Monday, July 9, 2012
Jackson_CP3
Saturday night I met with my conversation partner Omar for the third time. I invited him to go to Hobbit Hoagies (on W Pensacola, next to Golds) in order to watch the UFC fight. Since he had never seen any sort of MMA fighting he was very excited to come and watch as well as meet my friends. When he got there, me and my roommate Lizz got to talking with him to find out even more about his way of life and culture. To begin with, he initially asked me if, in this particular setting (going to a restaurant and meeting my friends) if it was appropriate to shake everyones hands. I explained to him that, within our culture, shaking hands is always appropriate in business/formal situations, but amongst friends and peers not everyone does it. He explained to me that in Saudi Arabia, everyone shakes hands all the time - even best friends. What stuck out the most out of the entire night was something that I took from a conversation Omar was having with Lizz. She was asking him about his religion and I learned that he is a devout Muslim. He does not drink alcohol, wakes up at 5:30 each morning in order to pray (one of 5 times throughout the day, as well as many other things. Prior to Omar I had only known one devout muslim, the aunt of my ex girlfriend. For her, it seemed natural. She wore a hajab whenever I, or any non-family member (male) was around. With Omar however it was fascinating that I had not picked this up from his personality. We are both very like minded people, both easy going, fun, and athletically active. All in all the experience was a valuable reminder that no one thing identifies who a person is (in this case religion) but it is a cumulation of every aspect of that person that defines who they are. At the end of the night Omar agreed to go and play beach volleyball with us on Tuesday if we would go and play Soccer with him at the IM fields sometime. It was a great night, one that me and Omar both appreciated very much. I am beginning to see that our friendship will last beyond just the course of this 7 week program.
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Great post, Jackson. This is what this kind of exchange is all about.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's awesome! I would have never thought of shaking hands with everyone at the table - it is so interesting to learn different customs like that from around the world. Did he end up liking the UFC fight?
ReplyDeleteTaking a international student to watch a fight...you are a man after my own heart!
ReplyDeleteI love the convo about shaking hands. Did you teach him how to give "daps" (fist bump would have been especially appropriate since you were at a MMA event)!?
It's pretty cool that you learned a little about his religious rituals. Seems like you both had a cultural experience!
Thank you all for the feedback!
ReplyDeleteJennifer - Omar had already expressed to me that he was a fan of Boxing (his favorite being Amir Khan) so his previous knowledge of that sport allowed his interest to be transferred nicely to the UFC!
Stan - I actually did explain that to him. He was already familiar with all that sort of hand shaking and thought it was pretty funny when I was practicing with him.