Oct 1

Oct 1 Sunday. Well, I either ignored my alarm clock, or didn't set it properly, because I somehow woke up at 2pm... An hour after my first lessons started. I quickly got ready and headed out to the institute, and caught Faris as he was leaving down my street, he just said we'd do it tomorrow. I thought I could get an hour, but he was set on leaving, and I was the one an hour late... So I just went to the institute and waited to use the internet there. It is either really good there or really bad, I'm not sure why it varies though. Got in some emailing and whatnot, after that I decided to actually go walk around the city during the daylight hours, which I don't often do now during Ramadan. Then I was stopped by this 12 or 13 year old kid in Bab-Al-Sabah... He was staring at my strangely, but I just passed by. He came after me asking if I remembered him, which I really didn't at this time, I meet so many people it is difficult to remember them all. He asked me if I still wanted to buy some Yemeni clothes and jambiya and whatnot, which I want to do, although I wasn't sure about right now... He told me that his friend's dad has a shop real close by and lead me to it. Little place called Sam City in Bab-Al-Sabah. They owner, Muhammad, was very friendly, along with his son, I'd guess, Ali... Later Ali started making boxing gestures and saying "Muhammad Ali" so I'd remember them for next time. Anyways I came in and said I wanted to buy the whole shibang, all the Yemeni clothes... Muhammad speaks really good Arabic, so it was easy talking with him, especially when I know nothing about Yemeni clothes except the names. He got out a thobe for me, the long white robe they wear in the Arabian peninsula, and I put it on in the store over my jeans and shirt. Then he brought out a jambiya, the traditional dagger that most men wear here (purely ceremonial dagger), then the shawl which you can wear on your shoulders, or as a head wrap, of course he had to wrap it on me. I apparently bought a very nice wool shawl, which is 'more beautiful' than the 'average' or 'normal' shamoota (might be wrong) which costs maybe 1/3 less. Then I took my jeans off under the thobe in the store to put on the baggy white pants that they wear under it, along with a plain white tank top which should be worn under it, but I waited to put that on later. I also bought ma'waaz or foota, which is the skirt/sarong type garment that they wear here, which is traditional from southern Yemeni, but many people in Sana'a wear it too (whether they are from the south or not). Let's see, the whole lot of stuff from the store cost me about 11,000 riyals I believe, or maybe $55. Pretty expensive I think... I mean I know he charged me 4500 for the Jambiya, and I've seen them for only 1000 in Souq al-Milh, but whatever, I just thought it was best to buy it all at once. Like I said, they were really friendly though and told me to come back to drink tea with them sometime in the evening, since it's Ramadan, and to come back if I need help to tie my shawl, or buy any more clothes. Then the little kid, my new 'friend' took me to a guy selling suit jackets, which you need to wear when you have a thobe and jambiya it seems, who was just selling them off the street, draping the coats over the hand rail near the 'underpass' to Tahrir Square from Bab al-Sabah. Tried on a few different coats and found a really nice pin-stripped one for 1500 riyals, or $7.50 for a new coat. Pretty amazing. He had matching pants, but I just got the jacket. It is helpful to know that here they say as-sandal, al-jacket, al-coat, and ash-shawl for some of their clothing items, for easy. So I had the whole outfit, except the fact that I was wearing some Diesel tennis shoes which totally did not go with the outfit now. As I was heading back with my old clothes in a bag, and my new 'friend' with him, he then started asking if I wanted to give him some money for helping me... It was then that I finally remembered that I met him a few nights ago in Tahrir Square when I was supposed to go bowling but instead st around watching Yemeni dances for the elections, he was the homeless kid who spoke good Standard Arabic... Anyways all I had was 1000 bills, and some 200s so I offered him 400 riyals ($2) which he was complaining was too little, he wanted to buy food for his family. He wanted 500, but I had no 100s, so he's like it's okay we'll go exchange it, and we went to about 4 stores asking for change which none had, finally got it from a guy on the street. Yeah, so my Yemeni clothes cost me a little extra for my personal shopper, who really didn't do anything except lead me to a store and lead me to a guy who sells jackets. So I spent nearly all the money I had in my wallet, but I got a great Halloween costume now, at the least. Went back to the mafraj up stairs to find Markus and Matt doing homework and they were quite shocked at my outfit. They asked me all sorts of questions since they haven't themselves gone 'Yemeni'. Anyways, I replaced the tennis shoes with my American Eagle flip-flops, and my t-shirt with the white tank top, and we all headed out for dinner. We decided to go to the nice restaurant Al-Shallal, walking there about 15 minutes away. Immediately people in the restaurant started noticing the foreigner in full on Yemeni clothes and smiling and laughing. Asking "Jambiya?" and giving me a thumbs up. Dinner was good, had the broast chicken (fried chicken) along with really really crispy french fries, some various sauces (the garlic dip is great) and a side of bread. Normally I'd be able to wipe my hands on my jeans or something, no problem, but no-no-no when you wear a nice white thobe. After that we had to split up to catch buses (again the smallest of the buses are just 6 person mini-vans for 10 cents). Markus and I rode together and we got to talking with the Yemenis in the vehicle who were very amused that I was Yemeni now. But then the guy said "you are Yemeni, but the sandals aren't good"... So I guess my flip-flops don't cut it, I'll have to buy some authentic Yemeni sandals before I have the complete look. We got back to the bus stop area near Bab al-Sabah, and Markus noticed Matt had just arrived also, so he decided to hide behind me and see if Matt would notice me sue to my Yemeni attire, sure enough he just passed right by before we stopped him. I grabbed my stuff for class before heading out to Ismail's. As I was walking on my ow back to the bus stop plenty of people were noticing my new clothes, and I thought it was funny that one guy told me in English as I passed by "Yes, very very handsome" hah. So I crammed onto a bus and ended up at Ismail's a few minutes early. His son greeted me at the door as usual and was very surprised of course. Ismail came into the mafraj about 5 minutes later and was equally surprised. He said I look like a tribesman now. We commenced our lesson as usual, although the power strangely went out at about 9pm and we had to work by candle light for about an hour, and of course I had to adjust to sitting with what is essentially like a dress on the low cushions of a mafraj sitting room. I also found that when you arrive to a house you take off your jambiya and jacket in the diwan or mafraj. Ismail also demonstrated for me a few times how to wrap the shawl around your head. After the lesson I was expecting my usual friend Ahmed to by in Tahrir Square, but I didn't see him, I think he might be working late at night now, if I understood him right, so I decided to head to the juice stand for a big strawberry drink which I crave, and a 'meat' sandwich (which is kind of a gross mystery meat/fat, but one of the few things to actually eat at the juice stand). I was also extra careful not to drip any strawberry juice or meat onto my thobe. I then headed back to the house, and talked to my mom on my cell phone (she called me, of course) for about a half hour. The power went out while we were talking so I had to fumble around in the dark to look for my flashlight. Did some more homework and tried to get to sleep at least a little earlier than usual so I wouldn't miss my lesson the next day!