So recently, I've been spending a bunch of time with my brother Sameer because he is leaving next week for school in Israel (sad!). So I've hung out with him and his friends a lot, and its insane how much they remind me of all you guys back home. Kind of reminds me the most of Tim, Rafa, Conor, Colin etc and all our times in high school just fucking around with music and random shit. Both Abed (Sameer's best friend) and Sameer listen to so much American music like Band of Horses, Temper Trapp, and pretty much everything we listened to high school- back in the days I somehow could afford to go to all those concerts. Anyways, they took me to a great used book place that had all these books in Arabic, then the occasional Tom Clancy sci-fi for like 20 piaster (like 30 cents). 

Driving through the city with music that I love and am familiar with was something I never thought about missing, and didn’t realize how much I love doing that at home until I got into Abed’s car. Driving around with him, his girlfriend Leila, and Sameer with the wind blowing through the car, music blaring, and watching the people and places we go by just fills me. I’ve never felt like a wallflower before, but here I kind of do, and I love it. I feel like every day I’m observing, taking in, absorbing, every single thing that I can. When anyone asks where I want to go, I never care. Let them decide, I just want to see. I am almost like Nick Carraway from the Great Gatsby, being dropped into others lives here- going along with their adventures and seeing where it takes me. 

All of us in the program see how rediculously different some things are here, and at some point, we just have stopped thinking things are as insane as they may seem.

Yesterday, Aseem brought up the cleanliness of the kitchen to the atention of our class- asking who had all this hoobs (bread) in the freezer. Our ISP teacher went on to think this was some metaphor for people not dealing with things, and that we needed to vent our feelings or something. This rediculous conclusion, along with the language barrier, made it take a good 5 minutes to figure out what the hell was going on.

Language barriers have seemed to cause a lot of random problems here, especially when it comes to learning grammar in class. Or when someone is trying to say that you have a lot of “us” (to help you with something), and they just say you have a lot of ass instead. Or when you are given directions to “turn straight” to get to a cafe in a random part of the city and get lost. Many people speak english really well here, and while that can be great, sometimes its just better for all of us to stick to the Arabic. 

One thing that is insane here is the driving. Lanes? Not quite a thing. Yes sometimes they’re painted on the asphalt, but why follow those when you can speed around someone and go through busier streets than LA on a friday night? And I don’t think I’ve ever seen a stop light. So when you want to turn or do anything, I guess you just kindof have to go when you think you can, which in reality means speeding as fast as you can through honking speeding cars hoping you don’t get hit. Or hit a person for that matter, because people seem to have decided that running through these mini highways is a better idea than walking the extra 50 meters to the nearest bridge that runs above it. Sometimes, though, walking across these highways is the only option (when I say sometimes, I mean most every time). So here the process goes:

Watch the speeding cars for a few seconds, try to find a four inch space between two of them- there’s your prey. watch that little break in the chaos come closer to you, step of the sidewalk, and be in the ready position to book it like you never have. OH and you better not be in a big group, or else you al will just turn into ‘those assholes’ who stopped all the traffic by almost causing a 5 car pile-up. Now its your chance. You see a car (or 50 cars) approaching, and you just cant handle the wait any longer. So, you just put your hand up close your eyes, and walk.  Cool, good thing you survived until next time. 

PS, since there's barely any internet I can't upload photos- but I will do that soon