Today's Arabic

I just realized that I have not introduced greetings to you yet this year. So here we go. (By the way, I'm writing H in lower case and upper case, because they're different sounds in Arabic.)
merHaban = hello
You've probably heard Muslims say "assalaam alaikum (Peace be upon you)" and their response "wa alaium assalaam (and upon you peace)". Christians say "salaam lakum (peace to you)".
Arabic-speakers tend to ask "How are you?" more often and about everyone comparing to Americans or Japanese. For example, they'd start by saying "keif Haaluk (how are you)?" and then continue on to say "How's your mom? How's your dad? How's ...? and then "What's new with you?" etc etc etc...
Egyptians say other expressions from the Modern Standard Arabic. So let me list some of them here.
'amla eh? = How are you?
kuwaies(a). = I'm good. (a for female speakers)
or you can also replace kuwaies(a) with alhamdulillah
alHamdulillah = Praise beongs to God (if you believe in God, that is)
Other useful phrases are:
shukran = thank you
afwan = you're welcome (in response to thank you)
ahlan wa sahlan = welcome (to a place or the speaker's home)
maa assalaama = peace be with you (good-bye)
And perhaps the most useful phrase of all is:
fiin al-Hammaam? = Where's the bathroom?
So now, you can ask people. "merhaban. fiin al-Hammaam? ..... shukran. maa assalaama." (^^)