I can't imagine life outside of Canada! Well, to be honest, I can't quite imagine life outside of Ontario. Or life in a 'rural' area; Canada's Ontario cities are all I'm very much used to, the only thing I've been adapted to. So what would it be like to live somewhere else? In another country per say?
Well obviously being the 'spaz' I am, the culture shock would get me before anything else! A perfect example of a country where I would have some sort of cultural meltdown which is relatively likely for me to go to and see would be (yes, you guessed it): Saudi Arabia!
(Oh goodness, and how much more different from Canada can you get?)
I have been talking to a lot of people, looking at a lot of blogs online by Saudi wives from America and my country as well and learning about life there. Basically I have gathered the very basic and reoccurring, seriously common, and irritating points in which have been in all blogs of the Muslim-convert-Western-women-Saudi-Wives and they are the following:
Hot sun! It's hot, there is sun. This is especially difficult for the Canadian/British women to overcome as we rarely see the run, or feel it quite as hot. Also being women, this leads to my next point about being hot:
Black Things! Okay, that's what I call it with my boyfriend but I know what they are called of course. The abaya. It's basically a covering which is black, if you don't know. All the women wear it in Saudi Arabia. One of the first lessons we learn in Canada as children is if you're cold wear black. So in the hot Arab sun of Saudi Arabia, I imagine women who have been frozen in snow and well-shaded by foggy days have trouble with the sun-on-black clothing. We just aren't cut out for it, I suppose!
( I think of it like summer here before my family decided we 'needed' the AC- it was 30 degrees and I thought I was dying of heat then in my old white pair of very-short shorts and a tank-top. No, no, I imagine I haven't even felt 'hot' like Saudi 'hot' before.)
But once again this is something only time can resolve. But honestly, poor women of the north- our fair skin and relatively cold-tolerant bodies weren't made to bake. I can see myself sleeping in the bathtub.
Oh wonderful. I will be fish-lady...
That's a great name.
“Oh it's so and so, the fish lady!”
“Uhm. Ho hum.”
It's alright though, as my boyfriend has taken this into consideration and I believe he has a freezer waiting for me in case of serious heat-relief. I think I'll need it.
I wonder what fish lady or human popsicle is in Arabic?
The last point is that I am CANADIAN.
I don't speak Arabic!
I'm new to islam...
I've dressed like H&M addict on crack for the past 16 years of my life and the idea of modesty and the abaya is sort of scary/and/limiting.
I can't say fuck in public! What if it just escapes my lips without my knowing?
“Fuuu..uuu..ck. Eh?” That sounds almost Japanese, like a mushroom: Fuuhukih (okay, not really.)
But, I doubt it as I'm not one for using such words, but upon drying to drink some water through my veil I might curse once or twice, probably loudly as I'm a loud person.
“MUSHROOM. SHITAKE! FUUUUUHUKIH!”
I'm seriously open-minded. By this I mean if I saw some stupid act of criminality(?)...I might attack the criminal, which is stupid of ME since I'm a girl. (By girl I mean female, by female I mean the only girl in the family, by that I mean my brothers do all the hard labor).
“Fish lady frozen woman super hero!”
Did I ever mention I'm Canadian? I'm a girl. I'm pampered. I'm not tough, I'm a princess with a big mouth and no over-heat-control other than to laze in the sun lethargic and helplessly: which makes me even more of a sultry princess of doom. Oh lord.
But I would go anyway, as it looks and seems like one of the most beautiful and cultural places on earth and like everything I'm easy to adjust after time.
But I will need a lot of Popsicles, a freezer, and a bathtub ready for my emergencies.
*AGH I'M MELTING MEEEELTING* * Flashback of the WWoftheWEST in The Wizard of Oz*
What would I wear under an abaya?
That's another topic for another time but I have heard what other Canadian/American women attempt underneath and I am more than willing to have a giggle over that in the future.
Kisses and Best Wishes,
Bridgette