thongs, sexy boots and cold bus trips

The title of this blog has to do with both today and some what this past weekend. Starting with last friday I attended Friday prayers and a Muslim mosque with Miriam and some other peacers. It was a really interesting experience, I had never been to a mosque before and I found the prayers very beautiful. However the sermon-type thing was quite long and blended Arabic with English which led to me being mainly confused instead of enlightened. Also this mosque was rather small so instead of having separate areas in a larger room for men and women, the men met in the main space and the women met in smaller adjacent rooms. It was however very interesting to see all the different women pray together and where different clothes from around the world. This mosque is fairly international and had many different backgrounds represented including East African, Arab and even Indian. That afternoon Miram, David and I went to the mall and I found this great pair of knee-high boots which I have been wanting for a really long time. They were on sale for $40 and black and shiny! I feel very sexy in them and both of my male housemates seem to think they are pretty "hot" too. The great thing is that they aren't too spify to be worn under pants or a skirt, they work both ways! Other highlights from the weekend include seeing the movie "A Very Long Engagement" which has the same star as Amelie and is set just after WWI. It was good, but much more dramatic and had more violence in it than I had expected. I would recommend it and it definitely leaves one even more sure of the stupidity and waste of war. I visited First Mennonite with Anna on Sunday and enjoyed the service. I ran into Carole Walker from my old floor and she may be my link to getting my bike down here, which would be great. I also played the mennonite game a little bit and found a man who is first cousins with my Dad and has a daughter Sarah who is working in London and has met Tim! After the service, Erv (the director of Plowshares) and his wife Priscella took us out to a really yummy Indian lunch buffet called India Palace. It was amazing! Then today all of us except Samuka went Musuem hopping because as Martin Luther King Day three of the major museums were free. We also took buses in an attempt to accustom ourselves to the city transportation. It was really neat, I looked up our routes on the computer, printed out the time table and got all of us around. I am really enjoying getting to know this city and learning to orient myself. During a break in our museum viewing we stopped for lunch at the Circle Center Mall Foodcourt and then afterwards we visited Victoria Secret's semi-annual sale and I purchased my first thong! So what are you girls' opinions or thongs? Good, bad, or just ugly? :) So that's an update on my past few days. Oh and it is looking like my visit to Columbus with Miriam and gang in order to celebrate Eid (a Muslim holiday similar to Christmas) with her family won't be happening. But my parents might visit me, which would be really awesome!