A treasure hunt

As of this morning I hadn't decided if I was going to write something everyday or just when something interesting happened - but after today it looks like something interesting is going to happen everyday!
This morning was the first morning of classes. After the placement test yesterday they put everyone into the appropriate level for today. I either did so well on my test (impossible) or so bad that I didn't even make the list, and so I spent the first 20 minutes being led around from classroom to classroom. I ended up and a perfect level for me, alot farther back than where I had technically ended at Georgetown but all the review is going to help alot.
There are four hours of class each morning, 2 hours with one teacher focusing on vocabulary and speaking and 2 hours with another teacher focused on grammer and reading. I volunteered to have a conversation in the grammer class and proceeded to ask another student, after she told me she didnt have any brothers or sisters, where her siblings when to school. Just trying to learn.
After class and lunch, I began to plan my treasure hunt for the day. An adapter, a headscarf, childrens books, and dinner. But wait...it's to hot, everything is closed - I guess the Spanish really do have it down with their afternoon siesta.
But about the best part of the day. Around 6 pm, 5 of us set off on the streets. We got our pictures taken for our residency visas at a hole in the wall picture shop, and then split up. Katie and Mike headed off to find the ATM at the bank al-Islam and Joanne, Blake, and I headed off to find electric adapters. My personal motto here so far has been 'the more you get lost, the more you see'. I don't think Blake or Joanne agree... Anyway we found what we needed at a roadside secondhand store, and then Joanne led us off to find headscarves.
We arrived in the souq that sold Yemeni textiles and headed into a booth named "Sam City". As we were looking at headscarves, we introduced ourselves to Ali and Mohammed. Or, as they told us so we could remember them better, Mohammed Ali! The Greatest! After looking at materials for a couple minutes, they invited us in, and Mohammed asked, "do you like tea?" Well, yes, the tea here is incredible, and I thought he was asking in an "Ah, so you're in Yemen, how do you like the tea?" So yeah, I do like it. "Ok, I'll go get some." While he was gone, Ali taught Joanne and I how to wrap the material like the hijab that Muslim women wear. In Yemen, however, the hijab is actually much less comman than the full black with the niqab, the veil across the face. Up until very recently, the women here wore very colorful materials - lots of reds and yellows and greens - over the black batu. But the Wahabi influence from Saudi Arabic has resulted in the majority of the women, at least in Sana'a, wearing the totally black robes. It's a shame that the tradition seems to be dying out because the older traditional materials are much more colorful. Anyway, as conservative as the hijab may sound, it's actually much more liberal than the niqab. I didn't think I'd be comfortable wearing anything that covered my head, as it's so hot here already. But the more time I spend on the streets, the more I want to cover myself, and at least attempt to fit in.
Anyway, back to Sam City. Ali wrapped both Joanne and I up, all the while saying, "I guess this is how it's done. This is how it looks like it should be done." Blake, sitting quietly in a corner, finally got pulled in when we convinced him to try on the traditional male headdress, a kofi. On the way over, he had remarked that him wearing a Kofi in Yemen would be like going to Mexico and wearing a huge sombrero - maybe a little disrespectful? But Ali said "la la la" ('no no no') and sat him down and showed us how to wrap to kofi on. Blake looked in the mirror, remarked that, well, it's already on my head, and bought it. And wore it around. For the rest of the night. Then Mohammed came back with the tea and we sat in the booth and drank and talked about soccer and school and being in Yemen. (By the way, all of this visit in in Arabic. The people on the street are incredibly friendly. They know you've come a long way to learn their language and, as Mohammed said, "a student of arabic is a friend of mine." He and Ali invited us back anytime to talk and drink. It's a different experience than in class, because we were talking about things we wanted to know and wanted to try to say, and Mohammed and Ali would explain what we were saying wrong as well as answering our questions.
We finally had to leave to meet up for dinner. We ate at the same place as yesterday, a place in an alley called Aden Port Restaurant. Stopped in a bookstore on the way home for children's books. I got one about a genie, one about a very angry looking cyclops, and a romantic love story (but they might die in the end....the pictures don't look too good.
Anway, overall the treasure hunt was a big success! and my first personal encounter with the locals has left me thoroughly excited for the rest of the summer.
I'm still trying to figure out the pictures...Dad's been sending me how-to-lists so I can make them easier to download.
Maa Salaama