Apparently this is the week of wedding proposals. My 1st future husband is a 65year old physician who has asked for my hand in marriage twice now, and even went so far as to ask for my father's phone number to discuss the matter in more detail. Answer: NO. The 2nd incident was a visitor of one of my patients who after learning that I am Canadian told me that he would like to marry a Canadian, and could we set something up. Answer: NO. As with many cultures people here are very concerned as to why a woman would be unmarried and have no children by my age. Sadly, I'm pretty sure my mother is wondering the same thing!!
I also had my 1st encounter with the religious police last week. Prior to coming here, I had read and heard horror stories about them. Things have relaxed in recent years, and mostly they roam the local malls looking for unrelated males and females interacting with one another, or telling women to cover their hair. I happened to be shopping with 2 other western nurses, and we passed them on the escalator. Instead of telling us to cover our hair we were told to cover our faces. Being the super attractive women that we are we chose to conclude that we must have looked super hot. None the less we did not cover, and didn't encounter them again.
I finally tasted camel last week- yah you read that right.....camel. Not the best think I've ever tasted, and not the worse. Was kinda dry and tough. Probably wouldn't eat it again, but who knows??
Am heading to Jeddah this weekend with a group from work. Am really excited to get out of Riyadh and Jeddah is supposed to be much more liberal. As with all hotels in Saudi Arabia women are not allowed to use the pool, but there is a western beach were you can wear western swimsuits! Am excited as I wasn't quite ready to bust out my swim abaya quite yet!!
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