Protests, Food, and Cats

I'm sure most of you have been reading about all this unrest in the Middle East.  First it was Tunisia, then Egypt, now almost every other country in the Middle East and North Africa is protesting its government...except Saudi Arabia.  I think the locals should begin protesting the fact that there are no movie theatres.  I mean there are a plethora of other things that could be protested here, but I think a movie theatre is a pretty reasonable request. 

One good thing (maybe the only good thing) Jeddah has going for it is their food.  They have Lebanese, Turkish, Chinese, Thai, Indian, Moroccan, Italian and everything in between.  There is definately a wide variety of restaurants to choose from.  They even have McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Pizza Hut, Little Caesars, and Baskin Robbins.  But no matter what restaurant you go to they will always serve you french fries as the side dish.  I don't understand the fascination but I can tell you I am already sick of eating them.


McDonald's here does not have McNuggets :(
but they do have a chicken BigMac!

The restaurant culture is very different from the US.  Nearly all restaurants have two entrances, one for women and families and one for single men.  Once inside, families and women are segrated from the single men.  Most of the time the entire area upstairs is reserved for families.  At McDonald's it is similar.  There are two entrances but only one ordering counter with two cashiers.  A temporary wall seperates the two lines.  The families go to one cashier and the singles go to the other.  Very different.  I am always weary that I will walk into the wrong door and get yelled at, but the entrances are usually pretty clearly marked.

One downfall of the restaurants here is the terrible service.  Everything takes a long time and don't even try to substitute your french fries for rice because they either won't let you or won't understand you.  It seems that everyone knows just the menu and if you ask them for anything more complicated than exactly what's on the menu, you probably won't get what you asked for.  I guess this is similar to how it is in Europe as well.  The 15% service charge is built into the check so you don't have to worry about tipping.  Maybe the service is bad because they're not working for that tip.



DO NOT DRINK!



Some days I have gone over to the grocery store to pick up some snacks and drinks.  Everything is cheap.  I bought a bag of about 6 pitas and it cost 1 SR which is about 30 cents.  I also discovered my new favorite snack, Ketchup Pringles!  You may have a disgusted look on your face, but I'm telling you, they are delicious.  I'm not sure if they have them in the states but if they do, I will find them.  Another section in the grocery store is for all the non-alcoholic beer.  Now, this isn't like O'Douls which has a hint of alcohol, this is 0.0% and it says that on every can/bottle.  I decided to try a Budweiser NA Apple which only cost the equivalent of about 67 cents.  It was the worst drink I have ever tasted!  I had to dump half of it down the drain it was so bad.  I'm sure the non apple flavored taste a little bit better, but who needs beer when you have combination orange and carrot juice!

Now, when you think about all the food that is being eaten at all of these restaurants, you must be thinking

that there is some food that is wasted.  You realize that this food is probably just tossed in the dumpster for a bunch of rats to feast on.  That is where you would be wrong, it's not the rats, it's the cats, EVERYWHERE.  Sometimes they will follow you down the street meowing at you looking for food.  Most of them are very skinny and very dirty, as you would expect.  Kind of sad, really.



3 of my cat friends



Well, I hope you all are enjoying the things I can't enjoy because I am enjoying the one thing most of you can't...



My feet in the beautifully warm sunlight.