McDonalds

So, I never did get my iqama or my passport.  Apparently, the government limits how many iqamas they issue of each nationality to each company.  Guess whose company has already exceeded their quota on Americans for this time period?   So, on the last day before my two week vacation to nowhere, the official status of my passport/iqama according to the company is that the government still has it and they have not heard back from the government about whether or not they will grant me an iqama.  According to the saudi government website "visa inquiry" page, they either have no record of me at all, or it has already expired.  When I brought this to the companies attention, the representative mumbled something about possibly having to send me back and start the process all over again with a brand new visa, but he wouldn't explain why that would be necessary or whether he meant back to Riyadh, or back to the US.  He just said we should wait to hear back from the government before any big decisions were made.  If I hadn't already lost most of my hair to the dodgy water here, I would be tearing it out in frustration over dealing with this company.

In the meantime, I've resigned myself to a staycation, here in the lovely area 91 of Dammam.  Luckily, even though there are only 5 of us in the whole apartment building right now, they are still providing a bus for shopping trips.  So, like every Friday, we headed off to the Cornish to wonder around supermarkets and risk our lives crossing the street to walk along a somewhat smelly boardwalk, and sit around playing cards on the few hundred feet of surprisingly green grass planted between a horseshoe of America's most beloved chain restaurants.  Instead of looking up at the stars, we can lay back and gaze at the neon glow of Chilis, Taco Bell, TGIF, Starbucks, Red Lobster, and McDonalds.

Playing rummy at the Khobar Cornish

We have gotten into the habit now of playing Rummy, and the pockets I sewed into my abaya happen to be the perfect size for a deck of cards.  I bring them everywhere with me, and they have come in surprisingly handy.  I won the first four games we played, but have subsequently lost every game since.  Beginners luck I guess.  But it is still fun, and we are so limited on fun here, so we take what we can get.

After a few games, we were pretty hot.  Even at 10pm, the temperature is still around 38 celcius and add to that humidity, and the abaya, it can get pretty uncomfortable.  So when someone suggested a trip to McDonalds for an ice-cream, I was all for it.  It would be my first trip to McDonalds since arriving, and seeing as how I was on vacation, I figured I might as well spend the time exploring places I had never been before.  We walked across the grass and the parking lot, and came up on it from the rear, meaning we had to walk through the drive through to the other side of the building.  We were hot and tired and a little nervous we might be run over by a car racing around the corner into the drive-thru without looking (a very real possibility) so we just went in the first door we came to without really thinking about it.  Instantly, the room froze.  I felt about 20 pairs of eyeballs all shift to us.  At first, I couldn't figure out what the problem was.  My first thought was that it was prayer and they were closed, but no, then there would be no one in the room instead of a few dozen men staring us down.  Then it hit me, we had entered into the men's side, instead of the family seating.  I guess because McDonalds is so western, and because it isn't a proper restaurant, my mind sort of forgot to think about looking for the right entrance.  As soon as I realized our mistake, I turned around and headed back outside to walk around the building to the family section.  Gemma walked calmly through the air conditioned men's section to the door on the other side of the room right next to the door for the women's section.  We met up outside in front of the family entrance, and teased each other about our different approaches to the same situation.  I wanted out as quick as possible, so I turned tail and fled, but Gemma felt entitled to a little AC, so she said screw the rules, and let the men stare at her apparently dangerously arousing shapeless black form, with the occasional flash of toe under her abaya.  Scandalous.

Safely on the other side in the family section, there was someone ahead of us at the register, so the guy taking orders on the men's side, leaned across the wall dividing the two sections (but not the counter and kitchen area) to take our order of two ice-cream cones.  Never has a thing tasted so lovely.  We decided to stay and eat them in the air-conditioning, so that we could eat them before they melted outside.  There was no seating in the women's section downstairs.  Instead, there was a staircase that led to the playroom and eating area upstairs.  When we reached the top, my first thought wasn't of a restaurant, but a locker room with rows of showers.  The room was divided into stalls with tables inside, and each stall had a curtain rod and curtain, so that each family or group could pull the curtains closed and have an instant private dining room.  This is necessary so that the women who wear Niqabs (the ninja mask) can take them off to eat without fear of being seen by the men in other families who may also happen to be eating nearby.  At first, it was just weird.  But honestly, I kind of liked it. I know there have been times when I wished I couldn't see the guy across the lobby shoving the BigMac into his mouth and chewing it with his mouth wide open for all to see, or overhear the couple arguing over catsup in the booth behind me.  It was very secluded and intimate, and might have even been peaceful, if it weren't for the screaming kids running around through the narrow passages between shower stall like it was a maze.

After we finished our ice-cream, we went in search of a restroom, but instead found the play area.  It was kind of your typical play area.  There was a two story slide and netting to climb, and even a ball pit, but it was the special editions to the play room that really caught my attention.  This McDonalds had a foosball table, and three, count them, three, playstation consoles set up for two players with the controllers attached at kid height. Gemma and I both said "wow" at the same time, but hers was an excited "I wish they had this when I was a kid / do you think these kids would give me a turn?" kind of wow, whereas mine was more of a "wow: is it really this bad that kids can't even give up their video games long enough to go to McDonalds anymore?, and where are all these kids parents?" kind of wow.  We looked at each other and laughed again at our different reaction to the same situation. We looked for a ball to try to play foosball, but there wasn't one, and it looked like the kids weren't giving up there spots in front of the playstations anytime soon, so we decided to call it a night.

So, it isn't Bahrain.  But I have to say, this McDonalds was still an adventure, and it felt like a trip to a foreign place for me all the same.  Maybe being stuck here and having to explore what's been right in front of me all along won't be such a bad thing after all.