Saudis' Favorite Pastime: Shopping

In Dammam (Duh-mom), a massive city 30 minutes south of us, we attempted to split the chores one night -I went shopping for food, Reina went window shopping at a local mall. We had to time everything because of prayer call. Due to the staggered times, evening prayer is trickiest. If you don't execute it right, you don't get your tasks accomplished. And it is frustrating because weekend hours for stores are bass ackward like everything else here -They open on one day from 9-11 a.m. then reopen from 4-9p.m.; and the other day of the weekend they only open from 4-9 p.m. Our principal reassured us it was worse in Berlin. "You have to get everything done on Saturday because everything is closed on Sundays," he informed us. But I digress...

That evening, I accomplished my goal of getting food for the week at the Safeway (yes, they have one here and it is heaven!). My last mission was to pick up Reina and Claudia from the mall. The task seemed easy until I arrived at the parking lot. There was no parking and most of the drivers decided to double park -I couldn't even get through some of the rows. Eventually, I circled our massive tank of a car and found a spot. All I needed to do was go inside and get them. But no, this was a "family only" mall and unescorted males are not allowed. The security guard was proablaly trying to tell me this in Arabic, but I let my body language tell him that I was going in there to get my family. He finally conceded and right at the entrance, Claudia and Reina beamed with smiles.