I arrived in Saudi at about 4:00 PM local time on Saturday afternoon (9:00 AM Ohio time). The driver, along with the school vice-principal, took me to my villa. Once there they gave me some contact numbers, a 25 Riyal ($6.67) SIM card for my phone, and a black abaya (Islamic overcoat style garment that a woman wears on top of her everyday clothes.In Riyadh, a woman must put on this black abaya every time she leaves her home. So, when I put on my clothes for school in the morning I must put the black abaya on over my clothes in order to go out and be picked up by the driver. Since our school has women-only employees I can take the abaya off when I get to school and just wear my regular dress. Then, when school is out, I put the black abaya back on in order to be picked up by the driver to go home. If I want to go to the grocery, or mall, or restaurant, or whatever, I must put on this black abaya.
After the vice-principal left on Saturday I unpacked my clothes and had a bread and cheese sandwich. They had stocked our refrigerator with milk, eggs, cream cheese, and bread before we came. I met my roomate at about 9:00 PM. She had arrived the day before me and had been out at the grocery store. I tried to go to bed at midnight but ended up not falling asleep until 4:30 AM (9:30 PM Ohio time). I slept until 10:00 and played on my computer for awhile. At 11:30 I called the driver to see if he could take me to get the SIM card cut-down for my iPhone and to go to the grocery. It turns out that everyplace is closed from noon-4:00. Now, I don't know if that's everyday of the week. I assume it is because Sunday is a weekday in Saudi (Sunday-Thursday; Friday and Saturday being the weekend). I ended-up going out, with my black abaya, at 5:00. After going to three different places we found the place to cut down my SIM card. 10 Riyals ($2.67). Then I went to the grocery. That was an interesting experience in a foreign country. I think I utilized every word of Arabic that I know (which isn't saying much). I stopped more random people to ask them garbled questions in my Arabic/English mess. Who knew the butter was sold in the deli section and you had to have them cut off the amount that you wanted? How in the world was I to know the Arabic word for bread crumbs? (I used sign language for that one, using my chicken breasts as a prop). I finally found (most) of what I wanted at the grocery and wandered up to the check-out to see what adventures awaited me there. Just as I go to get in line the grocery closes.....It's prayer time. The grocery is closed (with all of the customers still inside) for thirty minutes. So, I wait. Thirty minutes later I check-out. 402 Saudi Riyals ($107.19) More than I intended to spend but will surely last me a couple of weeks or more, along with getting some staple items like tea, sugar, spices. I made it home by around 8:30 and immediately got ready for bed because I was being picked up for school the next day at 7:00 AM to start my first day. I fall asleep at 10:30 and then the phone rings at 11:30. I shall leave the caller who forgot about the time change anonymous (I wouldn't call-out my step-daughter like that!) but after the phone call was over I couldn't go back to sleep. I finally fell asleep at 3:30AM then had to get up at 4:00 AM to pray. Went back to sleep and slept til 6:00AM (when my roommate yelled "Sarah, are you up? I don't want you to oversleep!") Well....I'm up now!
THE SCHOOL
We get to school at 7:20 AM and are greeted warmly by everyone. We have orientation until 12:00, at which time they serve us the most unappetizing sandwiches known to man that they had catered in for lunch. Everyone seemed to be happily ingesting these fiber bread sandwiches so I choked mine down and thanked God for the nourishment (and prayed that He wouldn't send such nourishment again!!!). At 12:30 we went to our classroom to start setting up. What can I say? I went into a white box with a big pile of furniture in the middle. Who knew I'd be moving furniture, in my work clothes, on the first day of school? Off to work I went. Got my furniture arranged then went down to haggle for which rugs I could take for carpet-time and reading corner. Then I got to tote said rugs up two flights of stairs and down the breezeway to my room. Work day number one was an overall success and we went home at 4:00. We were sweaty and dirty and running for the showers. NO WATER. We stay calm and get out the contact numbers that we were given on day one and we call the maintenance man. The phone just gives us a a beeping sound. So we call the compound supervisor- wrong number. So we stand and stare at each other. I decide to call the school contact and at least tell them what's wrong (after all, they are paying the rent!) I don't expect her to be able to do anything about it but at least we're letting them know. However, in about fifteen minutes the driver shows up with a man from the compound to fix our water. Five minutes later the water is fixed and we have the guy's number in case we ever need anything else (of course, he doesn't speak a word of English!) I finish what I was doing then go to take a bath. NO WATER. There is water in the kitchen and water in my roommates bathroom but no water in mine. Time to whip-out the phone again. I call and use every bit of my Arabic again to let him know (in very broken Arabic) who I am, where I live, and that the water is not working in my bathroom only. Again, he is there in five minutes and within about fifteen minutes I have hot water again. I take my bath and go directly to bed, at 8:30, with soaking wet hair. I sleep most of the night (wake up for an hour). Sleep! Finally!
Day two of school is a whole-day workday in our classrooms. I go to the resource room and try to find whatever supplies I can get my hands on. It's a kind-of fend-for-yourself type of thing. Having never set up a classroom before I'm not even sure what I need. But, I got a little bit of everything that I could find and tote it up the two flights of stairs and down the breezeway to my classroom. I got my bulletin boards covered and hung (finally! Color in my room!!) Got my chair pockets put on (more color!) Got my whiteboard hung (SmartBoard was the only thing already hanging). Left school again at 4:00...not quite as dead-tired as Day One but pretty worn-out. Stop at the mall (my car-mates needed some things) and stopped at a hardware store (again, my car-mate...but I did get a food chopper that I normally buy at Walmart for about $6 or $8 and I spent $16 USD on it here. However, it saves me from mincing onion and garlic by hand. I'm spoiled, ya know!) We stop at a Turkish take-out place on the way home and get sandwiches. Get in, dead-tired, eat, take a bath, and go to bed by 9:30. No phone calls and slept most the night (waking up several times...weird sounds, maybe?...but always went straight back to sleep).
Day three of school consisted of morning training and afternoon classroom set-up. Waiting for supplies and decorations to come in that were (apparently) ordered for my classroom at the end of last year. Bulletin board borders, number lines, alphabet lines, etc. Was told last year's teacher ordered BROWN boarders...I'm praying this is wrong! I'm trying too hard to get a colorful, inviting classroom. Left at 4:00 again and here I am at home writing this blog!
Now you know more than you ever wanted to know about my life in Saudi. By the way...tomorrow is training all morning and then, hopefully, some curriculum mapping with the other second grade teacher (while I am probably still waiting for my supplies and decorations to come!) Then, at 4:00 the weekend begins! I'll have to get accustomed to a Friday-Saturday weekend. I have no idea what I'm going to do for two days. I think a load of laundry and a trip to the pool are in order. We'll just have to wing it from there.
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