Today
was a great day! GMarie’s Page was featured as a recommended expat blog for
Riyadh Saudi Arabia at InterNations.org!
My blog was selected for its quality and content. Take a peek…..
Gina: GMarie´s Page
Please tell us a little bit about yourself.
Who you are, where you come from, when you moved to Riyadh, etc.
I
grew up in New Jersey but now make my home in South Pasadena, Florida. I am a
U.S. Navy veteran and I have a daughter who is 25 and two grand-daughters; 3
and 4 years old who reside in California. After 20 years of federal service, I
decided it was time for a change and started applying for positions overseas. I
accepted a position and moved to Riyadh in September 2011.
When and why did you decide to start
blogging about your experiences?
Initially,
when I started my blog, it was to keep in touch with family and friends and to
minimize sending multiple emails and pictures to everyone especially from a
place where I consider the internet service to be a bit slow. So a month before
I arrived in Saudi (August 2011), I got the idea to blog my experiences from subscribing to other blog sites.
Blogging would be the perfect venue to get my information and pictures out to
everyone who considered living and working in Riyadh.
Do you have any favorite blogs?
My
favorite blog that I keep up with are Susie’s Big Adventure and American Bedu.
After blogging about a year, I had the pleasure of interviewing American Bedu’s
Carol Fleming-Al Alroush, who has since lost her battle with cancer in May
2013. These two blogs were very informative for me before making my transition
to Saudi Arabia.
Tell us about the ways your new life in
Riyadh differs from that back home. Did you have trouble getting used to the
new circumstances? Did you experience culture shock?
There
are several things that make my life different from back home. Besides the
typical shopping and dining out, I have experienced the woman only spas
(Almutaka) and woman only floors in malls (Kingdom Tower). I miss not being
able to go to the beach as often as I used to, but I found I can do that in
Jeddah. I also miss going to the movies, but our library on the compound in
which I live does a great job of keeping up with the latest movies. I also
notice the stares I received around town. So I asked my friend, who is
Jordanian what she thought it was. She said, two things; my hair (I wear
mid-back length dreadlocks) and just being uncovered. So, I cover up in town
now, just to blend in and take away some of the attention. I would say that the
biggest culture shock would be the separation of the genders. Single women have
to sit in the family section of a restaurant, wearing an abaya everywhere I go
around town, and the enforcement of store closures during pray times, to name a
few. Women are not allowed to drive here but we have drivers that take us just
about anywhere we want to go. So, with the traffic in Riyadh, not driving is
not such a bad deal.
Do you think you were fully prepared for
what awaited you in Riyadh? If you could, would you change some
decisions/preparations you made?
Based
on the information I received from other expats, reading the information on the
two website’s mentioned above and becoming well informed about the Arab
culture, I believed I was totally ready to make the transition to Saudi.
Every expat knows that expat life comes
with some hilarious anecdotes and funny experiences. Care to share one with us?
The
incident that comes to mind was when I first arrived at Riyadh Airport. When my
flight arrived in Riyadh, I got on line right behind a male who was in front of
me on the plane. The “needle scratched the record”! The whole place had an
awkward silence!! I immediately realized that I had gotten on the wrong line
and was not where I was supposed to be as a female; all the way to the right
with all of the others. With several dirty looks in my direction, I hurried to
the right line. When it was my turn to approach the customs desk, I handed the
officer my passport and visa then began to inform him that my sponsor was
waiting for me past the baggage area, he cut me off and told me to, “Go sit
down!” I guess that was my punishment for forgetting my place as a woman in the
Kingdom! They say the duration of a child who is being chastised with
“time-out” is based on age, so I figured 51 minutes in time-out would be way
too long for a punishment. So after about 15 minutes, which much apprehension
and my heart beating quickly, I approached the desk again. This time, I quickly
told the officer that my sponsor sent me an email that he was waiting for me,
that I work for the U.S. Government and that I was on a Diplomatic visa. He
gave me the once over, stamped my passport and sent me on my way. Scary stuff!
Which three tips would you like to give
future expats before they embark on their new life in Riyadh?
-
Bring a
good hair moisturizer! The climate is so dry and the water is hard on your
hair.
- Bring
openness to diversity; different cultures and languages.
- Be
patience to the way others do things which may seem different from where
you are from.
How is the expat community in Riyadh? Did
you have a hard time finding like-minded people or fellow expats?
The
expat community in Riyadh is great! As a liaison for the Saudi Arabian National
Guard Hospital contracting department and the U.S. Army contracting department
I get to meet a lot of like-minded people from all walks of life. Saudi Arabia
is one of those places where you have to be creative in finding things to do.
So, this assignment allows me the time and autonomy to move around Riyadh
finding plenty of topics to blog about and receive instruction by pros and near
pros in the game of golf.
How would you summarize your expat life in
Riyadh in a single, catchy sentence?
Catch
me and my adventures on my blog called GMarie’s Page!
To
read other expat adventures, please check out InterNations’ website at:
http://www.internations.org/guide/saudi-arabia/riyadh/recommended-expat-blogs-riyadh-15948
All the best,
GMarie
Thank you! All the best GMarie...
ReplyDeleteThank you and appreciate the compliment! GMarie
ReplyDelete