My friend "Martin"

So I decide to go out for dinner because I have been at home all day and as I was out waiting for my order which took forever. I met a German guy called Martin who happened to be here for a week. It’s very rare that I just start talking to random friendly strangers for no reason but he seemed to be very nice. he asked me questions about Oman...And I got to know more about Germany…he was very talkative and fun to get to know…yes people say you should never talk to strangers because its not safe or something but Martin was like a guy that I already knew and we got along very quickly, although I was surprised at some people who just stared or looked away when he smiled at them, its not very often that a stranger smiles at you while you while wait in line for your dinner…but it taught me something, sometimes its okay to be yourself, despite what people might say or think...

My day at the mall..

It is the summer holiday and I was spending my week with my cousins and since we had nothing else to do we decided to go to "City center" a mall that is well known in my country (Sultanate of Oman) but of course we wanted to do something different so we decided to dress in a Burqa3 (covering our whole face except for our eyes..)

So anyway as we got there of course the three of us had second doubts about going through the whole thing but I insisted on doing it…and so we walked in dressed differently, at first it felt weird because people were staring at me like I was going to harm them or do something to them or most of them would lower their gaze, even as a customer in some shops I was treated like I was uncivilized and some sales people thought I was slow or something. Just because a person covers up her face I don’t think that it makes her uneducated or a menace to other people. I did feel unwanted by most people only a few truly respected me, but despite all of that my cousins and I managed to have fun. I had my crazy moment…and a while after that I didn’t care if people stared at me or judged me, because I knew who I was and had accomplished something I never thought I would dare to do…

I truly have great respect for the women who do this everyday.