from pine trees to palms

i just wanted to give a quick look at some fun observations in my time here thus far:

• palm trees are all over the place here and that just makes me happy. there are some types of evergreens and hardwoods as well, but i love to just take in all the palms (i actually want to do some research on them to answer my many questions about them)
• some taxi drivers like to put on music with English lyrics when we get into their rides. here is a sampling of what we have heard: Pink Floyd, Kenny Rogers, Bob Marley, Marvin Gaye
• when you watch folks play American baseball--only here can the players have names like: Muhammad, Ibrahim, Belinda (a young man), Saul, Hans, Frans (just kidding on that one), and Soffa
• smoking is still allowed inside the airport here and in many other public places
• there aren't any capitol/lower case letters in Arabic--just one version
• one night we were out to eat and our server said that we would need to wait on getting our change as the cashier went to go pray, so we waited about five minutes for them to finish their prayers to get our change and leave (oddly enough it was a woman that was the cashier--the majority of women here do not stop and pray at the observed times)
• i have decided that ramen noodles are available in just about any location on the planet, including here
• they offer birthday parties in McDonald's for kiddos all around the world as well
• and you can also hear fun music ranging from Shakira to The Wedding March in the McDonald's
• i really think that the majority of little girls all over the world wear the colour pink, wear ribbons, bows, tights, and skirts
• little boys all over the world wear clothes with animals, trucks, and sports on them
• babies are babies all over the world, too :)
• that i really like it here and am thankful to be learning the language, the culture, and how others live even though it may seem hard at times