trip to France

so, i had the absolute privilege of visiting some friends who also are studying language (a different one) in France a little bit ago. it was a refreshing little holiday for me and such a great time to spend with friends. how i am grateful:)

one of the families i saw while there had just had their first baby! he is such a doll and seriously amazing as he is already in this semi-routine sleeping and eating and sleeping and eating...

i was so stoked to get to hang out with this little guy and of course the parents!

my friends definitely spoiled me on my trip. the French food was fabulous!! we had a really fun dinner out at this quaint spot in the centre ville area (downtown). i had escargot (snails), frog legs, and this amazingly yummy chocolate/vanilla desert. it was such a treat to be with these friends and i am ultra thankful for their hospitality.
we were all excited to see SNOW! we were like little kids--well, we actually had some in the car with us, so it was all, right? but it was such fun. we drove up a mountain to check out this fun sight and fo course the kiddos loved the snow. the weather was really refreshing and the air was sooo clean:)
this is a fountain in centre ville called the Elephants that represents a man that went to India and made a name for himself. it was a neat deal. it was sooo nice to be out on the town at night, too. such a beautiful city.
i brought henna with me to do with my friends. it was a lot of fun and the girls loved it. it was fun--we had Domino's pizza and they treated me to some Ben and Jerry's ice cream! yum!

all in all the trip was great. it was a bit strange to be back in the situation of not being able to communicate with the people because i don't know French. but i was super impressed with my friends' language progress. i am really proud of them! i was happy when i got back to NA as i was able to communicate with the people:) it was fun to see what progress i have made thus far. i have to say that when i returned back here i felt like i was back home.

France was full of baguettes, baby M, the girls, my fabulous friends, nice talks, many walks, and did i mention the great sights, food, and SNOW! :)

Laylat al-Qadr (لیلة القدر‎) more footage

Laylat al-Qadr (Arabic: لیلة القدر‎) basically the Night of Decree or Night of Measures, is the anniversary of two very important dates in Islam that occurred in the month of Ramadan. It is the anniversary of the night Muslims believe the first verses of the Qur'an were revealed to Prophet Muhammad.
Muslims believe also that this night is when their fate in the following year is decided and hence pray for God all night long and pray for mercy and salvation. This practice is called Ehyaa (basically meaning "revival").

--from wikipedia.org--

we went to the big mosque in our 'hood to check out this special night. this is a photo of the overflow (from the mosque) of people that were there praying.

interesting to see the enterprising that takes place on these holy holidays--kind of reminds me of a story i know.

we got to meet some new families, which was a lot of fun! family is really important here, so it is fun to get in on their lives.

a friend got some henna done as the henna ladies were out in full force. many kids will get henna done on this special night.

my roomie and i!

Laylat al-Qadr--the kiddos

so, we checked out the festivities at the large mosque in our city as folks were celebrating Laylat al-Qadr (Arabic: لیلة القدر‎) oh so precious little ones! the kiddos are dressed up in fancy traditional garb. this little guy was so cute!
this little gal was adorable, too.
kids being kids and climbing anywhere they could find good footing. and i love that the adults are capturing the moment, too.
this little lady had the whole thing down! she was wearing a tiksheta which is traditional garb for weddings and other major celebrations. she was even holding her tiksheta up correctly!

whew! part I

the last week has been quite the experience with many opportunities to be with families and friends. hope you enjoy the footage... my roomie and i got the opp to go and have fitr with one of our lang teachers and his family. it was fun as his g-friend is from Europe, so we had quite the Int'l flair to this fitr.
above is the whole gang. my roomie played the guitar a bit and we even got to sing a song that i love: "Amazing Grace". our teacher's g-friend played really well, too. it was a really nice evening for sure--kind of felt like back home just chilling:)
another fitr with a new friend and her sister. this was a unique one as we dined out. we did go to the market beforehand to buy up most of the food you see here. the cafe' provided the harira (soup) and drinks. it was fun. the servers were curious i think about me being there.
and here is my beautiful new friend! she is all smiles and so loving. her and her sister are so loving and kept me in their grips the entire afternoon. they kept huggin' and kissin' on me. i actually came home smelling like them:)

more breaking of the fast

so, i was able to visit a few more of my friends in the last few weeks for ftour with their families. it has been such a neat time to spend with them and be a part of their lives. i am grateful for sure. check out the footage below! i had the great opportunity to visit my friend's family for ftour. i love going to her house cause it is just the ladies and it is so relaxed. before we got to the house though we got to stop by a few places to pick up some last minute items. we hustled around and made in the door right at the call. we had to hurry up and wash our hands and get the date in our mouth! her mom was so excited that i had fasted that day. she even made up this somewhat unique ftour (pizza! fried fish and some squash). of course we had the staples, too. but it was really fun and different. when i told my lang helper the next day in our session that i had had pizza at ftour with my friend (in Arabic, mind you:), my lang helper replied by saying--oh that was a healthy ftour! of course that wasn't the response i was expecting, but was very funny. after the ftour we sat around a bit, then went out on the town and visited the souk (market). it was bustling and was a lot of fun to visit and see the differences between the souk in her town and the one i live in (she lives in sorta a suburb you could say). then, we came back and watched a bit more tv and went to bed. early in the morning before the morning call, we got up to eat that meal. it was mainly leftovers from the ftour. i having been making this banana/date bread lately so i brought some with me to their home and they loved it--even mom gave the approval! i was excited. that has been my thing to bring from now on.
so, i have been house sitting and wanted to try and break the fast with the tv and all just like they do (they have a certain programming that comes on to let you know, besides the call going off). i have realized that i would most likely not be a very good preparer of the ftour just on my own as i was late in having it on the table at the call--whoops! oh well. it was good though--i did a bit of a twist by having tomato soup, grilled cheese, banana/orange bread, yogurt, apple, and water. yum!
later on i was able to visit my lang helper's home for ftour. it was a good visit. i finally was able to meet another one of her sisters. anyways, above is me with the whole family. her dad wasn't there right when the call went off--he was at the mosque praying. but we dug in and enjoyed! we started out with the basics: harira, dates, milk, shebakia, etc. then to my suprise we had pastilla! this is a dish that is kind of special and i had never had this particular kind before: fish. it was sooo good. and i was excited that they shared it with me.
here's a photo of the table before we started the meal. you can see my banana/date bread sliced up there on the left just beyond the blue bowl. i had let my lang helper see it before when i made it and she was to eager to try it. the whole family loved it! especially her dad. i was very pleased. it has been a really neat experience for sure. thankful for each friend and her family.