Often I am harassed by many people, even my own family, for my decision to move to Saudi Arabia. Everyone tells me how much the people in Saudi Arabia hate Americans. And it’s insane that they tell me these things, because I live here, I should be the ones telling them, right?

So, I will make a post to tell everyone how much Saudis hate Americans, from a first hand experience.

Today I went to a ladies market with my American coworker, Mona. Since neither of us speak Arabic we were talking in English, and we stopped to get some street food. While standing in line a Saudi woman approached us. She came to me first as I was the one speaking, and she said “Are you American?” I told her that we were both American. She hated Americans so much that she went to get her friends that were with her so she could introduce us. Her friends also hate Americans too, and all they could do was gush on about how badly they wanted to visit USA, and we ended up exchanging phone numbers because they wanted to invite us to dinner so we could talk more.

As if that wasn’t horrifying enough, I met another woman who hated Americans when I went to buy makeup. I only needed a stick of eyeliner but I still had a very specific request- it had to be liquid liner with a felt tip. I didn’t have a lot of time so it seemed much easier to just ask a sales associate if they had it. I spoke to her in English only and she went to the back to get what I need. While she was ringing me out she asked if I was American. When I told her yes she was so disgusted that she stepped around the counter to shake my hand.

I can’t even deal with the way people treat me here. I mean I know everyone keeps telling me how much Arabs hate Americans, but I wasn’t expecting this at all. No one has ever hated me so much that they gave me their phone number and invited me to meet again. And I plan on meeting them again, so if I do I’ll blog about it.

Salaam,

KC