Life is Different

Life here is very different.

Things I like:
*Being able to spend time with family.
*Getting to know my cousins better.
*Feeling welcomed by everyone.
*The sense of community here...everyone knows ALL their neighbors. When someone moves somewhere the most important factor is who are the neighbors.
*The slowness of life (although as my dad well knows, this is also something I don't like at times as I prefer to be busy...but it is nice to slow down). When I mentioned the possibility of working 5 days a week 8am-3:30pm to my family, there was an uproar of "No!" "That's too much work!" "It's bad for your health!". It made me laugh :)
*Living 10 minutes from the mediterranean sea.

Things I don't like:
*Not being able to freely go on a walk (you only see men walking around....women go shopping and such, but it's not acceptable for a woman to wander the streets)
*The driving. Everytime I am in a car I pray I don't get into an accident.
*The color brown. Everything here is brown and I don't find it aesthetically pleasing at all.
*The language barrier...but I guess that is what I am here to overcome, right?
*Living with a 1 1/2-year old who's only form of communication is screaming. :)
*There are very few places to go to hang out with people (especially for women, but there isn't too much for men either).
*The mosquitoes...I try to keep my body covered in bug spray in the evening. Probably the only spot that was not protected was my lips, so I currently have a bite on my lip. They just love me :)

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One of my cousins has lived in England for the past 5 years and recently moved back to Libya. I was talking to her husband who said something I found interesting. He told me "You shouldn't let people tell you what you can and can't do. You should learn for yourself, it's a safe country so no one will hurt you". I took this to mean "go outside and go on a walk if you want to" or "go to a place that they say only men can go to"...but I am not sure that is exactly how I was supposed to interpret it...we'll see.

The daily schedule (which doesn't actually exist) goes something like this on some days:
Morning: Wake-up at 6:30am if I have work or wake-up at 10-11am. Have breakfast (eggs, cheese, bread). If not at work, sit around the house, go on the net, play with the 1 1/2-year old, read until lunch(between 2:30 and 3:30pm; it's the big meal of the day) or go somewhere with my dad and my cousin for a couple hours.
Afternoon/Evening: Lunch, nap (I generally don't nap), hang out with my cousins, have an arabic lesson, ask my dad questions about the arabic language.

On Thursday the sister of a family friend wanted to take me out for coffee and I found out about it as she was driving to get me....that's how planning works here :) I was really excited though because I didn't know such a place existed (for women at least). It's basically a family restaurant, not what we would call a "coffee shop" in the states.

Let me know how you are doing when you get the chance :)