The New Normal...

Different no longer seems that different. I’ve been here long enough that things I would’ve noticed a year ago I no longer notice – they’re just part of the normal, everyday environment that is my life. That is, until I see something that before coming here would have been normal, but now the absence of it is normal. A few days ago, I saw a woman driving a car. Not only was she driving a car, but she wasn’t alone, and her passenger was a man! Shocking! In my town I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen a woman driving a car. So many people are surprised to learn that I know how to drive a car, and that I did so on a daily basis in America. Here driving is a man’s world. I’ve never seen a female taxi driver, and there are as many taxi drivers as there are men standing on corners eating sunflower seeds (and that means a lot). Even when I do see women in cars, the majority of the time they are sitting in the backseat, even if it’s a family member’s car. It’s just tradition, how it’s done. When I go somewhere by car, sometimes I get put in the front seat and it’s odd how I can feel people looking at me – granted, I’m probably being put there so I don’t have to sit next to a man I don’t know, but observers don’t know that. It makes me wonder what else I’m no longer noticing…

(As time goes on, interesting blog entries get more difficult to think of for the above reason – if you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to let me know!)