A Night in Saudi Arabia

So, Doa and Fawwaz, two SLU-Madrid permanent students from Saudi Arabia, invited all of us from the Interfaith Retreat to come over to their house for dinner! They live about 45 minutes from Madrid. It was AWESOME. They were incredibly hospitable, constantly bringing us drinks, appetizers, tea, food, dessert, etc.!

Here are some pictures:

Jen and I toasting to the last night in Madrid! (Jen left today... I'm still here for a few days, but most of my friends went home on the group flight) This is some kind of cherry juice...


Doa and I! I am going to miss this girl! She is the nicest girl EVER.

Anna and I, the two tall, white, Midwesterners. Ok, we could never pass for Saudi Arabians, but we had fun dressing like them!! Anna didn't want to take off the outfit, it was so comfortable!

Doa and Fawwaz helping one of the guys put on the traditional male outfit.

Dancing with Alex... Alex is an amazing dancer! Here I am wearing the traditional Saudi Arabian dress. I love the colors...

Doa with the feast they prepared for us!! It was definitely one of the best meals I've ever had...

It was really fun to get all the Interfaith Retreat people together again one more time. It was pretty incredible to spend a night enjoying all of the food, music, dancing, and clothing and hanging out with Doa and Fawwaz's family. We had people from the U.S., Germany, the Phillipines, and Zimbabwe there... imagine this group all eating, dancing (in several different styles), teaching each other phrases from our languages, and just enjoying a great time. None of us wanted to leave, but by 1 a.m. or so, we finally piled back into the van to head back to Madrid. On the way back, Fawwaz translated a bunch of the Arabian songs we were listening to for me... which was cool... and it was funny, because every time I asked, "What is this one about?"... it was always about love! Seems to be what 90% of all songs are about anywhere, right?

Well, I have 4 more days in Madrid. Finals are done, and my roommates left early this morning! Sad... I am enjoying a few more days just seeing some of the things I haven't seen yet and not wanting to leave...