Oct 10

Tuesday October 10. Woke up at the last minute again... Maybe at 12:45. Class with Faris at 1. He was waiting for me when I got there.... Since I wasn't feeling well the day before and then was pretty busy with Markus and the group I didn't get a whole lot done, so we just decided to have a conversation day... We just talked about all sorts of things and he helped me out with new vocabulary. After class I was going to use the internet, but all the veiled women had taken it over. I have been needing to go to the bank because I apparently need to pay 14,000 riyals ($70) to the accountant in order to arrange my residency permit (to stay longer than two months) here in Sana'a. So I hiked out to the Arab Bank on Al-Zubairi... On the way this teenage Somali kid caught eye of this foreigner walking down the street and followed my for literally two blocks asking for money. I kept telling him no, sorry, I'm a student, but he wouldn't leave me alone, crossing the street with me, etc. He was making me mad so I just gave him 50 riyals (25 cents) to go away, and after I gave him that he said "No, 200"... He didn't really seem to speak much Arabic... Maybe just as much as his English, he just walked beside me with his hand out. Well thankfully he didn't follow me all the way to the Arab Bank to see me pull $200 out from the ATM, then I probably wouldn't have had an excuse. Stopped at the money exchange on the way back to get my nearly 40,000 riyals, after which I feel extremely wealthy as I've never held 40,000 anything in my hand before... Headed back to the house, but turns out I had just missed Markus as he left to the airport, so I never got a chance to say a proper goodbye. I thought I would've seen him today, but not at all. He was probably busy with last minute things. That was too bad. Matt told me he was going to meet up with Ishaq and Ed tonight to go to a different Ethiopian restaurant, and I said I'd come along since I didn't get to eat last night. He ran over to the girls house to give Iram Markus' old phone and phone number which she bought off him. I met up with the two of them at the institute and we headed out to catch a bus to Al-Zubairi. Only problem was we were trying to catch a bus during the fast break, so there was only one bus and no people around. And the buses sit and wait until they are full. And this one bus happened to be one of the few big ones that seat 10-12 people. So we waited like 15 minutes, but thankfully he left with it only half full. Matt had been to this restaurant last week with Ishaq and Ed, but got a little lost. It was a small place but nice, it had outdoor seating under a canopy with lawn furniture. They were also with a girl named Irena, originally from Russia, who I had never met before, and apparently used to study at the institute, but now works at some international organization here. It surprised me because Ishaq and Ed seem like such strict Muslims, and I had thought it might be weird for them to bring Iram along, but it was no problem... The food is different, there were two big platters (one between three people) which had huge things of spongy Ethiopian bread across the bottom of the platter, and then they put a whole bunch of different sections of food right on the bread, which acts like a plate nearly. So you break off sections of bread and scoop up different things, like vegetables, meat, cheeses, egg, etc. It was pretty good, quite a few people here say they like Ethiopian food a lot better than Yemeni, but I found the reverse to be true. It was 640 riyals for each of us ($3.20). I guess Ishaq is going to get married here pretty soon to a Yemeni girl. He has a few Yemeni friends with sisters, and he is in the process of picking his wife... He's seen a picture of one of them, but is waiting to see the other. So I guess he will be moving out of the house in December or so to get a house with his wife... He also plans on staying here for 6 or 7 more years... Crazy, yeah. So I walked out to Ismail's house, thankfully I found my way there coming from such a different direction. I was early even so I gave him a call to see if I could come up. Lessons were good... Normal dessert, and tea, and sha'ir (tea-like, but made from barley) and a new drink which is made from some sort of red flower, which ended up being pretty good. Lessons with Ismail are good, I feel like I learn quite a bit with him, and after six months I should be able to develop my knowledge of the "system" with him, and then lots of vocabulary to fit into the system with the other teacher, Faris. Only two weeks until my birthday here in Yemen... I have no idea what that will be like, probably like any other day here in Yemen though.