Oct 9

Monday October 9.
Got up at about 12:40... Threw on my clothes and ran off to class. Class was okay with Faris again. But during class my stomache started acting strange, making weird noises and turning into knots. I made it through class but afterwards I started to feel more queasy... Sat up in the mafraj doing homework in between a few trips to the bathroom. I took some immodium (a necessity here in Yemen) to try and help out, which it started to do eventually. Woke Matt up from his mafraj nap at the proper hour to go get some food, even though I wasn't feeling great, I was still starving because of the fast. We elected to go to our usual cheap falafal hut since we didn't want to fill up as we were all going to be going out after Markus' class at 10 to an Ethiopian restaurant, and bowling afterwards which he wanted to do for his last night here in Yemen. Also, after class I had changed into my full on Yemeni clothes because I decided it would be great fun to go bowling while wearing a thobe and jambiya... The falafal restaurant wasn't quite open yet (they were eating) so we went to a nearby store for some drinks and started talking to a whole bunch of people. They were all really nice and some were particularly amused with my outfit. Whenever I try to order a Mountain Dew (because it has the most caffeine of the sodas) they also have a hard time understanding me when I say it correctly, because the Arabicize it somewhat, but I learned that they just refer to it as "Diw" not quite "dooo"... Anyways back to the falafal stand for two of them for 60 riyals (30 cents) and we walked around and ate them. Returned to the house, and I soon started feeling not so great again after eating. Grr... shouldn't have gone to that hole in the wall kebab stand that morning... Yeah, the immodium had helped earlier but the food made my stomach act up again so I just decided to call Ismail and cancel class today. I didn't want be forced to encounter a Yemeni bathroom, not an experience I would ever look forward to. Nor did I want to have the sudden urge to use the bathroom during my trip to his house. So I just decided it would be better if I laid in bed to let my stomach calm down because I didn't want to miss going out with everyone on Markus' last night here. So yeah I started to feel better gradually after I got it out of my system and Matt and I went and met up with everyone in front of the institute at 10. Let's see, there was Me, Matt, Markus, Sandra and Yudid (the two Germans), there was Matt's friend Iram (who I finally met now) along Markus' Yemeni friend Adel, his teacher Ahmed, and Taha (Sandra's teacher). Everyone was commenting on my Yemeni clothes, of course, and we all went off to find a bus. Ran into the homeless kid who helped me buy all my clothes and he hung around with us while we waited for a bus in the Sa'ila. Ahmed was joking around with the little kid about how I am a tribesman now, but it is necessary that I have a machine gun, and the little kid got all serious about it asking me if I want one, but that they are pretty expensive. It was funny. We piled into two seperate buses from the Sa'ila and headed out to the Ethiopian restaurant, which I think was near Al-Zubairi street, but I kind of got turned around. I had decided not to eat anything, because I didn't want my stomach to act up again so I just talked with everyone and watched them eat. It was good because we spoke a lot of Arabic between the lot of us as the teachers don't really speak much English. We spent nearly two hours there I think, and Markus insisted the meal was on him, which I thought was backwards since its his last day, he should've been on us... I did drink some a few bottles of water there hoping to keep my stomach settled, and also had a cup of Ethiopian coffee, which was my first real coffee since arriving in Yemen. It was really good, but very strong too. Also I found it strange that for dessert they brought out a huge tray of popcorn... Never had that at a restaurant before, and I'm not sure if it is typical Ethiopian or what. I also heard one of the funniest things I've heard since I got here... Matt was talking to Adel about the majnoon (crazy person) who lives on our street (or rather used to, he had disappeared a week ago, but was spotted at the girls house) I wasn't in the conversation at this point, but Matt insisted that Adel tell me what he just told him... He said he knew that majnoon and that he wasn't really majnoon, he is actually a spy for the government's secret police, and that most of the majnoon are just acting! I just started laughing there, picturing the poor majnoon who was always constantly harassed by children, 24 hours a day, getting slapped around, bandages on his head from the children attacking him, walking around playing a guitar with no strings and singing crazily (Matt's sighting), all of it as an act, and he is actually a spy. It was too funny. Immediately when we left the restaurant Matt and I started talking about it... Maybe he speaks 4 or 5 languages, maybe those bandages on his head are actually spy cameras, the dirty clothes and mangy hair fully equipped with various spy gear... I don't know, but I will never look at another majnoon the same way again! As I was leaving the restaurant there were two fully veiled women sitting near the entrance way and they just all the sudden started talking to me because of my clothes... I couldn't understand everything they were saying except "Thanks to God" "good" and the thumbs up... It just really caught me off guard because you just don't talk to any Yemeni women here, and they don't talk to you. With the exception of the (rare) woman who works in a store, or the women who pan handle for money around Tahrir square... Oh and one time when I was walking by a Yemeni woman said hello in English. It was just really strange to talk with some veiled women here, which lead me to believe that they might not have even been Yemeni, but perhaps Ethiopians (it was an Ethiopian restaurant after all) but how would I know with the veils... After the restaurant the two teachers and three girls left the four of us (me, Matt, Markus and Adel) for home, and off to Fun City for bowling we went. By now it was just after midnight, and we had to walk a bit before we could catch a bus down to Hadda street. I saw the Porsche dealership, a really fancy Sony store, another Radio Shack, the Kentucky Fried Chicken... We arrived to where we needed to be and walked out to Fun City, but when we got there it was closed. I guess they close at about 1am or so... It had taken us awhile to get there too. So we were all disappointed, but Matt and I wanted to go to Baskin Robbins because we'd been talking about it for a week or so now, so we drug Adel and Markus along. It was about a block or two (big blocks) north of Fun City. We found Baskin Robbins... turned out to be just a tiny little ice cream shack, I was expecting a normal restaurant or sit down type area, and it didn't really look like they had a lot to offer... Not to mention it was also closed. This was all really surprising since it is Ramadan right now and everything stays open really late. So we went into KFC to see if they had any ice cream or desserts... Which they didn't. But the KFC is really really nice... Nicer than the ones in the US, it is also really huge. And I saw the nicest bathrooms I've seen since arriving to Yemen... Clean, nice, new. There were even urinals, which I haven't seen here, and there was normal sinks, with a soap dispenser and a air hand dryer! It was like a 5 star environment! To think that the average and unexceptional KFC in the US is a really nice fancy treat and atmosphere here is interesting. The prices seemed to be about the same as what it would be in the US (which is really expensive in riyals). There was also "Chicky Fun Land" which I've never seen in the US, and is basically a McPlayland or whatever they are called at McDonalds. There was even a drive through too, with dozens of cars lined up at 1:30 or 2 in the morning. It was quite the experience, even though we didn't get anything there and just stared at the menu, but it felt like I was back in Silverdale or something. After that we started walking back up Hadda Street, I decided to buy a Kit Kat bar, because I hadn't seen Kit Kat before, nor a normal (okay, US-sized) candy bar here... You find Snickers at the little stores, but they are like half-sized... This street vendor had normal ones! They were 100 riyals each (50 cents) so they normal US price as well. It is a nice treat, and the best candy bar I've had in awhile. So we continued walking for a bit before we decided to catch a bus. We had to split up into two's because it can be pretty hard to get four into one of the buses when there is a maximum of six people. After a bit the couple Yemenis across from us started talking to me because of my clothes. "Oh your jambiya is good!" and about ourselves in general... We came to our stop and said goodbye, we were grabbing our change for the bus fare (10 cents each) and then they told the driver they'd pay for us, so he just took off. That is twice now that a Yemeni has paid for my bus fare, and there was that time (at the same kebab stand from this morning actually) that a guy wanted to pay for our breakfast, but we persisted in paying for ourselves that time. The people here can be so generous towards strangers, you wouldn't find that in the US very often at all. We headed back to the house, said goodbye to Adel, and see you to Markus. Then I hit the books again until past daybreak.