We love being expats but we love coming back home a tad more.
Don't you just embrace how our culture and traditions force people to spoil you, simply because you came back from the gherbeh?
From a million cousins to a million dinners... brace yourself for hugs, kisses, and home-buying discussions.
Here are a few things to expect:
1. When you're tired from the flight but all you see is cousins everywhere
Hi Mohamed x6, Sarah x4, Ali x9... Teta is here too??
Well, the upside is you don't have to carry any of your luggage.
2. You are obligated to attend 10 lunches and dinners in your honor... during your three-day vacation
All you want to do is spend time with your immediate family at home... but all of your distant relatives and parents' friends must absolutely have you over, or else 3ayb.
3. Your mum tells you to pack your finest clothes to show off
Here's a chance to show off your Eid clothes since you didn't wear any during Eid... because you didn't get any days off to come back home.
4. When aunties hear you are coming from the "gherbeh"
Oh, the glory of having older women telling you how gorgeous and smart their kids are because of the assumption that you have an ajnabi passport.
When the sad truth is you're here because your tourist visa expired and your residential one isn't out yet...
5. People assume you forgot how to drive the 3arabi way
People abiding by traffic rules and driving at minimum speed versus crazy traffic and no traffic lights...
6. You forget to adjust your watch to Arab timing
When you finally break away from your Arabic timing habit in the ajanib world, but as soon as you land, your family brings that back in you.
7. When they unleash the bargaining gene in you
Ahhh, bargaining... a marvelous trait in our Arab genes. We blindly know how to bargain and get the best price, even when it's impossible.
8. When you go back to your "temporary home" and get just a bit of "mouneh"
It's all good until you arrive at the airport. This is when officials take away anything from meat to dairy or veggie related products... or you exceed the baggage weight.