You Just Have to Know

Last night for dinner a group of grad gals and I went to a very nice restaurant.

Don't ask me where it is. Or the name. It's another of those things you just have to know.

Luckily, one of the grad gals knows many a thing, including the fact that this unmarked and yet extremely impressive door leads to a cavernous restaurant. The entry just stands calmly at the side of an alley. Would you know to go up to the door and push?

(Yes, I do see that there is a sign behind the tree, but can you read through trees?)

The food was nice and obviously popular; the place was packed with people also in the know. Many of them also knew that they whole-heartedly like to smoke. A lot.


Here, at the table, are my first two roommates (One and Two):
But when I got back from the post-restaurant grocery shopping extravaganza, I had two more! And that's not even counting the one-who-is-going-to-arrive-today-but- came-previously-only-to-leave-various-possessions, and the one-who-was-supposed-to-come-the-night-before- last-but-never-showed.

This leaves only one and we'll be an octet.

I lived in dorm suite with ten people before, but it felt different when everyone had their own rooms, no matter how weensy they might have been. All the rooms had the same furniture there, as well.

Here, for some reason, one room has three desks, for instance, while another has only one. Granted, that room could scarcely fit another desk, but then why wasn't this the one made into a single?

Eh, why ask why?

I met with my advisor yesterday, who is also the head of my department. He told me which classes to take, which was helpful (I can't register until Thursday, however), and also informed me that where I live is not Garden City as the dorm folks claimed. Garden City is apparently across the street at which we are almost on the corner.Or should that be on which. . . ? That sentence has challenging grammar.

Anyway, this is Mounira, which is less classy than Garden City. Now I understand why cab drivers often can't find where we're going, and why one was very irate and adamant that we had tricked him by saying Garden City (although he told us we were in Qasr el Ainy. Whatevs, cab man). (Funny aside: according to my Survival Arabic teacher, people call taxi drivers something that basically translates to "Not-Engineer.")

Another thing I got yesterday? A cell phone! I had been resisting, but obviously my resistance wasn't very strong. I was sold when I saw that, in addition to the English letters, this phone has Arabic letters so that, had I the ability, I could text in Arabic.

I do not have that ability yet. But when I do, watch out world!