It's Not Like The West

I heard it again! "It's not like the West" Aaagh!

How many times have I heard this since moving to Muscat? Too many! This time, I was invited to be a guest speaker at an International Women's Conference and it showed up during the refreshment break. And once again, it made me stop and ponder - what is the "West" like?

What is Canada like? Surely Canada is the "West" they are speaking about.

In my home city of Winnipeg, it is not uncommon to hear 28 different dialects being spoken on the streets in one day.

In one week I would go to an Indian restaurant for butter chicken, a Thai restaurant for red curry coconut chicken soup, a Japanese restaurant for Sushi, an Italian restaurant for pasta and perhaps end the week with perogies and sausage at a Ukrainian restaurant. The weekends were often reserved for hour of eating Dim Sum in Chinatown. A culinary delight!

Oh at times I do miss the multiculturalism of Canada.! Balanced with this is how thrilling it is to be learning a great deal about Arabian cultures! As an added bonus, there is a very large expatriate community of Indians here and I am learning a fair bit about Indian cultures!

Till we meet again,

In'sha'allah (God Willing)