New Neighbor

I was at the doukan (little shop that sells cokes) next door to my house one day when this neighbor kid came up. He was about 12 and Arab from the Sandbox and we didn't say anything to each other (cultural norm) until the owner of the doukan says 'hey white girl, this kid's American too.'

We just kind of look at each other and I asked him his name. We'll call him Ali b/c I wouldn't dare call him Mohammed, even if that was his real name...I don't want to go to jail. So Ali was just like 'hey, cool, yah, I'm American too.' in this totally regularly accented English that did not sound like it should be coming out of his mouth. It was weird.

I asked him what state he was from and he said TX and I was like 'me too'. Then I asked him what city and he said DFW and I was like 'me too'. Then he asked 'what suburb?' and when I told him he said 'oh yah, I go to the mosque there.'

Being here and surrounded by mosques I hadn't really given any thought to the fact that there aren't a whole lot of mosques in the states and that my home town actually boasts the largest mosque in America. And then he said it so normally, just like any of us would have said 'oh yah, I went to university there' or 'yah, I go to church there'. I couldn't come up with anything else to say, I was confused and still trying to figure out how he could go to the mosque in my hometown when he said 'well, see ya later' and left.

It's really strange when your two cultures come together like that. I was really speechless...and over something so not that big of a deal. I guess it's a clash of cultures that I'm going to have to get used to, especially since I return to the states soon.