Ramadan Kareem!!

Ramadan Kareem everyone! (beautiful Ramadan). We are now 12 days into Ramadan, the holy month of Islam - a time of fasting and reading the Qu'ran. During Ramadan, Muslims don't eat or drink anything, smoke, have sexual relations, or listen to music during the daylight hours - which here is about 4:30am - 6:35pm. Because of this restaurants and many shops are closed down during the day. To celebrate Ramadan, Chris, me, and some good friends of ours went to an Iftar dinner, which is basically a huge dinner you have when you break the fast.
Here is a picture of the Kingdom Tower on our way to the dinner. Because I wanted to be true to the spirit of Ramadan, I actually did the fast as well, not eating or drinking during the daylight hours. I have to say that Ramadan has messed up my whole schedule. I have been going to bed around 4:30am and waking up at 1:00pm for nearly a week! On the day I did the fast I ate my dinner at 4:00am and then went to bed. I had to wake up at 11:30am because I needed to head to school one last time to take care of some stuff. I was definitely thirsty in the hot Saudi sun. It usually is 115-118 degrees here.
Here are our good friends who treated us to the Ramadan Iftar dinner. It is quite a huge event. This particular one took place in a hotel and fed probably around 1,500-2,000 people on this night. Not only do Muslims fast during this month but they are also supposed to read the entire Qu'ran. Families usually divide the Qu'ran up into 30 sections and read one a day. I get the feeling it is quite a happy holiday, although I'm sure you at home are probably thinking this would be really difficult.
Here are some really fancy shrimp cups with cocktail sauce. They had quite a huge supply and variety of food at this dinner. It was a very fun event. One of my favorite experiences in Riyadh. We have this cool Indian man who works at a little store nearby. I was buying candy a week ago for my students so they could have it at night. I told him it was to help my students come during Ramadan. He told me he loved Ramadan because in India his teachers would always beat him and the other students, but not during Ramadan! He said during Ramadan "We were free!"
Here are some nice desserts. Very very good. One time the subject of fasting came up in class. I told my students I might do the Ramadan fast for a few days and they got very excited about that. I told them that other religions fast sometimes also and told them of some ways that different people do it. I told them one group fasts only one day a month but they don't eat or drink for 24 hours. They thought that was too difficult. I feel like it would be easier than 30 days, but of course this is something they are very used to.
More excellent desserts. The one on the bottom right is called Um Ali (which means mother of Ali). It was probably one of my favorites. It is like a bread pudding kind of thing. I must say that driving has been a much nicer experience here during Ramadan. Usually the roads are pretty dangerous. When I started a year ago it was awful! But then the Kingdom put road cameras on the streets and things got noticeably better after that - it made a HUGE difference. My students have already gotten some tickets from them. But during Ramadan people are usually at home during the day so driving has been a breeze!
Here is the fruit table. These pictures don't really do it justice though. There were food tables everywhere! Of course it looks even better after a day of fasting.
They had these cool colored lamps all over the place. We dished up our food and then waited until the call to prayer at about 6:35-37. That was our signal that it was okay to eat. When you end your fast you do what the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) did. He started with just a few dates and some water so he could get used to food again. Then you start your meal slowly. So that is exactly what I did as well. I ate 3 dates, had some water, and then slowly ate my food.
They had traditional Saudi, Indian, and Italian food. Probably a lot of others as well that I didn't notice. There was a lot of seafood as well. This was quite the event. It is like a big party.
Here is some traditional Saudi stuff. Don't know exactly what it is.
Here we are after the dinner. It was a great night. I can't believe I only have a few days left! Everyone tells me I will have reverse culture shock when I get home to the US. I'm happy I got to be in Saudi Arabia during some of Ramadan.

Made It

A few days ago was my final day of teaching English in Saudi Arabia. Things were pretty bad in the beginning, so much so that I was counting the days thinking "is this ever going to end?" Luckily, things calmed down greatly at the beginning of the second semester and most of the craziness was swept away, and hopefully, it will hold off a few more weeks. When I finished teaching last night, it didn't feel like an ending. I just went home....and I guess I'm mostly done now. Here are some pics from the last week.

We had a potluck party (just like last semester) in our final week. The students brought food and some of their mothers and sisters made some good stuff for us. There was actually too much food. We had a good time.

Everyone eating and relaxing.

The students took about a million pictures in these few hours.

Mr. Jared checking out the student's pictures.

My students Faruji wearing my tie. He liked it so much I gave it to him. I brought all my ties yesterday and taught them how to tie one.

Chris and my students.

Group photo. Its weird I don't have much to write now. It seems like I should have a lot more to say, but its just not coming. I get like this at the end of big things.....neither very happy or sad, and I usually don't have much to say during these times. I'm weird like that.

Khalas (finished). Now I will wait out the next week and a half. Then, inshallah, I'm off to Spain for a few weeks. I'll probably blog some more out of boredom before then.

Kuwait Adventure

Our little trip to Kuwait was pretty easy going. I didn't expect a great adventure or anything. It is one of those countries you go to just to say you've been. It was an interesting country to be sure. The first I ever learned about Kuwait was during the war back in the 90's. I remember hearing a lot about it (I was 8 or 9 then) but I didn't really understand it. Even now, twenty years later, the effects of the war are still felt among the population. They are probably the only country in the Middle East that was in favor of the Iraq War which started in 2003. Not surprising since Saddam Hussein tried to take them over (and killed many people in the process).
Here is a map of Kuwait. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Iran. It was weird to think that we were only a few hours away from Iraq by car. When we arrived at the airport things were a little slow. Kuwait is the most similar country to Saudi Arabia out of all the Middle Eastern countries I have been to (hence the slowness). As we left the airport there was a sign saying "welcome to all our liberation partners" - basically a thanks to all those countries who helped them when Iraq invaded.

Kuwait City is the capital of Kuwait. Kuwait is such a tiny country most of the population lives in or near this city. I thought the city was much prettier than I imagined. They have some nice buildings with some pretty cool designs. The above pic is the view from our hotel room window.

Here is another pic. This is near one of the malls (because this is a Middle Eastern country there are a ton of malls!) This mall was along the coast. We went to 3 or 4 malls in this city because there isn't a ton to do. What did we do at the malls? Watch movies of course! Since movie theaters are forbidden in Saudi we had to take the time to see some good ones. We saw Harry Potter 7.2 while we were here which I have to say was pretty good! Much better than 7.1 which I didn't like much.

Sunset along the Persian Gulf. We walked along the Corniche to kill time waiting for the movie to start.

Here are 3 ladies in abayas enjoying the sea. We have a friend who lived in Kuwait during the 90's and she says that more women wear the abaya now than they did in the 90's. I asked here why this was and she didn't really know the answer. Kuwait is less strict and more friendly to foreigners so they don't take on an extreme strict attitude like Saudi Arabia does.

This is a pretty popular landmark in Kuwait City. These are the water towers near the water park. You can also go inside one of them to view the city. Whenever we went to points of interest in the city they had posted in these places pictures of the destruction during the war. These towers were in pretty bad condition after the Iraqis invaded (as well as the rest of the city.)

Inside the tower.

Chris took this pic of Kuwait City while in the tower. Not bad, though the windows were kind of dirty so it was difficult to get a clear shot of the city.

Here is the Grand Mosque of Kuwait.

A nice Kuwaiti man gave us a tour of the mosque. The inside was surprisingly big compared to how it looks on the outside. As you can see it is very beautiful and spacious as most of the grand mosques we've been to tend to be.

Here I am talking to our guide. He was a great guy. He has frequently been to the U.S. and even studied there during the 70's. I asked him if people were nice to him. He said they were not. He lived in a small town in either Oregon or Washington. He lived there during the Iran revolution in 79 when Americans had a pretty extreme hate towards Ayatollah Khomeini. This caused a lot of animosity towards Muslims in America despite the fact that he was neither Iranian nor a Shi'a Muslim. Despite this I think his feelings were more positive to the U.S. as he goes there frequently. He does believe there is a moral degradation going on there as people seem to be less church going these days.

Here are some men doing construction on the inside of the mosque. Our guide told us that even today, 20 years later, there are still cracks and things in the mosque from during the war. I asked our guide if he was in Kuwait when Iraq invaded. He said he was and that he and his family fled to Qatar until the end of the war.

Here is the "Westerners Perception of Islam Centre" which is a part of the Grand Mosque complex.

Here is the Kuwait House for National Works - Not to Forget Museum. This museum is dedicated to the war crimes commited against the Kuwaiti people. It was a very interesting and eye opening place.

When we arrived at the museum we told them we were from America so they got us some English speaking guides. They were four girls probably around 14 or 15. Their English skills were okay but the best part was that they were competing to say whatever they could in their best English, even when the automated voice was talking they would try to talk over it. Chris and I were impressed that these girls were here working in this museum learning about their country's history. They were born after the Persian Gulf War of course. At one point one of the girls said "I hope you understand what we say" I assured them that we did. It was refreshing to be in a country where we could talk to women (or teen girls in this case) in a competely innocent situation without people being paranoid about it. I often find it ridiculous that men are supposed to ignore women like they don't exist because of some crazy fear that they might do something inappropriate. A simple smile or hello to a woman in Saudi Arabia could be seen as a come on. As we continued the museum had many pictures of those killed during the war and the heroic men and women who fought against the Iraqis. They also had some horrifying pictures of men and children badly disfigured in the war. They were very graphic(sp?). There was one part dedicated to the destruction that Saddam Husein caused not only in their own country, but other countries, including his own. It was pretty disturbing to see it all.

Here I am in front of a toppled statue of Saddam. Throughout Iraq there were various statues of Saddam Hussein. You might recall that famous picture or video of them pulling down one of the statues. These statues now reside in various museums. I think there are 9 or 10. The Americans gave one of these statues to Kuwait and here it is. They absolutely detest this man. It was weird because Saudis tend to really respect him, which I find odd since their own country also helped fight against him during the Persian Gulf War. Many suspect he might have tried to take a part of Saudi Arabia had he succeeded. One of the battles fought during that war was even in a Saudi town.

The cool space needle like tower behind me is Liberation Tower. A very popular landmark in the city.

The above house is basically the Kuwaiti equivalent of the Alamo. Kuwaitis held off the Iraqi troops from this place. This neighborhood was practically destroyed. Though the neighborhood is rebuilt today, they left this house as a reminder of what happened.

Here is Chris and I in front of a tank. I don't know if the tank is Iraqi, Kuwaiti or other. It was a short trip, but very educational. It is always nice to see a new country and a new people. I enjoyed my time there, but a word of warning for those of you who might go there someday -- The taxi drivers will try to rip you off!

Student Life

I just got back from a little vacation in Kuwait but I will write about that later. I've been getting behind in my blog lately. I feel like I have only been writing about my vacations and not as much about life in Saudi and with my students, which is the main reason I'm here right? I have about 7 days left of teaching and then I'm completely finished. It will be nice to get get home, but it will also be kind of strange not to be surrounded by a bunch of Saudis and teaching them. Below is a picture of one of my two very talented classes.

This is my first class. One of the students made a metal plate and hung it outside our class. It says "Leader Class." I had no idea one of my students made it until recently. I thought it was just up from some unrelated teacher or class. I have to say, I do think they are the leader class. They have the highest grades and speaking ability. They are a talented group. Chris tells me that his students are constantly cheating in school but as far as 4 teachers who have taught these guys can tell - they don't (probably why their English is so good). Cheaters never prosper. Not only that but I really do get the feeling they love to learn which makes me happy. They are always pretty energetic even when we are doing work of a more boring nature. They love to cheer for the most mundane things.

Working hard!

The student in the back of this picture is actually the brother of a man I taught last semester. Both great students (except this one comes more often). The one in the middle is the "president" of the class. We don't really have a president, but that is what everyone calls him.

Here is the picture of our Academic Coordinator (manager). He took a dying program and turned it into something pretty good. It is because of him that we have experienced relative calm and peace this semester. Our school has been a dream, especially compared to some of the others!

Some of the teachers in my rotation were gone last week, so here is a pic of Chris teaching one of my classes, while I taught the other. Chris basically said my students are so wonderful because of me and my incredible teaching skills.....okay, not really (but he was thinking it!)

Here is my second class. I don't know why but these guys are so much smaller than my first class. They are pretty funny, especially the guy in the white shirt (center, front row). They are a lot quieter than my first class! The personalities of my two classes are competely different.

Alright, so last weekend my first class invited Chris, Jared, Dan, and myself to their estrahah. My students ask me what the English word for estrahah is but I tell them there isn't any because we don't have such a thing. Basically it is a house that a group of friends will rent together as a hangout spot. This is because you usually don't hang out at your friend's family's house because you might see the mothers or sisters. So anyway, we went. The above picture is Jared playing video game tennis with one of my students.

Here is a picture of the little estrahah. It also has another little hangout room like this, a small swimming pool, and a field for football. Many Saudi guys in their 20s have something like this.

The above pic is of my student playing the guitar. He loves the guitar. He is probably the first Saudi I have ever seen play a musical instrument because music is considered evil by some in this society. Even though many Saudis listen to music, playing music in public is still taboo. You never know if the religious police will come and stop you. He was pretty good. My student's guitar hero is Slash by the way.

Here are the guys playing football. They are pretty obsessed (as most Saudis are.....or rather most people who are not from the United States are.)

The guys made us dinner when we were there. It was pretty good. The funny thing is we didn't eat dinner until 1:00am, which is actually pretty normal in this country because Saudis are such night people.

Just relaxing and talking about life. It was pretty fun.

We met at 4:00pm and we were there until 3:00am. Also not unusual for these kinds of things. When Saudis get together it seems like it is a whole day kind of thing.

Good food. Good times. We played football, videogames, talked, ate food, basically the same things we do in the US. Below is most of the group from that night but some had to go home before we took the picture.