Jordan and Jess: New Experiences

Today, after working a half day, Jordan and I decided to drive to Safeway to stock up on some food. We asked our HR director for a map because the last time we went to Safeway we had only been in the country for 17 hours and were very unaware of our location and how the roads worked. Now that we have been here for almost a week, we find ourselves more comfortable and knowledgable of our surroundings. We were surprised to find out that Safeway is only a couple miles down the road...could have sworn it was on the other side of the city based on our last visit. LOL. Once we got there we noticed the parking lot to be very empty. I immediately said, "Did we hit prayer time?" We pulled out our prayer time card and realized that prayer had just started. Prayer lasts about 20 minutes, so we decided to head inside and wait until the doors opened again. These are things we are going to have to start thinking about as we go out.

After putting our groceries away, we talked about going to the rec center, but realized we were exhausted and hungry. We started brainstorming dinner ideas, but were both too tired to really get started. We decided to hit up the McDonald's just down the road. As we pulled into the parking lot, we noticed the drive through line wrapped around the building, so we decided to go inside and order. We found a parking spot and entered. As we got closer to the counter, the cashier politely said to Jordan, "Sir, Sir...you need to go to family section." We both looked at each other and realized/remembered that restaurants are divided; a section for single males and a section for families which included single women and married couples. As we exited that section, we looked around and noticed I was the only lady there...duh! So, we walked around the building and entered through the doors with the play place. As we entered, we immediately noticed booths with privacy curtains...guess we were in the right place. We were pleasantly surprised with our McDonald's experience. =) Not too bad to have your own private booth. As were finished up, the lights started flickering. We looked at each other and pulled out our prayer time card...Yep, prayer was beginning. We quickly cleaned up our trash and got out there just before being locked in for the duration of prayer time.

We have now made ourselves aware of prayer times and hopefully we'll remember to avoid them next time around!