You Are With Your People and the Way Is Flat.

Before I get into this entry I would just like to mention that I recently received word that back in Portland my students are having their 4th snow day in a row. While I am very happy that no one back home has to go to school or work I must say that discovering this news made me want to say a whole bunch of bad words in a row. I grew up in Portland and never, ever, in a million years did we even dream of getting four snow days in a row. One day yes, two we were lucky, but four? Four! This is a once I a lifetime jackpot of snow days! Anyways, since it basically looks like like the picture above here I don't feel that bad. In fact, I would just like to officially take this opportunity to say that I hope everyone at home is not too busy being cold because being cold for me is so like totally not a problem: ) Total JK! I hope everyone is having fun playing in the snow!

Guess what? While you are doing that I am staying in this fancy rocket ship hotel:

Salaam from Riyadh the capital of Saudi Arabia! Salaam means “peace” in Arabic and it is yet another fancy way of saying hello. Today I learned a few important things: Number one is that Riyadh means gardens…well, ok actually that’s not that important at all. It’s just a thing I learned. Number two was how to say: ah-lan wah-sa-ha-lan which means nice to meet you. This is a great thing to know how to say when you are meeting lots of new people like I have been for the past 8 days…so it’s good that I learned how to say it now. You know, because I have two days left. Doh! The literal translation means: you are with your people and the way is flat.

Since the last time I wrote we’ve done a ton of things. We headed to the old part of Jeddah a few days ago and into the markets where I managed to purchase a gutra and a thobe and abaya for show and tell when I get home. It was nice to get out into the streets a little bit. We have basically been rushing around and meeting people the entire trip.

After the old market we headed out to spend the night at the beach and got a chance to listen to some live Arabic music and have a barbeque. Lots of women in our group got the opportunity to get henna done. Henna is a traditional temporary tattoo that women get to decorate their hands on their wedding day or to celebrate the Islamic holiday of eed. It looks like this (on the hands of my friend Sherri who was Arkansas teacher of the year in 1999. Woot!)
Most of the time henna is a great thing but it can be a little annoying when it is decorating the “whatever” sign a friend of yours named Liza from Portland Maine may or may not be giving you in the middle of a really cool story you are trying to tell:

Oh yeah, the next day (as in today) we got to do this:


That’s right, not big deal. Just me riding a jet ski in the Red Sea! I’m not sure what this has to do with enriching my work as a professional educator, but quite frankly I don’t care. I mean it’s a freaking jet ski! I’d never ridden one before but they are the kind of machine I like the best because they were designed with the specific purpose of making it more fun to be a human being. People, in general, are way way more excited about this kind of machine than one that is designed to perform some boring task like, say, sucking up dirt from the floor, or keeping food cold. I am one of those people. Jet Skis are fun :)

Anyways, after the Jet Skis we headed to the airport and flew to Riyadh where I am currently sitting in a super fancy hotel room typing up this entry. I just went to the mall and let me tell you that was a totally weird experience. I felt a little weird with a camera in there so this video is the best I could do. Like a moron I had the camera on its side so you are going to have to crane your neck over while you watch to get it in the right perspective. I'm posting it anyway because all of the pictures I took were really bad:

This country is like nowhere I have ever been or probably will be at any time in the future. For Instance, these are some typical scenes:
I mean, this seems like stuff from star wars...not a country.
There are massive sprawling glitzy malls but in them the MacDonalds have signs like this:
Check out the men’s section (left) and the women’s section (Right). They are even divided by the little wall next to my massive friend Daniel (the guy with the backwards hat on). Wow! Men and women can’t hang out in public here. For serious. Oh yeah, and I’m not sure why women are buying all of these clothes in these stores in these malls anyway because it’s not like anyone can see their new clothes because everywhere they go they have a big giant black curtain on.

The “butler” (that’s right, every floor in this hotel has a butler..thank you Aramco!) came a little while ago to get my laundry (thank you Aramco!). He is from the Philippines and has only been here a year. I told him I went to the mall and it was a total mind freak and he just laughed really high pitched for like 30 seconds and then scurried out the door still laughing. Weird! I think even he pretty much got why I was so bewildered.

This country can be confusing and overwhelming at times. However, I must say that despite these things we have met some incredibly intelligent and open and thoughtful people on this trip and my perception of Saudi Arabia and the Saudi people is much deeper and more complex than it was before. Overall they want the same thing we want, and that’s peace and a better world for their children. I think sometimes it is hard to look past the differences between our countries and I’m glad I’ve been given the opportunity to meet so many amazing individuals here. I look forward to teaching about the real Saudi Arabia when I get home.

Before I go, here are some other random things I’ve seen:

#1. A little boy putting his shoes back on after praying at a mosque. (Cute!)
#2. Fully covered women playing with their little kids and pushing them on swings in a park. (Also cute! …and weird.)
#3. I guy in a throbe and gutra sitting on a bench and looking the other direction and totally ignoring his kid in the airport who was having a Hiroshima sized melt down. (I guess the old “ignore the tantrum” thing is a universal parenting technique.)
#4. Garbage collectors who wear head to toe pastel purple outfits and use pastel purple garbage cans:

I’m not sure who was behind this decision or who made it. Maybe the city council thought purple would cheer up the garbage collectors? I personally don’t think it matters what color they wear…they’re picking up garbage. Picking up garbage sucks.

Ok that’s it for now. This will probably be my last entry. We have a busy day ahead tomorrow and then Sunday I fly back to the states. This trip has been totally unreal. I feel super lucky to have been able to travel in this region of the world and can’t wait to share all my stories when I get home. I can’t wait to see everyone so soon! Also, thanks to everyone for leaving comments. They are fun to read from half way across the world. ☺


Sincerely,

Mr. Bliss

PS. Dr. Phil! Ha!

PPS. Looks like the Suadi's are down with the toyota Previa also! Nice!:


PPPS. If any of you from Mrs. Hinkle's class in Virginia are reading this here is a picture of her taking a picture of...well, it appears to be taking a picture of nothing. Her decisions are often questionable :)

Inclusion International

Mar-Haba! (That's hello in Arabic)...not to be confused with- haadha al-walad kaadhib which means "this boy is a liar." A handy phrase for those of you who plan on traveling to the middle east. I'm writing this from my hotel room in Jeddah on a computer I borrowed from my new friend and teacher of history in Virginia, Bettina (She is actually named this, it is not a nickname.) I've only got a few minutes so I'll make this quick.



Since the last post I've really seen and done way too much to keep up with or write about here but here are a few pictures and thoughts...The day after our camel adventure we took a tour north from Dharan. Along the way we stopped by a pottery workshop where the dude up above was hard at work. I wanted to buy his hat but he kept trying to sell me pottery. Unfortunately the only thing I could think to say was "the dj's really cool." It didn't help things at all. I really need to branch out on my arabic. Afterwards we also checked out some interesting rock formations:
Here is some Arabian graffiti artist's idea of a funny joke :):



The women in the picture above are named Abeer and Michael Anne and they are teachers on the trip with me. The guy is Ali who is our Aramco provided tour guide. The women in my group have to wear abayas which are long following dress like black robes. Any woman you see anywhere in public is required to wear this. In certain places they have to where the hijab as well which is the scarf that covers their hair. Even their barbies are dressed like this!:



This is Fulla! She is seen here wearing her "outdoor fashion." I think it is safe to say that she is a little more conservative than barbie. In Saudi Arabia there is also no public "mixing" which means that there is no place where single men and women can mingle. At all restaurants there are "family sections" and "men sections." Women do not go out alone, and can not drive. If women are out in a group they go into the "family" sections. It's pretty intensely different.

Most Saudi men dress in a Thobe (the white robe) and Gutra the White or red and white checkered scarf on their head...like this mobster looking guy I managed to snap a picture of at lunch the other day Hiyo!:

Anyways, all of this results in bathroom signs that look like:

I can't tell if the person in the wheel chair is a man or woman because their head appears to be...well, it appears to be a ball, and not a hijab or a gutra which makes way way more sense. So we flew from Dharan to Jeddah a few days ago and have had excellent opportunities to meet and speak with numerous groups of Saudi's. Here are some picks of us showing up!:

I just think it's a cool picture...like it could be from the 70s or something.

Yikes! I'm totally out of time...so...super fast we visited a school for handicapped children:

They were pretty cute...and speaking of cute check this out!

Also look at their little project. They are making little kaaba's like the one Muslims make the pilgrimage to in mecca during the hajj.

You know, like this:

Ok I'm Fresh out of time. There is so much more to say! I'll try and post again soon. Tomorrow we head to the a market (souq) and then to the beach. The next day we head to Riyadh. (Look it up.)

Adios! (That's a spanish word)

Mr. Bliss

PS.

Ha Ha!

Event Solution Center

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to get some content on here! It's been incredibly really hard to post...partially because I am completely exhausted from long periods of doing stuff interupted by brief interludes of doing things and partially because I did not bring a computer and internet access is sketchy in Saudi Arabia. I just got back to the "compound" where I am staying near Damaam and it is now midnight. So far in Arabic I have learned to say the following things (In no particular order):

I am a teacher-Ana Moodaris

I am sorry - Ana Asif

The DJ's really cool- Moshagh-ghil al-os-To-waa-naat mum-taaz

These guys were not impressed:

Anyways, today we went to visit a camel farm. No Joke a real life camel farm. For a split second I actually thought to myself: "Oh man, I hope it's not all touristy and everything"...then I remembered I was is Saudi Arabia, where there are no tourists and it is therefore impossible to be "all touristy and everything." At the camel farm I decided that camels are actually quite scary and not worthy of adoption. They make a super creepy noise like in this video:

Ewwwwwwwww....

On our bus on the way to the camel farm I read a poem by an arabic author that said this:

It does not matter
That our hearts are made of stone

While we hug the sky

I thought it was a fitting caption for the picture I took above of some teachers at sunset in the desert near said camel farm.

Anyhoo we all left Houston last Friday after 2 days of orientation and after 16 hours in the air and stops in both Frankfurt (Germany!) and Kuwait (Kuwait!) we arrived at Damaam (Saudi Arabia!). Once we hit the Saudi airport it took us about 2 hours to clear Saudi customs. Every single member of our teacher group had to get finger printed and have their picture taken. There are 25 of us in all. The Saudi's said this would make it much much quicker for us to enter Saudi Arabia the next time we came which is convenient because we were all figuring on coming back like once or twice a year. Waaa Waaaaa...the end result was that we got to the hotel at 2 am in the morning and the next day I awoke to find myself in a place where Domino's looks like this:

Where kings look like this:

And where if you want a coke zero you need to remember to reach for the black can with the red squiggly line and not the red can with the white squiggly one:

It is extremely late and I am completely worn out so sorry if this blog is a bit random and possesses glaring gaps and omissions and or multiple spelling and grammatical errors.

I have to say that the highlight so far of this journey has been being able to talk to Saudi students about their lives and visit them in their classrooms at local schools. It is an incredibly unique opportunity to be able to actually travel in this country and speak to its citizens. The longer I am here the more I realize how few non Saudi people actually get to do this. I am amazed by how bright and funny and similar the students are here to my own students back home in the US. In addition, our Saudi hosts are some of the nicest and most genuine people I have ever met in all of my travels. I am completely and totally taken aback by the overwhelming openessness and generosity that I have recieved from everyone, and I mean everyone, that I have met or talked to in this country. Sometimes, I guess you have to travel half way around the world to be reminded that people are people no matter what nation you happen to reside in and that they have the same basic needs, hopes and dreams of human beings everywhere. It has made me optimistic for the future.

Ok, now to bed. I'll try and post again in 2 days. We're up early tomorrow to check out some castle and then we fly to Jeddah on the West coast of the country. (Look it up on Google Earth...you can do this, it is the future after all.) Also I would just like to say be good for Mr. Cleveland if you happen to be a Spartan and are reading this blog to see if I am still alive. I am, after all, officially still alive. Look how alive I look in this picture! Woot!:


MaAa as-salaa-ma

(Goodbye)

PS. Please let me know if the video works in this post because...well, I think it is blocked over here and I can not see it. Either that...or it just doesn't work... in which case, bummer.

Still Alive

Looks like it is going to be pretty hard to post things to this blog. Just a quick message to let anyone who is checking know that I will try my best to post something of significance with pictures and everything when we have some down time in the next couple of days. This trip is way totally the coolest thing I have ever done ever. So far I am still alive. :)

Mr. B

Getting Ready For My Trip!

It's hard to believe that I am leaving the country for Saudi Arabia on Monday! I haven't packed a thing or really done very much preparation. I've been focusing a lot on the new classes I am teaching and haven't given much thought to the fact that I will be traveling half way across the world in just a few days.

So I am going to try and maintain this blog for family and friends and my students while I am away. However, I should say due to the crazy amount of travel I am about to set out on I have been considering not bringing my laptop. This would require the kindness of others in order to post fantastical and smashtastic stories of my adventures. Anyhoo, stay tuned for updates! If it becomes too hard for me to post I will be sure to let you all know with a short message here.