Surviving the Sandbox

I am not, it turns out, a very consistent blogger.  I alway knew this, but the last year seems to have thrown that into stark focus.  My efforts to blog about my time in the Middle East were quickly cut short by a most surprising revelation - I became paranoid about internet censorship.  Coming of course from Canada where we take for granted our ability to simply say what we think when we think it (at least before Stephen Harper became the grand poo-bah), I had never really considered what it would be like to be censored.  But then I arrived in Saudi Arabia and internet censorship was obvious and I started to think about what I was saying.  Then I realized that my blog was being read inside the kingdom and I started to become mildly paranoid.  And without much warning I found myself completely unable to write anything for fear that it might insult or incriminate.

Now safely out of the kingdom, I feel like I want to write about what that year was like from my perspective and about the things I learned as I lived, worked and traveled.  I'll admit that the paranoia was probably an overreaction (I'm probably not on anybody's radar) but it was nevertheless an interesting consequence of plunking myself down in such an extremely foreign culture.  So without promising a consistent, concise or even chronological blog, I am hereby undertaking to start chronicling my time in Saudi Arabia - semi-affectionately dubbed "The Sandbox".

Hopefully you will enjoy my musings!

Christina and I at a Saudi festival during our first month in Riyadh... I just like this picture, I think we look like we are conspiring (as roommate Amy pointed out, I often look like I am conspiring).