Mondays in the Middle East - Kindle Version
The Lighter Side of Arabian Nights
Wholesome humor with a fresh perspective on the Middle East.
What happens when you put an ordinary Midwestern guy smack dab in the middle of an Arabic-speaking region? Sounds like a recipe for disaster, doesn’t it? Instead, author David Cross cooks up something ingenious with his comical account of the differences between the Middle East and the Midwest in Mondays in the Middle East: The Lighter Side of Arabian Nights.
“Everyone wants to be informed about the Middle East, but they haven’t gotten the whole picture,” says Cross. “Here they’ll find a piece of the puzzle that’s missing. They’ll find real life cast on the backdrop of their own backyard.”
The entertaining travelogue oozes hilarity every step of the way while providing readers with a valuable takeaway: the Middle East is not just what the mass media present. Cross learned the lasting value of maintaining the integrity of his own beliefs and culture while respecting and interacting with the beliefs and cultures of others. “Doing this on a global scale has given me an even deeper appreciation of who I am and where I am from,” says Cross. “It also gives me a unique viewpoint in relating to the world’s cultures, whether I meet people at the Pyramids of Giza or the grocery store in Minneapolis.”
It began more than 15 years ago, when Cross was studying abroad for a semester in a Middle East studies program in Cairo, Egypt. Through his courses and his continued exposure to the Middle Eastern lifestyle, he soon gained an appreciation for and a deep interest in the Middle Eastern perspective. “Since that time,” he says, “I’ve spent several years living in different parts of the Middle East, and the curiosity has simply become a lifestyle.”