Caught up on my sleep a bit today, since all week I have been staying up late and only having time for a nap on some days.
Hannan made this really good bread today, which I love. I asked her how to make it and while the ingredients are simple (except for one which I had never heard of before), the process is rather difficult. I still want to try it one day.
In the afternoon, a bunch of us headed out. Shetha said we were going to the beach, so I figured that meant the one close by, maybe 10 minutes away. Basil drove and we picked up some young cousins so we were ten in all, and no one over the age of 23.
We had a beautiful, albeit winding, drive through the “mountains” (they call them mountains, I call them hills because there is no snow, they aren’t that tall, and I’m from Seattle where we have mountains) which lasted about an hour.
When we reached the beach, we had to go over a small sand hill. This was after our first attempt:
Not sure if you can see the tracks very well, but if you look close, you can see how far we made it up before we got stuck. So, we rolled back down and Basil and Muayad got out a let some air out of the tires, which apparently helps because we made it up the hill.
Then we played on the beach for a while:
And they wrote everyone’s names in the sand, including mine:
This was probably the softest sand I have ever walked in.
When it got dark, we all got back in the car and went on a little night tour of the city. We drove through some neighborhoods and by some of the fancy hotels and then we went to this little park by Mutrah where we got ice cream and roasted peanuts and the kids raced each other.
On the way home, Abeer hosted a talk show in the car and made me talk in Arabic. Basil and Shetha had been pointing things out to me with English explanations during the day, but between all of the kids speaking to each other in Arabic and Abeer’s insistence that I speak to them in Arabic most of the time, I got some good practice in today. :)
At night there was a movie on tv which I remember being on three years ago when we were here. I really wanted to watch it to see how much I could follow but it was very late and the later it gets the worse my Arabic comprehension gets because it becomes more difficult for me to focus. I want to try to rent or buy this movie, called “Zaki Chan,” which I have been assured is a good movie and must be if they have been playing it on tv for the past three years. :)
Hannan made this really good bread today, which I love. I asked her how to make it and while the ingredients are simple (except for one which I had never heard of before), the process is rather difficult. I still want to try it one day.
In the afternoon, a bunch of us headed out. Shetha said we were going to the beach, so I figured that meant the one close by, maybe 10 minutes away. Basil drove and we picked up some young cousins so we were ten in all, and no one over the age of 23.
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| Basil driving |
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| Abeer |
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| The boys in the back |
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| Shetha & me |
And they wrote everyone’s names in the sand, including mine:
This was probably the softest sand I have ever walked in.
When it got dark, we all got back in the car and went on a little night tour of the city. We drove through some neighborhoods and by some of the fancy hotels and then we went to this little park by Mutrah where we got ice cream and roasted peanuts and the kids raced each other.
On the way home, Abeer hosted a talk show in the car and made me talk in Arabic. Basil and Shetha had been pointing things out to me with English explanations during the day, but between all of the kids speaking to each other in Arabic and Abeer’s insistence that I speak to them in Arabic most of the time, I got some good practice in today. :)
At night there was a movie on tv which I remember being on three years ago when we were here. I really wanted to watch it to see how much I could follow but it was very late and the later it gets the worse my Arabic comprehension gets because it becomes more difficult for me to focus. I want to try to rent or buy this movie, called “Zaki Chan,” which I have been assured is a good movie and must be if they have been playing it on tv for the past three years. :)
It sounds like you are having fun!
ReplyDeleteI like the mountain comment. Haha. I said the same thing in NC. Their "mountains" are just hills to me. :)
I would love to have that bread. So you know when we are coming to Seattle. How about that. Love and GODS speed ye ole grandad.
ReplyDelete@blue roses - exactly! :) I think the mountains here are beautiful but I can't quite accept them as mountains. I am having lots of fun, thanks! How is Amsterdam treating you? I hope you are enjoying your art class!
ReplyDelete@Grandpa - I'll work on figuring it out. I do make pretty good crepes though!