The funniest part of my trip to Sweden was how strange Qatar seemed to everyone gathered at the conference I attended. I fielded a myriad of questions which showed how difficult it was for people to imagine the kidney shaped peninsula in the Arabian Gulf that is my country of residency.

Bemused ponderings such as:

“Are you Qatarian?”

Well, I suppose Qatarians and Martians must reside in the same place, I told this person, but I don’t know where. People from Qatar are Qatari and no, I’m from India.

For those who were able to read my facial features as indicative of South Asia, the exact geography of Qatar was even more cause for confusion:

“Is that [Qatar] in India?”
 
Well no, I explained, it’s a country in the Middle East.

Hilarious stuff but it does get tiring being a one woman educational on international geography. 

“You came from Qatar? Wow, that’s realy far.”

Really? My six and a half hour flight is further than the people who came from Australia?