Touring the Middle East...in Manhattan

I just got home from an amazing evening...the kind of evening that reminds me why I love New York. The amazing thing about this city is that you can travel to other parts of the world, without ever leaving home...

Carly and I went tonight to see an amazing movie in Egypt. OK, not really in Egypt, but it was an Egyptian documentary film and it was so great to sit in Greenwich Village listening to Egyptian Arabic...and realizing that I am actually starting to understand a lot more Arabic now that I am trying!!

We then went to dinner in Afghanistan. Well, not really Afghanistan, but this amazing Afghan restaurant where I made friends with the waiter by impressing him by reading the menu which had writing in Arabic script. I even learned a few words in Farsi during the course of the dinner!

After dinner we went to a party sponsored by the Network of Arab American Professionals...in Tunisia...ok, well, not Tunisia, but this new place called Carthage Palace, where all the music, people and sheesha are Arabic as can be...except of course the two random tall girls who stand out like a sore thumb :) But we showed them that blonde girls can belly-dance too!

It is so great to live in a city where you have the whole world right on your doorstep....pick a culture, any culture, and you can experience it here! Of course, I can't hide my arabphile tendencies :)