Strange Times [Life]

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Just give me a few more weeks, you guys, and I'll be one of those 30-year-olds who stay in on weekends watching a show. Can't wait.

In the meanwhile, I will continue posting wondrous photos of the normal world. 

Yesterday, I walked 20 minutes to the nearest mall, and I realized how stressful it was. Like, I was proper stressed out, about whether or not I was going the right way, about whether I looked like an idiot, about whether I was wearing the right clothes for walking, if someone saw me would they know I'm a dumbass when it comes to WALKING?! I thought of all my Jeddawi boys who would drive me around and wait a half hour in the car while I did my shopping, HOW DID I EVER TAKE THAT FOR GRANTED?!

But enough of that crazy talk, because although I miss the luxury of the Saudi Golden Cage, this weird freedom to walk the streets, this freedom to put myself in danger and then this freedom to defend myself, it's a pretty good deal. #FirstWorld

Eid this year was... nonexistent. Eid was always about family - the family feasts, the traditional clothes, receiving relatives and drinking 100 cups of tea and coffee, getting eidiyyah, the Eid prayer. I had none of that. I went to the Arabic district in Kuala Lumpur instead and went to the first Arabic restaurant I saw, my non-local friends in tow, and we had mashawi, kabsa, fattoush, 7ummus, the works. I sat there sans my abaya, wearing American clothes, and it felt like... a tourist meal. 

I am not ungrateful. It was a good day, and I was glad for the restaurant owner who spoke to me in his lilting Syrian and the endless Allah y36eek el 3afiyeh, and the la7me food coma afterwards that I hadn't experienced in months. 

There will always be a part of me that's comfortable being surrounded by Arabs, and it's just the same amount of the part of me that's completely cool not having to live in an Arab country. 

Can you spot the bagalah?

Earlier that day, I did some traipsing in the mall and came upon this concept store called Galleria. It's a gallery and shop and hipster upper middle-class cafe that is just the kind of place that I would gravitate towards because I've been conditioned for years and years to appreciate this kind of muted creativity.

A mom enjoys the full sunlight by the large windows as her baby sleeps in a trolly next to her. 

A shot of my feet to prove that this happened.

The cafe serves 20-riyal breakfasts.

And sells 1,000-riyal tote bags.

I'm so cultured right now.

Some restaurants close to my apartment have this system where you write down your order and hand it to the waiter. It's efficient and cuts the unnecessary human contact, but also, what a waste of paper!



And that's it for now. I lead such an exciting life, I have to go now and scrub the toilet clean. 

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