LIFE IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY

When I was about 10, we moved overseas to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. We moved over there because my dad got a job with a nice airline. I went to junior high and high school there. However, I graduated from a British "high school" because the American school only went to the 9th grade. I had to goto the British school so that I could stay over there longer and not have to come back to the states so quickly. I did eventually have to come back to the U.S. because the British school only went up to the 11th grade! Ok, the bottom line is I actually graduate from high school twice and have 2 diploma's to prove it!

Life over in Saudi Arabia was, as you can imagine, really different. Being someone from a foreign country is truly an experience. I mostly hung out with British friends and did the usual "teenage" types of things.

Life was boring most of the time over there. We were restricted to living in a compound which was basically a bunch of houses and flats with a wall surrounding us. Needless to say, we did create our own anti-boredom tactics. To be honest, I think I'm a pyromaniac. I was always going around with at least 3 to 15 lighters!

The culture over there was very interesting. The primary religion of the country is Islam. They are devout about there religious convictions and there lifestyle reflected it whole heartedly. They would pray to there God, Allah, 5 times a day. Through these specific times, prayer calls could be heard, echoing through the streets as the masses gathered in mosques, Islamic comparison to a Church. During this period of time, all stores would shut down so we'd have to wait until the store keepers returned.

Since Saudi's are Muslims, that means that there was a serious lack of alcohol and other things. OK, there was a serious lack of "legal" alcohol. That's not to say that there wasn't any. You see, prohibition never worked in this country if you know what I mean. People home brewed there goods and it was some good $#!t. Being young, bored teenager's in a foreign land, we felt it our duty to drink, and drink we did. We had beer, wine and our personal favorite, SID.

THE MAGIC LIQUID

Ah sid, short for Sidiqui. I honestly don't know where the name came from, but Sidiqui roughly translated means "my friend". This clear, powerful smelling liquid brought many fun and exciting nights to us. Sid is a VERY strong alcohol, best drunk in small quantities at a time. We had to mix it with 7-up or some other beverage because it was just too strong to take on it's own, unless your already piss drunk!