Sept 22

Sept 22 Friday, I was able to sleep in relatively late. Got up and ate some of my Corn Flakes again, but after that it was a big homework day for me though. The most I've actually sat down and done since I got here. I worked for hours out of the Al-Kitaab books and from other assignments which my teachers gave me. I worked basically all day in my room, and then Matt and I planned on grabbing a bite to eat at 5:30, so we headed out to the Old Town to the same open-air restaurant we had gone to last week for the tasty ganem. We found it pretty easily. This guy kept trying to sell me a jambiya, the traditional dagger, while we ate. For only about $5, I would've bought it, but I don't really know anything about buying a 'good' one, and I figure I have 6 months here to figure it out... The food was good just like last time. Although we didn't have a lively conversation with any Yemeni's like last time, which was a lot of fun. On the way back from the Old City to the student housing we did get a bit lost, I got all turned around and wasn't sure where a familiar street was, so we had to ask a number of people to get going in the right direction. Matt had decided that he was going to go to the internet cafe tonight to Skype some people instead of the bowling alley, but I was trying to make it to Tahrir Square on time, but getting lost delayed me. I made it there about 10-15 minutes late and saw neither Markus, nor Ben. I waited around there for another 10-15 minutes and then walked around for a little bit. I saw where one of the other schools is, Yemen Language Center, and headed back to Tahrir. This little kid started talking to me, he actually spoke Standard Arabic somehow, so I was able to understand him. Some other guy started talking to me also and then just gave me a handful of mini-bananas, it was strange, I ate two of them and gave him the rest back. Then in the middle of Tahrir Square a festival was starting in celebration of the elections, I was told, with all sorts of traditional Yemeni dances from all different cities and regions of Yemen. I began talking with many people around me, people really become interested when they see a foreigner speaking Arabic. I made a few friends that night, I suppose. After the dances I said bye to most of them, and then hung out with a 20 year old named Ahmed, from the south for a while longer. He gave me is phone number and told me to call him and whatnot, although I wasn't planning on it... Also the Islamic holy month of Ramadan was confirmed to start tomorrow (it depends on the sighting of the moon, since Islamic months are based on a Lunar calendar, not on the Sun/Solar). And on my way back the markets became really busy with people even though it was after midnight, due to Ramadan.