Here in the Sandbox, shopping is a little different than back home. For one, there are no malls, just the souks. But then, as you're driving down the road, there are teenage boys that walk around selling stuff. They come to your window (especially if it's obvious that you're a foreigner, like me) and offer you what they're selling. You can find anything (as long as it's extremely tacky and ugly!) carpets, serving trays, kleenex boxes, blue fuzzy cowboy hats, those annoying recorder instruments that kids play. So the other day I was sitting in a taxi and a kid came up selling steering wheel covers, floor mats and sunblockers for your front windshield. He asked if I wanted anything and I said no thank you, but he just wouldn't go away. So finally I said (in Arabic, I was kind of proud of myself) 'I'm sitting in a taxi. Obviously, I don't have a car!!!' I wasn't really trying to be funny, but my driver thought it was absolutely hilarous and the kid laughed too and then he left me alone. Anyways, I guess I made my driver's day....a white girl saying that in Arabic!
16 July 2006
I Don't Have A Car!!!
Here in the Sandbox, shopping is a little different than back home. For one, there are no malls, just the souks. But then, as you're driving down the road, there are teenage boys that walk around selling stuff. They come to your window (especially if it's obvious that you're a foreigner, like me) and offer you what they're selling. You can find anything (as long as it's extremely tacky and ugly!) carpets, serving trays, kleenex boxes, blue fuzzy cowboy hats, those annoying recorder instruments that kids play. So the other day I was sitting in a taxi and a kid came up selling steering wheel covers, floor mats and sunblockers for your front windshield. He asked if I wanted anything and I said no thank you, but he just wouldn't go away. So finally I said (in Arabic, I was kind of proud of myself) 'I'm sitting in a taxi. Obviously, I don't have a car!!!' I wasn't really trying to be funny, but my driver thought it was absolutely hilarous and the kid laughed too and then he left me alone. Anyways, I guess I made my driver's day....a white girl saying that in Arabic!
