It’s Just like Movies…
Watch any movie with Arabic or Middle Eastern people driving around in these countries. For the first time, the stereotype was correct. Nour decided that today she wanted to take me to an Arabic restaurant so I could better understand parts of her homeland. The conversation in the car was short and sporadic due to my horror of her driving. Weaving in and out, intentionally cutting people off, driving 80 mph in a 50 mph limit area, these are just some of the things that were considered normal to Nour. These terrifying encounters continued until we finally came to stop at this place that looked as though the roof was about to fall off of it. She told me to trust here and to “prepare yourself for a little bit… of ahh… culture.” She was mistaken, it was not a bit of culture but a flood of new sensations and sights that was incredibly unprepared for and it showed in my first face.
The typical confused American that visits a new country in the movies and is utterly lost and almost a little scared. Again the stereotype was correct as I was exactly that upon entering this restaurant. Restaurant is a generous term; it was essentially walking into a part of the Middle East. I realized that not only was I the overwhelming minority in the venue but, Nour had recognized my apprehension and begun to laugh. She could sense my fear and knew that I was in the best of mind. We were seated by our waiter who was a plump and kind man but spoke exclusively Arabic to Nour as he was delighted to find a fellow Arabic speaker. He often times glanced at me and looked with an opening expression but was still gathering his judgment on me. He left after Nour and I ordered our drinks and she began to explain some Arabic eating customs to me. “Austin if you do not like something do not continue to eat it, tell me you hate it. I will not cry over it,” a blunt sentence uttered from a less than open woman.
As we began our discourse about the menu I realized that she was so entertained by confusion. When we went over food items she told me Arabic food was spicy, I stated that growing up my grandmother had always given me spicy foods and that I was more than used to, trying to assert the fact that I was not the typical American. I would not be lost in this world. We began to munch on our appetizers and they were so large, even by American standards, but I learned it is because most Arabs don’t eat breakfast and they eat lunch around 4 or 5 therefore lunch has to be large. For some it is the only meal of the day. We moved through the meal quickly as the belly dancers approached the table and danced for a few minutes. Nour then asked me “why is sex so open and easy in America, in my home that is a travesty and strictly punished.” What a lunch time conversation. So I began to explain how our television programs, film, and media expose us and that Americans are far more open to it because of the lack of guidelines for exposure thus instilling it in us as a young age. But this was enough. Nour wanted to know why we all had sex. I again had to explain that we don’t, but the ones who do have sex are far more vocal than those who abstain or do not have it for whatever reason. The food came out and was delicious although I did cry from the spiciness (Mexican spicy has nothing on the Arabs). We drove back to TCU and she believes that all she showed me was food and a new world. But that is not what I learned.
Walking into that room I realized the thoughts and views the world has on our nation and people. We are viewed as the scared, shy, and ignorant group with regards to foreign nations and people. The world sees us as men and women who live our lives in pure ignorant bliss and are terrified of what we don’t understand. That we are a people that are not of the cultural intellect to carry on conversations and match thoughts with ours around the world because we know nothing of their world. The world believes that we get lost when there is a different language or food presented to us, and that we are found constantly in a state of obliviousness when abroad. The only Americans may return to the promise land where we are atop the world in intellect, culture, society, industry, and all other facts of life is to learn of the world we live in as a nation and to again develop the work ethic that it requires to learn from them. Just like the movies, that is the only way to return to the promise land. At least for this wide eyed bewildered American.
