This past weekend, I was invited to spend a belated Eid with the wonderful family of my dear friend Aamna. And it was awesome.
I was so so excited to go because I was getting to spend the WEEKEND at AAMNA'S HOUSE with her FAMILY. While I took this to be a very exciting and momentous occasion, Aamna seemed to be dreading it. For exactly the same reasons I was excited.
We took the afternoon train to Cleesthorpe (yup, Cleesthorpe) and went on our merry little way which was, in this case, about a two hour train ride. Unfortunately, I didn't get to experience first-hand the odd strangers Aamna always has stories to tell about when she comes back over a weekend. Ah, well. There's always next time. We had to change trains at some point and I thought it was very lucky we didn't get lost because we have a knack for doing things like getting lost.
We arrived in Leicester not that late but it felt like late because England turns dark at around 3.45pm nowadays. Her dad and sister picked us up from the station and so began my existence in Leicestershire.
We got to her house, passing an ASDA along the way, which lit up and bright green. It's owned by Wal-Mart except ASDA has a much better reputation in the UK than Wal-Mart does in the States. Anyways. Someone mentioned we needed to go to ASDA so after we got home, someone should do that. We got to Aamna's house and oh my goodness I love her family. I really do. Her dad is the sweetest person ever. Her mom is such a mom and I miss my mom and she's funny and tells me stories about Aamna has a wee lass. Her sister is also funny and cool and her brother IS EXACTLY LIKE MY BROTHER. It was so weird.
A little bit after we got in, we were told to go grocery shopping at ASDA (by the by, I'm not putting it in caps because I'm excited about it, that's just how it's written). However, as we were about to pass the intersection to ASDA, we noticed the traffic lights were not working and the entire area seemed to be awash in darkness. Even the brightly lit green ASDA sign was dark. Because there was a power outage and there was a mass exodus coming out of ASDA's car park. Instead we made a giant u-turn to Sainsbury's and did some grocerying there.
When we got back home, everyone was telling me how this doesn't usually happen and power outages were so rare ... just as all the lights and TV went out in their house. Which made me laugh.
When the lights came back on, we had dinner which was the absolute most delicious meal I'd had in three months. It was glorious. It was only slightly awkward when Aamna forgot to inform me that they don't use forks and knives usually but eat just using bread and I sat there for a couple seconds staring at my plate wondering what was going on. Then I noticed what everyone else was doing and I saved myself the embarrassment of looking like too much of a loser. I felt like this trip was the culmination of all my previous brownification. This was the exam moment after a semester of education. No, I'm not being dramatic.
Anyways, once I figured out how to get the food from my plate to my salivating mouth, I enjoyed a delightful dinner. Then somewhere in between there we took a walk outside except it was freezing cold (really, it was partly snowing) so it kind of turned into a brisk jog through the neighborhood. Then we went home and watched Kingdom of Heaven, which I had never seen before, but wasn't paying attention to so I can't really say I've seen it now.
The next morning, we had another wonderful meal called breakfast Indian style. After that, Aamna and I got ready for our frolic around town. We went to downtown Leicester, which, if you didn't know, is pronounced LESS-ter, and roamed the streets.
All of downtown was decorated for Christmas and there were giant Christmas trees and a whole snowy scene set out in front of the town hall. And there was this fountain that doesn't work anymore because Caution: Water Presents Danger to Small Children.
And on this fountain was this engraving, which I enjoyed for no reason:
And there was this little All About Leicester shop, where I bought a postcard and an I Heart Leicester button, which was located on this street:
Then we roamed some more, through the local mall, down the market streets. Eventually, we stopped to have a Nutella-filled crepe, which was quite tasty. It was particularly interesting because we were given this utensil with which to consume our yummy treat:
(Please excuse the littly chunks of chewed crepe and licked Nutella.) Notice the little ridges on the side of the fork's tooth? They are KNIFE TEETH. Now will someone please please please solve our crisis and name this utensil? A knork? A forfe? HELP US.*
Eventually, we were picked up by Aamna's father and we drove past this castle that has now been turned into a prison.
We had to make a stop in the Indian part of town to get some Indian groceries so I got to see Little India! It's not actually called Little India, or Indiatown, like we like to name our international parts of town in the States, but I felt the need to name it so. We got some yummy samosas there.
Then we drove all the way back home (I say 'all the way' -- it was really only about 15 minutes) where Aamna's mum was preparing for a small dinner partay for Eid. Several members of Aamna's family was coming over so there was a flurry of activity and cooking etc etc. So Aamna, her sister, and I decided to take a drive to see the most ridiculously lit up houses in town. While their displays were very impressive, they could not compare to some of the elaborate decorations I have seen at home. But it was still fun to see.
Got back home, showered (Aamna: "You're in my SHOWER.") and prepared to meet the Aamna clan. There were a couple uncles, some aunts, and several cousins of some sort. And they were all very very kind and lively and wonderful people. We all sat around and watched the X-Factor together and celebrated the inevitable win of Alexandra Burke, who is awesome AND SANG WITH BEYONCÉ WHATWHAT. I say 'sang' but really what happened was (you don't care but I'm telling you anyways) Beyoncé strode out on stage like the fabulous diva that she is and Alexandra mumbled "Oh My God" and "wow" and was incapacitated to sing because DUH BEYONCÉ WAS RIGHT NEXT TO HER. She was pretty much drooling. I would have fainted. She's made of stronger stuff than I.
And we had more delicious food and played on each other's iPod Touches and iPhones. Then we rotated playing Mario Kart Wii, which is the hardest thing of my life because I suck at controlling my car. Eventually, people started going home, except for the crew from London because they obviously weren't going to drive all the way back to London at that hour. Instead, we all stayed up until around 4am playing poker. I'd never played before so Aamna's uncle sat me down for a one-on-one crash course in poker. I think I won a couple rounds so I was quite proud of myself. Oh and since we're all hardcore gamblers, we used Monopoly™© money.
In the morning, I was greeted by half the family and a bowl of cheerios. And then Aamna's uncle promply started off the quizzing. Apparently, he does this a lot. He'll quiz anyone on anything that is remotely related to that someone. At first, I got the usual "What are you studying?" and "Why did you come to England?" which lead to questions about how high school is run in America and what did I study in my English classes? which then turned into a full on intensive quiz on the works of Shakespeare. Before noon on a Sunday.
He whipped out his iPhone, which has a Shakespeare application on it, to read out bits of The Merchant of Venice and then Hamlet's To Be or Not To Be speech which he would read and then look at me as if prompting me to complete the sentence. Of course, I could not do so, but this deterred him not one bit. He did not stop until he was done with the entire speech. Then he turned on his son, who was asleep on the living room floor. He was brushed off but, again, seemed jovially unconcerned with our shortcomings and continued to read Shakespeare aloud. After Aamna came down, I went up to use the loo and get dressed. When I came back down, Aamna told me she was so thankful that I had left when I did because at the moment, her uncle began to read the witches' bit in Macbeth in a full-on witchy voice. And Aamna would have been traumatized had I been there. I, however, was quite upset to have missed witnessing this glorious rendition of Shakespeare. Ah, well.
After that, Aamna's mum packed us some food in tupperwares and sent us off back to Manchester. Where we were greeted by Amina yelling our names.
I loved Leicester, I really did. I loved being around a family and a home and delicious food and a town that was cozy and homey. And Aamna's awesome family invited me back whenever I felt like it.
Mwahaha.
* My dear friend Michelle has just informed me of
this website. Who'da thunk.
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