Time for an adventure!

Can you believe that my Hubby hasn't been home for nearly 8 years, since he came to the UK in 2007? Not that he never wanted to, but there was always something in the way. But "good things come to those who wait", and it's finally time for us to go.

Everyone's so excited! 

Hubby, of course, is happy to go and see his family and old friends. Yeah, there's Skype, phones, Facebook, all sort of apps to communicate... But it's not the same as seeing them face-to-face, is it? Plus, his parents haven't actually had the internet access lately, so it's just the phone these days.

Family is happy for the same reasons. Plus, they finally get to see Adam! He'll be 20 months old when we go, and I can't imagine how it must feel for them not being able to see him yet. I know my parents love him to bits and would love to have him around a lot more. Still, they have been here when he was born, when we celebrated his 1st birthday, and we also went to Poland in the meantime. I've always felt bad for Hubby's family for not being able to spend some time with the cheeky man.

Myself? I'm excited for many reasons!

First of all, it's my first ever trip there, so I'm obviously looking forward to seeing Pakistan. I'm sure it will be a huge culture shock for me, as it's so different from Europe, but I can't wait. Ever since I fell in love with Bollywood movies I wanted to visit India - now with a Pakistani husband I've already given up on this dream, but Pakistan is close enough to my dream ;) And of course it's gonna be my furthest journey to date - so far the UK is as far as I got from Poland. 

Then of course it's meeting the whole family - Hubby's parents, grandma, brothers, aunts and uncles, cousins, probably some of his friends... Now I'll know exactly how he must have felt going to Poland for the first time ;) I'll be feeling like a freak there, especially that my language knowledge is pretty much non-existent! Have you seen my New Year's goals post? Well, I said I want to start learning Urdu - and as you could see in my previous post, I'm already on it ;) Hopefully I can at least catch a few most useful expressions!

Finally, it's the whole cultural experience I'm looking forward to. The language - what's better opportunity to learn than spending some time with the natives? The food - all authentic Pakistani cuisine. The clothes - I love Pakistani fashion, but here I rarely wear it. I'll surely embrace a month of beautiful tunics and salwar kameez ;) Even though I live in a place with a massive Asian community, and I have a Pakistani guy at home, it all still feels so exotic. I just want to see, try and taste as much as I can while there.

Right now we're getting the stuff sorted - luggage, gifts for the family, travel essentials for ourselves... It's all planning and organising madness!

I'll soon be posting more on how we prepared for the travel to Pakistan: what needs sorting out, travel health, what we're packing etc. 

In the meantime, have look at this fun video of six foreigners visiting Pakistan and proving it's not as scary as you could think ;)