Category: intercultural relationships

How I Met My Saudi Prince

The following is my personal love story from the ‘Magic Kingdom’ of Saudi Arabia. How I met my Saudi Prince post was originally published 2012 on the 4th anniversary of the day I randomly met who I thought was (and is) the most handsome and charming man I ever laid eyes on. I had leftRead more

Gone Fishing in Finland

Blue Abaya has been MIA while enjoying a nice relaxing break midst the Finnish summer. Every year we visit my home country Finland, where my family speeds most of the time at a so called ‘summerhouse’, typical for Finns to retreat to during the very short-lived Finnish summer. NormallyRead more

Never Forget Who You Are

My dearest daughter and son, While you’re both fast asleep in your beds napping, I’m thinking about the two of you, here in a hospital bed waiting for spinal surgery. All kinds of thoughts are running through my head. You both are always my first concern and I can’t help thinkingRead more

Blue Abaya- A Finnish Expat Blogging in Saudi Arabia

The following article takes a look at and analyzes a group of well-known blogs written by foreign wives of Saudis, the three popular expat blogs about life in Saudi Arabia; two American bloggers American Bedu, Susie of Arabia and one blogger hailing from Finland; the Blue Abaya blog. The articleRead more

We Found Love In A Hopeless Place

Saudi-Arabia…such a hopeless place to ever even dream of finding a life partner, a soul mate, or the love of your life..The country that strictly forbids mixing and all interaction between the sexes. How could anyone meet a member of the opposite sex here, let alone go out on a date, or fallRead more

Oh Christmas Tree? Oh-Uh Black Market Christmas Tree!

Christmas decorations such as trees, ornaments and other holiday season decorations are pretty much non-existent in public during the holiday season in Saudi Arabia. Christmas is viewed as strictly a Christian religious holiday and all items that celebrate it are supposed to be forbidden here.Read more

Welcome To The World Little Prince!

I’m so happy to announce that we were blessed with a healthy baby boy a week ago. Everything went well with the labor this time around, thank God we were able to avoid another awful birthing experience in Saudi Arabia. We were lucky and blessed to have a beautiful, all-natural birth with aRead more

The Move From Hell-How NOT To Move House in Saudi Arabia

Apologies for being away from the blog so long. But I had a good excuse! We were finally able to move into our new place in the Diplomatic Quarters in Riyadh. For the move we were planning to hire a moving company. Last time we moved the company destroyed many precious items I had brought fromRead more

The Saudi Son-In-Laws Guide To Surviving The Sauna Test

Sauna..for most people the sauna might sound like a luxury, a special treat or something very exotic. For us Finns the sauna is a part of normal everyday life. Finns have a saying, Sauna is the cure for all illnesses”. It’s a necessity, not a luxury. For the five million inhabitants ofRead more

Blogging Saudi Wives

Many of the blogs on Saudi you will find authored by western wives of Saudi men. I guess we have a lot to share about multicultural marriages and raising kids in a foreign country so different from our own. Keeping a blog can also be sort of outlet to rant out negative feelings. Sharing onesRead more

The Saudi husband vs the Finnish husband

This post is not to be taken too seriously and YES it contains sweeping generalisations of both cultures. This is a humorous comparison of the typical Saudi man and his Finnish counterpart as husbands.. The Saudi man is very romantic, sweet talk is what he knows. The Finnish man doesn’t talkRead more

Cultural comparisons-moving houses

I thought it would be interesting of making a comparison between the Saudi and Finnish cultures every once in a while. They tend to be each others opposites sometimes! These posts are not intended to be taken too seriously. I’ve written them with a dash of humor with them so please readRead more