Pre-Trip Post

Hey guys, just letting you know about my blog here. Part of my deal for the trip is that I let the world know about my experience in Saudi Arabia, and my brilliant (OK, Josiah's brilliant) idea to involve the CLT Blog led some people to put together the idea of keeping up a blog.

To answer the first question ya'll probably have, I have no idea what I'm doing over there officially. I can give you guys the couple paragraphs that give a general over-view of what the purpose of our trip is for, though. Straight from the application forms:

While thousands of Saudi Arabian students visit and study in the United States each year, exceedingly few American students have a reciprocal opportunity. As a result, the average Saudi citizen knows a great deal about American culture, economics, government, etc. while Americans remain in the dark on the nuances, intricacies, and even basic details of a country of such strategic importance and interest to the United States, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi Arabia Summer Fellowship program was formed to help remedy this shortcoming. It consists of a pre-departure orientation seminar in Washington, DC, followed by two weeks inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Accompanied by two NCUSAR chaperones and several Saudi officials, students will have the opportunity to meet with a broad range of government officials, business representatives, academics, policymakers, specialists, and student peers while in Saudi Arabia. As a complement to the program, the experience emphasizes exposure to Saudi culture through a variety of venues as well. This allows the students not only to experience daily life but also to appreciate Saudi Arabia for all the dimensions that it encompasses.

I have ordered a camera, which should be here hopefully by tomorrow, so there should be pictures coming up everyday.

I leave for Washington, D.C. on Thursday. Friday is the pre-trip orientation, and then Saturday, June 5 I leave for the Kingdom. We will be there for 12 days, so I'm not asking you guys to read the blog for the whole summer. Just check up on it to make sure I didn't kill myself riding a camel.