???????

“Dr.”

“But are you a man or a woman?”

aries: always replies “ok”;

taurus: quits in the middle of the convo;

gemini: send the text word-by-word instead of writing a paragraph;

cancer: replies to your text with a phone call;

leo: he has the answer for everything;

virgo: writes the texts but leaves the mobile without even sending those;

libra: uses properly the punctuation;

scorpio: texts you “you know what happened?” but then goes offline and won’t ever come back;

sagittarius: replies with the perfect gif;

capricorn: writes everything clearly and correctly;

aquarius: replies with a text that’s actually 500 rows long;

Yesterday Childish Gambino aka Donald Glover released a music video for his new song, “This Is America.”

We talked for a few minutes about the difference between archaeology and paleontology. I taught him the word “coprolite”, and said that it was a way for scientists to talk about fossilized poop without laughing. Then he turned to me and asked, “Have you ever seen a girl with stuff all over her head?” “You mean fabric?” I asked. “Like a hijab?” “YES!” he said. “How did you know?” “I know many hijabis,” I said. “I lived in Morocco for six months a few years ago. Lots of women wear them there, and I see many visitors wearing them here every day.” “You do?! If you see one, let me know! I have something I want to say to a girl in a hijab.” “And what’s that?” I asked, bracing myself for the possibility of an uncomfortable conversation about bigotry.  The boy beamed. “As-salāmu ʿalaykum!“  I felt my shoulders relax. “Waʿalaykumu as-salām,” I said.

Apparently a boy in his class spoke Arabic, and this kid was fascinated by the language. We traded vocabulary and I told him a couple of funny stories about my translation failures while I was studying abroad. When his mother called him back, he stood up, held out his tiny hand, and shook mine politely. “It was very nice to meet you!”