oh so lovely really

i have been trying to get the time to sit down and write up a past experience and then i had another great experience recently to get me to finally put now both of them here on the blog.
sadly no photos, but it wasn't quite a photographic evening or day for these events. really it was just life.
i decided to meet up with a couple of girlfriends from here at a cafe'. i was excited cause they don't speak any English, and we usually have another friend with us that speaks some English with us, but she is travelling now. so, i was happy to really practice my Arabic. and since i hadn't seen them in a while i was hoping that they would be excited to hear what i have learned. so, they indeed were happy to hear me speaking more and that i could understand them so much more. it was a great time. so, we met for coffee/juice and while we were there a protest group came by. this isn't too unusual here these days, but it was interesting to watch my friends respond to it. that was a neat learning experience. then, we decided to walk down the souqa (market/old part of the city). we grabbed some soft serve cones on the way in and entered the souqa during its busiest time. vendors, families, couples, food, clothes, everything--everywhere. it was fun to be with them, be in the souqa at that time of day (i don't go there at night hardly at all) and have them as chaperons:) so, we made it through a long street with the slow, slow moving of folks to then turn down another lane and right when we did we were in for a suprise (or i was). babush! basically escargot (or snails) in this mobile stock pot. this man has a cart that has a hole cut into it large enough to set a huge stock pot down in there. below the stock pot is a gas flame burner thing and attached to that is the buta gas tank. this cart isn't level and is covered with a layer of plastic to help keep it clean. turns out you can get a small bowl of the rue to sip on (which was amazingly good and suprisingly spicy) and then you can also get the snails themselves. you get shell and all. and just for those of you that have been around me when i eat shrimp--no, i didn't eat the snail shell!:)
but the way you eat these littel guys was quite an experience. there is a lemon that sits on this cart that bent safety pins are stuck into. i guess the lemon sanitizes the pins after each person uses them maybe? well, you grab your pin and you scrape out the snail and then you eat it off the pin. it was delicious! it was fun. i think the ladies enjoyed watching me drink the rue and eat the snails. they liked it of course.
then, we moved on from there to get fried (said with a deep southern accent) fish sandwiches. there was this sweet older woman frying away and then her maybe son was putting the sandwiches together. it was neat and all of our food was so cheap for the whole night! like under 5 bucks for all of that.
so, then we made it out of the souqa and came upon the carnival! i was the gal that got to ride the rides with each of them:) i am very thankful for what i think may be a strong stomach. it was a blast and definitely great practice for lang and more opportunity for us to get to know each other. and i had no idea any of that was going to happen. all i knew initially was that we were going to meet up at the cafe'.

onto another exciting adventure...
i went to the souqa to do more shopping for family and friends and had heard that there was a place that had a poster that i am looking for. turns out it was supposed to be at this shop that i have been to several times and the gal that runs it knows me and my roommate. she invited me into the shop to have tea. so cool! i mean it is just so neat to be invited in for tea in a matter of minutes. this was a big test and practice time for language as she also doesn't know much English. which was great really. but we talked for a while--couple of hours! it was fun. i learned about her family and got to tell her about mine. we even talked through some somewhat deep issues, too. just amazing. and then i got an invite over for some couscous! sweet!

all around a neat last week or so. very thankful indeed.