You Know You're in the Middle East When...

Actually, I could write any number of things here--when you spend Thursday nights listening to Qur'anic recitations at a local mosque, when you wear long sleeves and long pants even in 110-degree weather, when you eat nothing but falafel for three days, when you look at a camel and think, 'how pretty,' when you're not fazed by dirt or noise or chaos or navy showers or constant cigarette smoke or crazy taxi drivers or rich Khaliji men or their niqabi women, when you speak Arabic even to your American friends--but when you really know is this: when your roommate walks into the kitchen, twirls around for you to see what she's wearing, and asks, "Does this outfit make me look Shi'ite?"