I'll just say it. It's good that I'm an American.

Cultural differences. Although people are people and at the heart we are ever so similar across countries and cultures and races and languages, cultural differences still run deep and can be quite amusing at times. I've found the cultural differences to be a little more stark than normal when I'm conversing with my professors, primarily for two reasons. One, for those of you who didn't already know, I'm a little independent - strike number one. And two, because I don't exemplify a typical American, people get even more confused.

When you're learning a language, you start out talking about your own life story, so you instantly see a lot of cultural differences and often have an amusing time trying to explain them. In a culture where it's not at all unusual for a girl to be given in marriage between the ages of 13 and 16, and where the average lifespan is fifty some years, and where people live a country that celebrates its unification with "unification or else," imagine trying to explain being 25, not married, living independent of your family from 16, and identifying yourself as politically independent. When we talk about different lifestyles and hobbies and work responsibilities, one of my professors thoroughly enjoys it. The other just shakes his head at me sometimes, making comments like "this is YOUR culture" or giving me a look that says he clearly doesn't understand why anyone would want such a life.

But most recently, my professor who enjoys discussing the differences in culture apparently decided that he needed some personal entertainment and assigned the following "language exercise" - write a personal profile advertising yourself and explaining what you want in a husband or wife. (I'll give it to him, he's got a great sense of humor.) And if you're stuck with a "language exercise" as ridiculous as that, you have to live it up, right? So I listed out my set of criteria...an independent thinker, someone who loves a good debate, who isn't afraid to question authority, yada yada yada. After spending a good several minutes laughing so hard he was almost crying, my professor commented, "This is good." And I decided it is a very good thing that I am an American, because no good Arab man here would ever want me. Hahahaha.....

I love Yemen.