Apparently My Arabic Stinks

I've studied Arabic for two years. I've lived in the Middle East for two years. I should know Arabic when I hear it, right?
The other day B and I went to the grocery store and after loading up the car, it wouldn't start. Nothing! So I call the rental car company (we are renting a car until we can buy one, and we can't buy one till the residency comes in which it did, so we should be buying a car this next week insha'allah) The point is, B and Noah went with a friend to their house with all our once frozen food in an attempt to rescue it. I sat behind and waited while the car company brought me a new car.

To top it off it was 30 minutes before iftar (the breaking of the fast). So everything closed down. The supermarket closes down for an hour before iftar and an hour after. So when our friend comes to pick up B and our cold goods, the gates into the garage are shut and locked. I have to run around to the guard shack and tell him what's going on and to let our friend in and then let them out. He didn't really understand though.

*sidenote - all the manual labor jobs here are done by Indians, not American Indians, but actual Indians, so I spoke to the guard in English trying to get the gate open.

As I wait, I am sitting trying to talk with the guard and he and his buddy ask me to join them in breaking the fast, so we sat down together and waited for the call to pray. He and his buddy kept talking back and forth and I didn't understand any of it, so I figured it was Hindi.

The call to prayer goes off and we dig in and I notice that we are eating like Arabs and the soup tasted like Arab soup, so I asked him where the soup was from.
"Arabic soup"
"Did you make it?"
"Yes"
"Really? Where are you from?"
"Yemen"

they speak Arabic in Yemen

So we switched from English into Arabic, but it was really funny. Him and his buddy would talk back and forth and I would pick up maybe three or four words, then when I would talk with them and they would talk to me, it was like when a 5 year old comes up and asks you a question.
They would "squat down" and "use small words" and help me understand what was going on, but the minute I was out of the conversation, it went all fuzzy and I didn't pick anything up because they would speak in Yemeni Arab. Then I would say something and it would go back to kindergarten talk, then boom. Fuzzy all over again.
I took for granted knowing the dialect of where I was living. Gulfi Arabic, Yemeni Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, it's all fuzzy. Here's to starting over with kindergarten Arabic

and here's to Kool-Aid, fishy crackers and nap time all over again.

Internet Finally

So, life is coming together slowly here.

Today I went and picked up my Residence Card. Whoo Hooo for Residency!!
Now I can do all the things I needed to do but couldn't. Like...
internet, a phone plan, and a bank account (it's hard to remember where we are burying all our Mason jars full of cash out here in the desert! No landmarks!)

The internet is being worked on as we speak, but until it does, I was able to get a plan with the local mobile phone company.

Here I can buy a little USB thumb drive that I put a SIM card (the little thingy that you put in mobile phones to get reception) in it and hook it up to the computer and I get internet in the entire country. It's high speed and I pay for it like I would a monthly subscription.

With that said, I am internet capable! So call our US number or call us on Skype. We are here.

Ba Ba Bala La Ba

Today I came home from work and Noah was very excited to show me something, so I followed the waddling young tike into his room. He turned and picked up a picture book in another language that some friends in the Far East had sent him back several months (L&A, thanks for the books and stuff, he still doesn't fit into the outfit though. When he does you will be the first to know) But Noah loved the back cover. Ba! Ba! Ba!
Okay, Noah what is it?
Ba! Ba! Bala!
My son was pointing to the "ball" on the back of the book and was saying the word he knew.

That's right, no short bus for this baby bull, he's on his way to GT!!

Yogurt Foot

Today while I was feeding Noah yogurt for breakfast I turned my back to him to get something.

When I turned back around he had stuck half his foot in his mouth. He then pulled it out and saw that it was now covered in yogurt and commenced in licking the yogurt off his foot before sticking it back in his mouth...... then repeating the process.

Noah is Walking Video

Noah has started walking really well this week, so we finally dug out the video camera and caught some of it on film.

Noah eats my money

A quick funny story about Noah:
Two nights ago we walked into the dining room and Noah had spotted my change on the table and I told him NO and moved it towards the middle away from the edges where he can grab it.... went into the kitchen to get something

came back in and he had

pulled the chair out,

climbed up in said chair,

and was eating my money!

We are pretty sure he didn't swallow any of it, but time will only tell.

Noah the Pirate

Have I really turned into one of those people that only blogs once a month? Hang in there. Updates, pics and the like are coming. We are suppose to be getting internet in a couple of weeks.

But this is Noah at Chili's with a balloon-making pirate.