“But you haven’t even been gone long enough to feel homesick!”
Category: Saudi Arabia
Everything is temporary
While I am waiting on my visa to arrive, I feel like everything is so temporary. I can’t make any solid, long term plans because I don’t know how long I have until I return back to KSA. The other day there was a really great sale on chicken at the grocery store and I…
mafi sabr
Summer has officially ended and autumn is here. The new semester has started and I am still in the states. Yes, you read that right. My students are having class and I still don’t have my visa or flight back to the kingdom. My husband tried staying here as long as he could but sadly…
Kendra in USA
My year in Saudi working for Al-Khaleej Training and Education has finally concluded, and I am safely home in the states. But that doesn’t mean I’m not returning to Saudi. I plan on returning this fall but working as a direct hire for a different university. Did I want to leave Al-Khaleej? Honestly, no. The company…
Simplicity
Sometimes I find myself being completely bored out of my mind here. Granted, there isn’t much to do- no theaters, no clubs, restrictions on restaurants women can go to, and so on. It’s no secret that life here can be difficult at times simply because it is so boring. The cool thing about this,…
That’s cheesy
Getting around in this country is rather difficult, especially for women. I mean it’s hard for men because most of them are scared to drive, but women aren’t even afforded the choice of driving or not. It’s straight up illegal for a woman to operate a car here. Yeah, it’s a stupid rule, and demeaning…
Me fail Engrish?
Today I went for some groceries, but was a total laze and ended up buying fast food instead of actually cooking real food. I ordered my food, in English of course, as I haven’t learned Arabic yet because as I stated earlier I am a total laze. I started talking with the employee and was…
Riyadh and chill
This weekend was fun because I got to get away from my ultra- conservative city here in Buraidah, and head to the capital city of Riyadh. It’s still conservative, but not so conservative that I can’t ditch the niqab and head to Buffalo Wild Wings with my friends. It’s kind of like replicating the American experience,…
Other mother
The other day in class I tried explaining the concept of a nuclear family to some of my students. During the lesson it dawned on me that maybe it was a stupid thing to teach despite being in the book, because most of my student’s fathers have more than one wife, so what I was…
Gold Market
Downtown in the heart of Buraidah there is a bazaar type setup. It’s a bustling area with many different shops, both indoors and outdoors. Some of my co-workers and I heard that there was a gold souk, so we set out to find it, after making a quick stop at the bakery to sample some…
There are two main types of clothing here- There’s the mainstream western apparel (like HM, Zara, Steve Madden, and so on.) Then there is a more traditional eastern apparel, which mixes fun prints and colors with gorgeous embroidery. Most of the dresses are long and flowy, and they have a bohemian vibe to them. Even…
Kendra in KSA 