Syrian Parlor Games . . .

So this weekend I walk through the living room of my Syrian family to use the bathroom. Although I 'hang' with the family quite a bit - mostly making mistake after mistake with my Arabic - I tend to shy away during the weekends or when they have a lot of guests over and it seems like 'special family time'. Anyway, this weekend was like most weekends,
tons of family are over, drinking coffee, talking, and smoking in abundance. But, unlike my previous weekends here, they have a scale out and are weighing Grandma before launching into a group discussion on her weight. After I finish using the bathroom, I walk back through the living room and they invite me to get on the scale. I get on and because it is the metric system - the numbers mean absolutely nothing to me. However, the family then proceeds to discuss my weight at length with several family members noting that I am very tall - a kind way of saying that I weigh more than all of them. The 'height-factor' prompted a group speculation of my height - I'm unsure of how close they were because, again, the rest of the world and their metric system.

Of course, I find all of this hilarious. Mostly because I try to imagine a similar situation occurring in NEVER DISCUSS YOUR WEIGHT America, wherein a family weekend breaks into a amateur boxing weigh-in/open panel discussion combo platter. I invite friends and family in the States - perhaps those of you planning family reunions for this summer - to engage in this parlor game.