GOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!

Hello all! It seems that everyday we have a new crazy story or interesting fact we learned about Saudi culture. A few weeks back Charlie and I finally got to experience one thing that we have been waiting for a long time to see: a professional football match here in Saudi. It was not just any game either; this was the semifinal match between the two biggest rivals in Saudi. Above is a picture of King Fahd Staium, where the match was held. Here are some of the highlights:

It was an amazing stadium and a great night for a football game.

We walked into the stadium and we immediately were hit with Al Hilal madness. We got about half way through the crowd above and got mobbed because everyone figured out that there were two American guys at the stadium. We then had about 20 pictures taken with us with different Saudi guys and were shuffled around the crowd. These two guys finally helped us out and let us have a few open seats by them.

The reason for the five everyone is holding up is because this season Al Hilal has scored 5 goals against Nasser and Nasser has only scored 3. It's random but when a game can end in 1-0, that 5 goals is a big deal.

This shows just a small degree of how loud it was in the stadium. In addition to just the crowd noise we also had a few guys that were about 4 rows behind us with giant bullhorns and drums singing and starting chants the entire game.

It was an amazing night and the game ended in a tie 1 -1. This was probably better for us though because our taxi driver said that fans have a tendency to flip a few cars if their team loses.

Below is the more of an official recap of the game. It's kind of funny watching a highlight on only two goals.

It was an incredible cultural experience and by far one of the biggest things we learned was the amazing generosity of Saudis. During the game we were given -

- Al Hilal scarfs from some guys in front of us

- a couple of bags of pumpkin seeds from the guys behind us

- noise makers/thunder stick things from some guys around us

- bunch of people who offered to give us a ride when we were walking to get a taxi

It blew our minds how open and friendly the people were with complete strangers. Think about it: When was the last time you were given anything at a sporting event in America from a stanger? It's an amazing culture here and we are loving learning from this side of the world. Love you all and we'll see you in 4 weeks!