Let's Learn Arabic Numerals!

Well, I've been in Saudi for almost two weeks now, so I suppose I might as well learn the numbers. But this shouldn't be too difficult, because I know that single digit numerals came from Arabia, and eventually replaced the more cumbersome Roman numerals. Surely Arabic numerals must only have superficial differences to the ones we're used to.

Okay, let's start with zero. This doesn't look too bad. It's kind of similar to a zero. Instead of a circle, it's a diamond. There are no appendages coming off of it, so yeah, this should be easy to remember.  It looks like Arabic numerals have their own names too...interesting. Looks like this little guy is called sifr.

One down, nine to go! Or is it zero down, two to go? Heh? See what I did there...*ahem*. Right, moving on. Next is waahid. Not really sure why they insist on having two syllable names for single digits. Whatever. It looks more or less like a one. So that's good. Moving on.

The Arabic numeral for two..well this just looks like a backwards seven. This looks nothing like a two. Heh. And it's name is eeyth-nayn. Eeth-nayn. That's going to make me think of nine. It's like a toothless person saying "it's nine". Dang, this may be harder than I though. Eeeth-nayn...what the f....

Aaaand the numeral for three is thalaatha. Really. You're going to give the number three a three syllable name? Hey, I've got an idea, let's do this for all the numbers. Let's give the Arabic word for one hundred one hundred syllables. Won't that be neat? Man. Talaatha...it sounds like a person's name-a really annoying person. Oh well, there is at least a three shape in it.

Am I seeing this right? Is the numeral for four really a backwards three? Is someone *#@#ing with me? Is this legit? Says here it's called araba'a. Sure. Whatever.

Aaannd it looks like five, or "khamsa" is a %$&@ing zero. Yeah, right, no problem. I can learn this, I'll just give up my social life for the next two weeks. %@&#.

Are you &#*@#&$ me? The numeral for six is a seven. Sitta. It even sounds like seven! What the @!$# is going on here? Who the *#$% came up with this @!#&? It's like some @&#*^#^ sat down, and thought to himself, "how can I make a set of numerals that will totally *#$% with someone who is used to the other kind?" You know what? I'm not giving him the pleasure. MOVING ON.

The Arabic numeral for seven, Sab'a, looks just like the Roman numeral for five. Big *#$%##@ surprise. NEXT.

Thamaaneeya is the numeral for eight. That's the same amount of syllables as my full name. @%#$ you, thamaaneya.

Oh, I can just tell this is going to be great. Nine is going to be the piece de resistance. Dare I even look? *takes a big breath* Tisa...and it looks like a nine. Heh, look at that.

Now we both know the Arabic numerals, and all it cost us was our sanity. Thanks for joining me and  stay tuned for THE ARABIC ALPHABET.

How Does One Have Fun In Rabigh?

Imagine, if you will, that you are in a small town, inside of a giant desert, in a country that is theocratic and ultra-conservative. Now imagine that there are no movie theaters, no bars, and all women everywhere are covered in black robes from head to toe. Now imagine that you do not have a vehicle, and you're living in a hotel, and hour's walk from the city's downtown area. And now, the question: what does one do for fun, in this grim situation?

Well, first, of all, you make friends with whomever you can. It doesn't matter their age, ethnicity, religion, or even relative English ability. You just talk to everyone, and be as friendly as possible. Then you go out with your new found Spanish friends and smoke shisha like a boss.

Okay, Rabigh doesn't have a whole lot going for it, but there are some benefits. First, it's close to the Red Sea. You can drive there in ten or fifteen minutes. And if you don't have a car, you can just call up your Indian friend that works at the the drive through cafe, and he will act as your personal chauffeur, driving you and your friend to the beach, hang out for an hour and driving you back for only 25 SAR (about $7.50). I wouldn't want to go to the beach during the day, but at night, it's nice and cool. It's a great place to bring some food, and whatnot, and relax with friends. Or, if you're in the mood, for exercise, there are long sidewalks so that you can walk for as long as you care to.

There is no booze, in KSA, but the food makes up for it. Arabian food is delicious, and even at the cheap restaurants, it's fresh, and of high quality. I've had the best fish of my life here a couple days ago, in a dirty little restaurant ran by Indians. It cost around $6. There is a juice restaurant that also serves doners and fried chicken. There are about 30 flavors of juice. It's all made fresh, and it costs about $2 for a mug. I'm not sure that the chicken there is the best I've ever tasted, but it's in the running. $16 for a whole fried chicken and fries. That's a meal for 4. I'm going to go check out a Turkish kebab place in a couple minutes, and I'm sure it's going to be amazing. I'll be surprised if dinner costs more than $6. Even the cafeteria food here is good. No, really, it's pretty great!

Unfortunately, there is only one gym in Rabigh, and nothing in the way of martial arts, yoga, or anything of the like. But there is good scuba diving here. Granted, I have never done scuba diving, but I can work towards getting a license while going out on dives. I'm pretty sure I'll have time!

For now, I'm stuck in a hotel, but I don't plan to be by the end of the week. You can make a lot of money in KSA, and the cost of living is cheap. As in you can rent an apartment for $325 per month here that would cost at least $700 back in Vancouver. That means you have plenty of cash for a nice TV, and audio system, and whatever else you want to put into your apartment. Electronics cost about the same in Bangkok as they do in London. But since there is not tax on electronics, they are cheapest in Saudi. You can deck out a place for relatively cheap, and then, who cares if you never leave your apartment. For someone like me, who loves to read, write, draw, play video games and mediate, having time to myself in my own space, isn't a burden it's a blessing.

In a few month, perhaps I'll even pick up a used car. Why not, when I can pick up something decent for a month's wages. Saudi's aren't particularly keen on buying used cars. In fact, I've heard stories of people parking their old cars after buying a new one, and just leaving it there, like an empty soda can. So yeah--you can get something decent used for cheap--although you might have to buy directly from the seller; I understand it's hard to find a used car dealership here! God knows there are no lack of roads to drive here!

Working in Saudi Arabia: Is It Worth It?

Working in KSA requires that you make certain sacrifices. It's next to impossible to meet women, doing drugs could get you killed, and you can forget about your rock and roll. What's more, you have to live in a desert, and there is nothing in the way of movie theaters, pool halls, bowling alleys, casinos, or pretty much anything else that is fun. And yet I've been in Rabigh less than a week, and I've met, Germans, Spaniards, Koreans, Japanese, Americans, Brits, Indians, Filipinos, Bangladeshis, all here for work. Why do they come despite the drawbacks? It's the money, baby. In KSA you get paid well...unless you are an unskilled worker from Bangladesh then it's still about the money, but much less of it.

I don't know about other occupations, but teaching ESL here is a much different experience than teaching elsewhere. It's total chaos at work. Here is a list of things that I had to figure out for myself, or am in the process of figuring out: What to teach, when to teach it and how; where my office space is; where to find a desk for my classroom; how to use the courseware; where to find the courseware; where to find a class list; where and how to register attendance; how to use the classroom hardware; where to get a lesson plan; how to fill out a lesson plan to meet the administration's expectations; how to find an apartment; how to get a driver's license and how to recharge my phone...I'm sure there will be others in the days to come. So, why tolerate all of this? Just repeat the mantra: it's all about the Riyals. It's all about the riyals, It's all about the riyals.

Saudi Arabia has the world's largest proven oil reserves, and unlike the reserves in Canada (the world's second largest), it's in the traditional form (instead of a sickening plasma of sand and crude).  And since we've hit peak oil, the price of oil is only going to go up. KSA produces some ten million barrels of oil per day. Yes, ten million, every single day. Gasoline here is cheaper than water and oil accounts for 40% of Saudi's GDP. Guess how they produce energy here. I'll give you a hint--it's not hydro-power. Saudis actually burn oil to power the grid. I'm sure there are coal plants, but they also burn oil on an industrial scale. The big oil dollar coupled with the Saudi's relatively low population means that there is money here to burn.

It's hard to imagine Arabia as verdant and bustling with animal life, but all that oil shows that it must have been at some point. I wonder when the grass started turning to sand...

Anyway, I'm making good money here. All things considered, I'm earning about twice what I did in Korea. Before coming here, I thought that the cost of living might be comparable that of Vancouver. Boy was I wrong. It's pretty much on par with Korea. Granted, I'm living in a rural area, but I can go out for a big meal for the equivalent of seven dollars. Many of the teachers are paying the equivalent of between six and seven hundred dollars per month for accommodation, but if one is willing to split a bigger place, I understand it can be as cheap as three hundred dollars. Added bonus: I can eat breakfast and lunch for free on campus. Oh yeah, and here's the best thing: because of vacation time lining up with national holidays, we're getting two months off in the summer...and it's paid.

First Impressions

Saudi Arabia is a big, hot, sandy country. You don't quite appreciate how large it is, until you're driving on the highway between urban areas. There is very little humidity, either, so there isn't much blocking your view. You can stare out at the desert that stretches out hundreds of kilometers out to the horizon. Sometimes the desert is broken in the far off distance be mountain ranges. Sometimes it is not. I was lucky enough to arrive here in the cool season. In the day time, I would not like to be wondering around without shade. Luckily, Saudis seem to feel the same way, and at our campus there are canapes over most of the walkways. There is a perpetual breeze coming off the ocean, which makes the daytime hours tolerable and the evening pleasantly cool. Indoors, it's always cool because there is air conditioning pretty much everywhere.

On the car ride from the airport, I was titillated to see camels grazing near the side of the road. The roads here, as you might imagine are long and straight. Surprisingly, for some reason the turns are not always gradual. In the big cities, there are cameras that will register your license plate number and automatically issue you a ticket if you are driving more than twenty kilometers over the speed limit, but in between metropolitan areas and in smaller cities, like Rabigh, that's not always the case. From the airport to Rabigh my driver was going about 140 km/h most of the the way, and occasionally a vehicle would fly past at mach 10.

There are no women at the school where I teach, but even elsewhere there are far fewer women out and about than men. And yes woman everywhere must wear black robes that cover them from head to toe (abayas), but around these parts, you occasionally see women without a veil. It's a part of the culture that really bothers me. It seems to me that women are treated more like commodities than individuals. Before coming here, I knew that drinking, and drugs were illegal. I knew that there were no cinemas. I knew women had to wear the abaya, and weren't allowed to drive vehicles, but I didn't know that dating wasn't allowed. Marriage must be sanctioned by the woman's family here. I realize that the abaya and arranged marriages are no big problem for many of the women here, but it's a big challenge for my western sensibilities.

Drug trafficking here is a big no-no. On my entry card, it was written in bold, red ink, "Death for Drug Trafficker". Although I obviously didn't have any drugs with me, it was scary to read that. It's nearly incomprehensible to me that someone can be sentenced to death for selling pot, coming from a place where it's nominally legal. Still, I've heard rumors that some of the students like to partake. I could not justify taking that kind of risk. It's just not worth it! There is a long list of capital offenses in Saudi, and foreigners are not exempt. While I have no intention of engaging in any of those illicit activities, the mere knowledge that there are so many thing for which a person could be sentenced to death here is going to take some getting used to.

As for my school, the facility is nice enough. The campus is quite small, and the buildings seem a little old, but well constructed. The staff is pretty good. My colleagues all seem friendly enough, if not a little quirky. Surprisingly to me, perhaps half (maybe more) of the English teachers at my school, though not Saudis nationals, are Muslim. Which is totally fine. They are good people, and they don't treat me with any disrespect for being a non-Muslim. Many of the students have poor study skills, and it is common for them to be playing with their phones in class, or sleeping. These challenges are counterbalanced by the good nature and friendliness exhibited by the majority. Saudi students like to have fun. It's going to be a challenge teaching English here, but I expect I'll be having a good laugh for every moment I want to tear my hair out.

Airplane Woes

The person who booked my flight wasn't paying much attention to what he was doing, because the second flight schedule he suggested involved three transfers and 36 hours of travel time. Not wanting to delay the process even longer, I decided not to argue with him (this was an e-mail correspondence), as asking him to choose a better flight schedule had already kept me in Vancouver an additional 4 days. Yes, I resisted, even though after taking three minutes to run a search on Kayak had provided me with a shorter journey, on better airlines with fewer transfers at a lower cost. If someone reading this finds themselves in the same position, I urge them to look up an itinerary on their own and send it to person responsible for booking the flight.

A note about extra baggage fees:

I had to pay excess baggage fees twice. The first time was with West Jet. I was told that I had to pay for my second bag, and that it would cost me $20. Then, after they weighed my first bag, they told me it was overweight, and that I would have to pay an additional $50. She then informed me that I would have to check my bags in again in Toronto, which meant I would have to pay the fees all over again.  I shot the clerk a look of incredulousness and, she just stared back blankly, as if complacently watching her favorite TV show (Telebubbies). Stupidly, I assumed that she would have told me if there was an easy way to avoid paying so much. Because of my misplaced faith in her, and the fact that I had only gotten three hours of sleep, it didn't realize until after passing security that  if your first bag is 60 lbs. and your additional bag is 40 lbs., you still pay the $50 in overweight fees; but if you get down on the ground, and awkwardly dig around in bags moving your shit from one bag to the other, thus equalizing the weight of both bags so that they both weigh 50 lbs., you only have to pay the $20 dollars for the additional bag. I wonder if they are trained not to tell people about this loophole. Either way, the policy means one of four things: the administration and Westjet are trying con you, the administration and Westjet are idiots, The kiosk workers are trying to con you, or the kiosk workers are idiots. Luckily, I was able to save the $50 the next time I checked my baggage, and didn't have to pay additional baggage fees after that.

The flight was for the most part uneventful. The planes were mostly shitty--the seats were terribly cramped, even for the transatlantic plane ride. The food wasn't good either. In general, quality of airplane flights seems to have gone down in the last few years--these days it's all about cramming as many people into the plane as possible.

Just and random observation but, no place outside of an airplane is social stratification so apparent. Global society is essentially composed of three classes: those who fly in coach, those who play three times as much for adequate personal space and leg room, and those who cannot afford to fly. It's the curtains between coach and first class that really drive this point home for me. It's one thing to give them better food, and space enough to stretch out and get a proper rest...and that's fine the airline is a business, blah, blah, blah. But I can't help but find it just a little bit insulting that they put up a curtain, between first class and coach. I always hear about people being moved up to first class, but I've only ever seen it once. Anyway, don't fly Etihad across the Atlantic, unless you're ready to shell out for first class--especially it you're over six foot.

Right, so I finally arrived in Jeddah after 36 hours. Granted, it was five in the morning, and there were a few hundred of us stepping off the plane (most of whom where Muslims going on umraa) but it took me four hours to get past immigration. Yeah, you read right. Four hours as in 240 minutes, as is 14400 seconds, as in long enough for me to go from excited, to worried, to baffled, to furious, to delirious. I won't dive into the details of WHY it took so long to get through passport control, but let's just say it was a comedy of errors, and a direct result of incompetence and heedlessness on the part of the airport staff. I did meet a friendly Indonesian lad that told me all about algae though...so that was good.

I was worried that once I finally got through passport control, that I would find that my bags weren't there, and that my driver had long since disappeared. Indeed, I couldn't find my bags. I talked to three different people and filled out a lost luggage form, then headed out of the baggage area. Just as I was stepping out the door, someone yelled out to me that they had found my bags. I couldn't find my driver initially either, but eventually discovered that he was there, too. So, at least the whole thing ended well.

More soon...

Leading up to Now

A little over a year ago, I came back to Canada from my second year in Korea. Worried about the wrinkles forming on my forehead, I was resolute about staying in Vancouver, and settling into a career in first aid. I thought that teaching ESL was fine and well, but I didn’t want to do it for the rest of my life, so I damn well better settle on something soon. Well, here I am back at it again, this time I’ll be teaching in  Rabigh, Saudia Arabia: a  planned city on the Red Sea between Mecca, where The Prophet Mohammad was born, and Medina, where the followers of Islam galvanised into a unified community.

I was sure that by this time I would be ferrying the sick and infirm to the hospital, instead of waiting for an eight o’ clock flight to Abu Dhabi at Pearson Airport in Toronto. In December of 2012, I had planned to live with my parents long enough to buy a car and take the requisite training to get started as an ambulance paramedic. Instead, I ended up renting a room in my old neighbourhood in the Mt. Pleasant area of East Vancouver. Still, I planned to do the paramedic thing, but I wanted to get full time work before doing the course. Several months into 2013, I was still only working part-time as an ESL tutor, trying to patch enough casual gigs together to synthesize a full-time job. Most notably, I was doing tutoring sessions for a start-up called English Adventure Program. The owner of which was an accountant, who decided to try his hand at running an ESL school. Unfortunately, what that ultimately amounted to was connecting students to tutors with sessions at the public library.

I wasn’t working much, but I was having fun, reacquainting with old friends, doing yoga three or four times per week, and studying things that interested me in my down time…I’m not going to lie—there was a fair amount of video-game playing as well. The house I was staying at had a large back yard, so I decided to try my hand at gardening, too. This venture began with me buying a machete and hacking through the four-hundred square feet of blackberry bush that had took over the yard. Although I was more or less content with my lifestyle at the time, I was spending more money than I was earning, so by the time summer rolled around, I took advantage of my uncle’s offer to get me work doing manual labour at a mine site in northern BC. I thought I would do that for a couple months, replenish my savings and then do the paramedic thing. But for some reason when I got laid off after two turnarounds, my immediate reaction was to apply to ESL schools and I landed a job in a couple of days.

It turned out to be a lot of fun, but it was only a summer gig, and so only lasted a couple of months. When it did finish, I found myself applying for teaching jobs in Saudi Arabia. I realized I could make good money there, and could get my foot in the door now that I had enough experience. It suddenly seemed foolish to invest a bunch of money into getting set up as a paramedic, just to start at square one. It was sometime in October when I had this revelation, and I decided since I had a nice living space, money in the bank, an awesome girlfriend who had no obligations for November, I should forgo working for the time being, and just enjoy myself.  I would then ship off early in December. It took a little bit longer than I expected, but here I am at Pearson Airport waiting for the 8:15 to Abu Dhabi.  

                

 I really have no idea what to expect. I didn’t do a whole lot of research, either. I like to go into these kinds of situations with very little fore-knowledge because it adds to the sense of adventure. For a while you can look at life with fresh eyes—and that really helps you to live in the moment. I know that I’m going to a county that is far more conservative than the one I’m used to. I’m well aware of the sacrifices I’ll be making. There will be a lot of things I won’t be able to do in KSA. But part of the trade-off is that from KSA, it’s a short flight to anywhere in Africa, Europe and India; and I’ll be earning enough money to make the most of my vacation time, even while putting some money away. 

(Written 16 Jan).