One of the interesting things about staying at the hotel in Rome was the television programming. It only took one flip through the channels to discover my limited viewing choices. There were two channels in English -- CNN and BBC News. So as long as all I wanted was to stay up-to-date on current events, I was all set. If, however, I simply wanted some sort of mind-numbing entertainment, I was pretty much out of luck. Most of the channels were either Italian or German, with a very large number of American programs dubbed into either language. And I did, in fact, watch an entire episode of "The Simpsons" in Italian, because I'd seen it several times before and understood what was going on. And I understand enough German to catch bits and pieces of conversation, so I also watched some sort of German home improvement show (I think it might have been the German version of "Trading Spaces") and a news program about the lack of affordable housing for the elderly in Germany. Of course, with my less-than-fluent understanding of German, what I heard sounded something like, "the floor... great... I'd like... very happy... my blue jacket... yes, yes, maybe, no!"
There were also three Arabic channels on my television set. One of them seemed to show nothing but a strange sort of Arabic soap opera -- although at first I thought it might be a sitcom. The acting was that over-the-top kind of thing you only see when actors are either trying to be funny, or just happen to be inadvertently funny without realizing how funny they really are. After several minutes of watching the actors and the super-dramatic zoom-in camera work, I realized it was the latter. I watched the soap opera until the credits were rolling, at which time Rick said, "would you PLEASE change the channel..."
Another Arabic channel on my TV was Al Jazeera, which I was strangely hooked on. If I wasn't interested in the English-language news, I'd be watching Al Jazeera. This prompted Rick to dub me "insane girl," seeing as I couldn't understand a word anyone was saying. But I would stare at the television in serious concentration, as if simply watching could unravel the unintelligible language into perfectly clear threads. I was also mesmerized by the news ticker at the bottom of the screen -- is it just me, or is Arabic writing lithe and artistic and graceful in a way most other languages aren't? Do non-English speakers think English looks artistic? Or do they think it looks blocky and cumbersome? I feel like I could write "don't forget to take out the garbage" in Arabic, hang it on my wall, and it would make a lovely conversation piece.
And the third Arabic channel on my Roman television seemed to be a very conservative news/prayer channel. Any time I turned to this channel, they were either in the middle of an all-male-in-traditional-dress newscast, or they were simply panning a camera over thousands of worshippers in Mecca. But there never seemed to be any indication of what this channel WAS, exactly. I knew Al Jazeera was Al Jazeera because every now and then the website would scroll past on the ticker. The only identifying characteristic about the conservative channel was a palm tree up in the corner of the screen. A palm tree with two crossed swords underneath it. Which looked rather threatening to the palm tree, actually...
And until yesterday, I assumed that was just some kind of station call sign -- kind of like the NBC peacock or whatever. But last night I happened to be wandering around one of my favorite websites, www.fotw.net -- Flags of the World (yes, I have a strange obsession with flags... maps, too -- perhaps I'll expound on that another day). And I was looking at the flag of Saudi Arabia, and reading about it, and I learned that the Saudi Arabian flag is only flown for official purposes -- private citizens aren't supposed to fly the flag. However, private citizens can fly a plain green flag with, guess what? Yep, a palm tree and two crossed swords in the corner. Understanding that helped me understand the third Arabic channel -- it was Saudi Arabian TV. That would explain the very conservative slant, as Saudi Arabia is one of the most conservative countries -- maybe the most? -- in the Middle East.
And by the way, I did understand a little bit of the newscast one night. To my surprise, Saudi Arabian TV was reporting on the World Series -- and I very distinctly heard the words "Chicago White Sox." And then something that sounded like hakuna matata, but I'm pretty sure that was just my imagination...
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