day in the life of a saudi expat living in riyadh living in Saudi Arabia lost in riyadh lost in riyadh blog Lost in Riyadh-Blog middle east

Learn to Dance in the Rain Before You Get on Your Jet Ski

Not a photo. All made in photoshop with the use of filters only.

Not a photo. All made in Photoshop with the use of filters only.

Even though it is only the beginning of March right now, it gets very warm here, especially at midday. I see girls come to school in dresses and skirts and whenever I go outside covered up, I already start feeling uncomfortable temperature wise.

Before coming here I, as many other globetrotters, had the issue of what to take with me to Riyadh and what to leave behind. Knowing about how hot it gets there, I immediately said to myself that an umbrella is the last thing I will need and left it in the attic.

In November of last year I got to see for myself how mistaken I was with making this decision.

For those of you who wonder, yes, it does actually rain here and quite frankly, once it rains here, it rains quite a lot. Don’t believe me? Then check this out.

It started in the early morning hours and I watched the drops being blown off the windows as I was on my way to school. By lunch time it got some heavier and I had to look for another spot to sit on until the next block, because our usual table was nearly flooded. By the time I got home, I received an E-Mail from the school, announcing that campus would be closed the next day and classes would take place via our moodle platform, which is pretty equivalent to being homeschooled for a day.

It has rained here three times so far, I believe and only twice was the rain actually a kind of  heavy one.  The main problem is that there is nowhere for the water to go and so what ends up happening here is that all the streets get flooded and some people finally get to use their jet skis on the streets of Riyadh. I kid you not. Some people in Riyadh actually manage to find a jet ski somewhere.

If you live in Riyadh and chose to buy a pavilion for your garden, let me tell you now that the thing will probably not survive that little bit of water coming down and I ensure you that the store where you bought it won’t do anything about it if it breaks.

Moral of the story:  Don’t abandon your umbrella and garden furniture may be a costly thing here.

You Might Also Like

No Comments

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: