Casey CP #1

For our meeting on Tuesday January 21st, Dakhil and I met at Starbucks Coffee. We began our conversation introducing ourselves and what we were doing during our time at CIES. Dakhil began explaining that he has been learning English for many years now, since 2014. He is a 27-year-old from Saudi Arabia who is working in a cyber security corporation here in the United States. Dakhil is the only child of his 7 brothers and sisters that has ventured out of Saudi Arabia and has studied abroad in England for a short time and now the United States. Dakhil enjoys traveling and learning about new cultures just as much as I do. We spent some time looking at a map where he showed me his home city Riyadh the capital of Saudi Arabia as well as many of the prominent places in Saudi Arabia such as Mecca, Medina and Jeddah. He told me much about the political and religious culture of Saudi Arabia and explaining how the political power of the kingdom operates which was so interesting to learn about. I was so fascinated learning about how tech savvy Saudi Arabia is and how advanced their medical system is as well. I learned briefly about some of Dakhil's hobbies such as playing video games and exercising which he gave an interesting backstory about how he became "skinny". We spent the second hour conversing about my background, American political and religious culture, and the medical system here in the states. I told Dakhil of my family life and we went on a tangent talking about the history of polygamy in Saudi Arabia compared to the anti- polygamy laws in the United States. Dakhil has such a large family primarily due to his grandpa having several wives and he enjoys the connection and support he has in such a large family. I spent some time showing him what city I am from called Amelia Island, Florida which he had never heard of. I showed him photos of the beach and the nature I took while living back home. Dakhil said he had visited Jacksonville briefly which is about 30 minutes from Amelia Island but he plans on making a trip to visit the beach on AI. We spent some time talking about medical care and the need for more services to help homeless people in the United States, especially here in Tallahassee. Homelessness is a very rare occurrence in Saudi Arabia because most families will care for the needs of their members if they need food and housing as well as a social service that provides jobless Saudis with a monthly stipend for housing and basic needs. We briefly spoke about parts of American culture that Dakhil did not know about before coming to the US as well as other topics. We set our next meeting for Tuesday January 28th, 2020.