Olumayowa CP-5

On Memorial day, I was going to take Aadl to G&Gs for Jamaican food (which is really similar to Nigerian food) because he took me to Pitaria last week, but it ended up being closed so we impulsively went to Samrat Indian Restaurant on Apalachee pkwy- a place that is consistently amazing, though their food is a bit expensive (Go for the lunch hour buffet). I almost passed out from the amount of aloo gobi and chicken curry that I ate while Aadl was a very slow and deliberate eater, I hope that Middle easterners won't be freaked out by my speed eating when I visit their countries. If not for the food, go to Samrat for the Bollywood videos that they play all day, they are better than any musical that you've ever seen.

We left the restaurant quickly for my shift at Lofty Pursuits, Aadl and I actually were hanging out because I told him that I'm learning how to make candy and he wanted to watch the process throughout my 4 hour shift. He sat and watched Wes (my boss) and I making Blueberry, Watermelon, and Apple hard candy; though I could tell when he was starting to get bored and anxious, it really was a cultural experience for him to see us putting together colored blocks of molten sugar to create a very American treat. He asked for a lot of samples and actually bought some candy before we left.Though I feel bad that he hung out for so long, I think being alone at a neighborhood hangout like Lofty Pursuits was really good for him; I noticed times when he was listening to conversations, walking to different shops in the mall to browse, asking people what they were doing (there is normally somebody yoyoing/juggling at the store), and when he went to buy scoops of coconut ice cream he was social with my colleagues because he knows them to some extent. 

 After I finished my shift, Aadl still wanted to tag along with me so we went to The Warehouse to play pool with my friend Liz. He actually beat us both in one game and then suggested that we leave because he didn't like the atmosphere at the pool hall, which is literally a warehouse with low lighting and no air-conditioning. We went to Seminole Bowl on Tennessee Street because we still wanted to do something active; here I dominated the game ( :D ) while Liz and Aadl began to hit it off because she's a student in Middle Eastern Studies and was effectively ruffling his Saudi feathers.

I was wondering if she could be another conversation partner for Aadl, until later in the second bowling game when they began to discuss the politics and culture. Aadl is a 30 year old man from Saudi Arabia while Liz is a feminist and also a very passionate political activist- especially for moderate Islam and for an Israeli-Palestinian two state solution, I really did not imagine that anything would go wrong. There were no harsh words or fists thrown but I definitely got to watch a very tense, two hour-long debate about women's rights, Sunni & Shia violence, the morality of Jews, American motives in the middle east, and 9/11. At least I got to see his argumentative skills in the English language.

I wonder if hanging out with them together in the future will be beneficial and not stressful for Aadl, he has very strong views that are morally skewed in my opinion (or should I tag disliking Jews as relativism and just forget it?) and Liz is the kind of person who will speak until her point is understood, she was fuming after I dropped Aadl off. Maybe next time I'll invite them both to a relaxed setting like a hookah bar and simply not show up myself.