Bahrain... Day 1!

Well we have had an incredibly busy first day!!! 

After we crashed last night I figured we'd wake up at some random time in the middle of the night... nope! We all slept til almost noon! We actually had to wake Stella up! 

After we woke up and got ready our amazing sponsor came and drove us around all day. He took us to a couple of grocery stores, Starbucks, and the base first thing. We sort of got a feel for food and our location and then at the base we got SIM cards for our phones and a quick snack. 

Anyone who knows me knows I love food. And grocery shopping. So to see two grocery stores today was my idea of fun (seriously). It was also a relief to see all the Stella friendly food that we found! The only thing I didn't find yet was gluten free bread for her or dairy free ice cream. But everything else? Totally golden!  

I know everyone is curious so... YES- we can get pork products out here! At one of the grocery stores we went to there was an entire pork section off around a corner, by itself. It even had a separate section for preparation and handling of the pork products. Totally fascinating! Of course, I'm fascinated by just about everything right now. 

After we saw the base we went driving around and ended up in Amwaj. We ate dinner at a place called Lanterns and we got Indian food! Sooooo happy to have easy access to some of our favorite foods and to try new stuff! 

We drove around Amwaj a little bit and I have to say... I'm kind of in love! It's on the water so there was a wonderful breeze that broke up the heat! It's also quiet over there away from the main city AND there was some actual green space and plant life. The hotel we're staying in is downtown near the capital and there's not much besides sand, dirt, dust, and buildings. It was nice to see some plantlife. 

After that it was dark (sunset is kind of early here) so we headed back to one of the grocery stores we saw earlier and bought some groceries. I kind of wandered aimlessly with no real direction... weariness and jet lag were setting in for sure! We're back at the hotel now and Stella's asleep and we're just relaxing and wide awake... our bodies have no clue what time it is! 

So far, some first impressions... 

It's hot. Like... really hot. But everywhere has air conditioning and it's always running and working hard. The sun is kind of oppressive... once it went down the heat wasn't as bad, but the middle of the day? It was crazy hot. 

The people are nice and everyone speaks English. I know absolutely no Arabic aside from "marhaba" (greetings/hello) and "as salaam alaikum" (peace be upon you) so to know that I'll be okay to get around was a relief. I plan on taking Arabic classes but until then, I'm stuck feeling like an idiot American who doesn't know any of the language of the country I'm in. 

One thing I noticed when we were traveling... we got into a shuttle bus from the airport to the tarmac. There was a middle eastern couple sitting in two of the seats and another couple got on after it was filled up. The seated middle eastern man got up and offered his seat to the other woman. I'm not going to lie, I was kind of surprised. As an American, we see things on the news and have these biases built up in our heads about how people are... even me, who, if you know me know that I'm incredibly accepting and open, welcoming and supportive of everyone. I don't care about color or race or sexual orientation. But I've always heard that middle eastern men are selfish and rude and so I didn't really know what to expect. But I saw kindness on that bus and it made me really happy. I'm sure I'll run into assholes-- there are assholes everywhere-- that knows no color or creed. But it was cool to see a normal, kind gesture when it wasn't expected. I hope to have many more experiences like that!