Fast and the Furious

So the pool here is THE hangout place. I've been there 3 times in 2 days, and many college age guys sit around tables to talk and listen to music. When we left there the other night, it was a little scary. If you've ever seen Fast and the Furoius 3: Tokyo Drift, that's what I felt we were driving like. The guy was going pretty fast and making tight spaces and turns that I wouldn't have dreamed of trying. They talk about cars here a lot. They tell you what kind of c ar they have, and then they ask what yours is. I tell everyone GM because not many people know pontiac. There are a huge number of Mercedes and BMW, but not many sports cars like Corvette. Every guy under 30 seems to want a Ferrari or Lamborghini, so that sentiment is indeed universal. I fell asleep at the pool and the owners gave me something like an air mattress to sleep on, until I got interrupted in my sleep by a couple of young boys. I am clearly exotic here, I do not think that many Americans have come in this area since the rise of Hamas a couple of years ago. The boys asked me to rate people they named with thumbs up, thumbs down, or so so. They asked about Obama, Bush, Olmert, Abbas, and more. For some reason, I think Shakira is more popular here than almost anyone, probably because she is part Lebanese according to the residents. At night, everyone wanted me to take their picture and make videos. Some had never seen a camera before. One of the really muscular guys challenged me to a swimming match where he would swim with one hand and I could swim however I liked. I told him I'd do it tomorrow if we came again. I learned a lot from the people there, some of which was very shocking and I cannot speak of on this blog. I will tell more when I am in a different location.
However, I was treated to free watermelon at the swimming pool, and the people overall could not be mroe hospitable and welcoming. They give like you are part of the family. There is a lot of cautious optimism about the US right now. The Palestinians are wary of broken promises about a state of their own. I received a new perspective from an old timer about the state of things here, which I will recount later. There are many people walking their donkeys in the streets, and is a very clear Palestinian police presence. They ticket lots of people too, they seem to have a fairly high capacity. My camera was lost and it got reported to the police and I got it back. Also, it seems that societal pressure here is the best enforcement mechanism. To find something that has been taken, you go to the camera shop and tell them to call you if someone asks for help with a particular camera because it will be yours. If someone is treating their wife badly, the society ostracizes the offender and sends food and help to the woman. Society is viewed as being responsible for enforcing law, now with some help from the Palestinian security forces.