A Not-so-Average Dinner for the Average Iraqi

     On Friday I went to the most unusual dinner in my life. I'm used to eating with my family, sometimes with friends, rarely with strangers, never with non-Iraqis. Above all, I was the GUEST. It was the most exciting dinner in my life so far. With English being the main used language, I failed to recognize some saying my name more than once. There was only 3 Iraqis at the dinner, including me. I knew the two other Iraqis already, and there was Jon Finer, the Washington Post reporter who had interviewed me earlier. The others I didn't know. The dinner was not a business dinner, the reporters that came didn't come to discuss the news or anything, just to let off some steam. So I didn't catch many last names, except for Farnaz Fassihi from the Wall Street Journal, which I have her card now. The others I only know by first names now.

     We ate Mexican food, tacos to be exact. I hadn't seen that before, and if it wasn't for Ellen Knickmeyer I wouldn't have figured out how to eat them either. Thanks Ellen. The food was great, I don't know where they found some one that can cook Mexican in Baghdad, but it was good. A hard moment was when they served the drinks. They served red wine. As a Muslim, I don't drink any alcoholic drink, and I wasn't about to let my principles go just so I could blend in a bit better. But Jackie saved the day, she brought me a soft drink. Thank you Jackie.

     I know my written English is good enough for the web, but I hadn't really talked much English for a while now. I did some talking with the soldiers last year, when I was doing my summer field training at Al-Zaora Park. They used to come there a lot. Mostly I played translator there, between the Engineers and the Soldiers. But that was it, hadn't really talked English for while. It feels nice now to know that I can talk understandable English.

     Um, this shouldn't go unnoticed, the title of this post isn't actually my idea. Mad Canuck came up with it. Plus he helped me with some phrasing. Thanks buddy.

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