an interesting bus ride

Ok, this happened a few weeks ago at this point, but I still thought it was worth writing about...

I was waiting for the bus home after the gym one night, and the other girl waiting with me was a Muslim girl. I'm struggling now to remember where exactly she said she was from, but that part is relatively insignificant, minus the fact that english was her second language and she was very strictly Muslim. We started chatting, commiserating about how long we'd been waiting for the bus and why the previous one had mysteriously just not come (public transportation can be a huge pain in the ass here...).

I asked her why she was in Sydney.

She was 23 and had come with her husband, who decided he wanted to work for 6 months abroad. She hadn't really wanted to come, but was obligated to follow him. She was doing some studying while she was here, and also working at a local fast food place. She told me this was the first time in her life she'd worn jeans. She also told me how much she was dreading getting up the next morning at 4:30am.

Why, I asked, are you getting up at 4:30am? (thinking that seemed a bit early for any uni classes.)

To pray, she said. I pray 5 times every day, but it's been hard with school and work because I get to work at 4:30pm and i'm done at 10, so I can't pray before dinner or after. So, I go home now and pray for a long time, then get up in the morning and do it again. Plus, I cook for my husband.

(I'm reminded how much i love the feminist movement at this point!)

We chatted more on the bus, mostly me asking her questions. I asked her why she prays 5 times a day. She said, because I have to...

She told me that tonight was the first night she was ever out alone after dark. Slightly shocked, I asked why.

Because it's not safe in my country, she said. The women always have to have a man with them if they want to go out after dark. The men are OK, but women should never go out alone. It's not safe.

Yikes...

We chatted more and somehow got to the topic of drinking. She told me she's never had a drink. Of course I asked why. "Because I'm not supposed to."

Why?, I asked again. (this was entertaining for me.)

Because they say so. (they??...) yes, because alcohol makes you do bad things.

ok.

(talking about food now) she complained that she was getting fat as she got older because all their diet is is rice and meat and fish -- not pork though. I said I really liked sushi and mediterranean-type cuisine, and that I didn't eat pork either. I decided to throw in, at this point, "because I'm not supposed to."

Why?, she asked.

Oh, because i'm Jewish, I said.

Silence for a minute... I was VERY interested in how this conversation was going to go.

she says tentatively, so, do you believe in just one God?

yes, I said.

Oh, she said.

I should also say that earlier in the conversation she made a reference to Ramadan, and was very shocked when i not only knew what that was, but also that they fasted during the day for it. it didn't surprise me that she knew nothing about judiasm, and probably had never met a jew, but i was really really interested in what went through her head right as i said that. I'm sure the only thing she's ever heard about jews was any of the fighting going on in the middle east and all the negative stereotypes that come along with that. Unfortunately, the bus ride ended right at this point (talk about bad timing!), and I haven't run into her since. I'm really really hoping to run into her again sometime soon...