Discrimination or privilege?

What's wrong with this picture?

I went to the bank yesterday. As I am an independant woman (!), I went on my own. Only, as I'd been told my husband's absence could be a problem and I didn't want to lose my - precious! - time, I decided to try the bank's ladies' branch. I only knew, as the name says, that these branches are for women only to go to, but I'd never actually been to one before.

When I approached the tinted glass door, a nice female guard opened the door and greeted me before she locked the door behind me. I entered a nice, clean, spacious office, took my turn and sat down, waiting to be called. After about 2 minutes I was invited to sit down in front of a - female - executive. She was wearing a very elegant suit by the way. As did the rest of the female workers. She greeted me with a smile, took my cheque, handed me a pen to write my name and number on it, took it back, gave me the corresponding amount of money, said ma'a salaama, and off I went!

Boring story eh? Well the reason I shared this, is because this experience took the very last bit of feminism I used to have inside me. I mean, I used to think, why should there be places for ladies only? Are we any different that we can't go to the same bank men go to? But yesterday I understood...! Because, as you probably don't know, some places in Saudi Arabia, especially downtown Jubail, are not quite civilized! So my experience in a regular bank branch used to be: come in, take your turn, stand around for half an hour in the middle of a crowd of stinky workmen, go to the window, don't receive any greeting, barely get looked at or spoken to by the bank assistant, and leave under the stare of the workmen. Not the nicest of experiences, and not one you'd like to repeat. 

What would you do? Have I lived in KSA for too long already? Is it time I got back to a country where women are treated without discrimination nor privileges?

Just so you get an idea of downtown Jubail:
people queuing in front of a remittance office on a Friday night.

Storks flight over Jubail

It's common knowledge that power cuts can turn out to boost birth rates, but only few people know that living in Saudi Arabia, for some reason - which I wouldn't be able to explain here, even though I heard there might be something in the water...-, has the exact same effect!

This phenomenon has two main consequences:

   - Families in Saudi Arabia are much larger than in Western countries: with an average of 4 children per woman (which has fallen to 2.3 in the last two years), families with 5-8 children are more the rule than the exception. I remember one day as a Saudi friend invited me to her brother's house, so both her children and her brother's were there: with a total of 10 children running around, it felt like being in a nursery!

    - Expats are not exempt from this fertility boost! Only they're much more discreet, regarding the numbers of children (usually 2 or 3, rarely more), and because the mothers usually emigrate to give birth, since most of them don't feel comfortable about giving birth here. So we see our friends leave with a huuuge belly (well only as huge as the airlines allow them to be!) and coming back a few months later with their new baby.

The only thing we can do to help them, is wish them good luck, and organize a great baby shower before they leave!

(Warning: pink ahead!)

Good luck Loles, I'll miss you, come back soon!

A new fancy place in town...

What's this new, fancy, most fashionable place in town? ("town" refers to Al-Khobar, one long hour drive away from the village of Al-Jubail) 

Yeah, it says "fresh foods" on the front so, in spite of the crazy lights, it's probably not a nightclub (besides, we're in Saudi Arabia!)

It's more likely to be... a supermarket! But not just any supermarket: I'm talking parquet floor, subdued lighting, friendly staff, fresh vegetables, organized shelves, and loads of yummy importation products! 

Look at all these exotic (Mexican!) chilis: (my kitchen already smells of salsa verde and rajas con queso)

Lettuce coming by air from the U.S... Eco-friendliness or diet, my conscience is guilty either way... (Oh, and not only does it hurt my conscience, its price hurts my wallet: 6 euros for a bag of American lettuce!)

On a less enthusiastic note, here's a link for those who'd like to read about the Shia protests in the region:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-police-open-fire-on-civilians-as-protests-gain-momentum-2365614.html

The best burger in town

Being French, my first reference of what a good burger should be, was - dreadfully - McDonalds... And then I moved to Mexico, discovered Carl's Jr., my standard for a good burger went up, and I swore never to eat at McDonalds again. But that was before I moved to Saudi Arabia, discovered Johnny Rockets, and swore never to eat at Carl's Jr. again!

I mean, look at these!

And they also serve ketchup smiley faces!

Table jukebox which unfortunately does not work (The restaurant looked so western, the waiter had to remind us music is forbidden in Saudi Arabia)

You were not thinking about drinking a Coke with your burger, were you?

A vanilla milkshake is the best way of enhancing your burger's flavour
(twice the calories, twice the pleasure!)

The emptied restaurant just about to close for the evening prayer

Happy Saudi national day!

Yesterday was Saudi Arabia's national day, commemorating the unification of the Kingdom in 1932. As it fell on a Friday (weekend for us), the King was very generous and gave us today (Saturday, normally the first day of the week) off! How cool is that? 

Obviously the roads were very busy yesterday, many people had adorned their cars with green Saudi flags, and the malls were absolutely crowded! It was nice though, as many kids and young men were wearing green shirts / thawbs / wigs / make up! (It would almost feel like St. Patrick's day!) And on top of that, there were National Day offers!

Can you figure out what all these green heart-shaped balloons are?

Let's have a closer look:

Balloons portraying King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia

Isyraf, Merwede, Jabran, Zainab and Co.

Teaching at an international school offers great challenges, some of them specific to the international audience you're facing. Here are a couple:

- Learning the students' names is never an easy task, but here it's particularly hard! (and getting the pronounciation right is another challenge) 

- As a French teacher, working on nationalities had never taken me that much time. When listing everyone's nationality in French, I thought the list would never end: most kids have at least two nationalities and they didn't want to leave out any single one!

- Pronounciation and language difficulties are different for every student, since their mother tongues are as diverse as Rumanian, Afrikaans, Urdu, Spanish, Arabic, Malay, Italian, Tagalog, English, etc.

- Having so many languages spoken in the classroom, it's very likely that some kid will find a similarity with his own language and want to highlight it in front of the class (guaranteed interruptions!)

- Assignments written by Arabic speakers who are still relatively new to the English language can be very hard to read! It kind of looks like it's been written with the left hand... (which is probably what my Arabic teacher must think of my Arabic handwriting!)

- You want to be very careful about what you say in the classroom since the kids, in spite of being only 12 years old, already have their own (or their community's) political opinions. 

  For instance, mentioning Denmark can put you into trouble (I thought the cartoons affair was an old story, but apparently it's not!).

  Or, when working on French-speaking countries with an atlas, you'll catch a Pakistani kid pointing at a map of the Indian subcontinent and arguing with a young Indian about why Pakistan has more legitimacy over Kashmir.

On the positive side, when asking them why they wanted to learn French, they were able to name plenty of good reasons, and these didn't include the typical "I like the way it sounds", or "my parents want me to". 

The fact that they're both immature young and already open onto the world actually makes it really fun for me, and I hope to have some more stories to share with you soon!

Imagine a world...

... where, getting up on a Sunday afternoon, you don't need to face the first tough choice of the day: decide whether you feel like having breakfast or lunch;

... where well-behaved boys are rewarded with balloon dogs;

... where Parmesan cheese does not come out of a box and can be savoured without pasta (but yes with wine!);

... where pasta is prepared to order with fresh ingredients;

... where the chef actually understands how much Nutella you mean when you order a crêpe with "a lot of Nutella";

... where oysters does not have to be eaten by the dozen;

 ... where everyone eats at his own pace, four hours long;

... where you can pick the sweet just because of their colours, and not be disappointed;

... where you can wear ridiculous balloon hats and not be pointed at!

Come and visit me, and experience the magic of a Friday brunch in Bahrain!