Taking Turns and Horn Talk

It’s so… fun  to see how different people live.  Char and I are starting to get more sleep as our bodies continue to adjust.  It’s about time.  Having more sleep puts us in better moods to appreciate the differences we run into.  Here’s a couple:

There is no such thing as a line.  Nobody takes turns.  No order.  This is kinda hard to get used to.  When we go to the store, it generally ends up taking longer than anticipated.  There’ll be a customer at the counter, with all their stuff, doing their thing, paying their money… so of course I’ll stand in line a few feet behind so as to give them their space and wait patiently.  While I am responsibly waiting patiently, another customer will slide up to the counter, right next to the guy who’s already there and throw their stuff down.  And then another! And remember that few feet of space? Surprise! No more space.  Someone else slides in there and reaches oh so far over the others to throw their stuff on the counter too.  Apparently, if you aren’t jockeying for position, they assume you aren’t ready to check out.  Fair enough.  So I start jockeying.  But let’s face it.  It makes me really uncomfortable and I’m not really trying hard enough, and they can sense that.  So BAM BAM BAM three more people appear out of nowhere between me and the counter! Maybe if I fart…

Char talked about all the honking around here…  We had it explained to us that it is actually a second language.  They communicate (rather effectively) through honks!  In the states, you only the honk if you really screw up or make someone angry.  Here, you get the quick HONK:here I come, don’t stand in front of me.  The quick HONK-HONK: hey how’s it going? The rapid HONK-HONK-HONK-HONK-HONK: the taxi asking if you’d like his services.  The more personable HONK-HOOOOOOOOONK: Hey good friend! I haven’t seen you in a long time!  How have you been? How’s your mother?  Let’s stop right now for a quick chat and then we’ll make plans to get together for a more extended period of time…   Those are the only ones I’ve learned so far.  Of course there’s the universal deep bellowing HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK: (insert choice expletive).

Nonetheless, we love pita bread.