Day 3

Today was a pretty good day. I had my suit cleaned last night, and was super stoked to get out there in my freshly pressed shirts. I woke up at a good time, namely to make sure I would be able to get my suit when they delivered it to my room. Shower, like always was nice. They have lighted shaving mirrors here, so that’s always a breeze, and they already provide shaving cream and aftershave. Stuff burns like nothing else, so I don’t know why people use it.
Something that my mother and father and I were extremely upset about during the time leading up to the trip was the lack of information about what to pack, what we were going to actually do over here, and what to expect as far as needs in the money area. I now know the reason. Unlike the trip that I was told about from last year, which was the first time that the National Council on US-Arab Relations (the council that organized all the LAS competitions and is how I’m doing this trip; from here on out, and forever after, to be referred to as the Council) took a delegation to Saudi Arabia comprised of just LAS superstars, this trip is basically organized by the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) of Saudi Arabia. All the Council had to do was organize the pre-trip orientation and the travel arrangements to the airport in DC. Once we were at the airport, MOHE took over. They are paying for everything, arranging all of our meetings and trips, and keeping us satisfied beyond belief. It wasn’t a lack of planning on the Americans part, or a deliberate attempt to keep us in the dark.
That being said, our schedule is always being changed. The one I posted was changed 4.2.3 times before we even left the country. Yes, I know, that was 2 decimals. That just happened. Blew your mind away, didn’t it? Anyways, if you really were OCD, and thinking that my trips didn’t coincide with the schedule, you are correct, congratulations, there is no prize. Sorry. This also creates a problem for the delegation, because we have to ask all the time, including several times a day, what’s next. At breakfast we usually try to update the schedule so we know where we have to go and when to be there. It’s not really a problem as far as messing with other planned activities, but when we have to leave a meeting at 3 pm, for instance, and we all have questions, we need to know that we have only 4 minutes before we have to leave and move on, or if we have 30 minutes. Again, this isn’t creating a huge mess, and in most cases, the reason things change is because we are getting more opportunities to meet with more people. But I thought I’d just explain that, so that you know why I didn’t have too much info before the trip, especially when everybody asked exactly what it was that I was going to do over there.
The first event of the day was a meeting at the headquarters of MOHE, the people who are paying for our trip. Like I said earlier, they have the largest budget in the Kingdom, which is why they are putting us up in 5 or 6 star hotels this whole time, and paying for all our needs in the hotels. We met with Dr. Eisa Abdullah Aleisa, who is the International Affairs Advisor in MOHE, which is probably 3rd or 4th on the entire totem pole. I know that doesn’t sound very important, but consider all the facts that I just spit out: The 3rd highest ranking official from the government department with the largest budget in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. That is a huge deal.
He was very informative, and once again, tea and strawberry-banana juice was served along with sandwiches and bread. For once, I was up and ready for breakfast really early, and of course our first visit provided food. Go figure. I’m not getting up early anymore. Anyways, we found out that in the last 10 years, Saudi Arabia has gone from 8 public universities to 24. Tripled. 10 years. Charlotte can match that growth if it tried, I know it can. Also learned that tuition is free in Saudi Arabia, no matter what level of school you are attending, and no matter your nationality. Hear that mother? Remember when I told you I was going to look for grad school applications here? I’m not joking. Not only is it free, but they pay you to come to school here! That’s right: school is free, and then the pay you about 300 to 400 riyals a month to come to school. And that’s not all, people: they also pay for one round trip airfare per school year for you to go home. I’d have to pay to go home and come to school at the beginning and end of school year, but they’d pay for my semester break if I wanted to. Seriously, this is just ridiculous.
After the visit with the doctor, we had got to go to a bookstore. This particular bookstore was the second largest one in the entire kingdom, and it was HUGE. Seriously, I think it was 8 stories. I did by a couple books as gifts for people when I return. Some things I know you can’t get in the states.
After that we were having lunch with King Abdullah’s top advisor. That’s right. The kings’ ear was meeting us for lunch at our hotel. This was a really awesome opportunity, and I was probably more stoked about that meeting than anything else all day. We were not disappointed, because this man was about as vibrant and jovial as they come. He was cracking jokes with us the whole time. Dr. Anthony looked like he was going to have a heart attack when we bashed on Mohammad for being a rich dresser in front of Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Saeed. But then Rahman cracked that all Lebanese are the same: they don’t have a dollar in their pocket, but dress like a million dollars. He was awesome. We all got to ask a ton of questions, and I finally found someone who knew about the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative. If you don’t know what it is, Wikipedia is the place to go. I’m sorry, but just read the intro paragraphs or something, because you should know what it is, and I don’t really feel like taking time to explain it. But I was able to ask about the Arab response to the initiative when then-crown prince Abdullah presented it to the LAS, and who the most vocal objectors among the Arabs themselves were. He told me that the Kuwaitis, who have already decided to withdraw their support unofficially for now, and perhaps officially in the very near future, were the main objectors, with Iraq and Sudan being close behind. But he said that KSA, Jordan, Egypt, and Lebanon basically brought the full weight of their countries’ persuasion on them, and everybody got along great after that. I would have loved to have seen those meetings.
After lunch we had a visit with the Al Waleed Bin Talal (a very low ranking prince) Charity Foundation. Even though he is a low ranking prince, he is a very well respected one, especially since he basically funds this foundation, and it is the most well known, completely private, unbiased charity in the Arab world. They provide charity for every natural disaster in the world, and are one of the quickest responders to every event. Even though it is Waleed’s charity, he doesn’t actually run it, leaving that up to an army of women. Upon arrival, I also discovered that I had somehow gotten chocolate all over my hand, and in turn, my suit jacket. FML. I had just gotten my suit cleaned the night before. Seriously, the night before. I was so pissed off. Now I’m going to have to get it cleaned again. And it’s not like I’m supposed to have it cleaned all the time. But there is no help now- there is chocolate all over a sleeve, and then again on the front.
OK, so since we have been in Saudi Arabia, I have seen a grand total of maybe 12 women’s faces. They are either all covered up, or they aren’t out in the country. So everybody was extremely involved, and seemed more intent on talking than ever before. The ladies didn’t wear burkas, the traditional cover-all apparel, and didn’t put on hijabs until we took photos for the press. And the main talker was really pretty. We watched a video on a delegation of students that visited Saudi Arabia 3 years ago, and their visit was eerily similar to our visit. They did basically all the same crap, and saw all the same places. We were each given a copy of the DVD, and I plan on showing it when I get back to school, because it is very informative, and will allow all of you to see the places that I didn’t get a chance to take photos of.
After the Foundation visit, we had a chance to relax. Some of us decided to go out for a little shopping before we were supposed to visit the house of Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Zamil, the same Zamil that we visited on Monday. I did get a chance to look around, but didn’t really buy much, because our amazing handler, Sa’ad, told us that the best shopping was going to happen in Jeddah. I know that the MOHE is trying to give us a great time here, but keeping our schedule full is tiring the crap out of us. We are loving the whole “just relax at the hotel” time they are giving us now. I’m super cereal. So we walked around a bunch of out door shops, taking in local culture, and I found some really cool little things.
We originally were supposed to be at Zamil’s house at 8:30, but didn’t get there until almost 10:00 pm. The reason: Dr. John Duke Anthony overslept, and then he had to get ready. Don’t even get me started. I had to wait in the car for almost an hour after getting back to the hotel, because we got back from shopping at 8:30, but it wasn’t until almost 9:00 before anybody realized that Dr. Anthony wasn’t downstairs, and wasn’t even awake. Jeez, I seriously was about to flip. Even though our Chevy Tahoe’s are really nice, and have amazing air conditioning, there really isn’t much space involved at all. It’s seriously cramped in there.
Dinner was amazing though. Seriously the first time I’ve had an entirely halal meal and loved every aspect of it. The salad, the spaghetti and chicken dish, the lamb, and then the dessert. It was all amazing. Plus, I got to talk to a lot of saudi’s that were so nice and pro American. I talked a lot with a man that had never been to America, but had the best English I’d heard from a Saudi since coming here. He was awesome, very nice, and grew up on the aramco compound in Dammam, so he was grew up learning English.
After dinner, we came back to the hotel and most of us went to bed. I actually stayed up going over stuff for my assignment and doing other various things like reading and packing up most of my crap so that Friday I am ready to leave as soon as we need to for Dammam.
I didn’t really take to many photos on Wednesday, but I’ll load what I have. Now I’m going to type up our Thursday events.