Proposals and Pigeons

Good morning from the other side of the world!!! Last night, after dinner I came straight to bed @ about 8pm and couldn't even keep my eyes open to do anything but brush my teeth! The accoustics here are completely TERRIBLE and I can hear every little sound outside the room. At 12:30 I awoke and heard Matt being introduced to his roommate Liam. At 3:30 I awoke and heard Amy lugging her suitcase out of the elevator the size of a coffin. At 4:30, I heard Fleda and Ray talking in the hallway. At 6:30 I heard a pigeon attacking another pigeon ontop of the window airconditioner. I finally got out of bed @ 7:45 to get ready for the day. For those of you with a faint heart... I am now going to talk about snot... so be forewarned! :) This morning when I blew my nose, it was all a disgusting grey/black color. The smog/smoke is so thick here that everything is hazy... even indoors. Black snot... still grosses me out thinking about it :) I went upstairs for breakfast and there is a great outdoor patio. I ate out there and the waiters were very attentive... maybe a bit too attentive! :) One of the waiters kept coming over and talking with me. His english was mediocre but he did know how to say "nice hair, very silky and beautiful. He made sure that I knew that his name "Prim" meant love and that he has alot of love to give others. Hahahahah!!! And he also was quite the romancer. he told me that he got off work @ 9 and would like to take me around town. He proceeded to tell me all the great places he would like to take me. Um... thanks but no thanks buddy! I was rescued by a couple who came and sat next to me. They are the Habitat team leaders for the Saudia Arabia team. They are originally from Michigan but teach at a Saudi Arabia International school. There team is a bunch of 9th graders!! What a great service project! They left and a handsome looking gentleman soon took a seat nearby. His name is felix and he is from France. What great eye candy while sipping on my chai!!! :) He is here for a colleague's wedding. We chattd for a bit and the rest of the team started to arrive. I met Amy first and she is super cool. She is from D.C. and works as a sign language interpreter. She also had quite the crazy flight story. She arrived at the aiport to fly KLM and Air France and they told her to come back the next day!!! She perservered and they were able to get her another flight on British Airways. She went to the BA counter and they said "you are not going to make this flight unless you run, they are already boarding. She went through a secret security area with no lines and ran barefoot to the gate. She just made it! Jerry is also here, he arrived last night from Wisconsin and seems really sweet. Matt also met us at breakfast as did Ava. The group would really like to go do some yoga before our orientation tonight and so I went and asked downstairs. They said there might be a class at the Sikh school nearby, I am waiting to hear back. As I am typing this right now, Praveen, the adorable young man who works as housekeeping is cleaning up the room. He has been begging to be able to come clean the room all morning and although he speaks very little english, he is adorably trying to tell me all sorts of things. He must be about 15... what a cute kid! He just finished cleaning and asked me to walk around the room to inspect it. I walked around and said what a good job he had done and the huge smile on his face simply melted my heart! SOOOO adorable!