IKEA...what would we do without it? Shop somewhere else? Probably. However, when living abroad, it's an easy place to go. I love the fact that you can get so much there. I love that everything is so cheap. I hate that everyone else in the world loves the same things about it, so it is always so busy. I hate that it is CHEAP stuff, but the convenience makes me buy it anyway.
Ok, now to my first IKEA trip in Riyadh. This was a trip without Travis because he had to work. I knew it wasn't going to be a pretty trip. IKEA is never fun on the weekends! And when you are alone, it's even worse. Everyone planned to go off on their own so they could get as much as possible while there. We planned to leave early so we could avoid prayer time problems and have plenty of shopping time. We ended up leaving late and then it took longer than expected to get there. This meant we only had a short time to shop because of prayer time...
Here is a little fact that I learned about Saudi Arabia. There are prayer times each day, five times a day. Right now as I write this, it is currently one of their prayer times. These times change every day according to the moon. When it is prayer time, stores close, everything closes. We had to be in line by 11:30am to make sure we checked out before prayer time started at 12. That only gave us about an hour and 15 minutes to shop. If we didn't make it before 12, we would have to wait at least 40 minutes to check out...
I had big and small items to buy. I was getting stressed without Travis and with being so rushed, I had to skip all the big items. Then I realized that I forgot my list at home, so that made even the small items difficult. In addition, I had a hard time finding many of the things I needed. Anyways, I got a few things, checked out and learned a few lessons from this trip.
1. Go shopping well before prayer time.
2. Take Travis when I want to get big things.
3. Expect IKEA to suck and not have everything you want. (The IKEA in Shanghai had so much more!)
I look forward (sort of) to the next IKEA trip and Saco trip so I can get all the rest of the stuff we need. In retrospect, we probably should have shipped more of our stuff from Shanghai...
xoxo
CK
What type of stuff are you wishing you had shipped? Weird that IKEA seemed to have less. Maybe it was the rush?! But I totally agree. I usually HATE IKEA trips. Take Travis....it has to be better that way!
ReplyDeleteThe prayer time things are interesting and would take time to get used to. What are the typical 5 times during the day? How do you know what times they are going to be if they change bc of the moon?
We left some kitchen stuff in Shanghai and I wish I would have brought some more of my classroom things. I didn't think I would miss anything, but now I do! I downloaded a prayer time app so I know when it happens. There is one really early, lunch time-ish, mid afternoon, evening and late evening. Today the times were 4:07, 11:58, 3:26, 6:26, and 7:56.
DeleteThanks for the info. Interesting!
ReplyDeleteIf you were at IKEA and it became prayer time - would you have to exit the store or could you just keep shopping, but not check out (because people were busy praying.)?? But then people might shop lift etc. SO, could you have left the store, waited outside, then re-entered 40 minutes later? How long is prayer time? WOW - this is fascinating!
ReplyDeleteI love the questions and that you are so interested in everything over here! During prayer time we can just stay in the store, but you can't get out because they lock the doors. The workers at these stores are not all Saudi, so they don't necessarily pray. I don't know where the ones that do pray go to pray though. Prayer time is about 20 minutes, but they say to allow time before and after, so roughly 40 minutes.
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