Butterfly in the oasis in the desert: Random thoughts

This will be another random thoughts blog.

Before I came to the Kingdom (KSA is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), I tried to read as much as possible about Saudi Arabian life, specifically what the abaya should look like, how you should act in public etc. I have to say that most of the stuff that I read was wrong.

Each Muslim country seems to have a different style of dress with the abaya and hijab. Some countries allow beautiful colors. In Turkey, they don't wear an abaya, but modest clothing-long skirt, long sleeves and colorful scarves. But that is not so, with Saudi Arabia. The abaya is always black. But what I didn't know/read is how they can be beautifully decorative-accented with rhinestones and embroidery on the sleeves and the body of the abaya. Before I left the US, I had ordered one online, the plainest one that I could find, but it had a line of white embroidery across the breasts. I was worried that they might think that I was trying to draw attention to my breasts, so I blacked out the embroidery with a black fabric pen. I am a nut. :) My family gave me an abaya beautifully decorated with stones and rhinestones. That is my favorite one to wear unless I will be in the heat for a period of time, then I wear the plain jane cotton one. One blog had said that you should get an abaya that you pull on over your head to prevent a sudden wind from flipping it open and exposing yourself if you had one that had fasteners going down the front. That is what I ordered. Well, that is totally wrong. It is so much easier to take it off and put it on if it opens in the front. In the shuttle bus, it is funny to see women ripping it off if it opens down the front, as soon as we get past the guard station into the compound. Mine gets stuck on my head sometimes, so it is better to wait until I get into the villa. :) Another thing is that that I had wrong was that I thought only a minority wore the face covering here. But in fact, most of the Saudi women wear a face covering that covers the lower part of the face and many have a veil that goes over the whole face. A significant number wear the black gloves. While I was waiting in the mall with a full shopping basket for Ken to come out of a shoe store, I was people watching. I noticed a lot of women wearing shoes with heels, stylish high heels. They had on makeup. The groups of young women seemed happy-lots of laughing with each other. My other readings said that you were not to interact-look at or speak with a Saudi man unless he was a member of your family. Well, that eliminates me speaking with any Saudi men. My cab driver is Saudi and he is very friendly. People in the mall are friendly. The Saudi shopkeeper on the compound is very friendly. So, wrong, wrong, wrong again.

Here are some random pictures that I took yesterday on the way to and at the mall.

This is a gate going over the street in old Yanbu.

Building with an interesting exterior.

This is from the old part of Yanbu. Supposedly, the home of T.E. Lawrence, who wrote Lawrence of Arabia (or whom it is about) lived in a home in this area. A friend and I are supposed to go there and try to find it and take pictures.

This is the McDonald's at the mall. Notice the 2 red signs. The one on the left is the line for men and the red sign on the right is the line for women. But when I was watching, they did not pay any attention to that. There was also a Caesar's Pizza (Pizza, Pizza!) with the same setup. The Baskin and Robbins didn't. Next time that I go, I want to get the Hamburger Arabia. I don't know what that means, but I need to know. :) We ate at Tako hut and I got a chicken quesadilla, that was good, but was NOT Mexican.