spa day

today was a cultural adventure of sorts.
i went to my friend salija's house because we made plans to put henna on my hair.
so from 1030am to 6pm i got to hang out with them.
i had two solid meals of spam and cheese and mayo and white bread. not necessarily together.
i don't find myself needing to gag down much here. the food is pretty good. but spam i just have issues with. i was putting all kinds of cheese and bread around it to try and trick myself into thinking it wasn't there.
and they kept putting more and more and more on my plate. eat eat!
twice i snuck two stacks of spam slices back onto the main platter when they weren't paying attention. oh so much food.... and like thirty glasses of neon green soda and then coffee after both meals.
i was so full.
then they wanted me to dress up in their kind of wedding clothes.
it was pretty funny. they got a huge kick out of it. they wanted to take a billion pictures.
then salija put henna on my hair.
they mixed it with tea. that's a new one on me.
then nebat put henna tattoos on my hands and feet.
it turns out it was her first time to do it. one hand ended up with a heart that had a smiley face in it...
.
not what you would think of as traditional henna art... but it was fun seeing her be creative and she was really enjoying it.
so for the next 3 hours i sat out in the sun on the front porch with sejdo.
shot the breeze with him and a new acquaintance, rebecca. there was also a brief appearance of a very verbose and argumentative muslim man...

after i washed my hands and feet is when the second meal took place. then it was time to wash my hair.
nebat washed my hair for me. it was fun.
then we had more coffee....

on my walk home i ran into a sweet little roma girl that i know. she put her flexed hands on either side of my hips like a fisherman's ruler and said, 'look how big you've gotten. you used to be so thin.. but now...' sad part is i have probably lost weight since i last saw her...

haha.

all my blond hairs around my face are now v8 orange.

haha

it was a good day.


as if you needed more... there is more pictures here i tried to tell you... we took a billion.