On the Way Home...

I was on the way home. Finally, actually on my real way home. Not the fake way home that I thought I was taking before.

So, I went to the market by myself tonight, and we live a bit farther out now, so I was trying to take a bus home. I was asking for help, but most people rattled off to me lots and lots of Arabic as I stared at them in dis-belief. Sometimes I'm shocked that they would actually think I could understand all that?! Do I look African?

Anyway, to make a long story short... I got on the wrong bus and ended up very far away from home. I was literally 'on the other side of the tracks!!' We're talking vast fields of nothingness and cattle ranches (at least that is what it smelled like).

So, I got off the bus when I saw signs of human life and bargained with a rickshaw driver to take me back where I meant to be going in the first place. This time there was no room for confusion. His price was my only measure of how far away from home I actually was. "Five thousand?" Yikes, that's far.

We took off. 9 o'clock and freezing with the cold air blowing around in the rickshaw. My poor little toesies aren't used to this weather. The driver asked me if he could stop for gas. No problem. And as we approached the gas station... it was lit up in green (like BP) and for a split second I thought to myself "Oh, this is perfect!! While he's filling up I'll just run inside and grab a cappuccino to warm me up on my way home."

[deflating sigh]

Of course I knew right away that that isn't possible here. But isn't it funny how your mind plays tricks on you sometimes?

25 minutes later. I was finally home. And now I'm settling for a cup of chamomile tea.

It's Official

Well, my friends, It's official. There are no more black plastic storage trunks in my life.

Today was a momentous occasion for me. My heart filled with joy as I emptied the contents of the last black tub into the cabinet, and carried the tote across the house to join the collection of other empties.

It has been 4 months that I have dug around in those things each day for my shirts, extra lotion, printer paper, games, etc. But NOW, I am free from the temporary luggage, and I am living like a real person who keeps their belongings in a closet! Or in a cabinet! Or in a drawer!! Or in a nice looking basket on the shelf! Anywhere, but in a black tub!!

Feeling more and more like we're actually living here...

Test?!

On Monday, one of our Arabic teachers said that we would have a test on Wednesday. I thought "No way... he doesn't really mean that!" They've never given tests before, and I thought it was just another one of those things that get said, but never really happen. And we don't really get grades in this school, so why test?

Nevertheless, it prompted me to study. Not because I fully believed that we would have a test, but just because...