An Odd Discovery

So this is totally unimportant... but let's face it, it's not like I am writing about things that are all that important anyway, and I find this really odd.  Anyway, I have been here about a month and well, during the month... things come up!  Like that time of the month that all of us ladies know and love! (Not!)  So anyway,  I went over to the compound store to buy some supplies and they had a bunch of different kinds of pads but the only tampons that they had were o.b.  Those ridiculous little things with no applicators.  I mean, who ever thought of that was clearly not thinking at all.  They never go where they are supposed to and they are a total pain! Literally!  Hate them and never use them.  I still had a few regular ones left that I had packed in my luggage so I thought, well maybe it is just the compound store.

Later that night we went to the Iftar buffet for dinner and afterwards we had to stop at the pharmacy for some stuff.  I thought, oh good! I'm sure that they will have what I need there.  So we went in and I looked around and found again, a whole wall of pads and only o.b. tampons.  What the heck??  So I said, well I am going to try one more place before I form any opinions.

The next day we decided to go back to the superstore that I had deemed better than Target.  It has now been downgraded to as good as Target.  Honestly, the reason for this is that there is just simply too much stuff.  It is almost impossible to even think in there.  There is just so much stuff stacked so high.  It is completely overwhelming.  Now I figured that if I am going to find tampons anywhere, it has to be here. This is what I found.

An entire wall of pads.  Every kind that you can imagine.  The picture is really bad because I didn't want to get caught taking a picture of sanitary napkins.   As it was people were looking at me funny.  The wall was actually twice as big as the picture shows.  And if you turned around and checked the other side, on the far right down at the bottom was this:

More o.b.   And that was it.  Now if I can't find it in the Danube Hypermarket then it must not exist.  I am a little flabbergasted.  How is this possible.  Had I known this... I would have filled up my luggage with Tampax and or Kotex!  Anything with an applicator really! How is this possible?

So after this we did look around the food section of the store and bought a few things but seriously it was just so overwhelming to try and find anything or concentrate on anything.  I would have taken more pictures but Matt was getting all crabby so we just got a few things and got out of there.  I would have liked to look around a bit more... but I am used to shopping by myself... and since that is no longer an option... well, one makes due.  I did take a few pics.

This was a wall of organic foods.  Plenty of selection if one has time to look through it all.

This was artificial sweeteners and some other sweet stuff.  There are tons of aisles that look just like this. Also, there is plenty of fresh stuff.

This was just one side of a display for pickled veggies and things.  That first one says odorless garlic.  I think I would like to try that but there was a long line.  Not sure how they get the smell out of it but I would like to try it and see if its true.  There were so many other things but had to go.

But good news!  We went back to the compound and had dinner in the restaurant and stopped by the compound store afterwards.  This time they had several boxes of (still o.b. mind you) tampons that actually had applicators!  I guess the makers of o.b finally wised up and realized that they are missing out on a whole lot of business from those of us who prefer applicators!  But I guess when you have a monopoly on the market in Saudi Arabia, perhaps you don't care as much.  Anyway, I happily tossed a box into the basket and then thought about it and tossed in a couple of more.  I think I should be OK until I get back to the states!