Tag: Travel

Arabia, Aunt AliceLeave a comment

19 – Cultural Souvenirs from Arabia

Alice Delaney Walker, aka Dana Walker

Leaving a country is traumatic. What’s worse is being back home and thinking, “I should have bought that when I was there!”  What stops me? I have this silly feeling that anything that costs more than 100 of any denomination is too expensive.  Before I left Saudi Arabia, I went on a jewelry binge. This is not healthy shopping. It’s less painful to take a few weeks and buy a souvenir (French for “to remember”) here and there, carefully and selectively.       I love rugs, however, I’m not a doctor or an oil executive.  I’ll invest in fake Chinese rugs … Continue reading 19 – Cultural Souvenirs from Arabia

Aunt AliceLeave a comment

16 – The Journey of a Modern Nomad: Embracing Change and Adventure

Alice Delaney Walker, aka Dana Walker

  “You’ve got itchy feet,” a friend said to me.             “No,” I said, “I feel it in my stomach.” From two to 18, I lived  “in the sticks” as my Chicago cousins called Des Plaines. I saw the sidewalks laid by the neighbourhood fathers, the dirt roads tarred, schools built, cornfields turned into suburbia, the natural lake landscaped and countrified, a K-Mart discount shopping mall built nearby and I had climbed all the climbable trees on my block.  One house. One street. One town. Sixteen years. I wanted out. Since then I’ve moved nearly every two years.   “I’m … Continue reading 16 – The Journey of a Modern Nomad: Embracing Change and Adventure

Aunt AliceLeave a comment

Hunting from Animals to Clothing and Food – 15

Alice Delaney Walker, aka Dana Walker

A student who had written about hawking in Pakistan presented me with a few close-ups of hawks as their claws stilled their living prey. The hawks’ I’ve-killed-and-won eyes were self-satisfied, arrogant, proud and powerful. All I saw was the joy of killing. I mentioned it to my student who smiled happily, “Of course. He can eat now.” I don’t look like that when I leave Safeway.  Nor when I receive my monthly salary.   In the States, one of my Cambodian students told me how he had daily hunted for food. I imagined my muscles tuned to the jungle heat, eyes … Continue reading Hunting from Animals to Clothing and Food – 15

Aunt AliceLeave a comment

First Times – Part 2

Alice Delaney Walker, aka Dana Walker

The first time in a Las Vegas casino, I was shocked at the shorts, t-shirts, jeans and cheap dresses of the gamblers. It didn’t look like “Dallas – worldwide popular American TV show about wealthy Texans.”   I was also surprised by the free food and drinks, discounted hotel bills. Rather than gamble, I played Pac Man for the first time. The first time I was in a Monte Carlo gambling casino, I was astonished at the artistry and plushness of every square inch of the place.  I was also shocked at the whole idea of gambling, and gambling such lush … Continue reading First Times – Part 2

Aunt AliceLeave a comment

Engaging Students with ‘First Time’ Writing Prompts

Alice Delaney Walker, aka Dana Walker

      It’s difficult as a teacher to get students to write interesting compositions.  Over the years, I’ve invented bizarre topics to force my students to think.  However, transplanting American topics to the Gulf just doesn’t work culturally.  Gulf students are more private than Americans and don’t indulge in discussing the same topics which per-occupy Westerners:  for example, families. I blush.  High school and college nights were an endless dissection of my parents’ bizarre behavior and my six sisters’ endless cruelty and misunderstandings.  Even to this day, confidences both direct and dreadful escape my lips about my family.  Religion … Continue reading Engaging Students with ‘First Time’ Writing Prompts

Aunt AliceLeave a comment

Women Drivers – 11

Alice Delaney Walker, aka Dana Walker

   Only women should be allowed to drive.  Men’s biological urge for speed, their quest to overcome all obstacles on the road and their passionate self-absorption once in front of the wheel has littered the road with blood, heartache and years of pain which only a faith in God can heal. “Write about something wonderful or terrible,” I suggested to my students. I received paper after paper describing bloody car accidents.  Never had I known so many young people to have witnessed such carnage. The first time I seriously sat in the driver’s seat, the instructor described all the things … Continue reading Women Drivers – 11

Aunt AliceLeave a comment

Cultural Reflections: Life in the Gulf vs. America

Alice Delaney Walker, aka Dana Walker

So there I was in college last summer, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Everything was normal.  No separation of the sexes, easily availability for any and all shopping.  No problem communicating in English. No foreign-currency conversion although I found myself doing it backwards a few times to compare American and Gulf prices. I even got used to everyone wearing shorts, although I didn’t wear them. I also realized American men wear baseball hats for the same reason Arabian men and women cover their heads:  protection from the sun. It was a relief to sit in the student desk and not at the … Continue reading Cultural Reflections: Life in the Gulf vs. America

Arabia, Aunt Alice, EFL Teacher BlogLeave a comment

Embracing Reverse Culture Shock in America – 9

Alice Delaney Walker, aka Dana Walker

Last summer I returned to the States.  The Midwestern oaks, maples and elm trees were in glorious green-leaf flower on streets and surrounding unwalled houses while grass was everywhere. No wonder American money is green!  Most everyone spoke English. I loved the overflow of conversations on airplanes, in stores and while standing in movie lines but I soon tired of eavesdropping after hearing one too many, “He don’t….”  Companies have 1-800 telephone numbers:  free long-distance phone calls to sort out plane reservations or to order products.  Summer school registration with computers was quick and easy. Dormitory living became tolerable.  I … Continue reading Embracing Reverse Culture Shock in America – 9

EFL Teacher BlogLeave a comment

Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day: Chicago’s Irish Heritage – 8 March 15, 1990

Alice Delaney Walker, aka Dana Walker

  For St. Patrick’s Day in Chicago, the Chicago River is dyed green, a leprechaun and green-hats parade down State Street and Michigan Avenue. It will be broadcasted throughout the day while a lot of drinking of green-dyed refreshment accompanies … Continue reading Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day: Chicago’s Irish Heritage – 8 March 15, 1990

ArabiaLeave a comment

Tax-free Income! – 4

Alice Delaney Walker, aka Dana Walker

Those magic words encouraged my move here, yet a year later zero savings!  “No one saves the first year,” fellow teachers console me.  “You’re too busy paying for the essentials.”  Like a car, computer and credit card.  Before I came here, I speculated an exotic future, but worried about my 110 voltage computer.  It could, like me, adapt, but the problem was the Hertz.  Many feverish phone calls illuminated me that my 60-Hertz-only computer wouldn’t work in a 50-Hertz-only country.  Ever buy a computer in the Gulf?  The prices and experience just aren’t the same as in America.  Then there … Continue reading Tax-free Income! – 4