I thought that being the only woman in a room of 200 or so men was the low point of my Christmas (believe me, it’s a creepy feeling); turns out I was wrong. The low point would be the part where we take a wrong turn coming home from the Intercontinental Hotel, reach a dead-end…
Read MoreLife in Saudi Arabia
Non-Happenings
I’m happy to report that you have nothing to worry about when it comes to medical exams for an iqama in Saudi Arabia. No crazy ladies herding you from room to room like cattle, no one shrieking “Yallah yallah” in your ear, no hurried nurses savagely stabbing at your arm for blood. I was the…
Read MoreWeek Two
Some observations after two weeks in Saudi: It’s true, there are no fitting rooms in clothes shops! We were at Dharan Mall and I just had to see if this was an urban legend or not. Apparently, it isn’t. There are fitting rooms, however, in the toilets. But for someone like me who has a…
Read MoreWelcome to The Kingdom
A 6-hour plane ride is all it takes to change your life radically. We finally flew from Paris to Bahrain. I won’t go into the details but Lila hurtled up and down the aisles, pulling blankets off sleeping businessmen and picking scraps of dirt off the floor and putting them in her mouth. By the…
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