Awesome Pants

Last week we had Arab Culture Night. This meant we all dressed up in Arab clothes. This meant I needed to go shopping, and shopping in the old city is always an adventure. We navigated the maze of narrow walkways, said hello to a few of our favorite shopkeepers, and came to a nice looking shop full of colorful fabrics, racks of clothes, and shelves of other Arab stuff.

We stepped inside and went straight for the genie pants. You know the ones. Think of Genie on Aladdin. This shop was full of racks and bins of pants of all different kinds. They had silky, shiny, paisley, solid, striped, and more. As a bunch of over-eager American students, I guess it’s only fair to say we got a little excited.

“Check out these genie pants!”

“I like the green ones!”

And so on.

After a little while, the uncharacteristically calm shop owner came over and watched us utterly destroy his store. After a few minutes of watching us, he said, “Why you call them genie pants?”

We looked at each other, puzzled. It seemed so obvious.

“Haven’t you seen Aladdin?”

“Yes,” he said. We sighed, relieved.

“Well you know Genie, the big blue guy?” He nodded. “Well he wears these kind of pants, hence Genie pants.” Then it occurred to us, “What do you call them?”

“Allah-din pants.” Oh, Aladdin pants. Yeah, that would make sense too, I suppose.

“Well, since you have taught me something today, I give you discount. Twenty shekels.” They were just twenty-five.

“Sweet! Can we teach you something else?” This had the potential to be really good.

“No, I can only learn one new thing per month.” Blast.

“Well did you learn anything last month? We can make up for it. I’m a wealth of knowledge.” Sadly, the pants remained at 20 shekels, but that’s really not bad. 20 shekels is only about $6.00.

“By the way,” I said as we were leaving, “what’s your name?”

“Ahsom,” He replied, and then he smiled, “It’s awesome.”

And it was.

My awesome roommates

Most of the girls.

And here is a camel. Hopefully soon I'll ride a real one.