Monday, August 9

Today wasn't the most eventful day, but we did get a few more things accomplished. We had to go out to our school. There was more paperwork to be taken care of. When we go to our school, we always go into Mrs. Mervat's office. It is so interesting because she asks us what we would like to drink and then an assistant or servant comes in and brings our drinks. Mrs. Mervat has a personal assistant and then there seem to be lots of people in service-type positions all over the school. She suggested today that we might want to get a maid. Apparently, we can have a maid come once a week to clean for about 5 dollars. We aren't sure that we really need this, but it's interesting that we can receive these things for so much less.

We didn't do much all day, but we did go to Radio Shack for the third time trying to get our converter to work. We ended up having to get a big ol' box in order to get the PlayStation2 to work. We've really been looking forward to this, as our satellite TV only has a couple of English stations, BBCWorld and a NBC 2 station that plays a random mix of shows. Now we can not only play games, but we can watch our DVDs! The people at Radio Shack have been very nice to us and recognize us now when we come in.

We found out today some more of the difficulties of being foreigners here, especially western foreigners. Our tutor gave us some instructions on taking taxis last night. He warned us that they would try to get more money from us. (What can you expect really? We kind of stand out here!) We asked one taxi driver to take us to a certain area of town and he said, "How much?" The taxi drivers here never ask how much. It is just assumed that you know the price, so we knew that he was going to try to take advantage of us. He wanted 20 pounds so we said, "Shokran," (Thank you) and got out. We found 3 taxi drivers tonight who all asked, "How much?" Joe ended up having to argue with one. The man wasn't even going to accept his money, so Joe finally gave him what he asked for. Sometimes it is just easier to accept that we have to pay foreigner prices. It's not like it's that much, but we don't like to feel like they think we're suckers.

We ended up in a shopping district, so we did a little shopping for clothes. You wouldn't believe some of the deals. I got a shirt for about 4 bucks. I've decided to find a happy medium between western and middle eastern clothes. It's also interesting that you wouldn't think that people here would be very stylish or that they are not supposed to be interested in dressing stylishly. However, the women, despite being covered up, can be very fashionable. It's neat to see how the women match their head scarves to their outfits. The headscarves are a very pretty or trendy accessory.

The two other teachers get here at midnight tonight. We will have to do our best to help them get acquainted with the area. I wonder how their experiences will be different as two single women. Tomorrow we are having breakfast with some ladies from the school and then we will try to find a bank. It should be interesting!