fun city

i was in the apartment by myself in the morning 'cause all the other girls either had class or were just out when i heard a knock at the door. i figured it could only be the cleaning lady 'cause no men were allowed up on the women's quarter. so i opened the door in my pjs without my hijab. of course it was a man. he was one of the workers and he came up to tell me that the director, jameel wanted to see me in his office now. so i said i'd be down in a little while after i got dressed. i went back to my room wondering why jameel would want to see me this morning. did one of the men outside last night tell him i was walking around with a white man alone at night? i started getting nervous. as i was getting dressed, my phone rang. it was jameel! he said he wanted to see me in his office now. oh my. was i gonna get kicked out? i didn't do anything bad. plus, it's not my fault i was out late. maybe if there was some system to the old city, i wouldn't get lost!

i went down to the office. my heart was palpatating so loudly. i'm a good girl...for real. i didn't do anything! i was waiting for jameel to scold me but instead he spoke about something that totally caught me by surprise. apparently, usdtadh abdullah told him i was being shy in class and maybe i would prefer a female teacher. i didn't mind ustadh abdullah but his style of teaching was a bit different so i said i was open to having a different teacher. after all that got sorted out, i went back to my room and relaxed. got worked up for no reason.

after class, nusaybah called to say she wanted to get together with us. she said to meet her at hadeeqah francisees. at least that's what it sounded like. i thought it was some french garden. before kyla and i got in a taxi, i called nusaybah again to ask about the name so i could tell the driver. she said hadeeqah francisees several times until i realized she was saying hadeeqah fun city. i had seen it when nagi and nusaybah had driven us around a few days back but it wasn't a place i was excited to go to 'cause it looked like an amusement park for kids.

once we got to fun city, i called nusaybah. she was already inside with kyle, zuhayr and ahmad. i believe tickets were around 100-300 rials but kyle and zuhayr were charged 800 rials. i think ahmad came with nusaybah but kyle and zuhayr came on their own. what they do at fun city is if they see single guys trying to get in, they charge them an astronomical price to deter them from entering so that the amusement park can be enjoyed by women and families. usually, when a guy is told 800 rials for an entrance fee, he's like, 'heck no! i'm not paying that much money to enter fun city!' but kyle and zuhayr were not deterred. hahaha. 800 rials is not much converted to US dollars but to a yemeni, it's a lot. only the rich go to fun city. kyle and zuhayr tried to get their money back but couldn't.

fun city reminded me of a smaller version of santa's village or maybe one of those summer carnivals with baby rides. i think nusaybah thought since we're from the west, it would be fun to take us to something western in yemen. but the reality is that i very much prefer the cultural and traditional stuff. it was of course a very nice gesture on her part. i rode on a couple of rides and then we were supposed to go to nusaybah's house for some tea but kyla and i decided to head back to the dorm to get some studying done since we were gonna go to an oud show around 8 pm. that's the kinda stuff i like.

kyla and i met with some of the other girls and alia and we walked to dawud hotel. there was a tent under which a few men were sitting. they performed for us singing and playing the oud and drums. two of them did a traditional warrior dance with daggers. we also drank a type of coffee called 'qishr' which is made from the shells of coffee beans.