The bus, the gym, and the Russian Club

(The view from my window)


Happy Weekend!!
Well at least it is for me!
The weekend in Yemen is Thursday and Friday, so we are out of class for the weekend. Wednesday after classes let out was also the Welcome BBQ that featured unknown meats, unknown veggies, and an extremely talented fellow student named Anoush who plays the oud. It is the Arabic version of the lute, sounds similar to spanish guitar players, and was accompanied by all the Yemeni staff whenever they knew the words. I learned that the Sana'a city soccer team plays on Fridays against teams from other cities in Yemen and that the stadium is packed, so that's definately going to be on the list for the summer.















(The baltu sleeve)

I bought a baltu - it's the long black dress that the Yemeni women wear, along with their niqabs. I just figured when I walk alone it best to fit in as much as possible. But now that I own one I've been wearing it all the time. As a westerner, I have to wear long pants and a long sleeve shirt that covers my stomach and my chest, and that gets hot very quickly. Under the baltu I can wear shorts and a tee-shirt and am much much much cooler (both in temperature and in style, of course). It's also a lot like wearing a uniform, and twelve years of Catholic school has definately left me very lazy when it comes to my fashion choices. With the baltu, put on whatever you want (with me that probably means it doesn't match at all) and throw the baltu on top and voila! you are good to go. Plus it feels like a really long, really comfortable nightgown. PJs 24/7!

Class is going well. The small size (8 people, which is actually big for the school here) is much better than my 15 person classes at Georgetown. On Wednesday we had to write a one page essay on anything and then read it in class - mine was on the hijab shopping experience with Mohammed and Ali. And then, in grammer, my teacher Sultan gave me thumbs up and told me one of my sentences was both long and beautiful. Wahoooo!

But it's the weekend now! We killed some time before the Welcome Barbaque with a massive Pass the Pigs game (yes..the pigs have made it to a different continent to rave reviews!!).
Yesterday was also my first trip to the gym. I went with Ken, a guy who has been here since October, another boy from DC, and my roommate Katie. Collectively, my roommate and I are known as "the Katies" and separately are known as big Katie and little Katie. I tried to convince everyone that 'I AM A BIG GUUUUYYY' but they didn't go for that and big and little Katie has stuck. Anyway, the gym is across town and so today was the big day that I figured out the bus system here. Dabub, as the buses are called, are not buses so much as mini-minivans. They fit 6 people in the back on two benches facing each other, one in the passengers seat, and a driver who almost always has a tennis ball of qat in his cheek. A 15 minute drive through traffic for 20 YR (about 10 cents) took us past the grand mosque (I'll get a picture next time I go by it, it's huge) which is being built with the President's own money and has architechts and artists from around the world working on it.

The gym itself is a nice western gym, owned and operated by a body-building afficiando named Najeeb who has a picture of himself with Arnold Schwarzenegger at the front desk. There are women's hours, but they are early in the morning when we have class. The gym is westernized enough, though, that as long as the women is a westerner herself and dressed decently it's not a problem at all. There were two other women in the gym besides Katie and myself, but besides that it was all Yemeni men in jeans and tee-shirts working out. For inspiration, a video of the Mr. Universe championship was on all the TV screens. I don't think anything has ever made me want to work out less then severely tanned men in shiny speedos and incredibly well developed muscles right under their arms which I think lizards also have to help them glide through the air. Just a guess...these guys are not flying anywhere. The music was incredible, to be honest. For a moment I thought they had stolen my workout mix and were playing it over the loudspeakers. Then I heard "Apple Bottom Jeans" in Yemen and felt slightly sick. But the most incredible thing about this gym (it's a Weider gym so there is a shrine to Joe Wieder on the wall - I'm not kidding, its a greek temple like structure with his upper body painted on the wall) is the picture of Ahhnold himself on the wall. But not just the picture - it's signed "Keep pumping, Arnold Schwarzenegger". After seeing that I couldn't wait to get back to the weights. It was a little hot in the sweatpants but nothing I can't get used to.

Then, after dinner and some homework, was an adventure to the Russian Club. The Russian Club is a bar/dance club owned by two old Russian men in the Tourist City, a walled part of the city which Yemenis are not allowed in. To be quite honest, between the massive amounts of smokers, Russian music videos and bad 80's music (to be fair, they did play 'I will survive' but I think that might have been the high point), and arrival of Somali women of the night, Katie and I decided by 1230 that we had had enough. I don't think we'll be back, but we did meet a wonderful girl from the gym there who lived in Baghdad teaching English for a 10 months in 2007. Her story of her posing with an AK-47 was both entertaining and also made me happy I was not in Baghdad.

But yes! So in the past couple days I have been wearing a baltu, eating with my hands, and conquering the dabubs and the taxis. Tomorrow a small group of us are heading out of the city to Shebam Kowkaban. "Look out at the ancient palace of Dar al-Hajar, visit the ancient cisterns of Thula, and the breathtaking views of the mountain villages of Kowkaban and Shebam. Enjoy a traditional Yemeni meal in Shebam and then, depending on students, we may either hike up to Kowkaban (strenuous) or hike down from Kowkaban (easy). Those who do not wish to hike may take the bus to the destination point." My pride will not allow me to step one foot in that bus so we will see how the legs feel on Saturday. And now that I have the pictures figured out thanks to a guy on my floor there's no telling what you might see!!
Much love,
Katie