"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for” – John A. Shedd

From being so busy, (always on the go), in Sweden and the overnight flight jet lag, I spent all day in bed yesterday while Amanda was at work! And it. was. awesome!

By 7pm I was showered up and ready for my first adventure in Bahrain. We hopped in Amanda's car and headed to the Rugby Club. Yay-there were really boys playing rugby there *siiiiigh* but we will save that for later ;) While on our way over, Amanda was filling me in on the protests here. She told me about the Black Flag neighborhoods. Apparently they set many things on fire and when the government comes in to clean it up, they kill them. Eek! She was telling me there are certain areas we will stay away from, but overall things have calmed down a lot here. Oh, and she also said not to worry because "It's been awhile since she's smelled tear gas." Here's how I felt after these happy stories:

Well, this will be an adventure! At the rugby club, we had to get put on a list to get in because it is currently Ramadan so there are only a handful of places to go for drinks right now. A couple of Amanda's friends met up after they were done with their rugby training. The boys had salads and water and we had nachos and beer. Typical.

After dinner we went over to do a little shopping. I will have to steal some pictures from Amanda's friend because I was too mesmerized by the completely different atmosphere to remember to take pictures! The women around us were covered head to toe, only their pretty eyes peeking out at you. Some women even had their entire face covered, with a black net like material over even their eyes. Amanda told me we do not need to cover up in the area we were going. So we were both wearing summer dresses, (It is over 100 degrees in the desert here), and it was a bit awkward to get used to. Being that I have blonde hair and a dress on I got stared at everywhere I walked. It is hard to remind myself that I am the odd one out. In America, we get so used to being the "normal" ones and running the show. When I am here I am a guest and my culture and ways of doing things are not the norm.

It was fun to shop around and check things out a little bit. I bought my neices a sweet present, (which I will not say yet because they read this blog religiously!). I am excited to see my sister's face when they open it. Skype maybe? :) And I did find a little connection to home while we were out. Anyone recognize this handsome man.....

On our way home, we stopped at the cold store to buy snacks for a movie on the couch. Here's what I chose:

The Doritos are sweet tasting, no spice to them. Interesting taste. When we got home Amanda had to give me a little currency tutoring lesson. I totally felt like an ESL student must feel in my classroom. You are so used to your own currency that it is hard to think outside of your comfort zone box. At this point, my purse has Dollars, Euros, Pounds, SEK, and now BD. It is hard to keep up! Especially with all of the coins. I think I can catch on quickly with the BD currency system. The exchange rate is not in my favor though! 1 BD equals a little less than 3 US dollars.

We had our midnight snacks and watched Chuckie with Arabic subtitles. Funny to remember how horribly cheesy that movie is :) Amanda has some interesting things planned for tonight. Looking forward to sharing it with you tomorrow!

XoXo!