The Convenience Factor

An Omani colleague asked me last week whether I thought living in the US or Oman was more convenient. I paused long enough that he started laughing and said, "Seriously? I thought for sure you would have said the US!" But it's not actually that easy of a determination. 

The main reason for my lengthy pause is the sheer fact that I have a maid here who cooks all my meals, cleans my house and does all of my laundry. And for someone who is notoriously bad at feeding myself, having someone cook for me is pretty epic. And if I had small children, I'm pretty sure this would be a much more convenient life by having a live-in maid who would take care of the kids and everything else.

That being said, almost everything else is so much more difficult here. I have dreams about Target and I'm pretty sure when I go back to the US in a few weeks that angels will start singing when I walk into Target and drop to my knees in appreciation of all its wonders. Seriously though, pretty much the only stores in Oman that have a variety of products are grocery stores and their selection is limited. For example, given the amount I travel I really need to find travel size toiletries (shampoo, conditioner, etc.). I finally gave up on this quest and am just waiting until I go back to the US to stock up because those things simply don't exist over here. Hair products are another incredibly difficult thing to find over here because the grocery stores carry only weird stuff like hair olive oil.

And there's no Home Depot or Lowe's here, so imagine how hard basic things are like getting spare keys made or finding light bulbs in special sizes. Really, anytime I need to buy something that isn't a standard food product (and non-standard food items would include things like sour cream, which took me three different grocery stores to find) I debate whether it's just easier to ship it from the US and wait three weeks and pay customs on it.

I'm currently trying to find a full-length mirror, since I'm tired of standing on my bed every time I want to see the lower half of my body. I've exhausted the grocery stores, so my next option is to find a furniture store, which sounds like so much more of a hassle (and an expense) than should be needed to find a flimsy full-length mirror that I can prop against the wall.

And on that note, I'm off to Japan for 10 days tonight! It'll be a whirlwind trip through the country but it should be a good glimpse into the country and let me know if I ever need to go back and spend additional time there. Stay tuned for Japan stuff in about a week and a half!