2-6-05

I have been feeling very sad lately and it really kicked in full effect yesterday (Saturday the 5th). Sometimes I get very cranky with Shakil because of this life that I'm living in. It's not easy AT ALL and I do get bored very often. But last night Shakil took me to this restaurant called, "Freddy's". It was just Shakil and I and I really enjoyed the time with him. It felt "normal" for a change. The food there was very tasty and they even had burgers/fries, etc. So it wasn't just Paki food at all. There were steaks, etc. All sorts of stuff. It very much reminded me of Bennigans. That's what I would compare it to. Yesterday (Saturday the 5th) in the evening we had been home and Shakil had convinced me to go out to dinner at about 10 p.m. We first stopped by his grandparents house as he invited us over. While there with his grandfather he talked us into trying some Paki dish of chicken. Something like chicken curry. It was soooo yummy and his grandfather sent it home with us. He also gave us a bunch of oranges and some bananas. The fruit here is absolutely amazing. It is sooo very sweet and soooo much better than in the U.S. The oranges here will knock your socks off!! They are tasty!! So that's what we did prior to going to this restaurant, "Freddy's" and we didn't get to the restaurant until after 11 p.m.!! Now that's late dinner for me and for Shakil. But I see that it's normal to eat here very late. Shakil says that normal dinner time is about 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. I like my dinner at about 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. ya know!!

Today (Sunday the 6th) we were invited over to Shakil's uncles house. Shakil has 4 uncles which are called "mamu's" on his mom's side. So we went over to one of their houses today for visiting, etc. Today there is a festival going on which is called "Basant" It's like a kite flying festival. Everyone tries to fly kites and cut them. There are kites in the sky everywhere, people on rooftops, etc. Very interesting I must say. There are also fireworks going on, etc. Fireworks went on last night until verrrrry late. I could still hear them at about 1:30 a.m. So back to going over to his mamu's. There were soooo many people showing up over there. I'm still having a hard time with being around big crowds. Especially people that I don't know very well. I know some people in his family but I haven't seen any of them since I was here in Pak a year ago. So I'm trying to get to know them and feel comfortable. I was telling Shak today that I hope that his family doesn't think I'm rude or something, I'm just trying to adjust and feel comfortable. His family has been very nice and welcoming to me and I really couldn't ask for anything more. I feel very lucky in that regard as I've heard horror stories!!! :-)

So right now its about 5:20 p.m. on Sunday and I'm here in the bedroom sitting on the sofa typing this up. Shakil and I have the tv on and I'm just relaxing. Life here is verrrrrrrry relaxing. There are no concerns, no worries, no nothing. Now if only I could adjust. I told Shakil today that I really wanted to learn the language which is Urdu. I've learned several words like clean = saaf, breakfast= nashta, etc. just simple words. I really want to work on learning much more. That is my biggest handicapp here...the language barrier. Everyone in Shakil's family speaks perfect English but when they all get together they speak Urdu. So that's why I need to learn more plus it will give me something challenging to do and would also feel like a great accomplishment if I'm able to learn quite a bit.

Until later...

Bye for now.