Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Lost in Translation: Eid activities!

Eid mubarak everyone!

The holidays have begun and there will be lots of entertainment and activities during the next three days around Riyadh. Check out my pictures from last year's celebrations here.

If expats were more aware of all the interesting cultural events going on, I bet their attendance in these events would be much higher. Last year we found ourselves the only western expats in all the events we attended. It seems to be difficult to find accurate information on the events in english. It's the same problem every year!

A decent website that has all of the following information (which are needed to attend an event..) is hard to find. Location. Opening times. Dates. Programme. Directions. Family/Singles?

I'm especially interested in the programmes because I don't want to drive in the traffic for an hour to the location (which has not been marked) and get lost seventeen times only to arrive and realize the event is in fact: A men's only kite-flying, car-crashing, firecracker-exploding, break-the-time-barrier-while-riding-a-remote-controlled-airplane- event. I would guess many others would feel the same way.

It's pretty easy to find info on the events in Arabic and lucky me I have my own translator. However not even the official ArRiyadh city website was able to provide a clear picture of what is exaclty going on. The descriptions of the events had my husband and I cracking up so bad tears ran out of my eyes. Most activities for singles have something to do with remote controlled vehicles and surprise surprise cars.

Check these out they are all from their website.

"Activities for families include Men Tent"
Meanwhile the women and children can play a fun game of "fiddle your thumbs" "find the dung beetle" or "use camel dung balls to count how many cups of kahwa daddy will drink" games outside the tent.

"Shows by the communities, and many activities and programs that suit the folklore tent." 
It would be interesting to know what exactly those might be. Remote-controlled motorcycles and boats show, perhaps?

"There are benches for men and women." 
Really? Wow. Amazing.


"Car races. Breaking the time barrier, remote control show"
Umm..So who exactly is going to break the time barrier and is it going to be using the remote controlled car?

"Colors."  
How intruiging, fascinating even.

"A comedy show on how a person make friends through facebook." 
Click. Send friend request. Click.

"Colorful folklore arts and folklore and popular colors for a number of areas in the Kingdom and many activities and programs."  
Downright mind-blowing. 


"Corners for Childrens" 
Aww now that's just mean. Isn't it a children's holiday anyways?

"A number of various festival activities designated for the families, each of which shall host a different activity."
Good that they clarified that it's actually the activity that hosts a different activity.

"Time to show off your modified cars. Participants will display their modified cars." 
This has got to be my favorite. That means the show has just moved from Tahlia street to Shows Square. And this time it's legal.

Which one would you attend?

I did gather a list of the most interesting events translated from Arabic websites, see the Events section :)
There were many that are actually worth going to! If you are in Riyadh check some of them out and have fun !
Hmm. I wonder what's inside?

7 comments:

Soile said...

Funny! I would definitely attend "colours" :-)

Anonymous said...

EID mubrak hun:)

Seikku said...

Hilarious events.. hah hah.

My favorite would definitely be the corners for children. And a bench for women of course. :)

Anonymous said...

I want to see the remotecontrolled airplanes show to break time barrier also activity for men tent because I am a man.

Anonymous said...

LOL!!I would go with the facebook comedy show :)))

Chick Flick Journal said...

interesting events hehe. What is inside?

Layla said...

inside there was a "flower festival" with not too many flowers :D