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The Islamic Week
June 4, 2005
In California, I was accustomed to my weeks beginning on Sunday, with the work week spanning from Monday to Friday. But in Dhahran, our Saturdays were our "Mondays", and the work week spanned from Saturday to Wednesday, with Thursday and Friday being our weekend days. And Friday was the Islamic version of the Christian Sabbath.
This meant that I, as a student, would moan about Saturdays and cheer about Wednesdays. Needless to say, T.G.I.F. clearly didn't apply here. The shift in the weekdays alignment also meant that I would be in school when my friends in California were enjoying their weekends, and vice-versa. There were many various little side effects, one of which being that I could only remember the Spanish names for "Saturday" through "Wednesday" because we'd write the day of the week on all our assignments, and I never had to write "Thursday" or "Friday".
Part of the expatriate community, which was largely Christian, handled their relgious observances through church attendances at the elementary school (Dhahran Hills School) on Fridays. But even this adjustment did not seem to be a major inconvenience. For the most part, adhering to the Islamic week was not difficult at all.
-Gordon Mei
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