My Friend's daughter in Portugal

well, one of my followers, and the one I follow too is in Portugal, she writes so well, I love her blogs, in actual fact, I knew that she is a great writer, pushed her into the blog world feet and fist. Now she is more known than me:) Anyway, I woke up this morning on her tetet sound on twitter announcing that I got blog (that sounds like a new movie title, rhymes with you got mail? I love that movie by the way, watched it over a hundred times and still cry when he shouts Brinkley ,Brinkley in the park. Please tell me off for being a fragmented writer.

http://amoonjr.blogspot.com/2011/07/arabs-in-portugal.html this is the blog post. My point here is (of course you will have to read her blog first and then continue to read this post of mine; my point is, I, on the other hand, do not find the Arabs when I travel, and when they find me I pretend to be Turkish or pacific islander or something, but not Arab. Don't take me wrong, I love who I am and I love being an Arab, but when I go overseas I want to see the Romans (do what the Romans do! you know how this goes, I don't have to explain it to you).

When I go overseas, I want to know the culture, the traditions, the art, the science; I want to go to galleries, check out the museums, visit the theaters, eat the authentic food, and never ever shop. We on the other hand (by we I mean the Arabs) love shopping, eating, and then going to cafes and relaxing, and chill-axing, sitting around, talking, theorizing, and discussing what the situation of the middle east is going to look like etc etc, but do we do any other thing? No, we can never solve the Middle East issues, nor do we gain anything from knowing those Arabs that we find during our trips and just gather with them to talk Arabic. I have all the time in the world to speak Arabic where I live, don’t I want to learn another Language? Of course I do, and every new language is a new tongue or a new person that grows inside me, did you notice for example that when you speak French you will move your shoulders, and when you speak Italian you will shake your hands? And Spanish, oh well, I am sure you can relate to what I am trying to say here. A language is a treasure trove, you find about words that can resemble your feelings in each one of the languages that you will attempt to learn. Oh, I forgot to tell you that speaking German was like talking while you imitate a statue, I hope my German friends will not be upset with me.

Just a little story before I close the show for today; once we lived in Southampton, I befriended an old woman who lived close to our house, and invited her for tea, or sent her some of my baking, and when my dad visited once she kept him busy while my husband and I were at college. She also loved my son, who was few months old, so she used to take him and the nanny to the park, I never actually asked her for help, but I guess she loved me too; we wrote for years, and for some reason the letters stopped after a while, as of course things work out. Anyway, years after we left Southampton, I needed a referee, so I gave her name and address. The letter that she sent them (before the age of internet that was) made my eyes tear. She said to them (we were trying to immigrate to New Zealand at that time) that I am an asset to every country, why? Just because I smiled to her, sent her some baking, and considered her a friend. I guess what I am trying to say here is that, we never know when we may need something, or when the other person needs something, it is a must that we know other people, and know other languages, and it is more important that whenever we go overseas we have to be in our best behaviors, as we can never know if the person we are talking to is going to be our friend, client, boss, or any other thing that may embarrass us in the future.

Good luck to all those people who are traveling abroad, I wish you to know a new friend, and a new foreign language.