How to cook in Saudi Arabia

Well, the weekend is over here in Saudi Arabia (our weekends are Thursday and Friday). A lot of time has been spending trying to catch up with school lessons, grading, assignments and all the many joys of teaching. I do know about 90% of my students by name and face which is a huge deal. I am still working on pronunciation, but progress is good. Today I went to a luncheon with some new friends and saw and talked how awesome our King. It is a blessing to be able to meet so many people with similar interests from all over the world. Long live the King! I am really getting to enjoy some of the local food here. I still am living off of PB&J, but I am venturing out and realizing there is so many good things out there to try! No, I will not try seafood or camel, but the deserts and rice and meat combos are fantastic. I felt so inspired after having lunch today with my new friends; I thought I would cook some black beans and rice. I have yet to find meat I trust to cook myself but, now that our stove works, I am venturing to cook something other than cheese and apples. So, as I got this crazy idea to cook, I thought I might as well cook extra so I could have it for lunch the next few days. Two things about rice in Saudi, you can’t buy it in small bags, there is no instant rice, and there is no brown rice. So I got the smallest bag I could, which was not small, and picked it because it looked the closest to the rice in the states (since I can't read Arabic, most of my food choices are made based upon looks or labeling). 2 things went very wrong with my brilliant cooking plan that should have told me to stop trying to be fancy and just go with grilled cheese or back to PB&J. 1. I did not have a can opener to open the bean can. This should have made me either A- go buy a can opener across the street or B- not use black beans. However, since I am stubborn and have learned in this country that if there is a will there is a way, I found a way as seen in the picture. I would not recommend doing this again and I am going to buy a can opener tomorrow (theoretically) 2. I did not have any way to stir my food besides using metal spoon. Needless to say I did not realize I bought jumbo rice which expanded to 2-3 times the size of our rice in the states. Also, the spoon heated up VERY fast when I tried to stir. So I might have obtained 2nd degree burns with my lack of wooden spoon and pot holder, BUT, in the end, I had dinner of black beans, rice, green pepper, and artificially processed cheddar cheese. (No you cannot get shredded or block of cheddar cheese. The only cheese you can find I can’t pronounce or mozzarella). It was not bad at all, but I now have enough to feed me until next week and perhaps beyond. Besides creating crazy meals, I am still learning the "fun" of Saudi. I am going to be learning to scuba dive while I am here and will hopefully be traveling to Jordan for Hajji. Other than that, shopping is the number 1 past time for most people here. There are countless malls, markets, and shops to choose from. Also, bartering is like a hobby for some women. They will spend 10-20 mins bartering for one abaya! Then you have me, someone who hates conflict and does not speak Arabic trying to barter? I think not. I either don't buy or have someone else barter for me. I am trying to get out there BUT it is very difficult. There is so much still to learn and do and the learning curve is huge. However, thankfully I do have a good community of people here to help and do life with. PR: - Patience with all the chaos and hecticness of the new school year -Favor in my relationship -Ability to get into a normal sleeping pattern -For my rededency card to be processed soon