Category: culture

Ramadan in a Saudi hospital

The Holy month of Ramadan changes the daily rhythm drastically in Saudi hospitals. Basically the hospital becomes alive at night and quiets down for the day. Read here how the Saudis usually visit the sick in hospitals. Needless to say the amount of visitors during Ramadan will at least double,Read more

The Magic Month in the Kingdom

Ramadan is a very special month to Muslims all over the world. In case you are not sure what Ramadan means to Muslims and why Muslims fast check out this post: The True Meaning of Ramadan The crescent moon has been sighted and the fasting has started this morning. Ramadan in Saudi-Arabia is a veryRead more

Cultural comparisons-moving houses

I thought it would be interesting of making a comparison between the Saudi and Finnish cultures every once in a while. They tend to be each others opposites sometimes! These posts are not intended to be taken too seriously. I’ve written them with a dash of humor with them so please readRead more

Saudi-Arabia’s Epidemic: Tribalism

Tribalism is alive and deeply rooted in the Saudi culture. Read more about what tribalism actually means here. Tribalism can have some positive aspects to it. It creates close family ties and high respect of elders. Knowing ones roots and the names of ancestors hundreds or even thousands of yearsRead more

Underneath the abaya, there’s a different story!

I often get asked the question what do women in Saudi-Arabia wear under the abaya? Doesn’t it get terribly hot under the abaya? How does it feel to be forced to wear abaya? Isn’t it horrible for western women to have to wear abayas everywhere? What are abaya fabrics made of? Do SaudiRead more

Bedouin Patients

The hospital I work in gets quite a few bedouins coming in for treatment from all around Saudi. It’s a large tertiary referral hospital, which means many patients were referred there because they could not be treated elsewhere or their cases were so difficult or rare it needed specialRead more

Expat’s Guide to Grocery Shopping in Saudi Arabia

There are surprisingly many differences between the grocery shopping experience in Saudi Arabia vs. in the expats’ home countries. Here are a few tips for newbies in Saudi Arabia- How to grocery shop in KSA! Where to Shop The most popular large grocery stores in Saudi Arabia are Hyper Panda,Read more

Camels-Miracles Of The Desert

Camels, the animals designed specifically to survive in the harshest of environments – the desert.Every single detail of the camel has been carefully designed and constructed to perfection. It is one of the few animals specifically mentioned in the Quran: “Have they not looked at theRead more

Saudi culture and visiting the sick

Since my last post showed a rather negative side of saudi culture, this post will display one of the many positive sides to the Saudi way of life. Visiting the patients in hospitals is a very important thing here, it stems from Islam and its teaching to visit the sick. A patient in saudi hospitalRead more

Culture Shock!

Everyone who moves to a foreign country or environment will go through culture shock. There are 5 stages of culture shock, each of them with their typical characteristics. Some people go through all phases quite easily, while others have serious problems, or they do not progress at all and hence doRead more