Conversation Meeting #3 (the final meeting)

It was sad that on November 12th me and Adel had our last conversation. He told me that he would have to stop meeting with me due to the fact that he was leaving on his extended break to go with his family back home to Saudi Arabia. As a student in our foreign education program he has different term dates and won't be back till late January to start school again.
It was nice to hear that his Kids had fun over Halloween and that they embraced the american tradition of dressing up for Halloween. I was also really glad to hear that Adel's son was getting so much more comfortable at his new kindergarden and was making new friends! I asked Adel if he though having his kids in the American school system was good for them and he said that their are some advantage and disadvantages. One advantage is that his kid are quickly picking up English, his son already critiquing Adel's english word choices. I agreed with him saying that his kids will be so advanced already having the capacity to speak two language and being culturally knowledgeable about two very different ways of life. The only disadvantage he feels is that he doesn't want his kids to lose touch with their roots. This is why, once Adel is done with his schooling, his family is moving back to Saudi Arabia.
We later got on the subject of his Wife who's name I could not properly pronounce or spell. Adel mentioned that they had an arranged marriage and that his wife actually has the same grandfather as him, marry inside the family he says is common from where he's from. This being complete different from courtship in America, this was an interesting topic to me. He said that yes he did have some say in their marriage and that they are very happy together. He told me that he thought it was interesting that the Western culture sees how women are treated in his country like how they are not allowed to drive a car and how he thinks its ridiculous that we make such a big deal out of it. I disagreed with him saying that driving is a freedom and a independent right of an adult to travel as they please and how forcing women to ask for permission and be at the mans discretion of whether or not they can go anywhere seems unfair to me. He compared driving around his six sisters and his mother when he's at home to driving around princess Diana. He said its a honor to take them where they need to go and that people should me more concerned with the ridiculous number of car accidents due to stupidly high speed limits. I never knew that they had such an issue with car accidents and traffic violations but that did not change my opinion that women lose a inherent freedom when they are denied the right to drive. I realized after our last conversation that the only thing that I truly regretted not asking Adel was if he allowed his wife while she is in America to drive or not.... my guess is not.