Friday, September 9, 2011

Today is Friday- the last day of the weekend. Here, instead of Sunday school, we call it Friday school! You would not believe how many nationalities were there: Americans, Brits, Asians, Africans, Arabs... all under one roof. There was an adorable Indian family sitting in front of us with the cutest little baby girl completely adorned in earrings, bracelets, a necklace, and a matching dress and shoes. 

Afterwards, Mom, Dad and I (Mom and I in abayas of course) attempted to take our bike wheels to the bike shop, go to Saco World to buy a BBQ, a vacuum, school chairs, yard tools, and then get some things for school. But unfortunately, nothing was open (since it was Friday) except for the Hyper Panda (the giant grocery store.) So we went there and bought some groceries and a backpack for me to carry my gazillion-pound books. I mean kilograms. (The metric system gets confusing here.) Then we went back home.

Then we tried again in the afternoon when the store signs claimed they would be open. And they were, so we went to Saco World and bought a grill and a ginormous flower pot. We needed flowers for the flower pot, so we drove across the street to the plant shop. By the way, we didn't take the shopping bus this time. Dad was brave enough to drive in the country with the highest death rate in the world on account of car crashes. So we went to the plant store, but right when we drove up, we heard the call to prayer sung from a nearby mosque and realized that all the stores were closed for the next twenty or so minutes. So instead of waiting outside for the plant store to open, we decided to go inside the strip mall which was right next door so we could enjoy the air conditioning. We've been looking for some shorts and pants that I can wear to school that complies with the dress code, so Mom and I decided to leave Dad at a doughnut shop called Doughnut King while we went and shopped for clothes. The store was closed for prayer so we went back to find Dad locked in the doughnut shop! The employee at the shop had closed up and left to pray while Dad and some Arab women were locked up inside his shop. Mom and I peeked through the metal screen and laughed when we saw Dad calmly drinking his coffee while waiting for the door to open again. We left him and walked back to the clothes store, found that it had opened again, and shopped. It's hard to shop when you don't know what size you are, so I asked an employee where the dressing room was so I could try on some pants. We found out that there was no dressing room for women- only for men. Typical. So Mom said we could buy a whole bunch of pants all different sizes, and return the ones that didn't fit. But then we found out that the store didn't allow returns. What do you do when you don't know your size and can't return anything? Normal people would say find a store with dressing rooms. But we didn't do that. No, I found a solitary corner and tried pants on under my abaya while Mom, pretending to shop, blocked me from view. We were afraid we'd get caught and that people would think we were trying to shoplift! I promise, I was only trying them on for size! I found some shorts that fit after much anxiety, bought them, and finally found Dad in the plant shop. We bought a bush and some petunias to go in the flower pot. All in all, I think that was a successful shopping trip! We didn't die driving with the Saudis who don't understand the concept of lane lines, and we didn't get caught trying on pants in the middle of the store! = )

Driving in Khobar... mom is glad she's not allowed to.

My new shorts and backpack.

-Jordan-