Jackson_CP2

Friday night I had my first "meeting" with my conversation partner Omar. I had extended to him an invitation to go watch Ramin play drums at First Friday, which he was thrilled about because he had never been to First Friday and neither had I. I saw on the flyer that Ramin sent to us that his band went on at 9:00 so we planned on getting there around 8:45. Omar was running a little bit late because he is on a strict workout schedule and had just gotten back from the gym so we wound up arriving to railroad square around 9:30. I was pretty shocked to see so many people leaving, and one of the security guards who was hired to help get people leave actually threatened to "detain" us when we said we were going to the beer garden. As we were approaching the beer garden we heard some music we were both familiar with, RHCP's "can't stop". I was surprised to see that Ramin's band wasn't on any longer but this wound up being a good thing because we got to walk around, see what First Friday was all about and get to know each other pretty well. We were mainly talking about cultural differences between the United States and Saudi Arabia. I was fascinated to learn about the differences in the judicial systems between our countries. I expressed to him that here, our judicial system isn't exactly "fair" and that those who are privileged enough to have money can typically get away from doing things (i.e. drunk driving, drug possession) that others cannot. He told me that in Saudi Arabia, no matter who you are (whether it be a common working man, wealthy business man, or celebrity), if you commit a crime you do a certain amount of time and you are done. The sentencing does not vary and it does not give favor to any type or class of person. I was also fascinated by the fact that, in Saudi Arabia, if you are to "accidentally" kill someone (in the US, manslaughter) you don't serve any time at all. You are, however, required to pay the family of the victim a certain amount for their loss. We also began to talk about how alcohol is illegal in Saudi Arabia do to the fact that it is an Islamic nation. Therefor there are no bars or clubs, but there are many shisha lounges (shisha is arabic for hookah). We agreed that for one of our upcoming meetings we could meet at a Hookah lounge in tallahassee because I have never been to one. Even though we missed out on a lot of what First Friday has to offer, we made the best of the night and wound up having a pretty good time regardless.