Mud Brick Houses and the Attack of the Killer Horse

Charlie and I got to go out with some friends to a small town outside of Riyadh a few weekends back. We meet a Saudi man that was from this town and he wanted to show us around how Saudi living used to be. Hard to believe that as little as 50 years ago the even wealthy people lived in mud brick houses! The first part of the video was the tour of his house that he grew until he was about 10 years old.

The second part of the video shows the epic horse bite (go to about 10:00 min in). He took us out to a horse farm and as we found out, not all the horses were too friendly.

The last part is one of our favorite parts of being in Saudi - desert camping. We drove out to a quiet part of the desert, threw out the blankets and BBQ, and had some amazing kabobs, humus, fresh dates, Arabic coffee, and tea. It was a great night and is one more thing we have to to love about Saudi!

Also if you have not seen our other video with Saad, here is our dune bashing adventure

Sa-udis in Au-dis

Ok so this is pretty cheesy but we thought is was really funny. My Saudi friend alerted us to the new internet phenomena in Saudi. Enjoy!

What I learned on July 4th

Well everybody, Brendon's back!! Sorry there was no heads up beforehand but this was actually a pretty big surprise to all of us. I actually really didn't even find out about the flight until about 7:30 pm on July 3. That's 6 hours before I left!!! So in that six hours I scrambled around throwing the suit cases together, packed up the rest of Staci's bag (first time we have ever used skype to help pack), cleaned the apartment and tied up all loose ends before heading out. It was nuts but I got out just on time and I got home safe and sound on July 4th.

One of the things I enjoyed most on the trip was being able to come back to America on the 4th. Most of my life July 4th meant fireworks, family, and bbq, but this year was different. I got to see America more from the view of an outsider coming in. So for this post I'm going to list four different ways I appreciate America this year.

1. Freeways

I'm sure for most of you the picture above is not the most pleasant of sights. It probably reminds you more of headaches and long days than anything positive. But for us, what we see is: lines and order. It was almost funny merging onto the freeway once we got back and to see all of the cars completely in line, no one driving on the shoulder (or median for the mater) and everyone following the rules.

I got this next picture from the Holdermans and they took it in a parking garrage in Riyadh. Does anything look wrong with this picture to you? Looks like an open spot to me.

This is just one of those things you expect in a place where 4 lanes means 6, you can reverse on round when it's really busy, and where turning left can be done at a stoplight by jumping the right hand side median and swooping over four lanes before the light turns green (can't tell you the number of time we have seen this last one happen).

2. Ebonics

Oh ebonics, we missed you so much. Nothing says America like a good ol' foo, cap, or shawty. As soon as I heard the person checking my bag say, "Shevon, that is cazay" I felt right at home.

3. Reuniting with old friends

Sorry, I know that was cheesy. But seriously, this little toilet paper ring is AMAZING to see again. In Saudi you better have a back up plan because 9 times out of 10 you can bet there will be no toilet paper. Next amazing thing I saw... tissue paper seat covers. Is this heaven?

4. So excited that you can see fireworks from a plane!

I wasn't sure if I was really going to be able to see them but if look real close you can see little flashes of light below. I was lucky enough to be going over LA too, which I'm pretty sure is the city with the most bootleg fireworks known to man.

I didn't have my camera at the time but this video below shows exactly what it looks like from the plane. So crazy!

Finally... The Food

Well it's been a long time coming, here it is:

The Food of Saudi Arabia

I'll post a little later about the details of how the meals go here, which can be pretty exciting, but today we will leave you with this thought. This was a little flier from a restaurant here and is super random. Don't know about you but "Fresh whenever feasible" sure makes me hungry.

Oh and by the way, brain is awesome. I had it with curry and loved it. There is really no taste to it and it has the consistency of tofu or scrambled eggs. MMMmmmm!

Covering in Saudi Arabia

We only have 3 more weeks of teaching, then training until July 7^th, and then we are heading back to Cali!! We are getting excited to come home and see everyone, but we know we will miss our new friends from Saudi. We love our students and really enjoy being with them. We have learned so much about the Saudi culture by teaching our students. One thing that I have learned while teaching the girls is that they are so careful not to have their face exposed. When you walk into the University you have to have your hair covered and the Saudi girls always, always have their face covered too. Right when you walk past the walls and enter the University everyone has to uncover though. So the whole day at work the students and the teachers just wear regular clothes for the most part. All the teachers have to wear skirts down to their ankle and shirts that go to their elbow. Anyways, the students love to take pictures of anything and everything. While they love doing this, it is carefully done so that their face and hair are never in the picture. The most common thing to do is to give the peace sign and just have your hand in the picture. For example, my students and I randomly planted a tree one day and they all wanted to take a picture by it. So they all stuck their hand by the tree and they took the picture! So funny! This is one example but I usually see this every day at work. I’ve also seen umbrellas and books blocking my girl’s faces in pictures too.

Last week one of my students came in and asked me to step outside the class for a second. I stepped outside my door and she began to cry and tell me that she had lost her phone. I thought for a second “this is why you are not in my class right now?!” But then she began to tell me that her phone had a picture of her on it. She said, “Teacher, pictures of my face our on my phone.” She was so upset and then I began to realize how serious this was for her. Saudi woman have never shown their face to anyone but their family and other females. So the fact that she had a picture of her exposed face on her phone was pretty risky; now that the phone was in the hands of another person made her terrified. The good news is that by the end of the day she had found her phone and she made sure I knew. She ran towards me and starting screaming in excitement for like 2 minutes straight haha. In the end it was a funny story but this is just one example of how important it is for women to cover here.

I have asked my students multiple times if they like wearing the full burka and they always say yes. They told me that they feel safe and protected by wearing this. This is all they have ever known so it is completely normal to them. I’m sure there our women here who might not want to wear the abaya, headscarf, and face covering but I have not met them. My students love their culture and they don’t look at the burka as a negative thing at all. Everything is so different than what you would think, but being here you see how fascinating this culture is. Hopefully we can share more with all of you when we come home in a month or so! Love you all!

Father daughter bonding

Well I know that we have already done a "best things to do in Saudi" post but I just found one that trumps them all. Two words: lizard catching. May sound lame and something you did when you were kids but pretty sure the lizards back home looked a little different than this.

Now this is a real father daughter bonding moment. My favorite part is when he says "Hold his head down with all your strength. Don't let him turn around and bite you." And what, let the flesh eating dinosaur bite my hand off? Sure dad, I've got him. I'm pretty sure I would be running the opposite direction as soon as it started to do that hissing body shrinking thing.

Awww, isn't that adorable. Now she's holding the flesh eating lizard and named him Spike. I would have named him Terrifying. Have to say that's about the bravest little girl I've ever seen though.

Well another lesson of what to do if you ever find yourself in Saudi Arabia with nothing to do. My Saudi friend reasured me that lizard catching is a fun and exciting part of Saudi culture and one that he did all the time when he was a kid. It's a crazy place but I'm sure American culture seems crazy to everybody else too. Love you all and keep in touch!

There And Back Again

Well this may be a surprise to a lot of you but I was in California a few days ago! It was a really quick trip and I did not get to tell anyone in advance. There was a good reason for the trip though… my sister got married! I was only there for 2 full days so I didn't have time to see anybody but family. Sorry for the late notice! It was a great trip though and here are some of the highlights.

The trip went as follows:

Departure – 7:00 AM Thursday April 8

Total Travel time: about 26 hours

Arrival in California – 9:55 PM Thursday April 8

If that looks strange to you, that’s good. The reason is that on the way back I gained 10 hours. It was officially the longest day I’ve ever had clocking in at 34 hours long.

It was a great wedding and my sister looked beautiful

The family and a few cousins

Me and my amazing sisters

The trip back was also pretty crazy with the total trip time at 31 hours. The reason for the extra hours was because I had a long layover in London. Definitely a highlight of the trip because during the layover I got to take a walking tour of London! I got to see a lot of big sites including...

Piccadilly circus

Big Ol Big Ben.

Big Brendon and Big Ben

Sorry about the sound, it was super windy on the bridge!

Found out that Big Ben is actually the name of the bell in the tower, not the tower itself.

Westminster Abbey

Trafalgar Square

Buckingham Palace

The gate to Buckingham Palace

A very tired Brendon in front of Buckingham Palace

Well those were just a few of the highlights of the trip. Sounds like I got out of London right on time before all the volcano craziness. It was a super fun trip and so glad I got to see my big sis's wedding. But have to say, it's great to be done with traveling and back at home with the Mrs again. Great seeing the family and we miss the rest of you all. Keep in touch!

Arabic 101

One thing that we have learned is that language tells you a lot about a culture. So today we will give a crash course in the top Arabic terms we hear the most in a day:

1. If you are coming to the Gulf, first make sure you have a sweet Arabic name. Some of the most common male names we have seen are: Abdulah, Abdulaziz (by far the two most popular), Sultan, Mohammad, Mohanned (had the hardest time hearing the difference at first but the subtle pronunciation difference was very important to the person I was talking to), Khald, Osama, and Nwaf. For girls the most popular names are Reem, Eman, Noura, Haifa, and Fatimah. Some of the most interesting names are: Al Hanouf, Abeer, and Felwalu (still trying to figure out how to pronounce these).

2. Now with the phrases, we'll start from the beginning. How you say hello is: assalam wa alaikum meaning peace be upon you. The story behind it goes as follows:

Abu Hurairah narrated that the Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him) said: "Allah created Adam from dust after He mixed the clay and left him for some time until it became sticky mud, after which Allah shaped him. After that Allah left him till it became like potter's clay [a sounding clay]. Iblis used to go past him saying 'You have been created for a great purpose.' After that Allah breathed His spirit into him. The first thing into which the spirit passed was his eye and then his nose. He [Adam] sneezed. Allah said: "May your Lord have mercy upon you, O Adam! Go to those angels and see what they would say.' So Adam went and greeted them. they replied saying: "Peace be upon you and the mercy and blessings of Allah." Allah said: "O Adam! This is your greeting and that of your offspring." (Sahih Bukhari).
3. Next, the phrase you will hear most in the Kingdom is the phrase - inshallah - meaning if Allah wills. For example you will hear this when calling a taxi: diver - "I will be there in 10 minutes, inshallah." You will hear it when talking about schedules - "Monday's meeting is at 10, inshallah. Tuesday's meeting is at 9, inshallah...". And we have even heard it in the classroom - teacher - "Everyone must finish there assignment in 5 minuets." Student - "OK maybe, inshallah." We love our students!

4. Another term we hear a lot is mashala – which means "Allah has willed it." This is mostly said as a protection though. For example, say someone tells you they love your hair. If you do not say mashala, they could begin to become jealous of your possessions and start desiring to have your hair (ok maybe hair is a weird example). So the idea is that to not say mashala after every complement, you are actually harming everyone around you. You will hear it all the time too. For example, say Johny buys a new car and is showing his friends. You will hear Johny repeat mashala after almost every sentence to protect himself and his friends. It's very different for us but it's as natural as you get here.

5. The last phrase we hear a ton is alhumdulillah - (which is by far the funnest to say). The word is a great word and it means "Praise be to Allah (God)" and is one that we say often. There is so much to praise God about and our Arab friends are always quick to remember it. Alhumdulillah!

So as you can see from this quick Arabic lesson, what defines this Saudi culture is Islam. Saudi culture is so closely defined by it's religion it is hard to imagine the two without each other. We really do love it here and love this culture and people so much. We have met the most generous and amazing Muslims here. We love you all and hope to talk to you all soon!