end of July into August

all right! another update and another couple of adventures to document! i am still trying to catch up, so you have to just keep your eyes open for new updates. at the end of July i got to go down south with some friends that are also studying here. it was a really fun trip, but full of suprises and new experiences (of course, right?). so, i hope you enjoy this update and this finds you and yours doing well:)

after some excitement even getting down south to this city that should be about eight hours away max, we found ourselves taking the 'long road'. after just less than two hours into the trip one of the cars died out (thankfully at a rest stop vs. actually on the auto-route). so, we had to reorganize and borrow another car to make the trip. a few of us ladies hopped on a train and thought we would have to take a bus the rest of the way. well, thankfully we had some kind folks come to pick us up from the train station and drive us back. it was funny how we even met back up with our original caravan. oh, the adventures. we were all happy to finally get there and be together.

so, after the first day of hanging out we decided to take a night trip to the beach. it was pretty sweet as they had these football stadium lights on the beach to allow people to see out in the water. i had never swam in the ocean at night. another new thing for me was how the warm the water was at this beach. it was like bath water! and the waves were super calm. it was an interesting beach experience for sure. but it turned out to be the only time i actually got in the water at this beach. above is some of us gals on the way back from our exciting beach venture.
so, you guys know how much i like to post about food...here is what i had for breakfast a few times while down there. it is called harsha and is sorta like cornbread. i like it a bit on the sweeter side and with their version of cream cheese in the middle. it is super yummy. i really want to learn how to make it before i leave. and of course you have to have a nice glass of fresh squeezed OJ to go along with it! yummy!

i also love to shop along with eat, so this trip wasn't complete without some trips to the markets in town. i got to take some friends visiting to this area of town that had several stores to pick from. this city had an interesting feel since the old city was detroyed in an earthquake, so there is no longer an 'old city'. many of the buildings were built in the last 40 or so years. we found this outfit pictured above and of course we got to try it on. i had never seen anything like this up by where i live, so it was intrguing to me. two of the ladies i was with actually bought one for each of themselves! i never got an actual name of the outfit, but little did we know that they were all the rage around town. i liked this pic a lot cause you can also see the shopkeeper in the back. he was a really nice guy and not too pushy:) i only bought a sweet t-shirt from him. our shopping trip ended with the power going out all over the area of town we were in. that was the beginning of our power outage adventure. thankfully it wasn't too late, so we made it back up to the street to catch out ride. i say that this was just the beginning because the week was full of power outages as the temperatures soared into the 110s and 120s. i guess the power grid couldn't meet the demands of the city.

one afternoon we decided to set out for ice cream. as we were trying to find this certain place we passed this round-point. i loved that they were installing fake grass! it makes sense in a hot place like this just to maintain the fake stuff rather than try to keep real stuff green.

we made it to the ice cream place which ended up being back at the beach. the sun was hot and the breeze was, too! we got to dip our feet in after consuming our yummy ice cream. in the background is the hill/mountain in which the old city used to stand. the earthquake took it out and thousands died. quite sad really. on the hillside there you may be able to pick out some Arabic words. there are three of them there and these three are seen a lot together whenever there is a hill in which to post them on. the words are: God, country, king. kind of cool, huh?

this cinema served as the landmark for telling taxis how to get to our first hotel. i just thought it was really cool and the colors were fun. i mean, it is cinema sahara! sweet!

so, you might have clued in on the fact that i said above the landmark for our first hotel. well, us gals totally got the sweet deal by getting a room with an AC unit (that is a pretty big deal cause we don't have AC in our homes). so, since we had that we let others without AC units use our fans we brought. well, as i had mentioned before...the city was suffering from major evening power outages. our first hotel couldn't keep a steady flow of power (as was the problem for their whoel grid i believe), so after the second night of not having power (which meant no AC or fans for relief from the intense heat...yes, even in the night!) we decided to move hotels. above is a photo of one wall of our room at the new place (which did manage to keep their power and we were able to have a fan for relief). the image to the left is to let hotel guests know in which direction mecca is. this gives guests the opportunity to pray towards mecca. i thought this was interesting as in the States we usually find a Bible in the nightstand and here they have a symbol that points pray-ers toward mecca.

i was super excited to get the chance to go up that hill/mountain to see the ruins from the old city. amazingly there really wasn't much left. there were some main walls and an entry way, but all else had fallen or been taken away. wow.

here is me with the new city in the background and the beach in which we visited.

we walked through the entry way and i found this! what a beautiful shot. it was really cool to see the local and foreigners both there checking it all out. they even had camel rides up there for people to enjoy.another night wouldn't have been complete without another shopping run. this little lady was my shopping buddy a couple of times and we had a blast! it was a lot of fun to meet the people in the shops and see what kinds of different things this city had to offer. i found a few goodies myself:)

as we left town we saw this car in front of us with this hilarious doll dangling! i wonder if the kids saw this? it reminded me of Nat'l Lampoon's Vacation or something. and what is even crazier is that i think i saw that same doll on a stroller here in the city in which i live...how bonkers is that?

so, we made it up north a bit to go back to our vacation spot that we had visited last year. this year i decided to opt for the tent and loved it! it was so great to be in a tent and out under the stars. i borrowed the tent from a family. amazingly, the temp had dropped about 40 degrees from the city we were in before to this beachside vacation spot. it was such a relief as the week down, down south was intense with the temps topping out at 122/124. no fan or AC was needed here! our car got to the camping place first, so we ended up getting some extra boogie boarding time in. it was great! i caught some sweet waves and it felt so great to be in the water. i know i am going to miss the waves when i go home.

every morning i went for a walk along the beach. close to our camping spot is this neat fishing village. it was cool to watch them go out and then come back in. awh.

on our way into town one day we saw this pair of camels along the road. it is always super fun to see camels! it doesn't matter how long you live here:) there were even camels grazing out in a couple of fields. cool!
so, we made it to town and enjoyed some super yummy fish! literally you pick out the fish/seafood you want and it goes on the scale to get weighed, then price gets decided and then before you know it, it is grilled and sitting in front of you. my kind of place:)

i got to come into the city again the next day, which i was excited about as i was pretty sure this would be my last time to visit before i go home. check out all the birds! folks were up on the wall to get their photos taken by friends or family:)

i have been waiting so long to get this shot!! these are spices and this was taken in the old city of this great little town. i have no idea how they keep it this way, but it sure looks cool.

then i ventured over to the port to grab some sweet boat shots. this particular town is known for this port full of blue boats. it is quite the fishing town and is one of my favorite places here.

so, i leave you with this parting shot. i think this was on the last night we were there. it was a great adventure and beautiful vacation. it was so great to be with other students and friends. what a joy it is to be here. really. thanks for all your love.