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It's Friday in Doha, and the weekend has begun.  Actually, it began on Thursday night.  Because Thursday is the new Friday, Friday is the new Sunday, Sunday is the new Monday, and Saturday?  Saturday is still Saturday.

Here's how it actually works.  In Islamic cultures, Friday is their holy day.  That means that people who go to non-Islamic religious celebrations (Christians going to church, for example) will go on Fridays as well.  That's why Friday is the new Sunday.  And much like Sundays in North America, stores and malls will open much later on Friday (often not until 3 or 4pm, if at all), and many people like to spend the day with their families.  In fact, the mall that I talked about in this post has set aside Fridays as "family day" at the mall.  I have no idea what this means in practical terms – perhaps it's just an encouragement to bring the whole family shopping instead of just coming yourself.

Because Friday is the new Sunday (and the start of the official weekend, which is Friday & Saturday), Thursday becomes the new Friday.  That means that on Thursday nights, people often go out for dinner or watch a movie or both.  Just like we did last night when we got together with Dan and Andrea and watched Hellboy II, after eating a hardy meal at Chilis.  Yes, Chilis.  We haven't got too cross-cultural with our food choices yet.

And as long as I'm on the topic of movies, let me say a few things about the movie theatres here.  First, they have reserved seating.  When you buy your tickets, you choose which seat numbers you want, so you can show up for the movie 30 seconds before it starts and be guaranteed to have your seats.  I first experienced this system in Hong Kong, and I gotta say that it is a VAST improvement over what we have in Canada.  Second, the ushers actually USHER you to your seats, walking beside you with their flashlights.  It's like they actually have a JOB to do!  Finally, the seats are AMAZINGLY comfortable.  They have plenty of leg room, they do not flip up or down, and they are fully ergonomically padded from top to bottom.  They're so comfortable, in fact, that a man in the row behind us fell asleep and was snoring for about 10 minutes during the movie!

But I digress.  I was talking about Thursdays, which are the new Fridays.  I was on campus on Thursday (where I wrote this post), and as I was walking around with Larissa, talking to various staff people, it was funny to hear them talk about Thursdays the way that we're used to talking about Fridays.  They were saying things like "Well, thank goodness it's finally Thursday, eh?" or "Wow, I can't think straight today!  It must be Thursday!"  I'm surprised that the TGIF restaurants here haven't changed their name to TGIT, but I guess that with Friday being the new Sunday, the name still works.

So, with the weekend now being Friday and Saturday, Sunday becomes the new Monday.  Everyone gets up early and goes back to work on Sunday, and Sunday has to bear the brunt of all of the Monday comments that people usually make back home: "Looks like somebody's got a case of the Sundays!" or "I just mixed up the fax machine and the shredder.  That's Sunday mornings for ya."  I guess if the Bangles had been writing music in Qatar, they would have written "It's just another manic Sunday (whoa, whoa) wish it were a Friday (whoa, whoa) 'Cause Friday's my day…"  You get the idea.

The only day that gets to retain its North American status is Saturday.  Ah, good ol' Saturday.  If I could pick up TV stations here in Qatar, I would try to find some subtitled Saturday morning cartoons, but alas, our TV is still functioning as our apartment's largest paperweight.  Someday, oh TV of mine, we will indulge in electronic entertainment together…

Someday… Sunday?  No, Friday – the new Sunday.