Crazy Foreigners

Well, I've been here over a month now and I'm learning a lot about arabic. Probably some things that I shouldn't actually. My colloquial arabic class is crazy. Have you ever met a crazy foreigner in the states that leave you thinking "man all (insert ethnicity) are WIERD." I now understand why they are like that. allow me to explain:

Our colloquial teacher is a really funny 65 year old bug eyed arab named Samir. We really love him. He spends a good deal of time teaching us idioms and expressions, like archaic ways of saying "I want to go to the bathroom." "my desire is to cause water to fly." Today we discussed (I kid you not) the pros and cons of fire and water, in arabic. Now, I understand that cultures are different, but I can think of no circumstance in which an arab might say "Brian, I have ALWAYS wanted to know the american view on water; good or bad?" for my extensive opinion on the subject, see my post: "living waters." In class, Samir asked me to present one benefit of water. After much deliberation, I decided that water fights are pretty cool, and chose this as my answer. I should have known from previous experience (see aforementioned "living waters") that there has NEVER been enough water in the middle east to perticipate in such an activity. Naturally, Samir was confused by what I called "water fights" and immediately deduced the closest equivilent in the middle east: "OH, you mean using firehoses to break up demonstrations right?" I love the middle east. :)

So, to tie all these ideas together, next time you see a (insert ethnicity) in america, who just keeps saying things like "a stitch in time saves nine!" and "a penny saved is a penny earned!" and just wants to talk about the benefits of fire and water, don't blame the poor (insert ethnicity). They were probably taught to be crazy in their colloquial English class.