stingia") and so, to avoid said situation, i went to talk to the cart guy. of course he didnt speak english. so he called over his friend, who also didnt understand my question. so he called over another guy, who also didnt understand my question. no big deal. we were all enjoying the absurdity of the situation blah blah blah, total incomprehension on both sides. mind you, i know how to say "to rent" in arabic. i fact, i know EXACTLY how to say "do i need to rent this?" admittedly i dont know the word for cart, but i feel like i could have gotten around that one. now you may ask, why then did i not simply ask in arabic? i have a theory. maybe thats how middlebury keeps ppl coming back. along with brainwashing us to kill world leaders at certain times as was the general consensus of students actually at middlebury, they also brainwash us so we cant actual use any of the arabic we know. we can just repeat things over and over in english at a gradually increasing volume until we give up and walk away in disgust left with nothing but the constant fear of angry cart owners hanging over us. it is a conspiracy.
moving on...i am now sitting in my apartment, which is quite nice actually. view of the nile from the window :) if you have a webcam i can give you a virtual tour if you im me and i like you enough. nice big living room, kitchen, 2 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. and did i mention one of the girls actually arranged some fashion "101 sex tricks to try before you die" magazines on the livingroom table? cute. one problem - there are 6 girls, 5 beds. and i was the last one to get here so i am, at least for now, bedless. maybe ill buy a blowup mattress and set it up in the corner, ghetto-style. actually the bed isnt so much the issue as the clothing space... but i will manage. somehow. inshaallah. -cue dramatic music- on my way to the apt my driver says, "now we are crossing al-whatever street and after that we will reach Garden City (where my apt is). Inshaallah". i was like..yes i will commense prayer immediately in the hopes that god will not move the district before we get there. awesome.
ok children i feel like i have droned on for long enough. im listening to architecture in helsinki. and i think i might sleep on the couch. miss you all muchly-
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Friday, June 09, 2006
Monday, May 01, 2006
Dereliction of Duty
You know what, true to my amazing powers of perception and prediction, I am loving my life. I find I have a lot less to say when I am happy. I also find I have a lot less to say now that I'm getting used to it and things no longer seem quite as bizarre as they once did. For example, I have begun a fun, if somewhat strange, tradition of religious banter with some of my closer friends. They say I'm a kafir, I say at least the rest of my family will be in hell with me. And then they go off and pray. Ah, it's a good life.
Seriously, though, it's harder and harder to come up with hard-hitting insightful comments when I'm getting used to the place. Granted, there are things which still drive me mad, but they're so old it seems sad to complain about them more. Of course, Team Fabulous has certainly noticed that whenever I break free of my prison I tend to be hyperactive and extremely happy for at least an hour.
I guess my main concern these days is that, if Effat really wants to have more girls like me come stay with them and study here, they're going to have to shape up in some respects. Like with the mobility issue.
That's all I've got for now. As usual, I am up too late and unable to sleep. But I'm sure that will be fixed soon enough.
Only five weeks left. I'm already really unhappy about it.... ah well. These things all have to end eventually.
Luckily, Team Fabulous will mostly be in London all together, so that'll be a trip.
Alright, off to bed/work.
Seriously, though, it's harder and harder to come up with hard-hitting insightful comments when I'm getting used to the place. Granted, there are things which still drive me mad, but they're so old it seems sad to complain about them more. Of course, Team Fabulous has certainly noticed that whenever I break free of my prison I tend to be hyperactive and extremely happy for at least an hour.
I guess my main concern these days is that, if Effat really wants to have more girls like me come stay with them and study here, they're going to have to shape up in some respects. Like with the mobility issue.
That's all I've got for now. As usual, I am up too late and unable to sleep. But I'm sure that will be fixed soon enough.
Only five weeks left. I'm already really unhappy about it.... ah well. These things all have to end eventually.
Luckily, Team Fabulous will mostly be in London all together, so that'll be a trip.
Alright, off to bed/work.
Monday, April 10, 2006
A Thought
I was reading DhimmiWatch today (I like this site, not because of the attitude, but because they do an excellent job collecting interesting articles from all over the world about Muslims in Western societies) and I found in it a comment on the arrest of the Saudi journalist I mentioned earlier. If you look at the Arab News article (which you can't, because they won't publish it online any more -- booo) and then look at the article they've got on DhimmiWatch, you can see where point of view becomes incredibly important in journalism. Obviously, I do not approve of arresting people on heresy charges, and on death threats and whatnot. Obviously, I do not think that this man should be punished for anything he said relating to Islam. However, the man does (according to the Arab News, at least) have a lawyer, and his case is going to trial not in the Ministry of the Interior but in a local court, thanks to his lawyer's efforts. You have to keep in mind that Saudi Arabia does have some sort of legal system, even if everyone believes its laws to be outdated. And a lot of people, including the man himself, have spoken out against his arrest.
Of course, that doesn't make it okay to have a law against apostasy, but come on, what do you expect? Guys, one generation ago our parents were fighting wars against the "Godless commies" and, to hear my grandfather talk about it, the atheists still have something nefarious going on. We're still fighting battles against homophobia in the more liberal areas, and in the less liberal areas white supremicists and male chauvanists still frequently have a lot of power. Being "godless" or "unchristian" is still, in some parts of the United States, not acceptable. My little sister spent her Thanksgiving helping feed Katerina victims in Mississippi, and she stayed in a convent with a bunch of nuns who tried desperately to get her see the light. My Louisiana relatives are not pleased that I'm not a regular church-goer.
Keep in mind that "the West" hasn't got it all figured out. Life is a bundle of paradoxes. The belief that it is morally right for everyone to have the right to create their own morals is troubling in and of itself -- what if people decide to create a moral system which denies people the right to choose? None of the answers are black and white and although it may seem like a balance has been reached in the West, that's a misconception. The balances are shifting all the time. Islam obviously throws something of a wrench into the gears, but as an inherently optimistic person I'd like to say I think eventually a new balance will be found.
Religion obviously complicates this. Christianity and Judaism been dealing with all of the paradoxes for centuries and centuries. Islam has too. Obviously, in comparison to the current mainstream manifestations of Christianity and Judaism, Islam is on the whole more conservative. And it is obviously also true that most Muslim countries are ruled by semi-repressive or all-out repressive regimes and are denied many things which we "Westerners" consider basic human rights. And one of those things is the right to choose our own religion.
But we have to keep in mind the goal, here. In my mind, this is not a moral issue but a practical one with moral aspects. The idea is to live together without us all having to kill each other. There is nothing black-and-white about any of these issues. As with most religions, you can largely find what you're looking for in Islam. Of course Islam isn't accepting or tolerant if all you're looking for is the intolerant bits. If we were to interpret religions at their most literal and conservative, then very few religions would come across looking moderate or accepting. Even Hinduism, at its most literal, involves a lot of fasting and sitting in the forest living off of berries and avoiding women who are at their "unclean" time of month. And no religion, at base, really wants to accept the idea that other religions could also be correct.
So, since in that direction lies only dissention, I say we have no choice but to go another path. It is NOT blind to emphasize the aspects of Islam which are tolerant and peaceful: it is hopeful. It is not going to happen immediately, but with time more and more people may come to see it the way these hopefuls do, and may choose to interpret the Qu'ran and hadith in a fashion more conducive to neighborliness than to discord. It would be just as wrong for the West to squash Islam, and the right of Muslims to believe in their religion, as it is for Saudi Arabia to arrest this journalist for apostasy.
So how shall we approach it? Shall we be alarmist and spend our time pointing out all of the things that seem to point to an impending Muslim takeover of the universe? Or shall we recognize that Islam has a growing influence in the world and do our best to recalibrate our own balances in order to fit that in?
Now, that said, I am not trying to justify a mitigation or reconsideration of "Western" values. There are some things I consider absolutely integral to ANYBODY living peacefully together. By this I mean freedom of speech and belief primarily, although I'm sure if I were pressed there'd be other things. Without freedom of speech, there is no way that two societies or cultures with different beliefs can ever communicate in an atmosphere of peace. But it took a long time for that idea to gain widespread acceptance, and there are places in the West where the battles are still being fought. Any strict morality of Right and Wrong does not really lend itself to freedoms of speech and belief, but given time and a lot of effort a balance between the two can be found. It's THAT we should be focusing on, not on the failures of the moment.
I think the fallacy that the people at DhimmiWatch are falling under is one which the Islamists themselves would be happy to agree with: The idea that the Islam practiced today in the conservative regimes is the one, true, eternal Islam sent down by God in the Quran and obvious to all who have eyes to see and read it. This is false. If there IS a one, true, eternal Islam then God's the only one who knows what it is. Islam has been changing since Muhammad, and at times it has been more tolerant, and at times it has been less tolerant (much like the history of other major ideologies and religions). Even DURING the time of Muhammad it changed, as God added verses that dealt with the immediate concerns of the fledgling Medinan community. Obviously, there are some things which will tend to remain constant over time: the basics of belief, the five pillars, the shahada. But how scholars interpret the Qu'ran and the hadith has always been changeable.
I'm not trying to say that pointing out problems in the Muslim world is useless; obviously, in order to correct a problem, one must first address it. But to come to judgement regarding whether Islam is inherently a tolerant or peaceful religion, particularly if your judgement is that it is neither tolerant nor peaceful, is useless and harmful. What, then, are our options? World war? Wipe out the Muslims once and for all in one enormous crusade? Ignore them and hope they'll go away? Kick them out of our countries and refuse to sell them goods? Like it or not, Islam is one of the major world religions, and one way or another we have to learn to live with each other.
And, as my pal Jesus always liked to say, before you point out the splinter in someone else's eye, you'd better remove the log from your own.
Of course, that doesn't make it okay to have a law against apostasy, but come on, what do you expect? Guys, one generation ago our parents were fighting wars against the "Godless commies" and, to hear my grandfather talk about it, the atheists still have something nefarious going on. We're still fighting battles against homophobia in the more liberal areas, and in the less liberal areas white supremicists and male chauvanists still frequently have a lot of power. Being "godless" or "unchristian" is still, in some parts of the United States, not acceptable. My little sister spent her Thanksgiving helping feed Katerina victims in Mississippi, and she stayed in a convent with a bunch of nuns who tried desperately to get her see the light. My Louisiana relatives are not pleased that I'm not a regular church-goer.
Keep in mind that "the West" hasn't got it all figured out. Life is a bundle of paradoxes. The belief that it is morally right for everyone to have the right to create their own morals is troubling in and of itself -- what if people decide to create a moral system which denies people the right to choose? None of the answers are black and white and although it may seem like a balance has been reached in the West, that's a misconception. The balances are shifting all the time. Islam obviously throws something of a wrench into the gears, but as an inherently optimistic person I'd like to say I think eventually a new balance will be found.
Religion obviously complicates this. Christianity and Judaism been dealing with all of the paradoxes for centuries and centuries. Islam has too. Obviously, in comparison to the current mainstream manifestations of Christianity and Judaism, Islam is on the whole more conservative. And it is obviously also true that most Muslim countries are ruled by semi-repressive or all-out repressive regimes and are denied many things which we "Westerners" consider basic human rights. And one of those things is the right to choose our own religion.
But we have to keep in mind the goal, here. In my mind, this is not a moral issue but a practical one with moral aspects. The idea is to live together without us all having to kill each other. There is nothing black-and-white about any of these issues. As with most religions, you can largely find what you're looking for in Islam. Of course Islam isn't accepting or tolerant if all you're looking for is the intolerant bits. If we were to interpret religions at their most literal and conservative, then very few religions would come across looking moderate or accepting. Even Hinduism, at its most literal, involves a lot of fasting and sitting in the forest living off of berries and avoiding women who are at their "unclean" time of month. And no religion, at base, really wants to accept the idea that other religions could also be correct.
So, since in that direction lies only dissention, I say we have no choice but to go another path. It is NOT blind to emphasize the aspects of Islam which are tolerant and peaceful: it is hopeful. It is not going to happen immediately, but with time more and more people may come to see it the way these hopefuls do, and may choose to interpret the Qu'ran and hadith in a fashion more conducive to neighborliness than to discord. It would be just as wrong for the West to squash Islam, and the right of Muslims to believe in their religion, as it is for Saudi Arabia to arrest this journalist for apostasy.
So how shall we approach it? Shall we be alarmist and spend our time pointing out all of the things that seem to point to an impending Muslim takeover of the universe? Or shall we recognize that Islam has a growing influence in the world and do our best to recalibrate our own balances in order to fit that in?
Now, that said, I am not trying to justify a mitigation or reconsideration of "Western" values. There are some things I consider absolutely integral to ANYBODY living peacefully together. By this I mean freedom of speech and belief primarily, although I'm sure if I were pressed there'd be other things. Without freedom of speech, there is no way that two societies or cultures with different beliefs can ever communicate in an atmosphere of peace. But it took a long time for that idea to gain widespread acceptance, and there are places in the West where the battles are still being fought. Any strict morality of Right and Wrong does not really lend itself to freedoms of speech and belief, but given time and a lot of effort a balance between the two can be found. It's THAT we should be focusing on, not on the failures of the moment.
I think the fallacy that the people at DhimmiWatch are falling under is one which the Islamists themselves would be happy to agree with: The idea that the Islam practiced today in the conservative regimes is the one, true, eternal Islam sent down by God in the Quran and obvious to all who have eyes to see and read it. This is false. If there IS a one, true, eternal Islam then God's the only one who knows what it is. Islam has been changing since Muhammad, and at times it has been more tolerant, and at times it has been less tolerant (much like the history of other major ideologies and religions). Even DURING the time of Muhammad it changed, as God added verses that dealt with the immediate concerns of the fledgling Medinan community. Obviously, there are some things which will tend to remain constant over time: the basics of belief, the five pillars, the shahada. But how scholars interpret the Qu'ran and the hadith has always been changeable.
I'm not trying to say that pointing out problems in the Muslim world is useless; obviously, in order to correct a problem, one must first address it. But to come to judgement regarding whether Islam is inherently a tolerant or peaceful religion, particularly if your judgement is that it is neither tolerant nor peaceful, is useless and harmful. What, then, are our options? World war? Wipe out the Muslims once and for all in one enormous crusade? Ignore them and hope they'll go away? Kick them out of our countries and refuse to sell them goods? Like it or not, Islam is one of the major world religions, and one way or another we have to learn to live with each other.
And, as my pal Jesus always liked to say, before you point out the splinter in someone else's eye, you'd better remove the log from your own.
Some interesting news
So, I hate to say but the Arab News has stopped letting people link to their articles online - they must be losing money. In any case, I still get the print edition down in the dining hall fairly often, and today there were a couple of interesting articles. First off, I don't know if anybody noticed earlier this year, but the first women EVER were elected to the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce this year. Quite a big deal here. But today I read that the same isn't going to be allowed in Mecca and Medina's Chamber of Commerce - the four women who tried to run were disqualified for not "fulfilling the requirements" whatever that means.
And, in another somewhat disturbing article, a man from Hail who has worked as a journalist for many years was arrested on suspicion of forsaking Islam, based on some comments he made on the internet four years ago. Apparently he was also threatened at the time and his car was vandalized. He filed a complaint with the police and they asked him to come in and clear up some things related to his complaint. When he went in, they arrested him.
Now, I don't know what he said online, so I can't say whether or not he has "forsaken Islam", but I have to say I'm disturbed by the idea that somebody can be persecuted for anything related to religious choice.
Of course, if you've got the right religion going, why would you want to let anybody pass up the chance to get to heaven?
Sigh. Religion is full of paradox. But Islam even says you shouldn't coerce people who don't want to join Islam, and you would have thought that should apply equally well to people who choose to leave Islam.
Anyway, those are my tidbits for the day. It's another slow Monday.
And, in another somewhat disturbing article, a man from Hail who has worked as a journalist for many years was arrested on suspicion of forsaking Islam, based on some comments he made on the internet four years ago. Apparently he was also threatened at the time and his car was vandalized. He filed a complaint with the police and they asked him to come in and clear up some things related to his complaint. When he went in, they arrested him.
Now, I don't know what he said online, so I can't say whether or not he has "forsaken Islam", but I have to say I'm disturbed by the idea that somebody can be persecuted for anything related to religious choice.
Of course, if you've got the right religion going, why would you want to let anybody pass up the chance to get to heaven?
Sigh. Religion is full of paradox. But Islam even says you shouldn't coerce people who don't want to join Islam, and you would have thought that should apply equally well to people who choose to leave Islam.
Anyway, those are my tidbits for the day. It's another slow Monday.
Saturday, April 08, 2006
In Comparison...
I'm going to work on keeping my frequency of post up. This isn't going to be very useful if I never write anything, is it?
So I am back in Saudi and studying with the goal of getting a lot better at Arabic by the time I leave. And actually it's worked fairly well so far. I'm taking nothing but two translation classes, and I have one of the profs helping me once a week to improve my speaking. Or at least to force myself to speak a little.
In addition I've been working about an hour a half a day in the admin building learning all sorts of useful things about the way an office runs and talking to interesting people about Saudi Arabia and their impressions. I'm working for the Director of Accreditation, who is a new lady, from Texas, who's got some interesting perceptions on how Effat functions and knows a lot about how a school OUGHT to function. It's been great.
And this last weekend I went and hung out with family friends from Riyadh who were visiting with their 11mo. old baby who is ADORABLE. So i got some good beaching in. And I realized, while I was explaining some of my observations from living here, that I really have learned an amazing amount from my stay. Nothing helps you realize that like talking to people who aren't a part of it. Going back to the States will probably jar loose thousands of other things I don't even realize I know.
So anyway that's what I'm going to do right now: think and party. It's a good life.
So I am back in Saudi and studying with the goal of getting a lot better at Arabic by the time I leave. And actually it's worked fairly well so far. I'm taking nothing but two translation classes, and I have one of the profs helping me once a week to improve my speaking. Or at least to force myself to speak a little.
In addition I've been working about an hour a half a day in the admin building learning all sorts of useful things about the way an office runs and talking to interesting people about Saudi Arabia and their impressions. I'm working for the Director of Accreditation, who is a new lady, from Texas, who's got some interesting perceptions on how Effat functions and knows a lot about how a school OUGHT to function. It's been great.
And this last weekend I went and hung out with family friends from Riyadh who were visiting with their 11mo. old baby who is ADORABLE. So i got some good beaching in. And I realized, while I was explaining some of my observations from living here, that I really have learned an amazing amount from my stay. Nothing helps you realize that like talking to people who aren't a part of it. Going back to the States will probably jar loose thousands of other things I don't even realize I know.
So anyway that's what I'm going to do right now: think and party. It's a good life.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Still at L&T
So I'm still at the Learning and Technology (L&T) conference/symposium and it's the very end of the day, and the very end of the symposium. There is a forum thingy going on up on stage, and I'm sitting with mona posting instead. And right now there's at least one lady who is angry and argumentative and really making things very difficult. It's funny listening to her. I kindof want to kill her. Or beat her over the head with the microphone. Publicly. Right now.
Now! Now!
At least everyone else seems unhappy with her also.
They're getting more and more testy on stage. And they took the lady's microphone away and she's still ranting. Loudly. Without amplification. If only I could think of a good question to ask...
Mona is playing her stupid tribe game again. She's getting killed by people who scream things like "Aaaah.... spanky" as she dies.
Dr. Annette is lobbying for iPods for the faculty. You know she liked the presentation on Duke's iPod policies.
So everybody at this symposium seems to be a fan of technology, although there was one speaker yesterday who said we were becoming its slaves. And Dr. Ghazi (one of my favorite people ever) said yesterday that he thinks regulation and censorship is not the answer... rather, one must teach responsibility and maturity to those who will be using the materials. Don't censor the internship, instead teach people to tell the difference between good websites and bad websites. To hear a friendly, intelligent Saudi man say this made me really happy. Happy Happy.
The admin (Mrs. West and Ms. East-West both) are completely exhausted. I can't blame them. Heck, EYE am tired (to write it the way Rachel always does) and I know that I haven't been working at all compared to them. They both have to have those semi-masochistic personalities that leads one to suffer intensely for periods of time and enjoy it.... and then collapse for periods of time to recover. Reminds me of the Middle School musical days of my life.... our tyrranical director wouldn't let us eat or sleep or leave the school until we had finished a scene/song/dance to his satisfaction.
You know what disgusts me the most? There are mosquitos everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE. They're all bloated with somebody's blood and floating around like little red pincushions. I want to pop them all. Except I don't want blood all over me. It's a dilemma. But not a huge deal, since I can't catch them anyway -- I've been trying all weekend, and so far I've only gotten one. But that's one less mosquito who can live to bite me again. I can't believe I finally have a mosquito-free dorm room, so I get out of my dorm room and walk into a swamp. Irony. Perhaps when I'm well-covered (as a proper Saudi woman should be) the mosquitos won't be able to get to me. Perhaps there ARE advantages to the full-covering system.
Advantages to the abaya/tarha system:
1) Modesty/Decency/Religion
2) Shade
3) Protection from mosquitos
4) Warmth in the cold dark desert nights
5) Camouflage (at night)
6) Anonymity when robbing banks or participating in other criminal activities
7) Fashion (looking like you come out of Harry Potter or the Lord of the Rings)
Damn it. Mona tells me mosquitos are particularly attracted to black. I guess that means #3 is out.
Okay time to go. Ciao!
Now! Now!
At least everyone else seems unhappy with her also.
They're getting more and more testy on stage. And they took the lady's microphone away and she's still ranting. Loudly. Without amplification. If only I could think of a good question to ask...
Mona is playing her stupid tribe game again. She's getting killed by people who scream things like "Aaaah.... spanky" as she dies.
Dr. Annette is lobbying for iPods for the faculty. You know she liked the presentation on Duke's iPod policies.
So everybody at this symposium seems to be a fan of technology, although there was one speaker yesterday who said we were becoming its slaves. And Dr. Ghazi (one of my favorite people ever) said yesterday that he thinks regulation and censorship is not the answer... rather, one must teach responsibility and maturity to those who will be using the materials. Don't censor the internship, instead teach people to tell the difference between good websites and bad websites. To hear a friendly, intelligent Saudi man say this made me really happy. Happy Happy.
The admin (Mrs. West and Ms. East-West both) are completely exhausted. I can't blame them. Heck, EYE am tired (to write it the way Rachel always does) and I know that I haven't been working at all compared to them. They both have to have those semi-masochistic personalities that leads one to suffer intensely for periods of time and enjoy it.... and then collapse for periods of time to recover. Reminds me of the Middle School musical days of my life.... our tyrranical director wouldn't let us eat or sleep or leave the school until we had finished a scene/song/dance to his satisfaction.
You know what disgusts me the most? There are mosquitos everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE. They're all bloated with somebody's blood and floating around like little red pincushions. I want to pop them all. Except I don't want blood all over me. It's a dilemma. But not a huge deal, since I can't catch them anyway -- I've been trying all weekend, and so far I've only gotten one. But that's one less mosquito who can live to bite me again. I can't believe I finally have a mosquito-free dorm room, so I get out of my dorm room and walk into a swamp. Irony. Perhaps when I'm well-covered (as a proper Saudi woman should be) the mosquitos won't be able to get to me. Perhaps there ARE advantages to the full-covering system.
Advantages to the abaya/tarha system:
1) Modesty/Decency/Religion
2) Shade
3) Protection from mosquitos
4) Warmth in the cold dark desert nights
5) Camouflage (at night)
6) Anonymity when robbing banks or participating in other criminal activities
7) Fashion (looking like you come out of Harry Potter or the Lord of the Rings)
Damn it. Mona tells me mosquitos are particularly attracted to black. I guess that means #3 is out.
Okay time to go. Ciao!
L&T
Hey all.
I'm sitting here with D at the Learning and Technology conference. This blog isn't working overly well right now, but I'm hoping that it will be in the future. In the meantime, if you can see this.......
hi!
I'm sitting here with D at the Learning and Technology conference. This blog isn't working overly well right now, but I'm hoping that it will be in the future. In the meantime, if you can see this.......
hi!
Monday, March 13, 2006
Islamic Calvinism
Hey! Interesting article from BBC News today. Seems central Turkey is pulling a very Protestant-reminiscent work ethic reform. Next to come: education.
Off to class.
Off to class.
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Al-Jazeera
Because I'm such a very studious person, I'm sitting here in my jet-laggedness watching al-Jazeera's presentation on the death of Milosevic. I notice two things. First of all, Al-Jazeera looks and sounds like a Western news station much more than most Arabic news that I've seen. Secondly, they pronounce Serbian names in a much more Serbian fashion than I think we do in English.
My roommate always used to claim that the Japanese pronounce foreign words in a way closer to the original pronunciation, and thus that American pronunciations were wrong. I wonder whether that's actually true, and I wonder where Arabic fits in the scale of remaining true to native pronunciations.
My roommate always used to claim that the Japanese pronounce foreign words in a way closer to the original pronunciation, and thus that American pronunciations were wrong. I wonder whether that's actually true, and I wonder where Arabic fits in the scale of remaining true to native pronunciations.
رجعت اخيراً (I finally came back)
Hey everybody. I realize I was seriously remiss in my blogging duties recently but here's the basic story: I went home, knowing that I was in danger of not having a visa to get back, but wanting to visit people and figuring I wouldn't enjoy myself here if I stayed. And I think it was a good decision, even though it turned out the way it did. And how did it turn out? Well, six weeks later I am back here in Saudi, and Mona and D tell me I really only missed two weeks of school. So, not a bad deal. I am working on registering as we speak, and hopefully by the end of the day I will officially be a student here again. Or, by tomorrow anyway. The way things are going, I think I'm going to take two classes, both Translation, in an attempt to get my Arabic writing up to snuff. I'm also going to hugely abuse all of my professors and try to get them all to correct things I write and translate. And talk to me.
A little surprisingly, I find I am really really happy to be back. Everyone is happy to see me, I passed Arabic last semester (with a D+!!) and I think I should be pretty easily able to find people to help me learn Arabic, if I can just keep up my energy. And I really need to. But the word on the street is that this semester will be a good one. Life is looking up. Also, I can dance in my room still.
SO..... that's about all for now. I'll try to keep more up-to-date.
Over and out.
A little surprisingly, I find I am really really happy to be back. Everyone is happy to see me, I passed Arabic last semester (with a D+!!) and I think I should be pretty easily able to find people to help me learn Arabic, if I can just keep up my energy. And I really need to. But the word on the street is that this semester will be a good one. Life is looking up. Also, I can dance in my room still.
SO..... that's about all for now. I'll try to keep more up-to-date.
Over and out.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Visa Update
Hello friends and family. I'm in the states now. I came for a vacation, figuring three weeks would HAVE to be enough to get me a visa, but apparently I was wrong. I'm now a week behind schedule, and no good news on my visa is forthcoming. Goody goody.
Just thought I'd let you all know. I am TRYING to come back. I just don't know if I can.
Grr in general.
Peace out.
Just thought I'd let you all know. I am TRYING to come back. I just don't know if I can.
Grr in general.
Peace out.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Away away away
hello delightful friends, fans, family, and assorted random people. I just want to warn you all that to make my stretch of silence even longer, I'm going to go live with Dr. Doom for the next week or so and be entertained by her and her obsession with anime. Should be an excellent week, but I will be incommunicado.
Follow-ups to... well... follow.
Ciao!
Follow-ups to... well... follow.
Ciao!
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Reading Lists
I've been doing very little the last couple of days, but I've gotten some embroidery in, some reading in, and a lot of thinking. I tend to vascillate a lot on things like religion. I grew up with such an atmosphere of cultural relativism, and the prevailing politically correct view that if it has anything to do with religion then you have to accept it and not try to criticize it or use rational thought on it.
Ibn Warraq, in his Why I am Not a Muslim makes a bunch of good points which I don't entirely agree with. I'm glad other people have very strong opinions because if they didn't I wouldn't be able to feel so good about being in the middle on all of these issues. There's no point in mediating unless there are people strongly articulating all points of view. But I think it's a book that needed to be written, I'm glad it was, and I'm even more glad I'm reading it. And I don't disagree with everything he says. I'm not done with it yet so I can't make any sort of official statement, but I'm sure I'll mention thoughts as they come up.
Arguments are so much more fun with people who disagree with you. Of course, they have to be people you can reason with, otherwise arguing becomes a frustrating exercise much like bashing your head against the wall. But somebody who likes to reason, and who also believes something completely different from you, will spark an amazing conversation. About pretty much anything. D and I were discussing this out at brunch today because we realized we agree on lots of things.
Either that, or I'm too careful in what I say. I really do watch myself fairly carefully. Around everyone except my family, I think.
Ibn Warraq, in his Why I am Not a Muslim makes a bunch of good points which I don't entirely agree with. I'm glad other people have very strong opinions because if they didn't I wouldn't be able to feel so good about being in the middle on all of these issues. There's no point in mediating unless there are people strongly articulating all points of view. But I think it's a book that needed to be written, I'm glad it was, and I'm even more glad I'm reading it. And I don't disagree with everything he says. I'm not done with it yet so I can't make any sort of official statement, but I'm sure I'll mention thoughts as they come up.
Arguments are so much more fun with people who disagree with you. Of course, they have to be people you can reason with, otherwise arguing becomes a frustrating exercise much like bashing your head against the wall. But somebody who likes to reason, and who also believes something completely different from you, will spark an amazing conversation. About pretty much anything. D and I were discussing this out at brunch today because we realized we agree on lots of things.
Either that, or I'm too careful in what I say. I really do watch myself fairly carefully. Around everyone except my family, I think.
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Aramco Pictures Have Arrived!
Vacation is here, hip hip hooray! I spent today sleeping, reading, and embroidering. And listening to music, of course. I feel that this was an excellent use of my time. Now, to shower, listen to some more music, perhaps embroider further and watch some TV.
But first, I'm just had to post one of the pictures from Aramco. I have a bundle, but I figure this one of me and Dima at breakfast is just too good to pass up.
Don't I look like a good Saudi girl?
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Happy 2006!
Happy New Years, everybody. It's 2006. That's frightening. Why, I still consider 1995 to be a futuristic year, and here we are 11 years later. I mean, okay, I was 11 in 1995, but back then 11 was an old, old age to be. I was practically all grown up. Here I am, nearly 22, and I feel younger and more inexperienced than I did back in the days where I still talked about myself, in all seriousness, as a "big girl" who shouldn't have to play with the "little girls".
First, a couple of interesting tidbits that you probably are already up-to-date on, but if you're not, you need to be.
Stupidity, in its most entertaining form. I'm not sure what this kid thought he was doing. Or rather, I am sure what he thought he was doing, and I remain astonished that anybody could ever actually think of doing that. I guess I'm not as adventurous or wild-spirited as I thought I was. It reminds me of my father's campaign to have me go to Iraq in highschool so that I could write a college essay entitled "I was a human shield for Saddam Hussein". Shoulda done it. CNN might have made me famous.
And, victory! Or, partial victory. But this is just a continuation of the royal family's tendency to move forward via pretending not to move forward. They never actually passed a law making phones legal in the country, they just made sure that the first things those phones were used for was Qu'ranic recitation. Same thing with television. And women's education, as I have learned to my great interest, started out almost the same way. Girls were only allowed to go if their respective male relatives permitted it. Of course, once Queen Effat got involved, it became cool and trendy to get your girls educated, and here we are today. Give it a generation and the same thing will probably happen with driving.
I had a fantastic new years, as I hope all of you did as well. I love that particular night. Wait breathlessly until midnight, scream with joy, and for once in our stupid fast-paced goal oriented lives everybody celebrates, for a few seconds, that we've all been alive another year and we're still here to celebrate. And then it's January 1st, and you haven't made any mistakes yet, and everything is rosy and beautiful. How can you be unhappy in the beginning?
And I had a great new years. We all went over to Dr. Doom's house and watched movies and laughed and listened to music and played Uno and generally had a fabulous time. And then did the Xena yell to celebrate the new year. The Xena yell is the one all the Arab women know how to do, and do it at weddings and to warn that men are coming and all. By some strange luck, I managed to pick a group of Arab girls who were total failures at this yell. But hey, it was fun to try. We didn't sound that bad, to my untrained ear. But someone who knew what they were talking about probably would have cringed.
And then we ate cheesecake and toasted each other with bubbly peach stuff. More fabulousness.
Of course, this resulted in us all skipping classes the next day, but really, you should be focusing on the important things on January 1st. I came home and danced. Almost all day. Well, I slept a little too. And read. But mostly dancing. I feel that it was a day well spent.
Basically, even though all of my plans got ruined and I couldn't go home to spend New Years with my family and friends there, I had a great set of holidays with a bunch of fantastic girls. They wouldn't let me sit in my room and cry hysterically, which is what I was tempted to do. Instead, they dragged me out and forced me to have fun. It was terrible.
And now, finally, classes are over and it's vacation time. With GREAT amounts of luck, I may yet get to go home. But what is more likely is that I will stay here. And I guess I will live with that. I will spend a bit of time at Dr. Doom's house. I will go out and shop and do something entertaining on a regular basis, hopefully. I will study for my exams, I will read, I will embroider, I will listen to music. I will generally relax and get myself back in gear so that I am enthusiastic about next semester. And when my visa comes, I will take a vacation and see some people I need to see, recharge my batteries, and come back totally thrilled with everything even more than I already am.
I am extremely glad I chose to stay the full year here. I knew that it would take me about a semester to get really comfortable here, and I was pretty much right on target. So this semester has been spent getting comfortable, getting happy, and generally making myself feel at home. Now I have friends, I am less scared about making a total fool of myself in Arabic, and I can focus my wants more. Next semester, I will be more active outside of school, work more with Mrs. West, if I can, work on my senior thesis, and LEARN ARABIC. These are my plans. Also, of course, party wildly with the fantastic girls that I have found.
And, just to whet your appetites, there are a few interesting things coming up. First, I will receive, hopefully, a bunch of pictures from Aramco (remember that?) so I can post some of them here. And secondly, I have the lyrics to a soon-to-be-famous rap song (if you can call it that) produced by Dr. Doom Productions.
But now, the music is calling.
Goodnight, moon. Good morning, Vietnam!
What I mean by that is HAPPY 2006 EVERYONE! May it be the best year any of us have ever had!
First, a couple of interesting tidbits that you probably are already up-to-date on, but if you're not, you need to be.
Stupidity, in its most entertaining form. I'm not sure what this kid thought he was doing. Or rather, I am sure what he thought he was doing, and I remain astonished that anybody could ever actually think of doing that. I guess I'm not as adventurous or wild-spirited as I thought I was. It reminds me of my father's campaign to have me go to Iraq in highschool so that I could write a college essay entitled "I was a human shield for Saddam Hussein". Shoulda done it. CNN might have made me famous.
And, victory! Or, partial victory. But this is just a continuation of the royal family's tendency to move forward via pretending not to move forward. They never actually passed a law making phones legal in the country, they just made sure that the first things those phones were used for was Qu'ranic recitation. Same thing with television. And women's education, as I have learned to my great interest, started out almost the same way. Girls were only allowed to go if their respective male relatives permitted it. Of course, once Queen Effat got involved, it became cool and trendy to get your girls educated, and here we are today. Give it a generation and the same thing will probably happen with driving.
I had a fantastic new years, as I hope all of you did as well. I love that particular night. Wait breathlessly until midnight, scream with joy, and for once in our stupid fast-paced goal oriented lives everybody celebrates, for a few seconds, that we've all been alive another year and we're still here to celebrate. And then it's January 1st, and you haven't made any mistakes yet, and everything is rosy and beautiful. How can you be unhappy in the beginning?
And I had a great new years. We all went over to Dr. Doom's house and watched movies and laughed and listened to music and played Uno and generally had a fabulous time. And then did the Xena yell to celebrate the new year. The Xena yell is the one all the Arab women know how to do, and do it at weddings and to warn that men are coming and all. By some strange luck, I managed to pick a group of Arab girls who were total failures at this yell. But hey, it was fun to try. We didn't sound that bad, to my untrained ear. But someone who knew what they were talking about probably would have cringed.
And then we ate cheesecake and toasted each other with bubbly peach stuff. More fabulousness.
Of course, this resulted in us all skipping classes the next day, but really, you should be focusing on the important things on January 1st. I came home and danced. Almost all day. Well, I slept a little too. And read. But mostly dancing. I feel that it was a day well spent.
Basically, even though all of my plans got ruined and I couldn't go home to spend New Years with my family and friends there, I had a great set of holidays with a bunch of fantastic girls. They wouldn't let me sit in my room and cry hysterically, which is what I was tempted to do. Instead, they dragged me out and forced me to have fun. It was terrible.
And now, finally, classes are over and it's vacation time. With GREAT amounts of luck, I may yet get to go home. But what is more likely is that I will stay here. And I guess I will live with that. I will spend a bit of time at Dr. Doom's house. I will go out and shop and do something entertaining on a regular basis, hopefully. I will study for my exams, I will read, I will embroider, I will listen to music. I will generally relax and get myself back in gear so that I am enthusiastic about next semester. And when my visa comes, I will take a vacation and see some people I need to see, recharge my batteries, and come back totally thrilled with everything even more than I already am.
I am extremely glad I chose to stay the full year here. I knew that it would take me about a semester to get really comfortable here, and I was pretty much right on target. So this semester has been spent getting comfortable, getting happy, and generally making myself feel at home. Now I have friends, I am less scared about making a total fool of myself in Arabic, and I can focus my wants more. Next semester, I will be more active outside of school, work more with Mrs. West, if I can, work on my senior thesis, and LEARN ARABIC. These are my plans. Also, of course, party wildly with the fantastic girls that I have found.
And, just to whet your appetites, there are a few interesting things coming up. First, I will receive, hopefully, a bunch of pictures from Aramco (remember that?) so I can post some of them here. And secondly, I have the lyrics to a soon-to-be-famous rap song (if you can call it that) produced by Dr. Doom Productions.
But now, the music is calling.
Goodnight, moon. Good morning, Vietnam!
What I mean by that is HAPPY 2006 EVERYONE! May it be the best year any of us have ever had!
Monday, December 26, 2005
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Good news and bad news, everybody.
The good news, I found out today that women aren't allowed to visit graveyards in Saudi. Thank goodness. So noisy and irritating. They'd either wake the dead or seduce them. Better to keep them out altogether.
The bad news, thanks to Saudi fantasticness, I was called at 8am and told that I had an hour to decide if I wanted to leave on vacation after all, knowing that what with the visa process I almost certainly wouldn't be able to come back on time. Yay!
So now I'm staying here indefinitely.
No, seriously. The REAL good news is that thanks to some very nice people and an excellent nap I am no longer crying hysterically and dehydrating myself further. Now i'm making plans as to how much time to spend on my Arabic presentation.
Ciao everyone. Enjoy your family time. Sorry I'm not coming home.
But you never know. Perhaps there will be a miracle of some sort.
The good news, I found out today that women aren't allowed to visit graveyards in Saudi. Thank goodness. So noisy and irritating. They'd either wake the dead or seduce them. Better to keep them out altogether.
The bad news, thanks to Saudi fantasticness, I was called at 8am and told that I had an hour to decide if I wanted to leave on vacation after all, knowing that what with the visa process I almost certainly wouldn't be able to come back on time. Yay!
So now I'm staying here indefinitely.
No, seriously. The REAL good news is that thanks to some very nice people and an excellent nap I am no longer crying hysterically and dehydrating myself further. Now i'm making plans as to how much time to spend on my Arabic presentation.
Ciao everyone. Enjoy your family time. Sorry I'm not coming home.
But you never know. Perhaps there will be a miracle of some sort.
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Merry Christmas!!
Hello everybody, life's been busy and lazy over the last couple of weeks, but now it's crunch time. Thursday night I fly out of here, headed home for New Years.
But that's not the exciting thing. The exciting thing is that for the first time ever I'm celebrating Christmas far away from my family and everything, but that people here have conspired to make it fabulous. I've baked two batches of cookies, with two different batches of girls, and I've got christmas lights and christmas music. What more could I want? You should have seen the four of us today dancing around in the dark with the sparkling lights. Instead of being upset I was laughing hysterically. And that was only Christmas Eve! I've also had one dinner-party already, and another one is in the offing for tomorrow. None of this is very conducive to work, but you know, it's Christmas. You can't work on Christmas. So now it's 2:16 am, and I am sitting here dancing to some pop Christmas songs, talking to my lovely mother, and trying to think of how I will spend the rest of my evening.
Life is looking up. Of course, even though it's Christmas, I have class in 6 hours, but I can't take that too seriously.
It's fabulous how strange things turn out well, isn't it? We might even dress mona up as Santa Claus, although I think none of us have bright red clothing.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everybody! Enjoy it!
But that's not the exciting thing. The exciting thing is that for the first time ever I'm celebrating Christmas far away from my family and everything, but that people here have conspired to make it fabulous. I've baked two batches of cookies, with two different batches of girls, and I've got christmas lights and christmas music. What more could I want? You should have seen the four of us today dancing around in the dark with the sparkling lights. Instead of being upset I was laughing hysterically. And that was only Christmas Eve! I've also had one dinner-party already, and another one is in the offing for tomorrow. None of this is very conducive to work, but you know, it's Christmas. You can't work on Christmas. So now it's 2:16 am, and I am sitting here dancing to some pop Christmas songs, talking to my lovely mother, and trying to think of how I will spend the rest of my evening.
Life is looking up. Of course, even though it's Christmas, I have class in 6 hours, but I can't take that too seriously.
It's fabulous how strange things turn out well, isn't it? We might even dress mona up as Santa Claus, although I think none of us have bright red clothing.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everybody! Enjoy it!
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Bahth Party
Wow. There's always so much to say. It's particularly bad when I've been out of commission for the last couple of weeks. But I like to think perhaps now I can be slightly more pro-active, at least until the term ends.
So my most recent project has been the creation, over the past two weeks, of my first ever arabic research paper, or bahth. Obviously, what I turned in was pretty pathetic, and took a heck of a lot of time, but I am proud that I managed to create something 8 pages long, in Arabic which, while full of mistakes, was at least Arabic and not gibberish. I found it really frustrating to discover that I really can't put together complex thoughts yet. I also can't create any sort of subtlety or nuance in my writing. So I have to stick to the textbook-style simple sentence, declarative active verbs, kindof like I was writing a story. A badly written story. But I have to start somewhere, right?
So I turned it in today, and I'll just have to hope she takes pity on me for not actually speaking Arabic. I also realized, as I was talking to her (haltingly) today, that I am capable of carrying on a conversation with people, if they are patient enough. Or if they don't speak English.
On that note, I love people. I have been very fond of my friends over the past two weeks... well, everybody else too. Everyone I've talked to has offered to help me. S2 and D spent hours and hours going over my paper with me, helping me correct it and at least make it grammatically correct. The last three pages, hehe, may be slightly lacking in the grammar department, but my introduction is dynamite. And the girls down the hall offered to help, and everybody gave me so much encouragement. Everybody is great.
Speaking of great, D and S2 (Dr. Doom) and Mona and I were in my room after school one day, and we got out Pictionary and started to play. I haven't laughed that hard in years, I think. The four of us sat on the floor crying with laughter for practically three hours. It was fabulous. I could try to describe it, but suffice it to say none of us are very talented artists, except for S2, and so what we came up with was... unorthodox, to say the least.
Also, Mrs. West gave me a bag full of Christmas music and some Christmas lights today, so I can decorate and get in the Holiday spirit!
Basically, the world is treating me well at the moment. Of course, last night was the first time in two weeks I've actually slept through the night. I'm not sure if that had to do with the fact that my sleeping habits are totally messed up, or whether it was stress or what, but it felt great. And I have great friends.
Of course, because I've been wholly distracted the past two weeks, I've been totally ignoring my other classes, and I completely forgot that I had a meeting with Ms. East-West today. So I feel pretty bad about that. I seem to be more easily stressed out here by work, since the actual quantity of work I have is clearly less than what I am used to. I am going to guess it has something to do with the fact that I don't have as much opportunity to release that stress in creative ways, but I think maybe that just means I'm not creative enough. I have this sneaking suspicion that if I were a normal Saudi girl I would be releasing that stress in any number of not-entirely-legal ways, but I appear to be more conservative than many of them in terms of the behavior that makes me comfortable here. There is, for example, no way on earth I'm going to go to a party with a bunch of guys I have seen once in my life, with no obvious quick exit strategy, and just assume everybody will treat me well. I also have no desire to drink illegally, or run screaming through the streets. There is at least one crazy girl I know who really demonstrates the worst judgement in the world when it comes to what behavior is appropriate, and I am going to have to watch out that she doesn't get me in trouble.
I have all sorts of interesting comments to make on things, but I think this will have to do for now. I think it is becoming clear to me that more and more I feel like this place is home. I haven't quite gotten there yet - one of the Ablas told Mona she wasn't allowed in here during the school day, so that's a little unfortunate, but overall I am feeling very much at peace with my surroundings. Of course, I also have boatloads of stunningly insightful observations of life here, but I prefer to bask in the normalcy I am feeling at the moment, and make insightful comments later.
And on that note, my fabulous Christmas music is calling me. As is my reading. And my laundry. I still have mountains of stuff I ought to do. In fact, I have so many mountains I've actually created a list of things to do. Which was bad, because I didn't list my meeting, which I subsequently forgot. Sigh.
Oh, I have so much to do.
But who doesn't?
So my most recent project has been the creation, over the past two weeks, of my first ever arabic research paper, or bahth. Obviously, what I turned in was pretty pathetic, and took a heck of a lot of time, but I am proud that I managed to create something 8 pages long, in Arabic which, while full of mistakes, was at least Arabic and not gibberish. I found it really frustrating to discover that I really can't put together complex thoughts yet. I also can't create any sort of subtlety or nuance in my writing. So I have to stick to the textbook-style simple sentence, declarative active verbs, kindof like I was writing a story. A badly written story. But I have to start somewhere, right?
So I turned it in today, and I'll just have to hope she takes pity on me for not actually speaking Arabic. I also realized, as I was talking to her (haltingly) today, that I am capable of carrying on a conversation with people, if they are patient enough. Or if they don't speak English.
On that note, I love people. I have been very fond of my friends over the past two weeks... well, everybody else too. Everyone I've talked to has offered to help me. S2 and D spent hours and hours going over my paper with me, helping me correct it and at least make it grammatically correct. The last three pages, hehe, may be slightly lacking in the grammar department, but my introduction is dynamite. And the girls down the hall offered to help, and everybody gave me so much encouragement. Everybody is great.
Speaking of great, D and S2 (Dr. Doom) and Mona and I were in my room after school one day, and we got out Pictionary and started to play. I haven't laughed that hard in years, I think. The four of us sat on the floor crying with laughter for practically three hours. It was fabulous. I could try to describe it, but suffice it to say none of us are very talented artists, except for S2, and so what we came up with was... unorthodox, to say the least.
Also, Mrs. West gave me a bag full of Christmas music and some Christmas lights today, so I can decorate and get in the Holiday spirit!
Basically, the world is treating me well at the moment. Of course, last night was the first time in two weeks I've actually slept through the night. I'm not sure if that had to do with the fact that my sleeping habits are totally messed up, or whether it was stress or what, but it felt great. And I have great friends.
Of course, because I've been wholly distracted the past two weeks, I've been totally ignoring my other classes, and I completely forgot that I had a meeting with Ms. East-West today. So I feel pretty bad about that. I seem to be more easily stressed out here by work, since the actual quantity of work I have is clearly less than what I am used to. I am going to guess it has something to do with the fact that I don't have as much opportunity to release that stress in creative ways, but I think maybe that just means I'm not creative enough. I have this sneaking suspicion that if I were a normal Saudi girl I would be releasing that stress in any number of not-entirely-legal ways, but I appear to be more conservative than many of them in terms of the behavior that makes me comfortable here. There is, for example, no way on earth I'm going to go to a party with a bunch of guys I have seen once in my life, with no obvious quick exit strategy, and just assume everybody will treat me well. I also have no desire to drink illegally, or run screaming through the streets. There is at least one crazy girl I know who really demonstrates the worst judgement in the world when it comes to what behavior is appropriate, and I am going to have to watch out that she doesn't get me in trouble.
I have all sorts of interesting comments to make on things, but I think this will have to do for now. I think it is becoming clear to me that more and more I feel like this place is home. I haven't quite gotten there yet - one of the Ablas told Mona she wasn't allowed in here during the school day, so that's a little unfortunate, but overall I am feeling very much at peace with my surroundings. Of course, I also have boatloads of stunningly insightful observations of life here, but I prefer to bask in the normalcy I am feeling at the moment, and make insightful comments later.
And on that note, my fabulous Christmas music is calling me. As is my reading. And my laundry. I still have mountains of stuff I ought to do. In fact, I have so many mountains I've actually created a list of things to do. Which was bad, because I didn't list my meeting, which I subsequently forgot. Sigh.
Oh, I have so much to do.
But who doesn't?
Binat Arriyadh
Check this out! The economist mentions not only the election of women into the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce (yes, this is a big deal, it's the first time women have gotten to be involved in an election and run and vote and everything), but they mention a book, Girls of Riyadh, that I really want to read. D suggested it to me. I wonder if it's in English.
I will post over the weekend. Promise.
I will post over the weekend. Promise.
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