Thursday, August 20, 2009

Things you want to know. Maybe.

O.K., first I need to tell you about my tea party with my Saudi neighbor.

Her name is Al Bundy. I'm sure it's really Albuundi or something, but phonetically, it's Al Bundy. Talk about irony.

Surprisingly (but only because I'm ignorant like that) she has a degree in art and fashion, and is working on an English degree. She wants to be able to teach English when they move back to Saudi Arabia next year. She said that English is taught in school, but it's only cursory instruction and you never really learn enough to use it in real life. However, speaking English has become a requirement for almost any good job there. She said most of the men and many unmarried women go to Canada or Australia to learn English, but there aren't many options for married women. So, she wants to be able to be an English teacher for married women. In my book that makes her officially awesome.

Her husband, Abrahim, is the sole support of his widowed mother and three unmarried sisters. He is renting four other homes on our street for them all. And yet Al Bundy is alone all day long with her two boys (and has another baby due next month). I don't know if that's cultural or if maybe they just don't like each other.

Anyway, we chatted as best we could. Her English is fair, but there were times we struggled to communicate. My Arabic is non-existent, so that didn't help.

She served me Arabian coffee, which I didn't realize was real coffee until I came home and looked it up. It was golden and clear and heavily flavored with cardamom and saffron. I have had "real" coffee many times, and this didn't resemble it in flavor or appearance at all. So, I assumed it was an herbal drink. But no. Then she served me tea, which she said was herbal. It must have been a glitch in translation, because it was most definitely regular tea. I spent the afternoon feeling like a hyperactive squirrel on speed (I've been completely caffeine free for seven months) and wondering if I needed to surrender my temple recommend.

And we're getting together again next week.

In other news, last night around 9:00 there was knock at my door. I opened it to find Tina, Stephanie and Sylwia, along with Baby Moe and Sylwia's mother in law, Nancy. They were singing Happy Birthday, and had come bearing food and gifts...


...And the Twilight DVD. So that was a fun ending to my birthday that started out crappily (yeah, that's totally a word). And? Twilight the movie is worse than Twilight the book. Sorry. I didn't think it was possible, but it is. And I must have missed the part in the book where Bella suffered from Parkinson's disease. Seriously, she can't speak a single sentence without her head bobbing and shaking spastically and blinking her eyes 879 times. Talk about distracting. And I really, really can't look at Rob Pattinson's mouth ever again. There's just something wrong with it.

But it's O.K., because did I mention they brought gifts? They did. Check them out (and if you can stick it out through these, there are CUTE BABY pictures at the end):
This Edward Cullen poster. I guess I need to take up darts.


Pretty flowers


A monetary donation to my boobie fund



And this is the waterproof MP3 player Will got for me. Finally, tunes while I swim!


Baby Mosiah (Sylwia's new baby, in case you missed that post). Cutest. Baby. Ever.


He liked me earlier in the evening, I swear. I think it was my lack of working breasts that was upsetting him. Or my mole.


Chicken legs.



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