First Rule of Saudi Arabia

Expect the unexpected.

Turning off the electricity in the middle of the morning, and of course the internet is also affected? Of course!
Strange people walking down the street wrapped in plastic? Naturally! (Yes, I actually saw this over the summer in Riyadh)

Strange men walking into your room at 8am to take apart the shower? Well, I wouldn't have thought so.... but why not? This is Saudi Arabia! Anything goes!

I found it particularly amusing in that I was still in my pjs and CLEARLY not prepared to have visitors. At least I was showered - I have no desire to go back in there now. The man, in typical plumber fashion, had huge boots and smeared dirt and dirty water all over my bathroom floor. Then, to top it off, he smeled HORRENDOUS. I didn't notice this at the time because he was studiously avoiding my gaze and since I was in my pyjamas that was just fine with me - I sat on my bed and did work and prayed he'd be gone by the time I needed to get dressed. And he was - it was fairly painless. Apparently my shower was leaking downstairs. So they literally removed the whole head and pipes and all and put new stuff on. But then when he was gone, and I tried to go into the bathroom to brush my teeth and all, I was hit by this wave of nauseating stench. Now, I like sweat as much as the next person, but this was too much. I can't even enter my bathroom. Hopefully, with the air conditioning still functioning (for the moment) it will have aired out a little by the time I need to head out.

What particularly entertains me about this morning's episode is that nobody warned me, and people thought it was fine to knock on my door at 8am. If I weren't so jet-lagged I would absolutely have been asleep, and what would they have done then? Plus, isn't there supposed to be something against strange men hanging out in the rooms of strange partially dressed women? I mean, in terms of supervision, one of the ablas was there... but is that really all they're worried about? What about propriety? What about the fact that I was undressed? What about privacy??

Privacy is a myth.

Sooooooo now it's 10, I finally got all of my work done, and I've got another 45 minutes to hang about excitedly before I wander over to confront Liz Cheney with my no-nonsense liberal attitude. Go America! And then I'll go talk to Mrs. S of Arabic fame and hope that my five sentences on women in Jahiliyyah makes at least a little sense. Post-classes, Team Fabulous is playing ping pong and then swimming, so that should be good, and then lovely Mona may help me study for the Arabic, if she's really nice.

New-Half-Semester Resolution: Read more current affairs. Keep updated. Being in Saudi Arabia is no excuse.

And on that lovely note, here is something disturbing from the Arab News - what do you suppose this chemistry teacher actually did to get him sued by his own students and sentenced to 50 lashes every week for the next 15 weeks? But if people are suing professors at Stanford because of bad grades, who knows what sort of crazy students might sue a teacher for 'mocking' Islam. Kids these days - think they own the world.