Day 8 January 11

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Arabic class in the morning, more strange gammer. I'm becoming addicted to cappacino. Anyway, most of the time I was fretting over cooking dinner. I'd only followed recipes before, and never cooked for more than six people, and here I am in a foreign country, not guaranteed the necessary ingredients, with different measures of quantity and temperature, cooking for 13 people, including my host family and my professor. Needless to say, I was stressed. I also ran out of minutes on my cell phone in the midst of a conversation with my mom in NJ over how to cook the main dish for the evening. After lecture I returned home and went over my shopping list. Jennifer was feeling ill, so I went to the Monoprix with my host sister, Besma, my shopping list, my minimal Arabic, and rusty French. It was very...daunting...walking into the Monoprix, and surely I drove Besma crazy second guessing my choices for ingredients and returning, multiple times, to the same departments. But we finished eventually and headed back. I had a couple hours to relax, so I headed out with my host sister Amerl to get some flowers for the table and the vase I had brought. I chose white roses. The shopkeepers seemed charmed that I was an American studying Arabic. Once home, I started the preparations and cooking. I'll spare the details. Jenn was sick and didn't join me til around 7. It wasn't easy and I definitely used too much lemon and curry in my sauce, but at least everything was edible. We did start late. Everyone was so polite and who knows if anyone really enjoyed it because I'm certain none of them would ever ever admit it. I appreciate their kindness. This was a long day, and I didn't get to sleep until late, but I learned a lot.

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