Who knew the best night in Rome had nothing to do with Romans or anything Italian? Last Friday was a fieldtrip to Lebanon that took 30 minutes by train. Me, and fourteen other St. John's students (not all American mind you) went to one of the best Middle Eastern restaurants in Rome. Of course 14 foreigners walking through the crappy, very un-touristy neighborhood of Tiburtina was a sight to see, but seeing my girlfriends bellydance to the stylings of Tunisian pop music was quite another. For one night, it felt like all the drama and stress that had built up around us in school was gone. I had never seen all of us so happy and I don't remember a time in the last six months where I smiled so much.
The restuarant was called the Prince of Egypt, although it was run by Lebanese and Syrians and owned by a Tunisian. It was complete with arab music from Tunis and Egypt, bellydancers, hookahs, infused tea, and kebab. The place was oppresively hot from the minute we walked in: an underground establishment with no windows,where people danced or smoked the night away made it feel like a sauna. It was great. Luckily, as most things go in Italy, we found ourselves at the restaurant through the connections of a friend from school from Maghreb. Of course he introduced us all to his friends at the resatuarant and I even translated an Italian conversation between the Tunisian owner and a friend from D.C. who is married to a Tunisian- it was fabulously mixed up with the three of us speaking English, Arabic, and Italian. Yay! After a few glasses of wine I was dragged out onto the dancefloor to join the other women in the restaurant to 'bellydance.' I didn't do half bad considering I had one belly-dancing lesson five years ago in Santa Barbara and I am of the most caucasian origins possible. The great thing about this restaurant and arab party culture in general is that the men and women don't dance together. The women get up and shake their hips while the men examine them from their seats and smoke shisha. Then, the men get up and jump around the entire restuarant holding hands and the women gossip and act disinterested. Fabulous! So unlike the culture I've come to know as a foreigner in this country.
As for other news, I started the second session of summer school and will finish in the middle of July. This session's course is Contemporary Eastern Europe and considering that the United States doesn't really care about Eastern Europe (because there are no tangible benefits like oil or major trade deals to be made) I haven't learned much about the region up to now. But that will all change with this class. Our professor is the new Department Chair of the Government and Politics department at St. John's and from the region, so finally some importance will be given where it is due.
During the first summer session I took a weekend trip to London with friends from school, over the Fourth of July weekend I'll go to Sorrento and Amalfi with friends (assuming I finish all my 'homework' in time : p ) and then I'll finally meet my first-cousin, once removed from Massachusetts when she visits Rome soon after I return from Sorrento. I'm trying to organize a trip to Prague in homage to my Eastern European class, once the session is over, but we'll see how that unfolds...
that's all for now, love to everyone
2 comments:
The Lebanese dance style sounds brilliant! - reminds me of dances in Junior high school, except we didn't take turns of course, and had to both act disinterested and dance at the same time, which is pretty damn hard (multi-tasking sucks) and is probably the reason why i'm a less-than-average dancer today. i love it when i find new reasons to blame American culture for my personal inadequatecies! (like spelling that word, for one).
many thanks to the great Pamini!
reminiscing back, the one thing that pops into my mind is us going to buy beer and neither of us having money. we're so sad. drunken night = lost digital camera.
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