Riyadh

So last week I got to go to Saudi's capital, Riyadh, for a college fair hosted by the KSA Ministry of Higher Education. I basically got to pack my stuff from my hotel in Jeddah, drop it off at my new house on campus (more on the living situation at KAUST later) and head to the airport.

Flying in Kingdom is a little different to flying in other places. Take the security line, for example. We are all used to go through the same security line, taking our shoes off, our belts off, putting everything on the conveyor belt for an x-ray and walking through the metal detector. Well, in KSA, only the men go through all of that. The women are asked to go through a series of rooms (far from the prying eyes of men) where they are basically given the once over by a female airport police guard and then walk out. It takes about half the time then the regular security line! So perk #1 of being a woman in Saudi has been discovered.

Perk #2: After going through security we decided (we being my boss, my co-worker and myself) to go get a cup of coffee while they boarded the plane. Well my boss (who happens to be a guy) and I walked up to the coffee counter. Upon my approach the men who were in line, let me through and place my order before theirs :) Then we get the call to board our flight (which was 45 min before departure) and proceed to the buses. I guess I should take this moment to explain that the Jeddah airport is a little different. The planes don't actually arrive at the gates. The park out by the runways and passengers and shuttled back and forth by bus. When we do get to the bus, again the men get up and move away from the seats so that the women (i.e. me) can sit down.

We get to the plane and I discover that I have been seated in the middle seat in the row behind my boss and co-worker. And to make matters worse, I'm between smelly men. Well, this is just not acceptable in KSA, so thankfully my co-worker tells the man who is seated next to her to switch places with me so that I will not have to sit by men by myself! Perk #3.

We arrive in Riyadh and my co-worker (a Saudi woman) tells me I have to cover my hair, so I oblige. Now I have to admit that covering one's hair is not as simple as you would think. The scarf kept slipping on my head and the ends kept swinging all over the place. And eating with a head scarf is even harder! I kept feeling like it was going to fall in my food! Lesson learned, I need to buy an actual headscarf for the next time I travel in Kingdom.

A little about Riyadh. It is the capital of KSA and as a result is a little more of a city than Jeddah. More skyscrapers and the like. I will definitely have to go back and actually do some touristy stuff, because on this trip I didn't have a moment. The capital is also a little stricter about security. To get into any of the hotels you have to stop at a guard station, open the trunk and hood of the car and then go through a bit of an obstacle course to get to the driveway.

The fair: Boring. But we did have an amazing booth! It was 90 square meters, with 4 flat screen tv's, leather seats and hard wood floors. I felt like I was at a car expo and our wasn't even the biggest booth there. The Saudi schools really went all out. I did, however, get to meet both the US Ambassador and the Venezuela Ambassador. Both were very nice and gave me their business cards, stating that any help we might need in recruiting and retaining the citizens of their respective countries, they would be happy to provide.

Speaking of the US Ambassador, we got invited to a dinner at his house. So we of course RSVP'd yes and got in a cab to go. We arrive at the Diplomatic Quarter (the section of Riyadh where all the embassies, consulates and the like are located), go through more obstacle courses and arrive at the guard station. My co-worker starts to talk to the guard and soon it becomes quite the argument in Arabic. Basically he didn't want to let us in because we didn't have a printed invitation, but we had been invited over email, so there was no formal printed invitation to speak of. After 15 min of argument we leave and my co-worker tells me we are going to try the other gate, which she says the guard has told her is more lenient. We arrive and I do the talking, in English. I show them my KSA id which states I am a US citizen, tell them where we are going, and finally we are on our way. We arrive at the ambassador's house (which is it's own bunker) and I get straight for the wine counter. Yes, the US embassy serves wine :)

And that, in a nutshell was my trip. Now, I have to learn to live on campus with a roommate (and co-worker) while I wait for my permanent (and single) apartment...