A Good Weekend

This weekend offered me a few 'note'-worthy opportunities that I'd previously not had, and both were pretty cool.

Saudi Football (Soccer):

A student who I recently started teaching privately mentioned that he was going to a football match on Wednesday.  When I told him that sounded like fun and that I hoped he had a good time, he asked me if I'd like to go.  "For sure" was obviously my response.  It was to be an Asian Champions league group match between Saudi Champions Al-Hilal and a team from Doha, Qatar.  

He didn't call me until almost 8:30 on Wednesday night, so, thinking that the plans had fallen through, I was already out at the compound having a few glasses of home made (vinegar) wine with 7up. This was pretty unfortunate because I didn't have my camera with me, but having had a few glasses of wine, as we approached the stadium, I did find myself wondering if I was the only one in the joint rocking a little buzz.  

The stadium itself is quite impressive from the outside and the design is both unique and quintessentially Arabian.  It's made to look like a giant tent in the middle of the desert, which is pretty much what it is, and it was at this point that I both appreciated my buzz and wished I had my camera.  (check out a Google images search of King Fahad International Stadium if you wanna check it out)

Once inside, the thing that was most notable to me was the distribution of fans in the various sections throughout the stadium.  There were three prices of tickets that allowed access to one of three general admission seating areas.  The 20 Riyal (~5 bucks) ticket area looked nearly full.  It was directly across from us and stretched the length of the field.  It was two tiers and both levels all the way across were rocking pretty much the whole game.  Our side of the stadium was divided into two sections.  The center was VIP and while I wasn't told how much the tickets cost it was apparent that they were out of our price range.  The seats were painted yellow and those in attendance were basically all wearing white thobes and shmars.  The section wasn't nearly full and the fans there sat quietly and comfortably.  On either side of the VIP's were two general admission areas with tickets costing 150 Riyals (~40 bucks).  We sat in one of these sections which weren't nearly full either and the folks sitting around us were mostly younger people wearing western clothes (lots of European football jerseys) and some parents with young children.  

What stood out to me was that your view of the field didn't change with the price you paid.  In fact, you could get the same seat with the same view directly across from the VIP section in the center of the field (equivalent of the 50 yard line) for an eighth of the price.  What you paid for was the type of people you were around and how tightly packed you were sitting with them.  The stadium on this particular night was only about a third full (the seats behind both goals were almost completely empty) but it also occurred to me that in a sell out, when everyone was pretty packed into their seat, that there really wasn't much difference between the sections in terms of how comfortable you were.  It seemed to be more of an issue of status than anything, which considering other things I've observed here so far, wasn't all that surprising.

The game wasn't too exciting but a header goal just after halftime and another goal late gave Al-Hilal a 2-nil victory and sent everybody home feeling fairly satisfied.  

An Estraha:

On Thursday night, my good buddy David invited me to go along with him to a little event that his students had planned.  They were his class from the previous semester and had decided to get together and honor David and the other teachers who taught their section.  They rented what's called an Estaha which is basically a little place outside of the home to hang out.  Ours was a walled in area on the outskirts of the city with a large room for indoor seating, a barbecue, a small kitchen, a praying area, and a decent sized field of grass in the middle.  Estraha, which literally translates as "a break", are traditionally places that men go to gather and it was cool to see what one was like and share in the experience.  

The students picked us up and from the beginning two things were immediately apparent: 1) that planning was not the students' strong suit and 2) The teachers (and me by extension) were to receive the utmost respect.  

We had to head all over town to pick up another student who was trying to coordinate with other students to arrange rides for everyone.  Once in the car, finding the Estraha took another hour thanks to the fact that no system of addresses exists and that no one was quite sure how to give us good enough directions to guide us in.  We stopped a few times to ask people if they had any idea where the Estrahas were and finally, with a bit of luck, we happened upon it. 

We were a bit pressed for time because we had to be at another party later that night for a Polish friend of ours who was moving to Dubai.  This, however, put us in direct conflict with the general mood and from what I could tell, the culture.  There was absolutely no sense of urgency when it came to getting things put together and started with any sort of promptness.  For the first couple hours we all just kind of sat around in the seating area and chatted.  Arabic Coffee was poured, then tea.  Little bread pastries and cakes were distributed as people showed up bearing the gifts they'd brought.  Dates of course were served with the coffee.   There was also an assortment of juice.  Casually the gathering moved outside as it cooled down.  Some people kicked the football around.  David and I brought a frisbee which a few of the students got a kick out of.  There was also a t.v. set up outside which the students had rigged a PS3 to in order to play football video games.  We all just kinda sat around.  

For their lack of planning and promptness, though, it certainly seemed to work.  They seemed to plan on not planning and were totally cool with just hanging out as things took their natural course.  It made me wish we didn't have somewhere to be so we could just sit back and enjoy the relaxed atmosphere as well, but we were forced to encourage the guys to get things moving a little more quickly as our hour of departure grew closer.  We were finally able to get some guys to light the barbecue and we got to enjoy some delicious kababs (of which they'd bought 13 kilos!) and some cake before we had to go, an hour and a half after we'd originally planned.  It seemed that despite our best efforts, even we had succumbed to "Arab Time".  

When it came to dealing with us, the students were extremely outgoing and genuine.  One of us was always given the front seat in any car we rode in, and the students wouldn't let us get up to get anything.  They poured our drinks, and brought us the dates and sweets.  They were extremely appreciative of David and the other teachers who were there and even honored them at the end with a large cake decorated with pictures of their class.  It was nice to see students, even though they weren't mine, in this setting.  It highlighted to me the difference between the amount of respect a lot of the students have for the educational process (which is very little) and the amount of respect they have for us teachers as people.  It was also really great to hang out with some students socially.  There really are a lot of good kids amongst them which sometimes can be hard to remember when you're only dealing with them in the classroom and getting the worst of their behavior.


The going away party ended up being your usual expat compound fun complete with a hangover that always seems to be so much disproportionately worse than it should be.  There is something about homemade wine coupled with being in what has to be the brightest country on earth that makes even a tame night regrettable.


Altogether it was a good weekend.