If You Really Knew Me

...you'd know that my favourite colour is green and my favourite number is three.

...you'd know that my favourite band is Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and if I could learn any instrument, it'd be the harmonica and piano.

...you'd know that my favourite animals are lions, polar bears and red pandas. In that order.

...you'd know that I am definitely an animal person, more specifically, a dog person. I prefer big dogs, especially German Shepherds and Pitbulls.

...you'd know that my favourite place on earth is Georgian Bay.

...you'd know that I bite and pick my nails. It's a bad habit that I've had for as long as I can remember, and just haven't been able to kick it. I'll stop for a week or two, and then something will happen and I'll go back to it.

...you'd know that I hold my pen funny. And I hate when people notice it. "Oh, that's an interesting way of holding your pen." Thanks asshole, like I didn't already know.

...you'd know that I have 9 tattoos, and have had 7 piercings, but currently only have 2. This does not include ears.

...you'd know that I've seen more episodes of The Big Bang Theory than anything else.

...you'd know that I am absolutely terrified of spiders, and most bugs, especially those that fly. I'm also pretty scared of ghosts and aliens but they fascinate me at the same time. Whereas bugs don't and if they would all just die, that'd be great.

...you'd know that my favourite chocolate bar is Crunchie and my favourite candy is anything sour. Fun Fact: I got my first Crunchie bar from Picnic Island on Georgian Bay.

Obviously I am bored, sitting at home on a Friday night while the hubby is out playing poker with the guys, babysitting a crazy little Calico kitten named Pindi for our lovely neighbours who are in France. Lucky ducks.

Socialite

It's been a bit of a rough week for me here. Coming into this, I really had no expectations and came in with an open mind, having no idea what it would be like here. Since I moved to Holland by myself, I figured that this would be a walk in the park. I have my man, we'll get to travel again, no big deal. I was sadly mistaken. With Pakistan being not only a Muslim country, but a third world country, it's been a lot harder for me to adjust. All the rules, the extreme culture shock, not having a job and sitting in the house all day because I can't go anywhere, it's beginning to drive me crazy. And I hate to say it, but I think this will be the first night in about a week where I won't be crying myself to sleep. I hate to show weakness, but it's true, and I might as well be honest. After all, I want to look back on these journal entries years down the line and remember exactly what it was like.

Some of you may know that I adopted a little kitten. He was wandering around here one day so we picked him up and took him home. We named him Lynx, I figured it was appropriate as my other cats were named after animals as well, Fawkes, Cougar and Finch. Unfortunately he went outside a week ago, and hasn't returned. So that has had me pretty heartbroken as well, and isn't helping with my settling in situation. There are plenty of other kittens here, and a pregnant cat that I feed everyday, but I don't think I want another one. I just want him to come back.

This past weekend was a busy one for us. Everyone gets out of work at noon each Friday, something to do with Muslim prayers, but hey, it's a short day so who's complaining? We spent the afternoon at the Czech's house. Most of the other diplomats live off the enclave, and have these big enormous houses. This particular one was no different, big, beautiful, gorgeous wood carvings throughout. It would be nice to live off the diplomatic enclave, however, it's not as safe. And most countries are beginning to build residences and move their people onto the enclave, just because it's so much safer. Anyway, as soon as we got there he started feeding us homemade apricot brandy and Carlsberg. I'm not a liquor drinker myself, so opted for the beer, but eventually he talked me in to taking just one shot. I had to, just to be polite, but boy was it ever gross. It was only military members that were invited to this particular lunch, and I got to meet a few Americans and a British fellow who I was particularly fond of. The lunch was delicious and I left there quite tipsy.

From the Czech's house, we made our way back to the Canada Club, and then on to the German Club where there was a pool party going on. It was late, so it wasn't really a pool party by this point. We didn't stay there for very long because it had been a long day, and we were exhausted.

On Saturday we slept in late, and then went out shopping with Tahira, our new domestic helper. Then we met up with two of the Americans, and Rod's three coworkers, at a place called Nirvana. It's basically a spa, hair salon, restaurant, hookah bar, shop, all rolled into one. Apparently they like to specialize in more than one thing in this country. I got a manicure and pedicure with the other two women, while Rod and the three guys got massages. The mani/pedi only cost me $20 including tip, and Rod's was $50 including tip. Definitely affordable and I hope to go there a lot more often. It's a nice way to feel good in this place. Once everyone was done, we had dinner and it was so tasty! Oh my goodness. I told Rod that we should go there for date night once a month. We don't do a "date night" but might as well start now.

And then we went to the movies. And ya'll know how that went.

A Trip To The Movies

I hate going to the movies. There's too many people, the tickets and snacks are overpriced, people are talking, babies are crying, if you have to go to the washroom you miss a good five minutes, phones are going off, it all just drives me nuts. So I'm not entirely sure what I was thinking when I agreed to go to the movies on a Saturday night here in Pakistan. I guess after having such a good day, I figured, why the hell not? At least I can say I did it.
So shortly after 9pm we drove to Rawalpindi, the sister city of Islamabad. A lot older, and a lot more chaotic. We missed the first showing of the movie we wanted to see, The Expendables 2, so we had an hour to kill before the 11:30 show. We wandered over to a place called Cosmo I think it was, and discovered that it sold an awful lot of Western foods. Good to know. We purchased some drinks to take into the theatre, thinking that it too would be expensive. Unfortunately here, they search you, and your bags, so we had to dispose of our newly purchased beverages. There are metal detectors everywhere in this country, especially for places that have a higher traffic flow, such as hotels or theatres. Your bags even have to go through an x-ray machine, and most of the time you beep when you pass through, but they don't seem to care. What's the point then?

The tickets only cost us 400 rupees, which is about $4. And since our drinks had been thrown out, we had to purchase two bottles of water, and a popcorn of course, which came up to just over $3. Decent! Much cheaper than back home, that's for sure. It sucks because we "shouldn't" drink the fountain pop here, as we don't know if it's made with the tap water or not, which we aren't supposed to drink.

Apparently here in Pakistan, when you purchase your tickets, they come with an assigned seat. At first we just assumed that it was for inventory purposes, to keep track of how many tickets were sold, but we were wrong. And since Wendy had purchased 3 tickets for herself, Dan and Aron, and I purchased 2 for Rod and myself, we weren't sitting together, even though I purchased mine immediately after her. Weird. Also, you should know that there are lines for women/families, and then a line for the men. Very bizarre. So we went and found our seats with the help of ushers, and soon discovered it was a packed house that night. Apparently everyone wanted to see The Expendables 2. They don't do previews in Pakistan, but instead show an advertisement about a local company and then play the national anthem and show videos of a poor country with lots of poverty and a family of 5 on a motorcycle. Yes, I had to stand for the Pakistani national anthem and it was probably the most humiliating thing I've ever done. I will never go back to the movies, for that reason exactly.

At least the movie was pretty good. And you know what? Apparently Pakistanis love killing, because whenever someone died, they hooted and hollered and just went crazy with excitement. It was very disturbing and sickening to watch and listen to them carry on this way over someone's death, fake or not.

It's also quite weird to be a minority for the first time in my life. Obviously I experience this everywhere, not just at the theatre, but it seemed to bother me more when I was there then it usually would. It's like they've never seen a white person before. They stare, whisper to each other, stare some more. How annoying.

Oh, and I can't tell you how many times I saw small children wandering around by themselves. Back home it seems like people keep their kids on lockdown, and here they just don't seem to care.

That movie theatre experience put a sour taste in my mouth, that hopefully will go away soon, or this is going to be a long two years.

Just some things to note

+ It takes like 10 freakin' minutes for the water to turn hot! Okay, maybe I am exaggerating, more like 3-4 minutes.
+ We've always washed our clothes in cold water, but here, even when you put the dial to cold, it's more like luke warm. No big deal really, just odd.
+ Everyone told me that I'd be sick within the first week, as I guess that's when most people fall ill here. Just shy of 3 weeks and I'm still feeling great. Knock on wood.
+ I think we've only cooked two meals for ourselves since we've been here? Quite the change from the chefs we were back home, with our fancy meals every night. It's just not the same without our own pots and pans, and without our spice rack and "our food". Hopefully things will change once all that arrives.
+ We've hired a domestic helper. Her name is Tahira, she's Christian, and came knocking on our door one day looking for work. Most people here, in the diplomatic community, have a helper, a cook, a gardener, a car washer. It's a little ridiculous actually, but it would be nice to have someone help clean and cook us dinners once in awhile, especially if and when I find a job. So she'll be working for us every Monday and Thursday, for about 4-5 hours. And get this - it's only $80 a month. And we're OVER paying her. She was so happy when we told her how much she'd be making and said that she'd been praying that we'd hire her. It feels good to help her out a little bit, and in return, we have help too! Just going to be hard adjusting back to Canadian life, and not having anyone to help. Haha.
+ I was told the other day that according to the UN, Pakistan is the most dangerous country in the world. And Canada is the biggest exporter of drugs. Who knew?
+ Monday and Tuesday were holidays for Eid, the end of Ramazan, sort of like a Muslim Christmas I guess you could say. We were invited to dinner at Michael's house, a local staff member. He's Christian though, so it wasn't exactly a dinner for Eid, but just to feed the Canadians until they puked type of dinner. The 4 other Canadians and I crowded around a small table with Michael, while his wife and son served us dish after dish of delicious Pakistani food. It was a bit weird that they didn't sit down with us to eat, but I guess that's just their culture. What a nice son though, so well behaved. That sure wouldn't fly in Canada.
+ Unfortunately the power was out for half the time we were there. Here in Pakistan, load shedding is a daily occurance. The government will turn the power off for one hour intervals to help save money. They promised that they wouldn't over the Eid holiday, but alas, they broke it. Fortunately for us in the diplomatic enclave, we are not affected by the load shedding as we have back up generators.



Definitely not in Kansas Canada anymore.

Saidpur Village

Just another rainy day here in Islamabad. I guess that's to be expected, as it is monsoon season. However, I'm still trying to figure out why it's called monsoon season. It doesn't seem any different from our spring back home. Just normal rainy days, the occasional thunderstorm. Although two years ago there was a massive flood, so maybe that's why?

Anyway, all is well on this side of the world. I know some of my family members heard in the news about an incident that happened a few days ago, some 80km from here, with some crazy militants. But I assure you, I am okay, and safely protected here in the Diplomatic Enclave. So much so that I feel almost as though I am in a zoo, surrounded by walls, bars, constantina wire, security guards, machine guns, and then more walls and wire.

The other weekend we went on a 4 hour tour of Islamabad, even though we didn't get to see the whole thing. But we ended up in a little place called Saidpur Village. It was nestled at the base of the Margalla Hills, on the northern outskirts of Isbad. It was a, dare I say it, cute little village, although obviously very poor. There were some nice restaurants as it is a tourist attraction I suppose, and I hope to go back one day very soon for some good eats.

click on photos to make them bigger ;)



Home away from home

Almost a week since we've lived here and I'm still enjoying myself. There were a few days where I was a little bummed out (mainly because I hate having rules and not being able to wear what I want was starting to piss me off), but I met a lovely French-Canadian couple who are our neighbours, and they've really made me feel welcome. J is sweet, loving, and just a generally all around nice person, and her husband R is great too. They invited us to lunch at the club a few days ago when I first met them, then we had a delicious home cooked meal at their house last night, made by their chef. Yes, they have a chef, most people do, along with maids, gardeners, even car washers. It's going to be quite difficult moving back to Canada and leaving all these luxuries behind.

The chef cooked up a delicious veal dish, with a yummy gravy type of sauce, the best mashed potatoes I've had in a long time, and green beans and tomatoes, along with a very unusual salad that was to die for and a brownie cake for dessert. I don't even like green beans but they were amazing, probably because I haven't had a home cooked meal in forever. We are having lunch with them again today, and then on Sunday night we're having dinner.

Another thing that has bummed me out is the time difference. I'm 9 hours ahead of home, so it's been pretty difficult to call home. Rod gets home from work at 6pm, we usually go to the gym, have a swim and then dinner. So by the time I'm done all that, it's pretty much bed time. And when I do want to call home, like right now, it's 11am so nobody's awake.

First Impressions

Well I've made it to Islamabad safely. It was an incredibly long trip, about 25 hours, maybe more. That includes wait times in the airport too though. It went by relatively quickly, I spent about half the time sleeping, so that definitely helped. Of course the long flight from Washington to Doha was completely full, but a nice man switched places with Rod so that he could sit next to me. The airport in Doha, Qatar was shiny and new, apparently it's similar to Dubai so lots of money there, but when we got to Islamabad it was totally different. There are ceilings and interior walls, but no external walls. So people can pretty much just walk in and out freely, and it didn't seem like there was a whole lot of security. The building was pretty much in shambles, dirty, old, stray cats wandering about. Definitely was not expecting that at all. I don't really know what I expected, but I guess I had envisioned Islamabad to be a little nicer. Then we realized that our luggage was lost, so as we waited in the line for missing bags, I had my first meltdown in Isbad. Not only was our luggage lost, but as I waited in line, people continued to butt in front of me. Apparently this is very common here, if there's a tiny opening between two people, someone will squeeze themselves in, and that is perfectly normal. Whereas back home, that's totally rude and nobody ever does it. Of course I never said anything because I didn't want to be rude, and thought that they were being rude, so I just began to cry until Rod butted his way up to the front and dealt with the situation.
As it turns out, it was lost in Washington. I don't understand why as they had plenty of time to get it from one flight to the other, and there were only about 20 of us on that flight. Rod flew with the same airline to Washington a couple months ago, and they lost his luggage then too. I've never had an issue with losing luggage before, but note to self, never fly into the States again. It's been nothing but problems for me!

Anyway, we finally got our luggage back on Sunday morning which was a huge relief. I'd been in the same clothes since Thursday and I was so scared our bags would be lost forever.

Things have been going good here so far, granted this is only my third day. But all the people seem friendly, the Canadians and the locals, I haven't really met anyone else yet though. There's a really nice pool, tennis courts, a golf course nearby (think I may try to learn as Rod loves to golf), a couple of restaurants on the enclave, then of course there are other really good restaurants off the enclave that I'm just itching to try out. We're at the base of the Margalla Hills, which are part of the Himalayas. You're allowed to go for hikes up in there so I hope our shipment comes soon because it has my hiking boots in it.

Our house is really nice, I'm actually quite surprised. It's approximately the same size as our place back in Ottawa, but a lot cheaper. It's only one floor, however there are three different levels with two steps up to each level. The first level has the front entrance, living room and a den/office, the second level has a half bath, kitchen, pantry and dining room, and the third level is our bedroom, walk in closet, ensuite and laundry room. Each level is the exact same size too, so our bedroom is huge and I love it. We also have a back patio, with lots of plants, a table and chair set, and two doors that lead into the dining room and our bedroom. We even have a dishwasher which I am super excited about!

On Saturday, two of Rod's colleagues took us to the grocery store to pick up some food supplies. It's called Metro and is supposed to be like a Costco, but not really. Everything is super cheap, we picked up a 12 pack of Coke for $4 and cigarettes are $9/carton. We're trying to quit though. Across the way from the Metro is an Afghani refugee camp, for those who lost their homes. It was really sad to see that. I've never seen a whole lot of poverty, so to see people living in houses made out of mud and clay, or anything they could get their hands on like scrap piece of metal, was really heartbreaking. The kids were bathing in mud puddles, all the animals were skinny and malnourished, it's just so different from back home and very startling to see.

This photo was taken from the parking lot of the Metro, and this neighbourhood is across the way from the Afghani refugee camp



Everyone drives on the left side of the road here, with steering wheels on the right. There also doesn't seem to be much order on the roads, and the traffic police don't really do much to fix that. People go whatever speed they want, in tiny little cars stuffed to the brim with people, on motorcycles with as many as 5 or 6 people on them, mothers carrying their infants in their arms on the backs of motorcycles, no helmets, small little donkeys pulling buggies and running their little hearts out (that's sad to see also), it's just chaos.

Some other things to note:

- The Canada Club serves Moosehead beer for $1.50 a bottle

- They also serve cheap food, for example you can get a poutine or chicken burger for about $2

- The local Pakistani's who work on the enclave are incredibly friendly

- I can't wear short shorts, tight clothes, or tank tops in public, only on our compounds. Which is a super huge pain in the butt as it's hot as hell here

- There are geckos, monkeys, wild boars, wild cattle, poisonous snakes, camels, other farm animals wandering around. I've only seen geckos, cattle and camels so far, and lots of stray cats and dogs

- I was told before I came here that the produce was really good, but I went to the Metro so far and it was absolute garbage. Worst of the worst! Hopefully I can find a good little market

- All produce must be soaked in milton which disinfects it from any bacteria or parasites I guess

- Lettuce is a big no no, as it soaks up a lot of harmful bacterias and milton doesn't seem to help

That's all I can think of for now, so until next time....