O Fair New Mexico...

We are returning to the Land of Enchantment next week. Oh, those beautiful mountains and sunsets and Mexican food and shopping without bargaining...in English! We are only home for one week and are doing a conference so things will be tight but we are super excited. We haven't been to America in a year in 4 months! Here is our schedule in North African time:

Monday 9:00 p.m.
Leave our city on the train to the airport
Tuesday 2:00 a.m
Flight to Frankfurt and then Denver and then to El Paso
Wednesday 5:30 a.m arrive in El Paso and drive to LC

Arrival: 7:00 a.m. North African time
Total Hours traveled: 34!!!




PROJECT FRIENDSHIP BRACELET

We had a Valentine's Day party for our friends this weekend and one of our activities was making bracelets from beads. One of the girls (national girls mind you) said "This bracelet is so special to me, each bead represents your personalities and is such a memory for this party. We'll call it 'Project Friendship Bracelet'! Me and the other two American girls almost died laughing but hey, at least she enjoyed herself :)

V-day Cuteness and a Return to the Blue City

Yesterday was Valentine's Day and we didn't make reservations anywhere so when we showed up at this sushi bar the manager told us we had 45 minutes before the crowd came who had reserved and we could eat quick and leave if we wanted. North Africans are like the French and the eating is just small part of the evening ordeal they call dinner. Usually lasting for hours, we knew we could eat and be out of there in no time. So we were grabbing sushi plates off the conveyor belt that came by and downing them like peanuts at a baseball game. We ordered one dish off the menu which was this really good fried meat with melted cheese. Sounds strange but ordering here is always a gamble in a second or third language. We chowed down, payed the bill and headed out in 40 minutes, unheard of in these parts!


We returned this weekend to the blue mountain city that we spent our anniversary in two months ago. Only this time it wasn't so romantic as we were accompanied by 21 national students crammed into a van (not bus) totaling 26 people. They didn't fail to bring their drums and to serenade us with lovely beats and singing the whole trip.


Look familiar? We were at this very spot only a few blog posts back.


This adorable old man came and played and sang for us as we ate dinner at 11:00 at night.


Also in town, was a really ghetto miniature carnival, complete with rickety rides and everything.


I rode the "ferris wheel" with my friends and this adorable little boy while I was holding on for dear life. I wouldn't exactly call this a ferris wheel where you get to see the views and have romantic conversations. This thing was hauling boo-tay and everyone was rocking the carts and standing up. I was SO sick and I thought I was gonna lose my lunch and finally I motioned to the operator to let us off and he gladly obliged.


PLEAAASE make it stop!


Here Cody is attempting to play soccer with the boys. He wasn't actually in the game very long because he biffed it pretty hard early on and cut up his knee and side. Asphalt isn't easy to play soccer on. He was secretly grateful that he had fallen because it gave him the perfect excuse to sit out of the rest of the game. An honorable discharge, if you will.




These are the dorm rooms we stayed in at the ministry of sports complex. Cody thinks he's too cool for school, but I have news for you, "You Aren't" (Zoolander fans out there, hello...?)

Thought you might like to see

So here are some really exciting photos of our life for you. I know you can hardly contain yourself, but hey I haven't been taking much pictures lately. So...here we are in class this morning. We are in Arabic class three days a week at this fine institution. Cody tries to flirt me with and talk the whole time.


You might me wondering why we are snuggling up with Mr. Bota but he is my new best friend. This butane (called "bota" here) gas heater has truly revolutionized my life. We inherited him last week from a friend and we have already had to change the bota (and it's the big tank too baby).




So remember the kaftan I had made awhile back? Well now I am getting a takchita made, which is the traditional dress that we wear to parties. If you recall from the wedding a couple of weeks back I had an invite 3 hours before the wedding and didn't have time borrow one. So I finally gave in and decided to have one made. The material all together cost around $20. The difference in a takchita is that is always two pieces and the kaftan is only one piece. So here is the one I designed but pretend there is no white in it. The top layer is navy blue and the bottom is the maroon. So after I get back I'll post pictures so you can see how my friend did making it.

I will not be leaving the house on Tuesday!

So, let me tell you about little celebration in North Africa called "Ashura" which literally means the "the tenth" day because the Islamic New Year started 10 days ago. Please don't get confused with some Shi' ite Muslim practices of cutting the body and violence. We live among Sunni Muslims. Muslims believe that Moses fasted on that day to express gratitude to God for liberation of Israelites from Egypt. According to the Muslim tradition, Muhammad fasted on this day and asked other people to fast, among other reasons to celebrate. When you ask the average local here what they are celebrating the just say it's the tenth day and we give kids presents and they play pranks on each other.

Which brings me to my point as to why I will not be leaving the house. Last year I got attacked with water balloons and didn't know why, and boy was I maaaad. I thought they were just targeting me cause I was foreigner (could've been that too I guess :). Kids throw water balloons and eggs at people. It has nothing to do with the holiday but just tradition, kinda like hunting for Easter eggs and the Easter bunny. So not sure if I will actually stay in all day but I'll let you know you how it goes.


This could be me


And, just so you don't miss our beautiful faces (notice sarcasm) here are a couple of pics taken only minutes ago. Here is Cody hard at work on a really difficult photomosaics puzzle that he got for Christmas. Here is me hard at work on the computer. This is what I look anytime I am at home, wrapped up in this big blanket. Seeing as our house stays around 40 degrees I hate to get up!

Surprise Wedding and Exotic Garden

We gotta lotta pics this week so let's get to the good stuff. On Thursday night at around 6:00 I got a call from my friend inviting me to a wedding at 9:00 that night. Well my gut instinct was "NO WAY JOSE" is she crazy that's in three hours and we had dinner plans in 30 minutes for my friends birthday. Well, a split second later after we clarified that it was indeed tonight she was talking about, so I decided to go because I knew I would regret it later. (I do so love parties) I called up my two American friends to see if they wanted to go with me and they agreed so we started planning outfits ASAP. There were no girls wearing "Western clothes" at the wedding so we knew we had to go traditional. I wore the Kaftan I just had made (not as dressy as it should be but it would do). I asked my neighbor for her dress for one of my friends and the other wore another jellaba I had. We met our friend at around 10:00 and the party was just getting started. The bride hadn't shown up yet.


They rented this palace type building and served all these courses and sweets all night. I was still full from the Thai food I had just eaten.


By 4:00 a.m the bride had already changed dresses six times. Each time with all new jewelry. I was exhausted for her. The last picture is a traditional indigenous minority group (they were here before the Arabs and have their own language and traditions).









It's very "Arab" to wear tons of makeup like this (especially in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates). I think it's so neat.












































The bride and groom were carried in a couple of times and this time we threw flower petals on them and he lifted her veil and kissed her on the forehead. One of the men toting the groom slipped by the fountain and fell flat on his back. Everyone gasped and I 'bout peed my pants but once we saw he was okay we all had a good laugh.






Here I am approaching 4:30 a.m. and my hips and feet were so tired from dancing. We headed out before the wedding was over. At sunrise they would go to local historical landmark and take more photos. I told my friend we had to bail before sunrise because we had a meeting at 11:00. Good times had by all!

So as not to leave Cody out of this weeks post here are a few pics from a trip to the exotic gardens 15 kilometers north of our city. There were different habitats from various regions around the world. Very pretty.