The Fourth Week, Predictions, and Mall Outings

Time is starting to fly here. This has been one of the calmest and fastest weeks we've had yet. We are finally starting to get into the routine of life in Saudi. The one thing that disappoints me a little is that I can't photograph random people I see on the streets. They would be, by far, the most interesting pictures I could show any of my friends and family. Unfortunately, for some people taking pics is a no-no, especially women because that could be seen in the wrong way, even though they are completely covered in public. I have heard a few reasons for this but I don't know if either has any validity. One reason is that (according to one of the Muslim teachers I talked to) there are still a small minority of individuals who believe taking a picture of a person is stealing a part of their soul. I have also heard it is because, in Islam, you don't make images of individuals - it is just something that isn't done. Whether there is any truth to that, I'm not sure. They do blur the faces of the women in ads at the mall because a women's face (according to one of Chris's students) is only for her family, and it is to respect her. I don't want to create false rumors about this country because there is already a lot of misunderstanding in America. However, many of the people here are very modern and have no problems with pictures. My students take pictures all the time and even have some pictures of me.

In class this week I was teaching my students about speaking in the future tense. I had them write three predictions they had about the future. One of my students said, "predictions are bad" I thought maybe he misunderstood the word and thought I was talking about fortune telling, which is considered witchcraft and is against the law. I asked him why and he said "because the future isn't good, we might have a war with Iran." It seemed that a few of my students seemed to think that war would be sometime in the immediate future. One student said he hoped Israel would no longer be here in the future. Most of them predicted common things like "I will have a wife" or "I will speak English." Very simple things. One of my creative students said "Dinosaurs will rise and eat people" although his spelling was quite bad, but I liked that he was trying. One of the funniest predictions was a student who said he would go to America in two years. I asked him why he would go to America (thinking he was going to study there or something). His English wasn't good enough so he was quiet. Suddenly another student said "He wants to go and be a terrorist" -- Suddenly my face turns white and I look completely shocked. The student then realizes he made a bad mistake and said "I meant TOURIST! TOURIST!" Suddenly the whole class breaks out into laughter and so did I. It was one of the funniest moments in class. Another teacher said that students in his class had also gotten those words mixed up, although I think its more bad pronunciation than anything else.

Well its another weekend, and I've just been enjoying my break. Yesterday we went to the Hayat Mall. Visiting the mall is one of the biggest past times to do here in Saudi and on the weekend it is completely packed! The Hayat Mall is probably one of the biggest malls I have ever been in. I took some pictures of some of the women's dress shops so people could see. There were literally 15-20 stores just for women's dresses right in a row. Remember though, that women do not wear these dresses in public. Only with other friends during parties and stuff.

Saudi's are definitely night people. We went to a gigantic food court at this mall with an amusement park inside, and it was completely full of women and children at 11:00pm. The malls don't even close until about 2:00am on the weekends. Many of my students go to sleep at 5:00 or 6:00am and then wake up at 2:00 or 3:00pm so they can come to school. I ask them what they do and they mostly say that they watch T.V. although I've heard some play video games or late night Football (Soccer). I think the reason people stay up so late is out of habit. I heard that in the old days people mostly slept during the day because of heat and then stayed up all night. It sounded like a reasonable answer.

So that is how things are so far. I've been reading the Qu'ran lately and many other books that have been given to me by Saudi students and faculty. I feel like I'm learning a lot about the culture and religion here which is good because that is one of the reasons I wanted to come here. I only have 5 more days of teaching before we begin the Hajj vacation, which I will write more about next week. Salam (Peace).