Imbolc \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Valentine Moon<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia. \u00a0Mark has been there for well over a year, almost 2, so the day-to-day scene comes more and more into focus, even for me, 8,000 miles away. \u00a0Perhaps the oddest piece of information so far concerns postal service. \u00a0Addresses don’t work in Saudi Arabia. \u00a0To this northern European mind, used to numbered homes and buildings, named streets and precisely divided zip codes this data fails to process. \u00a0So much so that we insisted (I insisted) on sending Mark a package for Christmas to his school. \u00a0Well, it hasn’t arrived quite yet.<\/p>\n
Apparently the only solution to this problem is to use Fedex or DHS. \u00a0Which begs the question of how they find a place, but they must have some kind of system. \u00a0So, next time we send Mark a picture of Gertie and a book on the geo-political affairs of Saudi Arabia, it’ll go out Fedex.<\/p>\n
Banking, too, has its peculiarities. \u00a0You can’t get a bank account without an iqama, sort of a work visa, and Mark’s school has not been able to arrange iqamas for their first year employees. \u00a0This is Mark’s first year working in Riyadh. \u00a0An iqama is roughly equivalent to a green card in the U.S. \u00a0Without it Mark has to go on a familiar routine for expats in many countries, a visa run. \u00a0On a visa run you leave the country where you live, stay away a few days, then re-enter, starting the visa process again, usually for a period of 90 or 180 days.<\/p>\n
Mark also reports that a few students watch jihadi videos and execution videos in his class. His afternoon classes have to stop for the afternoon prayer, then start up again. \u00a0The priorities of other cultures, which seem obvious to them, often seem odd or at least unexpected to outsiders. \u00a0Mark seems to have adjusted very well to the differences between his U.S. acculturation and the Saudi’s.<\/p>\n
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Imbolc \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Valentine Moon Saudi Arabia. \u00a0Mark has been there for well over a year, almost 2, so the day-to-day scene comes more and more into focus, even for … Continue reading Saudi Arabia<\/span>