Today I got to meet with my
conversation partner, Noor, again and it went really well. We met downtown and enjoyed PF Changs
together since we had already established that this was our favorite type of
food here. It was so nice to be able to
get to know her a little more and learn more about her life outside of the
US. We pretty much just had a normal
conversation, discussing things such as movies and TV series. She said she enjoys watching American
television shows as a way to learn English, which was something I had never
thought of before. She was asking about
what series she could watch but since she had already seen Friends and Prison
Break I had no advice to give.
Another interesting conversation
that came up was driving. She is 25
years old and has never driven a car before because it is not custom for women
to drive in Saudi Arabia. I didn’t want to ask her directly, but it did make me
wonder how many other inequalities there are between men and women in Saudi
Arabia and if it ever causes any sort of issues. I think if it is something you have always
grown up knowing, it would be unlikely that it would seem unfair. Just as young boys typically play with trucks
and footballs while young girls prefer dress up and Barbie dolls, maybe it is
just a social norm that people don’t think twice about. What I do know, though, is if you told a
typical American woman she couldn’t drive anymore there would be an absolute
uproar, yet Noor did not think it was abnormal at all. She said she will be learning to drive soon,
though, and I helped explain some of the differences in the roads here. For example, she said she was most nervous
about not knowing the difference between one and two way streets, and that
there were actually barriers up between lanes in Saudi Arabia. It had never even crossed my mind that
something that seems so simple such as driving could actually be a difficult
challenge in a foreign country.
Another difference she mentioned
about America is the presence of suicide.
She said she was reading the stories that were set out on backpacks in
the commons the other day for suicide awareness and was surprised that suicide
even seems like an option to anyone because it was unheard of where she was
from. I decided to research the
statistics a little bit, and although it is almost half of the rate in the
United States, many sources I read also said it was on the rise. There is a possibility, though, that it is
simply not as widely advertised as it is in the United States which would
explain why she would not have heard of it happening before. It is interesting to hear some things such as
this from her, because she talked about how much she loved her country and she
could not wait to be back home, and yet news articles paint a different picture
about women living in Saudi Arabia. In
fact, one of the first websites I clicked on was titled Women Living Under
Islamic Laws and the first line read “Segregated
from men, banned from driving and facing restrictions on travel, work, and even
study, many Saudi women attempt suicide to escape one of the world's strictest
societies.” This ties in with what I was
considering before about driving, but I do wonder how much of a topic of
discussion it is there. As I said, Noor
thought it was perfectly normal and did not have a single complaint about Saudi
Arabia, so it is interesting to get different perspectives.
On the opposite end of the spectrum,
I had the chance to explain some of our traditional holidays such as Halloween,
Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Of course
she had heard of them and knew a little bit, but she has not actually
experienced these holidays in the United States. She said she knew of Halloween from the
movies and seemed excited to actually experience it. I’m hoping she experiences the part where
sweet little kids are dressed up as ninja turtles and princesses rather than
the slightly less impressive costumes college girls like to flaunt (I know that
it scares me). I explained a little bit
about Thanksgiving and she giggled about how many holidays we have here which
again was nothing I had thought of before.
After lunch, we walked down to the movie theater and watched Equalizer,
an extremely gory thriller. It was
probably more of a man’s movie but of course the movie we wanted to see what
sold out so we had to work with what we had and it turned out to be fun.
Overall it really was a great
afternoon and I feel like I have actually made a good friend through this
process. I am hoping that I will be able
to find out more about her and her culture without seeming like I am just
trying to interview her, but up to this point I am slowly getting the
pieces. In fact, she invited me to go to
an event tomorrow that is celebrating a Muslim holiday, so I think that will be
a great opportunity about not only the Islamic religion but also the traditions
and hopefully a little more insight about the culture she is familiar with. I will also have the chance to meet her
brother who is also in the intensive English program at TCU. I am so glad that this has all gone so well
and I am so excited to learn more from Noor!
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