al-3aaris wala al-arz?

I think i'm getting sick. And it's rainy out. I'm inside drinking za3tar tea and posting.

Amanda requested the telling of this story. So here goes.

I went out with Lillie one day, she on her way to Qasid and i on my way to find the Jordan Association for Family Planning and Protection main offices at the Medina Riyadiya area. I was following the directions i had written down as given me by a professor that i'm working for. As such, i told the cab driver that i wanted Hotel Al-3aaris.

Lillie looked at me and said, "Are you sure? Isnt' that Funduq Al-Arz? Why would they put two hotels with almost the same name right near each other?" I had been convinced the hotel was 3aaris, because that's what i had written down when the professor gave me the directions. However the cab driver, as well, confirmed that there was no such Funduq Al-3aaris.

This would be an appropriate time to include that 3aaris is dangerously close to the arabic word for 'pimp' ('3rs' but with a hard s), and that Funduq Al-Arz (Cedar Hotel) is known to be a brothel.

[Pause: I just burned off all my tastebuds with my new cup of za3tar tea.]

So when we get to the neighborhood, the taxi stops in front of Funduq Al-Arz the brothel, and the driver looks at us, expecting us to get out.

"Actually," I say, "we need to find the organization for family planning that is around here. We don't want the hotel itself." Not only are we foreign women looking for the brothel, NOW we are foreign women who need the family planning association.

The taxi then proceeds to ask passersby where we can find the family planning association, and they direct us just a few blocks up the street, where I do find it and get my interview, albeit at the cost of making quite the haram impression of ourselves on the poor cab.