 I think the biggest culture shock moment was being called the American which was really offensive to me especially in a time frame where in a post-911 world growing up as an Arab Muslim in the US I felt exceptionally marginalized and I felt anything but included in this imagination of what an American is and then I go 6,000 miles to Lebanon and then on that same trip I go out to my mother's city of Latakia in Syria and I'm constantly referred to by my family and my extended family as the American so my Arabic is not good enough my Arabic has an accent and the other culture shock which was hilarious on that same trip is that at the time it didn't eat red meat I still don't eat red meat but we had and this this circulated so if you tell anybody that you're a vegetarian in the Middle East it is quite the experience so we were getting these meals sent to our little chalet on the beach in this seaside town called Latakia and they brought in what is called they brought in Mashi and Mashi is like can be a cabbage or eggplant stuffed with rice and frequently it's stuffed with meat and they served it to me and they said hey here's lunch and I was like I can't eat that and they said well it's a vegetable and I said I know but it has red meat in it and they said no no no you don't know this is what we make here and I said I know we have Syrian food every single day in my household I know that it has red meat and then their counter was yeah but just a little so why don't you eat it so that's always a bit of a challenge when you go back home is to deal with the vegetarian issue