Well ladies and gentlemen, tomorrow will be 3 weeks until I report to the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. I'll be there for 2 months learning Spanish and learning how to be an effective teacher to all the people I meet. It's pretty crazy how quickly it all came! One second I'm graduating high school, the next starting college, then finishing my first year, now I'm going on a mission.
Things have been pretty busy and hectic with my life lately and I apologize to all my friends who it seems like I haven't seen in weeks. I had been home a couple weeks hanging out, then I went to Virginia Beach to see my brother in All-State Choir. Not too long after that my family decided to go to Disney World for my last vacation before I leave them for 2 years! It was pretty fun, but a little hard for me to hide how it also made me sad. My childhood is pretty much over. Pretty much after my mission I will be my own man, an adult who has taken care of himself for 2 years on his own. I mean, sure you are always your parent's kid, but now when I come home for holidays or the summer I'm "just visiting".
I guess I'm just one of those people who isn't much of a fan of change. I know it happens and time is constantly slipping through your fingers, but sometimes the future is a bit scary.
So now I get to explaining the title of this Blog post... "The Tale of Two Packings". You see, as I have been getting ready for my mission I've been packing all the stuff I'll need to take (Packing #1). But the second packing is the packing I'm helping my family do as we move out of our house (Packing #2). The same day I leave for the MTC, my family leaves back to California.
We have been in here in Virginia almost 3 years, and its been a wonderful experience. I believe that my family was meant to be here. Without moving here my life would be very different, especially with Sammi. Yes she is my girlfriend and I love her, but mostly she is my best friend :) I am so thankful for the change and happiness she has brought in my life and I'll definitely miss her when I leave.
But also I want to thank the many other people who have been such great friends, neighbors, and second family to us. With all of my relatives back in California except for a cousin in New York and a cousin in Philadelphia, our friends here in Virginia have become our second family and have really made living in Virginia so wonderful.
I know I'll come back and visit after my mission, and who knows how things work out in the future, but I hope I'll come frequently :) Virginia and all the people in it will always have a special place in my heart, and if I don't end up seeing you when I come back and visit... God be with you till we meet again!
Well this is it, the final part to my Saudi Arabia Trip Series. I hope you all have enjoyed hearing about it. I mostly put up this series for 2 reasons... The first reason was that I wanted to share, in full detail and pictures, my trip with all my blog followers and to try to break down the barriers of misunderstanding of this culture. The second reason was just for myself, so that I could combine what I put in my journal and the pictures I took with my camera.
I'm sorry that this series has taken so long, but right in the middle of writing all this I had College Finals, coming back home, family trips, and now I have been helping my family pack up and get ready to move to a new house. I know lots of people lost interest because of the waits in between the posts, but maybe some of you will read this months down the road...
I still don't know what I want to do with this blog, and after this post I think I'll spend a little time finding a purpose for this blog... I want to share my life experiences but I hate sounding like I know more than others because I really dont... but anyway, the Final Part:
Well I guess I'll start out by saying that April 8th, our last day, was kind of a rough day for me. I should have realized at breakfast that this would be not so great of a day. You see, every morning we had breakfast at out hotel's restaurant on the ground floor and it was always very good. It was a fairly "Americanized" hotel and so most of the food was very familiar to us, but some of the food was foreign.
Well I loved how many fruits they had at their buffet, but this morning I figured I would be adventurous and try all the foreign looking fruits. Usually I had my fruit first and then ate my eggs and toast, but this morning I just felt like eating my fruit last so have that sweet good taste as the aftertaste (miracle #1). Then I decide to go for the new fruits first instead of having the usual fruits, in case I had one of the new fruits last and I didn't like the taste... well the first fruit I went for looked white and was fairly crunchy, but tasted familiar to me... it tasted like cantaloupe....I'm severely allergic to cantaloupe. I guess when you're in a different country even familiar things can look foreign because that cantaloupe did not look like the cantaloupe I grew up with!
So the second I taste it and realize it's cantaloupe, I spit it right out. (miracle #2 was that I ate it first so I didn't eat the lesser contaminated fruit and then the cantaloupe and have a worse reaction). Everyone kind of looks at me weird because its a pretty fancy restaurant and thats a pretty rude thing to do in any culture. But I quickly feel the tingling in my mouth, and I tell them that I'm severely allergic to what I just ate. They ask why in the world I would eat it if I'm allergic to it, and I tell them how it didn't look like the cantaloupe I was used to. By then though, I feel the throat being tingly and I know this'll be bad... So I run upstairs (not literally because I was already having trouble breathing) and got the Benadryl that my Dad insisted I bring (miracle #3).
After I took some and went back down to the lobby where everyone was, and just had to wait it out. It took nearly half an hour for the swelling to start to go down, which doesn't sound that long, but when you're struggling to breath and everyone is asking if you need to go to the hospital, it feels like forever. Eventually once I could tell it was going down, Musa asked what I would like to do... did I still want to go to the doctor, or just stay at the hotel and take it easy? I answered, "You know what would really make me better? If we could go to the old marketplace again and buy souvenirs now that we have money" (originally before my reaction they had said we wouldn't be able to go). Musa laughed and said ok, we would go. I thought he was kidding because the Saudis always wanted to stick to schedule, but in this case they really did let us go!
We all got loads of stuff at the marketplace, but of course with the help of Musa and Abdulaziz. If you remember in Part 1, Saudi Arabia doesn't have taxes, so items are negotiated for and bartered. I think Musa and Abdulaziz were a little frustrated and confused with us though for two reasons. One, they thought what we were buying was junk, but to us they were treasures. Two, to us the exchange rate was great and we thought everything was a bargain, but to them they wanted good deals for all of us. When I old Musa I bought something for 30 Riyals, he almost wanted me to take him to the shop I had bought it at and yell at the merchant for ripping me off, but I told him I was ok because to me that was only around $10 or so.
One man's junk is another man's treasure.
Market courtyard.
Musa giving us deals.
After we had gotten all of our treasures, we started out for a long car ride. Right about then was when the drowsiness of Benadryl kicked in, so I have no idea how long the car ride was.
Eventually I woke up when we got to the entrance of the National Park we were going to, and all of us went to the bathrooms. Everywhere we went things were foreign to us, including the bathrooms signs:
As we drove into our camping spot we found two big tents among vast endless desert. It was quite a sight!
Our campsite.
The tents.
After we had dates and coffee as usual, we met with a falcon trainer! He fed it some meat right in front of us and we got to see it absolutely devour the food.
The Falcon Trainer.
Devouring the meat.
Right after we had seen the sharp beak and talons in action, he offered for us to hold it. At first I was like "no way, my finger could end up just like the meat he ate" but then he put on a beak holder and eye blinder and I was fine with it.
After the falcon trainer we started making lunch inside one of the tents. It was already probably in the high 90's and cooking in the tents made it even hotter inside! Once we had prepared everything and were just waiting for the lamb and chicken to cook, we went exploring in the desert! It was so hot and dry, that even with a light breeze you didn't sweat. (I found out later that you are sweating, but it evaporates so fast that the sweat doesn't stick to your clothes).
The great wide open.
We were only out there for an hour or so, but we really were super thirsty and tired when we came back into the tents! Right when we came back it was time for lunch, and boy was it tasty! We had a traditional Saudi meal which was a bowl of rice, chicken and lamb in the middle, and lemons and peppers surrounding the edges. Everyone shares and eats with your right hand. (It is best to just sit on your left hand so you aren't tempted). I wrote in my journal all about how to properly eat it, but this video explains it better:
Once we had eaten and cleaned up from lunch we hung out in the tent while Musa set up a scavenger hunt around the campsite. He used puzzles and trivia and all sorts of fun little things for clues and as luck would have it, I won! The prize was these very neat woven handkerchief slides that scouts love to wear and collect.
After our scavenger hunt we play a friendly game of "Hit Each Other Blindfolded With Water Noodles".
In case you have been living under a rock and have never seen this sport, here is a clip of us playing:
After our time at the campsite it was time to go, but on our way out we went into this desert canyon place that looked like Petra in Indiana Jones!
Straight out of Indiana Jones?
Compare my photos to these pictures of Petra, Jordan:
Eventually we got to the main event, ATVing! We had been talking about it all week and had challenged many of the Saudi Scouts to races on the dunes. So each of us took turns and I took a couple pictures while I waited for my turn... but luckily I figured "Man, if I crash or fall off I could break my camera... maybe it's best to leave it in the car" (miracle #4).
Eventually it was my turn and right as I was going up the first ridge into the dunes... my ATV stalled. A Saudi Scout tried to help, but it wasn't working so we pushed it back down to the cars. Eventually we got it to work so the scout drove me out to the dunes while I held on, and then he hitched a ride back with the guys who we done with their turn and going back in.
The ridge into the dunes.
Matt (my roommate for the trip) and me are ripping up the dunes and getting some air on a couple dunes... sometimes on purpose, sometimes on accident. But eventually, I lose Matt. I decided to keep riding around and keep an eye out for Matt, but I never see him again.
I keep riding around and having fun, but I'm starting to get worried about being alone, because I don't want to get lost (especially now that it was close to twilight). But then I see Anish (one of the U.S. scouts) flying across the ridge of some dunes. He is going really fast, but I decide I really need to keep up with him and follow him because I really need a buddy.
So I'm going near full throttle (conservative estimate is around 25- 35 mph) for probably for a good 45 seconds or so following a trail parallel to the ridge. Then all of the sudden, trail ends, deep pit, get thrown off my quad, and I'm just slow motion airborne.
In the movies I had always seen the scenes where something dramatic happens and time slows down, but I had never experienced it until right then. And in the movies sometimes the person flashes back to their family, or of their loved one, or see a scene from their past... you know what I thought in my head? I looked into the pit and saw a big 5 gallon water jug that they have in office buildings except this one was brown and my thoughts while flying through the air into this pit was "You know, I'm not sure I've ever seen a brown one before..." CRASH.
Have YOU ever seen a brown one??
I landed on top of the ATV and kind of went over the top of the handle bars and rolled out of the way as the ATV came to stop. I don't know how long I laid there, but I don't think I passed out. Sooner or later I got up and looked at the ATV and it was pretty beaten up... handle bar bent on the left side, throttle we on the complete other side of the bar, headlights not in good shape, etc. But the thing still ran (miracle #5)!
I tried getting the ATV out of the pit but it was steep hill on every side so the it just sunk deeper and deeper into the sand. I didn't hurt at first, but once I tried lifting the wheels out of the sand I felt it. My left knee shot up in pain, my chest was on fire, and other sensitive parts weren't feeling so hot either...
I looked down at my jean and saw blood on my leg, but the amazing thing was that I hadn't cut through the jeans, I had just hit that hard!
So for a little while I just sit on the ATV not knowing what to do, when all the sudden I felt like I was in a movie. At first I hear a sound, then I hear the engine, then I hear music, and then I hear people yelling and laughing! So I stand up and walk up the pit (ouch) and see two guys in a jeep riding by! I wave them down (ouch) and yell until they come over to my pit.
They didn't speak any English and I didn't speak any useful Arabic, but when they saw me and then saw my ATV they realized I needed help. So with hand gestures and charades we work together to tie up my ATV to their Jeep (ouch) and pull it out of the pit (miracle #6). I at least knew thank you in Arabic and I tried to ask in English which way the ATV rental place was, but they just looked at me with blank faces...
At least I'm out of the pit, but I was pretty darn disoriented. I still knew which way is out so I head that direction and eventually I get to the top of the ridge that borders the dunes and the sand area we started at. But the problem was that it was nearly dark and my headlights didnt work anymore...
So a couple times I get unwanted air going of uneven dunes, and I decide I should probably just go down to the sand area where at least I know it's flat. But the problem is that there are a bunch of cars, trailers, and ATVs everywhere and now that it's dark all I can see is a bunch of headlights.
Luckily I had noticed that when I first went out to the dunes we went East, for a while so I decided I need to go West to get back. But after a very long time of driving ( I kept thinking that I'd be so mad if I gave up when they were only another minute further) but eventually I came to a Bedouin village with a bunch of tents so I knew that I had gone too far.
So I turn around and by now it's completely dark so I'm driving blind and I'll admit, this was when I got to the panic stage. I had kept my cool and tried to stay positive the whole time, but once I had gotten to the village and it was completely dark I was starting to panic. I kept thinking about what if they had left me without noticing. We did have two cars... what if both had thought I was in the other? How far away was I from Riyadh? Would I have to wait all night? Would anyone be able to speak English to help me? What if they didn't realize I was gone until too late and they were already on their way to our 3am flight before they realized I was gone.
As you can imagine being lost, hurt, bleeding, and alone in a foreign country where you don't speak the language on your last night before your flight in the early morning the next day is not the best situation I've been in...
So I kept driving, and driving trying to go up to every pair of headlights I saw to see if it was my scout group. Soon I see two pairs of headlights coming towards me and I asked "English?" and the reply was "Miles?". I'm overjoyed, I'm relieved, and I think this terrible episode is over until Matt and Will come closer and ask, "Hey man do you know where our group is? We're lost..."
My heart sank. What I thought was my search party was actually just another addition to my lost party. But it did feel good to not be alone anymore (miracle #7), and I was pretty sure they would notice if there was 3 of us missing instead of 1.
So I told them my story and how I had crashed and how I had gone all the way to the Bedouin village so we needed to turn around and head the way they came. And wouldn't you know it a couple miles down the road we find out group packing up! But as we pull in they just look at us and don't say anything... they hadn't realized we were all lost. But when I get off I can't walk to well and so I limp (ouch) to the nearest car. Eventually people started to see how banged up my ATV is and that I'm sitting in the car by myself not looking so hot and so Matt and Will explain that I crashed and that we got lost.
After hearing the story everyone kind of came over and asked if I'm ok and usually being the stubborn guy I am, I usually would have said I'm fine... but I was in so much pain I just told them honestly "No, I'm not ok."
So Dr. Qureshi comes in the car and closes the door to talk to me and when I start telling him the story I just started crying. I hadn't cried like that in years... but I just couldn't keep it in. I don't know why I started crying, especially why I started crying then in the car instead of during the event... but I was just in shock and in a lot of pain.
So we drive on over to the hospital and I already have some nasty bruising, cuts, and blood but luckily they don't think anything is broken. But one cool thing about my doctor is that he is an Egyptian from Alexandria! Being the history lover I am I can't believe that his hometown is such an ancient city! He grew up in a town that has been around for 1000's of years. Here in America we just don't understand that because we live in cities that were founded in the 1700 or 1800's.
But eventually I go back to the hotel and I'm super embarrassed about crashing and getting lost and crying but everyone wants to hear my story so I tell them. Then we go up to our rooms and start packing because we have to leave the hotel by midnight to get to the airport by 3am for our 6am flight.
We actually had a little sandstorm that night, but it cleared up pretty fast and off we went to the airport! When we got out of the car we said goodbye to out favorite drivers (The Racing Brothers) Fahad and Sultan and I really was going to miss them!
Beginning of the sand storm.
Then we go and check our bags and do a bunch of official stuff but mostly I just hung out with Abdulaziz, Musa, and Mohammad. Eventually it was time to go and it felt like I was leaving life long friends! After sharing a few hugs (I'm not sure if their culture gives hugs, but I wanted to give them anyway), and Musa telling me that he hoped to see me again once I'd learned Arabic, we went through security.
Abdulaziz and I traded hats.
My Saudi friends.
My Saudi friends again.
We got through pretty fast and we had 3 hours until our flight so some of us tried to sleep but I couldn't really get myself to so I just used the free wi-fi since we hadn't had internet access since the gaming place.
Soon we're off on our flight home and have a good 15 hours straight in our plane which was especially rough since my leg needed to be straightened. Even with the luxurious Saudi Arabian Airlines the seats are pretty close to each other so that wasn't much of a possibility.
Eventually after watching us fly over Alexandria, Athens, Germany, Belgium, England, Ireland, and Canada we land around 3pm in the U.S. of A! My family came to pick me up and once going outside I was freezing in the 60 degree weather after being used to over 100! But the first thing I had after my trip? A tall glass of milk and Dominoes pizza... it doesn't get more American than that!
Thats my trip for ya! I hope you liked it and I'm sorry it has almost taken me 2 months to write about it, but now that I'm home for the next month or so I'll be writing about my recent travels :) I really do love the country and people of Saudi Arabia and truly can't speak of them in any higher respect. They are such good, charitable, religious people that I have tried to be more like.
I hope that as I study Arabic and major in Middle Eastern Studies that I can have the opportunity to go back many times and experience that wonderful culture again soon (after my 2 year mission of course). I hope Abdulaziz and my many other Saudi friends approve of this series and I hope what I've shared about your country and it's culture is true. If I could wish for one thing after I went on this trip it would be for more understanding and peace with less ignorance and hate in the world.
With that, I finish this series, but hopefully this is not the last time I blog about a trip to the Middle East (Inshallah!).
(Got a comment, question, or suggestion? Let me know in the comment box :) )
Sorry to all my followers on this blog and a special sorry to my friend Abdulaziz who has been patiently waiting for Part 5 of my Saudi Series! Things have been pretty crazy in my life and I have been really bad at updating my posts. I have so much to talk about, but life has been hectic so I hope you understand and forgive me!
In almost a month I'll be going on my church mission leaving family, friends, and pretty much everything behind for 2 years. So needless to say I have lots of things I need to set in order, lots of people I want to see, and places I want to go before I'm gone for that long of a time!
I'm very excited to go and I know it will be a great experience, but as it gets closer I get more and more nervous and overwhelmed at the changes it will bring to my life.
I'm going to California (literally in 15 minutes) to see my Wheeler relatives before my mission, but once I am home in 5 days I should be back to blogging and hopefully catching up on all I missed! Note: My family is still here so anyone trying to rob my house will meet an angry Mr. Wheeler if you try to pull anything.
Sorry again for letting all you guys down! Check back around the 25th for my blogpost :)
As promised, here is Part 5 of my Saudi Trip. I hope you are enjoying it :) I'm sorry this series has been so strung out, but it's something that I really wanted to share with everyone!
Sleeping in on Day 5 was a much needed rest from the busy schedule we had been following the rest of the other days. Because we had stopped at McDonalds for a late night dinner, we didn't get to bed until pretty late, so we slept in until 7am this time instead of 6.
That morning we got to go visit The American International School on an American military compound. It had 3 buildings for the 3 different schools (elementary, middle school, and high school). Going into each one, it felt just like I was back home going to my high school or brother's middle school.
We got to meet some of the students and teachers in their class room and they were doing exactly what a kid back in the U.S. would be doing too. They had arts and crafts for the little kids, the middle schoolers had a computer lab that they had to learn typing and media skills, and of course the seniors weren't do much of anything when we visited them (just like the classmates I left behind for a week).
Elementary School.
Classic American Lockers
The drama class put on a scene of their play for us.
After our tour we had a little reception with food and drinks where we met all the kids in the school that were in BSA (Boy Scouts of America). Among the boys they were almost all from different countries and represented 6 continents! That's a lot different than some of the American kids I know who have never gone past the Mississippi!
Once we had finished out tour we headed back to the hotel to rest while Dr. Qureshi and Mr. James (Our other scout leader) were going to go see the Prince who was the Secretary of The Ministry of Education. We were all kind of bummed we couldn't go, but at the last second they said we COULD!
Originally because of security reasons (al- Qaeda and the Saudi Government hate each other), they didn't want such a big group but I guess they realized that the only damage American Boy Scouts could do would be to start a fire, or accidentally cut themselves with a pocket knife.
After going through security and waiting in his reception room we met Prince Faisal bin Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Saud. (If you think thats a long name, look at Prince William's official title: "His Royal Highness Prince William Arthur Philip Louis, Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn, Baron Carrickfergus, Royal Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.")
The waiting room.
Anyways back to the Prince. After waiting for a few minutes the Prince was ready to see us and so we filed in, shook his hand, and took a seat. I had never really met anyone this important before so I was extremely nervous and uncomfortable in such a formal setting, shoot I even feel out of place at fancy restaurants (SO MANY UTENSILS)!
The Prince with Dr. Qureshi and Mr. James.
All of us listening to the Prince.
The Prince's desk.
But once we sat down and the formal part of the meeting was passed, we had a nice conversations with the Prince about Saudi Arabia and the West. He talked about how both sides have so many misunderstandings with each other because of such different cultures and life styles. He talked about how even amongst the best people in America (like the KKK) and Saudi Arabia (al Qaeda) there are bad apples that make the rest of the good apples look bad. He concluded with a very profound insight that I truly believe is the solution to most of the problems in the world. In know that is a bold statement, but sometimes the simplest sincere changes in the hearts of the people are more influential than the complex foreign policies of any country. He said, "Between two people it is always easier to find differences that can make you enemies, but if you attempt to find similarities, you will find potential to being the best of friends."
What a true statement by the Prince! It is always easier to not like someone or not want to talk to them because it takes less effort. But, if we do make that effort and actually try to get along by finding similarities, you can see the other as a person just like you are.
As you many of you have noticed for my blog entries about Saudi Arabia, I have said that this country has "changed me". Many of you may have thought that it was because of the great sites, good food, and fun times that I said this, which is a reasonable thought. But the true reason I say this country changed me is because my eyes were opened. I saw that there are good people everywhere who love their families, peace, and God just as I do. I saw that though at first look a person and a country can seem very different from yours, a deeper look shows they are almost identical. I realized that no matter where we are born, the skin color we wear, or the language we speak, we are all human. We share this world together and it is up to each of us to make it the world we want. It's too easy for the world to be full of hate and darkness, we need to make the effort to fill it with peace and unity. Saudi Arabia changed my heart to find the similarities between anyone I meet, and then celebrate and share our differences with one another. I know this sounds cheesy to some of you, but to every hard and complex question, the answers are always simple; love, charity, and hope.
I hope my jumbled thoughts made some sense, but now I'll go back to my story.
Once we left the Ministry of Education building we went to one of the Saudi Scout's video game store. It wasn't a video game store where you actually buy games and take them home to play, it was a store where you go to play the video games on their huge screens that people normally wouldn't have at home. It was a really neat idea, and we had a great time playing some video games while also checking our email and of course, checking our Facebook accounts. ;)
After the video game hangout store, we went to a Saudi Aerospace Museum with all sorts of planes, helicopters, and anything that could fly.
Graham and I loved playing in the helicopter... maybe a little too much :)
At the museum they had huge portraits of every Saudi King they've had, so if you've been confused with all the Kings I've been mentioning in all my posts before...here is the order!
King Abdullah (6th King) Current
King Fahd (5th King)
King Khalid (4th King)
King Faisal (3rd King)
King Saud (2nd King)
King Abdulaziz (1st King and Founder of Saudi Arabia)
There ya have it folks! Next post I'm going to quiz you on the order, so study up!
Soon darkness was upon us as we ventured to our next stop, but little did we know that the night has just barely begun! We went to the Al-Hilal Sports Club, which is the equivalent of touring the Laker's or Yankee's Clubhouse. Al-Hilal is THE team in Saudi Arabia. But I use the term "team" loosely because really it's an organization with multiple teams that compete in multiple sports.
LOTS of trophies everywhere!
We toured many of their fields, gyms, and sports complexes that were very extravagant! I thought they were the nicest fields I will have ever seen, but maybe I'll be able to go to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar?
Nice fields.
We played a friendly match of volleyball against their team, but of course we lost even when they were going easy.
The volleyball team.
Us losing... But what surprised me most about the tour was that some of the teams even lived in the complex!
One of the beds in the dormitory of the complex.
After our tour we went our for a late dinner again to a local restaurant that was so delicious! They had this food that was chicken, mayo, lettuce, and fries all wrapped up inside pita bread like a burrito. Whenever I think about it it instantly makes me hungry! But after the delicious food we went to the mall nearby looking for souvenirs, but mostly we just got stuff at the Saudi Scout Store.
The Saudis were very kind and patient as we went through the mall looking for souvenirs but we weren't really looking for nice modern stuff, we wanted the awesome old antiques. The Saudis didn't really understand because to them the old stuff was junk, just like we would think most old American antiques are junk, but to us the old stuff was the best stuff!
And that was that, the end of another action packed busy day! My next blog post about Saudi Arabia will be my last, but it'll be a long one! I hope you've enjoyed it so far!
