I’ve said before that I’m moving to a new apartment this semester. With three other lads, this is our very first own apartment. The place has two rooms, a kitchen and a bathroom. I’ll share a room with my lifetime friend Mo, whose also a cousin of mine.

Last night, we went shopping for furniture at IKEA. Probably some will always consider them as a “semi-disposal Swedish furniture,” but I think many of their pieces are good and come in a perfect prices for college students like us.

I never had the experience of shopping for furniture before, and I’ve got to tell you it is so exhausting. We spent more than three hours at the new huge IKEA store in Riyadh, and we still need to do more shopping. The good thing about the apartment is that, unlike the students dorm at the university, I can customize it the way I want. I will be living here for another three years till I get my degree, and I’ll make sure to make it as good and comfortable as possible.

Tonight, I went with a couple of lads to a football match between the home team al-Hilal from Riyadh and guests al-Ahli from Jeddah. The match was anticipated by the fans, especially we, al-Hilal fans, who can’t forget the 3-0 defeat in Jeddah. The tension filled the atmosphere, and more than 10,000 fans remained silent waiting for the first goal. Al-Hilal captain Sami al-Jaber scored first with a fine rebound in the 6-yard-box. The opponents could not make any real chances, and the first half ended faster than we expected.

Early on the second half, al-Ahli scored the equalizer. The home team fought bravely to come back, but they were blocked by a strong defense and an unfair referee. I thought that only one player could score the winning goal. Ahmed al-Swaileh, who is, just like me, originally from Hassa, entered the match in the last five minutes. Last season, we had a similar situation against the same team, and al-Sawileh scored a late goal and led al-Hilal to win.

Actually, I was right this time. On the second minute of the injury time, al-Swaileh jumped and scored the winning header. Most fans could not believe it, however, I always believed in Ahmed al-Swaileh. He is one talented young player, and I think he could be the next big thing in Saudi football.

I’m glad that Dr. Rafeia Ghabash, the president of Gulf University in Bahrain, protested against the sexual segregation at a workshop at KAAU on Tuesday. ““We respect local traditions but the role of women must be activated and increased because the discussions are about human and social issues of importance to women,”” she said. This is exactly why other countries of GCC are better than Saudi Arabia. In other countries, local traditions are respected but they are not sacral. They can be changed and modified to suit the modern world. Traditions are not a part of the religion, and even religion is flexible and can undergo changes.

And now this is what I’ve been expecting. Votes up for sale.

The first municipal elections are making a lot of buzz around here. There are some problems with timing. According to this story, voters in Riyadh have only 12 days to decided which candidate, among the 646 candidates, deserves their vote.

Something on the rants of a waiter in NYC.

The point that Matt Haughey lost all respect for Bill Gates.