Suzanne-CP 3

Last night marked yet another great night in the little world the TEFLers have created with the CIES students. We got together with almost all of the guys from the Middle East again, this time at Aladdin's for some tea and hookah. Everyone sat down together and integrated themselves - there was very little separation between the Americans and the Saudis and Kuwaitis. As the night went on, more and more people came pouring in, so many that we eventually moved into the bigger room because the room we had already taken over completely wasn't big enough for us.

Three parts of the night stand out most clearly to me. First, the man serving us at Aladdin's - who was from Palestine and spoke Arabic to some of the guys - gave us bubbles to blow hookah smoke into. After that, bubbles were constantly in the air, being blown onto soap-covered spots on the table, and being blown around in an attempt to keep them from popping. This, among other little games the guys taught us, kept us entertained even when the conversation wasn't. But the conversation was never for lacking. First, we got to witness an almost-fight break out between Albraa (always the troublemaker, my friend) and Hussein, the jist of which we Americans didn't quite understand. They were yelling in Arabic and eventually went outside to finish the argument, after which they came back in, Albraa jokingly holding his face as though it had come to physical blows. After that, all was well, everyone was friends again. As my roommate pointed out to them, no matter what country you're from, boys will be boys.

The last part of the night involved my roommate, myself, Hassan, Albraa, Hussein and Dary - a conversation about girls, dating and sex in America. At first, the boys were just curious, asking me and Natalie about how to approach girls they're interested in, how to know if the girl likes them back, how the process works here. It was appropriate after our dinner conversation about dating in Saudi Arabia that we would have advice to share with them! At first, I felt odd about being so open about American culture, which is so different from theirs, but Albraa comforted me by saying, "We are guests in your country, we're speaking your language, and we respect everyone here equally." Dary jokingly said that we were like Barney from "How I Met Your Mother" - "you two should write a book!" he said. Then, the conversation turned quite deep, and we began talking about love. Natalie and I shared our past relationships with them and they with us - I learned that Hussein was once engaged, but broke it off because he and his fiance weren't compatible enough; that Dary has been in a number of relationships; and that Albraa was only in love once with a woman who is now married. This sparked further discussions about ourselves and our personalities - whether we show or hide our feelings, whether we trust people or not, so on and so forth. All in English! At one point, I completely forgot that we were TEFL and CIES students paired up to help each other with our academic and professional goals and felt like I was at a table surrounded by good friends. The atmosphere was open and accepting and I was particularly pleased to see Albraa open up. My international man of mystery, the jokester and troublemaker of the group, has a real heart that he didn't mind sharing with me, an American woman from a totally different background.

So far, everything I've done with these guys has made me feel empowered - the world is a beautiful place, despite all the violence, despite the attitude many Americans have towards people from the Middle East, and if we all just talked like we talked last night, I think everything would come to peace at some point. Maybe that's naive of me, but it's hard to not feel positive after such meaningful interactions with people.