Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Modern Life

We've been tagged.


This tag was found on our back wall while walking the neighborhood today. The usual suspects like "you suck" or "dirty Americans" are guesses for now. Walking the neighborhood, by the way, consists of passing one massive walled compound after another while feeling it inappropriate to turn one's head to peek in the gates. A national boy passed me today on the street riding a chop style bicycle with low rider handlebars. He said hello to me in English. That was the most fun I have had all day.

The rest is a recount of our efforts to entertain ourselves this week.

Knowing the laws that govern Halal food, that it is made without chemicals and the meat (if applicable) is raised and killed respectfully is all the justification I need to feel better about eating food products for the purposes of entertainment...



Chicken Pop-Corn is Halal and quite well-spiced considering its intentions as a food item. We ate these and were amused by them. I was disappointed that this box did not contain collapsible Chicken Pop-Corn serving boxes as displayed on the front of the product box.



Pocari Sweat. We first spied these on the shelves on day two or three of shopping in our new home. It took us two weeks to actually buy one, place bets on what it tasted like and test our sample. Pocari Sweat tastes like a heavy, flat, salty-sweet can of sweat. We did not finish it. By accident, I managed to frame into the photo the bidet and toilet off the dining room, and am deciding whether or not to devote a blog post to encounters with bidets and the hand shower nozzle thing present in every Western bathroom here. But, I fear that blog will take the form of a Pocari Sweat can; you'll know roughly what's inside based solely on the title.

We can't download movies here due to licensing agreements. There are no video stores. Television channels are without warning scrambled some of the time. Our IP phone doesn't work due to the Internet speeds from 1995. So, envier of cats is my new hobby, next to making up words describing new hobbies as a hobby. Local, semi-feral cats are the only creatures who seem to embrace this pace of life. They've got it figured out. Sleep most of the night, wake up, observe some stuff, eat something, play with other cats, sleep most of the day. My intention is to follow them for a while, documentary-style. I decided this five minutes ago, so your patience while I solidify my research methods is appreciated.



The one above is probably five months old and has some not-good infection on his nose. Also, it meows in a sickly way, but otherwise seems quite content to stare at me while I'm staring at him. Or her. My research was not very thorough on this one. It seems well-fed and curious.




This one acts like a she, though I have not confirmed this fact. "She" behaves protectively of the other younger cats roaming around, and takes long "you have nursed the life out of me" sized naps. I found her here out by the pool. Nick actually pet this cat.

Nick said it best: for a country that spent centuries roaming the desert and can now see Avatar in 3-D at the mall, society needs a little ramp-up time.

2 comments:

  1. I definitely want a can of Pocari Sweat as a souvenir. Or a cat.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The one on the right side says "I love you" (ah'hebic)

    and apparently the one on the left says "my life"
    (hai'ahti)

    ReplyDelete

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