Mabroke Ramadan
Ramadan has begun... the time of no eating while the sun is up and stuffing to the brink at sun down. My body is slowly starting to adjust, my mood is coming more slowly. So here's how Ramadan works, at 4:30 am the fam wakes up and eats yogurt and pancakes and drinks luke warm water (should you be stupid Laura and try to drink cold water, you will be reprimanded) and then we rush to the bathroom and desperately try to brush our teeth before the call to prayer signalling that the fast has started. Don't tell anyone but I brushed my teeth late today... I'm such a bad fake Muslim. So all the hours for classes and stores and the like shift a little forward so that people can sleep in a bit and not be totally aware of how hungry they are for an extra hour or so... then it's business as usual (plus a few extra prayers).
Around 5pm the most dangerous thing you can do is get in a cab here, as if cabs weren't dangerous enough... but when the drivers have low blood sugar, are pissy, and just want to get home to break their fasts it gets intense (and poor little pedestrian Laura must be very very careful as she crosses the street). So 6pm rolls around and the fam watches a little Qu'ran channel or my personal favorite, the "all mecca all the time" channel (can't tell you how fascinating it is to watch people walk in a circle for hours) and then we dig in. Interestingly, sometimes my host fam doesn't jump on the food the moment the prayer sounds which I don't understand. I basically sit there and say in my head "can we eat now? now? how about now? maybe now? now?" and then am ready to pounce at the first 'Allahoo Akbar'. Again, I'm such a bad muslim.
Night life picks up a lot during Ramadan since people are happy and eating a lot so that is pretty fun... though I've been given a curfew of 9pm which is a little weird for me. I defied it last night by sleeping over a friend's house and felt so free! We went up on the terrace of some dude's house and drank "moroccan whiskey" AKA mint tea while he played the Oud and we all sang campfire style.
In other news, there is a commercial here that I think is ridiculous. It's basically a Pert Plus commercial like any in the states, where a girl washes her hair and then walks down the street and turns heads because men simply can't help but be attracted to her incredibly clean hair. Now this theme kinda works in the US where its actually a feat to turn someone's head... but here you basically just have to be a female... plus if you're showing your hair, hands down-you turn every head, even if you haven't washed your hair in a month. This commercial annoys me almost as much as the 2.5 minute long advertisement for Gloria brand food products.
Around 5pm the most dangerous thing you can do is get in a cab here, as if cabs weren't dangerous enough... but when the drivers have low blood sugar, are pissy, and just want to get home to break their fasts it gets intense (and poor little pedestrian Laura must be very very careful as she crosses the street). So 6pm rolls around and the fam watches a little Qu'ran channel or my personal favorite, the "all mecca all the time" channel (can't tell you how fascinating it is to watch people walk in a circle for hours) and then we dig in. Interestingly, sometimes my host fam doesn't jump on the food the moment the prayer sounds which I don't understand. I basically sit there and say in my head "can we eat now? now? how about now? maybe now? now?" and then am ready to pounce at the first 'Allahoo Akbar'. Again, I'm such a bad muslim.
Night life picks up a lot during Ramadan since people are happy and eating a lot so that is pretty fun... though I've been given a curfew of 9pm which is a little weird for me. I defied it last night by sleeping over a friend's house and felt so free! We went up on the terrace of some dude's house and drank "moroccan whiskey" AKA mint tea while he played the Oud and we all sang campfire style.
In other news, there is a commercial here that I think is ridiculous. It's basically a Pert Plus commercial like any in the states, where a girl washes her hair and then walks down the street and turns heads because men simply can't help but be attracted to her incredibly clean hair. Now this theme kinda works in the US where its actually a feat to turn someone's head... but here you basically just have to be a female... plus if you're showing your hair, hands down-you turn every head, even if you haven't washed your hair in a month. This commercial annoys me almost as much as the 2.5 minute long advertisement for Gloria brand food products.
posted by Laura | 1:37 PM
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