you're so vain

today, we went to have lunch at my aunt's in makkah. it's a freaking road trip to get there, but it was fun. after lunch we drove up to taif so that we (me, my sisters, my brothers, and my cousins) could ride the cable cars up the mountain because we didnt get a chance to last time. it was pretty awesome. then we drank sweet coffee by the side of the road, and my brothers rode ponies. we stayed there for a while, and ended up getting back home close to 11. at their house, i went in to their kitchen and saw a washing machine. now i understand why they thought my thinking it was weird to have kitchen washing machines was weird.

yesterday, we went out with A and her friend. they work at the hilton, if you remember. anyways one of the guests (the extended kind that stay for months) recently asked A's friend to marry him. it's a cute story and everything, but he doesnt speak arabic (he's from poland) and she doesnt speak much english. i still dont really understand how they communicated enough to get to marriage. anyways, we went out with them and a few of his friends/colleagues. it was surprisingly really fun, and one of the dudes lived in arlington for 2 years. he recently graduated from gw. small world. the other two were from different states. the work they were doing actually sounded pretty cool.

i just got an email from one of my cousins. he forwarded this link. he's super proud of it. because i doubt anyone has the time or the desire to read through the thing, it's a list of everyone that prince sultan bin abdulaziz thinks should be thanked or recognized or whatever. anyways, the reason for my cousin's pride?? my family was listed in the looong list of names. i would not have known this if he didnt bold and underline it in the email, because i would never read through all of that. seriously, there are A LOT of people in that list. maybe i just lack familial pride, i dunno, but the whole thing made me laugh and it seemed a bit pretentious to me, but thats just me. maybe they should revoke my saudi-ness or kick me out of the family or something, because my cousin was really excited about it. i'd be more excited if i got chocolate. :/

*You're So Vain - Carly Simon