My trip to the hospital

Foreign workers in the UAE are required to undergo a fairly thorough medical screening once they arrive as part of the residency visa process. So, yesterday morning, I trucked down to the local public hospital with an escort from the college to be poked, prodded, x-rayed (fully clothed, no less- does that really work?) and sampled. It was fine, and they declared me "fit to work", pending the results of an HIV test. Hooray!

Now, this was a public hospital with a wide array of people (patients, employees, doctors) inside of it- and many of them were expatriate male construction workers, and many of them were local Emirati men and women. Not a lot of white people. The lobbies and waiting rooms had separate areas for men and women, and many of the women had completely covered their faces so as not to be stared at by the men. This was an environment that definitely called for a semblance of modesty out of respect for other people in the area. All well and good. So, while I was sitting in the lobby waiting to be x-rayed in full attire, two women, who were youngish, blonde, overweight, British, loud, and dressed in tank tops and shorts, (shorts are a no-no here for both men and women, unless you are at the beach or a resort hotel or nightclub), ambled into the waiting area and plopped right down in the men's seating section. Oblivious, they carried on, loudly chatting about bars and clubs, talking on their cellphones, sticking their feet in people's faces to compare shoes, and generally being what I would consider rude. They were SO oblivious that the doctor came out into the waiting room three times and called "Angela!" and Angela did not respond. The doctor finally had to shout "There is no Angela here in this room? I have her papers? Angela?" That she heard him (probably 15 feet away) and went into the office. It was sort of beyond belief. They got a few *looks* but nobody asked them to move or shut up, which to me seemed like very polite restraint.

How can people, who are guests in someone else's living room, be so unaware of their own behavior?