Khalifa #4

On Thursday, I met with Khalifa for the fourth time. This time we met at Red Cactus. Food in Saudi Arabia is extremely spicy so Mexican food has been some of his favorite food while in America. First, we discussed Halloween. On Halloween night, he went downtown and was not impressed by the turnout. I assured him that this was just because it was a Wednesday and that downtown the previous weekend was full of people celebrating Halloween and that I was sure people would be doing the same this coming weekend. Needless to say, Halloween had not impressed him thus far. But, he did seem to think it was a really cool concept. ?They have a holiday moderately similar to Halloween in Saudi Arabia where everyone celebrates and decorates their cars green and white, the colors of their flag. So instead of dressing up themselves, they just dress up their cars.

There was a TV on in the restaurant that was talking about the election so we began to talk about politics and the upcoming election. He knew a lot more about the election than I expected which I think speaks to the fact that campaigning has become such a big part of the election process that you can’t get away from it. He was very impressed by Obama’s public speaking abilities and also knew Obama by name but only knew Romney as “that other one that starts with an R.” I jokingly assured him that not knowing Romney’s name is ok because all people in Texas need to know is that his name isn’t Obama and he gets the vote. It turns out that this was something that he was very curious about to begin with. His exact question was “why do people in Texas hate Obama so much?” I have always found talking politics with people to be rather awkward, especially with people that I don’t know very well (which is likely why I initially took to humor, as an attempt to ease the awkwardness of the conversation). For the first time, I think I felt more awkward during our conversation than he did. It was very hard for me to explain why certain states as a whole associate with certain morals and ideals especially because the two states he was specifically asking about were Texas and California (where he is moving second semester). I basically explained that when it comes to politics Texas and California are polar opposites. Texas is about as conservative as you can get while California is about a liberal as you can get. I apologized for not having a better answer and thought that he would change the subject but he kept asking more questions. He said he doesn’t really know why but he is convinced that Obama will win the election by a large margin. Immediately after stating this, he asked me who I was voting for. Once again, extremely awkward. I was also shocked with how forward his questions were because usually he asks questions very carefully; trying his best to not say anything that might offend me or that might not make sense.

Thankfully, he switched the topic off of party politics and stated the one thing that he has encountered in America so far that he hates; see the homeless not taken care off. He feels that it is something that our government needs to fix. He says that his government pays for you until you find a job but once you have a job they don’t pay you anymore. I told him that our government also gives out unemployment checks for a certain amount of time after you lose your job but he felt that this approach wasn’t good enough. He said that this is America, people should be here living the American dream, we’re the most powerful country in the world; there is no reason for us to leave our own people homeless. His thought process was definitely very interesting and thought provoking and it was also rather shocking because I figured that Saudi Arabia would have a much greater number of homeless people than the US.

Somehow, we then got onto the topic of his difficulties with math and PowerPoint. He has found that in America, you just learn to get better grades and then forget it all because you’re never going to need it for your job. It’s sad to admit but I feel like this is a mindset that most American’s, including myself, have fallen into. In our results based society, all you need is results and it doesn’t matter how you get there. Cramming for tests is a weekly occurrence and regardless of if we end up getting an A or a B, if you gave us the same test a week later without warning, I guarantee a majority of people wouldn’t do better than a C. It’s really interesting how a fresh perspective can give such accurate criticisms on our society. Not that he doesn’t love it here, he does. But some of his points of view have been extremely thought provoking.