Joshua是我去年在美國認識的美韓混血男生
不過他是在美國土生土長
昨天他E-mail給我
告訴我他最近在阿拉伯的所見所聞
文章有點長
且是英文
有興趣的看看吧!!
他mail前半段有他一部份在China還有回到Boston的生活
因為太長了
我就沒有放上來了

September 14, 2007

Sometimes in life, you can’t really expect what will happen next. My job landed me in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. I knew very little about this country and to be quite honest, I really didn’t care. The whole, “cultural experience” thing was no longer exciting to me. I had seen enough poverty and harsh conditions to last a lifetime. Now I was traveling to the heartland of Islam for an entirely different purpose; I wanted to make some serious money. As my plane arrived in Riyadh from London, I waited rather anxiously to see the little 8x11 piece of paper with my name on it and the driver from the hotel eager to take my bags and drive me to my hotel where I could relax. This is what the university had promised would happen to all new employees. As I burst through the gates after passing customs, I opened my tired yet anxious eyes to see the sign. I look and I looked. It wasn’t there. I felt like a fool but I went around the entrance again and found that it wasn’t there. Let me pause here and tell you how you know you are in Saudi Arabia; the thobes. Yes, the thobes. They are long white garments worn by the men covering their entire body. The women are covered in black and there was a feeling like I had just entered a different planet. There weren’t many smiles in the airport and the dark skin of the people together with the white and black coverings gave the air a very different feeling than I had been used to. Either way, as soon as many of the drivers realized that I didn’t have anyone to pick me up, they started to pester me. I found a number of someone at the university who could help but the man told me that he had just left and was now in Kazakhstan. After about 45 minuets of waiting and calls being made borrowing other people’s cell phones, I managed to get a clear picture of what had happened. The school was closed on Thursday and Friday and as a result, no one knew I was coming. In the Middle East, Thursday and Friday is like our Saturday and Sunday. I finally made it to the hotel and everything was billed to the college. I was also very hungry because on my flight, all the meals sounded less than delicious so I helped myself to some delicious hotel food which the school paid for. On the drive to the hotel, I couldn’t see much, but what I could see was lots of beautiful lights and what appeared to be Middle East style palm trees. I went to bed relieved that I had made it and at the same time, eager to see what my apartment would look like. In a foreign country, you know there are so many unknown factors. But your apartment, if it is nice, can be like a cave, where you find relaxation and rest. I would find out tomorrow.

September 15,

Saturday is like Monday in Saudi Arabia so everything was in full swing. The school picked me up and took me to my apartment in the morning. I was very surprised to see where I was living. I lived in the Diplomatic Quarter which was a huge area, maybe 4 kilometers, where all the embassies and many diplomats lived. My apartment was huge, with a very big living room, dining room, bed room, study room, 2 bathrooms and a western style kitchen. My building had only 4 units only 2 stories high but still there was an elevator. The apartment was dirty and the school told me that they would take me out to go shopping around 8:30pm. I spent the afternoon taking a walk around my new neighborhood. It was massive, and would take more than an hour to walk from one end to the other. As I walked around, I noticed that no one was outside. I mean, I could understand this at 3:30pm, but even at 5:30pm, no one was outside. There were, however, lots of cats and pigeons. The weather was interesting. At first, you feel like it is hot, which it is. The temperature at noon was over 40C or 100F, which is hot. But then, you feel like it is not that hot because you are not sweating and it is not hard to breathe. But then, you start to feel thirsty and notice that while you are not sweating on your face or arms, your lower back is like the polar ice caps melting all over you. Indeed, even when you feel like you are not sweating, actually, you are, it is just that it dries so fast that you don’t notice, unlike humid weather in which case we sweat and it doesn’t dry. The nights are still hot but much better and to be honest, even 45C or 110F feels better here than when it is humid and only 35C or 90F. I went with some other teachers on the school bus to go on the shopping trip. I bought a lot of things to set myself up and clean my house. I went to sleep because tomorrow I would go to the school. I was trying to process one thing at a time.



September 16, 2007.

I woke up early and got on the school bus that went to the school. The school was about 30 minuets from where I lived. The land was dry, even looked dry. The buildings all had a tan, like sand look which made everything feel even dryer, like if the wind blew strong enough everyone’s house would just blow away. Finally we got to the school and it was magnificent. I have never in my life seen a school as posh and beautiful as the school that I am now working for. The name is called Al Yamamah College and it is so nice. So clean, so beautiful. I met with the director and he informed me of what was going on. He showed me around the college and everything was beautiful, the classrooms, my office, the sports complex, even the bathrooms were clean, almost as clean as bathrooms in Japan which are the cleanest I have ever seen. I was impressed by the atmosphere of the college. The girl’s college took up a wing of the college but they were in the process of building their own building. Every classroom had projectors and central air conditioning. All the students wore white thobes which added to the clean feeling that the school building had established. I spent the remainder of the week observing classes. Our school is very special. We are not supposed to use books because in Saudi Education, the teacher is like a god. The teacher is never challenged and the students are only supposed to listen. As a result, their ability to think is not very developed. Our school goes the other extreme and basically focuses on having student centered learning with the knowledge coming from within the student.



October 8, 2007

I came to KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) to make money so I decided to work part time. Also, there was not much to do so I figured that work would be good for me. I got in contact with language schools all over the city. I also got very fortunate because I was approached by one of the students who wanted me to tutor him and his brother. I met his father and his father explained that I would be paid $80 for every 1 hour and 45 minuets of teaching which he wanted 5 times a week. I was happy and the family gave me a nice office where I could teach the boy. The boy was very good but I learned very quickly that he didn’t really like Asian people and every time he saw me, he told me that I look like a Chinese. I thought nothing of it at first, but the more I learned the culture, the more I could see that I had NOTHING in common with people in this part of the world.

Physically, there were some stark contrasts that I saw here that I had not seen before. Like a 19 year old boy with a full grown beard. The hair was something. Even when I played football (soccer) with the boys, I noticed how thick their body hair was. They told me that this was good and the only sign of a true man. Not surprisingly, I learned that the women are also very hairy, and many women and girls will regularly wax their body hair and eyebrows. I saw some good looking boys here, but generally I felt like everyone looks about 10 or 15 years older than they really are. In KSA, you don’t see a lot of Asians, except Philippines who work in restaurants and supermarkets. One time, while waiting at a restaurant, a Saudi man asked me if I worked there. I got mad and yelled at him. Over the course of the next 5 months, I learned that everyone from Asia who looked Asian or even a little bit Asian was assumed to be working in the service sector. What surprised me more was how the students in my class would talk so racist about Asian people and then turn around and admire white men and women. Because I was so far removed from Arab culture, it didn’t really bother me, but I did start to see why Asian people don’t come here. The people here are dark, really dark. Their features are also VERY heavy. It is like the exact opposite of Asia where everyone seems to have smaller eyes, noses, mouths, body hair and shapes. Here, it seemed that most people had huge eyes, thick eyebrows, dark skin, huge noses, and some of the boys and girls were really big. I could see how they couldn’t relate to me and I couldn’t relate to them. Even in the shops where they sold beauty magazines and had pictures of Saudi Women on the cover, I felt virtually no attraction. The women here probably didn’t think much of me either. I took a picture of some magazine covers for you to see.

There are several aspects of pros and cons that I would like to elucidate in my opinion about people in this part of the world.

Cons:

They drive like maniacs, worse even than China and accidents are everywhere. The reason for this is because they believe that whatever happens is predetermined. As a result, they don’t think very much and what looks to the Saudis as perfectly acceptable behavior looks to many other countries as just plain stupidity. I learned that families here are huge, sometimes over 10 children because more children mean more Muslims. The women also surprised me as I learned that many Saudi girls are so materialistic, and talk very loud. You would think with strong Islamic teaching and the submissiveness of women in this culture that this wouldn’t be so, but it is true, they are very materialistic and talk loud. I could see this at the malls and the supermarkets. I found that aside from some Western converts to Islam, very few foreigners were interested in Saudi people. Many of the teachers said great things about east Europe, Asia, even good things about South America, but most foreigners agreed that Saudi people had few good qualities. I would learn more about this as I stayed in the college. Many men, even boys, have the view that women are like concubines. They told me how they will go to Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Morocco, and Bahrain to sleep with girls and then demand his wife is a virgin. The girls here are basically property and the fathers here have so much power over their children. It is basically his “property.” I felt surprised by the constant thirst for nice things in Saudi, among boys and girls. Perhaps globalization is stronger even than the heartland of Islam. The funny thing is the Mutawa, or religious police. These guys are basically Muslim teachers who also have power from the police. In the malls they will yell at the girls to cover their face. They will stop you if your shorts are too short, so many things. I have been stopped by these guys so many times, and each time, I take out my id card and tell them I am a teacher and I have no problem. Had my nationality been Sudan, India, Egypt, or Bangladesh the result would be different. These countries are in a bad situation and crimes committed by people with this nationality can be punishable by death. The Saudis treat people from these nationalities like they are sub-human. There is no respect given to people from these nationalities. Basically, they work in the service sector. My client would order around his Indian coffee servant like it was his dog. Class and segregation seem to be alive and well here.

Saudi boys are so irresponsible and most are very simple minded. Knowing what I know now about Middle East boys, I wouldn’t recommend any girls to marry them. The way they see women, their view of divorce and basically their actions, make Western men much better for marriage. Men can divorce the women at will and it happens constantly with men getting new and younger wives all the time. The women just live with it. If a man is 40 and divorces, he can marry a young virgin. If a 40 year old woman is divorced by her husband, she will be alone for the rest of her life because no one wants a divorced woman. Saudi boys even age 28 will live with their mother and father. They rely heavily on their parents for money and housing. To me this is comical because many of my students are my age and still have about 3 or 4 years of university. At the same time, I cannot blame the boys for not maturing because they don’t interact with girls, they cannot. I have seen so many gays in Saudi, openly gay. Even my students have told me that they are “temporary homosexuals” until they find a girl or get married. The separation of sexes makes the people a bit strange. However, it also becomes a very gloomy world. Think about a world where you see buildings, cars, and men. Lots of men. Not children, men. The women are all covered, so you see men. The women keep the kids at home so you see men. All day, everyday. Young women and children are part of a healthy society. Seeing young people having fun is healthy. Here, you don’t see that, and it takes a toll on the people who have lived here their entire life. For Westerners teaching here, it is okay at first, but after 6 months, you realize that something is just not right. Very few teachers stay for the long haul. One female teacher from Australia who had been in Saudi for a very long time just divorced her husband because he beat her. Even the long termers get frustrated here. It is so different from Asia. I can see why men go to Asia. KSA attracts those who want to save $$. That is it I think. On the upside, some of the people here are very religious and devout and that I have to commend. They really do pray 5 times a day and refrain from things that Islam says is forbidden. Saudi respect for the teacher is also very commendable. I am called, Mr. Cozzens or teacher. Both sound great.



November 6, 2007

My schedule is not easy, but it is manageable. I make 10,781riyals from my school. Another 6,000 from my clients. Another 2,000 from a school that I work at 2 nights, so total 18,700 riyals which is around $5,000. My house and everything else is paid for. Sometimes I get overtime from my school so it works out. My plan was to stay until July 2009, so I will have just turned 26 and should have about $68,000 to open my pizzeria. What I have in mind is a small pizzeria with brick oven cooked Italian pizza. $68,000 should be enough to start things up. Things changed, however, when a guy named Maxwell. He is from Oklahoma. When I first met him, I thought nothing of it, until he told me he had lived in Poland for 3 years and I saw that he knew so much about East Europe. He was also under 30 which is rare in Saudi Arabia. This country seems to attract some really old teachers so we became friends. He is very funny and he really didn’t have any plan for his life. He only wanted to save $100,000 so he could go back to Poland and buy a house and live there. That was until he tried my pizza.



November 25, 2007

One of the teachers is from New Zealand and he is very cool guy. One day I cooked pizza for him. He loved my pizza so much that he built me a brick oven in just 2 weeks. Photo is also below. He built me a brick oven so that I could cook a lot of pizza, which was great for me. After a few months of fine tuning, I was able to cook a magnificent pizza in our oven.



December – February 2008

December was a great month. The weather had cooled off. Many Saudis left for Mecca and I had a lot of time to relax. I made friends with some other teachers including a teacher from Hungry. December was a good month.



March 2008

Some strange things started to happen to me in March. For starters, March was not nearly as pleasant as the short winter months. The heat was coming back, I was getting tired of working so much and the end seemed so very far away. Because it is so dry, I also got pink eye, and the worst sore throat of my life. I almost couldn’t breath. It passed though. Maxwell was thinking of partnering with me which could save me a solid year. Since I was the pizza chef, we agreed that he would double my initial investment and then be partners, splitting profits 50/50. Since my contract ended in August and his contract ended in July, we both felt that we could go back to Boston and shoot for a November 1, 2008 start. We didn’t need to sell too many pizzas to both hit 6 figure profits. As if my pizza wasn’t enough to attract the customers, I also started to make ice cream. I also took a photo of my different flavors. Many that have tried my ice cream also believe that I am a solid competitor and my plan is to have a pizzeria with a small area that sells ice cream. Maxwell wanted to partner with me, and I wanted him to partner with me. It would be great for both of us. I would be able to get out of here this summer. He would be part of a great potential business, and we could both do what we wanted after we started making money. If we wanted to open our own separate stores after the first store, we could. It all looked like it was coming together.



April 2008

Football (soccer) is another reason that I initially came to Saudi Arabia. Basically, it is the world sport so I wanted to learn to play better. The problem before was that Saudi boys are very selfish and don’t pass to one another. They prioritize individual skill and will keep trying to weave in and out until they get the ball stolen from them. They don’t like to pass. I even remember one time; I saw the defender slide tackle his own goalie to get the ball. The goalie wanted to take a goal kick, but the defender wanted the ball and tried to take it from the goalie. After the goalie insisted that he take his goal kick, the defender slide tackled his own goal to “steal” the ball.

I got fed up with Saudi style of football and decided to start my own team. That is popular in Saudi, forming your own team and then challenging other teams. So I put together a team with some teachers and friends. It was good and it provided a good chance for me to play and improve my skill. I began inviting teams and scheduling games. It was nice to play and even nicer to win because despite the fact that Saudis are good at controlling the ball, since they don’t pass much, it is easier to defeat them. We played a lot of good teams and it was nice to vent. It was good for Maxwell too. He had been here in KSA for 9 months. He was going crazy and weekend games were really good for him.
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