Things I've Been Loving Recently: Part I

This Television Station

A live broadcast, 24 hours a day and seven days a week, profiling hoards of people ominously encircling the Kaaba (the cube) in Mecca. This is the most sacred site in all of Islam -- a place all Muslims are required to pilgrimage and the direction all Muslims must face during their prayers. 

Gabriel Gárcia Márquez

What my reading list has lacked in terms of quantity for the first half of 2013, it has certainly made up for in quality. Includes two masterpieces of literature by this Colombian author: 100 Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera. While both very different, they portray some of the most isolated, sad, and haunting characters I can remember reading. Beautiful books that have been a joy to make my way through.

Mosques

After a long time in Europe, sampling every kind of gaudy Christian architecture across the centuries, there is something beautifully simplistic about Islamic style. Since the Prophet cannot be portrayed, and since I am not allowed to enter the mosques, perhaps it is the general mystic aura of forbiddances. But the crescent moon atop a dome around every corner and the occasional bursts of prayer from loudspeakers serve as a reminder of where in the world I am. It really never feels intimidating.

Hummus

This Middle Eastern dish goes back centuries and is connected to famous historical figures such as Saladin. Made by a simple blend of chickpeas, sesame, lemon, garlic. I have been eating it every day and cannot get enough. 

This View

I have had many mesmerizing views in my life. This general theme continues each morning out my 14th story window, the Persian Gulf glittering below. If I wake up early enough -- which in this part of the world means around 4:15am -- I can lay in bed and catch the sun peaking just above the clouds.

This Map

Socialized by American education and local news, you are taught that this general area is a scary, savage, and lawless place. It has its challenges -- some parts more than others -- but people are inherently good and I have met many of them from all across the region. I will always be glad to have been here and put a face to a name.

This Look

The Gulf Region is absolutely stunning, but never have cultural differences been so apparent. Muslim women can only marry a Muslim man (though Muslim men can marry whomever they want). The Hijab that covers a woman's face is meant to protect her from the view, touch, and violation of other men, leaving what is underneath only for a husband. An interesting metaphor illustrated this to me recently. "Would you prefer to eat a caramel out of someone's hand, or one that is in a wrapper," a very modernized woman from Saudi Arabia asked me. It seems fairly ridiculous -- and oddly sexual -- to compare a human being to the eating of a caramel, but it is where this stems from.