Traveling to the Arab World Without Leaving Your House
By: Sophia Segal/Arab America Contributing Writer
Many of us during quarantine are stressed about not being able to travel or even leave our houses. It’s hard to move around and find comfort in seeing the same thing everyday. Even now as we’re starting to be allowed out of our houses and seeing more than what we have in the last couple of months, other countries that aren’t allowing us to come and it can be very frustrating. Hopefully this article can give you some tips on traveling without having to spend the big bucks or being disappointed knowing you can’t go anywhere.
We all thought that 2020 would be our year, if that meant traveling or thriving in our work or personal life. It was the start of a new decade and it was something we all were excited about. But why not travel from home, we have to be inside so much now a days it makes sense to zoom our trips as well. Most of what you need is food, drinks, maybe some films from that country and good vibes.
Making Food
Don’t be afraid to experiment and make foods from different cultures, the Arab world has so many amazing and beautiful countries. All you have to do is look up a country and see all the delicious foods that are made there. An idea would be to pick a country that you always wanted to go to and look up their most popular foods. Some ideas are hummus, falafel, dawali/waraq iynab, baklava, and knafeh. These won’t be the same in every country, but it’s a good start to figuring out the different foods you enjoy.
Movies/TV
Netflix and many other streaming platforms give you a chance to see different types of movies or TV shows from different places and they’re quite good. Arab shows in particular can be very entertaining and fun to watch. Don’t be afraid to go out of your comfort zone of watching the same thing over and over again. It can be very relaxing to watch something new. Who doesn’t want to see other places from around the world, even if it is through the TV? It gives so many ideas to explore once we can travel again. Having a movie night with friends/family or a significant other can be a really fun time.
Music
Music is such a big part of all of our lives. We listen to it while driving or doing chores or just relaxing in our rooms. It’s amazing how creative we are as humans. Listening to other music from all around the world can be very eye opening. Plus, while you’re in different countries traveling, you will be hearing that music. If you need help finding international music here are some places you can go to look: Youtube, Apple Music (If you have it), Spotify (If you have it), and Google.
Youtube is great because you won’t only get music, but you can see music videos. Some even have captions if you want to know what they’re saying. Apple music and Spotify are so international and have lots of diversity that people from all over the world create playlists for their favorite music and you can listen to them. Finally, there’s Google- just researching international music gives you an idea of what you can listen to. The internet is great because you can find almost anything that you’re looking for.
Enjoy the time
We may not know when life will get back to normal, it can be hard to think about because of how far off it can seem. But the entire world knows what you’re going through so no one is alone but making the best you can of it, is a way to deal. It may sound repetitive because we all are saying the same things to get us through it but sometimes you need to hear something more than once to be comfortable with it.
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