Just as I was on the plane from Istanbul to Riyadh at the beginning of this week, I started thinking about the things that make this place so…special.
Now, I know that every place in the world is special in some way or form. However, I feel like sometimes there are some things here that are just very unique in a sense of getting to know a new culture which is the amazing thing about traveling the world.
So here is a list of the things that I can think of right now. I may add on to this later.
You know you live in Saudi Arabia when…
1. You have to stop your car while on the road because a camel appeared in front of it like out of nowhere.
2. The salespeople at the watch stores offer you to buy a diamond watch like that is the most normal thing in the world to do.
3. You are absolutely familiar with the layout of the goods at Carrefour, without ever having done groceries in France before.
4. There are more Lexus cars on the street than Mercedes.
5. The majority of the cars are white.
6. Gasoline is CHEAPER than water (130 liters of diesel for 8 euros. U mad, Europe?)
7. People don’t have to pay taxes.
8. There are so many different types of dates that you could consider them staple food.
9. You wake up for school to prayer calls.
10. The week starts on Sunday.
11. You get random calls from Saudis that think your number is actually somebody else’s number and they just keep calling you back even after they have realized that you don’t speak a word of Arabic.
12. You can bargain over the price of almost any item and not only on the bazaars.
13. You have gotten used to buying clothes without trying them on first ( a habit that I have developed. I see it, I like it, I buy it. Why waste time trying it on, right?).
14. Schools are closed because of rain.
1 Comment
arrnib
January 17, 2014 at 10:55 am5. 6. 7. 9. 10. 12. I’m seeing these is Kuwait. The gas and water prices blow my mind!