Happy New Year 1432! (Weeks 10-11)

Happy 1432 everyone! Actually, that happened about one month ago. In the Muslim world the years are different. They begin their year system from the time of the prophet Mohammad. When 1432 hit here, there didn't seem to be much of a party or celebration. My students told me it was their new year, but that was all I heard about it. During our new year a few days ago, not much happened. It was pretty uneventful, but my students wrote on my board before I came to class "Happy New Year" so I though that was nice of them. How would you like to keep track of two different years? I can hardly keep track of one.

Things have been mostly uneventful as I said. Although in my classes my students are always saying and doing interesting things that I will have to wait to tell you about unfortunately. Luckily I haven't experienced any class changes recently so I have had my current class for over a month which is kind of a miracle here. I'm really getting attached to some of my students. Two of my students always talk in class, ask a million pointless questions, and they are best friends. I call them the Taliban. Why you ask? Because the word "taliban" literally means in Arabic, "two students" My students taught me that. So I call them the taliban to their faces. When ever I do they always ask "you mean the taliban in Afghanistan?" and I say "no, just the two students"

Another one of my students always makes jokes and smiles all the time in class. He reminds me of myself when I took a foreign language in school because I would always say silly things in the language we were learning to try and make people laugh. This kid always has a smile on his face and I have always told him he must always be happy because he smiles all the time. Yesterday he was talking to me and told me that his father died in a car wreck 10 years ago. He told me that even though he smiles all the time he is "happy on the outside, but on the inside he is very sad" I asked him if he had other problems and he told me he didn't want to make me more sad, and so he just left it at that. This same student had a brother that just went blind in one eye for some unexplainable reason. All of this reminds me of the hymn that says "in the quiet heart is hidden sorrows that the eye can't see"

I really should write more. I kind of feel bad that I'm not writing down all the things my students say because it is really fascinating to hear their views on life. There are so many things that I love about them, and a few quirky things I wish I could change, but obviously that is not my role or responsibility.

Other than that there isn't much to say. At home I read a lot about Islam and the history of this place because I want to learn as much as I can while I am here. We still just spend a lot of our time reading, although my roommate Chris and I just bought an X-box so we play some videogames in our sparetime (the Saudi man's favorite pass time) We often go out to eat at the mall or some surrounding restaurants. Below is a picture I thought was hilarious:
Does anyone feel like "Grilled Chicken Rice Problem"? I wonder what the problem is....it must be a surprise. In Saudi we find mistakes like this all the time, but I have to wonder what they meant to write instead.

Here is a picture of me looking angry. Probably because our internet has been so awful these past few days. If I don't respond to emails quickly it is probably because I can't get the internet as easily as I used to.

Here is a picture of Chris at one of our many many mall outings. We really liked this advertisement. Incidentally, I have a student who looks just like this guy in the picture! Fun stuff. Chris and I managed to schedule a vacation in 3 weeks. Our plan is to go to Oman which is south of Saudi Arabia. We hope it happens....anything can happen in the country, but we're hoping. A vacation sounds extremely nice right now.

Happy 2011 to all my American friends and family!!