It has not hit me, despite the 26 hours of travel that it took for us to get here, that I am a world away from home. It could be that I am in a compound inhabited by westerners, or that Skype has made it easy for me to contact the ones I love at home. Whatever it is, I do not feel as out of place as I expected.
Martin, Anna, Charlotte and I spent the first few days at the local mall buying the necessary items for settling in this foreign land: nonstick pans, cooking spoons, a toaster oven, hangers and Baskin Robbins ice cream (yum!). The mall is an interesting place. Most of the shops don’t open until nighttime, and they all close during prayer. Basically, we have a two to three hour window to get what we came for and leave.
About once a week, I go with several other women from our compound the bus to the mall. We wear our black abayas, and most of us choose to cover our hair as well. The women are from all over the world: Singapore, Canada, Korea, Italy, and Egypt. In a place like this, you make friends fast.
I am still adjusting to the food here. The beef at the Hyper Panda has been gross. Many of the ingredients to familiar recipes are not available. And while I’m complaining…it is hot. Very hot.
Now for the ugly…Back in the US, I always wondered about unibrows. I don’t think I ever really saw someone who sported a full on unibrow. I wondered if they really existed or if it was just something that existed in comedic circles. Well people, they really exist. The other day I saw a man whose eyebrows came together to form a point just above the bridge of his nose. It was fascinating. It was one of those situations where it was both nasty, but intriguing. I couldn’t look away.
