ticket reconfirm.

The other day, Henry & I went back to Ethiopian Airlines to confirm our tickets. While I was there, I asked about carry-on restrictions.

dana: Are there any restrictions for what I can bring on the plane?
salesman: You are not going to the US. Bring whatever. You can bring your sandwich.

So, sandwiches it is! I assume that means my swiss army knife and all the liquid soaps i can fit are good to go as well.

two conversations.

some time last week, a conversation with my teacher.

d: yemeni men are ugly
a: No! Not all Yemeni men. Maybe the ones around here, but there are good looking ones as well. Do you want to see a picture of my husband?
d: yeah
a: you think he is ugly.
d: no. but why do Yemeni men have this horrible mustache?
a: men must wear a mustache.
d: why?
a: otherwise they will look like women!
d: You only think that because all the women hear wear face veils and you've forgotten what women look like.

and then this week:
a: when do you go to Ethiopia?
d: next week.
a: oh, you will stand out among the Ethiopians because you are so white, and they are so black.
d. yeah probably.
a: when you come back., you will think Yemeni Men are handsome because they are not as black as Ethiopians.

Kawkab's Mother.

So, Sophia gave me a bag of things to give to Kawkab before she left and yesterday evening as I was entering the internet diwan building, I saw a woman (in niqaab) standing in the doorway of her house. So I think to myself "OH! I can give it to her NOW!" I grab the bag and take it over there, the woman in niqaab is looking in the door, waiting and I'm standing behind her. She turns around, I scare the bajesus out of her. Turns out it IS KAWKAB! I hand her the bag and she is like "Are you busy now? Would you like to come with us Samia's house?" I know Samia, she speaks wonderful English and I'm really not all that busy, so I'm like "Sure"

So we go, and I stay for a while. Best moment of the evening: (arabic in italics)

Samia's mother : Dana, do you speak Arabic?
(simultaneously)
dana: a little.
Kawkab's Mother : NO!

(bold is incomprehensible dialect)
I'm pretty sure after that is an explanatory "every time I try to talk to her in the street, she never understands me! NEVER! I always have to find someone to translate for her! ALWAYS!"

That's just conjecture based on personal experience and how emphatic her "NO!" was because I never understand her talking, she always has to find a 'translator' for us.

But I really like Kawkab's mother (honestly, I have no idea what her name is) She's always very friendly, always tries to talk to me in the street. Once, when I was at her house, I was sitting in Kawkab's room, but she was out in the house, getting ready for noon prayers. Kawkab's mother sneaks into the room and starts digging through Kawkabs plethora of purses. She kept making the "shhh, quiet" noise and motion. Finally she found Kawkab's wallet where she took out all the pictures and showed them too me, giving me names and relationships in this hush-hush voice. It was ADORABLE. Seriously.

stupid shopkeeper.

(arabic in italics)

d: i want a big water
stupid shopkeeper: one hundred ... (proceeds to pull out coins for one hundred forty riyal)
d: uh, no. fifty.
stupid guy sitting outside: sixty
d: no, fifty
sgso: arabs pay fifty, english pay sixty
d: bullshit. bye.

Ramadan Kareem!

Happy Ramadan. Ramadan has fallen, and I'm about to see my first night of it. I was talking to my teacher Wednesday about fasting in Ramadan and Lent, the differences and similarities. Later on, I was talking to one of my flatmates, and I think I am noticing more and more the differences. I mean, Happy Ramadan. No one would ever ever say "Happy Lent" it's not a "happy" time. It leads to good things and celebration afterwards is happy, Happy Easter! no doubt, but Ramadan is a happy time. Every night is filled with breaking the fast and merriment (you know, or so I'm told) Things shut down during the day. While people are fasting, I think it is actually very different from Christian liturgical fasting.

I don't know what that means, but I will think about it more.

Sophia's last day

sophia (via phone): could you go to the pharmacy and pick up a syringe to apply the henna with?
dana : yeah sure.

dana (in pharmacy) : Can I get a syringe?
pharmacist: What size? Three? Five?
dana: Uh... I don't know... big.
ed (to me): dana, you sound like a druggie.
pharmacist: dermal or intermuscular?
dana: i have no idea... the biggest.
pharmacist: I think maybe you aren't using this for it's intended purposes...

ed and i are cracking up at this point. al-akbar. the biggest.

class

So, yesterday my teacher and I put aside the reading book for the second hour and talked for a while. We had a pretty good conversation about hijab. an excerpt: arabic in italics

A: But Christians wear the veil!
d: um...
A: I saw it on tv!
d: arwa, you shouldn't believe everything you see on tv.
A: no. I saw women on tv wearing the veil! (begins drawing picture)
d: well some people do, but ... it's different
A: (finishes picture -- of nun)
d: OH!! okay, but very few, those are special people -- nuns
A: yeah nuns (it should be noted that the root of nun and monk is also "to terrorize")
A: they are very Christian, you are just a little bit Christian.
d: wow.


I suppose in terms of me v nuns I am indeed "Christian qaleela" but in comparison to the unvowed world, I probably hold my own.

sounds amazing.

So, I'm better yo. and seriously craving the haram goodness of a totinos pepperoni dollar pizza with dr. pepper.

dana is

sick. seriously. got the works, stomach, fever, ect. not the funnest thing ever.

a simple list of things i love

(edited and reposted from facebook)

josh.
alias.
osama.
salaam.
cheese.
tall socks.
rachel ray.
alphabets.
the adhan.
my mother.
old people.
butt books.
bob marley.
jesus kitsch.
john wesley.
blue october.
the grimmies.
ordinary time.
surat al-fatiha.
white russians.
regina spektor.
women in hijab.
the middle east.
religious theory.
episcopal liturgy.
nazarene hymns.
elementary math.
the social gospel.
al-lugha al-arabia.
news anchors' ties.
regaining my dialect.
finding english books.
general tso's chicken.
pants-less wonder-day.
burton, who is amazing.
cowboys with cellphones.
things mother kathy says.
being a second floor whore.
josh hugs during the peace.
guy-with-a-guitar type music.

can't get the nuns off my mind.

So, I did go to mass this morning, and I'm glad I did, it was the feast day of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who is the patron saint of the Missionaries of Charity (you know, the ones we have here) and all the nuns were there, several have been gone for quite a while on retreats and such -- there are seven in total). There were also quite a few Indians there as well. Afterwards they had a reception, and I was quiet and awkward like usual, though I really should talk to the priest about communion. Because I want it.

And then I took a four hour nap and listened to some of the podcasts I've downloaded recently. And then a group of us went out to Indian food. It was pretty tasty.

The End.

conversation between the oh-so-adorable nun & i

N₁: Do you have class tomorrow morning?
d: No, I have the day off.
N₁: Oh, we have Mass at 7 am, you are invited to come.
d: that's kind of early...
N₁: It will be a good discipline.

later

N₁ to N₂: Dana is coming to Mass tomorrow!
d: I am?
N₁: yes

Seriously, I have class at 10 am, I roll out of bed at 9:57, brush my teeth, throw on the balto and run to class that's downstairs. Also, I don't think they realize how completely unappealing it is to wake up at 6:30 or before to ride in a debab across town to go to Mass when you're not Catholic and therefore can't take communion.

In other news: I'm probably going to Mass tomorrow. Maybe I'll steal some communion.

on sleep.

I finally got to sleep before fajr last night. Three nights in a row of not being able to sleep before that awful horrible screaming mosque began (and subsequently ended) at four thirty or so. mmm mmm sleep. unfortunately, I didn't get my homework done, but it was worth it. Let us see what happens this evening...

simply sunday.

So, I made it out to mass this evening -- after missing three weeks. It was good to go, unfortunately I just don't get anything out of the priest's homilies (which are more of a protestant length). However, on the way out, the bus driver recited the Quran all the way until the turnoff for Hadda Medina (probably 30 + minutes) when everyone else got off, and then stopped after that. So, it must not have been for my edification... Also, we sang Hail Holy Queen, you know, as in "sister act" it was nice.

Other than that, I bought an incense burner and incense today, then I went to find coal but didn't find the traditional stuff, and this shop keeper was showing me this stick stuff that I didn't really want, so he gave me a stick to try. And so I played with that for a while. mmm incense.

Skype.

So, I'm thinking of getting Skype. It's a nifty little program to call people. Does anyone have it? Any thoughts? I've heard from people around here that it is nice, though the connection can be bad.

computer randomness

difficulties involved in hard drive formating in the yemen:

I have my music, hamdulillah! but i'm going to open this document, a nice excel spreadsheet, yeah? and all of a sudden I realized -- no, no you're not going to open that because your microsoft for mac cd is in the states.

Along with that, my iLife is gone as well (granted the only thing I used from iLife was iPhoto, which is kind of important as I still take pictures. Maybe I'll go down and see if they have iLife 08 at some point.

So, that's probably pretty boring. and now you have a slice of my life. boring, yo. it's like life in the states but instead of being able to understand everything everyone says, I can't. oh. and i'm unemployed. but so is everyone else.

i hate stupid people.

in particular, two non-yemeni students at the institute. so dumb.

In other news, the embassy sent several representatives to the institute to talk to the American students. It mostly was about how the Embassy can help, when you should notify the embassy of a status change (marraige, going from student to worker, ect), travel restrictions for embassy employees, ect. I've definitely sat through less interesting meetings and on top of all this, I actually got on the warden's email list. Which is exciting! Or something...

that's about all that's going on with me. Happy Weekend!

SO!

So, [I have no idea why but EVERYTHING I write starts with "So," every group email I have sent since being in the Yemen has begun with this phrase (and most of the other paragraphs as well). It is only because I know I have academics reading my emails that I go back and change it. Which doesn't really explain the quality of the rest of the email, because it's BAD iedon, but I do make the initial effort. -- follow through has always been a personal weakness, though]

But anyway. I have my music back on my computer now, which is fanfreakintastic. I'm currently listening to that (it has been over a month without it) playing snood and throughout that writing this. So this writing will probably be a bit scattered.

Have I mentioned recently how much I love high church? (hint: itsa lot!) Seriously. I haven't gone to mass in three weeks. I considered going today, but then I remembered how much I dislike mass here. I mean the priest is a nice enough guy, I guess but I don't get anything out of his homilies, the liturgy just makes me miss St. Stephen's and it's about 45 minutes away by debab. And I'm not 100% sure I can get there by myself. I should try at some point, though.

felt up.

I missed the chance to slap the shit out of a man today. I was walking down the street when this guy passes me and totally feels up my ass. So, I yell at him in arabic and then my arabic runs out, so I go off in English at him. This guy comes around the corner and I think he yells at the guy, I really hope so. But I left because I was on the way to meet some friends. but next time, I'm totally slapping the shit out of the guy.

simply put:

MY COMPUTER WORKS! ALHAMDULILLA! ALLELUIA!