These are some of my oldest memories somewhere from 2005-2006. According to my dad we were living in the city of Riyadh.

• Riding a small bicycle with training wheels inside our apartment
• We had this ceiling suspended three seater that you can rock back and forth with.
• I remember one older brother and sister (neighbours)
• I remember playing some sort of boardgame
• I remember seeing a cockroach in the kitchen and I’m pretty sure my mom killed it
• I remember playing Age of Empires on our Windows XP laptop that we kept for over a decade
  • It died in 2017 or something after I had installed Ubuntu and let my mom use it. RIP 512MB of RAM
• Going tubing either at the school I went to or a trip with the school. My mom was with me I’m pretty sure
• Sitting window seat on the bus with my friend and looking into the sun and then at the sky and blinking and seeing those cyan artifacts and asking her if she also could see it. She could.
• Floating face up at the pool at school
• I think I was surprised when I spoke a language other than English (either Hindi or Marathi) with someone in my class. I don’t speak Marathi or Hindi today, I can understand both 75%.
• I probably have more memories, but these are all I could recall in the moment. It’s good to write this all down since it’s possible to forget it all!
• Firecrackers (the 9 pack one as well as the poppers that stay on the ground) on the roof.

The Mosque

I remember walking to the mosque with this older brother of mine. I called him Housafa Dada. We walked there and we would do the entire prayer sequence. Stand, kneel, head touches ground, all barefoot. I have no memories of knowing what religion was or is. To clear up any curiosity you may have, I have been openly agnostic for some years now.

The Stuffed Pizza Crust Incident

My neighbours a floor above us homemade a pizza and it had cheese stuffed crust. I had an allergic reaction to that.

The Ear Infection Incident

As you all know, Saudi Arabia is a dusty desert. So I got an ear infection. I remember going to the specialist to get that fixed

Birthday Party

We had a birthday party for me or something with cake at restaurant. I’d like to believe it was Pizza Hut because I remember red bench-like seating

Pictures

We took formal pictures, we still have those pictures with us

Origami Paper Boats

Sometimes it would rain so much that an inch of water would be on the roads. My dad and I would make these paper boats and then go on the island part that seperates the two roads and we’d place our boats on the partially flooded roads.

Firetruck Incident

There was a fire across from our apartments and we all woke up at night due to the fire fighter vehicle sirens.