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hash · Joined: 17 Dec 2014 Posts: 456 Location: Wadi Jinn

What You Should Know Before Going To KSA

Often, when I meet someone that’s enquiring about life in KSA, I sit him down and tell him he’s has to remember only 3 things about KSA:

1. America has yet to be discovered. The Hijri (Islamic) year is currently 1437 AH (After Hijra). That means in the Islamic universe, it’ll be another 55 years before America is discovered (1492), The Western calendar is in use, but it only “corresponds to “ the Hijri calendar which is the one that really counts.

2. Sundays are really Mondays. Sunday is the first day of work and Thursday is the last in your typical week. That is to say, people in KSA do on Friday what we in the West would do on Sunday. (Clear?)

3. You can’t drink the tap water. It either has to be bottled or your residence must have a special “sweet water” (potable) tap available (not many enjoy this luxury). You’ll be amazed how much “water” in all its shapes, forms and manifestations will come to dominate and overwhelm your life in KSA. (You won’t even know it’s happening). (Remember too that potable water is at least 3 times more expensive than gas (petrol) for your car.)

That’s it. Everything else is simply footnotes to the above three immutable axioms.

.

sicklyman · Joined: 02 Feb 2013 Posts: 930

nope, nope and nope.

America was "discovered" by Europeans long before 1492. The Vikings have some stories...

Sunday is the first day of the week in the Gregorian calendar too. I'll concede that it's not the first day of the working week unless, perhaps you are a church minister.

I drank the tap water for two years. Didn't do me any harm (apparently). I now drink Bahraini water...

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

According to the international standard ISO 8601, Monday is the first day of the week ending with Sunday as the seventh day of the week. Although this is the international standard, countries such as the United States still have their calendars refer to Sunday as the start of the seven-day week.

I can never resist an opportunity to diss Sicklyman !

BajaLaJaula · Joined: 25 Jan 2007 Posts: 267

In contrast, you will find that the majority of Americans have a really good grasp of the history and culture of middle-eastern countries.

Next time you go into Wal-Mart just ask a random customer if they know where Bahrain is? Sadly, the chances are pretty good that they will not. Europeans are probably better educated, however your average American doesn't care about much else than just figuring out where to go to get their next taco.

buravirgil · Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 6:05 pm Post subject:

Did someone say tacos?!?

sicklyman · Joined: 02 Feb 2013 Posts: 930

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Why wait until retirement. You can start enjoying yourself now ! There was a poster here, a Scot of the Unionist Tribe, who actually wrote a paper on how he was dissed by people on Daves. Can't remember his name, but he ended up on the Mod's Black List and was consigned to Limbo.

mashkif · Joined: 17 Aug 2010 Posts: 178

dragonpiwo · Joined: 04 Mar 2013 Posts: 1650 Location: Berlin

I always used to go to the pub on Sundays. So, yo can go on Fridays right?

buravirgil · Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2015 5:47 pm Post subject:

I'm not seeing any tacos...something's amiss here.

johnslat · Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2015 6:10 pm Post subject:

http://cdn.meme.am/instances/54709396.jpg

buravirgil · Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2015 6:23 pm Post subject:

Thank you, John. That was memelicious.

In the heat of the moment · Joined: 22 May 2015 Posts: 393 Location: Italy

It's Friday today and I'm not doing what I'd do on a Sunday in the west, which is recovering from a weekend of excess and ironing shirts, and making a decent roast dinner.