Three hours of Qur'anic recitation is a bit much

Remember how I mentioned that there's a small mosque across the street?
Remember how I mentioned Ramadan was starting?
Did I mention loudspeakers?

Put them all together and you've got one Hell of an annoying afternoon-- two reciters got going at around 12 and didn't stop until three. The loudspeakers are at my floor's level.

Alas.

The dynamic is entirely different now-- coffeeshops are closed (which kills daylight streetlife) and old men seem to sit fidgity and impatient in front of water bottles that they can't drink from. I was going to maintain the fast, but being sick the past few days isn't exactly conducive to fasting, so I've called off my cultural enthusiasm in favor of long naps and eating.

Been watching the backgammon games in the ahwas-- sat down last night with a group of old men that played the fastest game I've ever seen. I can almost feel my lungs getting blacker from the sheesha-- I'm terrified to actually start running again because I'll be so damn bad from my lungs (no marathons anytime soon). I am purchasing my working-class 'amia from old men using my lungs as currency.

Walked around the Ibrahimiya last night-- place was alive and lit up in a night market and for all practical purposes was "daytime." The street, for the most part, runs along the tram tracks and a section of it is specifically for the khazars-- the butchers. Chickens, turkeys, ducks, goats, rabbits-- there's a veritable zoo of animals ready for purchase or butchering there on the spot (I imagine if you don't quite have the stomach for it). Couldn't find an 'oud though. Realized I was walking behind two men with goats on their shoulders. I have to pinch myself sometimes.

Probably going to spend my first night in-- lot of work to do for Sunday, but hopefully will make it downstairs to the sea for a few quiet moments. I'm just tired of getting shouted at in English.