Dinner for One, Please

Before Ramadan began, I would get home at different times each day, and soon after I arrived one of the kids or Sara, the maid, would ask: "you want eat?" And even if I said, "oh sure, I'll have something small," it wouldn't matter. A feast would be prepared, just for me. Do you see all that food - ALL FOR ME. What the hell kind of person can handle such a thing. I realize it's a hospitality thing, but gracious, it's also disgusting.

So that's the kitchen table, by the way. Since there are now four kids and two parents, when we all eat together two people are standing. Sometimes they bring in some chairs from the terrace, but usually not. I feel uncomfortable that I always get a chair, but I sure as hell don't want to stand either! I like that meals (at least when no other relatives are there) are taken really informally and casually; it's nice to feel relaxed among these strangers.

Yesterday was intense. After the gym I was really tired, I went to a cafe by school and got a bottle of water. Then a girl from my program came in a got an amazing looking smoothie. I asked what flavor it was, and she said just try it. Entranced, I grab a straw, take a huge gulp, then as soon as the flavor hits my mouth I realize what I've done, my eyes fly wide open, and I bolt upstairs to the bathroom to spit it out. Right next to where my friend and I had been standing were three guys who work there, and everyone gives me these intense looks of shock and confusion. "Uh....I'm fasting....I forgot....sorry about that." Really, really unfortunate.

For iftar last night we went to the apartment of one of my host mom's brothers. The has six brothers and seven sisters!!!! All from the same mother! They range in age from 27 to 52. And most of them were there last night, with their kids. Crikey! I got really lucky, because one of the younger brothers recently married an American of Jordanian descent, and she was so nice. After dinner we sat outside with a few others smoking a couple different hookahs. We had margarita, citrus mint, and roseberry flavors! It was a delicious evening.

Today I desperately wanted to break the fast. The last two days have been especially challenging because there was no milk in the house, so I didn't have my 4am breakfast muesli. I now realize that this makes a huge difference, and I bought milk today. I got home at 4:30, and I was so grumpy (I had walked really far in the heat with my laptop on my back to get my books, but the copy center didn't have the books for any of my classes!), I tried to read for a few minutes, then fell asleep and dreamed, for real, that it was still Ramadan, but I was in a strange place with strange people and I chose to break the fast early. It was wonderful. Then I got woken up ten minutes before iftar and didn't feel as bad as before.