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.