Things to do in Saudi when you're....

... me

It's easy to lose motivation in Saudi.  Something about it makes you lazy.  Not wanting to fight the traffic, plan your day around prayer times, or deal with people who may or may not assume they're better than you all have something to do with it.  Once the oppressive heat begins, it will be a major contributing factor.   But there's something else.  It's something about the ridiculousness of it all.  Navigating through a myriad of glaring contradictions and frustrations makes you want to retreat into your own space and to find respite.  Once there, having dealt with the absurdity can give you the distinct sense that you've earned your time for self gratification and indulgences in laziness.  It's easy to spend hours on facebook or watching downloaded series and movies.  Skyping and e-chatting with folks certainly helps you feel connected.  Connected not with "home" or "self" or the "who" you used to be but with the rest of the world where things are "normal".  I've even started referring to everything outside of Saudi as the 'real world'.  It's easy to find yourself counting days and wasting time.

Before I arrived, I had designs of spending lots of time on self-improvement.  Fully aware that I wouldn't have a social network to tempt me with constant goings-on, or the crutch that delicious beer and local watering-holes can so often be (in all their deserved glory), I planned on writing, doing my own brands of yoga and tai chi, reading, maybe trying to pick up the guitar again, developing some recipes, learning as much Arabic as possible, incorporating flossing into my daily routine, and of course exploring as many cultural opportunities as I was afforded.

This is my progress so far.

The fruits of my writing you're privy to.  It's not as easy as I thought to have something interesting to relate on a regular basis but I love the frame of mind that constantly being on the look out for inspiration puts me in and I hope that as I have more authentic experiences with locals as well as through domestic travel, anecdotes will write themselves, larger themes will begin to reveal themselves and my writings will be less observational in nature.  I also hope to write down and expand upon lots of my notes from the CZ and hopefully they'll be coming soon.  Inshallah. Or should I say, doufám.

The eastern health pursuits have been going well and I have maintained a steady regimen especially since my neck injury.  They've helped immensely.

I've only read half a book.

I haven't yet bought a guitar but the money keeps coming in and it's not hard to stay below the budget I've given myself based on my savings goals.  So we'll see.

That budget and the fore-mentioned Saudi-induced lethargy along with less than easily accessible ingredients and only having two hotplates to work with have proven to crush my illusions of lots of cooking for myself.  It is just too easy and too affordable to go out to eat, especially for dinner after the last prayer.  My eating habits have improved in that I'm eating a lot more fruit, both fresh and juiced, and any increase in caloric intake from meals is easily being offset by my drastic reduction in beer consumption.

My Arabic is at the point now where I can give situationally-appropriate, short responses and draw some laughter.  I can also conduct any transaction that I need to, direct cabbies, and explain who I am and what I do.  The alphabet, grammar, and greatly expanding my vocabulary are next (those minor details), the most daunting of which is the alphabet and my reluctance to begin with it says as much about my apprehension.  More office hours in my schedule after the semester break will hopefully help in stirring my motivation and will allow me access to a multitude of language teachers, a great number of which are versed in both English and Arabic. Formal lessons are, in my experience, the best environment for language acquisition, especially in the early stages, but even on my own I could be working harder, and I plan to.

Starting to floss is harder than quitting anything I've ever tried to.  It's baffling.

And as far as cultural experiences, simply letting them come to me has only proven to help me experience a lot of what the expat community here is and does.  Compounds, sport, and a few intimate house parties have all been great and I am so thankful for them, and I'll even be attending my first 'embassy do' next weekend which I'll look forward to sharing with you all, but as far as getting in touch with authentic Saudi, my strategy might have to become more proactive.

Part of the reason I pursued a job here was that I looked forward to the opportunity to limit distractions and focus on being productive.  I haven't quite lived up to my expectations but I feel that I've laid the groundwork and spoken a big enough game to hold myself to them.  If ever an excuse was needed to start to explore and improve things about yourself, having ridiculous amounts of free time in a far away land is it, and with the right balance between work and leisure, diligence and indulgence, and excuses both to and to not, I hope to come away from my experience here a little wiser and much more versed in the things I value.