Tra la la

I met a friend of a friend this weekend. We were hanging out at night, walking along a road next to the beach along with what I'm pretty sure was at least half of Casablanca. Anyway, so after a few minutes of normal getting-to-meet-you conversation, this guy started singing. And, while the words were a little mangled, I recognized it. It was the titanic song. He wanted to know if I knew it. And I responded that…well, of course I did. I was a 13 year old girl once! (He didn't get that part…and then I felt bad that I was kind of, you know, making fun of his taste in music…but maybe he didn't get it. I hope he didn't get it) anyway, then he wanted me to SING the song. And I would have, but I kind of wanted his friend (who had introduced us) to think I was normal and so I just couldn't bring myself to do it. But later, we stopped to watch the Moroccan version of American Idol that was being projected on a HUGE screen by the beach….and after that, stopped to listen to some performers who were drumming and singing about various social and political issues (lyrics that my friend translated into French for me, because I am nowhere NEAR being able to understand Moroccan Arabic in any way, shape or form) so we more than fulfilled our song quota for the evening.

You know, people in Oman wanted me to sing. A lot. I remember during my rural home stay, I was sitting out by the farm with a few girls that I had JUST met and when they decided they were bored, they asked me to sing. Which was apparently a very normal request…and lucky for them, I have a pretty much endless supply of Disney songs that are pretty much ALWAYS in my head. And then there were 13 year old girls (on several different occasions) who wanted me to sing dirty hip hop lyrics because they listened to the music but didn't know the words but they wanted to . Yeah, I just couldn't bring myself to do that.

I think they need to find a better person to sing to them because I am just NOT that talented. Still, how can I not like a country where people want me to sing? (since that NEVER happens at home. EVER. But with good reason…)

In other news, I am always really surprised at how people seem genuinely interested in learning about what life was like in Oman. I don't know…I guess I figured…one arab country, another arab country, where's the mystery? But, of course, there is a WORLD of a difference between here and Oman so the curiosity makes sense (when I stop and think about it)