What's Been and What's Ben

Gas is cheaper than water here. Locals don’t even know the price. I had a four hour dinner tonight followed by a driving tour of Jeddah. We walked through a high-priced shopping center. We had discussions about how Saudis get married. Dating goes on here under the radar, depending on the family. Being engaged is common, non-binding, and set up by mothers at the request of their sons. So being engaged here is more like dating that your family approves of. Women in Jeddah don’t always cover their head. Shorts seem fine as long as they cover your knees. Parties with alcohol do happen here and religious police are more about giving strong suggestions that putting you behind bars. A lot of activity just goes on in private as the many stores with modern western-style dresses will attest to.

I will say that people litter here like it is in the early 1960′s in America. Something that will hopefully change. My campus will not recycle because there is nowhere to send stuff to be processed. There is a problem with an abundance of unmarried females since males will often go elsewhere to marry a foreigner while the females rarely do so. Cars from the ’70s are cool here since every and anybody has a new BMW. Ramadan is going on now so when we left the hotel at 11 pm we were thrown into the peak of rush hour.

I explained the entire recent fiscal crisis at dinner. Many of us westerns want to get thobes (the white tunic things) because they are cooler in the heat. They cost the same to go to a tailor as pre-made. Then you get to customize the color, material, buttons, and other stuff. They cost around 50 bucks then with the big boxers and underwear traditionally worn with them.