Unusual skills I have learned from my Egyptian family

Being married to an Egyptian man also pretty much means being married to his family, or at least his family becomes your family... From the first day after our wedding, I went downstairs to my mother in law, she didn't let me help out with anything because I was the 'aroosa' (the bride). But as time went on I began helping her out more, going out with her to visit others in the family, cooking with her, cleaning etc.

Keep in mind I didn't know much Arabic at first and she didn't know a word of English, so the way we bonded was her teaching me how to cook Egyptian food, and also teaching me Arabic. This brings us to the topic of this post: unusual skills I have learned.

1. Sitting on the floor, I can now sit on the floor for hours without my legs getting numb... I couldn't do that before :).

2.Knife skills, many Egyptian women cut vegetables by hand (with a knife of course!), I am now proud to say that I can cut salad, onions, tomatoes, potatoes and lots of other vegetables without using a board.

3. Listening to someone without understanding what the hell they are talking about, I picked that one up quite fast :) It is actually a lot harder than it seems, you have to really know when to smile, laugh or say 'ooh' and make a face. It can be hard, but it's very useful!

4. Being a foreigner, I have learned a lot about different people just by listening and pretending not to understand when anyone talks about others. Someone actually looked at me once, then asked her friend 'sure she doesn't understand right?', her friend nodded, then the talking began. I was just thinking 'hunny, if only you knew, I understand every little word you're saying'. You really learn who you can trust and who you can't trust, and as it turns out, there aren't many trustworthy girls here...

5. Driving a motorbike, ok, this one I actually didn't learn from my Egyptian family, but it's pretty funny! Before I became Muslim, when my husband and I were just boyfriend and girlfriend, he taught me how to ride his motorbike! I was pretty good, we would drive around after midnight because then there weren't so much police. Everyone stared, pointed fingers and laughed... but we didn't care :) I almost killed us once though, I had to take a turn and then there were another car coming straight at us, my husband had to quickly pull the frontbrake... woops.

6. Bargaining, this one my mom is very proud of, I have become very good at bargaining whenever we are out shopping, of course now most shops here in Luxor have fixed prices, but when you go to the Souq to buy vegetables or other things, it's good to know how to get the prices down.

I think this will end it, I hope you enjoyed reading about my unusual skills. They might not be so unusual, but hey, the post needed a title alright.