Cooking 101

I learned how to cook some N. African dishes this week. It was fun to be in the kitchen with some of my friends, and to hear their different opinions about cooking. Cooking here is like an art, and I am sure I will never be able to do it too well, but I'll try. We made Tagine, which is kind of like a Crock Pot meal, and Msimmin, which is a delicious pastry with tons of butter and oil.

Working hard... I was watching most of the time, trying to take good notes!

I'll take a try - they kept telling me that I wasn't working the dough hard enough with my hands. The women here are strong!

We started off the meal with some yummy mint tea and msimmin

And we eat... this tagine had chicken, potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, lots of spices, olives and one lemon. It was delicious!


We also went to our friend's house for lunch, and had another chicken and potato dish - I love the food here!

A picture of our city with a mosque in the background:

Land of the Satellites

Okay, so its been somewhat of a quiet week. I (Angela) have been sick all week, so really have not been taking too many pictures. But, I want you to get a nice view of our city from our apartment! Just notice the satellites. EVERYbody has a satellite. And I mean everybody! You will see satellites on top of shacks made out of scrap metal. Karl and I have one that came with our "furnished" apartment.

Can you count them?

Our city is huge!

Getting back into the swing of things...

Its been a good last two weeks of getting back into language study, and doing a few fun things on the side.
Some funny grafiti... read closely. What up Snop Doog?! The rap community would be appalled.

A local tractor trailer:

We went to a nearby city, and visited this unfinished Mosque.

The tomb of some old kings...



We went bowling, which was a great American experience! Its pretty pricey here, so we'll only do it once in a while. It was fun! Karl won with a 124!

Happy New Year!!!

We've spent the last week in Spain, and had a wonderful time! Here are some beautiful pictures of our trip...



You can see the rock of Gibraltar in the background... it was so beautiful!


We went to Gibraltar, and everything was in English!!!! We enjoyed some fish and chips, and I bought some Dr. Pepper to bring back with me. I have 5 cans left, and hoping to drink one about once a week:)


Having fun feeding the pigeons!


And I will end with a random picture - A Virginia Tech cow, born a Hokie fan. Something that Karl and I can both appreciate:)

Happy "Howly" Days! (Sheep in Arabic is pronounced howly)

Sorry...I know the title is a bit cheesy.
Its been an eventful week, as you will be able to tell from the pictures. Today was Eid el-kbir (translated: the big holiday) here in N. Africa. Every family buys, kills and eats a sheep. We were invited to join a family for this event. Enjoy the pictures!

The view from our window this morning:


And now at our friend's house:

A wonderful family...

The time has come. Any last words?

Baaaaaaaaa

Karl was right in there with the rest of the family (I preferred to watch from a distance)

Just like hunting season in Pennsylvania...

Okay, so I decided to get a little closer for a picture.

Twins!!

Just what we were craving... grilled sheep head (fortunately, they don't eat this until breakfast the next day)

And now we eat... today we ate the liver and lungs wrapped in fat and grilled. It actually was pretty tasty because the fat had a good flavor. We were happy to see fat wrapped around it!!

Some pictures of the last day of our basketball program...

Merry Christmas!

Well, its been a great last few weeks. Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while!! A few Christmas decorations...

Wanda and I went to our friends house for lunch, and we wore our jilaba's. Its a good thing we did to, because we would have been the only ladies not wearing it in the neighborhood we were in! Do you like the orange?

We had my favorite North African dish. It's called rafisa. Rafisa = SO GOOD.

This is the last week of our basketball league, we had a great time, and the kids were great!

We went to a city north of us to visit some friends. Here are some pictures...