Friday, October 3rd - Eid Mubarak

Thursday was our last day of school before the Eid holiday, a worldwide festival and celebration of the muslim population. In the Middle East, pretty much everything stops for Eid. Schools will be closed all next week, as will be most banks, government offices, and even our car dealership! Eid Mubarak basically has the same meaning as our "Merry Christmas" has at home. 

So last night, I picked up a friend from the airport and planned on driving her to her hotel. Well, of course, we got lost. We were sometimes very close, within one Km from the hotel, according to google maps on my phone, but we never got there! At one point, we were 50 m from a road we had to take, but it was on the other side of the road than we were on. Logic would say that from the highway, take the next exit and turn back to get to it, right. Good try. This is the Middle East. I took the next exit, which did not allow me to turn the other way; I was now on another highway, going away from where I wanted to go. We were totally lost, not having a clue where we would end up. I took the first exit that I could, after driving about 10 Km, and I ended up at the exit that I take to come home from work. Crap, I was now within walking distance of my apartment, but still clueless about where her hotel was. My only solution at that time was to stop by a taxi that was parked on the side of the street, get her to change cars and send her on her way, while I went back home, slightly frustrated by this adventure. You try to help someone and end up sending home by cab. How depressing!

Friday, we went grocery shopping. The first store we did was so packed that we left the few things we were to purchase in our cart and left. It was nuts! It looked like our grocery stores just before christmas, multiplied by 2 or 3. It was insane. The lineups do get the fruits and veggies weighted were more than 10 people long (things are not weighted by the cashiers, like at home), and lineups at the cashiers were not any better. So we left and went to another store, which was busy but nothing like the first one. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Crowne Plaza, soaking up the sun.

Greetings posted at the grocery store, as we are going up to the second level