Recent Thoughts...

(This computer won't let me use spell check. Watch out...)

Why is travel an excuse to wear bright, neon colors? If you would not wear the outfit in your own country, why subject others to it? Is it really permissible for a middle aged man to wear lime green shorts and a bright yellow shirt? Must your camera always be hanging around your nectm at the ready? Is it any wonder that people who wear khaki pants and white shirts get accosted for money? Whend did that become the official "Ajanib" uniform?

I experienced a melt-down on Wednesday. Hopefully that got it out of my system for a while. My sleeping schedule was still screwed up. I hadn't eaten a regular meal since arriving on Monday , I had been walking for over an hour without being able to drink because of Ramadan and there are no free taxis between the hours of 1 and 4 because the whole fucking city gets out of work at the same time. So when I finally sat down to lunch with a friend, an old professor with his girlfriend and a collague of his at a western-style restaurant in an international hotel chain, I couldn't hold myself together. I ran out, bursting into tears on my way to the bathroom.
Somehow I made it through lunch and came back to the hotel and slept for well over 12 hours, which helped a lot. Then I went for a mansaaf feast at a friends house, with 50 of her relatives. The evening was spent hanging out with a bunch of 20-something christians, speaking a mix of english and arabic, but when people became indecisive, us Boston girls went for a drink at a chill bar before calling it a night. Needless to say, I am doing MUCH better now.

If only I could find an apartment....