I arrived in Saudi Arabia to go see King Fahd University in Riyadh, the capital. I am an American studying at UANT, and the opportunity to travel back to the old country was too good to pass up. You see, my great grandparents came from Saudi Arabia to America to work, mostly in the meatpacking and automotive industry, in Chicago, back in the 1920s.

This trip therefore, was very special to me, I have always wanted to discover my roots and who I really am. Coming on this study abroad was just the ticket. The university was great, very rigorous and well taught. That was the good part. My roommate Assad taught me some words in Arabic, and took me to a famous mosque, to show how seriously the artists took their craft, and I agreed. Also, the library was absolutely gorgeous. Compared with Antarctica's library, it has more books- even more in English. I have provided a picture of these places, almost like Italy, which I have been to as well.

What was the bad part about SA? Well, as a gay Arab-American, I found it almost impossible to express myself openly in Saudi Arabia. I just had a bad vibe, a horrible vibe, the whole time, and even when I was almost 100% sure the guy I was talking to was gay too, neither of us could manage to make that extra move- why was I hamstrung? Later I found out why: the government here discriminates against gays openly! I'm not kidding, if the government finds out, they can execute you. So, that explained the hesitation on the part of those guys, and now I understand. Soon though, experience stepped in and I eeked out some information from a guy about an underground pride group. I went with him and wow, it was very secret. After a few bi-weekly visits to the "camp", I started seeing this guy Omar Soab, a student friend of mine. After a few weeks together (note: Elton John's "Tinderbox" was our song), I felt comfortable telling him about the movie Fight Club, where the guys commit terrorism on some businesses to expose their nonsense and imbicilities; well, our group started doing things like that. Our best one was getting the guy who runs the lighting at the Great Mosque to shine it pink for 10 seconds. Some other good ones were when we put on a Pride demonstration in the guise of a children's event (see rainbow pic), changed the bathroom labels at McDonald's from 'men' and 'women' to 'straight' and 'gay'; and when we made a pink triangle in the grass outside the Al-Mu'eiqilia Market - we told them it was a big 'A' for Allah.

Everything was good. I was settling in and then, with two weeks left in my study abroad, it all came tumbling down. A policeman stopped me at my dorm and  asked me where I was going in the evening, and I cracked, I gave away the location of the next meeting. I feel really bad about it. I told him it was in the catacombs underneath a restaurant called 'Alaska', which was true, and in exchange, the cop told me I wouldn't go to Arabian jail. What could I do? In all, about 20 friends of mine were arrested, and I have not heard from any of them since that day. And to make matters worse, I left feeling like I had helped create- but then destroy- something beautiful. But then, that's what study abroad is all about. I do still recommend Saudi Arabia to all UANT students- but read the fine print on Sharia first. It's tough, really tough, stuff.