Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

This past weekend, a few other girls and I decided to check out a local Cultural Ladies Night. As I have stated before, I have not had many opportunities to interact with the locals, especially the women. We all jumped at the chance to learn something new about the place we are to call home for the next two years.

This post will not be picture heavy as cameras and phones were not allowed inside.

So after checking our phones at the door, we stepped inside... Read More...

The walls were draped with various fabrics and clothing. There was tea being passed around and traditional seating along the sides of the wall.
The tea was good, but I could not recommend the Arabic coffee (not sugary enough for me). We quickly decided to line up for the free henna while the line was not horrendously long.

There were two women giving out henna. I sat down when it was my turn and she quickly asked "Which hand would you like?" After I chose my left hand, she began drawing. There is no set pattern and they just take the design where they would like it to; it took about 2 minutes, if that. After we had all gone, we admired each others' hands and saw that we each had a completely different designs. Some were more intricate and some more flowery, but they were all beautiful. 

After drinking some more tea, a woman came on stage and gave a presentation on traditional Qatari weddings. There was a woman representing a traditional Qatari bride and they discussed the process for a woman to get married. I have watched my fair share of Say Yes To The Dress, so I of course was excited. She was wearing a bright green dress adorned with a lot of gold. She told us that the amount of gold that the bride is wearing during the celebrations before the wedding is indicative of the wealth her future husband has. She had a huge gold ornament on her head with bracelets and a large belt. To be honest, it looked a little heavy. The bride is hennaed all over her body in a party beforehand.

The weddings themselves are segregated. The bride's wedding is full of fabulously dressed women with no abayas having a great time. When the groom comes to see his bride, they all get dressed back into their abayas and coverings. Once again, cameras and phones are strictly prohibited for privacy purposes. Many of the traditions and cultural norms have been borrowed from other places, such as Iran and India. 

It was interesting to hear about the traditional culture because, especially in the expat community, life is not much different here than life at home in the states that I have seen. The very next day, I went out for my first pumpkin spice latte of the season and I spent may too much money at H&M the weekend before. The expat community is so large and so separated from the Qatari people that besides seeing them around town, I have really not interacted with any local people. I know it has only been a month, so hopefully that will change! It was really fun to hear about a wedding and spend time learning about this culture that I am living in.

Afterwards, we headed out and got some dinner (after our henna photoshoot of course). 

I left the henna on for probably around 2 hours before the itchiness started and I compulsively pick it away, leaving a pile of dry henna on the ground (whoops). Looking at it the next morning, it seemed to be getting darker and I am told it will last around 2 weeks.