Classes are going okay. It's review, but maybe it's review of stuff that I have forgotten in the past year, so it is most necessary. My teacher's name is Ahlam, which means "dreams". I now am proficient at introducing myself and meeting people, in fusha. which might or might not be helpful here. whatever. It is a beautiful language and I love it. I have two hours of class a day, which does leave quite a lot of time for wandering, eating, napping. mm mm naps. Though it is most frustrating to meet people, because I do not have class with anyone else, so I can't meet people that way. I wouldn't recognize my professor on the street because she wears niqaab, and my building only has maximum five people.
The food I have had so far is quite good. I had Salta today, which is... meaty and cinnamony and quite tasty. (It's also the food the men eat for lunch before they start chewing gat. There is a science/art to chewing these leaves, one I haven't discovered, i just know that it's hard enough trying to understand what people are saying, add in a HUGE wad of chewed up leaves in their cheek - mushkil - problem.) other than that, I've had a lot of chicken and rice. Which has also been pretty good.
There are quite a lot more people here who wear only hijab and not niqaab than I expected. Granted, most women wear niqaab (face veil) but there are some who wear just hijab (cover hair) and some who do not cover at all. I'm not sure if the latter two groups are all visitors or maybe some are refugees from Africa as well. Sometimes, they stare, but then I stare right back, because I am just about as interested in them as they are in me, so maybe it works out.
Yesterday, I had a lady try to speak to me in French. That didn't work out so well, then we tried Arabic and I got to "American" and then ... I'm not really sure what happened, but she was loud and I was uncomfortable so "ma' salama" "goodbye"
The institute I am at has wireless internet in one of the residential buildings, but not the one I am in. So, I can feed my addiction, but not quite as easily and much cheaper (mmm free!) than the internet cafes. Though actually, I'm not sure how expensive they are.
I haven't gone on any trips, but I have wandered around the city a bit. Tomorrow is a holiday, 22 May, I think it is unification day or something, when North and South Yemen combined. So maybe I will be able to venture out again. or sleep in. ha! The city is bustling. Always people shouting, children playing, cars honking, motorcycles, some random dude busting out in song. It works. It works even better when there are not random power outages during the day/evening/night. Yesterday there was one in the evening, the day before, maybe there were three throughout the day. It's something else, really! Though maybe the only thing really affected by it is hot water (which i do have!) internet. There is a lot of natural light during the day, so it is not a problem, really. And it's not like I've never had to use candles at night before :)
In summary: I'm here, I'm safe, I'm having a good time. I love you, send me email love!
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