One of the best kept secrets in town as far as Best Breakfast deal is the breakfast at IKEA on the weekend. From 9:00 to 10:00, before the actual store opening at 10:00, carloads of people walk into the IKEA and get the best deal in town. Entire Saudi families, with dad, mom and the average number of kids (seven, according to the latest pole) arrive as well as a faire share of expats also looking for something different to do on a weekend morning. Unbelievably, 4 Saudi Riyals (about a quarter US) buy you a plate with the equivalent of two scrambled eggs, two long beef sausages, two slices of beef bacon and two pieces of toast served with jam. And, all coffee and tea drinks are complimentary... My favorite is their cappuccino!
So, about once a month, we load up and go have breakfast there. It's probably Alex's favorite place to eat...I've never seen a kid eat eggs that fast and with so much energy than when he receives his plate.
As with all eating places around here, seating is divided: one side for single men - tables and chairs separated with a opaque wall partition from the other side for families only. Each family table is separated by its own wall partition with curtains to completly close it off from other dinners. It's actually nice to sit together and not have to worry about seeing thekids misbehaving at the neighboring table... unfortunately, I can't do any people watching with that kind of seating arrangements. There are a few tables without curtains, but that doesn't help with the people watching as all the curtains are closed...
Anyways, after a good hearty breakfast, we can leisurely go on to the store and enjoy the nice lines of the IKEA collections...
Friday, March 26, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
Traffic
It’s funny how a city without much of anything to do would have so much traffic at night! Mind you, there are no movie theaters, no large concert venues, or bars or dance clubs….but man; you would never think traffic could get this bad!!! If you plan on going anywhere at night, at least double the time required in order to get there on time!!! I’m not exaggerating: Interstate 10 at peak hours in Baton Rouge looks like a speedway….
I think part of the problem comes from the configuration of the major “shopping” areas in Riyadh. Although the city has grown over the past 40 years at an amazing rate, it looks like the 4 major streets where all the “good” shopping is located are all interconnected and fit into one square kilometer of each other. If you look at a map, locate the Kingdom Tower, go down Olaya Street and here’s Faisaliah tower…they must be less than one kilometer away from each other. Right after Faisaliah you have Thalia and Thalatheen Streets where all the good restaurants are…So you just get stuck in traffic whenever you go in that area of town. That’s probably one of the funny things around here: stores are grouped according to their specialty. Looking for flowers, turn right on the street after the Kingdom Tower; looking for tires: easy – go to the used car parts souk off of Aruba Street. Chocolate anyone…Thalateen Street is the place to go… so I guess the grouping of stores makes it easy on you to find what you’re looking for…but makes the traffic heavier at times.
Should I also mention that Saudi society is a night society? It’s not uncommon for our students’ mothers and fathers to party all night, send the kids off to school, sleep all day and get up when the kids come back from school. Stores and malls are open every day until 11:00 pm. Dentists see patients from 4:00 pm till midnight…I know this because my colleague’s husband is a dentist and that’s his daily shift! So, people here sleep during the day and live at night. No, the working people have a slightly different schedule: we get up in the morning, go to work, get off work, and go to bed at a reasonable hour. Those who don’t work can do the night life! And the “normal” people get stuck in that night traffic when they dare leave the house at night.
One last reason I can think about to explain this traffic is the traffic patterns and the way drivers deal with the Riyadh streets!! Since we got here, I am not sure how many times I have thought to myself it may be a blessing in disguise that I am not allowed to drive in the Kingdom! For one thing, you have to understand that, fifty years ago, Riyadh was nothing more than a little village. It’s grown tremendously since then, at a rate of adding ONE million people every 5/10 years!! So, you can imagine that the road infrastructure that was here 10 years ago is so totally outdated! There are not enough roads for the millions of cars on the streets… and the roads that are here are all making you turn right down one road for 1 km in order to do a u-turn and turn left…. That’s pretty much the only way to turn left throughout the city.
Add to this chaos the way MEN drive here…(and for once, you can’t blame it on the women….) Let’s say you’re on a four lane highway, you need to turn left…..where do you go? Any right thinking person would place their vehicle in the furthest left lane to make a quick and easy turn…Well, in Saudi, if you need to turn left, ANY lane works…. Being in the furthest RIGHT lane won’t prevent you in any shape and form to turn LEFT…you take your life in your hands when you do this but this is not too infrequent to be cut off at the middle of an intersection by someone going from the furthest lane in the opposite direction. This habit does slow down traffic and create more traffic jam….
So, to sum up this diatribe about traffic….in Riyadh, traffic totally sucks and yes, I am glad (for once) that I am not allowed to drive in this craziness!!!
Proof that drivers and passengers are crazy doing what they call "land skating"
I think part of the problem comes from the configuration of the major “shopping” areas in Riyadh. Although the city has grown over the past 40 years at an amazing rate, it looks like the 4 major streets where all the “good” shopping is located are all interconnected and fit into one square kilometer of each other. If you look at a map, locate the Kingdom Tower, go down Olaya Street and here’s Faisaliah tower…they must be less than one kilometer away from each other. Right after Faisaliah you have Thalia and Thalatheen Streets where all the good restaurants are…So you just get stuck in traffic whenever you go in that area of town. That’s probably one of the funny things around here: stores are grouped according to their specialty. Looking for flowers, turn right on the street after the Kingdom Tower; looking for tires: easy – go to the used car parts souk off of Aruba Street. Chocolate anyone…Thalateen Street is the place to go… so I guess the grouping of stores makes it easy on you to find what you’re looking for…but makes the traffic heavier at times.
Should I also mention that Saudi society is a night society? It’s not uncommon for our students’ mothers and fathers to party all night, send the kids off to school, sleep all day and get up when the kids come back from school. Stores and malls are open every day until 11:00 pm. Dentists see patients from 4:00 pm till midnight…I know this because my colleague’s husband is a dentist and that’s his daily shift! So, people here sleep during the day and live at night. No, the working people have a slightly different schedule: we get up in the morning, go to work, get off work, and go to bed at a reasonable hour. Those who don’t work can do the night life! And the “normal” people get stuck in that night traffic when they dare leave the house at night.
One last reason I can think about to explain this traffic is the traffic patterns and the way drivers deal with the Riyadh streets!! Since we got here, I am not sure how many times I have thought to myself it may be a blessing in disguise that I am not allowed to drive in the Kingdom! For one thing, you have to understand that, fifty years ago, Riyadh was nothing more than a little village. It’s grown tremendously since then, at a rate of adding ONE million people every 5/10 years!! So, you can imagine that the road infrastructure that was here 10 years ago is so totally outdated! There are not enough roads for the millions of cars on the streets… and the roads that are here are all making you turn right down one road for 1 km in order to do a u-turn and turn left…. That’s pretty much the only way to turn left throughout the city.
Add to this chaos the way MEN drive here…(and for once, you can’t blame it on the women….) Let’s say you’re on a four lane highway, you need to turn left…..where do you go? Any right thinking person would place their vehicle in the furthest left lane to make a quick and easy turn…Well, in Saudi, if you need to turn left, ANY lane works…. Being in the furthest RIGHT lane won’t prevent you in any shape and form to turn LEFT…you take your life in your hands when you do this but this is not too infrequent to be cut off at the middle of an intersection by someone going from the furthest lane in the opposite direction. This habit does slow down traffic and create more traffic jam….
So, to sum up this diatribe about traffic….in Riyadh, traffic totally sucks and yes, I am glad (for once) that I am not allowed to drive in this craziness!!!
Proof that drivers and passengers are crazy doing what they call "land skating"
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Best Bread in Town
I've always been a Bread Snob! Growing up I'd be the one going to the bakery and getting fresh bread...some of it would never make it home, being eaten on the way by a "mysterious" mouse... I've always loved good bread and am always looking for that tasty crusty bread. After 15 years of deprivation in the States, I've finally found it!!!
Well, close to the compound there is a little stripmall of stores...nothing much to it, just a little grocery store, dry cleaner, some kind of office AND a bread store. What I call the Bread store is nothing more than a counter in front of a open oven. Set-up is easy: you hand in your ONE Saudi Riyal ( a whooping 25 cents US), grab a plastic bag and when the bread comes out of the oven, you get FOUR, yes you are reading this well, FOUR awesome, hot, crispy and soft flat arabian bread!
Ain't this the most beautiful bread in the world?
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Prayers
Five times a day life stops for prayers when the minarets relay the Muezzins’ prayer call to all Faithful Muslims. I don’t know how many mosques are in Riyadh, but I’ve read somewhere that there are enough that you can walk to a mosque from anywhere in the city! Imagine when the calls starts, that it starts almost simultaneously all over the city, that the call is different for each prayer of the day and that you hear it from all directions. In the morning, before sunrise you have Fajer, around noon there is Dhuhr, mid-afternoon is Asr, Maghreb comes later and at sundown Isha. The times for those prayers change daily according to sunrise and sunset, and also change depending on where you are in the kingdom. As a result, the prayer times get later in the day as you move to the west.
After a few months here we are now really attempting to plan our shopping around those times. When the call for prayer is heard, stores, banks and all businesses shut down, iron curtains fall down, store clerks leave their good and either go to mosque or take a break. We’ve been caught several times right at the beginning of prayer and the only thing to do is just wait until the stores reopen. We’re finally wisening up and are now timing our grocery shopping with prayer, entering the store around the beginning of prayer, getting locked in the store and taking care of the weekly shopping during the time when most everything is shut down. Although little stores ask you to leave before close, grocery stores will let you stay during prayer and lock you inside. They dim the lights a bit, out of respect I guess, and let you fill your carts with all the goods you want. As the end of prayer nears, you can see families starting to line at the registers and once the iron curtains open back up, check-out clerks come back and business as usual starts back again.
During prayers, although business life is shut down, traffic doesn’t stop and cars move freely from one place to the next, although you do see, on occasions, cars stopped on the side of the roads and men keeling on their prayer mat, facing Mecca and praying.
After a few months here we are now really attempting to plan our shopping around those times. When the call for prayer is heard, stores, banks and all businesses shut down, iron curtains fall down, store clerks leave their good and either go to mosque or take a break. We’ve been caught several times right at the beginning of prayer and the only thing to do is just wait until the stores reopen. We’re finally wisening up and are now timing our grocery shopping with prayer, entering the store around the beginning of prayer, getting locked in the store and taking care of the weekly shopping during the time when most everything is shut down. Although little stores ask you to leave before close, grocery stores will let you stay during prayer and lock you inside. They dim the lights a bit, out of respect I guess, and let you fill your carts with all the goods you want. As the end of prayer nears, you can see families starting to line at the registers and once the iron curtains open back up, check-out clerks come back and business as usual starts back again.
During prayers, although business life is shut down, traffic doesn’t stop and cars move freely from one place to the next, although you do see, on occasions, cars stopped on the side of the roads and men keeling on their prayer mat, facing Mecca and praying.
Dust Storm
Discovery of the day: living in the desert means being surrounded by sand. However, if you are thinking that sand here looks like what you’ve walked on the Florida beaches, think again. Depending where you go, which area of the desert surrounding Riyadh you go to, the “sand” goes from hard little rocks and pebbles to the fine stuff the consistency of talc you can’t drive through without having a 4x4 vehicle.
Being surrounded by all that sand does come with pros and cons. Pro: you don’t need to cut the grass twice a week because it doesn’t grow in non-irrigated sand! Pro: The colors of sand change, depending on the light of the day and the sunrays, which makes the desert a tantalizing and beautiful place! Cons: it gets all over, enters all the little crevices. You know how, when you go to the beach and you log sand in your shoes…. Well, living in the desert is that on a daily basis. Given, although Riyadh is in the middle of the desert, the cities, malls, schools, compounds…are all surrounded by concrete. Concrete streets, concrete parking lots, paved sidewalks… But when a lot is not developed, when a hole is dug to plan a tree or build a house, sand is always there, just beneath the surface.
One weird thing linked to living in the middle of the Arabian Desert happens when the wind blows. It starts picking up the sand and blows it all over the place. A couple of weeks ago, we were woken up in the middle of the night, by wind and by our bathroom vent flapping like crazy. We could hear the wind, and after pulling the curtains, it was eerie outside: the streetlights were surrounded by an orange cover. The sand being picked up was landing all over the place, the cars, the streets, the doors, even through the closed windows and doors. In the morning, the dining room table seemed covered with a film of sand. When we opened the back gate of the truck, sand had crept up under the door and all over the back bumper.
It happened again last Friday afternoon, our “Sunday”, when our whole word turned orange. I’m not exaggerating; just everything was surrounded by that orange dust. From Alex’s bedroom window, the view was surreal. What is usually an open view of the desert was just a blur. I did take a picture but it doesn’t do it justice. We tried to go outside and feel it but the sand was everywhere and I really am not too keen on tasting that gritty sand through all the openings of my face!
Worst Sandstorm in Riyadh caught on tape
Being surrounded by all that sand does come with pros and cons. Pro: you don’t need to cut the grass twice a week because it doesn’t grow in non-irrigated sand! Pro: The colors of sand change, depending on the light of the day and the sunrays, which makes the desert a tantalizing and beautiful place! Cons: it gets all over, enters all the little crevices. You know how, when you go to the beach and you log sand in your shoes…. Well, living in the desert is that on a daily basis. Given, although Riyadh is in the middle of the desert, the cities, malls, schools, compounds…are all surrounded by concrete. Concrete streets, concrete parking lots, paved sidewalks… But when a lot is not developed, when a hole is dug to plan a tree or build a house, sand is always there, just beneath the surface.
One weird thing linked to living in the middle of the Arabian Desert happens when the wind blows. It starts picking up the sand and blows it all over the place. A couple of weeks ago, we were woken up in the middle of the night, by wind and by our bathroom vent flapping like crazy. We could hear the wind, and after pulling the curtains, it was eerie outside: the streetlights were surrounded by an orange cover. The sand being picked up was landing all over the place, the cars, the streets, the doors, even through the closed windows and doors. In the morning, the dining room table seemed covered with a film of sand. When we opened the back gate of the truck, sand had crept up under the door and all over the back bumper.
It happened again last Friday afternoon, our “Sunday”, when our whole word turned orange. I’m not exaggerating; just everything was surrounded by that orange dust. From Alex’s bedroom window, the view was surreal. What is usually an open view of the desert was just a blur. I did take a picture but it doesn’t do it justice. We tried to go outside and feel it but the sand was everywhere and I really am not too keen on tasting that gritty sand through all the openings of my face!
Worst Sandstorm in Riyadh caught on tape
Monday, March 1, 2010
La Francophonie dans le Royaume
Bon, je viens de lire le blog d’Eugénie, une des mes voisines françaises dans le compound et elle m’inspire a écrire en français. Ca fait très longtemps que je n’ai rien écrit de substance en français et j’espère que mes lecteurs me pardonneront.
Apres avoir vécu en Louisiane pendant presque 15 ans, on penserait que mon français n’est pas aussi terrible…mais j’ai un manque de pratique flagrant! Il fallait que je déménage de l’autre bout du monde pour le reparler régulièrement… Comment est-ce donc possible d’avoir une telle présence francophone en Arabie Saoudite?
Commençons à l’école. Nous sommes 3 profs de français; Claude est un français de 40 ans, Zoulaikha est une algérienne dans la quarantaine et moi, la petite Belge et la cadette! Donc, chaque fois qu’on se voit on parle français et ca fait du bien. Je ne me rendais pas compte a quel point ca me manquait d’avoir des conversations intelligentes avec des adultes. En classe je parle aussi le français, autant que possible et suis agréablement surprise au niveau de certaines de mes élèves. La plupart ont des profs particuliers qui leur donnent cours plusieurs fois par semaine. Avec une telle intensité, il est normal que leur français soit assez bon! Et puis, elles ont une motivation: aller faire les magasins a paris, lors de leurs séjours a la maison de l’Avenue Foch…non, je ne blague pas…Nombreux parents ont une résidence a Paris, et/ou a Londres, et/ou a New York…Enfin tout ce français fait du bien !
Dans le compound, il y a également plusieurs francophones. J’ai déjà mentionne Eugénie, une jeune française, mari également français et dont la petite fille Agathe – 2 ans- commence à maitriser le français et l’anglais car elle est en crèche a l’américaine ! Il y a aussi Lea et Lina, deux gamines françaises dont le père est français d’origine vietnamienne et la maman est marocaine. Faut aussi que je mentionne Vinciane, une belge du Tournaisis et son mari Pierre Emmanuel, aussi belge. Ils viennent d’agrandir leur famille avec la petite Eléonore, née début décembre. Une nouvelle famille de français vient d’arriver il y a moins d’un mois... La petite Reem et sa famille habite aussi dans le quartier, ainsi que Faong et sa famille… Comme quoi il y a pas mal de francophones, certains dont je connais le nom et d’autres dont je connais juste le nom des enfants avec lesquels Emma et Alex jouent. Il y a également quelques libanais qui parlent aussi français, mais dont le français n’est pas la première langue.
Pourquoi autant de francophones : Carrefour a 3 gros magasins, il y a plusieurs compagnies de construction françaises, il ya aussi Schlumberger, une compagnie pétrolière… il y a une école internationale française assez importante. Dans le quartier, la plupart des femmes restent à la maison la journée et socialisent entre elles. Heureusement, mes nouvelles copines francophones m’acceptent malgré mon statut de femme qui travaille !
Un des avantages d’avoir des francophones dans le quartier c’est que les enfants parlent beaucoup plus français au quotidien. J’adore voir Emma jouer avec Agathe qui a 2 ans et demi. Elle est très attentionnée et super gentille avec elle, une véritable petite maman ! Pour les mamans, c’est chouette de parler français et d’échanger des idées, magazines et livres. Puis, on s’est déjà fait quelques petits soupers très sympas entre francophones…. Ca me rappelle mon groupe de copines francophones à Bâton Rouge. Eugénie nous avait invite pour un diner anniversaire pour son mari Laurent : comme il est chef, il avait préparé du pate de fois gras ainsi qu’un poisson cuit sous croute de sel. Un vrai petit repas gastronomique dans le quartier ! On est également invite la semaine prochaine chez Vinciane et Pierre Emmanuel, le couple belge. Il est le consul à l’ambassade de Belgique et Vinciane travaille à l’ambassade des Pays-Bas. Un des avantages de leurs boulots est qu’ils ont la valise diplomatique et on accès a toutes sortes de choses interdites ici…je ne les nomme pas mais une est un animal avec une petite queue en tirebouchon et l’autre est une boisson juste pour adultes ! On se demande déjà ce que ce diner nous reserve comme surprise !
Donc, on ne s’embête pas trop dans notre nouveau petit monde. J’ai même l’impression que Worth et moi avons plus de « sorties » qu’en Louisiane… toute occasion qui nous permet de sortir du quotidien est la bienvenue ! Avec l’absence de cinéma, bars, discothèques, salles de théâtre dans le Royaume, il fait bien trouver d’autres façons de s’amuser ! Allez, faudra que je raconte ca une fois prochaine !
Masalama ! Au revoir !
Apres avoir vécu en Louisiane pendant presque 15 ans, on penserait que mon français n’est pas aussi terrible…mais j’ai un manque de pratique flagrant! Il fallait que je déménage de l’autre bout du monde pour le reparler régulièrement… Comment est-ce donc possible d’avoir une telle présence francophone en Arabie Saoudite?
Commençons à l’école. Nous sommes 3 profs de français; Claude est un français de 40 ans, Zoulaikha est une algérienne dans la quarantaine et moi, la petite Belge et la cadette! Donc, chaque fois qu’on se voit on parle français et ca fait du bien. Je ne me rendais pas compte a quel point ca me manquait d’avoir des conversations intelligentes avec des adultes. En classe je parle aussi le français, autant que possible et suis agréablement surprise au niveau de certaines de mes élèves. La plupart ont des profs particuliers qui leur donnent cours plusieurs fois par semaine. Avec une telle intensité, il est normal que leur français soit assez bon! Et puis, elles ont une motivation: aller faire les magasins a paris, lors de leurs séjours a la maison de l’Avenue Foch…non, je ne blague pas…Nombreux parents ont une résidence a Paris, et/ou a Londres, et/ou a New York…Enfin tout ce français fait du bien !
Dans le compound, il y a également plusieurs francophones. J’ai déjà mentionne Eugénie, une jeune française, mari également français et dont la petite fille Agathe – 2 ans- commence à maitriser le français et l’anglais car elle est en crèche a l’américaine ! Il y a aussi Lea et Lina, deux gamines françaises dont le père est français d’origine vietnamienne et la maman est marocaine. Faut aussi que je mentionne Vinciane, une belge du Tournaisis et son mari Pierre Emmanuel, aussi belge. Ils viennent d’agrandir leur famille avec la petite Eléonore, née début décembre. Une nouvelle famille de français vient d’arriver il y a moins d’un mois... La petite Reem et sa famille habite aussi dans le quartier, ainsi que Faong et sa famille… Comme quoi il y a pas mal de francophones, certains dont je connais le nom et d’autres dont je connais juste le nom des enfants avec lesquels Emma et Alex jouent. Il y a également quelques libanais qui parlent aussi français, mais dont le français n’est pas la première langue.
Pourquoi autant de francophones : Carrefour a 3 gros magasins, il y a plusieurs compagnies de construction françaises, il ya aussi Schlumberger, une compagnie pétrolière… il y a une école internationale française assez importante. Dans le quartier, la plupart des femmes restent à la maison la journée et socialisent entre elles. Heureusement, mes nouvelles copines francophones m’acceptent malgré mon statut de femme qui travaille !
Un des avantages d’avoir des francophones dans le quartier c’est que les enfants parlent beaucoup plus français au quotidien. J’adore voir Emma jouer avec Agathe qui a 2 ans et demi. Elle est très attentionnée et super gentille avec elle, une véritable petite maman ! Pour les mamans, c’est chouette de parler français et d’échanger des idées, magazines et livres. Puis, on s’est déjà fait quelques petits soupers très sympas entre francophones…. Ca me rappelle mon groupe de copines francophones à Bâton Rouge. Eugénie nous avait invite pour un diner anniversaire pour son mari Laurent : comme il est chef, il avait préparé du pate de fois gras ainsi qu’un poisson cuit sous croute de sel. Un vrai petit repas gastronomique dans le quartier ! On est également invite la semaine prochaine chez Vinciane et Pierre Emmanuel, le couple belge. Il est le consul à l’ambassade de Belgique et Vinciane travaille à l’ambassade des Pays-Bas. Un des avantages de leurs boulots est qu’ils ont la valise diplomatique et on accès a toutes sortes de choses interdites ici…je ne les nomme pas mais une est un animal avec une petite queue en tirebouchon et l’autre est une boisson juste pour adultes ! On se demande déjà ce que ce diner nous reserve comme surprise !
Donc, on ne s’embête pas trop dans notre nouveau petit monde. J’ai même l’impression que Worth et moi avons plus de « sorties » qu’en Louisiane… toute occasion qui nous permet de sortir du quotidien est la bienvenue ! Avec l’absence de cinéma, bars, discothèques, salles de théâtre dans le Royaume, il fait bien trouver d’autres façons de s’amuser ! Allez, faudra que je raconte ca une fois prochaine !
Masalama ! Au revoir !
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