Stay Tuned

Our furnished flat includes some extra things such as artwork, dishes and a television with satellite. Af first, I thought this would be awesome. Satellite TV? We wouldn't be cut off from the world after all. I began flipping through channels and discovered that we have access to as many Arab soap operas that we could ever want.

I kept thinking that it's satellite TV. Surely there are some TV waves from America floating through the air. Sure enough, John located 6 channels that are in English. They are:

CNN International
BBC
MBC Action--Random action American "B" movies from the 1990s. 
FOX Movies--Newer American movies that fortunately have had all questionable scenes removed.
MBC 4--American shows such as "90210," "Friends," Arab dramas and Oprah (very popular here)
MBC 2--British movies, American shows like "Dukes of Hazard" and thankfully Cricket matches.

In 2 months, we've found only a few recurring TV shows that we can count on. "The Unit" (one of our personal favorites) will show every Tuesday night. The episodes are reruns from seasons past, but hey we'll take what we can get. A real surprise was the discovery that American Idol is on Thursday and Friday nights AND they are the most recent episodes. I try to avoid all internet connections until we find out about the voting each week.

The commercials are good practice for our emerging Arabic vocabulary. We can make out at least 2 or 3 words in each one so far. Some days when we are going for "full immersion learning" we will turn on the Arabic stations and just listen. Although I understand approximately three words, I think that the words might be seeping into my memory brain cells and will sometime somewhere emerge at just the right time. 

Random shows will pop up now and then. One day the show, "Let's Speak Korean!" came on. The girls thought it was hilarious and sat down to watch it. There were adult Koreans teaching "useful" phrases to a studio audience. With each phrase they would have someone act it out. The phrases for that day were:

"Kim has a very bad headache." (Kim is holding his head and showing pain on his face.)
"Kim has a hangover from drinking too much alcohol." (Kim acts like he's drinking from a bottle and then passes out.)
"Kim's friends help him to his house." (Additional audience members pick up the "drunk" Kim and carry him to the couch.)
"Kim is going to sleep now." (Kim lays his head down and closes his eyes.)

I looked at the girls and said, "Wow. That is so helpful. Next time we go to the Korean restaurant in Zemelak we'll know just what to say!" We laughed and shook our heads.

TV's not a big part of our lives so it's okay. We're thankful to have a few selections that help us feel connected with the rest of the world and of course there's always iTunes which provides podcasts of the national news. These moments help alleviate pangs of homesickness and keep us "in the loop" of life of our family and friends.

I have to close this note now. I think John just flipped past an episode of "Rockford Files." Gotta go.