Up and up

I have this bad habit of only writing when things are slow, usually when I'm kind of down. Well, it's been a hectic few weeks and things have been just super. So even though it's 11:53pm, I have a terrible cough and sore throat, and I'm dying to go to bed, I thought it would be nice to do a little update.

So what's new? Wow.. good question. Well work is fine, same old thing. Beliza resigned from Ariba for June, so that is sad news for me but happy for her. I think it's okay, we'll still visit of course. Katy and Derrick are staying, and that makes me REALLY happy. Things were kind of down for them for a while. Derrick found a job (actually working in the same hotel as Katy) and they're both feeling good about everything now, which is great. I'd really lose it without them here.

I can't remember if I ever got to write about this, but I have a new regular hangout - it's a spot in the old town where they have live Arabic music every Saturday, bellydancers on Fridays, great music all the time. I made friends there the first night I went with Katy and Derrick, and then last night I saw them again (well, Badr and Roger anyway). I'm really jumping around here, though...

Well let's start here. About a month ago I was out with Katy and Derrick. We went to Chapeau Rouge, and while it was supposed to be good music, it sucked. So we left after 10 mins. We were continuing onto some other place when Katy got a work call. So we stopped. Just as I was getting tired of waiting, along came a guy singing Amr Diab and walking with a friend. I knew the song and being in a silly mood I started to sing with him. So we got excited that we were both Arabs and he said, "Hey, want to come to an Arabic party???" I said, of course I do, stranger!

Well unfortunately he turned out to be not such a good guy, and stopped to buy some cocaine along the way from one of the street Nigerians. But the point is, he took us to a place I'd never have found in a million years. As soon as we got there, people started talking to us, and we ended up at Bombay with the friends we made. I've been going back at least once per weekend since then.

So let's fast forward to last weekend when I was there with Diana and Beliza. We met a couple of guys, and Diana and I went to Bombay after for dancing and saw them there as well. So we made a plan that I never thought would get carried out for the following sunday - a Tunisian dinner, hosted by them.

Cue birthday week. Thursday was the real day. I went for drinks with Diana, Beli, Jose, and Henrique after work, and then Diana and I went to the Afghani restaurant - our favorite restaurant in all of Prague.

Friday, Katy and Derrick along with Petr, Denisa, and Denisa's friend Mustafa came over. We drank and played Mario.. nothing too eventful here.

Saturday I went to see two movies in Febio Fest with Beliza. The first one was called Amreeka, the story of a Palestinian woman who goes to live in the US with her son. It was FANTASTIC. The second movie was from Chile and really didn't impress me at all. We hurried home, got ready to go out, and then went to Karavanseraj for dinner. Delicious food. Then we went to the Arab spot :)

Everyone was there.. the guys from the week before, Badr, Roger, and then the people with me were Beliza, Elena, Rique and Ramona. We had a really great time mixing and talking to people, then we went to Bombay after for a little while.

Sunday I went to Diana's to make baklawa for - da da daaaa - the Tunisian dinner!! Diana was kind enough to let me use her oven. We got to their place around 7pm or so. The guys were just the sweetest things in the world. It's four of them living together, and they made the most lovely dinner and evening for us. After the amazing food (cooked by Adnen, a chef!) they put on an Arabic movie, got the shisha going (I don't smoke but I love the smell:), and we sat around laughing and BSing until around 11:30pm when we realized - hey - we have to work tomorrow :)

So here I am. It's technically Tuesday now. Already I can't wait for Sunday because we have another dinner with them planned (as of just tonight), this time hosted and cooked by yours truly :-D

It's gonna be so much fun!!

All in all, a very successful 27th birthday (my second birthday spent in Prague now!).

Love to everyone -