LIFE IN SAUDI ARABIA

Ok, you're probably thinking,"third world country, camels, sand and people who where dress like clothes, what could they possibly buy or sell there?" The truth is, there was some pretty great stuff that you could buy over there. I still can't believe how much nice electronic equipment they had. We're talking top-of-the-line walkmans, stereos, televisions, etc. I still love my mini-walkmans that's so compact and thin with all the digital LCD's... Oh, and there WAS more than that.

There were basically the same types of stores you would find in the US. They had supermarkets, malls, bookstores, everything. However, the big difference is that you could pretty much bargain for most things. I never mastered the art of bargaining, but my mom was absolutely great at it! The best place to shop like this was at open air markets like the Souk (pronounced SOOK) that was located in downtown Jeddah. Here, you could find all sorts of things like jewelry, clothes and electronics, it was great! I still remember taking trips down there with my family and shopping although there were certain times to shop.

What do I mean about a certain time to shop? Well, Islamic people believe in worshipping their God, Allah, and this includes praying 5 times a day. When they goto pray, well, the shops close. They usually closed once at 12:30 in the afternoon, that would be the first time. Usually after this time, the shop would remain closed until the 4:30 prayer, or after 5. Stores were pretty much never opened at a set time, there were no shop hour signs. I think it was just whenever they decided to open, they would. That was always a pain, not being able to get decent times for shopping because you never knew if they were open!