Where's Edgar?

October 4, 2007

Tonight I went to a real Iftar meal. Iftar is the breaking of the fast. So the muslims fast from 4:30am to 6:00pm. At 6:00 they break the fast and eat, this is called Iftar. It was one of the girl's birthdays so we went to the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, there is a tent on the beach with a buffet of Lebanese and Western foods. There was a red carpet laid out for us to walk on as we entered the tent. There was so much food! I tried everything from pitas with their traditional fillings, lamb, various vegetables, samosa, spring rolls, and much more. It was great! I was able to try so many different kinds of foods that I would not normally be able to have. Then at the end of the meal some of the girls ordered a Shisha (Hubbly Bubbly). It is what the caterpillar on “Alice in Wonderland” uses. It is flavoured tobacco so the girls had one with grape flavour and one with apple. It is a traditional thing to do so I tried it. It was interesting and it burned my throat haha. I won't use it again. This whole meal was a wonderful traditional experience and a fun way of experiencing their culture.

When everyone was leaving Manna and I escaped to the beach. I was able to go to the beach and wade in the ocean for the first time! It was so exciting. We had the Burj Al Arab in the background. It would have been a wonderful picture but we both forgot our cameras. We could even see the island that the Burj is on. I had so much fun!