Rule#5 Having A Picnic- Arab Style (5c)

Picnic in the Middle of nowhere

Picnics are essential for the bonding of Arab families, so as a child going to every trip was mandatory.  My parents would take us out at a minimum of once every month to place in a middle of nowhere, where there was barely any trace of human life.  There was nothing but nature to surround us.  Sounds pretty creepy right?  Well as a snobby teen, these trips seemed like torture to me.  I felt like I was on lock down, and these trips were a strategic way to force us to have “quality time” with our parents.  The fact that my parents never allowed us to listen to our iPods no matter how long it took to get to our destination didn’t help.  I was out of my comfort zone and I couldn’t tune out or disconnect through my heavy metal music.  To make matters worse, with every trip each member of the family had to engage in a practice called the “circle of trust”.  We all had to sit in a circle and individually share our secrets with the family.  This was supposed to bind us “closer” as family, but really my brothers and I pretty much used everything shared as potential blackmail material.

This was all pretty much unique to my family, but there are a few steps I realized that all Middle Eastern families do when going on a picnic.  Here are a few I’m sure you’ll enjoy:

1) The process of packing food.  This usually starts way earlier than it needs to, say 5am, so that you/your parents can notoriously over pack the coolers with food.  Some of the essential food items include: tea, a variation of tea biscuits, manakish (dough topped with thyme, cheese, or ground meat), sandwich wraps, and juice.  If this was a picnic joined by more than one family, say your cousins were coming too, they had to bring their own individual cooler packed with food.  I don’t know why this is, it just is.

2) Arabic mixed tapes.  Make sure you have a variety of Arabic mixed tapes; you know, classical, contemporary pop, everything.  The purpose of the mixed tapes is for you and your family to take turns singing each verse and create mayhem on the road.  Oh, but it doesn’t end there.  Make sure to get a portable cassette player so you can bring those tapes with you to your the picnic!  Playing this version of karaoke is also important for the bonding process.

Variety of mixed tapes…

3) Bring food for the car ride.  This habit is best characterized as a “first world problem”.  Considering our cooler is packed, we can’t really touch the food since we’re saving it until we arrive to our destination.  But “what if” we get hungry on the road?  You always have to cover your bounds and get some extra snacks.  Usually, the food variety consists of nuts, chips, pop, and ice cream.  If you pass by a falafel place on the way, then definitely stop there as well.

First World Problems

4) Bring your pillows and a blanket.  There’s always that chance that you’ll spend more than an hour on the road, and considering  you’ve all gotten up early to pack the coolers, by the time its 10am you should feel drowsy as hell.  Of course, you can’t go to sleep right away, you first have to engage in step 1&2 mentioned above.  By the time you’ve given your part in the “family bonding process”, the effect will be stronger than xanax to your body.  Enjoy your sleep while it lasts (unless you’re driving), because chances are this trip is going to be more than 6 hours long.

5) Bring an extra pair of clothes and your swim suit.  The thing is, you never really know where things may lead during these family outings.  Usually my parents start driving without any inclination to where we are going.  So they always tell us to bring a change of clothes that we never end up using.  You know, “what if” we end up at a park and decide to dip in the lake?  No one wants to miss out on that.  I think I’ve established that the “what if” question is the one cause to most our problems.

So there you have it, now each of you can have a picnic Arab Style!  Let me know what you think the next topic should be in the comment section below!