My Life in Saudi

I’ve posted a great deal about my perceptions of Saudi and on my travels outside of Saudi, but I haven’t written much about what my life is actually like while in Riyadh. So, here it goes:

I live in a hotel called the Al Khozama in downtown Riyadh. It’s one of the nicer hotels in the city and is in the same complex as the Al Fazelia hotel, which is even nicer. The Khozama has both normal hotel rooms and extended stay apartments. I live in one of the later. It’s a bit dated (it’s got an 80’s feel to it) but I have a three bedroom place to myself (still plenty of time to visit if you’re interested) basically the whole time. The Khozama / Fazelia complex has a number of amenities that we can use. There are probably 5 or 6 restaurants, two gyms, three pools, a dry cleaner and a mall within 5 minute walking distance. There are also like, 15 coffee shops for some reason but no convenient stores, grocery stores, etc.

A typically day goes like this for me:

Wake up, sometimes go to the gym (usually not), call a car, have breakfast at the hotel, hit Starbucks, and head to the client’s office. I’m at the client from roughly 8:30/9 – 4/5 everyday. Our case has been very client intensive. I’ve only been to our office in Riyadh twice. After leaving the client, we head back to the hotel, do work, workout, go to dinner / order room service, catch up with people back home, plan weekend trips, etc.

The work here is interesting more so because of how much is going on at once and less so because it’s highly analytical. That said, the work over here is extremely high impact in shaping the strategy of the Kingdom on a variety of fronts (which I can’t talk about). I have also found that the way the team works over here is far more all-hands-on-deck and far less hierarchical, which I really like. The consultants that have really sunk their teeth in over here for a few years have flown up the ladder. There just aren’t enough of us around so we end up taking responsibility for far more than we would in North America. At any given time I am working on 2-4 things here and maybe one thing back in the States. Hectic, but stimulating and interesting.

I definitely don’t work less over here. I probably work a little more but the lack of a social life in Saudi doesn’t make it seem that way. You’re far more efficient when you don’t have the option of going to a bar, calling / emailing with friends, watching a sports game, etc. Also, you feel less bad about working when you’re not missing something /letting people down. There are fewer priorities to juggle. It makes things easier while here, but probably isn’t sustainable. Also, they really respect your weekends over here. Other than the weekend before our biggest deliverable, I have probably done no more than 6 hours of work total on the weekends since I’ve been here, and most of it was for stuff in the States.

Saudi society is rather formal. I wear a suit nearly all the time. I don’t mind it too much but it’s very hot this time of year (112 today) and it’s a bit annoying putting on nice cloths just to go pick something up. In the evenings I’ll wear jeans and a button down if we’re going out to eat but that’s about as casual as it gets. No shorts, no t-shirts, no sandals. All women are covered and all Saudi men wear Thobes. There are plenty of ex-pats from all over the world so the traditional dress makes it easy to tell who is a local and who is not.

A few weeks ago there was an Englishman here who clearly hadn’t been briefed (or simply didn’t care) about this social norm. I saw him in the hotel dining room (which is very formal) in what looked like his sleeping attire on more than one occasion. I haven’t seen him in a while come to think of it…I hope the moral police didn’t pick him up…

Saudis are very private people so there isn’t much small talk. I mostly interact with the hotel staff, our drivers, the client and the team. I like our client and coming into the office is always entertaining. I have quite a few stories. Talking to women you don’t know is highly frowned upon and possibly illegal (I’m not completely up on the rules of the moral police). Needless to say, I don’t have much of a dating life over here.

Eating is a bit of a struggle. It’s very hard to eat healthy over here. Part of it is eating out every meal, but it’s also the diet over here. It’s very heavy on meats and starches. It can be a real struggle trying to find fruits or vegetables. Also, everything comes with french fries.

I don’t sleep much here because the weeks are pretty intense and you cram everything in so mid-day Wednesday (our Friday) you can head to the airport and go wherever you please. I usually stop working some time between 10 -12, do a few other things and then get a few hours of sleep before I get up and do it all over again.

The weekends…well, they make the weeks worth it.