Day 2

OK, so this is Tuesday’s post, just because I don’t want to fall too far behind on my posting. I should be going to bed, because we start out at 9 am, which means I have to be up by 7 am. I know mom and dad are going to say that I’m being lazy, but these days are really tiring. The heat is extremely oppressive, and just being out in it for 10 minutes and you feel the drain. The lowest high temperature that has occurred so far is 115 Fahrenheit. Seriously. I have not earned a Saudi sunburn yet, and I know this is going to cause my mother to flip the hell out, but I’m trying to get one. But mom, please hear me out. Hotel guests that get sunburned are automatically treated with an aloe massage by a female. There is no other way to get a message with a female in this entire country. It’s for my learning experience. No joke.
Alright, so today started out pretty well. We didn’t have to be out of here until 9:30 am, and breakfast was once again amazing. I’m sorry dad, but I’ve already forgotten how to tie my tie. I’m so ashamed, I don’t know if I can come home. This is a problem, because we’re actually coming home a day early. Sorry mom, I forgot to tell you. We’ll be back on the 16th, not the 17th. Josh has already stated we can stay at his house for the extra day if we can’t get travel arrangements changed, but if you don’t mind, I’d like to come home and have a drink in my parent’s house. Please let me know if there is anything that can be done.
Man, I’m so freaking ADHD in this place. I think it’s the Saudi air. Pretty sure I’m not like this at home. But back to my day. We started out with a trip to the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry. That was an enlightening trip with a look into the diversification of the Saudi economy. All we heard the first day was how the Saudi's know they won’t have oil forever, and that an oil-based economy is doomed to fail. That’s why king Abdullah has put forth his plan to change their economy to a knowledge based economy. There is a problem with this, as pointed out by Dr. John, the economist, who thinks that is a joke, and that the future of Saudi Arabia is in the service and tourism industry. Anyways, the Secretary General, Hussein A. Al-Athel is a wonderful man, who was so overjoyed to meet Americans. I’m not kidding, he was having an orgasm just by hearing us speak. He was so stoked about us taking an interest in his country and the economy that he was actually crying by the time he finished meeting with us. Again, no joke. We had a good conversation with basically the leader of the private sector business industry. The RCCI basically controls the private industries across the country since it’s the largest CCI in the country, and the largest one of the region. They apparently have over 500,000 members, but I think that’s inflated a little bit. Not that they are lying to us.
After that we had time to hit up another museum, which I did take a bunch of pictures of, and then we met probably the most important man in Saudi Arabia that we’ll meet: His Highness Prince Turki Al-Faisal. This is the youngest son of his former Majesty King Faisal bin-Al Aziz. However, don’t get fooled by “young.” He’s easily in his early 60s, and technically 4th in line for the crown. I think I should take a minute to explain here that in actuality the way the crown passes. See, the original king, Abdullah Aziz, had a bunch of sons. Once Aziz passed away, his oldest son assumed the crown. Everybody with me so far? OK, so when his oldest son became a failure as a king, instead of giving the crown to Saud’s son, it went to Faisal, the second oldest son. And then when Faisal was assassinated, instead of going to his son, it went to Khalid, the third son of Aziz. See the pattern? It goes to the next brother in most cases. Well, at some point there won’t be anymore sons of the original king Aziz, and then it will have to move onto the next generation. Turki is the son of Faisal, and therefore 4th in line according to official records. Now the turmoil in this is that there actually isn’t really a line of succession. There is the crown prince, who is the 1st prime minister, and then the 2nd prime minister, which is in most case right after the crown prince. After that, there is no person to be in line for the crown. But if you put all the brothers, sons, and grandsons in order, Turki is number 4.
Anyways, Turki is something of a celebrity to the Saudi’s because he’s been so vital to the relationship with the United States, and he’s been a key figure in Saudi politics for ages. He’s a great person, and he made a joke about the lack of women that were with us, calling it gender discrimination. He gave us a serious history of Saudi Arabia’s exploits in the region since it’s inception in 1932, and how the US fit in with that. He allowed us to ask a bunch of questions, but I was just happy that I got to sit next to him. It was an awesome experience.
After that, we had another, although brief, tour of a museum, and then it was off to the US embassy in Saudi Arabia. That was what everybody was looking forward to. Now there was actually 2 reasons we were looking forward to this: 1) the meeting was at 3, and the embassy was closed at 5, so we knew it was only a short time til we could get back to the hotel, and relax before dinner, since we hadn’t had lunch yet, and 2) the embassy was the largest of all the embassies in the country. We were not disappointed. As soon as you get onto the compound, there are hummers with 50 calibers being manned everywhere. Seriously. I mean, you see that everywhere in Saudi Arabia, but these were marines that were protecting us this time.
The visit didn’t include the actual ambassador to Saudi Arabia, because he was still out of town, but it did include some really cool diplomats, who I warned after the meeting that I was going to be gunning for their position in a year or so. They gave us the low down on what the Saud family was doing to ensure that the people of Saudi Arabia were happy and didn’t want to overthrow them. We also got a few questions in about the Israel-Palestine issue, and I got this golden quote on what the Saudi people thought about the issue: “The Saudi Arabian people do not think about that issue anymore. They only feel.” I think that accurately sums up the whole process right there. We need to act on this issue, and act now.
After the visit with the diplomats, we had a chance to go to the gift shop. I bring this up for two reasons: 1) it was the first time I was going to be able to spend money, and 2) I GOT MY MOTHA FLIPPIN FLASK!!!!!!!!!!!!! I find this extremely ironic: my flask says Riyadh on it. Go figure. That made the heat and desolation of the hour long wait for our car so worth it. I mean, it’s a real size flask, and it’s from Saudi Arabia. How awesome is that? And I got a shot glass. I know, I have a major problem, we don’t need to harp on it, do we?
The rest of my day has been extremely boring, plus its already 1:00 am, and I have to be downstairs at 8:00 am, so I’m going to post this with a couple pictures, and go to bed. Mom, you know my email, please let me know about flights.