Paradox

Once Again I thought I would come back and finish. I always start my posts wanting to talk about one specific thing, but feel compelled to fill in everything that happened before it, and I always get too burned-out to even get to what I originally wanted to talk about! Ugh.

Back

Here I am back in Riyadh. Its amazing how quickly this place became "home". I have so many great thoughts of this whirl-wind of a week. I don't know if i can recount them all... I will try. On Monday we went to Miriam's house for dinner. It was a great salmon meal but I was quite surprised when there were other guests there? ha ha I guess I assume it is always just about me. hah juust kidding. But it was very nice to meet more americans that are living here and to hear their prospectives of life here, ranging from 20 years to only 9 months, I guess i was the baby with only one month though. I also seemed to be the most optimistic about life here. Through chatting with them, it became apparent that our life and experiences in Riyadh were vastly different. That day had been the first real "Duck and Cover". Of course it turned out to be nothing, but none the less it was scary. They all said that they hadn't believed it was real and carried about their normal everyday business until fear began to spread throughout the building. As it turned out it had been an explosion on a construction sight, only a few kilometers away, and the company had forgotten to inform the Embassy. They are in another world there. They cannot leave unless they are in an armored car and there has to be a set departure and return time. And I thought being a woman was the most hindering thing about transportation here.. I guess being a woman and a state department employee is THE hardest thing when you need to get around. So because of this they really don't see the city. They cant really say they know Saudi Arabia. This is when I realized how thankful i am to be part of a family here.
Ahmoon and Mansour have really taken us in. I am so grateful. They are the reason we have done so much here, and if it wasn't there idea in the first place they make life easier as our own "native guides." Any way I'll get to them when I make it to the correct part of the week.
The day after our dinner at Miriam's was National Day at the US Embassy. I didn't realize until the dinner that it was essentially a fourth of july celebration, in March (31) because it is far too hot in July for anyone to be outside. It was amazing! There was huge replicas of the Statue of Liberty and the Liberty Bell and all the hot dogs, hamburgers and french fries you could eat. It was really great to see the large amount of Saudis there and how many were celebrating ( and astonishingly drinking?!?) Everyone was sans abaya so some of the man may not have known what to do with themselves haha. Actually specifically the guy who followed me around the whole night waiting to catch my eye and raise his eyebrows and smile, it was very bizarre. Hw stood within 20 feet of me the whole night. Like a good saudi girl I averted my eyes. ha ha. Then we met the loud and proud OBGYN's who proposed marriage to miriam and a dowery of camels and before leaving said, "Tonight I wish we could make baby." hahahahahah. They asked how old I was and when I replied they were astounded, they thought I was 13 or 14. That was fine with me, it saved me from turning down a proposal. Although they did tell me that i was going to have good dreams about them tonight... ew? So despite some semi-creepy drunk saudi men the party was very fun.
The next day we went to Khobar.

late night up date

What a whirl wind today was not to mention this entire week. I am here in an amazing hotel in Khobar, KSA it is 2:50 Am right now and our friends only left about 45 minutes ago. It is a late night culture here, but right now all I can think about is the 5 star bed behind me. I want to have a good nights rest on it because mine at home is like sleeping on the tile floor (which i actually tried one night because I thought it would be better). I want to write about all that has happened this week and all the fun that is planned for this weekend but I need some sleep. So Insha'Allah I will wake up tomorrow morning with enough time to update on the happenings in Saudi.

I will make a little list to remind myself:
--Edge of the World
--Dinner at Miriam's
--US Embassy National Day (4th of July)
--Trip to Khobar
--Plans in Khobar