Oct 11

Wednesday Oct 11.
So, woke up late once again... Woke up at 2pm... So I missed class with Faris once again. I'm ready for Ramadan to be finished with already so I can get myself on a normal schedule... These sleeping patterns really mess me up. I just kinda started doing homework when I woke up since I didn't have anything else to do. Matt came back at about 5, and said he got a funny call from the director "HELLO, this is Muhammad al-Anisi, I want to invite you over to my house for breakfast" "Breakfast, oh okay, good. Tomorrow then?" "No! Right now!" The meal which you break you the fast with here is like breakfast, since it is basically the first meal of your day. So Matt basically invited me along too, we weren't sure if it was okay, but figured the director wouldn't care that much. So I ran off with him to the institute and we piled six people into a four seat car... I was crammed right up next to the creepy accountant for the ride to the directors house. He has a pretty nice house, two stories with the third being built, or to be built in the future (Yemeni houses are built layer by layer, even years later... In the student house you can visibly tell the initial building which was maybe 2 stories, and then later added on top of). He has a nice gated entrance way to his house, it reminded me more of the nice houses I saw in Dubai than a house here in Sanaa. I also thought it was interesting that carved or molded right into the concrete all over the house in Arabic was "God" "In the Name of God the Beneficent the Merciful" etc. He had some dates and samboosa's (the delicious fried triangles, with cheese this time, which I prefer) outside in his garden so we could all snack on them initially (got to start slow when you haven't eaten anything all day). There was Me, Matt, Hassan (from older guy from Spain), Ed and Ishaq from the student house, the Accountant who also lives in the student house, a two Malaysian students, along with a few relatives of the director. After we ate the appetizers, Matt and I (the only non-Muslims) went inside to sit in one of the diwans while the director lead everyone in prayer towards Mecca out in his garden. We spied out there on them from the diwan. After a bit everyone came into the mafraj to join us and we talked for a little bit before we were ushered into another diwan where there was a huge spread of food laid out. Here when you eat at someones house, you eat on the floor, in one of the mafraj's or diwans, you'll find the low couch like cushions around the room, with a plastic sheet layed on the ground, and then tons of dishes laid upon it. It seems like it is customary in most Arabic cultures to have tons and tons dishes with food, not just one plate and trays to serve yourself from, but tons of small personal sized dishes. There were literally dozens and dozens of plates for the lot of us. The food was really good, all the normal foods you'd find. Shafoot, Salta, rice, vegetables, chicken, etc. It was all really good, and nice to go to the director's house. After dinner we returned to the other mafraj to drink some post-meal tea (which is usually mandatory). And all talked while we waited for a bus to come pick us all up and take us back to the institute. Saw the director's three kids too... All pretty young. The middle child is absolutely insane. And a total brat too... Before dinner the accountant was playing with the youngest kid (8 months) and the middle child just came up and spat on him. Matt and Markus have both had encounters with him at the institute too... Matt has been spit on by this kid about 5 or 6 times at the institute... It's really funny (when it's not you). He has also thrown rocks at him (he's so young, he can barely throw, but still). He has done similar things to Markus too I guess. I am just lucky I think, as I don't see his kids there very often. I guess the director just lets his kids run amok and do whatever the please. But I don't think anyone has mentioned to him that his kid does this, and he never does it in front of his dad. So yeah, we hopped in the bus and it dropped us of back at the institute, I was running late at this point, because we were only getting back to the student house at 7:45, and I normal leave before then in order to get to my class with Ismail at 8. So I ended up being about 15 minutes late, but it was no problem of course, because we don't start until later. Today we had conversation for nearly 2 hours (in Arabic) before we actually started working from the text. Which is good, it is nice to have practice with the teacher in speaking, because they actually correct your mistakes, which people on the street don't do. Stayed at Ismails until nearly 1am. Came back to the house and messed around on my computer until late into the night as has become customary. But tonight before I went to sleep I went out to the Shaky 2nd Floor restaurant, asked them for the usual chicken and rice, but I guess no rice was to be found at this hour. He told me fasulia and chicken, so I said sure. They brought out the half-chicken (like the kind you'd buy already prepared at safeway), along with a metal plate of small meat chunks and onions, etc which you are to scoop up using hunks of bread. It was really good. Then the cashier even sat down with me at my table to talk with me a bit... Even had a glass of tea with dinner. After that I returned for some sleep.