Today at lunch, I went to the old Medina, to see some of my classmates houses. Almost everyone has moved out of homestays and into apartments, but as yet, I’d not seen any.

I cannot lie, I might have jumped up and down in excitement at the prospect of going.

This is because, inside my tough, cynical and in all ways ‘older than my age’ exterior, I’m a little child. I love looking at things. When I am in a car, all I want to do is stare out of the window at all the things going past. And so going to new places honestly does excite me. Which brings me to my next point. For all that I love looking at things, and find it exciting, I don’t always notice the obvious thing. For example, two of my girl friends here are Muslims who wear the hijab. I have to admit, until today, I’d not really noticed that they did. It’s just part of who they are, in the same way that I wouldn’t necessarily notice a persons hair colour. This is what I mean about not noticing the obvious.Today, I saw my friend without her hijab. She has lovely hair, but that wasn’t what struck me the most.

I’ve missed pictures on my blog. Have you? Next I’ll do a picture post. Anyway, back to the content of the picture. What is different between these two women?

You can see the Umbrella girls neck.

Did you get it? Seriously, have you ever thought about it like that…a lot of people sit around and wonder what girls hair looks like underneath a headscarf, but I’ve never thought about the fact that I don’t know what their necks are like. Of course, hiding the neck is just another part of the work which the scarf does, along with wearing clothes which cover the rest of the body in it’s entirety. It’s just one feature of that which I’d completely forgotten about.

This, incidentally, also really excited me. I am so excitable. But it can only be a good thing, right?