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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.