Ramadan Breakfast and a Freeze

Tuesday night 2 of my former students invited Scott and I for a late night breakfast. These students are from Saudi Arabia and are currently celebrating Ramadan, which means they fast during daylight hours and eat while the sun is down. They invited us to join them for their breaking of the fast meal (ie. breakfast) at 8pm.

We were excited to join them for a meal, and excited to see them both as it has been several months since our last gathering. When we arrived, I was surprised to find 2 of my current students there along with a 3rd friend of theirs. These guys went out of their way to provide a wonderful meal for us. We had soup, fish, seafood, rice, chicken, pickled veggies, grape leaves filled with rice, and one student even prepared his mother's specialty recipe. Wow! We had so much delicious food. We were stuffed by the time we finished.

Here is our food being served up.

Here's Scott trying a pickle, Arabic style.

After the big meal, we sat around chatting and catching up with these former students who have become somewhat of friends to us now. They've helped us put up Christmas decorations, have brought back wonderful Saudi gifts, and continually keep in touch with us.

Dessert was Arabic coffee, baklava, and a special dish made by one of my current students. What a treat for us! These guys really went out of their way to provide a nice meal for us, and it was so good to catch up with them. We left the "breakfast" at 11pm, knowing that they would stay up the rest of the night to eat their lunch and dinner, before catching a few hours of sleep and heading to class.

When we woke the next morning, we were treated to this sight...

Frost on the ground and a freezing cold house! It was our first frost of the fall, and a small sign of the coming winter. Thankfully temperatures have warmed lately, but it was nice to have a warm bowl of oatmeal that cool morning.