Last week, I had the chance to meet Mohammed, again. He was in Riyadh for a couple of days for business. We had dinner at the new Kabab-ji restaurant on King Abdullah Road. We had a really good time, and enjoyed the Lebanese food.

Leaving the restaurant, we were talking about the crazy drivers on Riyadh streets. And, as if we needed an example for our conversation, we almost got hit by cars twice in these few minutes we walked. Then, we stopped a cab, and while we were shacking hands and Mohammed was saying goodbye, the Asian cab driver ran away. He looked so angry, and, apparently, he was swearing at us. Why did he do that? Probably, he thought we were taking much of his precious time.

We had to stop another cab. This time, the driver was Saudi. As soon as we got in the car, he asked, “Are you going to pay in riyals or dollars?” He thought we were foreigners! “Listen, buddy! I’m Saudi. I take cabs everyday, and I know all your crap, so you are not gonna fool me, ok?” I told him. When I said that, he pretended that he was just kidding when he talked about the dollars, but I think he was not. He sounded serious.

Anyways, it was good to see Mohammed again. Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to go to Dubai this winter, and I’ll meet him there.

The Open Source Cookbook is a project to collect recipes from all around the world. It is interesting to see how the open source culture in getting integrated in different aspects of our lives.

Last week, I went with my best friend, who is also my cousin, who is also my roommate, and who is not going to be happy when he finds out I mentioned him here ;-), to Al-Mamlaka shopping mall. We got there around 1600, it took us about two hours to finish our shopping spree. It was almost Maghrib (sunset) prayer time, and we were done with our shopping, but we had to wait for a friend of ours to pick us up.

We sat at the food court. A few minutes later, most of the employees at the mall came and sat there. They were chatting, smoking, and killing time, waiting for the prayer time to end so they can go back to their jobs.

Later, we heard some screams, and saw some guys running. “Oh, shit! It’s the religious police. Run away!” my friend said. We jumped from our seats, looking for the nearest exit. We took the escalator, and had to leave the mall using the gates of the parking lot.

It was so embarrassing to see tens of twenty-something-year-old healthy men run away at the sight of a bearded man. Of course, the man was companioned by a policeman to protect him, but I think they were doing nothing to be afraid. Are we ever going to get rid of these harassments? When these idiotic religious policemen will stop attacking people’s freedoms, and denying their right to choose?

I’m back. As some of you may already know, it wasn’t just about the moving and school. In fact, I was frustrated over some stuff in my life, and I was depressed. I tried to solve that by consuming extra amounts of Vanilla Coke and Cheetos, but, apparently, that was not enough. I’m not completely healed, but I thought I should get back to doing this anyway.

Also, I want to thank you all for your wishes, and for asking about me.