Driven Around the Bend

Yesterday marks a rather significant achievement in the life of yours truly.  For the first time since arriving on the Island, I got into a car and drove from my residence to the capital city - solo! 

Now, for those of you who know me, you realize what a significant thing this is.   For those of you who don't know me, let me state for all time and eternity that I am absolutely HORRIBLE with directions.  I think this is one thing that is used to keep me humble, if nothing else.  I can get lost just about anywhere.  Whenever I drive someone to a place I am vaguely unfamiliar with, that person suddenly switches from being my passenger and friend to my living, breathing, human GPS.  "Turn right in a quarter mile," can often be heard from the passenger side, rather than, "Hey so how was that movie last night?"  No, it's not quite that bad, but you get the idea. 

Needless to say, the thought of me driving alone, having only ridden into town a couple times, warranted a few warning signals in my own mind but I needed to do it and wanted to get out.  I decided to set no goal for myself other than that I would have an adventure.  This way, whether I made it to my desired destinations or not, I would achieve my goal.

I headed toward one of the major roadways I needed to get onto and achieved both finding it and placing my little red Toyota Yaris onto it amidst the traffic.  I rather quickly developed into a defensive and offensive driver all at once, needing both skills to maintain my right to hurtle all 3 tons of metal down the roadway without getting honked at for staying behind a slow vehicle, having lights flashed at me for moving too slowly in general, or police lights coming behind me and pulling me over for going too quickly (at which speed they do this I've still yet to ascertain).

Just ten minutes into my drive I became rather excited when I neared my destination without incident of metal meeting metal or myself getting hopelessly lost.  And that's when the real adventure began.  I took one off-ramp too early.  In the states I'd just get back on the highway but not here.  I exited onto a 3-lane roundabout.  Because of the traffic, I couldn't switch lanes and ended up driving into a city I doubt I'd heard of before that point in time.  Since "all roads lead to Rome" I decided to stay on the thoroughfare, knowing it'd eventually lead to a main street which led back to the main city. 

After five minutes the nice big two-lane road reduced to a small two-lane street, then became a one-lane road which plunged into back street alleyways which probably should never see vehicle traffic, let alone vehicles coming both ways with cars parked on both sides of the "street," and sometimes double parked at that!  I was stared down, honked at, nearly hit a dozen times, squeezed, pushed, pulled, and driven around the bend.  You know those areas "they" tell you to never go into as a white female foreigner?  Yeah, that's where I managed to land myself. 

Miraculously, however, the itty bitty little one-ish lane street became a narrow two-lane street and then became a nice big two-lane road where I could actually see the sky above me and it dumped me out right back into that intersection with the roundabout!  I decided that I didn't care if I drove around the thing ten times, I was getting back onto the interstate!  Ah, but the best laid plans of mice and men…

A car stayed right beside me and decided he was going to turn right whether I wanted to go straight or not.  So, stuck on all sides, I began driving into another part of Dodgy Town.  By this time, my traffic offenses were beginning to mount up and they included: nearly running a red light, driving straight through from the left turn lane, jamming myself into traffic lines which should never have been created, and driving the wrong way down one-way roads.  I felt more like a national driver than my driver's license would ever lead me to believe.  So, as soon as I realized that I was heading down another two-way street which was rapidly becoming a one-way road I decided I'd had enough.  In front of three police jeeps, a massive amount of men milling around in front of a mosque, and enough traffic around me than I cared think about, I pulled a completely 100% illegal U-turn to get back onto the more widely travelled upon thoroughfare.  I squished myself between two cars, got in their way and drove back into daylight. 

From that road I somehow found my way back onto the main thoroughfare that took me all the way into the city.  Here, again, the driving was not without issues (I missed the off-ramps, pulled near-illegal street maneuvers, and circled around parking garages twice because I missed the exit), but I made it!  I made it to my destinations! 

And finally, 2 hours later, with purchases bought and stowed in my little car, 6 hours after I had originally left my apartment (it was now 11:00pm), I headed home.  Thankfully, I managed to arrive at home after having only needed to make about 5 LEGAL U-turns and in less than half the time it took to get into town in the first place.

In conclusion, I can say thus: I know about a half dozen places NOT to go, have visited nearly all the legal U-turn spots on the island, and can now successfully drive from my apartment to the capital city (hopefully next time without incident).  So if you ever come to visit, I can probably reasonably get you from point A to point B.  But if you need a lift when I'm back in the states, you'd better know where you want to go!

Life on the Island

There are many things I want to post all at once, but for now I will limit myself to one aspect of life on the Island – Grocery Shopping.

I have yet to acquire my own transportation. This results in one of two things – 1.) Someone drives me places or 2.) I walk. Now, I am not one to mind walking. Given the chance, I would rather ride a bike, but walking isn’t a bad second choice. However, this is the Middle East where women don’t really walk alone. Anywhere. But I need food and no one’s around. I feel a tad bit stressed as I head outdoors, but I’ve got to get groceries, so out I go. It’s nearly 5pm and the sun goes down in 45 minutes, so I need to hustle.

Out the door, around the corner, down the street (avoiding any and all form of the male species), through a dirt lot (still avoiding the male species), down an alley (especially avoiding the male species), around corner #2 and I arrive at the grocery store.

In the store I can relax, breathe easy, and enjoy myself. I can stroll rather carefree down the aisles, perusing the vast quantities of Middle Eastern and imported goods for sale. I may take my time choosing what I like, and can look around to get a good view of my surroundings (without looking at any male faces, of course). Inside the grocery store, I am a happy lark. Until, that is, I look at my watch and realize with some dread that it’s 5:45pm and the sun just dipped below the horizon. That means I need to get going – fast.

I collect the last few items on my list while the call to prayer is broadcast over the loudspeakers and head to the checkout counter. I pay for my purchases, hope the person packing my things doesn’t squash my already too-ripe tomatoes, shove as much as I can in a large shoulder bag, pick up the few remaining sacks, and head for the exit.

Outside, there is just enough light to walk the streets alone as a woman and reasonably get away with it. There happen to be quite a few men out today and I keep my head down, eyes pointed just in front of my feet. Even when a group of elementary school boys approach I lower my head and gaze. I am fully covered except for a head scarf and they all pass on by, noticing that I take no notice of them. My peripheral vision becomes quite good. As does my hearing – I don’t see a car coming as much as I hear it.

Back around the corner, up the alley (always avoiding the men), through the dirt lot, up the street, around the corner, and a slight smile may be seen on my face. I have successfully reached my fair haven, teacher building No. 2, with every single item on my list!    

Except cereal.  Ugh.  Back I go! (Tomorrow!)

Marhaban (Welcome) to Bahrain!

I've made it! After 3 flights, 7 hours of layovers, 4 airplane terminals, 23 hours of travel, 1 pick-up, and 1 hired suitcase carrier , I stepped into the muggy heat of Bahrain. I was cordially welcomed by passport officials and fellow teachers alike to my new home. I was also welcomed by a power outage :-) I guess the power company got so excited to see me that it sent too much power to our building and overtaxed itself. It finally got calmed down enough to say hello around four in the morning - for an hour.

Though the trip was a tad bit grueling (I got sick by the end of it) it was definitely not "plain." Here is a list of people encountered and miracles witnessed. First the people. I met a TSA official who served our country in the Navy, a 9th grade English Intervention teacher, a senior in high school who has been living in Italy for the past year, a man who looked like he could be a pirate, and three Kuwaiti women whose seat assignment was overlapped with mine. Now the miracles. I was only charged $110 for my extra baggage instead of what should have been $400 due to a change in regulations, my cabin luggage was allowed on when another lady's whose bag was around my size had to be checked for an extra fee, I wasn't charged an overweight fee even though one of my bags was 4 pounds over, I was given an aisle seat for my last flight with an empty seat beside me and a lot of leg room, and all of my luggage arrived intact!

Welcome to Bahrain, indeed!  I am pretty well settled in, have already made some great friends, and am beginning to orient myself around the island.  Bahrain is a truly fascinating place to live and I am excited to begin sharing stories and pictures with you in the coming weeks and months.  Stay tuned for post #1 about living in Bahrain!