You can take a person out of the Middle East, but you can never take the Middle East out of a person. There comes a time when we have to leave the Middle East and live abroad. While this might be exciting for some, there will always be hints of home.
Wherever you go, you can always spot the Arabs through the crowd because we have our own distinct traits that can’t really be ignored.
Here are 15 signs you’re an Arab living abroad:
You find yourself speaking Arabic more
It’s almost like you have superpowers. You can talk about everyone around you because most of the time, no one understands what you’re saying.
You listen to Arabic songs and watch Arabic movies that you never knew existed
You’re feeling home sick so you jam to Shereen and watch old Soad Hosny movies to get a little taste of the Middle East.
You get too excited when you find another Arab
No matter how old they are, or how far away, when you overhear someone speaking Arabic you rush to talk to them as if they’re your long lost family.
Your biggest issue is that there’s no shatafa
What? Wipe with toilet paper? We’re not savages. This is the hardest problem to solve.
Bagging your own groceries is a foreign concept
You start realizing how good you had it living in the Middle East as you’re carrying seven large bags of groceries to your house.
You start having a new kind of appreciation for your housekeeper and driver
You know how they say that you never truly appreciate your blessings until they’re gone? Case in point.
You wear six layers in April
You haven’t seen the sun in about a week and yearn to feel warmth on your skin. Instead, you get a two-day rainstorm. Yay…
People think you don’t have WiFi back home and ask you if you ride camels to school
Yes, I lived in a tent next to the Nile and the village elders would rejoice and sacrifice our best cow when we had successful season of crops. This concept of indoor plumbing is absolutely fascinating and I can’t wait to go back home and tell them about this revelation so we can replicate it with bamboo sticks.
You start missing molokhiya
At some point or another, you crave Arabic food and can’t find it anywhere. FY: “Israeli Salad” is NOT tabbouleh.
You back out of buying things when you convert it to your currency
Who knew our economy was this bad?
You find it so strange that people eat lunch at 12pm
What do you mean breakfast finished an hour ago? I want pancakes now.
You can’t get used to the fact that everything closes early
Having dinner at 7pm is not what I signed up for.
What’s worse than no delivery?
That was too far. You now have to eat the crap you made yourself when you’re hungry at 11 pm.
You let your natural curly afro loose
You have your hairdresser on speed dial back home, but here you’re forced to let nature take its course. But it doesn’t really matter, because here, people think your hair texture is “interesting”.
When you’re underage and trying to get into a club, you use your Arabic ID to your advantage
Thank God Arabic numbers look different, because now you can be however old you say you are.
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