Saudi Starbucks and other doors of perceptions we've entered...

Getting ready to move to an entirely different culture can prematurely change your perceptions even before you step foot onto foreign soil. Lately, this transformation has been accelerating quickly for us. We often talk about the our upcoming life in Saudi Arabia. We try to imagine the culture shock. We gravitate to news about the Middle East more so, etc...

This readjusting of our lenses even permeates into the mundane. For instance, I was looking down at a piece of trash today and did something out of the ordinary. I picked up a coffee sleeve from Starbucks* peering deeply at the logo. I guess I never noticed that the girl on their logo is scantily clad. Instantly, I wondered how the Riyadh Starbucks in Saudi Arabia prints their coffee sleeves. (Since any revealing body part is considered against the Qur'an, it would seem only natural that they would have a different logo.) Armed with my Sharpee marker, I decided to render a sketch of what one might look like versus the Western counterpart. (See or click below)




-And, no! -It is not a black Pac Man ghost on the brown coffee sleeve. It is a woman wearing an Abaya (an abaya is an overgarment worn by some women in Muslim-majority countries.)

Part of preparing one's self for an international move requires this constant compare and contrast. Sometimes humorous other times serious, these inquisitive mediations are probably some innate function of the mind to lessen the impact of when we step off the plane and realize we're no longer in California.

We'll try to keep you posted on the any other future elucidations, especially the funny ones.

Cheers,



(This is not an endorsement for the Starbucks coffee empire. It is best to support your local coffee shops.)