Dear Claire

You did not tell me you’re coming to Jeddah before. It was a surprise. A great surprise. You must be excited. You are going to Jeddah and I am going to Seoul, Korea on Conference between Oct 3-5. I am presenting a paper there. I am having another presentation in Singapore in December and 2 presentations in the Ukraine in January. Quite busy.  As to Malaysia, living in Malaysia for few months has been a new experience for me. Everything is different: the weather (which is affecting my allergy), the people, the culture and the educational system. I am too Americanized. So I thought I needed to try something different. I wanted to go to Japan for 2 weeks after Korea since the two countries are close, but I changed my mind as the Japanese embassy was too fussy about giving me a visa as I am Saudi. I did not like the way they talked to me over the phone. So I cancelled the whole idea. I wanted to book a 5-day tour in Korea (from Kuala Lumpur) but when the tour operator asked about my nationality and knew that I am Saudi, he said I could not join the tour. He probably thinks that I go around shooting people. You cannot believe it, even at the university entrance here in KL, the security guard stopped my taxi and had me step out of the taxi because I did not have a university ID. I was in tears and went to the vice-president to complain. In order for me to have the status of a visiting professor, the university needed to write to the Malaysian Prime Minister’s office. Can you believe that? They did not tell me about this when I contacted them back in December. They said I could come and not more.  By the way, I got an e-mail from TESOL yesterday saying that they accepted my proposal. This means that I am going to Baltimore. It all depends on the American Embassy in Riyadh and whether they will give me a visa or not. My current visa expires end of February 2003.  Well, if you need information about Saudi, Jeddah or anything, please do not hesitate to e-mail me. I will not charge you for the answers.