Think you can take the heat? Well, if you just happen to believe that you have the capabilities of living in an oasis in a tropical desert, here’s what you need to know. If you ever plan on living in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, here are some things that you need to get used to:

• SCALDING hot showers in the summertime. Water here needs to be cooled, not heated. Heads up. 
• SUNGLASSES 24/7 Not only do they protect your eyes from the sun’s penetrating rays, they keep sand out of your eyes!
• SALTY water. If your showering, watering your lawn, doing the laundry, the water is not going to be fully filtered so it will have a lot of salt in it which leads into
• DAMAGED HAIR from all the salty showers
• TONS of diversity. Tons of it. One of my close friends here is South African!
• FAST FOOD that can get delivered. Just call them and they have delivery guys :)
• NICE PEOPLE, yup there are a bunch here. 
• SHWARMAS, if you’re a gyro fan, you won’t be after trying one of these. They’re amazing. 
• TAXIS, if you’re a female and you have to get somewhere and dad is busy, well you got to have a couple of taxi numbers and drivers on speed dial. They are in high demand over here
• DRIVING, using turn signals over here is optional. So is following the speed limit. 
• SUNSCREEN, you gotta put it on. If you don’t you’ll get fried. Take it from someone who knows. 
• FUNKY WEEKENDS, yup the weekend over here is on Thursday and Friday. Yes, that means that you have school on Saturday. 
• CAUSEWAY TRAFFIC, if you’re American you will probably make some mad dashes to cross the causeway and enter Bahrain over the weekend, which has a much more relaxed environment. Chances are, you’re probably not the only one trying to cross the causeway, so get ready for up to 3 hours of traffic to cross the border (which only takes about 15 minutes when there is no traffic). 

To be continued… Please note that these apply for folks who don’t live inside an American Compound. Well, the driving one anyways. 

Hey Guys!

Yes, I am aware that the last time I posted on this blog was a while ago. Right now its AP season and I have my last AP test on Wednesday, so I’ll be free! Then its the home stretch with finals and everything then SUMMER! I can’t wait! I’m going back to the States over the summer. But, before we come back to Richmond were going to stay a week in PARIS! I am really excited, ecstatic you might say. I will take a bunch of pictures and be sure to fill you all in on my Parisian adventure :)

    Anyways, back to the title, “Driving (me crazy)”. Well, you see, I’m trying to learn how to drive, and its so nerve-wracking! But, I’m trying really hard to learn it all, I must say I can make beautiful turns. However, everything else needs work. Lot’s of it. I just want to learn how to drive so when I get to the US I can get my license. 

Anyways, I just hope this few weeks pass quickly. I just can’t believe I am going back to the States after one year of living in a foreign country. 

Hey guys! I’m on spring break right now, we get 2 weeks which is awesome! I’ve just been resting up and meeting up with friends. But tomorrow I’m really excited because we are going on Umrah, this will the second time since we got here. Umrah is the Hajj Muslims have to make, but Hajj is at a certain time of the year, and requires more at the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, while Umrah can be completed at any time of the year (excluding Hajj time obviously) and requires less. I am actually really glad to be going, because the past few weeks have been pretty stressful in terms of schoolwork. Mecca and Medina are really gorgeous cities, and they have a quiet serenity to them, its a great atmosphere honestly. I don’t know how to describe it. 

Anyways, on to the discoveries part! My mom went grocery shopping at this local store, and she found legit Arabian Kohl eyeliner! For some reason, when I think of the middle east, I think of Aladdin, camels, oil, sand, and heavy eyeliner. So this Kohl, is like, coal. It comes in a thin aluminum tube, and it has a powdery black texture. There is a little wand in the cap so I just use the wand to apply the powder. While it may not be something for everyday use, it smudges great and it doesn’t look half bad. I’m so happy I found it!

Hey! 

This week is WOW (week without walls) week at my school! At the beginning of the year there were signups for a lot trips that take place during this week. There are cultural trips, a desert expedition, and some Habitat for Humanity trips. I was going to sign up, but upperclassmen get priority so all the spots got filled up before I could even try! The point of WOW week is that its possible for these kids to go on these 8 day trips and not miss any school. Because during WOW week there isn’t any actual learning going on. We aren’t in class and attendance isn’t taken so its just a relaxing week to enjoy :)

   I’m just staying here for WOW week, but I have a long weekend! Saturday and Sunday are off for me, and on Monday there are some team activities planned at school (think field-day-type stuff). Tuesday we are going out to Khobar (downtown) and on Wednesday we are going to the beach! Sounds like fun, right? I am so glad the new semester has started. Only a couple more weeks until spring break and my grandma comes from Pakistan here, then only a few more months till I get back to Richmond!!! I miss Richmond a lot right now because today is actually my best friend’s birthday. If you are reading this, Happy birthday! But if the first semester passed so quickly I hope this one will too. 

   Nothing more to report on really. BUT Pakistan won 3 matches against England in a cricket test tournament so they’re going to the championships! Its called a test tournament because the cricket matches are 5 days long, so it’s a test for the audience, the players, everyone! Why is this significant to me? My dad said that he might take us to Dubai over spring break to see the championship match! I don’t really know much about cricket, but winning makes me happy and watching a match sounds like fun! I hope you all are enjoying your days as much as I am. 

Ma Salaama!

Hey everyone! I told you I’d be back after exams were over, so here I am! Now that exams are over, I seriously feel like an enormous weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I’ve been living in the good old KSA for over 6 months now. It’s gone by so fast I can’t even believe it honestly. But here we are. 

    For winter break I got to visit Pakistan after 6 years. I remember being so excited before going. I hadn’t seen my grandma for 6 years!! But, I had heard some not so good things about Pakistan in the news, so I was a bit chary about going at first. Let me tell you something before I even get started: It isn’t as bad as everyone says it is. 

   The news makes it seem like Pakistan is constantly being blasted by terrorists and there is war raging on every square foot of the country. It makes it seem like Pakistan is a hopeless, war stricken place with no hope for it, corruption, violence, extremism, etc. Regardless of how bad it may seem: life goes on. Pakistan isn’t some barren land full of terrorists and bombs and poor people. Its a growing country that has hit some rough spots, but its working through it. People are getting educated, they’re working hard and going to college. This new generation in Pakistan, my generation, is hopeful. They are working hard and studying in some really good colleges. They don’t want to leave Pakistan, they want to stay and make it better. They want to rebuild. 

   In my dad’s generation, a lot of the people who studied really hard left to go to other countries where there were more opportunities. This leads to a “brain drain” in the country because a lot of the educated end up leaving the country. My generation in Pakistan has seen the effect of what this has done to the country, and they aren’t going anywhere. It’s really inspiring. 

   Enough about politics and other stuff. I’m just sharing how I felt about my visit. I had so much fun and learned a lot about my roots and I even learned another language! My Urdu is pretty rusty from living in the States, my parents would mostly speak English and I definitely spoke English so my Urdu was rapidly deteriorating, but after my visit to Pakistan, I’ve been working really hard on improving it! There is also another language spoken in the province of Pakistan where my family is from, its called Punjabi, it is very similar to Urdu but different enough to be another language. I really tried to pick up as much as I could so now I’m working on becoming a fluent speaker in that as well. I really just love learning languages, one of my life goals is to learn 5 languages, so far I have English, Urdu, French, and Punjabi. I would really like to learn Arabic and I think Spanish would be another good one. But anyways, back to my trip.

    I visited 3 cities in 12 days. It was quite the tour. I also visited all of the historical places like some ancient mosques and tombs of some Muslim Saints. Not to mention all the government buildings and some mountains in Islamabad. Next time I go I really want to see Harrapa and Mohenjo-Daro. They were fairly close to all the places I visited. I’ll put all the pictures I took for you guys on my Flickr. In all honesty I could write a 100 page paper on what I saw in Pakistan. There was just so much! I visited Lahore, Multan, and Islamabad in Pakistan. Islamabad was my favorite city. Islamabad is like the Upper East Side of New York in Pakistan. Its a beautiful city with clean buildings and roads with gorgeous mountains surrounding it. I went up there to go to a restaurant and you can see the whole city. The weather was amazing too! It actually felt like winter!!!

   Anyways, my visit to Pakistan was amazing and I am really happy I got to meet all my relatives again after so long. I really have so much to write about, but I think I might just do a separate post! I am really counting the days until I can visit again. It was just truly amazing. 

Hey! Happy new year! and Thanksgiving! And every other holiday I’ve missed blogging about!

Ever since school started, I’ve been REALLY busy. But I really love blogging so I think I’m gonna restart it again! I have a lot to say so stay tuned. I actually have finals in about a week so my brain is in overdrive. But over break I went to… Pakistan! I went after 6 years and it was absolutely amazing! I took a lot of pictures for you guys, and I’m looking forward to adding them as soon as finals are over. 

I’m taking some really tough classes this year so I really have to work hard and study everything! Pray for me :)

As for school, It’s good, I’ve made friends and finally settled in, but the classes and teachers just don’t compare to my old school in the states :( I just always have so much work its frustrating! Anyways I think I’ll sign off for now but I hope you guys will enjoy the restart of this blog. I plan on doing a lot of traveling this year (I’m going to Turkey for spring break and England for the summer then do a tour of the East coast in the states), and I’ll be sure to report on the new things I experience and post a lot of pictures for you all so you can see the world the way I do :) 

Bye!

Hello there! Remember me? I know I haven’t posted anything in a while, but its because school started. I planned on posting a little text post after the first day, but I never finished it completely so I saved it as a draft. Here is what I wrote after the first day/week of school:

I’m a sophomore this year and it’s only been like a week of school but I’m already swimming in homework. My first day of school was a little sad for me. This whole summer it never really hit me that I wouldn’t be seeing my friends at school until I went to school. I was confused, unhappy, and upset the first day. I really, really, missed my old school, I missed all of the wonderful people I got to know as well as some of my old teachers. I half expected to see my friends in English class, only to remember I was in a different country. I felt out of place, everyone else seemed to be giving hugs and talking to old friends they hadn’t seen over the summer, and I just thought, “that should be me, in Richmond, with my friends”. I was frustrated because I felt like a freshman all over again. My second day was better, I recognized some people and I liked my classes better on day 2. 

Okay, now here’s how I’m doing after a few weeks of school. Most of my classes are with Juniors (11th grade) so I don’t know a lot of people in my grade, but I’ve made a lot of friends! I’ve met some of the nicest people here, and this school year sounds exciting! Now that I’ve gotten into a routine I am definitely much more busy, but I like it! My classes are really tough this year, so I spend a lot time on homework but on the weekend I always go to meet up with my friends. I tried a shawarma! It is sort of like a middle eastern gyro type food, but more neat :) Every Wednesday there is a barbecue at the pool and they make fresh shawarmas!

Here’s a picture:

People cut the meat like this, it is kind of shaved off of the skewer, it smells so good!

Here’s what it looks like!

Goodbye for now! hmm now I want a Shawarma!

Hi guys! I haven’t posted anything substantial in a while, so here I go! Life has just been crazy with Ramadan and then Eid! (Eid is a day of celebration/holiday that is celebrated at the end of Ramadan) Plus school starts up again in 3 days and I haven’t perfected my sleeping schedule. I don’t know how I am going to be able to wake up at 6am every day for school. I am going to an American High School in the US Consulate compound. It seems really nice when I went there to pick out my courses. It has an open campus though so I don’t know how I’m going to find all my classes though, but we have 15 minutes in between classes. I don’t know what to expect this year, but I’m hoping it will be good. 

Ramadan was amazing. I met so many people my age and they’re really cool. Eid was even better. Normally in Muslim countries Eid is usually celebrated for about 3 days, but in the States we only took one day off. It was awesome!! There were lights and parties and lots of smiles! On the first day of Eid we just went to a lot of parties and met people. On the second day my mom surprised me by telling me she had signed me up for a talent show tomorrow! I have a knack for doing imitations so I did a comedy skit with some new friends. There was rehearsal on the second day and then the actual show was on the third day. After rehearsal on the second day I went and played some tennis for the first time here with my (newly made) friends! Tennis is big here in my compound, so there are a lot courts by my house as well as a ball machine and a backboard. Over here people pick up the balls for you! Just tip them at the end. There are some top notch coaches over here, a lot of the are national coaches of Bahrain or KSA. I miss my tennis coach back home! She was really strict and intense (she was Russian), but that made me all the better! Oh well, I’m sure I’ll be able to improve my game in no time with these coaches.

Oh yeah, but then after practice I went and saw Harry Potter pt 2 in the theater in my compound with my friends. It premiered here on Eid. There is a central area in my compound which is where the library, restaurant, cafe, bowling alley, and theater is. Over there for Eid there tents and stalls set up everywhere and it was amazing. I had never seen anything like it. There were some music stalls with some people playing Arabic music and food stalls (yum!) and some other stalls that sold some things. One thing they do over here is use carpets a lot. I don’t know how to describe it but like whenever there is a big event instead of spreading a mat or something, they just lay a lot of Persian carpets instead. It’s looks really cool and elegant in a way.

On the third day I just hung out with my friends around the compound (they showed me around) and then the talent show was at night. There was an Eid dinner hosted by a poetry group that also had a talent portion. I was a bit nervous before my skit performed, mostly because I was acting like a fool in front of a lot of people I didn’t know. But, I took a deep breath, grabbed the microphone, and strode to the stage. I ignored all of the lights and the faces looking at me. I just performed. 

But now, Eid is over and so is summer. School is starting up in a few days and the heat is not as fierce as it was before (though it is still scorching). One word to describe my summer? Unforgettable. 

Hi! My posts have been a bit more spaced out now, but that’s because Ramadan is over and it is Eid right now!! Eid is a holiday celebrated at the end of Ramadan. It is usually celebrated for about 3 days in Muslim countries but in the States or elsewhere it is usually one day. Over here it is celebrated for 5 days!! There is so much going on! There are stalls everywhere and music and food! It feels really awkward eating during the day. I’m sure I’ll get used to it though!

Anyway, once stuff settles down I’ll write some more posts because I do have a lot to write about, just not enough time!