Checking in from Pakistan
2:30 am - Lahore
I just hopped on after the most recent (late night) load shedding here in Pakistan to write a small blog.
Dubai was pretty awesome. Although I’m not really into the typical Dubai experience (tons of shopping), I did go to one mall and walked around some neat places, even though it was pretty hot. One thing I *had* to do was buy a new Hanayen abaya, to join (replace?) my 3-year-old abaya from them. The store clerks there are so nice and helpful and the abayas are perfect. 
(black on black!)
It’s extraordinarily hot here in Lahore during the day, (over 100 F / 38 C) and quite bearable but muggy at night. The city seems exactly the same as last time. Lively, interesting, a bit sad.
Today I (with some family) went to a local movie theatre here to see “Shutter” (English movie! with popcorn!) which was neat. My 6-year-old niece went with us and sat on my lap while I covered her eyes during the scary parts and tried to stop her from throwing popcorn on people 
. She whispered to me during the movie “Some people will think you’re my mom” hehe… She doesn’t know how funny that is. She also “tests” my Urdu… She’s softening my heart a bit toward children but still reinforcing my decision NOT to have any.
We also had ice cream at a very neat shop (pics coming soon). Nice to see all the Westernized youngsters hanging out, being cool in their jeans 
This place is really … different bordering on strange. Last time I only caught glimpses of stuff and I reminded myself to pay closer attention this time, which may have been a bad idea. Within my first hour being here, I saw some pretty sad and heartbreaking things (I won’t go into details). The state of animal and human welfare here (and on this planet in general) is so poor and inexcusable. Seeing things like that out in the open just shocks me. I don’t understand it. 
Visit the Flickr album for this trip, where I’ll add all my shots as time goes by when I can grab some internet time in between electricity outages.
Saara recently asked how I manage to stay vegetarian while in Pakistan. I find it’s quite easy! Thankfully, my husband’s family is very understanding and always makes sure there is some vegetarian dish available for us. I don’t budge on it and they don’t push. Maybe they are unusually accommodating for a Pakistani family (I have no other experience to draw from)? They just know I am vegetarian and there is no problem. Thank God for that… (It seems there is usually chanay or daal around, I hope all you veggie ladies married to Pakistanis don’t have too hard of a time :/)
More later…
Great to hear you are in Pakistan safe. I love the fact that your niece tests your Urdu, I just get laughed at by the little ones (I can’t help it I’m horrible with language).
I didn’t mean to be whiny, though!
My in-laws are great, too, and seem to accommodate my every whim. But they’re from a smaller town and have probably never met a vegetarian before (and like I said earlier, I’m not really a true one, either), and seem to have this feeling that it isn’t real food if it isn’t meat. I’ve encountered it elsewhere, too… I lived in South America for a while when I was younger, and they couldn’t get it either. They’d tell me, ‘A vegetarian? Why?! You’re already so thin!’ (Somehow I don’t think I’d get the same answer today… haha) Once I was offered chocolate by this older man I know, and before I could say anything, he took it back and said, ‘I forgot, you’re a vegetarian…’ 
The blackouts are really irritating, I can only imagine how it is this time of year! But you certainly do learn to check what time it is before you start anything - net, shower, ironing - because at any sharp hour, it may be off again… And then you have to wait in the shower for an hour with shampoo in your hair
(It happened to me once on my earlier trip, when the outages weren’t regular… Luckily that time the electricity was only off for just fifteen minutes. 
)
And while I tend to go a little crazy just staying inside the house, going out really can be disturbing… The sad thing is, you learn not to see. You start getting used to it, and next time, it just doesn’t seem as bad… Unless you remind yourself.