Oct 17

Tuesday Oct 17
Today slept until nearly 1pm. Ismail called to see about class at 1:30, but told him I still didn't feel up to it. Took my medications and went down to the kitchen to eat a bowl of cereal. I figured fasting wouldn't do anything to help me get over a cold. After that I grabbed my books and headed up to the mafraj where I was going to attempt to homework, however I still really don't feel up to it due to this cold, so I just sat around and watched TV. Caught some Seinfeld, which is always great, and then some Full House. Then watched the last half of Finding Forrester, which is good because I watched maybe the last 10 minutes last night and didn't have any idea what was going on... It's too bad I didn't catch it all, it seems like a good flick. Then I went out for dinner at Palestine Restaurant. Had the usual half chicken and rice. Although this half chicken was apparently the burnt, or extra crsipy half. Ater that I went to the juice bar for a half strawberry, half orange juice mix... Figured all the extra vitamin C I can get will only help me in ridding this cold. Then I headed back to the house where I talked with Matt for a bit, and then proceeded to type for hours and hours, seemingly.

Oct 16

Monday Oct 16
Slept nearly straight from 8pm to 8am... Woke up briefly and went back to sleep until past noon. I wasn't going to fast when I am sick, so I was drinking all the water I had in sight. I went up stairs to the mafraj to lay around and watch some tv. I brought my Mawaaz ("Man Skirt") to use as a blanket, and just drifted in and out of sleep upstairs. At some point the Italian guy came up and said goodbye, I guess he was flying back to Italy tonight. Seems like he had just arrived. I barely ever saw him, and honestly only got the chance to talk to him on the day he arrived, and the day he left. By the time the fast break came, I was hungry but didn't really feel like eating anything... Ended up going back down to my room for a few hours until about 8pm when I went out for the two falafels at the cheap falafel place... I bundled myself up nicely, since I feel colder than usual. Only ate one and a half of though and threw the other half on the ground (I feel so apprehensive about littering, but you just don't find garbage cans here... And I guess it is adapting to a Yemeni lifestyle). After that I headed off to the internet cafe to email my Mom so she wouldn't think I was dead, or kidnapped. At this point I barely had a voice, it was so hoarse from coughing. So I decided I needed to stop off at the Pharmacy. I just went in and told him I was sick, and give me whatever will help me... He gave me some Neo-Codion syrup a cough suppressant, and some Sedergine fizzy water dissolvable tablets for pain and flu-like symptoms I guess... I have never heard of either of them, but didn't really care as long as it helped. I was feeling pretty miserable at this point, the sickest I have been for a while actually. The medicine cost me 600 riyals ($3). After that I went to that Anti-America Tea Shop around the corner hoping that the warm drink would sooth my throat from all the coughing. Then I visited my friend at the store to pick up some milk for my cereal, so I wouldn't have to leave when I wanted to eat, as well as some orange juice for the vitamin C. Came back took my medicine and then went up to the mafraj to watch some bad English language movies, such as Black Knight with Martin Lawrence, where he gets sent back to medievel times. I did notice the medicine helped with the cough, at the least, althought I still sound like death.

Oct 15

Sunday Oct 15
Woke up feeling not very well at all... My slight cough from yesterday had become a violent cough. And I had thought the cough was maybe just irritation from sitting around too many chain smoking Yemenis in a closed-off mafraj's, but I guess not... I canceled class with Faris and basically just slept. I was sleeping when I was awoke at about 4pm by "RYANNN! RYAAAN! RYAAAN!" from someone shouting really loudly from outside (I live on the third floor) and also pounding on the door knocker... It really threw me off guard, and I scrambled around trying to find my glasses. I recognized that the voice was Ismail's and I was looking at my windows fir him but I couldn't see him. I then scrambled down stairs in my pajamas to open the door, and sure enough it was Ismail. I had turned off my phone earlier, so I wouldn't be awoken. I hadn't predicted someone coming to my house shouting my name. He asked me how I was, and said we could have class at his house tonight at 8pm like last week, since he missed the lesson yesterday. I agreed, if only cause I was still have asleep and we said bye. I turned my phone on at the point, and at around 5:30 Matt called me to let him in the house because he still didn't have a key. Said his first day was alright, mostly just orientation type stuff. We ended up going out to break the fast a little later than usual. Back to the 2nd Floor Shaky place. The three Yemenis sitting at the table next to us kept gesturing for us to come join them to eat, which is also pretty common, but we just thanked them and waited for our normal chicken and rice meal. Well, turns out they just brought us one huge plate of rice, and said there was no chicken now... I also asked for tea, which I never got. So really it was a horribly unsatisfying meal of just a big plate of rice. The three Yemenis told us to go to another restaurant after this one for the chicken, although we didn't end up doing that. When they left they gave us their vegetable dish, bread and other leftovers. We returned back to the house for a bit. Sandra called Matt to invite me along to Al-Shallal tonight for her fairwell meal before she left for Germany tomorrow. They were to meet at 8:45... I said I'd go, although I was also supposed to have class at 8 at Ismail's... But I really wasn't feeling up for going all the way to Ismail's and sitting around while he chain smokes for 3 hours when I am sick with a sore throat and constant cough, so I texted him and told him I still wasn't feeling up for it. Matt headed out for Sandra's goodbye dinner, and I told him to say bye for me, and sorry I couldn't make it. Then I just ended up going to sleep.

Oct 14

Saturday Oct 14
Today was a holiday, the day the British were kicked out of the south, so no class, but I had arranged to have class with Ismail at 1:30 today. I knew he wouldn't exactly be on time, and so I went to the institute at 1:45. Of course no Ismail still. I sat around out in the garden, still have asleep, until nearly 2:15 when the director noticed and asked when I was supposed to have class. He then went off and told Ahmed, the language coordinator, who then called Ismail. I think he was still sleeping. He handed the phone over to me and we talked for a bit. He apologized, but said it wasn't easy for him to get up at this hour... which I knew it wouldn't be, which is why I didn't want to arrange class at such an 'early' time. He said tomorrow, hopefully... So I just returned back to the house to get a few more hours of sleep. I didn't really mind that he didn't make it, I actually minded more that I bothered waking up at all and walking out to the institute. Then at 4 I was awoken by Matt knocking on my door. Apparently, Tariq, Hani's friend from yesterday, had just called and woke him up and insisted that we come meet him at his house at 5pm for Iftar feast again. So basically just woke up and headed out on the road... We weren't exactly sure if we'd be able to find our way back to his house so we left with extra time. We hopped on a bus heading south from the Sa'ila, to go to the Safia district/Taizz road (the only landmarks we could remember from yesterday). We were the only ones on the bus so he essentially made it into a taxi and charged us more than the normal 10 cents each, up to 25 cents each since he drove off his fixed route of the Sa'ila (even though we didn't ask him to) up to Ta'izz street. The Safia district turns out to be pretty large... and We weren't really sure where exactly they lived around Ta'izz street. But we realized they were more south from where we presently were and just started walking. We asked around, but weren't really sure what to ask for, because as it turns out the street we wanted, and thought was Ta'izz Street, was actually Abu Dhabi Street, so it didn't do us much good.... We were just lucky enough to stumble across a hotel we remembered from the night before, if only because of it's name, the "Nice Palace Hotel". We remembered that as we were pulling out from his street. So we found the street that they lived on, and then randomly some guy came up and started shaking our hands and asking us how we're doing, and that Tariq is waiting. We weren't exactly sure who he was, but we later figured out that he was one of Tariq's brothers. We then found Hani's house and his car, and he knew that Tariq lived two buildings up. So we asked some little kids on the street if they knew Tariq, and where he lived (which of course they did, because everyone knows everyone in their neighborhood here in Yemen). Then one of them lead us to the apartment where he lived, and even right up to his door. We knocked and he was blown away that we were literally at his doorstep without knowing where he lived prior to this, or calling him, or anything. He invited us in. he has a nice modest apartment. He is a newly-wed of about 2 months. We sat around for a little bit talking while we waited for his brothers to return from the souq. Apparently they all live in the same apartment. We ended up leaving and meeting up with his two brothers (no rhyming names this time) Waleed, and Hani (or Hani al-Thani "Hani the Second" since we met his friend Hani just yesterday). Then we hailed a taxi from Abu Dhabi street and headed south quite a ways. We drove by what is apparently the presidents fortress... of which all I could see was a huge, huge, huge gated area (there is even a hill/mountain inside it) with barbed-wire across the top... We arrived at the house of one of their friends. They had a nice place, with a large diwan, which was overpowered with incense, along with a entertainment center and TV. We sat around watching the horrible Yemeni station until it was time to break the fast. We were joined by many more of their friends, and I wasn't really quite sure who everyone was, and how they were related/knew one another, with the exception of Tariq and his brothers. The iftar feast was all the normal things... I was really quite stuffed. They even topped it off with dessert, which was like rawani (cake-like) but different, something I hadn't tried before, and much much sweeter. Almost too sweet, as I was only able to eat a little bit of it. This dinner was particularly good though... It was enormous too, with nearly 10 people there. I was also happy because they had Bint as-Sahn (Daughter of the Dish) which is one of my favorite Yemeni dishes, but you don't find it in restaurants, and they only cook it at home every so often because it is very labor intensive. After dinner the whole group of them gathered for prayer in the mafraj, which was a first. I mean I've been at a few Yemeni's houses when they've excused themselves for prayer, but they usually just go into the other room for prayer so I'm not sitting there watching them, but this time they whole group of 10 of them all just prayed in front of us facing toward Mecca (which happened to be facing away from us). After that we all just sat around in the mafraj talking once more... We were joined by more of their friends and or family after not too long. I don't know, both Matt and I felt like our Arabic was failing us that night, so we spent most of the night listening to them, and trying to answer questions when we were prompted. It is strange how your confidence or capabilities in a language shifts from day to day. You'd think it would be a steady climb up, but it goes up and down. Some days I feel I can express myself on almost anything my vocabulary permits, and then other days it feels like I can never find the words. Today was just one of those off days, I guess, for both of us no less. Maybe just due to a late late night, and lack of sleep. Who knows. Everyone is always interested in whether I've obtained scholarships from my school or government to study here, and they are all appalled when I tell them "the bill's on me" because it seems that all study abroads from Arab countries even Yemen, are usually financed by a scholarship. They tell me, no, Arabic is very important in the West now, especially in America, they should have to give a scholarship! I just laugh, and say, yes I wish they had to give me scholarship. Yemen is cheap. But hey, free is cheaper. They were also interested in how Americans felt about Arabs, particularly after September 11th... If there is a lot of hatred towards them as a whole. We hadn't planned on staying so late, especially since tomorrow was Matt's first day at work, and he started at 9:30 (definitely not Ramadan friendly hours), but we didn't realize that we were going all the way to their friend's house, so we were kind of obligated to staying until they wanted to leave, which ended up being at about midnight. We hopped into a bus and drove back into their part of town, where the power was now out. We said bye to his two brothers and Tariq waited with us at the corner for a bus to Tahrir. We thanked him a lot for a great evening, and promised to do it again soon, hopefully. After that we both nearly ran back to the house because we were both in dire need of the bathroom. Then we decided to go out for a cup of tea with milk from the local tea shop. I've only been there once or twice before, this time he asked me where I was from and then infomed me that "Amreeka mish tammam, mish tammam..." (Not good...) After that I came back to the house, but was starting to not feel so great. I had a tremendous headache, and had a slight cough all day. I popped two tylenol PM and soon went to sleep.

Oct 13

Friday Oct 13
Again woke up at just about 4pm... Matt had lost his key a few days ago somehow, and we ran into the accountant who told us of a place where we could get a copy made... We wandered over into the direction he told us, but could find no such shop. As we were walking through Bab Al-Sabah Matt got a call from Hani from yesterday, he told us to meet him in the same place in the souq as yesterday in 10 minutes... Of course right now was the pre-fast breaking rush in the souq and you could barely move at all, let alone get all the way to another souq in 10 minutes, so we ended up being a little late. We met Hani there he took us to his car where we also met one of his brothers his brothers son, and their Dad. The dad was lounged in the back half asleep holding this 6 month old baby, I was crammed up next to him, along with Hani all in the back seat. We slowly drove to another part of the souq so they could pick up some additional food, I think, for our fast breaking meal. After that we took off down the Sa'ila, a little faster now as we were away from the crowds of the souq, and headed south to the Safia district where they lived. Outside their house we met some of their neighbors and friends, one of them Tariq had lived in the UK for 5 years while his Dad was gettings his doctorate, and spoke really good English. We then went into Hani's house and sat in one of the mafraj's while the food was prepared in the other room. We met his other two brothers... Sami, and Rami... Yes, Sami, Hani, Rami... At the proper hour we went into the next room to break the fast with the typical samboosa and dates as appetizers, in addition to some delicious pizza squares too... Then we went back into the mafraj to await the main courses. When you haven't eaten all day: "shwaya, shwaya" (slowly, slowly)... We returned to that other room after about 10 minutes where there was all the typical fast breaking dishes. Shafoot, chicken, rice, salta, etc.... They are all from Taizz in the south, so they speak different from what I am used to hearing in Sana'a (not that I am that used to it, to be honest). And they prepare the same dishes in a slightly different way, I guess. I particularly liked their shafoot... it was a little thicker, and less spicy too. The whole dinner was really good, and it was great speaking with them, because they spoke really naturally and didn't 'fake' their speech for us (which made it really hard too). I also thought since he was studying English at YALI, that he just wanted us to come over to practice his English with, but he spoke English nearly the whole time, since he was with family who didn't speak English. Their old Dad was really hilarious too. He'd always like slap his hand down on one of our legs and tell us to eat, or eat faster, or "you're good!" or other really random things. He spoke really loud, and was really really hard to understand, but was funny. He would literally just grab pieces of potato or chicken (you eat most things with your hands here) and literally hand them over to us and tell us to eat them. Or he had his own chicken prepared differently from the other two, and he'd pull off pieces of it and tell us its better... At one point grabbing the liver from his chicken and handing it to me. It was interesting to say the least. He kept telling me "Bush isn't good... You are good. But Bush isn't good!" After that returned to the other mafraj for some tea and al-Jazeera news watching. After not too long we were joined by a number of their relatives... Uncles, cousins, friends, who knows... Tariq from earlier came over and Matt and I spent a lot of time talking with him. Even though he spoke English very well, he still spoke to us in Arabic, and it was nice because he was also then able to help us out when we didn't know certain words. It was like a free a lesson. I particularly liked this group of people that we were hanging out with and talking to tonight... from government ministries, doctors, engineers, lived in England 5 years, one studied in Russia for 5 years, bank managers, etc. It was a group of pretty educated and cultured people... Quite different from the Bab al-Sabah area where I live, which is basically the ghetto of Sana'a as far as I can tell, and as far as I have heard from the Yemenis. We ended up hanging out with Hani, Rami, Sami and Co. until nearly 11:30 when we elected that it was about time to go... Hani then drove us all the way back to the institute, telling us it was mandatory, though we insisted we'd be fine walking. Irum had called Matt while we were at Hani's house and arranged to meet up with her and the girls after about a half an hour at the internet cafe. Checked my email and did all that for awhile. Matt said he was going to go make a phone call... I stepped outside after a bit and ran into Irum, Yudid and Sandra. Not long after Taha just happened to walk by and then joined up with us as well. We continued to wait around for Matt, but we weren't really sure where he went or what happened to him. Irum tried phoning him a number of times, but to no avail. Eventually we were able to get through to him, he had been at a phone shop calling back to the UK. We then decided to hop on a bus down to Hadda street to go to Funny Bunny (which I later figured out is also Starbunny Coffee, the Starbucks rip off). So the six of us just sat around in the outdoor garden seating area of this upscale cafe/eatery for some drinks. Although I ordered a cappucino, I somehow ended up with a hot chocolate, and someone else ended up with my cappucino, and I was wondering what was up with my drink... So I didn't get to try the Starbucks rip off coffee, but will hopefully again in the future. We stayed there until nearly 3:30am, just talking. It is Sandra's last few das here in Yemen before she returns to Germany for about a month, and then heads off to Azerbaijan for a 2 to 3 year job commitment. And Yudid is also heading back to Germany for a little bit because her Grandma is really sick. So yeah, we just talked for those two to three hours... We weren't really sure if it would be possible to catch a bus out of hadda back up to Maydan Tahrir, and we were all kind of standing around on the street. We flagged down one that was heading north, with enough room for three... We were calling back to the girls and Taha for one more person, but they weren't listening or something, and while we were hesitating for them the bus nearly just left without us, so we just got on. We just wanted to get out of there because it was absolutely freezing at this time of the night... Matt was literally shaking from the cold, especially with the wind whiping past us (the mini van buses drive with the large sliding door proped open) and he kept joking about just paying the guy 1000 riyals to drive us to the door of our house... Then we got to the end of the line, except it was some place that neither of us recognized or had been to before... It was a new transportation hub, right next a really big mosque. We were really confused because we had just assumed we were heading back to Tahrir, but were now in an entirely new place. We debated about taking a taxi, or walking, or another bus, and we had to ask a number of different people, but we eventually found a bus that headed north towards tahrir. It actually drove straight up the Sa'ila so it brought us closer to our house than the buses to Tahrir. When we got back, Matt gave me a handful of dates before the fast began, and I decided to call it an "early" night because I was pretty wiped out from a lack of sleep.

Oct 12

Thursday Oct 12
Let's see first day of the long 3 day weekend... Slept in late of course, until nearly 4pm. Went out to the souq down the Sa'ila with Matt. Ran into this guy named Hani who started talking to us quite a bit. He works in the Ministry of Human Rights here, and is studying English at YALI, so he jumped on the chance when he saw a few foreigners walking through the souq. He was probably especially excited when he found out that we were American and British no less, most of the foreigners seem to be German, or maybe Italian. Anyways he took Matt's cell phone number and promised to call soon... It is funny because Matt usually always goes by Matthew when he introduces himself to Arabs, maybe due to the fact that 'maat' (basically the same) means 'he died' in Arabic. Well, after that we headed out to the friendly folks' restaurant near Bab Al-Sabah for some salta. Of course they just randomly threw in some shafoot in addition to the rest, as has become customary. I know that shafoot is particularly common during Ramadan, but I'm not sure if it comes with everyone's meals, or just gets tacked on to the foreigners dinners... Matt and I wanted to use the internet but we still had to kill about 30 to 45 minutes until the internet cafes reopened at around 7:15pm. Matt worked in the British Foreign Office in Abu Dhabi last summer I think, and had told his contact there he'd be coming to Yemen, she put him in contact with her colleague at the British Embassy here in Sana'a, so Matt met up with him last week. He didn't have anything for him at the British Embassy, but he put Matt in contact with one of his friends at the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Matt met up with them and landed a 3 month internship with UNHCR... Very cool. Anyways, he wanted to pick up some nice dressy shoes for his new internship position, so I accompanied him to the shoe store while we killed time. Matt is a really tall guy, and has big feet to match, so he had quite a bit of problems finding shoes in his size. The first place we went to had a pair in his size, but he really didn't like the style. They were really persistent though and literally bagged the shoes and put the bad in his hand, and dropped the price from 3000 riyals to 2000 ($10), he was only finally able to get them to relent when he told them he would go to the bank for more cash and then return. We went to a different shoe place near Maydan Tahrir. He ended up finding a pretty nice pair of dress shoes for 2700 rials ($13.50) and I also just asked them for a nice pair of sandals that would go well with a thobe... They handed me a light brown pair of sandals. "Gental Man" Sandals, no less. I had problems initially because I had no idea what my European shoe size is, I had to get Matt to assist me in that regard. I wasn't really sure about them, because I hadn't shopped around whatsoever for sandals, and probably could get a really cheap pair from the street vendors, but again they had boxed my "Gental Man" Sandals in their "Gentel Man" box, and bagged them up for me. Cost me 1700 riyals ($8.50)... at least I talked them down from 1800. After that we hung around for Ebharnet Internet Cafe to open, but it still hadn't reopened. We noticed a different internet/phone shop across the street that neither of us had used before, so we decided to give it a shot. Pretty good speed, and really cheap. Basically about 1 riyals per minute. or 1/2 cent per minute. They are all really cheap, but you do find some cheaper than others. I finished up after about half an hour, and left Matt there while I went to the juice bar for the usually big strawberry juice drink and some baklawa desserts. The two baklawa desserts were 50 cents, which is a little expensive compared to some places. And the large strawberry juice drink seems to be one of the more expensive regular purchases I make here, at $1.50. After that I returned to the student house and ran into Ed and Matt. We talked for awhile in the stairs near the kitchen... Then I decided to change into my Yemeni clothes to go lounge in the mafraj while doing homework. However right before I made it to the mafraj the power cut out here, quite early in the evening too. Matt was up in the mafraj too at this time, happily enjoying Al-Jazeera when it suddenly cut up. We sat around debating what to do for awhile. I went and got my laptop so we could listen to music while we talked... My laptop battery doesn't last that long, just over an hour or so at the max. So it eventually cut out too before the power came back on. Also I killed the batteries to the flashlight that I brought with me a few weeks ago when I accidently left it on all night, so all we had for light now was my little pocket flashlight and our cell phones. The power returned maybe not more than a half hour after my laptop died, and al-Jazeera popped back on as well. So I ran back down stairs to grab my books and started studying from the newest chapter from my Arabic book. Both Matt and I studied for many many hours upstairs... I actually got a ton of studying in, wrote a lot of sentences, and so forth, until about 3:30am, when I decided to go grab something to eat. Matt said he couldn't be bothered to go out to a restaurant at this hour, and sat upstairs with his bag of dates. I went back to the 2nd Story Shaky Floor Place from the night before... I asked for the same thing, the fasulia which I liked so much... But was then served some sort of gross bean-cake-thing, which I actually do think is fasulia, but both of them were supposedly fasulia. It was basically just beans mashed up into a disc like shape, and you'd scoop it up with bread... it was kind of luke warm, and not really all that appetizing. One of the few Yemeni foods I really didn't like. Didn't end up finishing it all, didn't think I could, and still keep it all down. It only cost something like 75 cents at least. I returned to the mafraj and Ed was also upstairs with Matt, so we sat around talking about traveling in the Middle East and the like for a bit before Ed went off to pray. I continued doing homework while Matt chanel surfed through Arabic Music stations. He soon went off to bed and I sat up stairs for another couple hours before I went back down to my room... I didn't feel all that tired because of waking up at nearly 4pm, so I ended up playing games on my computer until nearly 10am before finally deciding that I need to go to sleep....

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.