Christmas in Saudi Arabia (or My Daily Routine)

Christmas in Saudi Arabia just another day. In fact, had I not been sent a Merry Christmas message from my parents, I just may have forgotten it completely. It's still hot and dry. There are still five prayers, and everyone is going to work. Except for me of, course--I'm still enjoying my extended holiday. Anyway, it's just a normal day, like any other, bearing no special significance here, whatsoever.

But how does one spend one's day, when he is stuck in Saudi Arabia, with nothing to do all day? Well, listen, one must make a schedule, if one hopes not to fall into the abyss of madness. So I wrote myself one on a page from a small notepad and fixed to my wall with duct tape, so I don't forget.

My schedule suggests that I wake up at ten AM. This, as it turns out was being optimistic. In reality, most days, like today, I'm up by the crack of noon, after enjoying a healthy ten hours of sleep. File under: finally I get to relive my teenage years, or now I know what it's like to be an Arabian.

Next comes tea time. I make my self a cup of green tea and slowly sip it, while sitting on my little couch. I don't do anything else during this time--no TV, or reading, or whatever. Just listening to my thoughts...which usually whisk me off to somewhere in the civilized world.

After tea time, I do my morning yoga routine. I contort my body into all sorts of weird positions, all the while wondering how in the hell I gained so much weight. I do both of these things for half and hour to forty-five minutes. And then usually make breakfast.

Breakfast usually consists of a gigantic salad made from whatever vegetables I bought the day before. I'm trying to repair some of the havok wreaked on my system from eating cafeteria food at the institute for a year. It's a slow process, but I think in time, I'll begin to feel like a human being again.

Then it's time for chores. I must finally be an adult--I've scheduled clean-up time for myself. This usually means cleaning up in the kitchen first. I have to do it, because no one else will. To be fair, I don't think anyone else ever goes into the kitchen, so I guess that's fair. Then I clean up my room and do laundry or whatever. I know. It's a thrilling life.

Next it's meditation time. I sit on a cushion for half an hour an focus on breathing. You would be amazed at the kinds of crap the mind starts spewing out when you're meditating. It's a fascinating phenomenon--it's like the mind doesn't want to be quiet, and if you ask it too, it throws a temper tantrum, making even more noise!

But by the time the thirty minutes are up, my mind is usually nice and clear for study time. I usually crack open my Learning Arabic textbook, and slog my way trough a couple of pages over the following forty five minutes to an hour, and maybe watch some incomprehensible Egyptian television.

Then it's off to the Arabian Palm hotel, where I am now. I've scheduled two hours for writing, but as it turns out, like my wake-up time, two hours was a bit ambitious. So, I just write until I get bored. That's what I'm doing now, by the way! I go to the Palm for two reasons: first to get out of the house, and second, because it has the best internet in Rabigh...so when I'm done writing I can download movies, or play online games.

At which point, I've entered the free time portion of my day, which extends to about nine o'clock, when I put in the headphones and walk for two hours, in a desperate attempt to lose some of the extra twenty pounds I've gained here before returning to Canada, and ultimately arriving in Japan.

The rest of the day, you can usually find me playing video games or having tea with my colleagues. I expect tonight we will be eating mindi in lieu of turkey dinner.

Merry Christmas from the Kingdom!

Soccer Sunday

Before coming to Saudi Arabia, I was a little bit put off by the prospect of not having access to alcohol for three months at a time. For me, drinking alcohol has long served as the de facto reason for getting people together. But, in Saudi you have to find reasons to get people to congregate. My favorite of these is soccer.

So, why soccer, and not some other sport? Soccer is the appropriate game for the environment. There are no ice rinks, so hockey is out. There are no baseball fields, so baseball is out. There are no football--well you get the idea. Even in a small city like Rabigh there are several soccer pitches. They have sufficient lighting, and they are cheap (one hundred riyals per hour). In the day time it's much to hot to play but in the evening, it is very pleasant indeed. It's cheap, it's fun, its a good way to stay in shape, and it's an excellent way to socialize in the absence of alcohol. 

I started playing soccer in Korea, when I was thirty. I'm thirty two now, and just about everybody on the field has significantly more experience than me. I try to make up for it in enthusiasm. Also, I'm bigger than most people on the field and I'm (for better or worse) not afraid of getting injured. Unfortunately, I seem to have a tendency to injure other people on the field, despite being careful not to foul.  But I'm always getting better, and I'm beginning to rely more on finesse and less on brute force. Playing soccer has been a great reminder for me that it's never too late to start something new.

At first the pitch was rented by school, for the benefit of the employees but some of the players had bad attitudes, so it became harder and harder to find enough people to come out and play. The the poor sports were the guys responsible for renting the pitch, so when people stopped showing up, they decided discontinue the whole exercise. But my colleague Ahmed, and I took this as an opportunity, and started renting the pitch ourselves. We bolstered the ranks with our Spanish friends, and soon our  disenfranchised co-workers began to come back. We've been playing twice per week ever since!    

Although there has been a fair bit of altercation on the pitch, playing soccer has been, and continues to be a very satisfying and worthwhile practice. It's reinforced friendships with colleagues, and created new ones with the Spanish guys, and whomever else decides to come out and play. Sometimes students from the institute come out, too, which is nice, because we get to interact with those guys without playing the authoritarian teacher role. It's nice to just play together on the field where everyone's role is equal...and you don't have to remind them to turn off their cellphones!