I am posting pictures of my trip at: https://mckagan.shutterfly.com/823
I never did manage to get back to sleep this morning, but Mike woke up early too, so I put on my abaya and head scarf and we went to breakfast at the hotel restaurant at 8am.
All restaurants have a separate men's section, where men dining without women or children sit, and family section, where everyone else sits (families and single women). Technically Mike and I should not be eating together, since we're not married or related, but they tend to be more lax with westerners, and I think people just assume we're married if they see us together. When we arrived at the restaurant, they directed us to the family section. I had read about the separate sections and was prepared for that. What I was not prepared for was the dividers separating each table in the family section from the others, so you couldn't interact with, or even see, the other families.
I get the sense that there are a lot of institutionalized ways here to separate people from one another, to make sure that people don't interact in ways they're not supposed to. Every block of homes that I've seen has a giant concrete fence around it. Flying in over the desert, we saw isolated little compounds of houses in the middle of the desert, surrounded by huge flood lights. I asked our host about these, and he thought they might be homes for the royal family.
On the other hand, children seem to be given a lot of freedom. There was an adorable little girl at the restaurant, who was maybe 2 or 3, running around happily babbling in Arabic to Mike and I, and nobody stopped her. Later, we saw three teenage girls in the courtyard. They were wearing abayas and head scarves, but they had their abayas unbuttoned and were wearing jeans and t-shirts underneath, and their head scarves kept falling off (mine does too! I have not yet learned how to wear it properly). They were running around taking pictures of each other with their pink iphones, having a great time.
The restaurant was buffet style, and women were allowed to get up and serve themselves. It was an odd assortment of western and middle eastern foods, and I tried a little of almost everything.
I saw one woman at the restaurant wearing the full covering with only a tiny slit for her eyes (even smaller than the slit for the woman I saw at the airport), and she was also wearing black gloves, even when she served herself at the buffet! That creeped me out a bit. There are quite a few western men staying at the hotel, but I have not seen any other western women. Also a lot of Saudi guests, both men and families. Other than the teenage girls, I haven't seen any women alone at the hotel.
Inside the hotel, there is a beautiful courtyard filled with trees and birds, so Mike and I sat outside and worked there until it got too hot. I walked around the courtyard a little bit first. There was one building containing a play area for kids, with arcade games and pictures of Mickey Mouse on the walls. On the map of Riyadh, there are a TON of theme parks all over the city. It makes sense, since there is no entertainment in the sense we tend to think of in the west (movie theaters, nightlife, etc.), that they would have a lot of wholesome family entertainment. Also in the courtyard, there was a restaurant with outdoor seating and a pool I'm not allowed to use. With the heat here, I am definitely going to be resentful about not being allowed to use the pool by the end of the week! I'm also not allowed to use the gym. There was also another pool that was only a few inches deep, I guess just for show. As the day got hotter, I started thinking there is something seriously misogynistic about making the women wear all black in the desert, while the men wear white robes. If the point is just to cover the women, why not cover them in white? Questions I never thought about until actually sitting in the hot desert wearing a black robe...
Riyadh is one of the few cities in the world that is not near any natural water source. Usually when that happens, there's some really interesting political reason. I don't know the details, but from what I've read, most of the city has sprung up relatively recently. In the parts I've seen, which isn't much, there is construction going on everywhere (see the pictures of the view from my hotel room). They are also making huge investments in education (hence my trip!), and I see almost as many universities as theme parks on the map. One is called "Prince Nayif Security Science University". I'm guessing "security science" is a euphemism for military.
This morning as I took a very hot shower, I wondered where the heck they get all their water from out here. We are hundreds of miles from any water source, so they must have to pipe it in from somewhere very far away. I kept thinking I should try to take a fast shower, but after my long day of traveling, I just couldn't help enjoying it for a long long time. Later, as I saw a man use a hose to clean off the stones in the very large and already quite clean courtyard, I realized the futility of my attempt to conserve water in the desert.
Once it got too hot to be in the courtyard, we went back to my room and worked until lunch. It was such a relief to be able to take the abaya and head scarf off!
We went back to the same restaurant for lunch. They had a huge spread of middle eastern dips, all of which were very good. The hot food had a large variation in quality. There are a disturbing number of dishes containing what look like little hot dogs, although they can't be pork (there are stern warnings against smuggling pork, porn, or alcohol into the country).
When families come to the restaurant, the wait staff rearrange the dividers between the tables to surround them completely. I'm surprised how much this bothers me.
I'm surprised how much the abaya and head scarf bother me. When I heard I was going to have to wear it, I thought of it as a fun novelty, and really didn't think I'd have a problem with it. I've never thought much about the state of women in the muslim world, and if I did think about it, I had pretty neutral thoughts: I sure wouldn't want to live that way myself, but that's their culture. But now that I'm here, I can't stop thinking about it, and reacting to it at a gut level. I rip the thing off as soon as I get back to my room. Maybe I'll feel differently after my workshop, when I'll have the chance to actually get to know some Saudi women, instead of just observing them from a distance as these hidden disembodied beings.
I've read that the king of Saudi Arabia has really started making a push for tourism in the last few years, and is trying to open the country up to outsiders. (It is now possible to get a tourist visa if you're with an official tour group - it used to be impossible under any circumstances.) Apparently, his idea is that by letting outsiders in while keeping it a very traditional Islamic state, he will give the world a shining example of a wonderful modern country that still maintains Islamic law, and this will help people appreciate how great it is. With me, being here is having the exact opposite effect. I'm getting less and less tolerant.
Sam
P.S. Lucy's dad sent me the following update about her:
Today Lucy woke up and said "Mama?" with a questioning look, like there was something she was forgetting. I told her "Mama is in Saudi Arabia" and she was satisfied with that and was ready to go about her day. Tonight while we were hanging out she told me "Mama adiaba", which I helped her with "Mama is in Saudi Arabia". She liked that and is getting better at pronouncing it, although she still has a ways to go.
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