Hospitality Club

Tonight we went to Ainkawa, the Christian district. It was too dark to see much, but it was different from the other areas. Local women were wearing short sleeved fitted tops and no head scarves. We went down some dark lanes to find the German restaurant/hof where we all had a pint of lager in ceramic beer steins for $5.00 each. This is fairly expensive seeing as you can get a 6 pack of 500 ml cans of Turkish beer in the shops here (like the one that supplied the Bordeaux for last night's party at A's house) for the same price. B says she doesn't attend A's gatherings anymore because unlike the rest of us idlers, she is busy studying about Kurdistan and writing in her journal, "Dear Diary, there is nothing at New City to help combat this incredible boredom..." (OK, now I am just copying G and making stuff up).

Anyway, this post is not about the neighbors, but is indirectly about the hospitality club. When I started to think seriously about coming to the University of Kurdistan, I started searching for people in the area with whom I could talk about the situation in Kurdistan - Is it safe, how is life for women, etc etc. When when I exhausted Skype, I joined the hospitality club and met M. M works in Ankawa as an engineer for an firm... Today we made our first phone contact and this evening after beer at the German place, we (G, B and I) walked to 'Happy Time' to eat and meet M. He explained about local culture a bit, confirming our suspicions that there is nothing to do in Hawler. However, we will meet again tomorrow at 10:30 and he will take us shopping for English books, pirated DVDs, and for me (Popeye) some spinach (which he claims to eat at least twice a week although I haven't seen it in the markets anywhere).