13 things i realized i missed about Saudi

So,i just arrived back to saudi this week after a year being in the US,and as soon as i landed,i realized that there are quite a few things i missed about saudi arabia,but some how i didn't know that i did.
so i made a list of the things that came to my mind for now,i might add more later:


- Luggage carts are actually free!
yup! you dont have to pay 3 dollars every time you take a cart for less than twenty minute of use,you can take it for free!

-Gas is so cheap,you never have to worry about topping your cars tank,a full tank doesn't cost you more than 10 dollars maximum for a medium size sedan.

-Streets in Saudi are so well lit at night,u barely need to use the head lights to light your way when you drive at night,in fact,i only turned them on for safety reasons like to be visible in the rear view of other vehicles.

-Streets in Saudi are pretty wide,and in some areas they are wider than the widest street ive seen anywhere ive been.

-Speed limits in Saudi are high,ive never seen a single street or road or even a highway within north carolina that goes over 70 Miles per hour which is equal 112 km/h,and the only part that goes up to 70 is a long stretch in I-85 between North Carolina and Virginia,while ive seen many areas in riyadh,like the ring road that is connects the airport to the city where the speed limit is 120 km/h which is 74.5 miles/h,so i was kinda shocked to know that i was actually driving pretty fast even when i am following the speed limits.
and just to let you know,the norm is that people drive 140 km/h (87 Miles/h) in areas where the limit is 120 km/h.. and of course,some go even faster.

-Traffic lights are different in Saudi and US,at an intersection,when its green in Saudi for your way the intersection is completely reserved for your line,you can go straight or to the left or right without yielding,all the other three intersecting ways are red.
though some intersections in saudi are operated by opposites at a time,so for two opposite ways,it turns green to go straight only,then it turn red,after that it turns green to turn left only for both ways,so at any given green,all vehicles do not intersect paths.
while in the US,its a blend of both,when it turns green,u can go straight and turn left after yielding and making sure the opposite way is clear of cars that are not coming through.
personally after driving in the US for a year,i still get confused at traffic lights in the US and think if its my right of way or should i stop for the others to past first.


-You dont have to pay for receiving calls or texts,YES! its included in your monthly subscription fee,which is 30 Riyals (~9 US$)
for My saudi readers,in the US,you have to pay for every minute of usage,regardless who is the caller,and same goes to receiving text MSG's,you have to pay for each SMS sent and received.

-Banks are much softer on its clients than the nicest bank ive dealt with in the US,they dont charge you for cashing a check(at least i think!),or on money orders,they dont charge you for receiving a transfer,and most importantly,OVER DRAFT protection doesnt exist,yes,it might taste bitter that your transaction gets rejected because you dont have sufficient funds,but trust me,its alot more bitter to know that for every transaction you do when your account is empty,you are being charged 35$ EACH TIME.

-You can withdraw money from any given ATM in the street at any given time for free,there is no charge if you withdraw money from an ATM that does not belong to the bank that holds your account!

-Compared to North Carolina at least,you can buy freshly squeezed Juice from nearly any restaurant,which is something i realized is very hard to find in NC,and further more expensive,a cup of freshly squeezed orange juice might cost you up to 3.50 US$,while in Riyadh and Jeddah,there are Shoppes and drive through kiosks that sell freshly squeezed juices on the spot,and guess what,up to 16 ounces (0.5 liters) is for 5 riyals top. more over, in riyadh,there are Giant shops that sell fresh juices only,and they have over 100 blends and smoothies of all kinds of fruits,which are served in different sizes.

-for early birds and morning people,breakfast shops (mainly the traditional ones) open as early as 4 am in the morning in saudi arabia,or to be more accurate,after Fajr prayer,stores like Qarmooshi and Abuzaid which sell Foul and Tamees (Beans and Flat bread) and Ma'asoob (which is ground bananas with bread,sugar and shortening).

-Freshly baked bread,in Saudi,u can go straight to the Oven and pick up the bread right out from the furnace,and package it your self,one thing i must say though,usually by the time you arrive home,half the bread is already ingested by you,yes,its THAT yummy when its fresh.
while in the US,even in bakeries everything is packaged and bar coded like every other product in the supermarkets.

-People remain more courteous toward strangers in saudi than ive seen in the US,yes Americans are definitly more friendly to talk to while on the bus or the subway,while people in saudi are not,but when you are in need of help,like when your car stops working and need someone to give a push,or if you suddenly fell in the street and got injured,you always will find someone who will come and help you.
now i dont mean that in the US they dont exist,they do,but ive noticed that alot of people rather stay away due to fear that this person might be drunk or a troublesome person like a gangster or something,which is totally understandable as US street crimes are much higher than in Saudi Arabia.


i only realized those things after i actually arrived to Saudi Arabia and noticed them,i did not state the very obvious stuff like Al-Baik or umm..well,its only Al-Baik.


what about you,is there something you didn't know you will miss about Saudi Arabia and only realized that you actually did after you came back?

The Mitchell's

The Mitchell's by *Sonic-BooM on deviantART

This house is located in the middle of a very country-ish part of North Carolina.
Pretty nice house,all Rooms view the pool and the farm.
i would say this would be my dreamy hideout one day.


Siler City
North Carolina
2010
My Own Work,All rights Reserved.

Pandora

Pandora!

ive noticed that everything that has the name pandora,has to be somthing either facsinating or hip,from Pandora's Box in the infamous God of war PS3 game,to Planet Pandora where the Nav'i inhabitants live.

but this time,i bring you somthing that is far from Myth and more into Music and the Tech era.



Ladies and Gentlemen,i present to you Pandora Online Radio,somthing that i believe will change the way how we listen,carry and even think about music.

Simple open the website,register,create a station by simply typing a songs name or an artist and the website will Brilliantly recommends the next song to you,and i tell ya,its pretty good in coming up with suggestions.

its Free,or at least its an option,there is ads in between the songs and you are limited in how many times u can skip a choice,and u are limited up to 40 hours a month,somthing the majority of the listeners barely reach.

the upgrade option,makes u listen to unlimited amount of music for an entire year for 36$ dollars,though i havent tried it,but it seems that option too limit the amount of skips,but its 6 skips an hour.

the fun part is,if you have an iPhone,iPod Touch,Blackberry,Android OS based Phone,or Even Windows OS,there is an app for Pandora and u can listen to your music on the go,instead of having to carry your MP3 with u and take up space in your handheld devices,not even on ur computer.

i believe that this is the new direction the giants of technology are going toward,as HapHazard has mentioned in his blog,there are speculations of a new Apple Device that is gonna change the way we think of music,and i believe its gonna be somthing similar to Pandora,but more of an entire package of a Device that does it all.

Taqwacore

When i thought i saw the end of it all,this comes along,
i mean,really? its that another part of islam that we totally misunderstood due to historical misinterpretations of hadeeths and our scholars abusing their authority?

i must say,they are as punkish a punk band can ever be. rebelling against everything and enjoy getting opposite attention and all that,but with an audience full of veiled women? now thats new.

Dedicated to Gaza..

Raggea song made by a female artist from the middle east.

Happy Birthday Mukhtar!

i Know he probably doesnt know this blog even exist,but i trully wish him a happy birthday,Cos every one of us Deserve to celebrate the humanity within him.




Makes you wish u were a bus driver in Denmark.
on the other hand,arent those are the people who were muslims supposed to boycott because one of them did somthing we dont accept?
i hope one day we learn from our mistakes,all of us.

How To - View any Website as IE8+ ~ | ˌhapˈhazərd |

Thanks to ~ | ˌhapˈhazərd |

Finally,Safari 5 features a service that allows you to use websites that were built specifically for interzeft exploder.
How To - View any Website as IE8+

Failure..

Nothing fails like success because we don't learn from it. We learn only from failure.
~Kenneth Boudling

What does not kill me makes me stronger
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

AT&T and the iPhone 4

So,the WWDC is around the corner,and the hype is up the sky with expectations.
since i read about AT&T Raising the termination fees on iPhone,and i am wondering,maybe,a BIG maybe....that the new iPhone 4G will not be locked to AT&T through encryption anymore,and rather they just locked it physically by utilizing the Microsimfeature?

well,for my self i hope so,cos probably by the time i go back to Saudi,Micro Sim will be old news,and probably by then i will still be using the iPhone 4G.

What do u think?
Lets See....

*Update*
Well, iPhone 4 is out! and apparently its encrypted as the hacking folks already jailbroke iOS 4 on 3G...so it seems like the story will go on with the other phones,right now everyone say 3Gs also can be broken but it has to be already broken before you upgrade the iOS..but the iPhone 4 Remain unknown.

Lessons To Self,

No Matter What kinda problem or conflict happens in any house,Communication is the first only way to start fixing and repairing the damage.

• When your spouse,son,daughter or wife ask you what did i do,they are honestly asking.
• NEVER use the phrase "if you dont know what you have done wrong...."
• Avoid assumptions at any cost,talk,discuss,debate it out.
• Your Wife,husband,daughter or son, dont always do things that piss you off on purpose,and if they do,then your problem is bigger than just "he is pissing me off" so work on that.
• You Cant Change everyone around you to your suiting, its a lot easier that you learn to adopt to your loved ones nature.
• Keeping things inside you for the greater good,does more harm than good.

Becareful what you wish for,you might actully...Get it.