The work week here is not the same work week followed by the Western world. And China, too, if I recall things correctly from the Beijing Olympics last year, and the four months I spent in Hong Kong, last winter.

Friday is the prime day of worship in Islamic countries such as the United Arab Emirates, so that changes … almost everything about the week.

Here is what the week here, day by day, corresponds to in the Western Hemisphere or Europe:

Sunday = Monday

Monday = Tuesday

Tuesday = Wednesday

Wednesday  = Thursday

Thursday = Friday

Friday = Sunday

Saturday = Saturday

So, yes, it’s all different. Aside from Saturday, the “other” day off both here and in Europe/the States.

It’s a bit disorienting. Things to keep in mind include …

Sunday starts the work week. The Mamas and Papas would have written a song entitled, “Sunday Sunday,” not “Monday, Monday.” “Can’t trust that day …” People have the Sunday morning blues here, not the Monday morning blues. Another old pop song would have had the singer talking about how on “Sunday I had Thursday on my mind” rather than “Monday I had Friday on my mind.”

Tuesday is “hump” day here. Not Wednesday.

Thursday night is Friday night, really. Once you walk out the door on Thursday, most people in Abu Dhabi (those not in daily journalism, for example) are done for the week.

The slogan here ought to be TGIH — as in, “Thank God It’s Thursday.” Which makes me wonder if the restaurant chain TGI Friday’s (which has at least two stores here in Abu Dhabi City) ought to change its name to TGI Thursday’s so that locals can figure out what it means.

Friday is Sunday because it is the day more shops are likely to be closed  … when you can’t conduct government business … when the fewest people are out on the street … when preaching often goes on at an extended prayer services at your neighborhood mosque. That is, it’s Sunday. Except perhaps even moreso than in the West because people here seem to be more religious than Westerners.

Just outside my hotel is Electra Street, and normally it is a bumper-to-bumper mass of twitchy, agitated drivers in their SUVs.  But, as I write this, in the early afternoon on Friday (that is, Sunday), I can hear cars zipping past at 30-40 mph. I haven’t heard a single horn blown in anger in at least five minutes. That never happens, Sunday through Thursday.

The only day that isn’t different is Saturday.  Except that here it comes a day after the primary off day, and in the West it comes the day before.

A country and a religion can choose any days off they want, of course. If I understand it correctly, Islam prefers Friday as its Sunday because Mohammed said it should be, in part because Adam was created on that day. (The sixth day of creation, according to Genesis.)

But it can make for some oddnesses.

For example, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, a Formula One race that everyone here is quite excited about … is being held Sunday. Which would be like Monday in the West. Which will make it a little weird. People will have to take off a work day to go see it.

But F1, based in Europe, does all its races on Sunday. So, Sunday it is, even in Abu Dhabi — when it’s really Monday.

Following all that? It’s a bit confusing. I imagine we will get used to it soon enough. For now, I have to stop and think, every few hours, “what day is this, again?” And then I have to think, “and what does that mean where I am right now?”