A Girl's Guide To Saudi Arabia

This is it! Last day of school for the students...actually they didn’t even have school and reports were distributed this afternoon. I survived my first year in the Kindgom, with some ups and downs... and how fitting that TODAY Vanity Fair publishes a teaser for an article in their August issue about “A Girl’s Guide To Saudi Arabia”.  Link the Vanity Fair Article
Now, as a girl who now can say has lived in Saudi Arabia, I’m starting to know how to function in this society and the article is AGAIN talking about all the stereotypes of women in Saudi. Before moving here, I had heard and read it all...had to cover, could not travel alone, without a male guardian, could not do anything independently. Living here opened my eyes and ears and showed me that, although Saudi is still a very religiously controlled country, visiting women are treated with decency and are not required to cover completely...
Maybe I’m overreacting, but I even left this comment for the article: “ I'm writing this from Riyahd. As a western women currently living in Saudi Arabia I do not like this teaser article. It again perpetuates the stereotypes of being a woman in the Kingdom. Before moving here, I had the same idea as the author, but after 10 months here, there are more sides to the story than these quite sensationalized and exaggerated points of beign a women. I will buy the magazine when it comes out and will read it, hoping that the author went beyond what is believed life to be like in Saudi.”


Let this be heard and make sure to get a copy of the full article at publication!  That probably will be another blog!

Elections

Aujourd’hui j’ai exerce mon droit de vote en tant que citoyenne belge, vu que ma pauvre petite Belgique se trouve à nouveau dans une crise gouvernementale (et si on en croit certains medias au bord de la scission de la Flandre et de la Wallonie.) En tant que résidente belge a Riyad, inscrite à l’ambassade, j’ai eu le droit de m’inscrire pour les élections au sénat et a la chambre. Il y a quelques semaines, j’avais rempli mon formulaire pour les élections, la semaine passée, le consul est passe délivré ma convocation en main propre, donc j’étais prête pour les élections. Ce vendredi matin, l’équivalent du repos dominical partout dans le monde, je me suis rendue a l’ambassade. De la centaine de Belges inscrits, seulement 25 avaient décide de voter en personne, les autres ayant opte pour le vote par proxy. Le bureau de vote avait des assesseurs ainsi qu’un chef de bureau (tous personnel de l’ambassade). J’ai reçu mes deux bulletins de vote, me suis rendue dans un bureau servant d’isoloir et ai enfin contribue au bon déroulement de la démocratie belge !

End Of Year/Graduation

At the end of the school year, it is pretty usual for a school to host a graduation ceremony for their exiting seniors. Well, the school did just that and I truly want to say it rivaled any American Idol or Dancing with the Star production. The venue was the KFCC, not Kentucky Fried Chicken Center, although the kids started refereeing to it as such, but officially the King Fahad Cultural Center, a huge venue with a seating capacity of 3000.


The EYE, as we all came to know the End of Year Event, was held on two separate nights, one for the 4 graduating boys and one for the 18 graduating girls. This wouldn’t be Saudi if the event had not been segregated: on the boys’ night, the mothers viewed the ceremony from the upstairs balcony while the fathers were on the floor. The girls’ night was 100 % girls only. No father/brother/boys over puberty allowed! Both EYEs started officially at 8:30 PM, with an actual start time of 9:15PM.

All the K-3 students were involved on both nights, with each grade having prepared a song, dance or play. Everything was prerecorded so there was no room for mess up on the actual nights. The shows had been choreographed by a team of Lebanese professionals hired especially for the occasion and flown in for 3 weeks from Lebanon. Their specialty: they work on show like Star Academy or American Idol. The production was awesome: all the children wore custom made costumes, makeup artists and hairdressers were available for final touch ups, the soundtrack had been prerecorded and the lights were professionally orchestrated. Of course, all this came with a rehearsal schedule for all participants involved: some took place during class and the week before school was on a hiatus, to let us have rehearsal. Our two children were worn out of the rehearsals, some on the weekend and with the shows going till past 11:00 PM they were on their knees! Same could be said for the teachers!

This event was truly beautiful, with songs around the theme of giving back to the local and global community. Songs included Heal the World, We are the World, Oh Africa (World Cup Theme song) and several English and Arabic plays also about helping others. The audiovisual slideshow moved the acts smoothly and quickly. The kids were amazingly well prepared and acted like true professionals.

Graduation did happen after the songs and plays and was well done too. Fathers were subdued while mothers were hooting and hollering at their daughters/nieces/friends graduating. A very different atmosphere on both nights, much more respectful and traditional for the boys, with an insight into traditional Saudi Sword dance while the girls’ evening was joyful, a look at the future and full of energy and excitement!

I'm in Saudi Arabia, where are you?

 We were talking this afternoon, wondering where all the readers of the blog are reading it from...so, if you could, please comment below and tell me from which city you are reading this. 
I know of some of the readers but I suspect many others I don't know about are also reading and never commenting.  Something strange happened today as two separate people mentionned the blog and we had no clue they were reading it or even knew about it...

Masalama!

Hot

It’s hot, it’s damned hot, it’s so hot you could boil water for tea without heat…wait, the shop guy just delivered two new 15 liters water bottles and the water was steaming, literally! I stuck a thermometer in there. Verdict: 104 F..Hot enough for a good cup of tea.


Outside temperature is no better: the past few days, we’ve been having 115F during the day, last night at 11:00 PM it was 101F! The pool water is a hot tub already, the walk around the compound just makes you lose two liters of water! We are going through 15 liters bottles at an amazing speed, drinking a whole lot of H2O and not even bothering to drink ice water…room temp is so refreshing when you’re so hot!

Yep, summer’s here to stay until October at least…