WEEKS 3 & 4

A girly night at Appleby's, one of the many American fast food chains in Riyadh. There are just some aspects of the West that Saudis can't say no to!

 


LITTLE MISS BASHFUL, ME???

Weeks three and four in Riyadh have flown by like a desert storm, and I feel like I’ve been here for months. I’m even getting used to the fact that guys I used to talk to in London now ‘ignore’ me when I pass them in my hotel. I felt a little miffed at first, but I always have to remember the no-talking-to- any-women-other-than-your-wife thing.

One thing that’s become apparent is that even walking around my hotel, I feel really conscious of being an unmarried woman, and an ‘uncovered’ one at that. I would never think twice about walking past a group of men anywhere else in the world, but now, walking past a man in the hallway, or seeing a group of men in the hotel lobby, I kind of cringe and lower my head, and if I’m not wearing the abaya scarf I instantly wish I was, despite being indoors.

One day I planned the timing of a 5 minute walk home after visiting a friend at the worst possible time, and I ended up walking past the local mosque at the time the men had just finished praying and were swarming outside. Boy, did I feel uncomfortable then! Not that I had done anything wrong, but you just feel a bit embarrassed  to be walking near so many men with more than your eyes exposed. Sounds strange, but that’s what Saudi does to you! But don’t worry, I tried covering my face Arab-style for a laugh the other day and found I couldn’t breathe, so I definitely know the niqab is not for me…

PIRATES OF THE CARRIBBEAN?  I’M AFRAID I’LL HAVE TO CLEAR THAT WITH THE DEAN FIRST…

I decided to be upfront with one of my classes about The List Of Things Banned From Classroom Discussion. They found it hilarious! Hasn’t stopped them from asking me the most inappropriate questions about Western culture though, bless them.

I decided to arrange a debate in one of my classes this week, on the topic of Globalization. It was lively and heated, and they were having such good-natured competitive arguments I really hated having to steer them away from more contentious issues on the cultural and religious aspects of Globalization, because they are clearly intelligent girls who have a lot to say about these ‘banned’ topics.

I love the fact that when I ask Saudi girls to get out their notepads, half of them whip out I-pads to work on. I don’t even bat an eyelid now, I just expect these girls to have the best of everything. And I’m not the least bit jealous…

I DIDN’T LEAVE LONDON TO BE THIS COLD!

Lest you think I’m basking in heat 24 hours a day here, be aware that the King Saud Campus, like any building in Saudi, is air-conditioned to the point of freezing. My girls have taken to bringing oversize sweaters to the class just to keep warm. Failing that, we actually have to open windows in the classroom just to get some hot air!

This is the courtyard of the female campus where you can take yor abaya off before entering the building.

When the staffrooms get too cold, we’ll just slip out and heat up for a few seconds then go back in to cool down.

IT’S A LOVELEY NIGHT FOR A WALK, DARLING

Walking in the evening in Riyadh is simply blissful, really balmy and pleasant. It’s not uncommon to see men huddled in groups on the grass by the roads, eating their dinner, drinking tea or playing cards.

A nice, scenic and safe place for men and women to go walking in the evening is Prince Sultan Park, where you can see single men and women as well as couples strolling leisurely and enjoying the view – fairy-light covered palm trees and ponds.

Friendly  but over-enthusiastic Perfume seller in Prince Sultan Park

Another thing you can see around Prince Sultan Park is keen joggers and sprinters in skimpy exercise gear and sweatbands, as this is where the fitness bunnies of the city go for a scenic jog at night. And of course, no woman is gonna do a 2 mile jog in an abaya, so the only naked flesh on show is very hairy. How come guys get to expose themselves in the name of fitness? Not fair!

 Every few feet in the park there are these strings of time-controlled pipes that spray you with light mists while you’re walking or jogging along the route

LOTS OF ARAB WOMEN + EMERGENCY = MAYHEM

Last weekend I had my first encounter with a Saudi hospital. We were out at a women’s-only fundraising bazaar, when our supervisor had a severe allergic reaction after inhaling some incense that had become poisonous. She stopped breathing and became unconscious in a matter of minutes, and I now know that I do not want to be anywhere near a bunch of Arab women if I ever fall ill. The shrieking and hellish chaos that ensued would have been funny if it wasn’t so serious. I think my supervisor’s husband knew what Arab women are like in crises, which is why he asked me to take her to the hospital with him. Because of the emergency, I hadn’t had enough time to put my abaya on while carrying her out to the car. I had thought, surely in a medical emergency people won’t quibble about me not having enough time to put on my abaya? But I quickly pulled it on in the car when I realized that the Arab women were more concerned with covering the unconscious lady’s head from the outside world than getting her to the car quickly. After handing her over to the (unsurprisingly) all-foreign hospital staff, she stabilized with a drip and a few injections, but I found it slightly awkward that the nurses stopped mid-way through taking her bloods to ask me how I braid my hair…



YOUR PERMANENT HOUSE WILL ALMOST, DEFINITELY, BE SORTED SOON MADAM…(INSHALLAH)

Today I moved 2 minutes down the road to a nicer, more comfortable hotel suite while I continue waiting for a place in a Western compound – the waiting lists are enormous, so I insisted to my employer that I might as well be comfortable in the mean time. This suite has windows that are much closer to eye level and allow much more natural sunlight during the day, plus a decent view of the area’s night lights…

Sunlight and a view of the street!!!

POINTS OF INTEREST

-Have briefly considered investing in a niqab – not at all for religious reasons, but just so people don’t catch me sleeping in an unflattering position on the long drive to and from work…

-I think I’ve just about got used to seeing students praying on their mats right next to my desk after the lesson. That’s one thing that is really different here – wherever you are in the campus, people will just whip out their mats and abayas and start their prayer routine anywhere.

-‘Inshallah culture’ I driving me insane. I asked someone to give me the contact details of a driver, which I knew he had in front of him, and he promised he would text them to me soon, inshallah. I was still waiting for the details an hour later… Seriously, inshallah for what? Just give me the details now and be done with it already!

- This weekend I had my first roadtrip through Saudi Arabia. Man the desert is huuuuuge! We drove to Bahrain, five hours each way, but it was very refreshing to drive over the sea pass between Saudi and Bahrain, and the Arabian Sea looked gorgeous, like a jewel...

We didn't stay long in Bahrain as we were just on brief company business, but the scenery was lovely:

The beautiful Arabian Sea

Driving over the sea pass between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain

The point of entry into Bahrain: 

Goodbye Saudi, hello Bahrain!  

Here's some of that famous Saudi oil in the desert...

All the sand you could ever want...

 

  

Never fall asleep in the car when there's a camera in someone's hands...

Have a great week guys!
Mimi in Arabia



WEEK 2

"You come to Saudi Arabia with two suitcases. One for sh*t and the other for money. When one of them fills up its time to go."

-A well-known expat saying

If you can’t stand the heat, get outta the kitchen!

It’s the end of my second week in Riyadh, and I can sense myself getting really protective of Saudi Arabia already. I’ve been a bit defensive with new teachers who’ve arrived this week and instantly started complaining about every aspect of Saudi culture. Yeah, it’s difficult and frustrating, but Riyadh is the most conservative city in Saudi, and no one forced us to be here!

Once you accept Saudis for their completely unique outlook on life, and expect everything to be as opposite to the Western world as possible, you’ll be fine here.

Bearing that in mind, I’m turning into a proper Arabian madam day by day. I’m ashamed (but slightly proud!) of the fact that I now refuse to walk more than 10 feet to my destination whenever a driver drops me somewhere.  If I feel I’m not being served fittingly, my driver will know about it! It’s just to do with the fact that women should really avoid walking anywhere in Riyadh as much as possible, and the only way for us to get around is to be driven, so if my driver doesn’t drop me literally outside the door of my destination, I start getting all Arab on him. You can’t blame me – no self-respecting Saudi woman would accept being dropped off a few feet away from her destination, or carrying her own shopping bags to the car!

Well, this is a bit weird…

There are still a few things that threw me this week, though. For the first time I experienced placing an order from the doorway of a restaurant, as a few really traditional establishments don't allow women over the threshold. Imagine standing at the doorway of Pizza Express and shouting your order for the Dough Balls starter, and you get the picture…

Video conferences were quite commonplace in my job before, but that was only when we needed to talk to theToronto or New York offices . In Saudi, the male and female campuses cannot mix, so when the University supervisors at the male campus wanted to have a staff meeting, rather than just  popping over we used video conferencing technology, which was really surreal, especially as the video wasn’t working so we could only hear them. At least he couldn’t see me yawning in the back.

Is your abaya Prada?

This week I also experienced severe abaya envy, after witnessing the range of subtle styles and fashions women can choose from.

Whereas in London you would be envying the gorgeous top or cute dress on the woman in front of you, here you find yourself eyeing up the woman with the gorgeous and daring turquoise diamante pattern on the sleeves of her abaya, or the flattering cut of the next lady’s garment. I never thought I’d get this excited about going shopping for a something that looks essentially like a bin liner! When the only thing to set you apart in a sea of black is the decorations on your abaya, you want to get a good one. It’s a hilariously competitive arena.

I keep having funny/awkward moments where I’ll be talking to Saudi women, and then they’ll suddenly stop to put on their niqab on our way out of the building, and I’ll turn around a second later and think they’re not there because you practically can’t distinguish  one woman from another. Must remember to keep tabs on the woman you’re talking to at all times!

 

Where Western women would ask ‘does my bum look big in this?’ my Saudi students have told me of a popular book among Arab teens at the moment, Does my head look big in this? Making your head and face look attractive in a hijab is the order of the day, rather than flattering your booty!

Miss Mimi

Speaking of students, I really really do enjoy the 2 classes of girls I teach. My class initially jumped from 4 students to 19 overnight, and now I have 2 classes of about 18 girls each. As it’s an Intensive English Program, I teach the same 2 classes for 2 hours every day, and I was soon warned that Saudi students have almost complete control over their teachers, especially the Western ones. Because of the super-conservative Islamic state, there’s an entire list of things that are banned from discussion in Saudi classrooms – including religion, politics, women’s issues, birthdays, sexual or gender related issues, controversial cultural issues, Christmas or New Year,  pop culture, music and film – and I know I’ve left some things out!

So whereas teaching in London, I could just slip in some reference to the latest blockbuster in one of my lessons, I have to bite my tongue in case I insult the sensitivities of some Saudi Princess who could feign offence and report me to the authorities. I’ve been dying to tell one of girls she really looks like Nelly Furtado, but I daren’t…    The thing is, most of the girls would be fine talking about these things, but you never know which ones could cause trouble for you. (I have been warned that I’ll get some real life Saudi Princesses in my class later!)

Any extra material, text, pictures or videos I want to include in my lesson that isn’t from the textbook also has to be approved by the course supervisors, to ensure it doesn’t break these rules.

I thought the release of the Chilean miners would be a safe topic to discuss with my girls, but these comfortably sheltered Saudi teens were happily oblivious to one of the biggest global stories of the year. So as you can imagine, it’s kinda hard to plan lessons around restricted topics, and news stories the girls just aren’t exposed to.

Saudi students also have the very bad Arab habit of taking a-g-e-s to complete any activity. Whether I give them 5 minutes or half an hour, they’ll still bargain for more time. I think I’ll have to give up on all the teacher training that was hammered in to me on CELTA.

Weekend surprises

On Thursday we just visited another of the countless malls in Riyadh, where I experienced the odd moment of having an indoor rollercoaster  whizz past my head while drinking coffee in the food court – like I said, Saudi malls are something else!

Indoor mini-fairground at Hayat Mall

 

As women can’t be employed as sales assistants in public shops I also endured the slightly awkward sensation of being served by all-male lingerie staff in Victoria’s Secret, and wondering how on earth the heterosexual Arab guy in M.A.C. would empathise – or even care – about my need for a foundation in powder format that provides a matte finish while complimenting my skin with a dewy daytime shimmer. And can he really tell me what the best clump-free mascara is? Surely that means nothing to most guys…

Friday, my employer found an amazing traditional Saudi restaurant where he could take a couple of us female teachers out for a meal, without anyone openly complaining about the social rules of mixing with the opposite sex being broken. It was huge, aptly named the Nadj Village, and stunningly decorated, with authentic Arabian enclosed rooms where you could go and try loads of Saudi dishes, reclining on cushions and carpets. Wasn’t brave enough to try the camel steak this time round…

Outside Nadj Village restaurant

Traditional Arab steaming machine in the court

The men's section of the restaurant - I'm always sneaking into places I shouldn't be...

Having tea while waiting for a private room

Outside one of the private rooms



Vintage cars decorated the restaurant - think there was some connection with the old-fashioned steam machine



Noticeable moments of the week:

-In England, you can’t even get a job on a building site without a hardhat and boots. In Saudi, as far as I can see, the workmen hammer away with nothing other than a gutra (traditional red-checked headscarf) and a pair of sandals. 

-I experienced a moment of terror when my girls asked me if they could play charades for the last ten minutes of the class before the weekend, and realized they were looking at me expectantly, waiting for me to mime an appropriate noun– books, TV, movies, Songs – they’re all pretty much banned from discussion!!! Luckily, one of the girls played it safe and mimed Oliver Twist…Phew.

-Noticed that I am yet to get in a taxi with a Saudi driver – they wouldn’t be caught dead in a job like that. I’ve been told the few Saudis who are taxi drivers lie about their nationalities, because everyone knows there’s just something seriously odd about a Saudi in a public service job…

-Arabs are fully aware that their habit of talking forever to get anything done is completely baffling and infuriating to Westerners. When requesting a refund in a store this week, the assistant informed me it would take about 10 minutes. When I raised my eyebrow in mock disbelief, he laughed and said, ‘Ok ok, I take 2 minutes’. They just do it to annoy us…

Have a great week all – and please feel free to leave comments/feedback!