house.sitting

so, i had the extreme privilege of house sitting this past week for my classmate and her husband. it was a great time that allowed for some peace and quiet, fun gatherings, and of course--great food! :) here are some higlights: i had to pack my stuff over to the place and make a couple trips in doing so. one included my snazzy new backpack that my sister and mom got me for my birthday! thanks so much! and of course the binkster was along for the house sitting gig. the house has two floors and was a lot of fun to be in. it was kind of like a retreat in a way--so quiet!
one night we had a couple over to dine with us and later we made a fire in the outdoor fireplace! it was so nice. we were super-smoky afterwards, but it was worth it. for dinner that night we had blt's, oriental cole slaw, and fruit, cheese, and crackers. it was a nice night out in the backyard.
speaking of the backyard---here is one half of it. i took this photo from their second floor deck/balcony. one day i helped take care of a group of kiddos. we played in the yard quite a bit and enjoyed the grass. i even got to teach everyone how to play the lovely game of Red Rover--i couldn't believe the guy that was also helping watch the kiddos hadn't ever heard of it (he was raised in the States and all)!
another exciting discovery here in town! i walked around the neighborhood where this house was and finally got to visit a bakery that i had heard was really good. they weren't serving food, but were open selling pastries for folks to take home for ftour! i bought some yummy crusty french bread, then went to the other side to find these lovely creations! they were very good and made for a delicious breakfast.
overall it was a great time. it was interesting being in a place that was a bit out from the center of town (like where our apartment is). and having some ammenities were nice; like the dishwasher and washer AND dryer!! i was shocked at how quick the washer and dryer worked. i will be in for a pleasant surprise when i go back to the States, i think:)

what the streets look like at ftur

so, the other night i was finally at home for ftur and wanted to capture what it looks like on our usually very, very busy street.

the clock strikes time for the call and food consumption to begin. normally we can't hear the call to prayer at our house because of traffic and such, but since everyone is inside and waiting on the call, we can hear a couple of calls.

as you can see here--the last few folks getting home, otherwise it is empty!

in our class about Ramadan, we found out that mostly bad people are out at ftur. so, it isn't safe to be just walking around alone. it really was kind of eary how quiet it gets.

even our local hanut (store with grey doors there) is closed down for the next hour to hour and a half or so. truly an experience like nothing i have had before. and this is every night at ftur!

ftur with the fam

yum, yum, yum. more ftour footage! i recently was invited to a ftour with the family that takes care of our building. i was really excited to be able to share with them this special meal. they are very, very sweet and always great to practice language with. very thankful, indeed.

it was fun to be able to sit with them prior to the ftour and see how it all goes down. this husband actually makes the mint tea for the family as he is just better at it the wife says! how fun! also i asked where the great pastries came from and hubby picked those up, too. he has got a knack for sure.

so, here is a photo of the whole family. i bawked when i found out the son is 17 (he looks maybe 14). it was his third year to fast and the younger sister's first year to fast. basically when the boys get hair in their underarms and the girls have their first cycle is when they start fasting for Ramadan. after the meal we watched Hidalgo (spoken in English with Arabic subtitles). i had never seen it before. it was pretty good and they enjoyed it--there is even Arabic in the movie and i could understand some of it! yeah!

ftur with classmates and teacher

alrighty! so, i am a little behind, but that is okay, right?

my brilliant and amazing classmate decided to host a ftour for our teacher who is without his family during Ramadan. i think you will enjoy the footage!

it was a lot of fun to help put the tables together all nice and festive. she had many traditional and not so traditional foods, so it was fun for sure. there were like ten of us i think. it was great for some of the folks to practice their Arabic with our teacher.

here you see many traditional foods: the harira up top being served, the shebakia (the best i have had thus far), msmin, dates, honey. then my snazzy classmate kicked in some quiche, fruit, banana smoothies to add her flair. it was a lot of fun.

each night at to signal the ftour there is a cannon that will go off, along with the regular call to prayer. we can't hear the cannon from our apartment, but you can hear it from my friend's house. that was kind of cool. i had just missed it as i was walking outside to hear it, the guys were coming in after the signal. all in all it was delicious and really fun to serve our teacher in this way.

here's my fabulous classmate and me at another fun gathering we had. i am just so thankful for her and her hospitality!

USA labor day in NA

so, we had to celebrate the American Labor Day here cause we hadn't broken in our charcoal grill yet and it was the day before Ramadan, which wouldn't really allow for us to be able to use the grill for the next month. so, i emailed my aunt to once again get the family recipe for German style potato salad. started by boiling the potatoes.

then cooked up the onion, bacon (yes some friends found a pork butcher here!), mustard, vinegar, and water for the potato salad.

oh, look at that grill in action. these weren't our burgers, but the burgers of friends. it was quite a smoky evening, but a lot of fun and full of good Labor Day-isque foods!

my plate was filled with the potato salad, bean dip, veggie bake, a BBQ, grilled pork chop, and veggies! it was a lot of fun. hope you guys had a great Labor Day, too.