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18 September 2000: The Center of Arabia It's been just over a week since I last created a webpage regarding my experiences here in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, so I thought it was time to produce yet another little installment in the Day in the Life of Daniel Schereck! As I sit here munching down on a yummy cinnamon granola bar, I ponder where exactly I should commence with this page. Since I spent the whole day at work in a language lab talking about the present progressive of verbs and adverbial clauses, I must admit that I find myself with a sudden lack of catchy adjectives to begin this new page with, despite the ritzy color scheme and layout of the whole thing! Which, I might add, took me HOURS to create!!! :-) I suppose I should start with the triangular towering monster to the right, since it seems to be the most prominent image on the page: it's the Al-Faisaliya Tower which is part of a larger development complex of malls, hotels and commercial structures. The tower, which will open in a few months, will house offices, a hotel and a revolving restaurant/observatory deck shaped as a giant golden glass ball. The Al-Faisaliya Tower is currently the only (near-) completed high-rise in all of Riyadh and is therefore the major landmark seen as you drive into town. And if you want my opinion, I think it's quite cool. As a matter of fact, the Gulf is promoting itself these days as a region of cutting edge contemporary architecture, especially in the small nation of the United Arab Emirates to the east of Saudi. The Al-Faisaliya Tower is about 40 stories tall, but will soon be surpassed by yet another high-rise under construction which will be a tall, tapered-edge rectangular (sharp ovular?) sea-blue glass skyscraper with a large "U" taken out of the top of the building, leaving two sharply rising pillars on both sides of the building connected at the top by a suspended steel observatory deck. At something like 55 stories tall, it will be quite a bit higher than Al-Faisaliya. (It's my understanding that this building boom is largely funded by the Kingdom's princess who are using their vast wealth to exhibit their prominence in the great scheme of things here. . . (no different than what has occurred in virtually every other city around the world during the 20th Century . . . ) . But to tell you the truth, I'm quite happy Al-Faisaliya has been built since the mall open at its base has EVERY cool clothing store found in the United States and Europe. Oddly enough, there's even a small J.C. Penny's "boutique" in this ritzy mall . . . which thrills me beyond belief, because believe it or not, J.C. Penny's sells the best undershirts around. 'Tis odd, but true. . . |
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A little background information: do you remember how I basically performed a massive across the board personality assassination of half of my co-workers in my first email? Well, as it turns out, I actually work with a couple cool guys and one of them, Jeff, has befriended me over the past week and a half and we have gone out and done a lot together these last few days. Unlike most of the middle aged ex-military male poops who live on this compound, Jeff, (American, mid-30s), is actually glad to be living in Saudi Arabia and enjoys going out every weekend, i.e. Wednesday and Thursday nights, and actually being a part of this city. And I think that's great, especially since I have found that most of the people here are "here only for the money" and have no interest in getting to know and appreciate the local culture. A shame, considering that this place seems to be so fascinating. Too bad for them. So anyways, on Wednesday night of the 6th - the night after the first time I went out - Jeff, Don (you remember him from my first email?) and I all hopped in our beat up old Vinnell English Department 1990 GM Suburban jalopy and headed off into the big city! Since Jeff lived in Riyadh for two years prior to landing his job at Vinnell 9 months ago, he knows all the ins and outs of the city and has been the single most important factor in me being able to see so much of the city over the last week! And since he's not afraid to drive on the anarchical highway system and surface streets here, I have been quite lucky to not have to drive myself, which I suppose I couldn't yet do on my own anyways since I don't yet have my Saudi driver's license.
On this particular occasion, I didn't actually walk up to the camels, but rather stayed near the vehicle and shot this picture from afar. The reasoning was two-fold: firstly, I didn't have any money on me and I didn't want to walk up and start taking pictures of the guy's camels without actually buying anything from him, and secondly, I wanted to avoid being labeled a fool as Donald most likely was after waddling up to the camels and screaming "As-salaam alaykum!" (May peace be upon you!) to the man and his animals. Now, there's nothing wrong with uttering niceties to the natives, however, inevitably the Saudi or non-Saudi always retorts, in Arabic, "Ah! You speak Arabic!" and then Donald says, in English, "Uh&ldots; what? I don't speak Arabic. Could you please speak English?!" |
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And the people just shake their heads and are like, "Uh. . . ok. . . buh-bye!!!" As a matter of fact, Donald has a hard time controlling his mouth and basically his neuro-speech-activator goes directly from his brain and connects straight to his mouth, completely bypassing that little part of the brain which is supposed to FILTER out all the dumb shit that might potentially come out. (Sorry Grandma for using that word, but it's the only one that truly fits here!) So everywhere we go with Donald, there's bound to be some sort of international incident or scene and I prefer to keep a few paces ahead or behind. You all really need to meet this guy. . . So anyways, I snapped my camel picture and resolved to return someday flush with money, Arabic speaking ability, and a desire to get a close-up picture of me and one of these camels in exchange for a little purchase of camel milk. On our way into town: Just to the south-west of the Vinnell compound, about a mile away, is the King Fahad Stadium, as shown above. As with most everything else in Riyadh, it is quite new and nicely designed. Since being here I haven't seen any games or sports matches taking place in it, but once the sun goes down, the dirt parking lots become Party Central for the Riyadh locals who drive out to the stadium in their big ol' Caddys, Buicks, Mercedes, Landcruisers and Lexuses and set up mini-camps with all their families and friends. These make-shift evening pow-wows can be found from 1 to 1000 feet away from the road way and consist of a rickety old tarp, some wooden legs to prop it up on, a blanket, and a bunch of food for everyone to snack on. From what I understand, it's a throw back to a generation or two ago when nearly all families in the Kingdom lived out in the desert and sat out under the stars together on a nightly basis as they migrated around the country following their camels. Oh yeah - the piles of dirt you see at the base of the picture above are actually mounds of dirt and concrete which have been dumped, one by one side by side, all around the northwestern sector of the outskirts of Riyadh. I really can't imagine where it all came from, but there it is. Since we drive by it every morning on our way to work, I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to contemplate its origin. (Sidenote: I don't quite think that the whole environmental-awareness/protect-our-natural-lands movement has quite hit Saudi Arabia yet. . .)
So down the highway we drove, past the turn off for the King Fahd Stadium (upper right), and we were on our way for the 25 minute trip into downtown! |
ANYHOO.
. . J.C. Penny's isn't the main focus of this webpage, so let's move
on to something a little more exciting! Specifically, that I went
into Riyadh several times over the past week and have managed to see
quite a bit of the Saudi Capital since I last wrote.
Our
first stop outside of the compound as we headed into town was a
small little plot of desert land right around the corner from where
we live occupied by a series of camel owners, who sell camel milk and
a few other goods to the local community. If you look close enough in
the picture, you will see a man relaxing along side the roadway - a
rather common activity here among the Saudis. During the day they
hang out with their camels and at night they hang out in the same
place with their wives and children. But more on that later.
