Best weekend

"Freedom is found when we let go of who we’re supposed to be and embrace who we really are."

            The weekend started for Badr and I Thursday night at 9:15 p.m. In Saudi, the weekend is Friday and Saturday. I work at a clinic, and since a lot of Saudis don’t want to get out in the heat of the day, clinics stay open much later. Ours closes at 9. Anyways…

            I jumped in the car and knew the weekend would be amazing because we went straight to Burger King. Now, in the States, I don’t like BK. But for some reason, here I crave it like a pregnant woman! And I’m definitely not pregnant, so I guess I crave it like a fast food addict. We sat on our couch and watched a movie.

            After the movie, I started painting and Badr fell asleep on the couch. Once I was really into it, the power went out. And with no air conditioner, you pretty much want to die. We went to bed and it came back on at 2 a.m.

            Friday, we slept in. I woke up at 10:30 and painted more. Badr woke up later and I made crappy French toast for breakfast (my first try). Went to the grocery store and got groceries for dinner. Got home, cleaned the house, cleaned ourselves, prepared dinner, burned our Saudi incense and waited for our friends to come over.

We had a double date with our married friends! They came in and I got to use my Saudi coffee pot and cups and pretty silver tray. Then Hala helped me finish up with the food while the guys got hummus. We had pizza, twice-baked potatoes, and bell peppers with incredible hummus. Not just incredible, scrumtrilescent. And of course, Coke. Kind of a weird combo, but it worked.

            For dessert we had Hala’s chocolate and peanut butter cookies with Baskin Robins ice cream. Just when I thought life couldn’t get better, BOOM, we put in 21 Jump Street and I laughed the whole time. I hope they liked it; I was so busy laughing I didn’t pay attention!

After they left, Badr filmed me with my video camera doing CRIBS, Saudi edition of our apartment. We stayed up late, watched tv, and went to bed.

            I work Saturdays, sadly, so Bo drove me to work at 12. I was cranky when I got there! But then after there was absolutely nothing for me to do, I went back to my Philippino custodian buds and we sat in their room eating Cheetos and looking at my wedding pictures. They were very interested. It cheered me up.

Once all the patients and physical therapists left, I took my work veil off and a bunch of the girls at work told me I look like Barbie. They love my blonde hair! It was pretty funny.

I left work and got picked up by the driver and Badr’s 3 sisters. We went to the Kingdom Tower! It was awesome. There is a huge mall on the inside. I got to see expensive stores I’ve never been in like Louis Vuitton, Tiffany’s, and a fancy shoe store that sold Christian Louboutins.

Then we hit up Starbucks. After walking around and looking at reasonably priced clothes (not like before), we went up in the Kingdom Tower look out area. It is 99 stories up! Wow, the city of Riyadh is very compact and reaches forever. We crawled under the rail and stuck our heads down against the glass. The view makes you want to puke. It is so high up.

Once we got down, we went to the All-Girls level of the mall. This is where Saudi girls can take off their veils and relax. I took mine off immediately and got a decent amount of stares. “Oh well,” I thought, “my head and hair are free!” We got dinner reservations at some cool spot and shopped around close by waiting for our table.

I spotted Claire’s and had to go in. Found some shades but right when I wanted to buy them, the phone rang and our table was ready. We got a sweet circle booth and ordered pizza, pasta, a sandwich, and fries and split it all 4 ways. Happiness in my tummy.

Then the driver was ready to pick us up; I hadn’t bought the sunglasses yet! We went to Claire’s and right when we got there, they closed for the call of prayer. Every time there is the call of prayer, stores everywhere close. Grocery stores. Shops in malls. Fast food places won’t serve you; they won’t kick you out if you are already inside though. So we had to wait like 10 minutes. I ended up scoring 2 pairs of sunglasses for 20 Riyal. That’s like $5.30. Then in a different store I got my hands on a killer mini duffel bag that is the American flag. I just couldn’t resist.

Once they dropped me off, I cut off the brand name letters that were on the front of my new bag. It was something I’ve never heard of. Looks cooler without it.  Badr and I watched tv and powered down from a long weekend.