To read Option #1 click here

To read Option #2 click here

To read Option #3 click here

So its time to vote.

So without further ado, here is Option #3

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So without further ado, here is Option #2

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Its a new new year and I’m back to school transferring to my first year in secondary school. Its been a hard last year, Saddams Armies invaded Kuwait and all hell broke loss. Saudi Arabia has been in a state of war for the first time in its history since its unification in 1932. Life has been weird and crazy the last year with schools closed most of the times and people moving all around the country trying to move away from the range of the scud missiles Sadam unleashed on us, recruitment camps for volunteers 16 years or old were established under the pressure and demand of population to play a part in defending the country, the patriotic fever has reached its ultimest level in the country. Thousands of Kuwaiti refugees moved to Saudi including the rolling family. This also coincided with the deployment of the US forces in Saudi as the major part of the international coalition to protect Saudi and liberate Kuwait, which didn’t go smoothly with many Saudis who saw it either as a symbol of weakness depending on others or saw it as an invasion of infidels to the holy lands. But little did the Saudi government have an option in the matter, Saudi forces were small compared to irags one million man force and with little to no real combat experience compared to Iraqs 7 year war experience with Iran, plus Iraq was massing an assault on the Saudi Kuwaiti boarders, at least that’s what the US and their satellite photos claimed, if you ask some till this day they would tell you those photos were brushed and the iraqi forces were building defenses and not an assault, but that’s the past and what happened happened.

Oh ya I forgot, let me introduce my self. My name is Faisal AlKhalidy from Saudi Arabia, born and raised in Riyadh city but my family originally descends from the Qassim region just north of Riyadh city. I’m 16 years old and starting my first year in secondary school I guess its called high school in the USA. My father is Naseer AlKhalidy an accountant for the Ministry of Defense, my mother is Haia AlMishary a house wife and a great mother. I have three brothers and one sister. I’m the oldest in the family. We live in one of Riyadh modern middle class neighborhoods in the north its called AlOliya. I love it here it’s a bit more modern then the rest of Riyadh with more of a western style. Our house is decent and average to a middle class family. Its about 650 square meters with a small guardin, a room for the chufer, 5 bedrooms, mens guest living room, women guest living room, family living room, dinning room, kitchen, and 6 bathrooms.

Man I miss summer vacation, waking up so early is no fun, “Mom close those curtness the light is annoying” I shout out as my mother enters my room and opens the curtness to let the sun light in and wake me up. “Its 6 am and the drive to school takes half an hour so get out of bed and get ready it’s a school day not a vacation anymore.” she says that as she turn the AC off and exits my room and continues her morning routine of waking me and my brothers and sister up. 6 am, man I got used to sleeping in till 12 pm if I wanted. I start to lazily move out of bed, man its cold that AC works great at night. I finally get out of bed and head to the bathroom. I look into the mirror and man do I look horrible, I got so used at staying up late during summer that I didn’t sleep till 2 am last night. I brush my teeth and wash up and then perform wodu, woudu is a retoal washing that muslims need to perform before praying, start out with washing the hands, followed by the mouth then the nose, the face, arms. hair and ears and finally the feet. I didn’t wake up to perform the fajer (sunrise) prayer today so better late then never. I exit the bathroom and there on my desk I find a hot glass of milk, guess the maid brought it in while I was washing up. My mom has gotten us used to having a glass of milk every morning just before school. I’ll just let it cool down a bit while I pray and change into my school clothes. Its nice to have your own room, I feel sorry for Ali and Saad, my youngest two brothers, they have to share a room together and do they fight a lot. Ya I got my own room with a bathroom, Fahad the oldest of my brothers has his own room but shares the bathroom with Ali and Saad, Nora my sister has her own bedroom with a bathroom because shes the only girl even though shes the youngest. Of-course my mom and dad have their own room as well. I finish praying and head to the closet where I get my clothes for school out. Well nothing special for school, we were what we usually wear everyday here in Saudi a thob and a somaq. A thob is like a shirt that is body length usually white specially during summer and a somag is a cloth that we wear on our heads. Its traditional Saudi cloths, we also usually wear an uqal to hold the somaq to our heads but its baned in school as some students used it as a weapon, an oqal is like a thick circular rope and can be painful if you hit someone with it. After I get my clothes on I check my bag, got a notebook and pencils, hope we get our books today. I drink my milk and exit my room. In the family living room I find my mom relaxing and having a cup of coffee, my dad is still asleep he won’t wake up for another hour. I head to my mom kiss her forehead and sit down beside her as we wait for the rest of my brothers and sister to come down.

So without further ado, here is Option #1

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It’s a new school year. The Gulf war has just ended with the liberation of Kuwait. The war has affected Saudi Arabia a lot. Both economically and socially. As the coming years will show some of those changes will be very major in future events.

Saudi Arabia in a Monarch country ruled by Al-Saud family, which the country is named after. The country occupies over two thirds of the Arabian Peninsula and has a population of about 20 million four of which are foreign nationals. The country is the largest oil producer in the world and has the largest known reservoir of oil. King Fahad the son of the countries unifier and brother to 3 formal kings, which makes him the fifth king of Saudi Arabia, currently rules it. He is also known as the custodian of the two holy mosques. Having the two most religious places in the Islamic world Mecca and Medina makes it an honor and a responsibility to take care of them and its visitors. The capitol is Riyadh city currently of the population of about 4 million located in the middle of the country followed by two other major cities located on the red sea and the Arabian Gulf Jeddah and Dammam.

Its 7:30 am and The Filipino driver pulls up the Buick century 89 in front of the school gate. Seated in the back was Khaled a 16-year-old Saudi boy. He has just graduated from preparatory to secondary school a move to a new environment was in process. He was nervous and excited about going to secondary school after all it means he became a man now. He also was not happy about the fact that the driver had to drop him at school. After all he is old enough to have his own car and drive now. But his dad will not hear of it so here he is in front of school in the back seat of the car with a driver. He takes a deep breath and opens the door to get out while reminding the driver to pick him up at 1pm. ‘Wait for me here if you don’t see me we might not be out till 2 but be here at one just in case.’

School in Saudi Arabia is divided into 3 levels: elementary, junior high, and secondary with an optional kindergarten level. Attending school isn’t mandatory but still a huge percent of children attend school to the point that free government schools are fighting to be able to accommodate all of the students. Boys and girls are separated as each has his own school. The entire school curriculum is provided from the government with the option for private schools to add to that curriculum but not subtract. Schoolbooks are printed and distributed freely to schools by the government and there is a unified exam conducted by the ministry of education for graduation from secondary school. Islamic studies are a major aspect of the school curriculum and English is thought as a second language starting at junior high as mandatory to all students with the option for different schools to teach it at elementary level if they feel it is appropriate.

Khaled enters the school and looks around in the schoolyard as different students are scattered around and talking with each other while waiting for the morning gathering.

Usually students gather in the schools yard 15 minutes before the start of the class where they stand in columns of one or two according to their classes. They do a quick group exercise while standing there then a group of students from one-class stands to the podium to start the morning broadcast. The broadcast is arranged so that every class takes turns in providing it. The material is usually the same with some classes trying to add to it. It always starts with a reading from the holy Koran and then goes on to different stuff like light news, jokes, facts, and different other stuffs. After the broadcast the dean would speak if there were any announcements which the students then enter classes in an organized way. Depending on school policy usually students who miss the morning gathering are punished by missing the first class and losing points in their attendants sheet. They might even be punished in other ways as well as the possibility of expulsion if they miss to many morning gatherings.

Khaled notices his best friend Ali standing and looking around at no specific direction. Khaled and Ali have been friends and classmates since first year elementary school. They haven’t seen each other for a long time as Ali traveled with his family to Syria for their summer vacation. Ali noticed Khaled and smiles while waving at him to notice him. Khaled walks towered Ali while carrying his briefcase. Khaled is more old style compared to most kids his age, as carrying a briefcase to school hasn’t been poplar for a long time. However the new trend never appealed to him. Nowadays students collect their schoolbooks and notes in a bundled wrapped in a prayer carpet and then tied together with a rope. Khaled always though of this as strange and unpractical. Backpacks never got to the seen at secondary school even though they are used by lower grade students. Apparently secondary school students thought of backpacks as child’s and sissy like so the manly way is to wrap the books in a bundle. Khaled thought of backpack and degrading and not as elegant as a briefcase so he stuck to his briefcase.

Khaled puts down his briefcase to the group just as he reaches Ali who had his arms spread wide to give a hug while saying ‘hello my dear Khaled’. Khaled opens his arms as well and embraces Ali and polls him close squeezing him tight while Ali shouts out in laughable way ‘stop it for gods sake or your gonna kill me.’ So Khaled lets Ali go laughing and then shakes his hands and they both kiss each other on the checks in a Saudi traditional way. Khaled start talking ‘so how have you been u devil? And how was your trip? Long time no see.’

‘The trip was only missing u, other than that it was a nice change of weather and atmosphere’

‘So was the drive good? Had any problems?’

‘Oh the drive was nice a few glitches here and there but overall it was pretty nice’

‘So what did u get me from there?’

‘Well that’s a surprise just wait and you’ll find out’

‘So how were the girls there?’ said Khaled with a devilish wink.

‘Oh u have missed a lot in that department they were hot’ replied Ali with a wide smile.

‘So got lucky?’ asked Khaled with a devilish smile.

‘Oh ya sure loads of luck’ replied Ali with a sarcastic face.

‘I bet u were running away from them even if they approach u’ said Khaled laughing.

‘Shit man u know I wouldn’t have the guts to do anything even if I had the chance’ said Ali while laughing.

They both started laughing with a high voice while joking about Ali’s adventures in Syria. That’s just when the court speakers went out in a blast requesting students to pay attention. The courtyard went silent as everybody turned to the podium to see what’s going on. The school principal was the speaker introducing him self and welcoming retuning students and new students. After a quick welcome and fast explanation about the rules for the morning gathering and other important information the returning students were asked to proceed to their classes. As all they needed to do was to find the same class number of there new level and that was it. The new students were to be assigned their new classes as this is their first time to this school. Each class had a class advisor who is one of the class teachers. So the principle started by calling that teacher and assigning him a class and then call the students assigned to that class by name. When the entire class body was called the teacher led them to their new classroom for this year.

So let me know what you think?

Please checkout the following podcasts that I recomand:

The Japanofiles.com http://japanofiles.com/

The Phileas Club http://frenchspin.com/en/site/phileas/