On Tuesday, by sheer chance, my group and I happened to travel to the first location suggested on the list, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Though a pretty and scenic location with attractions such as dolphins rides and casual sitting positions, I’m not certain that it is the best location we can choose, due to the lack of inhabitants. 

The other location, Alnashama KSA looks a lot more populated, and the people there were quite friendly. I however, was rather awkward. Still, I managed to make friends with a girl who had an avatar that looked like Maleficent. It was clear that English was her second language, but she spoke very well, and I think that most of the confusion that occurred was my fault. IT was very disorienting in many ways.

When I first arrived, I saw people, and my immediate thought was, “Hey! A better location! I’ll take a snapshot to show how this place is more inhabited”. Image

Then, while I was fiddling with my snapshot to save it properly, I realized that the characters on screen were bumping into me repeatedly trying to get my attention, and I remembered that there were actual real people and they had no idea why I was there or who I was. I hastily put on my headphones, as I realized they were talking through mics, and couldn’t understand a word that was being said, as nobody was speaking English.

I began typing out hello, and one person responded in the chat. We chatted for a couple seconds and she asked if I had a mic, so, not sure what to do, I said yes and tried to talk that way. She didn’t really understand what I was saying all the time, and I didn’t really understand her, but before I logged off in a desperate “ABORT ABORT” state of mind, I sent her a friend request which she accepted. Hopefully, this bilingual stranger will be a good asset, and hopefully I didn’t scare her off. Guess we’ll find out.