Dinner

Last week I was invited to my friend's Reham's house for dinner. They have a really nice apartment and a beautiful view of the Nile River. I tried a lot of new food, some Egyptian and some Saudi Arabian....and all of it was amazing. They even had Babaganoug and celery!! hahah it made my day. I tried two different rice dishes from Saudi Arabia, Mashee (some sort of vegetable stuffed with rice and a little bit of meat) cucumber-mint-yogurt sauce, potatoes, 2 kinds of salads, and a stew type mixture made with eggplants. As you can see it was a lot of food, and there was more with cake and basboosa (a sugary, syrupy, pastry). I ended up hanging out at their house for about 6 hours! I had so much fun and didn't want to leave. Reham's sister, Sherine, doesn't speak that much English and so we made fun of each other, worked together, showed pictures, gossiped, and a bunch of other stuff. Reham's mom reminds me of a mix of my Mom, Grandma, and Aunt Laura. It was weird at first but also great because it was a home away from home. I also learned that Egyptians have so many different ways of complementing the chef and the food and thanking everyone for the entertainment. Unfortunately I didn't know all the phrases and stuck to the American method of saying "thank you." But I at least brought chocolates!!:) I hope I can go again and this time I'll be more prepared.


I love living here...I always get to do something new and different and the Egyptian's hospitality exceeds all expectations:)