fromage, moving, leaks, and everyday life

so, on a trip down south to a larger city i had gotten a hot tip that there was cheddar to be found! i didn't realize how much i missed this yummy kind of fromage (the word they use here for cheese, french actually). we have only had it a few times in our 'hood grocery store, but when i found it down south i bought as much as i was able with the money i had on me. here, my roommate is measuring it out so we can distribute some to our friends here. she is trained as an engineer, so she did all this amazing math to figure it all out. we are planning to shred it to freeze (since we have realized the scarcity of this precious cheese here in these parts). just another night in NA, right? :)

moving day! we were so excited that it didn't rain on this one Saturday. it seems to be raining pretty much every Saturday and well, almost every other day, too. here, you can rent these trucks pronounced: lori

this one was great as it only two took loads to move all the big stuff and on the second load we were trying to gather as much stuff as possible to fill it up. you will see below that we even decided to have folks ride in the back to save on taxi trips. it kind of felt like a parade!

loadin' up the help! it was a great, great day for moving. i know the young boys (older ones, too, maybe) really enjoyed getting to ride in the back.

as a part of the move, the family wanted to trade my roommate a shelving unit for the table picture here. so, i was cleaning stuff out from under it and realized that we have a leak...there was mold and mildew developing as well. so, i tried to air it out, bleach it and even bleached part of the table to help with the mold/mildew. i have to admit that this turned out to be a good thing to realize as it could have gotten really worse and i bet that is why i have had some head coldish stuff going on. thankfully we really haven't had any mold/mildew issues to speak of and the only reason why we had this one was because of a leak. but speaking of the leak...

this is what is on the other side of the wall. our tile isn't quite tile, but laminated brick. so, that is what may be causing the leak. turns out there is water that has even been leaking out into the hallway of the building. yikes. well, hopefully we can get in contact with our landlord soon to have it fixed. i know that i was holding off on this fix of the tile cause i can only imagine what may go into the repair of this:) but now that it is obviously more than just this faux tile peeling and a leak into more places than one, hopefully it will be resolved sooner than later. but this is the benefit to renting, right?

so, onto more exciting things...i have a bit of a victory to share this week. i was so happy when i was called a word by my friend this week. this word actually means ugly, dirty, not good, but trust me...it was turned out to be one of the best compliments i have received thus far.

so, i was walking out of class and turned my phone back on to see who i had received a call from earlier. turns out i had also gotten text from a local friend saying that she was in the area and wanted to see me to go hang out. well, i texted back to tell her that i had to go help my roommate first, but would love to meet up with her. normally when she says that she is right on my block she is en route or just around the 'hood. well, this time i was walking up to my entry door to our apartment building and saw my two dear friends hunched over the mobile phone reading my text message as i had just sent it. so, i decided to go up behind them and say Ahalan! a little louder than normal to sort of scare them. well, it indeed startled both of them. after that i was laughing and so was one friend, but the other really got startled. she started calling me khaiba, khaiba which really struck me. like i said before this word can be used to describe something that isn't good or unpleasant or someone who is maybe untrustworthy...you get the gist. but in this context it gave me this feeling that i was in. no longer were we just face value friends, but we could laugh and joke and she could call me horrible (just like my mom would say for startling her as i tend to do from time to time:). so, the rest of the night was great. we had a really fun time doing our normal routine: heading to the coffee shop to drink hot chocolate or cafe' au lait, talking about life (where this time i was able to learn even more about my friends), talking about things going on around the world, then mozying on over to the m'dina for a stroll, and then to the snail man to eat snails and drink the roux from the snails, and then part ways (all of this being communicated in solely Arabic). awh. what a great night! i am just so thankful. really.

so, i hope you are having a great week where you are and are able to share friendships like these. shine the Light you have been given. thanks for your support.