Classes are still going really well. I'm supposed to have 24 students, but the most I've ever had is 14. The girls that show up consistently are: Hussuh, Amani, Hijah, Moneerah, Sarah, Nora, Haya, Noura Q, Maha, Norah, Ahood and Noura.
Notice something? Yeah, my group of a dozen girls has 4 Noras (with variable spelling). They're all named for a princess. Most of my students carry the surname "Al Qahtani" (pronounced 'kuh-tah-ny'). The 'Al' is simply formal and is found before every surname. "Qahtani" refers to the Qahtan tribe. We're still relatively Bedouin out here, but it's not like my students live in tents. I'm sure plenty have camel farms, though.
If you ask my girls what they like to spend their time doing, they generally say, "Sleeping." They live closed off, sheltered lives as women, so they're incredibly sedentary.
Public music is forbidden here (though people use headphones), but my girls love to sing. I'll see if I can convince them to let me record them.
You'll never see my student's faces, because photos of them is haram (sinful/forbidden). Even showing your face to a man (who's not related to you) is immodest, so things like Instagram accounts are private or full of faceless selfies (these girls know how to angle their cameras!).
Saudi's have great senses of humor. It's one of the reasons get along with my students so well. For example, today I showed them how you count to ten with one hand in China. They really dug it and tried to memorize the system. Then they taught me 1-10 in Arabic (and filmed me being terrible at it, of course). As we continued talking about counting and showing numbers, they told me that in Saudi you can count on your fingers, eyes, head and toes at the market. "Oh yeah?" I said sarcastically, "So I should do this?" (I mimed taking off my shoe) "I'd like 5 bananas, please!"
"Yes, of course!" They said, returning my sarcasm. I'll told them I'd give it a go next time I'm at a shop.
Seriously, though, I always find that we have more in common as people than you'd think.
I think I mentioned it previously, but we do something called Project Based Learning with our classes to help them develop soft skills for work. This week, we made replicas of buildings with straws.
This was the first week's project: