it's just different...

There's random things that are just DIFFERENT here:

-no voicemail on cell phones .. seriously.  Most people either text when they need to leave a message, or you just call back the random number that called you to see what whoever that was wanted.  (<--I think I love that sentence).
-phone numbers have no dashes.  My phone number is 0508729535 .. sometimes I go all "American" on the people here and write it like this:  (050) 872-9535 .. but no one does that.
-most restaurants don't serve alcohol. 
-most movies that are shown, even on TV, have Arabic subtitles.
-dryers suck .. I'm serious.  At least mine does .. I mean, it dries my clothes, but you have to empty the water tank (it doesn't have a proper exhaust thing, so it gathers the water in a special tank that you have to empty after every drying session .. yes I'm whining!!)  AND you HAVE to iron .. b/c the dryer is not a good "pretend iron" here like mine was back in the USA.  Good thing I'm in the twilight zone and can hire a maid to handle such tasks.
-candy tastes different... snickers .. twix, kit-kat, etc.  just doesn't taste right ..
-toilets flush weird .. no idea how to explain.
-Salesmen change their prices depending on your nationality.  People come to the door to sell ANYTHING .. one person, in particular, wanted to sell me rugs, which I need .. and he wanted to bring them to my house and sell them to me-- how great is that??  I'm serious!!  to have someone bring the shopping to me instead of me having to pack up 3 kids, head to a market, shop forever with my 3 adorable, yet constantly-needing-something children to find what I need??  I made an appointment with him until he said, "where are you from?" .. because the translation to that is, "how much can I mark up my prices?" .. when he asked me that I said, "Oooh, bummer .. nevermind, I don't need your carpets" .. good for me, right?  yeah, we still need rugs.  whatever.

more to come .. til next time ..