The Old City

I don’t know how many of you had the chance to watch Michigan dominate MSU for the second time this season, but I certainly enjoyed it.  I was able to watch the game online and hopefully I’ll be able to do the same for the tourney games.  Here’s to hoping the internet connection is better than it is now.  I’m sure you have all experienced a painfully slow internet connection or the constant disconnecting and reconnecting.  Well, it’s about ten times as bad over here.  I must say that it’s very frustrating, not only because you can’t connect to the internet, but because you are worried that the Saudi internet police might have taken control of your computer because you clicked the “Entertainment” tab on CNN.com and happened to see a picture of Jessica Alba in a bikini.  OK, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I’m pretty sure it’s not too far from the truth.

I was thinking about writing this entire post about the fact that Michigan beat MSU twice this season but then I figured that you Sparties have taken enough of a beating this year.  I'm sorry to say that it's only going to continue in the fall.  

There is a district in Jeddah called Al-Balad, which means "Old City".  Here you will find many old buildings and traditional markets called souqs.  Souq just means "market in an Arab city".  I think they are in most cities in the Middle East but I can't believe that any of them are as large as the one here in Jeddah.  I'm guessing that it's so large due to the fact that Jeddah has the largest seaport on the Red Sea and was a major trading city long ago.  When they began getting wealthy selling oil in the '70s and '80s many Jeddawis (residents of Jeddah), moved out of the old city and many poor immigrants took their place.  Most of the buildings in the area are made of coral from the Red Sea.  They are very run down and many of them look like they are about to topple over. 



There was an area of the souq selling all
 different kinds of spices and dates.



 We went to explore the souq on a Friday evening a few weeks ago.  Before going there, I was thinking it would the size of about a few city blocks with shops selling spices, different foods, and cheap watches.  This was not the case.  I bet we walked about 2 miles through that place.  It was seemingly endless.  There were shops that sold cheap electronics, fabrics, dates, spices, toys, perfumes, and jewelry.  The funny thing was is that there were about 50 different shops selling each of those things.  So really, there wasn't much of a variety of items being sold, just many different vendors selling the same thing.  It was very difficult trying to get pictures because there were so many people.  If I stopped too long to take a picture I probably would have been run over.  It was definitely worse than Michigan Ave a few days before Christmas.  The shops were all so close together and there was so much to look at that it was even hard to focus on where you were walking, let alone take a picture.  I didn't buy anything, but I plan on going back to buy some things before I head back to the US.

There are quite a few butcher shops with lamb

carcases hanging around. 

Some of them still have the head attached!

The souq in Al-Balad is not the only one in the city.  There are actually quite a few scattered around Jeddah.  I have only been to one souq (Souq Al-Shate) other than the one I described above and it wasn't as big and the shops were more modern, similar to an outdoor mall.  I walked through it at around 11:30 pm on a Thursday night (equivalent to a Saturday night in the US) and I was amazed at the number of young kids running around.  I know it's sad that I was doing this on 11:30 on a weekend, but it was probably the most exciting thing going on in Jeddah at the time.  I almost witnessed a fist fight between two 8 year olds but then some jerk came to break up the fun.  That would have really made my night.

Some kids playing video games at a
shop in the Souq Al-Shate.



 

 

 



Very old building made from coral.



One pretty common occurance at these souqs and on the streets of Jeddah in general are beggars.  As you probably wouldn't guess, almost all of them are female.  I don't even think I have seen a male beggar.  Usually, they will sit outside a shop on the sidewalk and ask for money as people are walking out.  Not much different from Chicago or Detroit, except the fact that it's mostly women over here.  I'm guessing since none of the women work over here they don't have any means to make money unless they have a family providing for them.  Another thing you will see is kids, usually around 10-15 years old, walking through cars stopped at traffic lights trying to sell shami cloths, flowers, or homemade necklaces.

I just moved into the compound last night so look forward to details on that in the next post...

Oh yea, GO BLUE!