Negotiating Meaning with My Students

The discussion somehow turned to Arabic, and I was left wondering what was going on. I finally figured out they were talking about masoob. My students quickly remembered they were in English class and started to explain what masoob was: bread, cream, bananas, and .... something else. They said the word in Arabic, but I didn't quite recognize it at first. Then they discussed it among themselves for a few moments. It was then I recalled the word.... but I didn't let them know!

The students decided to act it out: "what is animal that bzzzzzz?" while using a finger to move in a spiral toward the ceiling.

Me: A bee?
Students: No! Different animal!
Me: Hmmm... A fly?

A student went to the board. "This," he said as he drew a picture.
"That is a flower." I was really interested to see what he came up with next.
As he was finishing filling in the stinger on a crude but recognizable drawing of a bee, "What is this?"
"A stinger."
"Noooo!" His earnest reply made me smile.
"A bee." Noticing there puzzled looks, I continued, "bzzz! It stings you; it swells; and you go to the hospital." The gestures to accompany this were being readily used throughout.
The students smiled. "Bee goes flower ..." one brings his fingers to his lips to mimic eating something thick like noodles, "then goes back home."
I draw a box on the board and try to make it look like a passable hive and write next to it "hive" while saying "hive. A bee's home."

The students try to gesture some other word. It doesn't really come across as much of anything, but I decide to have mercy on them and not play stupid. "A bee makes honey."
"YES!! Honey!!"

The students are ecstatic. They are proud to have finally figured out the word. While it would have taken far less than the 20 minutes it took us if I had used a dictionary, we would not have learned the words 'stinger', 'bee,' 'hive,' and 'make.' And even more importantly they wouldn't have had the opportunity to learn the process of negotiating meaning. This is a skill they will need when they go to Texas and need to talk with some of the other students who may not know a lot of English or any Arabic. Hopefully this is something they have learned from and will retain!

A "Nice" Dinner Out.

As I have been in Saudi Arabia for going on six months, I figured it may be time to go out and have some Saudi food. One of my students suggested I try masoob. He told me it was really good for breakfast, but I wasn't about to go out and attempt to find such a thing early in the morning on my day off!

So last night, a fellow worker and I decided to have this dish for a later dinner. We left the compound around 7pm to start our adventure of discovery. Trying to find the area in which the restaurant was located proved to be a little more difficult that first imagined. Being the progressive, modern, and technologically individuals we are, listening to the GPS on his phone seemed to be the way to go. It turned out to be a little less than reliable, though. Apparently the streets are too close together for the GPS to really be able to tell if you are on the correct one. Ultimately we ended up going in a huge circle before finally getting to the area of town we needed to be.

After arriving we entered the rather small restaurant. Upon entering one is faced with the cashier to the left and a long counter to the right, similar to some kabob places I have visited in the past. If you look past the cashier, there is a hole in the wall that leads to a room with seats. We took a seat and waited for someone to come take our order.

   

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Everything was in Arabic (imagine that! A place in Saudi where the menu is only in Arabic... the shock one must be going through hearing this.), so I was at the mercy of my coworker whose Arabic is quite good. We went through varied masoob choices and decide on one with cream, honey, and cheese. It almost had a Waffle House feel to it both in sitting and the multi-ways in which the masoob is served (think hash-brown styles).

When the food came out, I was a little skeptical about it being enough. It was a small dish, and resembled a slightly thicker form of oatmeal. It is made with crushed bananas which one can definitely taste. With the honey, this is quite a sweet treat, that is also quite filling. The oatmeal looking stuff is apparently flat bread that has been ground up with the bananas!

We started eating after 8pm. I finished mine, but just barely (and I hadn't eaten all day at that point)! The following day, I still felt full until about mid-afternoon! This would be a great breakfast food for one who likes something hearty that will keep them full throughout the morning. I like the sweetness provided by the honey, the richness provided by the cream, but I wouldn't recommend the cheese. It wasn't bad, it just didn't seem to compliment the rest of the dish.

Ending a Vacation

Someone once made the observation that vacations were bad things because you either spend them in places that are worse than where you work making them something to not really look forward to, or you go somewhere great and end up coming back and being overly depressed by the job you have had to return to. I find neither of these extremes to be the norm, nor would I find them to be good reasons to forgo vacations even if they were. I must admit, though, that I am not looking forward to the work that faces me when I am finally blessed with no longer having to sit and wait.

I have just finished a short, two-week vacation. I flew from Saudi Arabia to Michigan looking forward to meeting up with friends and family. The first week was spent with my brother. I didn't do much other than sit around and talk and watch dvds. Not very productive, but just what a vacation is for! Besides, I did a little studying as well. In addition, I was able to meet up with a friend whom I hadn't seen in at least 5 years along with her children. The discussion was interesting, even if a bit disjointed and derailed by constant interruptions interjections by the kids.

Sometime during this, I took a test on which I didn't score as well as I would have liked; it was better than nothing, though! This disappointment was deflected by getting to meet up with friends I hadn't seen in a while. We had a good lunch of cheeseburgers and fries along with a side of great conversation.

Immediately following this nourishing of  body and soul, I drove the over 400 miles to see yet another friend and find rest on her couch. We were able to catch up during the day and enjoy the two youngsters when they returned from their daily romp in the school system. Watching Honey I Shrunk the Kids and Honey I Shrunk Ourselves with a 6 year old is an interesting experience. As is learning about her and her 5 year old sister's take on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Go green!!

I then had my mandatory meet up with APO! The friends I have made within Alpha Phi Omega are wonderful, and I cherish them greatly. Unfortunately, I see them rarely and for too short of time. Far too soon I was off to Wisconsin where I was to visit another friend from university and take a three hour test the following day. Of course, I didn't sleep that night, so my test may or may not have gone so well, not that I mind so much either way. Right after sleepily taking that 3 hour exam, I was on the road yet again. This time I had to drive over 8 hours back to my brother's apartment where I would stay for the night. I arrived around 9pm. This was the perfect time as it gave me plenty of time to figure out what to pack, what to pack it in, and then how to pack it before heading off to bed so that I would be able to get up around 4am to get to the airport in time for my flight in the morning. It seems to have worked out fine as I am now typing this at the Minneapolis airport where I am waiting the 5.5 hours for my flight to Amsterdam to board. My vacation is not yet over, but I must say it has been busy, stressful, and full of good things! The ending is like a strawberry covered in dark chocolate: rich, sweet, bitter with a dash of satisfaction in knowing that moderation is the key to enjoyment.