The family continues to battle out the sleep schedules but for the most part everything is going very well. We've been told that it takes one week per time zone traveled to adjust. This being said, we've traveled from Utah, USA (Mountain Standard Time) to Khamis Mushayt, KSA... You do the math haha!
Michael and I went to the grocery store tonight and have run into a problem unique to Saudi... Prayer times. During prayer EVERYTHING shuts down. If you are in the middle of grocery shopping they direct you to the front of the store to pay for what you have then you must leave. There are approximately five prayer times per day. This means you have to plan your day very carefully. While we were waiting for the store to open back up I took a picture of what was deemed to be "the biggest shopping trolley in the world" and I must say... It is a convincing claim! I also took some time to observe the people around and I became somewhat confused when I noticed that men were often holding hands as they spoke or walked together. Michael explained that over here hand holding means that they are friends and that holding hands is a sign of friendship. However, I don't know if this is specific to men or if the women do it as well. I haven't seen any women do it so I am thinking it is a dude thing :o)
I am excited to go down into the shopping district again. Hopefully, it won't be quite as terrifying this next time since our older two (or three) will be in class. Man, I need to invest in a stroller!
Michael and I went to the grocery store tonight and have run into a problem unique to Saudi... Prayer times. During prayer EVERYTHING shuts down. If you are in the middle of grocery shopping they direct you to the front of the store to pay for what you have then you must leave. There are approximately five prayer times per day. This means you have to plan your day very carefully. While we were waiting for the store to open back up I took a picture of what was deemed to be "the biggest shopping trolley in the world" and I must say... It is a convincing claim! I also took some time to observe the people around and I became somewhat confused when I noticed that men were often holding hands as they spoke or walked together. Michael explained that over here hand holding means that they are friends and that holding hands is a sign of friendship. However, I don't know if this is specific to men or if the women do it as well. I haven't seen any women do it so I am thinking it is a dude thing :o)
I am excited to go down into the shopping district again. Hopefully, it won't be quite as terrifying this next time since our older two (or three) will be in class. Man, I need to invest in a stroller!
So very interesting! When it is prayer time do they go somewhere or just pray where they are?
ReplyDeleteThere are five prayers a day and their are mosques everywhere for them to attend. The law is within hearing distance of the loud speaker which announces their prayers. What happens is at prayer time there is an announcement (sounds like a song) that comes over the loud speakers and they have to drop what ever they are doing to go pray. These prayers will last between a half hour and an hour. I just found out today that the prayer times change according to the lunar calendar so the exact time is never the same. And they always pray facing northwest, towards Mecca their holy city where their profit Mohammad is buried.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I have been told that their are prayer rooms in stores for the employees.
They do the hand holding thing all over Europe too- men and men, women and women. Yikes, that's one scary shopping cart!
ReplyDelete