Home Away From Home - pt 2

click here for the first part of this post (sorry - I said I'd do it the next day, but I didn't.  Deal.)

6. Water: In Bahrain, few people drink out of the faucet. Most people buy bottled water, and many people (including us) have large 20 gallon jugs delivered to their doorstep (those take us about a week to go through). So I always feel a little weird here in the States when I go to put water in my cup from the faucet.

7. Church: on Sunday - not Friday. In my four years in Bahrain, I still say things like, "when I went to church on Sun - I mean, Friday". But now that I'm in a America, where church IS on Sunday, I still mess it up! "This last Fri- I mean, Sunday at church..."

8. Light switches: When entering some rooms - kitchens and bathrooms - the light switches are on the OUTSIDE of the room. Often, I will start to enter a bathroom and get confused when I can't find the light switch before entering. Sometimes, here in the States, there happens to be a light switch on the outside of the bathroom that goes to something else. Mayhem ensues when I inadvertently turn off all the living room lights or turn on the bedroom light late at night, waking up Alison and Eva.

9. Al Abraaj: Al Abraaj is one of our favorite restaurants in Bahrain. Its cuisine is Arab, along with select Indian and Chinese dishes. The best thing is their homous. Sometimes Alison and I will stop there before a movie just to get bread and homous, and then take some home with us. I am convinced that some entrepreneur is going to make millions of dollars opening up Al Abraaj's all over the US. I may miss Chipotle while in Bahrain, but I miss Al Abraaj more while in the States.

10. Clothing: The Middle East may get flack for being conservative, but oi... there's always a little bit of shock returning to the states and seeing the more revealing clothing that women here wear. One thing I appreciate about Bahrain is that the dress is more conservative.

This actually relates to movies. Bahrain has censors that watch movies and cut out scenes they deem are too sexual. I really like this, because it means I don't have to worry about it too much when I go to the movie theater. It used to be that the cutting was fairly obvious, but they've gotten better over the years, and I often don't even realize that a scene has been edited out. This proves a problem because I may see a movie I really like (without the inappropriate scenes) and then recommend them to friends and family back in the states. Then THEY watch those movies WITH the inappropriate scenes and then I end up looking the fool! So I've learned to be more careful in my movie recommendations.

I'm sure there are more things, but I'll save those for next summer. Regardless, we love living in Bahrain, but we also feel a strong sense of "homeness" when we come back to the states - even if there is a little bit of confusion along the way!

ps - for those of you wondering, our current ETA for Bahrain is September 3rd.  Insha'alla that date will hold.