Mr. Taxi Man

Part of our life here is taking a taxi to language school. After two weeks, we've come to this conclusion:

Taxi drivers are a lot like a box of chocolates. Ya never know whatcha gonna get!

Our first week of school we went extra early with two of our classmates for our first go at commuting by taxi. There seem to be very few, if any, guidelines here for driving so we were all surprised (but somehow not too surprised) when the taxi driver said he could not take all four of us because of the police. OK, so our friends exited the taxi, and we were off...
Dan sat in the front trying out his Arabic, and our seemingly scrupulous taxi man began to let loose his sanguine side. Before I knew it, the car started swerving and jerking. All the while the taxi man was looking at Dan, smiling, and talking to him. It took me a few seconds to register the fact that he was purposely swerving...not only swerving but pretending to hit people and other cars! Each time he swerved toward another, he busted up laughing. He even leaned in to give Dan several high fives. We sort of laughed nervously, but I'm sure our eyes were as big as saucers...
Needless to say, we survived. To his credit, the people and cars here do seem accustomed to having to dodge one another, and Mr. Taxi man took us straight to school with time to spare. Perhaps best of all, he somehow managed to make our first day of Arabic class seem a bit less intimidating.

Here we are happy to be alive for our ride home :)