All of a sudden, the weather has broken, the humidity and the temperature have both dropped and now we are basking in the glory of 35 degree, DRY temperatures. This is a lovely temperature in which to sit out by the pool and read a book, go for a dip and play backgammon (and win!).

We are also half way through Ramadan, which is the fasting month for Muslims. This means that us non-muslims must go to Ramadan-free zones around the college or in the privacy of our own homes to eat or drink during daylight hours. At night, everything returns to normal and the muslims have big feasts (I almost wrote “pig out”, but that would not go over well here!).

This photo was taken by Darren a couple of years ago, but I like it because it was taken during Ramadan and you can see the crescent moon in the background.

This is a photo of the mosque across the street from us. During Ramadan they crank up the volume just in case you are overly tired from staying up late to pig out. Many of my students get home from college and go to sleep until about 7:00, when they can break their fast. Then they eat, socialize go to bed, maybe get up, eat again, go to bed and then definitely get up at about 3:00 AM to eat yet again, and then go to sleep and get up at 5:00 to pray. Now, you can see why the mosque is extra loud during this time of year!

I am also inspired to add a picture of our car. I am so very pleased with it because I can beat almost everybody from a standing start at the lights. I am not a racer on the streets, but nevertheless I do like to leap away from the traffic! This baby comes with a 3.7 liter engine as a standard feature. That is bigger than most cars’ sports models. The SS version of our car has a 5.7 liter engine. You won’t find many cars with that engine in Canada.