Day 11: "Shai, ma fee haleeb"

Saturday, June 11

STUPID network. Signed me out and made me lose all my changes. Anyways, here's what I've managed to salvage from my memory.

How do the days go by so quickly? Today was rough, because, well, it was Saturday. (If you don't get what I mean, replace "Saturday" with the word "Monday" and I think you'll understand.) I finally remember how to say 'tea' - 'shai', which is so similar to the Hindi 'chai', which is so similar to the Korean 'cha', ha - and so have a much healthier daily caffeine intake now. The only downside is that the guy who brings us our tea/coffee every day keeps forgetting that I don't want milk, and I'm too shy to keep asking 'ma fee haleeb' when he keeps forgetting, although he does remember that I don't like to have sugar in my tea...

I've realized that my Korean side has quite an influence on me, and so I'm naturally quite shy upon meeting new people (Korean conservatism?). This might sound funny, especially to my good friends. I don't know, sometimes the American side of me allows me to open up and be [obnoxiously] friendly, and then I'll be overcome with self-consciousness and retract into myself. That's when I realize that I have yet to be completely at ease with myself, something that I hope to remedy as I continue to discover more about who I am through each of my experiences. Anyways, I digress.

After work, we went to the City Center Mall to pick up a gold earring for Alison (she'd had a bad infection in her cartilage). The mall was really nice - it was actually a bit strange being in such a modern place, just like at home, the only difference being the Arabic text, the people dressed in dish-dash and abaya, and the escalator ramp instead of the stairs that we have in the States. We had dinner at Chili's - again, an interestingly disorienting experience - and spent some time at Borders before picking up some groceries from Carrefour and heading home. I got a new book - splurged - basically bought the cheapest, longest, yet most interesting book I could find: Shantaram, by David Gregory Roberts, which I hope will last me for a while before I need a new book to satisfy my cravings.

Today was the first day that we discovered that cab fares are bargainable. Not only that, but today I realized how enthusiastic cab drivers are to teach an interested passenger Arabic words and phrases. If only my brain were as enthusiastic to retain all those words and phrases...

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