What’s it like to be a Saudi student on a U.S. campus in a post-9/11 world? Saudi students in the states speak to Time magazine. On a related note, Ahsarq Al-Awsat has a story about the visit of some Saudi students to NYC.

Do you know of any decent coffee shop in northern Riyadh that has a free WiFi connection and a nice, friendly atmosphere? Thanks. (P.S. I don’t drink coffee, so a place that serves delicious refreshing juice would be preferred)

Three photos from a recent visit to Azizia Mall in northern Riyadh:

Here is where I had my lunch that day. The weird thing: I have not seen any bachelor girls around ;-)

Curious to know what they are selling in this area? It’s actually the recordings store inside HyperBanda, a place that the Religious Police think women should not be allowed to enter. Now I know that women are not allowed to enter such places around the Kingdom, and I think this is stupid, but I’m wondering why the Muttawa’s are keeping their eyes closed and their mouths shut regarding the fact that women enter the Rotana Music Store in Al Mamlaka Mall and MegaStar in Al Faisalia Mall freely with no problem at all.

That’s David Beckham, right? OK, he’s easily recognizable, but take a closer look and you will see that the poor man’s face is blurred. You want to know why? Read the last line at the previous photo: this is also “as instructed by Haya’a.”

After 11 days in jail, Mohsen Al-Awaji is free now.

OMG! My blog was flooded with more than 500 spam comments! What should I do?

I wrote the Fed Up post on a moment of depression, and to be honest with you, now I think that was too much negative feelings for one post. Of course, living in Saudi Arabia is not all rainbows and butterflies, but there is one thing you need to know and keep it on your mind: I love this country, and always will do. Studying and maybe working abroad for some time are favorite options to me, but no matter what happens, I want to spend the rest of my life here.

Probably some of you were right on that I need a break, but this is impossible now as I’m in the middle of a very important semester and my mid-terms start today. I’m really thinking about visiting Jordan on my short summer vacation. This is still uncertain, but if I had enough time and money by then I will do it for sure.

On the same topic, a friend emailed me after reading the post, advising me to try what he does when he feels down: go and spend some time with nature. Well, I like to go to the desert or the beach to get rid of the negative feelings and have some “me” time. The beach is not an option in Riyadh, and the problem with the desert is that I don’t know of any clean quiet area but in the same time not so remote from the city (I know of such place in Hassa that I go to every once in a while).

On a side note, I received a comment on some old post the other day, and as I always say, all comments are welcome. I have no problem with this comment, except that it is off-topic. I was talking about Shiites in Saudi Arabia and the commenter is unreasonably associating it with what happens in Iraq and the fact that discrimination is everywhere, which can be true but certainly not right. This is, btw, an approach that I’ve experienced with many people. Whenever we talk about Saudi Shiites, someone involves Iraq and/or Iran in the conversation. Probably I don’t understand politics, and probably there are stuff that I don’t know a thing about, but what I’m talking about here, and what I usually like to focus on, is an domestic issue. If we are serious about solving our problems, we have to admit them, and not to relate them to others. And that’s why I’m blogging.

Thank you all for your support and comments.

I guess the ministry of information has finally given its permission for Banat Al-Riyadh to be distributed in the local market. You can find the a big amount of copies of the controversial novel now in the major bookstores here in Riyadh, such as Jarir, Tohama, and others. On a related note, I’ve read this piece in NY Times on the rise of chick lit in some unexpected spots in the world, which got me wondering if we are going to see a Saudi writer brave enough to tackle this genre. At the end of the article, they say that neither “Bridget Jones’s Diary” nor any of Helen Fielding’s other books have been translated into Arabic; something that can be, according to the newspaper, “another great frontier” for this type of novels. I read “Bridget Jones’s Diary” a few years ago, I really liked it, and I think that chick lit can be a big hit in Saudi Arabia, as well as the rest of the Arab World.