My Third and Final Interview

Preparations:
 

In order to prepare for my third interview I did a little further research on Saudi Arabia, because when it came to my second interview I found out that there was so much that I didn't know. I wrote out the fifteen questions on a piece of paper and made sure it was clear enough for my interviewee to read. I wanted to make sure my second interview was with someone that wasn't already in our class or in the Monday class. If I could not find someone in the given time I planned to ask Abdul or Mooda if they knew of any one else from Saudi Arabia that wasn't in our class and that would be willing. Fortunately a friend of mine knew a girl from Saudi Arabia and she even offered to give me her number

I texted Esraa saying my name and explaining the situation. She was very kind and more than willing to meet me and we began to work out a time that would fit our schedules. We have an almost opposite class schedule so it made working out a time difficult, but she remained patient and we finally landed on a time and date. Our plans were to meet in the library and I assured her it wouldn't take too long. When the day finally came, November 17th, to meet after near three weeks of planning, I texted Esraa and described what I was wearing and she did the same. We found each other in the lobby of the library and we headed up to a study room. I asked her a few questions about her schedule for the day and about herself. We began to chit chat and learned a bit about each other. Though it was our first time ever meeting we picked up conversation right away and it stayed that way throughout the 45 minutes we were able to spend together.

 

Country Report: Saudi Arabia:
 

90% of the ethnicity of Saudi Arabian people are Arab and the other 10% are African-Asian. The urban population makes up 82% of the country. Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam and houses the two holiest places of Islamic faith. Saudi is more commonly known as home to the largest amount of oil and natural gas at 17% of the world's total production.Family is valued in Saudi Arabia and they tend to be large and stay close with each other. This is something that I learned from my three interviewees. I definitely feel as if I have received more insight into the way of Saudi Arabian life than the Internet or other materials have provided me. I asked Esraa what she thought about me or any other interested American visiting Saudi Arabia. She encouraged visiting somewhere more Americanized first to what I'm sure, would save one from complete culture shock. She explained that the way of life in Saudi Arabia isn't quite as obvious as that of Americans. She suggest Dubai or other places in the UAE first, but definitely did not discourage the idea of submerging oneself in Saudi Arabian culture and life.

 

Esraa:
 

Esraa is a graduate student here at St. Cloud State. She majored in Management Information Systems and is now pursuing a Masters in Computer Science. She is from the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and is the oldest of four children, one brother and two sisters. Her mother is a science teacher and her father is a retiree of Customer Service at an airport in Saudi Arabia. She claims that her English is poor, but I couldn't disagree more. Esraa is a sweet and beautiful young woman with an intellectual mind and exudes a strong sense of independence, even though she may not realize it. At 24 years old she has seen more of the United States than most of the Americans I know, as well as other parts of the world. She's an inspiring girl with a seemingly large heart that I now have the pleasure of knowing. 

Transcription of Interview:
M means me (MJ) and E means Esraa
 

M- How do you communicate with each other in your country?

E- Everything you can imagine. All technologies. Maybe a long time ago we communicate with each other more face to face but now because we have cell phones even like if you're in the same house (laughs) you prefer to send someone text.

M- What is the clothing style for men and women?

E- They wear long clothes, I don't know if you know it, the white thing. They wear something really long, like a white dress, it's not like they have to wear it. They just wear it because it's comfortable, easy to wear it. And women we prefer to wear out Habaya, the black one, with a black scarf. It's not like we have to wear it, it's just we see it's common. So it's okay to wear it, but its not like we have to wear it, we can wear any color.

M- How are men and women treated differently in your country?

E- If you wanna talk about long time ago I think it's common for I think most countries that women prefer to stay in. But now it's not easy, you see the lifestyle like men can't handle everything because everything became expensive, you know that. So women have to work and help their husbands. But now not just because they want to help their husbands because this is your personality, this is what you want to do. Women don't want to just stay at home they feel that they can handle their houses and do something to present them. So I think now most of the women work more than men because they prefer to work in like any place. The men maybe they prefer places that give them a good amount of money but women want to go out and work.

M- How has this experience helped you respect other cultures?

E- For me? Even before I came here because we have internet and everything we have like an idea. And also we travel before so you have an idea before here. you can compare Europe with the US. Maybe they are different but you have to respect people here and here. Let me think about this.. Maybe, when I travel we should respect everybody. But when I LIVED here its different, I know how people interact with each other I know how to respect them according to their believes and according to mine, I respect them according to their life, not just my ideas or my thoughts. After living here. Not just traveling. Traveling is different, you can't see how people live, you just see their country, you just visit.

M- Do you enjoy speaking with other exchange students?

E- Actually I prefer to speak with others other than Saudis because you travel to a different country that is far away so you need to see other people. I know Saudis. So I need to have an experience with others. For me they are familiar, but like I like to know about Eastern Asia, China, how they interact with each other. I found its real different from America like how they interact with us. The same in Saudi. But with Chinese it's different there.

M- How long have you been in the US?

E- I've been here since April 2011.

M- Did you learn English before?

E- Yeah in school but it was really basic. Even in University the things they give you are really basic, but here even when I went to the English Language center they still give me the basic thing! I learn maybe from movies (laughs), from interacting with people, not from the school. How to speak- this is really different. Movies first! (laughs again)

M- Have you seen other parts of the US?

E- Yeah, I went to Florida, Washington, but I just transit. I went like to the downtown but not everything. Also New York. But I think Minnesota is better. If you like buildings, everything like this, if you like to live inside these, its different for each person. For me i like to visit just visit but not living in it. Too crazy, too crazy!

M- What is religion like there?

E- Islam. We have like some Christians, not like the main religion of our country but they live in our country.

M- What made you come to the US?

E- Twas my chance. Because I didn't think of traveling to study abroad, I didn't think about this. Like my family just to apply, just apply you never know what can happen! Just apply for a chance you can apply here or for a job. Then I got this, the scholarship. Even I didn't want to just applied! I had to travel to England, but I think they closed my major there, its full of Saudis.

M- SCSU?

E- First I came to MN. I like the atmosphere here. It's not expensive here, not like Massachusetts, I don't know if that's right to pronounce like this. I had it first in Mass but it's real expensive, so then we changed to MN because we know some people here. People said its really comfortable here and also every summer my family they come here. Just visit, then we go to other states. But like for a family it's not good just to live in the city, Like in New York. So they just live here but we can visit. We prefer Minneapolis, I wanted to study at the U of M but they said you have to take too many courses from bachelor, I said this is too much. But here they said no you can just take two courses. I needed just from my Computer science just two courses from my undergraduate because my previous major was different. So I had to take some courses

M- What was your previous major?
E- Management Information Systems was my bachelor. So now I'm studying.

M- Do you miss your family?

E- Of course. (laughs) But not like crying everyday. We have Skype, I can talk to them everyday, so yeah. Its not like missing every day you think about them. We talk just like we talk to each other, nothing important to the conversation.

M- What is your favorite American food?

E- I don't like fast food actually, but I think we forced to eat fast food here because we don't have time. But I went to a Thanksgiving party, is it party? I don't know if it's a party?
M- Some people have parties on Thanksgiving!

E- Mm, yeah it's like a party. They cooked something really nice. She said it's in Thanksgiving, on Thanksgiving they cook it, it's like toast with something?

M- Is it the bread chunks with celery and onions?
E- Yeah, it's not like dry?

M- Yeah and they stuff it inside the turkey?

E- Yeah, not always though. That one is my favorite for American food. Because I don't see American food just like fast food I don't see like American food, like do you have restaurants here for American food? Not fast food? Do you cook like this?

It depends on the restaurant! The American thing is kind of a mixture of everything. There's restaurants that serve steak or mashed potatoes

E- But I mean food in Thanksgiving, like you don't see that?

M- No, no, not often. People don't make turkey often, you don't see stuffing throughout the year.

M- What is your favorite Saudi food?

E- I don't know if you know it, but I don't like Kapsa. I hate it, I hate Kapsa! (Laughs)

M-That was the other twos' favorite!

E- It depends on who cooks it but I hate it generally. I like something called Siadia (spelling?) It's not black rice but when you cook it it becomes like, really black, because you need really right amount of onions! And its with fish. The fish is baked. Yeah, it's really nice. I don't know if I can give you while we're talking I will be able to find you a picture. It's really nice! Better than Kapsa! (laughs) You should try it. How they cook it is different. The spices are different. For me it's not nice.

M- Yeah because the other two talked about Kapsa!

E- (Hesitates) Boys! (laughs)

M- Do you plan to stay in the US?

E- After graduating? Mm, no. Because I got a job, in Saudi. I'm not sure if I want to stay but I have to go just for to stick with that job but like I have to start. Because i got it but I have to at least start it then I can decide if I like it. I don't mind living in the US, Europe, anywhere. But I prefer close to my family. If they move with me, then! You need support sometimes, you need support, you need someone to push you.

M- What is your major? You majored in IS and now you you're going for your Masters in Computer Science? It is it hard?

E- Ohh my God! For me it's hard, yeah it's hard. You can enjoy it, but it's not easy. But I think if I just studied alone always, I would feel like it's really terrible. But because we always study in groups the assignments, we do it together, so it's better.

M-When did you decide to come here? Did you ever consider the US before you sent in that application?

E- No. Like I said the country I will travel to. I like the US! But Um, I said, I want something close, I want a country that is really close to my country. Then they chose England, then England was full of Saudis! Then they moved me here. I think it's really good for me. Like maybe I didn't decide before, I didn't plan for it, but you never know where is the place that is really good for you and I think it's good for me. Especially like, you have multi cultural like, I can find many people here, unlike Europe. You can find just Europeans. Before I didn't think about people, I just wanted a close country, but now after I came here, No. it's better to live among not just Saudis, but Americans, Chinese, Bengalian, everybody. So it's helpful. In Europe I visited France; you see the majority, just French people. So it like won't be helpful. Sometimes you need to meet people! Not just the Internet.

M- Did you get the picture?
E- It's like this. (Shows me picture on her phone)
M- Oh my God that looks good!

E- I like fish!

M- I love fish! And isn't it kind of native to your country? A lot of people fish?

E- Oh my God too much! Maybe I can find you the recipe!

M- I would love that!

 

M- Any questions for me?!

E- Not that I can think of, no!

 

Conclusion:
 

Esraa and I talked for a few minutes after the interview closed. We spoke for a while about studying abroad and what it has done for her and all of the benefits that come from living in a different country. "I got benefit more living here than computer science classes!" she claimed, "if you don't know yourself yet, you can't know what are your goals, nothing!"

As we walked down the stairs of the library and she met with a friend for a group project, she suggested that we should get together sometime. I agreed, flattered to have been asked. "I have your number" we said almost in unison, parting ways and laughing.
Meeting Esraa was to me, an example of what going to a university should be. Getting to know someone of a different lifestyle on a personal level, and coming out of that acquaintances. I am more than happy to have met her and truthfully would love to hear more about her life at home and the travels she has made and maybe even receive some advice. :)

 

Sources:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sa.html
 

http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/saudi-arabia-country-profile.html