Chabatis and School

So, remember when I said I was going to catch up on things? Well, since that didn't happen then I'll take care of it now!

 

About a week ago my host mother and I made a type of flat bread called chabatis. They are very tasty and now, because of my helpful pictures, you can make them too!

I missed most of the preparation stage, but I believe that you simply combine water and flour and a little oil until a dough is formed.

 

 

Next sit on the floor of your kitchen and knead for about five minutes before dividing the dough  into several small balls. Squish each ball, then roll it out into a nice circle. You want it to be very thin so that it will cook evenly!

 

 

Turn the stove on to the lowest temperature and drizzle a little olive oil into a pan. 

 

 

Add a circle of dough and poke it while your host mother cracks up about how you can't turn on the stove.

 

Eventually you will get big bubbles, as shown in the picture about. Don't worry, this is normal!

 

Use a spoon to check for golden brown spots on the bottom. When there are a satisfactory number you can flip it over, but I don't recommend burning your fingers on the edge of the pan while doing so!

 

Once the other side has its fair number of spots you can place the completed chabati in a container or on a towel with the rest.

 

They are very tasty!

 

So, what else have I been up to? School! Here I am in my lovely uniform.

 

School has been really interesting. It seemed a little overwhelming at first, but I made some friends and have some really informative classes. It will probably take some more getting used to before I'm completely comfortable, but we're definitely getting there! 

Grand Mosque

Hello hello!
I'm currently at Amideast, where I can finally upload my pictures. So, I'm going to try to catch up on what I've been doing.
A few days ago we had a tour of Muscat. One of my favorite stops was the Grand Mosque, a beautiful and expansive area including separate prayer rooms for men and women, an Islamic library and many gardens.

 

Almost all of the areas were connected by outdoor hallways, sometime I truly appreciated due to the extreme heat we were facing that day.

 

Before entering the prayer rooms we took off our shoes and put them in these cute little cubbies. If anyone is curious, my shoes are on the left. :)

 

We also covered out hair, which was an entertaining feat. In our day to day life we only have to cover our shoulders and knees, but that day we all wore long sleeves and pants to be appropriate for the mosque.

 

First we went to the women's prayer room. Here are Mae and I in front of some really amazing woodwork. It have beautiful patterns as well as passages from the Koran carved into it.

 

 

Next we went to the men's prayer room. I had thought that the women's one was big, but it was nothing compared to the men's!

 

 

As you may know, mosques almost always have lines on the ground to mark where to stand, as in this picture:

 

 

The lines face towards Mecca and are often are worked beautifully into the tiles on the floor. For the Grand Mosque, however, it was very important to the designers that there be a genuine Persian carpet in the men's prayer room. They were so caught up in creating a beautiful floor that they entirely forgot to put in the lines! This caused a problem involving crooked lines and complaints, but the carpet had been made and so it was kept.

 

 

(an incongruous picture of a door to break things up)

 

Recently, a mosque in Dubai decided that they wanted the same carpet in their mosque. However, they learned from the Grand Mosques mistakes and added invisible, raised lines of knots to the carpet to distinguish lines.

 

This is a chandelier in the men's prayer room. I believe that is was built in Iran and shipped over in six pieces, but don't quote me on that. It was really hot!

 

Well, that's it for now! I hope you enjoyed reading about the Grand Mosque.