Neighbors

Living in Saudi Arabia is very comfortable. Your neighbors are very quiet and respectful. They all love you and help you when you are in trouble. Neighbors in Saudi Arabia have strong relationships, and consider them selfs as a one big family. It is hard to find big conflict between two neighbors. For me, I respect my neighbors like my father. I always listen to them and obey their orders. For example, when I was in Saudi Arabia,  my neighbor sometime tell me to bring something for him from the supermarket, and I immediately do it. This is because hi conciser me as his son and he always ask about me. Also, when I get injured, he was in Illinois, and hi took a plan to Austin and stayed one day just to visit me. We have like this relationship with most of our neighbors. Moreover, we and our neighbors gathered almost every week, so that make our relationships stronger. on the other hand, I did not see that in the United States. Even though the people are so friendly, but they don have strong relationships with each other. I have been in our appartement for more than three months, and I could not talk with our neighbors. This because they do not give any opportunity to make your relationship stronger. Moreover, our neighbors always make parties and make noise, so they bothered me and could not make sleep well. I am not upset because they make parties, but I am upset because they make parties without telling me our take my permeation. Finally, in all the world there are a bad and good neighbors, and I hope to have great neighbors in United States like my neighbors in Saudi Arabia.    

Fitness

One of the important things for American people is doing exercises. They are careful about their health. They make schedule for their daily exercises. I have not walk in the street without seeing someone doing exercises. Even in the weekend in the morning they wake up and do sports. For example, when we did volunteering last month on Saturday morning, we want to the Zilker park, and we found that the place very crowded because the people were doing their exercises. Also, I noticed there are students coming to classes with sport clothes because after their classes they went to the gym. Moreover, when I have been in the Castilian, I saw the people are going to the gym everyday, so I was asking my self how can they manage their time. Then, I realized they used to do it for a long time. I started to do what they are doing, and I made a schedule for my self. However, I followed the schedule only for one week then I quit. It hard for me to do the same thin at the same time everyday because I feel boring when I do that. When I was in the Saudi, the only exercise that I did is playing soccer. I was playing soccer everyday, but in different time, but even if it was in the same time, I was playing with different people. Most of the people in the Saudi Arabia do not cere about their health. They are playing soccer for their fun not their health. They should know that sport makes him healthy mind and body. If people do not exploit their time doing their exercises, they will spend their time in doing something not beneficial .

Food!

Americans are the fast food people! I heard that a lot, but I did not know why American like the fast food so much, so I read and asked the people about it. Time is a part of the American culture. Americans eat fast foods a lot because they do not have much time to spend it on foods. Also, the kind of food does not have high value for them. They want just a good food to make them live. As a result, there is a statistic said that the United States has the biggest percent of fat people. Also, a lot of Americans live alone without their family especially the students in the university, so they don’t have time to cook or to clean after cooking. They prefer to eat outside or order food from restaurants, and this point happened to me a lot when I come to the United States. I finished my classes in the afternoon, so there is not much time to cook and to do my homework. I only cook on the weekend, which is the opposite in Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia, I was eating what my mom cooks everyday; I had eaten fast food only in the weekend. Fast food restaurants are not popular in Saudi, but people sometimes go to them to change the routine. Saudis like fancy foods, and they spend a lot of money on foods. We have in Saudi Arabia a huge diversity of foods, because people do not like to eat the same food every day. I really miss the food in Saudi because I cannot find it here in the United States.

Hospital

Every time I go to hospital in Saudi Arabia I spend at least two hours waiting to see the doctor. Even if the hospital is not busy, you will wait for a long time. However, The hospitals always busy and their service are too bad because they do the same thing for all the patients. Also, the employee’s treat the patients like if they work to them. For example, they will ignore you and shot out at you. However, I have gone to the hospital in the United States more than four times. The longer time that I spent it in the hospital is one and a half hour; they provided anything that I need. Moreover, when I went to do my surgery, everything was ready. Their work was professional because they were sure that everything was ok. Also, after the surgery they were calling me and checking if everything goes well. On other hand, doctors Saudi Arabia are not qualified because few of them are graduated from good schools. Most of the doctors are not Saudis because most of the Saudi prefer to be engineers because they will have a lot of money, and they will study only five years. In the United State all the doctors are qualified and they are expert. This is because there is many people want to be doctors and they study very hard to be successful. Also, the hospitals will chose only the good doctors, so they should be good to get a job. Finally, I hope hospitals in Saudi Arabia to improve and be like the United State or better.   

Culture Differences

 

Being on time is something very important in the United States. Before I came I heard about that, but I did not imagine how they are strict on it. Being on time does not mean only that you have schedule and you can come on time. However it is represent how the person is respectful, organized, and punctual. In the first semester our coordinator, Matt, really was upset from us because we were always late, and we thought that was ok, however he told us that was rude, and it is mean that you do not respect and care about that person who meet. It is important for every American, especially since the concept of time plays such a great role in American culture. In addition, The work ethic in the United State concepts the time is money. However, in Saudi they say that if the people do well never matter if they came late or on time.  Moreover, when you have a dinner with an American friend you should be at least five minutes earlier, because my American friend told me that if you are on time, you are late. Also, you should say how long the dinner will take because they have other thing to do. In Saudi is the opposite, because if you come earlier it is rude. When we have dinner, we used to do not put exactly time, but we tell invitees approximately time, they come around this time. Finally, I tautly agree with the American and their culture that the time is very significant and sometimes it is more important than the money. This is because if time has gone, it will not come back.

Alsobhi's Coat of Arm

Alsobhi is my family name, but I belong to a big tribe which is Alharbi. It is a big tribe in Saudi Arabia, and they are in the west region. Our tribe is one of the biggest tripe in Saudi Arabia. Alharbi is taken from the people who are in a war, so other tribes know that we are strong and are not afraid of others. As a result, I am proud of my family, and I will do my best to make my family proud of me. My grandfather was not rich, so he worked hard to make our life better. He worked in agriculture, trade, and breeding sheep. However, my father was not like him. He continued studying until he got a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. Then, he worked in a big company which is SABIC, so he provides a fancy life for us. As a result, my father inspires me and gives me the motivation to be like him, so I choose to study chemical engineering like him.

 When people look at the mountains, they see the immovability, the power, and the toughness. The mountains face all the natural forces, but they do not change. In the life I have a lot of struggles to achieve my goals and to get what I want, so I should work hard and overcome these struggles. For example, it is hard a experience to travel to a different country and study a different language. However, I have adjusted with that, and it has become a great experience to me. Moreover, mountains express the Summit and the optimum things.  Everyone wants to be like that, but that does not come in a short time. In addition, the variety of materials is one of the main advantages of the mountains. I see that in myself because I have more than one talent and I like to do many things.

People have their special abilities and skills. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses will help you to improve yourself. This is because you can develop your strengths and remove your weaknesses. When I was in high school I contributed in many competitions in math. I got the first place from all students who are in the same grade in Saudi Arabia, and I got a reward in different math competition. Loving the mathematics make me enjoy doing math problems. As a result, I become very good in math. On the other hand, my favorite happy is soccer. Since I was four years old, I was playing soccer and supporting Al-ittehad, which is a soccer team in Saudi Arabia. All my family members are supporting this team, so it is something that we inherited from the old generation. Moreover, I am so dexterous in soccer. I always play with my school team. I have more than seven championships with different teams. Also, I got three times the top scorer and two times the best player. I inherited that from my father because he was a great player.

 The tiger is a great and wonderful animal. Fighting to get what he wants is one of the tiger’s features. For example, when he sees a target, he hounds it until he gets it. Even if the target climbs a tree, the tiger could hunt it. When I put something on my mind, I fight for it. Even if the task is too hard, I do not despair. For instance, when I was in high school the math teacher gave us a hard question, and he said that the student who answers that question will get full mark in the next quiz. I tried for more than three hours to solve the question, but I did not solve it. After five hours I solved it and took fall mark. Moreover, courage is one of the attributes of the tiger. when I am on right, I am not afraid of anything.

 My goals are my motivation, which encourage me to work hard. I want to study in the United States because I believe that it will help me to achieve my goals. English is my second language, and I want to be like a native speaker. Therefore, I came to the United States to study in order to improve my English. The United States has the best universities in the world. Many students around the world compete to attend in these universities. Also, these universities support students to do their best, so my dream is to study at one of these universities. When I study I work to be the best, and when I work with Saudi basic industrial cooperation (SABIC) I want to be the best, so I came to America to improve my leader skills. Also, I came to build my character because I will live alone without my family. For example, no one will influence my decision, so if I make a wrong decision I will learn from it. In brief, I will do my best to make my dreams and goals real.

No pain no gain! This is one of my beliefs in this life. When you have goals you should work hard for them, and do your best to achieve them. Being a successful person needs a lot from you. Although, the rich seem too happy, they did not have that from easy way. They faced all the people who do not believe of them, and they overcame all the struggles that would stop them. For example, Edison tried nine hundred ninety nine times until he discovered the electricity. The result for good Planning and hard effort is magnificent. In short, without facing a hard time in your life, and continuing to work at your goals, you will not achieve anything.

Japan

My grandfather always tells me about their life in the past, and how it is different than now. He says that they faced a lot of struggles because they were working at noon under the sun, and they get small amount of money. They were no electricity in their city, and they did not have any means of transportation except camels and horses. On other hand, the people were friendly and there is no envy between them, so everyone help each other. I could not imagine that I am living in the Saudi Arabia in the past. If I could live in any time in history and in any country, I will choose japan currently.

Japan now has one of the better environment to live in. The means of transportation are almost perfect because they have all kind of it. In japan throwing the garbage is organized, so the garbage has no bad smell. Also, Japanese people are too honest, so you will not expose to deceive. Moreover, Japan is the best country in technology. Therefore, the life will be easier and exiting. For example, you put your car in one place, so a machine will take the car to the available place, and the machine will bring it back for you when you want to go. Moreover, Japanese people are complete each other, so they will help you, and will make you improve. Finally, Japan is good place to live in now.