Toto, I don't think we are in Kansas anymore

Life in Muscat is so easy compared to life in Tbilisi. And by easy, I mean similar to the US. Less culture shock. So much here is reminiscent of the US, that it's hard to feel like you are in a foreign land with foreign customs. When there is a KFC, Starbucks, Papa Johns, Baskin-Robins, and a Pizza Hut all within walking distance from your house (well, walking distance if it weren't so damn hot outside) it's almost like being in a big American city.

Until you go to the mall, that is. Now the mall is just like many US malls, it's full of familiar shops (Sephora, Starbucks, MAC and, coming soon, Gap) and a food court with a McDonald's and other food court-y type eateries. Hell, there is even a Chili's in the mall. And a large kid's arcade - with indoor bumper cars that Blaine loves! So it's easy to forget that things work differently here. Sure, many of the men are in dishdashas and the women are in abayas with their heads (and some with their faces) covered. But you get so used to seeing that every day you forget. You forget that the culture is so very, very different.

You forget until your husband goes to the family bathroom at the mall to change your daughter's diaper. And he's the only man in there. And he gets stared at with rampant disbelief. And then the 3 women in there with their children all offer to change your daughter's diaper for him. They almost insist, because it's not a man's job to do this. And your husband walks out after changing the diaper and tells you "never, ever, ever again" will he go into the family bathroom at the mall because even though the sign says "family" it definitely does not include male members of the family unless they are under the age of 5 or so.

I wonder if the women who came out after him, who saw me sitting at Starbucks with Blaine having a frappachino, thought I was a lazy, horrible wife. Maybe they thought I was a lucky woman because my husband changes diapers. I'm probably a little bit of both.