Sept 29

Sept 29. Friday... Yawm al-Jumaa. I slept until probably about 2pm... Really late, but it was nice to get a lot of sleep... After that, I basically just messed around on my computer... Playing some games, typing in Notepad about what I've been up to lately. That passed a couple of hours, after which I did some homework in my room and also talked with Markus and Matt for a bit. Turns out Markus wasn't feeling too well today, possibly from the big feast we had yesterday, I don't know. Although I felt fine. So he was just taking it easy in his room, and didn't really want to go out to eat or anything. By 6:15 when it was time to break the fast, Matt and I went out to this little falafel place he found near Bab-al-Sabah, on the Sa'ila (the water way). Turned out to be really really good. Most of the sandwiches served here aren't like the traditional Arabic food that people are accustomed too, like falafel on a pita-style bread, no here if you get a traditional falafel or shawarma, it is served on a mini-Baguette type thing, however this falafel restaurant serves it on a pita-style bread, complete with lettuce, tomatoes, sauces, and spices. All for only 30 riyals a piece, 15 cents. Even a good deal by Yemeni standards I think. Granted they are small so you have to get two, but they are pretty good, and you can't beat the price. After that we were supposed to head out to the supermarket to pick up some juice or soda or something for the German Girls' "party" tonight. We made it to Huda Supermarket on Al-Zubairi street at about 7:30pm but it was still closed. Then we ran into Yudid, one of the German girls, and her friend, who's name escapes me, from Ireland, studying at CALES. They still had to go buy more food for their dinner party tonight, so we said we'd see them at 9. Walked all the way back to the house, and just bought about 8 small cans of soda from the local stores, we were only expecting about 8 people. So we headed back and hung out at the house until just about 8... Then we headed out for the Bayt at-Talabat (the girls house) but had no idea where it was, just somewhere amongst the Old City, across the Sa'ila, so we had to have Yudid come meet us at the Institute. We technically live in the Old City at our house, but it is among the newer part, on the west side of the Sa'ila, across the east side is where you find the real Old City, with tiny streets and cramped buildings. We made it to the girls house to whichven the entrance is strange, you have to duck through the doorway and step down, then climb up some small stairways, sometimes having to duck from the ceiling, and minding your step because each one seems to be at a different height, and not always level. Most of the doorways in the house you have to duck under or through, and even the main floor of the common room between the kitchen and bedrooms was terribly uneven. Almost wave-like. Very funny. We climbed to the very top floor to a balcony. They had a large table up there and lots of chairs (like lawn furniture, but outdoor seating is nice!) along with an amazing view across the city. Maybe even better than the guy's house, expecially from the balcony, but we have a great 180 degree view from our mafraj, and are basically the highest building in the area. Sandra was already in the kitchen at this time, and Yudid left me and Matt (Markus, being sick, stayed home) in charge of the BBQ, and she headed back to the kitchen to help Sandra with the cooking. Then Matt decided that since I am American I obviously know more about it and stuck me in charge... The BBQ was a tiny thing on the floor, but it was okay, however the problem was with the coals... They went and bought coals today, however what they ended up with was basically a bag of burnt, charred sticks... Nothing like any coal I have ever used before. Without lighter fluid, without real charcoal, just some charred sticks, newspaper and matches. I honestly didn't think it would actually light, and even if it did, that it would be hot enough to cook anything on. Needless to say it took a long time and some trial and error to actually get it hot and burning, but after about a half hour it was going decently. At about that time a whole large group of people arrived up to the balcony, let's see, there was Christoph from Germany, studying at CALES 3 months, and working at the German Embassy part time, there was Luca, from Italy also at CALES for three months, along with his wife, the Irish girl who also works at a hospital here, there was here colleague from work, Muhammad, a doctor originally from Palestine, and his sister, didn't catch her name, along with her Iraqi friend, she has lived in Yemen for 10 years, and there was also Michael from Switzerland, who was older, studying at CALES also, but speaks Arabic very well as he lived in Israel/Palestine for three years. So all-in-all there was 10 of us out on this little balcony. We all talked for quite a long time, which was really nice to meet and hang out with some other Westerners once-and-awhile. We just talked about Sana'a, what we are studying, about the difference between the schools, etc. All the while I continued nursing the BBQ, having to blow on it constantly to keep it hot and get it hotter. Eventually food started coming, starting first with appetizers of all sorts, lots of various types of salads and vegetables, at this time I threw the potatoes on the BBQ (hot enough after about an hour of work), it was really quite delicious. Then we had lots of shrimp, really good French bread, the potatoes, along with the chicken which we heated up on the BBQ. There was a lot of food, it's hard to remember everything they had, but they threw a great feast. After everyone was finished we all grabbed dishes to take down to the kitchen, and then we all sat up in the mafraj. Their mafraj was okay, maybe not even technically a mafraj (I think it has to be on the top floor), but the seating area isn't as nice as ours, although they do have some cool posters of President Ali Abdullah Saleh hanging up. I obtained some posters of him awhile ago just before the election, but I still have yet to hang it in my room, or up in our mafraj, in the future, hopefully. So in the mafraj, we all just continued talking, and they had tea available and sweets too, but I just had some cookies. After about an hour or so in the mafraj the whole group of us took off to leave Yudid and Sandra with their huge mess and tons of leftover shrimp. I'm not sure how much they spent on everything, but they were very generous to host all of us like that. It made Matt and I feel dumb for bringing only 8 small cans of soda, there wasn't enough to go around, and it had to be divided amongst paper cups. I was also amazed at how much stuff they cooked, considering I haven't cooked a single thing here (unless cereal counts!), and they said they'd be throwing another get together again on October 3rd to celebrate German-something or other day, complete with German food I guess. I'll look forward to it if it actually happens. After that I returned to start doing my homework for the following day. I couldn't sleep though and stayed up really late, even for Ramadan standards, then the sun started coming up and made it even harder to sleep.