On fitting in

It is almost a week since I have been here in Saudi Arabia. And it is almost a week of being a housewife.

I still find adjusting to life in Saudi Arabia easy and manageable. There were lots of changes to live by here suggested by tradition, culture, and religion, that is Islam. First, I am not allowed to go out of our house unless I am with my sponsor, who is my husband. We do our groceries together almost everyday so I can go out every afternoon, after my husband's office work - which is actually a good thing. My husband doesn't care if it's quite inefficient to go out and buy every afternoon because gasoline is cheap, here. Whenever we eat out, we are entitled to some privacy. There is a separate section for families so that families like us do not mix up with groups of bachelor men. Not so bad, right?

Another adjustment that I find practicable is wearing abaya whenever in public. An abaya is a long loose black dress with long sleeves that is worn by women over ordinary dress. It basically covers your skin from your neck down to your ankles. Whenever I go out, I put on my abaya (I have three as of the moment) and bring a shawl to cover up my head when needed. It does not matter what you wear under your abaya. I can go out with outfits that I use at home because my body will be covered anyways. I can wear a dress, or a sleeveless blouse or a pair of shorts; it doesn't matter because people won't see it with my abaya on. Well, hello to a new version of fashion! I have shawls of different colors anyways!:) (I'm sharing photos of us below.)

On Wednes--, errrr, every day, I wear black.

The weather in this part of the world is a new experience to me. When I arrived here from the Philippines, it was quite hazy because of sandstorm. From where I came from, the weather ranges from too hot to rainy. But here in Saudi Arabia, it can be too hot and sandy. I don't know when winter comes. For safety reasons, we don't go out when the wind is howling with sands.

All in all, I find this country that I'm in likeable plus, I would like to go to new places, whether it's a mall, a small restaurant in some street, a grocery store, or a desert! It's just a matter of perspective and I'm claiming this 'moving in' will take me to places and learnings.