Ramadan Kareem!

Dear readers,

Ramadan Kareem! Kull sana wa into tayyibiin! (roughly translated: Blessed Ramadan, and may you be well every year! Or... Merry Ramadan and a Happy New Year!)

Ramadan in Egypt is a lot of fun, even if you aren’t Muslim. Everywhere is decorated festively – including the hotel:

And the streets are bedecked too:

 (photo courtesy of Amy)

Almost no one is around during the day, because I get the impression that most people change their work hours for Ramadan, if they’re Muslim, and they exchange shifts with Christians. (The purpose of this, of course, is to sleep off the hunger, and to keep yourself from being too sleep-deprived when your regular meal schedule involves eating at 3am.) Naturally, the people on our trip who fast have had a rough time of it, because our classes start at 9am no matter what. (I personally decided not to fast because of that; I didn’t want it to interfere with my academics, and also I was worried about the consequences of not drinking any water during the daylight hours when I tend to sweat so much here.)

The other day, we all bought Egypt-specific decorative lamps that people put up for Ramadan, called fanawiis (singular: funoos). Apparently the lamps have been around since “ancient Egyptian” times, but they got repurposed for Ramadan once the Muslims came to the country.

(That's two of my classmates, holding their recently purchased fanawiis in front of a store specializing in them. Photo courtesy of Amy)

Yes, they’re a little on the kitschy side. But they’re fun and festive – and they look great with candles or electric lights inside them. (I’m putting mine up in my on-campus apartment when I get back!) The picture of the hotel lobby earlier in this post has a funoos in it, to give you an idea of what they look like when they're lit up.

Another cool thing about Ramadan decor is that there's a particular fabric pattern that shows up almost everywhere:

People will buy fabric with this pattern by the roll and use it to decorate EVERYTHING. I've seen it on tables in stores, I've seen it in windows, and I've even seen it wrapped around trees!

And, of course... it wouldn't be Ramadan without the heavy and delicious food. Today we were invited to the house of one of our program coordinators to break fast with her, and she had made a huge, delicious, and traditional meal for us.

The food on the table:
- Dates (to eat first, since dates and milk are the official fast-breaking foods during Ramadan)
- Fateera (savory Turkish pastry)
- Molokhiya (a really good spinach-y soup that I would love to try to make at home)
- Grains (rice, pita bread, fateera without any sort of stuffing)
- Several types of savory soup
- Kofta (Turkish sausage)
- Pickled lemons(!)
The drinks:
- Water
- Fresh juices (mango, guava, apple)
The desserts:
- Dates/Apricots/Figs in sort of a salad
- Apricot pudding
- Kunafa (a nutty/fruity/sugary stringy pastry)

Imagine eating this every night! Makes sense, for if you're fasting all day every day, to have really heavy meals. (The problem is that people generally gain a lot of weight during Ramadan, because they don't exercise because of fasting, and they sit around and sleep instead, and they don't do active things with their families at night.)

All in all, it's been an awesome experience -- especially since my roommate converted to Islam a while ago and it's her first time spending Ramadan somewhere where most people are Muslim. A lot of my holiday spirit is vicariously experienced through being around her :)

Thanks for reading, folks! More stories/anecdotes later --

- Beth

as-Saahil as-Shamaali (The North Coast)

Dear readers,

Yes, I know that I've technically been living on the "north coast" of Africa for the past five weeks, but for whatever reason most people don't count Alexandria as being "the north coast". I mention this because recently I was able to visit the actual, for-real-this-time north coast over a weekend! Which meant: a luxurious five-star resort, and a day and a half of beautiful beach time!!

Here's the hotel lobby:

Here's what our room looked like:

And here is the BEAUTIFUL view of the Mediterranean from our room's balcony:

The weather was phenomenal while I was there -- not too hot, maybe a little on the windy side. The sea was pretty rough, but that could have been because the tide was coming in when we were swimming. It was also very salty compared to the Atlantic/Pacific, and, as you can see from the photo, VERY blue. I thought they digitally altered those pictures to make the ocean bluer, but it turns out they don't!

 We had an awesome, relaxing time while we were there, and the food was really good too. Very little homework, lots of relaxing. I tried to study vocabulary that I should have learned weeks earlier, but doing homework on such a beautiful beach is nearly impossible. I ended up just swimming and taking leisurely walks with my friends.

It's back to the grindstone tonight and tomorrow night and on and on etc, but I feel energized now that I've had such a relaxing weekend!

More later --

- Beth C-C

A Weekend in Cairo

Dear readers,

At long last -- my account of my trip to Cairo a couple of weeks ago! It was an awesome trip; I may like Cairo more than I like Alexandria, though I will say that Alexandria is much cleaner (mountains of trash were a common sight), and not as hot (i.e. not 100 degrees every day).

The drive there was nice; I slept most of the way, but when I wasn’t sleeping, I was talking to my classmates (in Arabic and English) about various topics, ranging from our favorite types of music (e.g. Phoenix, Joe Jackson, Israeli pop) to our favorite Arabic linguistic mistakes (e.g. mistaking “Mozz” (“Sexy guy”) for “Mooz” (“Banana”)). We stopped to use the restroom at this very unusual rest stop sort of place:

which, strangely, had a zoo area too, with flamingos, deer, llamas and -- most entertainingly -- ostriches:

Just look at that attractive face!

Seriously, though, I felt sorry for the animals, because it was so freaking hot outside, and some of the animals (e.g. the llamas) were not built for that weather.

Once we got to Cairo, we went on a cruise on the Nile! Here is what the boat looked like:

Very lovely! We also got some pretty good food, and the view of the city was wonderful when we went to the top of the boat:

And when we went back down, there was a dance performance going on! Belly dancing, sword dancing, and lots of awkwardly getting people from the audience to join in -- including kids in the program, shown below.

(photo courtesy of Amy)

Then we got to our hotel, which was REALLY nice.

As soon as we walked in, I felt like I was back in America. Not to complain about the hotel in Alexandria, but it feels so quirky and bizarre in comparison to American hotels, and it felt really good to sleep in a soft bed, in a room with an American-style bathroom and a shower area that didn’t overflow. :)

The next day, here's what we did -- in no particular order, since I don't remember the order, to be perfectly honest --

We went to the Egyptian Museum, which is by far the most salmon-colored building I’ve ever seen:

Inside it had a pretty amazing collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts, mummified remains, etc. I wasn’t allowed to take pictures, or else I would have – especially of the Russian-doll-styled coffin-within-a-coffin that King Tut was buried in, and his ornate burial mask. (Gotta admit, though, that I went through the whole museum with “King Tut” by Steve Martin and the Toot Uncommons stuck in my head!)

We also went to the Citadel, which was absolutely gorgeous:

(photos courtesy of Amy, Green, and Sean, since my camera had died by that point)

Besides the National Cathedral, St. John the Divine, Westminster Abbey, and St. Bartholomew’s (in New York), I have never been so moved by the beauty of a religious space. 

(photo courtesy of Sean)

This was one of my favorite parts of going to Cairo. I liked almost everything about that Citadel trip. Once we got into the mosque, especially; it's something about religious spaces, but no matter how hectic a place you're in -- physically or mentally -- a religious space will be calm and you can have quiet time there. No one harassed us or tried to sell us things, even though it was a tourist spot. It was really, really nice.

The view of the city from there was great too!

Two thumbs up from me!

 

Fun fact: Apparently the reason why mosques/citadels/whatever are domed, is for resonance, so that whoever is leading the prayer can be heard in every corner of the mosque portion of the Citadel.

Another fun fact: Muhammed Ali Pasha is a badass. I’m becoming more of a fan of him, the longer I stay in Egypt! It’s probably because I’m falling for the propaganda; they treat him in Egypt like we treat George Washington in America.

After that (maybe? again, I don't remember the order that well), we went to Khan al-Khalili, a famous and very old open-air market in Cairo. (Sorry I don't have photos; no one else on the trip got photos either, to my knowledge, because it was too crazy for anyone to get a chance to.) Somehow, it was both touristy, and anti-touristy, at the same time; on the one hand, it looks like something out of an old movie, or out of a spy-movie action scene where some guy is chasing an enemy agent through the marketplace and knocking over people’s wares as he barrels by.

But on the other hand, you had to negotiate for EVERYTHING. Thank goodness the conversation partners were with us, because I had to tag-team almost every negotiation I made. (Maybe negotiating would be fun if I were good at it… but I’m not, at present.) I was pretty exhausted by the end, because for me, it takes a lot of energy to constantly tune people out; there wasn’t a moment that went by where I wasn’t intentionally ignoring a seller who was yelling at me from his store.

I won’t say what I got, because that would be giving away people’s presents when I get home. ;-) But I can say that they’re pretty cool, and you will really like them, inshallah!

So that was the second day. And on the last day in Cairo... we saw the Pyramids!

(Glamour shot courtesy of Sean)

And we saw the Sphinx!

(Two thumbs up, again!)

And we actually went inside this pyramid:

Someone was singing the “Indiana Jones” theme as we were going in, which added a certain je ne sais quoi to the experience – and it made me nostalgic for the time when I went to the Lewis and Clark Caverns on a school trip in elementary school. (Non-Montanans, look those up! They’re really cool.)

And -- best part of the entire weekend -- I RODE A CAMEL.

(Photo courtesy of Amy, who was also on a camel at the time)

Twenty minutes of pure joy. I wish it had been longer!

Well that's about it; time to work on my next blog post in advance, so hopefully I'll get it posted in a couple of days. I really haven't been fair to my readers, and for that I apologize, and I will try to do better.

Ma'a as-Salaama,

Beth

The Nady (or, the Sporting Club)

Dear readers,

One thing that I think is really cool about Egypt -- that may also exist elsewhere in the Middle East and the rest of the world -- is the Nady culture. Nadys are "sporting clubs" that are (probably) not like anything that exists in America. The one I went to this weekend was ginormous; imagine a huge compound with a swimming pool, gym, running/walking track, golf course, tennis court, you name it, but also a really fancy lounge/restaurant area, where waiters and waitresses serve you drinks. (Incidentally, this was the first time I had ever seen waitresses in Egypt, after living here for a month.) With chandeliers, wood paneling, and pseudo-orientalist paintings on the walls, it struck me as very European Colonial.

When I went, it was maybe 10am on the Thursday before the beginning of Ramadan, so pretty much the only people who were there were older guys, but I've heard that kids in their teens and twenties hang out there all the time during the year -- maybe playing ball or running or something, then cleaning up and hanging out in the restaurant area.* In the most common American textbook of beginners Arabic -- Al-Kitaab 1 -- one of the main characters of the textbook's story is a TA at the University of Cairo, and after work every day he goes to a Nady with his friends wand they don't work out, but instead they sit around for hours, smoking and playing chess and talking about girls. It was cool to have read about that so many years ago, and now to have just hung out in a Nady myself (though doing homework instead of talking to my friends about boys).

Besides the food, the culture of the Nady is the one Egyptian thing I can think of that I would love to see exported to America. It's so chill, and the people here are not hyper-athletic, so working out here is not intimidating for un-fit people (such as myself). I also liked it because it's a really good place to study; I think I had more privacy and less background noise in the Nady restaurant than anywhere else I've been in Egypt so far.

Sorry I don't have any photos; I misplaced my camera and am still trying to find it, and the people I went with didn't bring their cameras with them. But if you Google search "Alexandria Sporting Club", you'll find some pics.

Thanks for reading, folks! I'll try to post soon about my trip to Cairo.

- Beth C-C

*It costs 60 Egyptian Pounds ($10 USD) to get in if you aren't a member, but you can literally spend all day there. I took homework with me!

"Fishing"

Dear readers,

Every weekend, on our program, we take a field trip. A week or two ago, we had planned on going fishing in Lake Burullus, a fairly large lake in the Nile Delta that was maybe a three hours drive from Alexandria by bus. All the kids in the program went, along with a few of our Egyptian conversation partners, the program director, and the program director’s husband and children.

We had been looking forward to it for the whole week; fishing in the Nile Delta! With actual fishermen teaching us how! (I was pretty excited about eating the fish we were going to catch, though the vegetarians in the group were hoping for catch-and-release.) But this was not meant to be, although the experience was amazing in its own right.

None of us – including the native Egyptians on the trip – had ever been to this part of Egypt before, so we didn’t exactly know what to expect. What we found was a village with a level of poverty unbeknownst to us; kids were running around on dirt roads filled with trash, the houses were earthen and looked like something that I – a bearer of impossible wealth when measured on global standards – had only seen in movies. I was able to see the inside of one of these houses because I needed to use the bathroom before I left, and I realized when I was standing on its dirt floor, next to the only bed in the house, swatting away flies, that I am not in a first-world country.

Obviously I didn’t take pictures, because that would have been disrespectful. But I did take pictures of the boats! I was on two types of boats while I was there; the first type was like a canoe, and they crammed as many of us as they could fit onto each small boat to take us to the larger boats.

Then they docked us by the larger boats, and unloaded us onto them.

The larger boats -- "feluccas" -- were of a style that is unique only to this part of Egypt; very low to the surface of the water, with a distinctive sail and domed deck.

 

The ride was smooth, and the family that was running the operation was obviously extremely experienced with the felucca, and knew how to steer and control it with a high level of efficiency. Every member of the family was involved – even the kids, who ranged from age seven to age thirteen. (On a less professional note: seeing the program coordinator's kids and the fishermen's kids playing on the deck was very cute!!)

It was right around then that we realized that we weren't going to be fishing; apparently fishing in Lake Burullus is illegal without a permit, and none of the fishermen had permits, so we didn't want to be participating in that. So we ended up just sitting on the boat, hanging out. Which isn't a bad thing; we had a great time!

 

See how happy we are? :D

We also very much enjoyed the food we had for lunch, which the fisherman's family made for us:

Clockwise from top: Blackened fish, chips, fresh tomatoes, more fish, two types of rice, some of the best eggplant I've ever had (cooked in the style of moussaka), and pickled vegetables. VERY good.

After that we started to head back to shore. We were all pretty reluctant to go back (with the exception of the program coordinator, who had gotten motion-sick on the boat), and we were all grateful that the fishermen had given us that opportunity, and hospitality. We were especially grateful when we found out that someone had had his boat confiscated by the police after the last group visited (since the police feel the need to accompany any group of foreigners to visit this lake, for reasons unknown to me), so we were going to be the last group that the fishermen would allow to join them out on the water. I felt a little guilty about that, but there wasn’t much we could have done.

On reflection, one of the most interesting things about the trip was the fact that the native Egyptians on the trip were as shocked/amazed by everything we saw as we were – or possibly more so. Illogically, I had expected them to be familiar with it, but when you think about it, middle-class/wealthy Americans would be shocked if they visited, for example, the poorer and more dangerous parts of Baltimore, or Detroit. There’s no reason to think that things would be any different in Egypt.

So that’s about it! As per usual, I’ve been trying to post more often, but it hasn’t been working out so far... but inshallah I’ll be able to post more news later in the week.

- Beth C-C

Hates and Loves

Dear readers,

This post began as an excuse to rant, but it became a list of positives and negatives of the basic facts of life in Alexandria. Hence, "hates and loves", not just hates.

#1:
I hate:

- All the stomach problems. I've become constantly vigilant regarding the condition of my stomach, since I've been here, and there's good reason for that, as many of us have already gotten "Pharaoh's Revenge", myself included. I'm being careful (i.e. by avoiding salads, only drinking bottled water, washing my hands a lot, and self-medicating by taking a Vitamin C pill every day and eating Activia every day), but I was careful before I got sick, too, and it's frustrating that even three weeks in, I have to be this careful.

But I love: 

- The food (which I have already discussed in great detail)! So even though I'm hyper-aware about the potential dangers of the food I'm eating, I love that food. Like Anthony Bourdain says, the worst that can happen is that you get food poisoning and are very uncomfortable for a day or so. It's worth it even if I do get sick!
On a related note, one of the items on my bucket list is to take a foodie road trip through the Middle East and South Asia -- preferably with my dad because he loves new and interesting food as much as I do (or even more). Being in Egypt has not only cemented that bucket list item in my mind, but has also made it one of the highest-priority items on the list.

#2
I hate:

- How freaking hard our textbook is. Those of you who have taken Arabic in school are all too familiar with the Al-Kitaab series, but you may not know that the differences between Al-Kitaabs 2 and 3 are IMMENSE. We've been reading college-level articles (on heavy subjects like American media bias, and Saudi economic power), and memorizing 5 pages of vocab every two days. It's literally impossible; no one in my class can do it, and most of us have given up on trying. And the professors hate it too.

But I love:

- The format of the school day! Every day we get to class at a reasonable hour (9am), have two half-hour-long breaks for coffee and for lunch, and get out of class at 3pm. And now, thanks to the program coordinator and some squeaky wheels in the class, we have optional office hours every day of the school week, not two days of the week like with the first years and second years. And those office hours are fantastic and EXTREMELY helpful, entirely because of:

- The professors! We have two professors in advanced-level Arabic here: Ustaz Ala' and Ustaza Iman. They could not be more different -- Ala' is a goofy prankster who sprinkles his classroom Arabic with dialect and constantly jokes about throwing the textbook (which he hates) out the window, and Iman is a subdued, schoolmarm-ish type who is very detail-oriented and thorough -- but I love them both and they both have helped to increase my Arabic listening and speaking abilities immensely. For example: Ustaza Iman refuses to speak English EVER, even when we ask what an Arabic word means (in which case she will explain using similar Arabic words, or using the word in the sentence to help us figure it out). None of us understand 100% of what she says, but our comprehension has really increased since she started teaching us. (I, for one, have moved from understanding 30% of what she says, to about 70%.)

#3:
I hate:

- Egyptian trolls. For those of you not in the know, a "troll" (on the internet and in real life) is someone who provokes and annoys people for his or her own entertainment. Trolling by young men and boys in Egypt seems to be pretty much accepted societally, with a "boys will be boys" attitude. Almost everyone in our group has been trolled at some point, with varying methods:

1) Many of the guys in our group have been homosexually flirted with by straight Egyptian men, because they know that it makes them uncomfortable. (A war veteran in our program told us that Iraqi civilians did the same thing to American troops.) Example: One student was ordering ice cream, and the young guy at the counter asked him his name, then when he found out, repeated the student's name back to him and made kissy noises at him.

2) Every single one of the girls in our program has been sexually solicited at some point, or at least flirted with or cat-called. (Most common: "Hello, what is your name?", "Ya mozza! (Hey, sexy!)") A guy followed me for about half a block, once, saying "Hello how are you? What is your name? You are much beautiful!", but he stopped following me when I started walking next to one of the men in our group. (They only seek out girls when they're alone, or traveling only with other girls. If there's a guy next to them, they'll back off.) Three other girls have, on separate occasions, had a young guy follow them for more than a block, going "Hello, will you please fuck me?"
(I absolutely loathe this, because it happens every day. The girls have it worst, on this trip; we may have all come to Egypt with full knowledge that it would be like this, but it starts to get to you after a while.)

3) Those of us in the group who aren't white are trolled differently -- with the exception of the Indian (female) student in our group, who has been trolled the same way as the white girls because guys assume that she's a wannabe-Americanized Egyptian who is as slutty as American girls; they'll flirt with her just as much, but speak to her in very fast colloquial Arabic, assuming that she can understand. But it's been a bit different with the others: a Thai student in our group has had people cat-call him for being "Chinese", and had people yell "Ni hao!" at him. And an African-American student with long braids has had a guy yell at her "Hey Asian, nice hair!" (Stranger than fiction, that!)

My point is: Every one of us has reason to avoid traveling alone. We know that the chance of anything happening besides verbal harassment is low, but it drives us crazy anyways. Like I said before, the girls are probably the most bugged by it, because for us, it's every single day, sometimes more than once. And another factor that really frustrates me is that sometimes it's preteen boys, not young men. Maybe it's cultural, but I see that sort of thing and my first thought is "parenting failure". (Case in point: At a Coptic Catholic church service today, I saw a guy holding his three-year-old son for most of the service, and the kid was pretty rowdy, which was normal... but then I saw the kid slap his dad in the face. Twice. The dad didn't even react, and just kept doing what he was doing. No punishment, no taking the kid out of the room, nothing.) That behavior should be nipped in the bud early on -- especially in a society that is known, in every other regard, for its respect for guests and for women (even if that respect is of the condescending variety, much like in some parts of America).


But I love:

- Hospitality here! Everyone who isn't a troll (or selling something) is really friendly, and legitimately interested in where we're from, who we are, etc. It's been much easier for me to be motivated to communicate with Egyptians outside of the classroom, because they've been so nice most of the time.


Inshallah, I'll be able to focus entirely on the positives in the near future :) and not so much the negatives.

More later, and sorry for the long breaks in between posts!

- Beth C-C

at-Ta'aam wal-Meshrubaat (Food and Drinks)

(Edited for flow and typos)

Dear readers,

It's so hard for me to write short, themed posts, because I always want to bring other subjects into it, and maybe wax philosophical for a couple of paragraphs, but here I am trying again -- mostly because my mom has been telling me to do so via email. So, here is a post about food, because it's really, really good here!

This is the standard hotel breakfast, which may or may not be representative of how the average Egyptian breakfasts on a daily basis:

This was only one day, and the selection varies, but we are guaranteed to be served these things every morning:

- One hard-boiled egg
- Two or three types of cheese: usually one crumbly/hard, and two soft, and all of them mild to slightly blue)
- Four slices of some kind of bread -- never wheat, because no one seems to eat wheat bread in this country -- with butter and jam on the side. Pictured are two slices of very white bread, one slice of something like fruitcake, and a slice of chocolate(?) pound cake.
- Several slices of fresh tomato
- One of two caffeinated drink options:
  -- Coffee, either Turkish (which is brewed with loads upon loads of cardamom at our hotel), or Nescafe (which this town is obsessed with, as it is on literally every drink menu I've seen here), or
  -- Tea, which is guaranteed to be Lipton's Yellow Label, as Alexandrians are obsessed with that brand too. The way you drink it here is dark-ish and bitter, with a full package of white sugar stirred in, and some sprigs of mint if you feel like it. (It reminds me a lot of the "special" iced tea recipe that has been handed down on the Texas/Louisiana side of my family, except that it's served hot, and without orange juice. How bizarre to be reminded of the American South when living in Egypt!)

We almost always get olives and cucumber, too. Occasionally, we get fruity yogurt, or orange juice, or a banana. Because I never even put a dent in my breakfast, I've started taking some of it (usually the jam and one of the slices of bread) with me at school to snack on.

At the university, there's a guy whose job is to sell us food and make us drinks, which are always good and very inexpensive. Every morning, I buy a cup of Turkish coffee from him for two (or 2.5?) Egyptian pounds, or roughly 35 cents USD.

Look at that delicious sludge. Just look at it! Makes you thirsty, right?? In the words of Agent Cooper, of the TV show "Twin Peaks": "Every day, once a day, give yourself a present... Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee." My Turkish Coffee Time is my gift to myself every morning, a break from the stresses of nonstop Arabic work to relax with a beverage that I can have here all the time, and can rarely obtain in the US.
(I'm considering remedying this by buying a Turkish coffee pot and taking it home with me, but I digress!)

For lunch, we always go to the same nearby restaurant: Al-Tibawy.

They have all the standard Alexandrian cheap food, which we absolutely love, and which is sold almost everywhere:
- Falafel sandwiches (pita stuffed with falafel, cucumbers, and all the fixins)
- Ful sandwiches (pita stuffed with some kind of bean paste, sometimes with tomato or bell pepper too)
- Shawarma (thin bread or hot dog bun stuffed with meat, veggies, and surprisingly tasty pickles)
- Crepes(!) (filled with either nutella, fruit/honey, or shawarma fixins)
And, last but not least...
- KOSHARY.

Koshary is my absolute favorite Egyptian food -- even better because I tried to make it at home and it turned out being pretty bad, so my expectations were extremely low to begin with. It consists of: Rice, macaroni/spaghetti cut into small bits, chickpeas, lentils, fried onions (best part), and various types of spicy, probably tomato-based sauce. God, it's making me hungry just thinking about it! Inshallah (God willing), I'll have it for dinner tonight. <3

But I digress (again). In short, our lunch and dinner options are pretty limited, and not the most healthy. As wonderful as they are, we need to make grocery store runs every once and a while to stock up on fruits and vegetables etc.

Speaking of which... Local fruit in this town is AMAZING. The best bananas and yellow apples I've ever had, I ate here. (Needless to say, the dried dates are wonderful too, but I always love those, so it hardly counts.)

Fruit juice here is like none I've ever tasted in my life.

Pictured: Strawberry, mango, pomegranate, and coconut. Mango juice is especially good here, but all kinds of fresh juice are filling, sugary, syrupy, and have huge pieces of fruit in them. You have to drink them with a spoon!

I've heard that seafood is really good here, too, but I haven't quite partaken yet. I mean, I had this fried fish and fried calamari at a Western-style restaurant over the weekend:

But it was only pretty good, not mind-blowing, and I couldn't enjoy it that much because I was sick.

More food updates, and further small themed updates, to come later!

Ma' as-Salaama,

Beth C-C