which I thought was kind of funny. But the button was telling the truth. The view from up top was pretty incredible. We were able to walk around the tower (underneath a giant globe which contains an expensive restaurant) and view the city which went as far as the eye could see on all sides.
We stayed on top for quite awhile. We got some amazing pictures of the city and watched the Saudi families come up and look around. A group of young boys came up and started dancing and doing Michael Jackson's moonwalk which I thought was pretty awesome. Being on top of the tower was the first time I had actually felt wind since being in Saudi. It was a cool wind too which was even better because it can get pretty hot here. The best part was around sun down when the call to prayer went off. For those of you who don't know, when it is time to pray, a call goes out from the minarets of the mosques in the city. Its hard to explain the sound, but it is like a person singing, but I'm not sure exactly what they say (perhaps someone reading this can comment and enlighten me). Anyway, because we were on top of the tower we could hear the call to prayer from all sides of the city and it just echoed and echoed forever. Those were the types of experiences I wanted to have here - something unexpected and new. Its those moments that engrain themselves in your memory forever. We waited until the sun set and the city lights came on and then we went to the mall located on the bottom floors of the tower.
At the mall we walked into a music store. Last year I started taking piano lessons and unfornately had to stop after 5 months due to my guiding job. I was hoping I would have easy access to a piano here, but no luck. So we walked into a piano store and I asked the man who worked there if it was okay to play a song. He said it was so I sat down and started playing the one song I know. There were some women wearing abayas there with their children listening to me play (abayas are the black robes that women cover their whole body with in public). When I finished I got up and one of the women said to me "don't stop, it was very beautiful." I have to say I was like a deer in the headlights when she said that to me. I had fully expected to never hear a women address me at all for the next year so it was pretty stunning. It kind of made me nervous. Like it was some kind of trap - I thought maybe the Mutawa (religious police) would jump out and arrest us or something. I kindly thanked her and sat down again and started playing. She said a few more things to us, but we were so awkard about it, the conversation didn't last long. It was the first time a woman had spoken to me in over two weeks. It is interesting to me that a small basic conversation with a woman should cause so much nervous feeling in someone. But that is how things are here I suppose. I definitely would never talk to a woman here out of fear. Interestingly enough, when we go to malls we pass a very large number of dress shops. I'm not talking basic modest dresses either, they are sleeveless and very flashy. I wondered what in the world a shop like that was doing in Saudi Arabia. Apparently when women get together with their other women friends they dress up - like REALLY dress up, the whole works. The fanciest colorful dresses you can imagine with a lot of jewelry. Of course, that is something I'll never see here but it is a fascinating part of the culture to me since I only see the eyes of women in public. Sometimes I don't even see that much because some women's eyes are also covered.There was a lot more to the weekend than just that, but it was very relaxing and very needed. I was able to recharge and get ready for my second week of teaching (which is going well by the way, but still more chaotic than I would like). I will write about this week's teaching in a few days. For now, I'm heading to bed!
I love reading about your experiences Mark. What song was it that you played on the piano in that music store?
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