Okay, so I can handle the Sunday-Thursday workweek now, I’ve actually kind of gotten used to it. The idea of working on Friday sounds pretty miserable too me. And some other random adjustments aren’t too bad – for example, if you are in the States you may have had daylight savings about a week ago, but here in Jordan we don’t do daylight savings until Friday. So right now, we’re only 6 hours ahead of the East Coast for the rest of the week until we catch up.

But a really weird one for me has been Jordanian Mother’s Day. A few weeks ago, I started hearing radio ads talking about what to get your Mother for the big day and I was so confused because I didn’t think they could possibly be advertising a full two mothers early…. Well, they weren’t because Mother’s Day here was this past Sunday, March 21st (sorry Mom, I didn’t get you anything). In all of the Arab Middle East (15 countries actually) Mother’s Day coincides with the vernal equinox. Many other countries celebrate at different times of the year (India in August, Argentina in October, Russia in November, Norway in February etc).

WHAT? Why? If we’re all going to give in and celebrate a Hallmark holiday, why not pick the same day? Do jewelry companies and florists need to spread their profits at their international venues over the course of the whole fiscal year? This is one of these things I would have never known about had I not chosen to live abroad…