Oct 4

Wednesday October 4. I was actually really surprised I was able to wake up at 12. Didn't think I would make it. I actually did a lot of homework last night for this class so I was really prepared. Class with Faris was good again today. He actually allowed me to talk and encouraged me to talk... And I tried to make it more clear what I like and don't like in class, so maybe things will continue to improve. After that I finally updated my blog at the computer lab at school and replied to some emails. Took me quite a long time to upload each entry, and then go back and change the date for each one so it would be accurate. First time I have posted in more than three weeks, so it was a lot of work for those daily entries. I hope to be better about updating it in the coming months. Decided to change into my Yemeni clothes for my class with Ismail. Hung around the house until we could break the fast... I sat with Matt for quite awhile in the kitchen while he ate on his chicken, bread, tomatoes and dates which he bought today. Guess he really had a lot of problems with the travlers checks. He walked around again all day, this time on Hadda Street, and again no bank would exchange them for him. He got pretty angry and walked the whole of Hadda street nearly, and then bought some food. I had some of his dates, which are pretty good actually, and he took a few handfuls in a plastic bag to take with him to accompany me while I ate. Markus had some plans with his Yemeni friend, Adel, and was going to cook him some German pancakes, I guess, so it was just me and Matt. First I went and returned my big empty jug of water to the store (if you don't you end up getting fined, maybe 5 riyals though) bought a soda, as I was really tired, and we went back to the cheap falafel stand. Bought two falafels and 2 sambosas (those little fried and stuffed triangular things) for something around 80 riyals... We walked around and ate this time. I didn't want to sit on the dirty steps with my white thobe on. Matt wanted to grab some juice, so we went to a stand on Bab al-Sabah. Matt asked what kinds of juice they had, and the guy replied Sha'eer, so Matt said he'd take that. I knew what it was, but apparently Matt didn't. After he got it, he realized it was the drink that we had at Ismail's once before (I've had it nearly every night of class at his house now, so I am used to it, but at first it does taste pretty strange). He got a nice big glass of it, and he pretty much hates the stuff, and was saying it was the worst 10 minutes of his life. I thought it was all pretty funny to be honest. He just wanted to dump it on the street to be done with it, but just kept pushing through... Ismail says it is the Yemeni beer because it is made from barley, I guess, and of course without alcohol. But yeah, it does have a pretty strange taste. I guess I have just become used to it after drinking it at Ismail's basically every night of class. After that I insisted we needed to go get some real juice, for one so he could wash the taste of sha'eer out of his mouth, and two because I still had a bit of time to kill before going to Ismail's. We stopped at the juice stand under Ali Abd Al-Mogni Street (the underpass from Bab Al-Sabah to Tahrir Square) and asked the juice stand there if they had strawberry, neither of us had been there yet, but we always walked by it, which they didn't, so we just decided to go to out normal place. I bought a dessert outside the juice shop, and got a big strawberry. One of the guy's who works there is like best friend's with Matt (and he doesn't know why), and he always gives a huge greeting. I always get some reactions from people when I go out dressed in my Yemeni clothes... People like "Yemeni... good!" things like that, it is pretty funny. After that I headed out for Ismail's, but was basically the first person on the bus, so I had to wait around for quite a bit. The bus driver and his sidekick started talking to me about the usual stuff... Where I'm from, etc. They liked my Yemeni clothes and jambiya. Class was good at Ismail's, we just wrapped up with our text about sports, doing the translation into English, and then retranslating it back into Arabic to find out where my gaps and problems are. After that I decided to walk around for a bit before I headed back to the house at around 1 or so. Did some homework for awhile, and then played on the computer... Then packed up some stuff for the trip tomorrow. I was going to get up at 7am, as we were supposed to be leaving from Tahrir at 8am. Didn't end up going to sleep until 5am, but figured it would be okay because I could sleep for some or all of the 4 hour trip to Shihara the next day...