Dead Sea

I went to the Dead Sea. It was incredible. The water has special healing properties - not just the water, but the mud. I don't really understand why, but for centuries it's helped people with all kinds of skin disorder.

It may be partly because the dead sea is at the lowest point on earth, or maybe because it's saltier than the Salt Lake, or a combination of factors, but you float.

I mean, you REALLY float.

You just lay back and voila, you're on your back, floating. No effort. In fact, when you try to go down, you can't. You can't swim. It's the weirdest thing ever.

A single drop of the water got into my eye and screamed, "F@CK F*CK F%CK F&CK F#CK!!!" Marie-Amelie pulled me out of the water, and got me my towel, thankfully. I felt like my eye was gushing blood. One tiny single drop.

I went to the Dead Sea with the group of French students from the University of Marseilles. Besides Malek, they are my best friends at the University. They leave next week, which is sad.

We stayed up talking, singing, and swimming (brrrr) until 4:30 in the morning last night.

I took a real shower.

My brain is tired from changing languages on command. It's hard to think in Arabic, French, and English at the same time. Nobody speaks English as their mother language. Mooshkila.

One of the neatest experiences for me since being here was in Ayhem's hotel room. He organized and carried out the trip. He invited us all for a drink (yes alcohol, and no I didn't drink, and no they didn't get drunk, and no, they didn't pressure me to drink, and yes I went because I felt like being sociable), so we were all hanging out there in the hotel room, and somebody said something that triggered my thoughts to the song, "You Aint Nothin' but a Hound-dog!" so I started singing...

One of Ayhem's many cousins who was with us said, "Oh, I know who that is. It's John Travolta."

"What? ARE YOU FREAKING CRAZY? That's Elvis Freaking Presley!"

"No no, I seed movie once, was with John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John! I sure this song is him!"

"Okay, I know that you know a lot about my culture, and I'm not saying you're stupid, but that song is DEFINITELY by Elvis Presley."

The French kids were laughing hysterically, all (of course) taking my side.

"Okay okay okay maybe you right, but you ever see Grease?"

"Of course!" - and I erupted into, "Summer lovin', happened so faaast..."

Alex, one of the French students, started singing the guy's part, and some of the other girls did background vocals. It was like something exploded. We started singing song after song.

Eventually, the Arabs were like, "Sing something in Arabic!" I burst into a chorus of (what is probably the most annoying Arabic pop song ever) "Ya Tab Tab, wa dela'aaa..." followed by, "ba7bk, ana kateer, ya habebe dela'aa tela'alaaaaaay." The Arabs with us (Ayhem and two of his cousins) sang along, all of us in hysterics.

The French students don't speak Arabic. After we finished that, I started singing, "Quand il me prend dans ses bras, il me parle tout bas, je vois la vie en roooose..." and EVERY single one of them sang along.

It was a big deal for me, sitting there. I was the only one in the room that understood everything going on, who could share in every single part of what was happening. I have a really special gift. I should not underestimate the power or importance of my language skills.

I made a vow to myself that I will use them in my life.

Words are Important

I study words. Every day I hear hundreds of new words. Language is about words: subtle differences of meaning, connotations, power, intonation - words carry meaning. It's okay to understand the meaning of a word in generalities at first, but the actual specifics of the meaning of the word are important. Words are power.

"I don't understand why you used the word jihad in that sentence..."
"Oh! I didn't say jihad, I said jihat...you know, (english:) minimal pairs..."
[hearing a familiar linguistics term that I fully understand made me want to stand up on the table and shout for joy! But I didn't.]

Not only specificness in sounds, but in meaning. For example, today in Prof NagiH's class, we went over the difference between "bad" and "not good." We talked about euphamisms and "diplomacy" in words - as in, politically correctness. Specificness.

An obvious example is going to the bathroom. Every language has polite ways to express the need to go, and crude ways. It is important to know both so you can use them properly to get your point across. In English, you can say, "I need to go to the restroom." In Arabic, one equivalent of that is, "I need to go wash my hands." Interesting.

In Arabic, the political phrase for "American Government" is not hakooma amriki, it's idarat amriki, or "American Administration." In some contexts they are the same, but in others they have vastly different meanings: "the School Government" is usually a group of students elected by students to make decisions for students, whereas "the School Adminisitration" is usually a group of adults who are in charge of admissions, facilities, and employees of the school (etc).

I volunteered that the main difference between "government" and "administration" is the first is a word that describes something that does not change (even if there is a coup and your country goes from a Democratic government to a neo-theocratic-totalitarian-dictatorship government, it remains a government. I suppose the exception would be changing to anarchy - but even "governmentless" is a form of government, in a way. It is a description of the state of the government), while the second is something in a continual state of change.

I also ventured a guess towards the etymology of the word: the United States has the most political leverage in the world. It is powerful. When you describe an action taken by the United States, it is important to acknowledge that it is not necessarily the fact that it is a Democracy, or that we have the Constitution and the Bill of Rights etc. that makes the political decisions, but rather the people who were elected to power that are responsible for making them. "American Government" implies and connotes something altogether different from "American Administration."

"Impossible" and "unlikely"/"improbable" are worlds apart in meaning, and that difference is important to understand. You know?