Blogging for expats

I haven't read alot of blogs, but I loved it. I am, of course hungry for any information.
I realize you may not want to do this especially since I notice alot of Muslim women don't, but I like to know more about the blogger.
Again, I realize this is a safety isse and it may not be your goal to get as many people reading it every week. I am just thinking of how reality tv has sucked in a whole group and I think it's because once we learn about the people, we want to see how it turns out.
As I also said privately, I think our experiences are partly due to who we are and our situations.
So I would like to know more about your husband, and if he is a native speaker of Arabic, I would like to see some personal pictures at the sites, or with captions. Again, this may not be wise (I am lacking in common sense ) but I would like to have an idea of your status as well.
Only for the simple fact, that if you are rich, you may be in a nicer area. I saw the child in the streets and you captions how safe it is, but i wondered if that was an area well off (rich or upper class), and how would it be in a poor or average area.
I am also interested in pictures of the homes or flats inside.
I understand that your friends may not want you posting pics of their homes. 
I just see some of the ads in the housing section and they all seem very expensive and perhaps the rich side.
Another thing I'm interested in, is what things not to say or do that you have found may offend people or they don't like.
For example, I notice with my Muslim friends they don't like giving negative examples or scenarios with them in it.
I don't know if this is strictly superstition or if there is a religious reason.
It is quite common in the States to do this.
I will give you an example.
If I have a friend that is doing bad things and cheating someone, and I want him to think of how wrong it is, I may say to him "imagine if someone robbed your sister! how would you feel?".
Or if I say, "You must learn to cook. What if your mother dies and you don't know how to care for yourself?".
The people I know really get upset if you say something even as an example. It's like they think you are wishing for it to happen or that it will come true if you speak it.
So I would like to hear little things that you have learned not to do/say or that you should say/do.
Thanks for everything!

wow thank you so much for all your feedback that's great, i'll definitely remember that for the future although i still think that i'll keep the most personal aspect out of the picture. As you said, as a muslim woman i don't like the idea of exposing myself too much. FIY my husband is Tunisian so he does speaks Arabic that helps a lot as i don't really peak it myself.

Regarding money and housing, i think you need to know that "rich" sides "poor" sides don't really affect on safety, people are the same everywhere, it is Islam that dictates their behaviour, not their money so don't worry about how rich or poor you are you'll be fine. It's more about how isolated your house is, i would recommend living close to other people in the current climate. As for pictures of homes and flats, i was thinking about it you know so i'll add some to the picture gallery. I have a few already on my flickr account, try this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/100421307@N07/

Finally you're right different cultures have different way of talking and some things can be offending to others when you don't know. First rule in Libya, don't say anything bad about their country, they don't like it! lol other than that, stay clear of political talks if you're not sure which side the people you're talking to are on (pro Gadafi or pro revolution) as this can put you in a tight spot. Other than that you'll learn fast once you're here.

Thank you again soooo much for all your suggestions, i really love it when people try to help me with my blog. Do you have your own blog? Do you like writing? If so message me and maybe we can do something together

I love talking and typing but my writing tends to be very scattered and changing topics often as this is how I talk.
I am not good at organizing my thoughts and forming paragraphs, so I don't know about a blog. I am better just one on one chatting.
it's crazy because I tried to open a facebook account and add some Libyans but apparently Facebook has a big "no adding of strangers" rule now.
Um... wasn't facebook created as a way of making connections?
I swear they had a commercial that said "you know sara, sara knows Jill, now you can connect with Jill too".. or something like that. "see who your friend's friends are"
Grrrr~ so much for reaching out and making the world a smaller place.

Oh, I went home and thought of a million other ideas, depending on what you have been exposed to there.
Different local food that you have tried or tips for shopping.
I read a bood about an American that moved to Egypt and converted to Islam. Apparently they don't like you to say anything bad about their country either as a friend told me her book was lies. lol
She actually said lovely things but was just honest about things that she wasn't used to. Anyway, she would say how you have to be careful about buying meat because it is hot and alot of vendors have it out on display in the hot sun.
Thankfully I'm a vegetarian but she also said that even the vegetables, the local women could tell right away what was good and which had worms in it. :S
She said they thought it was funny that Americans didn't know this.
So describing local food and what you like or what was more of an aquired taste.

Also, there has been some talk of what you can wear but not really about what is fashionable or how it is viewed if you don't wear something.
Personally, if i go, since I have to cover, I would want to wear the cover that only shows the eyes. Someone told me they view you as a terrorist if you cover that much. lol
I saw your pictures of the beach but do women go and get in the water and what do they wear.
I don't wear Hijab, mostly becasue I can't afford to buy scarves and clothes that fit the Muslim standards. However, during Ramadan I did cover. A woman invited me to the beach.
I was so excited that someone reached out to me. I asked her what I can wear. She began to tell me pants and a long shirt, with long sleeves and a scarf.
lol. i thought we were going swimming! We just walked along the beach while her practically naked son splashed around.
I was a bit jealous but was happy for the company.
Oh and another little clue for expats that do want to wear the long loose dress:
I was wearing my dress and it had rained. As a habit, I held up my dress just a bit so that it wouldn't get wet. I exposed my ankles and probably up to the very bottom of my calf, not even the whole calf. If you could see my legs, you would not think this was immodest or a temptation for anybody. However, my friend was yelling at me. He was a bit away and the sun was in my eyes so I couldn't see or hear him well. Apparently he was yelling at me to just let it go and drag the ground to get wet vs. showing my ankles.
lol, how embarrassing!
So is that what the women do with all that flooding?
They just get soppy wet and walk in the stores dripping?

dua dua wrote:

Also, there has been some talk of what you can wear but not really about what is fashionable or how it is viewed if you don't wear something.
Personally, if i go, since I have to cover, I would want to wear the cover that only shows the eyes. Someone told me they view you as a terrorist if you cover that much. lol

I saw your pictures of the beach but do women go and get in the water and what do they wear.

Oh and another little clue for expats that do want to wear the long loose dress:
I was wearing my dress and it had rained. As a habit, I held up my dress just a bit so that it wouldn't get wet. I exposed my ankles and probably up to the very bottom of my calf, not even the whole calf. If you could see my legs, you would not think this was immodest or a temptation for anybody. However, my friend was yelling at me. He was a bit away and the sun was in my eyes so I couldn't see or hear him well. Apparently he was yelling at me to just let it go and drag the ground to get wet vs. showing my ankles.
lol, how embarrassing!
So is that what the women do with all that flooding?
They just get soppy wet and walk in the stores dripping?

The beach thing: yes women go to the beach and yes we swim but yes again fully covered. I have a swimming outfit, made in the same material as swimming suits but it is a long trousers and a long top with a hijab, it is very practical and comfy in the water, you can play around in the sea, swim and do all sorts of things without any problems.

Reagrding hijab, you don't have to wear the niqab (face covering) in Libya if you don't want to, many women only wear the hijab (head covering). There are also some non muslim women here and they don't cover their heads at all. Covering your head is a religious act that women do for the sake of God, not fashion or what other people may think so dress as you see fit. Fashion is not very important here, although some young ladies try to stay fashionable in their abaya and jilbab (long covering dresses). To enjoy a trouble free stay in Libya i'd suggest doing like the locals, wear a long abaya or jilbab but again do as you see fit.

Finally the rain thing, yes we get wet, we drip and when we go home we change, showing off your ankles, legs is very much frowned upon here, people will definitely look at you funny. It's not as bad as it sounds really... especially as rain is not exactly common in Libya.


Hope that helps,

Oh, I didn't mean to make it sound bad.
But from a Westerners perspective, our thinking would be to raise the clothing enough to avoid it dragging vs. letting a dress drag through the water and then making a mess of a store you enter.
Honestly, it's just a habit for me. I know I will get into trouble for it because I just do it without thinking. My long loose dress is a bit long and so when I go up steps I tend to hold it up a bit too, mostly to avoid tripping on it.
I will try to break myself of this habit. I suppose the other solution would be to wear pants underneath but I hate layering and I know the heat will be a difficult enough adjustment for me.
Thanks for clarifying though.
When I was at the beach, the lady had given me pants to wear. I wanted to roll them up as it just seemed rude not to take good care of the clothes she gave me and to let them get wet in the saltwater.
I realized she expected me to allow them to get wet.
It's so interesting to see the different ways people look at things and think .

lol this exchange makes me laugh, so much misunderstandings.... in the end everyone is trying to do the right things though, shows you that the idea of RIGHT is very much a matter of culture then, that's why you must have an open mind as an expat. It's pretty easy to adopt new practices believe me, you can get rid of habits when you actually live here simply because you have to.

Can't wait for you to make it to Libya... you'll have a laugh!