Giving a Cultural Lecture to Second Graders

My sister, Kristi, told me that our sister in law, Debra, who is a teacher at St. Patric's school in downtown Cedar Falls, is looking for students from other countries to come and speak to the kids about their countries.

I was suppose to talk about the education system, traditional clothes, holidays, religion, and anything else I wanted to share with them.

I decided to go with traditional clothe to school so they can see it themselves. The way kids were looking at me was so cute. They were smiling and most of them were surprised because they didn't know if I was a guy or a girl. I finished talking about my country and it was the time for questions. Most of the questions were alright except the one who asked if we believe in Jesus. I said of course we believe in him but not in the same way you do. We don't think that he is a God. And the look at their face was priceless. They were so shocked that I said that. Then I told them, this is why we have a different religion.

These are some pictures that Debra took.

Me with traditional clothe standing before the kids. :)


Abby and I, She is pointing to her name that is written in Arabic.

A group picture with the kids

What grabbed my attention was how quite, well behaved, and polite the kids were. I don't know if we ever going to have such an teaching environment back in Saudi Arabia. Over here, they teach the kids how to be inventors and back home, unfortunatelly, they teach the kids to be workers. I hope this changes and that government officials finally get the importance of changing the education system, the material being taught, and the way it's being treated in order to become a more developed country.

But that's only a wish.

Meeting the Most Adorable Kids

Well, I got a phone call from Joan, my American mom, inviting me to dinner at Texas Road House for a family gathering. I always like to hang out with them cause I have the chance to meet David's kid. David is my American brother and he has 3 boys; Andrew, Austin, and Jeremy.

Jeremy and I will work on opening a "Saudi/Italian" restaurant and it seems he has been saving a lot of money. The last time I checked with him, he saved $32 and it's the only thing he talks to me about when I see him.

While we were having dinner, I talked to them about my trip from back home to the US and the troubles that we were put into because of one of the new students who was flying with us.

After dinner, we went to the host family house, sat, talked with each other and had some home made desert. Then I gave the family the souvenirs I brought to them from home. I gave Joe and Joan a prayer rag to put it on the wall. They have a lot of things from around the world and I thought that will make a great addition to their collection. I gave Kristi, David, and Debra each a bottle of traditional perfume. I got the kids traditional clothes and they tried it on. It was the cutest thing ever to see them dressed up in something different.

Here are some pictures:


Me putting "Ghotra" on Andrew's head.

Andrew after putting all traditional clothe on him. :)

Jeremy with "Taqiah" in his head.





Jermaya and Me.

Austin and Me.

The kids, Austin, Andrew, and Jeremy


The kids with Debra and David.

Austin with his serious face. :)

I'm glad that I'm part of this family. Thank you the Marchesanies for making me feel one of you.

Being back to the US, Baby Sitting and Culture Shock

Well, I'm finally back.

After being away for a very long time, for almost 8 months, I'm back and I'm going to finish my 2 degrees. It feels really strange. For a couple of days I was taking care of 2 new Saudi student. I had to take them to school, open a bank account, find an apartment for them, get them things and on the top of that cook for them.

I was fine with doing all of that but then I realized that not only them but I was also going through a culture shock. It felt as if I was never here before. It took me almost 2 weeks to finally accept that I'm back.

It started with being very weird but now I feel much better. What I really miss is the friends that I had before leaving. Almost all of them are gone and the ones that are here are too busy.

It was good to meet my host family, I was so excited to see them and spend some time with them.

I miss my family back home and every time I get bored/frustrated with my school project, I think of them and I feel much better.

That's it for now and there are more posts coming. :)

Tears of Happiness and Sadness

I'm almost 4 days away from leaving Saudi Arabia to the US. I went to see my aunts and little cousins on Thursday and I got a bit sad, I will miss them all. I still remember when they were younger and cuter three years ago. I started to think more about how I really missed them over the past 3 years I was in the US and how much I'm going to miss them during the next year I'm going to be gone. On the other hand, I'm happy that I can finally go back to the US and finish what I have started and get my degrees from UNI.

The true tears will be coming out on Monday night when I leave the house, I stayed here for almost 7 months and nothing really makes me sad as much as seeing mom crying because I'm leaving. I got used to be spoiled by her for the past 7 months and I will miss her much. I will miss running with my dad everyday. I will miss hanging out with friends and eat our food. I will miss going to the mosque to pray. But I know it's temporary. I will finish school and move on with my life.

Islamic Radicals and Going to the US

Well, I have a couple of days to leave Saudi Arabia to the US to finish my last year of school. Almost a week ago, an idiot tried to bomb a Northwest plane flying from Amsterdam to Detroit. Thanks God, nothing has happened and they were able to capture this maniac.

What really surprises me is how was Al-Qaeda able to recruit these young people and let them do their dirty work. As a Muslim, I feel ashamed for what these people do but on the other hand, I understand whey there were called "Islamic Radicals."

I hope people really understand the true message of Islam and treat each other with love and peace. I also hope I won't face any difficulties in different airports.

New Look

After at least three years and after being asked by so many people, I decided to do something different with my face and have a new look.

My problem is that I can't see myself without facial hair, I don't think a guy will look nice without facial hair, but that's only my opinion.

Here is how I looked like before:

And this is how I look now:


I remember the next day I woke up, I wasn't able to recognize myself. lol
This will take a couple of days for me and everyone around me to get used to.

Leaving To Hong Kong, no wait, go back to the US

Some of you know that I came back from the US in summer to spend time with family and get my student visa renewed. Well, things didn't go the way I wanted them and my student visa got delayed for almost 23 weeks.

Nothing seemed to work for me. I decided that it's time to move on, I can't just sit and wait not knowing whether I'll get the visa or when will I get it. UNI has a site in Hong Kong, where the same professors teach students there. I thought of trying that and not waste any time anymore. I got admitted to the school there, found a place to stay and had to go and apply for a student visa through the Chinese Embassy. The only issue was, I DON'T HAVE MY PASSPORT, because it was still held in the US Consulate.

I sent them emails to bring my passport back and they ignored all of them. I even went there and they said, "we are sorry we can't help you now, it's a bit late, come back later." Four days later, I went early in the morning and told please give me my passport. The lady asked me to wait for a bit to contact someone inside and I waited around 2 hours before she was able to get a hold of someone. Then, it took that person half an hour to call me and this is what she said to me:

• Lady inside consulate: What do you want?
• Me: I want my passport back, you guys are holding it for almost 6 months now.
• Lady inside consulate: You are "Garrous" --> Algarrous is my last name and notice no Mr. before it.
• Me: yes
• Lady inside consulate: Are you the one who sends us emails everyday.
• Me: yes
• Lady inside consulate (with a very offensive and disrespectful voice): You think if you do that, we will give you the visa sooner?
• Me (completely shocked with the way she was talking to me and angry): Please don't talk this way and respect yourself, and just give me my passport.
• Lady inside consulate: Don't send us emails, you won't get it if you do that.
  
• Me: Please give me my passport, don't tell me what to do or not. Just give my passport.

I was so mad because I felt I was disrespected by this lady, I don't know what her problem was but she doesn't have the right to talk to me in that tone. After 20 minutes, she called again and this time this is what she said:

• Lady inside consulate: Mr. Algarrous, Why don't you leave your passport here, It's better to do so
• Me: Why?
• Lady inside consulate: We received the security clearance just this morning and we can print your visa within the next two days and send you the passport with the visa, this is what I recommend doing anyway and it's up to you.
• Me (compeletly shocked and surprised): Are you serious? I finally can get my visa?
• Lady inside consulate: Yes, and I promise to send it to you within the next 3 days.
• Me: Thank you so much, ya please do that. Thank you again.

I was so happy, and had so many things going through my mind at that point. I called mom and dad and told them and came back home and after receiving my passport, I canceled everything for Hong Kong.

I'm coming back to the US a couple of days before the school starts in January. It will be so good to see my "American Mom and Dad" and "My nephews."