Before Mysti left it was her birthday and also May Anne's so we decided to have a girls' night out. We brought the girls gifts, cards and ordered cakes from the bakery. I have yet to experience being away from home on my birthday but I guess it's one of those times when you like to have your family and friends around you but now miles from home we are Mysti and May Anne's family and friends all rolled into one.
Work for us all finishes at 8pm on Thursday (this is the Saudi Saturday), so a quick shower, change and taxi ride and we are at TGI Fridays. There are two entrances, the main one at the front for SINGLES (this doesn't mean anyone that is not in a relationship) It is for men only. This entrance is always the main one and based at the front of the building. The second entrance is the Family Section (for women and families)it is at the side if you are lucky and the back if you are not!! The family section usually consists of a waiting area and then lots of screened areas or separate booths with either a curtain on the entrance or shutters that can be closed once you are inside. Once inside the screened area, you can if you wish, take off your abaya. I chose not to tonight as I have taken to wearing only underwear under mine. I brought one that is like a dress that goes over the head with no fastenings as it is too hot to wear clothing underneath and why dirty two sets of clothes?
So, we are seated, we order and are generally having a nice time. A family in one of the screened areas starts singing Happy Birthday to whoever. We wait for them to finish and decide to do the same for Mysti and May. The curtain is suddenly flung open and a man, who we later find out to be the manager asks us to stop!!! He said he is afraid the Mutawwa will hear us and come in..... The Mutawwa are basically the religious police and are officially known as the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. You can usually spot them as unlike the Saudis they wear a shorter robe and usually look a little unkempt. They always have an ordinary policemen in tow and they tend to spend a lot of time going through restaurants and malls giving people a hard time. I have already had the pleasure of meeting them just once when I was in the shopping mall minding my own business. He asked me not once but twice to cover my hair!!!! I smiled and did as he asked "If only he knew that my hair was the least of his worries as yes, you guessed it I was only wearing the underwear underneath and in my eyes this was more of an arrestable offence than showing my hair. I have also been into shops where they actually colour boxes in black marker pen so you can't see women's legs, arms or chest.....I don't mean showing her boobs, I mean when the box is showing a women wearing say a v neck t shirt, they colour in the arms and the v neck bit in black pen. I saw some cycling shorts in a box and they had coloured in the legs so you couldn't actually tell what the woman on the box was wearing. I have also bought hand wash soap from the supermarket and the name on it has been coloured in using the black marker, so goodness know what the name of the soap was......maybe titillating hand wash!!!!
Anyway, we carry on our enjoyable evening and at the end the manager comes over to us to apologise for sounding rude and along with his apology he gives us a free dessert and discount, so all was good!
Saudi Style
The following night we are invited out by an instructor that comes into the gym to teach a few mornings a week. She is a great girl who gives us regular history and language lessons. I have learnt many phrases, how to count to 10. the first few letter of the alphabet and a decent swear word should ever I need one!!! She collects us on Friday at 4.30pm. Now, Saudis don't use taxis, they are classed as poor if they don't have a driver (Hanan's family have several drivers as she has a few sisters). They also have a cook, a maid and nanny, even though they are all over 20 but this is the norm here, all Saudis have them. They are very lazy when it comes to doing things to be honest, only 5% of women work as they are meant to be kept by their fathers and then their husbands when they get married. Hanan choses to work as she get very bored being at home but she is frowned upon by many as she is breaking the mould by doing this. She also has the choice whether she wants to marry the man her family chose for her, she can say no and keep saying no if she so wishes but she cannot marry anyone that is not a Muslim, is not Saudi and he must have a certain family name and be in the same tribe as her. It appears that things have relaxed a little with the marriage thing of the past few years but it does depend on your family and if they are strict. I will talk about wealth and marriage and other traditions in another blog but for now let's get back to the Saudi food. We arrive at the restaurant and Hanan tells us to leave everything to her and just to relax. She orders literally everything on the menu, baby camel, jareesh, okra, chicken capsa, yoghurt dishes, milk and rice dishes, several deserts and Arabian coffee. The Saudis eat so much food and it is so heavy but also very tasty. To stay traditional we all sit on what looks like Aladdin's magic carpet in a little room which is meant to be like the old style Saudi mud and straw built houses and eat and till we can't eat anymore. The restaurant kindly pack everything up we didn't manage to eat (this is more than half of what was ordered) and we leave feeling very full and thankful for Hanan taking good care of us.
Work for us all finishes at 8pm on Thursday (this is the Saudi Saturday), so a quick shower, change and taxi ride and we are at TGI Fridays. There are two entrances, the main one at the front for SINGLES (this doesn't mean anyone that is not in a relationship) It is for men only. This entrance is always the main one and based at the front of the building. The second entrance is the Family Section (for women and families)it is at the side if you are lucky and the back if you are not!! The family section usually consists of a waiting area and then lots of screened areas or separate booths with either a curtain on the entrance or shutters that can be closed once you are inside. Once inside the screened area, you can if you wish, take off your abaya. I chose not to tonight as I have taken to wearing only underwear under mine. I brought one that is like a dress that goes over the head with no fastenings as it is too hot to wear clothing underneath and why dirty two sets of clothes?
So, we are seated, we order and are generally having a nice time. A family in one of the screened areas starts singing Happy Birthday to whoever. We wait for them to finish and decide to do the same for Mysti and May. The curtain is suddenly flung open and a man, who we later find out to be the manager asks us to stop!!! He said he is afraid the Mutawwa will hear us and come in..... The Mutawwa are basically the religious police and are officially known as the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. You can usually spot them as unlike the Saudis they wear a shorter robe and usually look a little unkempt. They always have an ordinary policemen in tow and they tend to spend a lot of time going through restaurants and malls giving people a hard time. I have already had the pleasure of meeting them just once when I was in the shopping mall minding my own business. He asked me not once but twice to cover my hair!!!! I smiled and did as he asked "If only he knew that my hair was the least of his worries as yes, you guessed it I was only wearing the underwear underneath and in my eyes this was more of an arrestable offence than showing my hair. I have also been into shops where they actually colour boxes in black marker pen so you can't see women's legs, arms or chest.....I don't mean showing her boobs, I mean when the box is showing a women wearing say a v neck t shirt, they colour in the arms and the v neck bit in black pen. I saw some cycling shorts in a box and they had coloured in the legs so you couldn't actually tell what the woman on the box was wearing. I have also bought hand wash soap from the supermarket and the name on it has been coloured in using the black marker, so goodness know what the name of the soap was......maybe titillating hand wash!!!!
Anyway, we carry on our enjoyable evening and at the end the manager comes over to us to apologise for sounding rude and along with his apology he gives us a free dessert and discount, so all was good!
Saudi Style
The following night we are invited out by an instructor that comes into the gym to teach a few mornings a week. She is a great girl who gives us regular history and language lessons. I have learnt many phrases, how to count to 10. the first few letter of the alphabet and a decent swear word should ever I need one!!! She collects us on Friday at 4.30pm. Now, Saudis don't use taxis, they are classed as poor if they don't have a driver (Hanan's family have several drivers as she has a few sisters). They also have a cook, a maid and nanny, even though they are all over 20 but this is the norm here, all Saudis have them. They are very lazy when it comes to doing things to be honest, only 5% of women work as they are meant to be kept by their fathers and then their husbands when they get married. Hanan choses to work as she get very bored being at home but she is frowned upon by many as she is breaking the mould by doing this. She also has the choice whether she wants to marry the man her family chose for her, she can say no and keep saying no if she so wishes but she cannot marry anyone that is not a Muslim, is not Saudi and he must have a certain family name and be in the same tribe as her. It appears that things have relaxed a little with the marriage thing of the past few years but it does depend on your family and if they are strict. I will talk about wealth and marriage and other traditions in another blog but for now let's get back to the Saudi food. We arrive at the restaurant and Hanan tells us to leave everything to her and just to relax. She orders literally everything on the menu, baby camel, jareesh, okra, chicken capsa, yoghurt dishes, milk and rice dishes, several deserts and Arabian coffee. The Saudis eat so much food and it is so heavy but also very tasty. To stay traditional we all sit on what looks like Aladdin's magic carpet in a little room which is meant to be like the old style Saudi mud and straw built houses and eat and till we can't eat anymore. The restaurant kindly pack everything up we didn't manage to eat (this is more than half of what was ordered) and we leave feeling very full and thankful for Hanan taking good care of us.
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