you know you're an arab when...

[manal nasser]

hello everybody i wanted to share with you this email that i had recieved from one of my dear friends, i hope you like it like i did.. i also want to let you know that im new to this so if i did something wrong sorry but im trying to learn, thank you!!!!

You know you're an Arab
when...

You call all your dad's friends: am-mo

You have an oriental rug in every room

You have an endless supply of pistachios, dates, pumpkin or watermellon seeds

You actually like yogurt drink

you either tip 2%, 5% but never the actual 15%

Your parents say you're becoming Americanized anytime you get into trouble

You hug and kiss relatives you have never seen before in your life

You curse at your teachers or strangers in Arabic

You flip out when someone mistakes you for a
Mexican or Indian

You can spot an Arab a mile away and they have
spotted you because they keep staring

You have Thanksgiving dinner with rice and "bamiyah" (okra

After a family meal, the women fight to the death over who should wash the dishes while the men sit on their behinds and discuss politics, waiting for their tea

You walk down a street with Arab stores and you are trying to eavesdrop on others arabic conversations

Your parents want you to become a doctor or
engineer

You use your forehead and eyebrows to point something out


Your mother yells at the top of her lungs to call you to dinner even if you're in the next room

You have at least thirty cousins

You have 4 cousins, an uncle, a brother-in-law and 7 friends named Elias or Sam

You have told your kids not to walk the floor
barefoot or they'll catch a cold

You arrive one or two hours late to a party and think it's normal. ...all Arabs are late- all the time

You are standing next to the largest suitcases at the airport

You talk for an hour at the front door when leaving someone's house

You say bye 17 times on the phone

When your parents meet strangers and talk for few minutes, you discover they know one of your uncles back home

Your parents don't realize phone connections to foreign countries have improved in the last two decades, and still scream at the top of their lungs when making long distance calls

Your mother has a minor disagreement with her (or
your dad's) sister and doesn't talk to her for ten years

You hide everything from your parents

Your mother does everything for you if you are male

You do all the housework and cooking if you are female

Your relatives alone could populate a small city

Everyone is a family friend

You avoid public places when with a member of the opposite sex, especially if there is an acquaintance
within a 250 miles radius

You went to a university as far away from home as possible

You still come back home to live with your parents
after you graduate

You teach Westerners swear words in Arabic

You always say "open the light" instead of "turn
the light on"

You're walking out of customs at the airport and you
see at least twenty-five members of your family who have come to pick you up

You go back to your parents' country and people treat you like a member of...the royal family

Your parents drink 6 cups of tea/arabic coffee a day


You've had a shoe thrown at you by your mother

[RUSHA AWAD]

dear manal
I would like to welcome you in zaidal forum and I wish you to continue with us not just in the english section but also in the other parts of this forum. oh my god, I was laughing all the time while I was reading those funny actions that we really do as arabic people and some of them happened to me as well. I want to add one more thing, you know that each one of us is hanging a cross on the front mirror of the car,so one time I was driving my car in a shopping center and I realized that a lady was starring at me all the time untill I parked my car, she walked toward me but I haven't seen her before. she talked to me in "zaidalian" language and introduced her self to me and when I asked her how did she know that I am from zaidal she said because of the cross in the car. hey, that's smart and all of us now know each others' cars because of the front cross

thanks again and keep writing with us
rusha awad

[Nada1981]

Hi

Thanks Manal, I also was laughing all the time

I liked these 2, because it always happend with me

You talk for an hour at the front door when leaving someone's house

You're walking out of customs at the airport and you
see at least twenty-five members of your family who have come to pick you up

By the way, welcome to Zaidal forum

Nada

[manal nasser]

i would like to thank you rasha and nada for the warm welcome, im happy to be a part of this forum, and rasha you are so very right about the cross, everyone of us has one... thanks again and i will keep writing. take care~ manal