I RODE A CAMEL

I know the whole blog is not going to be about my title, but I really just had to put that out there. Sorry I have been distant for a few days...I have been battling my semi-annual sickness. Yay.  8000 miles away from the allergy capital of the world and I still catch something.  Thankfully the good people at the pharmacy took pity on me and gave me the medicine I needed with neither a dr. appt. or a prescription.

The last few days have been very dicey here.  Everyone is keeping on their toes due to the recent violence, and we will probably be practicing our evacaution routine in a few days.  Nothing to worry about...they test it once every month or so.  Really the only country on this entire peninsula that has even had violence is Yemen - and that's not entirely surprising.  My Yemeni friend is just sick of all the violence and chaos, ranting that everyone is yelling and destroying things for the simple pleasure of yelling and destroying things.  He has friends that work in our embassy and obviously wants no harm to come to them.  We had our own protest Friday after mosque, but it was as peaceful as a coherent, logical demonstration should be.  A couple thousand gathered across the street and yelled "Praise be to God," and "Allah is one," with some holding signs I couldn't read, and that was about it.  No one yelled that they hate America.  No one yelled, "Obama, Obama, we're all Osama."  They voiced their anger and went home to be with family.

Qatar has Froyo! Granted it was $.80/oz but that's okay

My Friday was pretty flippin fantastic though, outside of being sick of course. Adrian and I lounged around and watched movies and then headed to the sooq (marketplace) to buy gifts and such for people back home.  I got a new purse and sunglasses, so I can fit in with the oh-so-stylish Qatari people.  Well...I can at least try. The best part was the freaking camel that I got to ride for free because the guy is awesome!!!  This is kind of how the conversation went:

Me: (taking pictures) Ooh. Aah. It's camels.

Adrian: I know, right?

Bedouin guy who keeps looking at me:  *whistles and points inside*

Me: Uhh...no. I'm good.

Guy: Yes yes. You. Come in.

Me: La. La la la la la. (No, I'm not singing. That means no.)

Guy: Don't be scared.

Me: Fine. *crawls through* (Adrian snaps picture and I walk off)

This is Shabat. His name means "young." Or "February." They're close, right?

Guy: *more whistles* Hey. You want on?

Me: La. Shukran. (No. Thanks though)

Guy: Why you scared?

Me: (So I've gotten called a scaredy cat twice now...fantastic). Ana labsah tanoorah. (I'm in a skirt dude.)

Guy: Get on.

So I do. And he says, again, "Don't be scared."  At this point, I'm not scared, I'm terrified.  I am waaaaaaaay past just concerned that I'm getting on a camel bareback and will soon be about 8 feet in the air. Guy held my arm and kept me safe, but I definitely felt weird being on the back of a camel in a skirt. 

Me: Shukran jazilan. Bikaam? (Thanks so much! How much?)

Guy: La. La.

Me: La la la. Min fadlak. *hand over heart*  Min fadlak. Bikaam? (No no no. Please, how much?)

Guy: You know me now. No money.

Somewhat creepy I suppose, but totally awesome that a random guy in the middle of a sooq let me ride a camel spontaneously and refused to let me pay him for it.

Me and Shabat :)