My parents have been married for 34 years and I grew up in an affectionate household. I remember attending a family friend's wedding in junior high. At the reception, names were "randomly" selected to show the newlyweds how to do certain things. My parents' names were called to show the couple how to kiss. Right there in front of God and all of the guests, my parents kissed, I mean REALLY kissed. I was mortified. It was all in fun and everyone cheered and applauded. I wanted to crawl underneath the table.
I've grown up a bit and with almost 8 years of marriage under my belt, I can bare small amounts of PDA without turning bright red. It's very common for me to unconsciously reach out to hold Kyle's hand or give him a kiss on the cheek. Arms around the waist are nice too. These seemingly benign actions can cause quite a stir in Dubai. We had been forewarned that any touching between males and females is strongly discouraged. We have close friends who after a long day of shopping, leaned in to each other for a quick peck. A man approached them and said that they could be arrested for such behavior. They separated and apologized. The fear of witnessing any unsightly acts has prompted the malls to post signs asking for modest dress and behavior, although we have spotted a few non-conformists.
We have visited Dubai twice now, but still all of this makes me a little nervous. I was terrified that I would unknowingly engage in bad behavior. Just as my fingers interlaced with Kyle's, I would jerk my hand away like a hot potato. Or as we sat down for a nice dinner, we pulled our chairs closer together and then realized the error of our ways. Some of our actions come so natural now, that we wouldn't even know that we were committing minor grievances. Kyle feeding me a bite of his ice cream or me fixing the collar of his shirt suddenly became, "I hope no one saw that..."
Maybe I'm just paranoid outside of my comfort zone, but my advice: always leave room for the Holy Spirit and you will stay out of trouble in Dubai.
You + Kyle = Dirty, Dirty! :P
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