Breaking News! Election Update!

Election day has arrived, and I can tell you the air is tense and exciting. I am in the fortunate position of having a voting station on my street and being able to witness firsthand what is going on on the ground and talk to the people who have just casted their votes.

Firstly, according to Masri El Yom:

1. "In Alexandria, the court accepted 34 lawsuits filed by attorneys of Brotherhood, independent, and other candidates excluded by various parties, against holding elections, reports Al-Shorouk. The court canceled elections in all Alexandria’s districts except Ghirbal, due to the large number of electoral transgressions." 

I do not know if the court when through with the cancelation, but if it did, that would place me in the only open voting district in all of Alexandria.

2. There have been reports of at least 1 death due to elections (the son of a candidate running in Cairo was stabbed to death for putting up campaign posters for his father).

3. All Muslim Brotherhood websites were shut down 1 hour after voting started

4. (Not confirmed) A witness in Cairo claims to have seen a truck yesterday driving to a polling station with boxes filled with filled in ballots

5. There have been reports of scattered violence and clashes all across the country.

When I went down to talk to the people at the polling station downstairs, I can say that the air was tense. Katelyn was carrying her camera and was immediately asked if she was from the press, because pictures are not allowed. There had been people standing around the polling station all day, and when we went down, one man was particularly vexed about something and had been screaming, with men trying to calm him down. We asked what he was yelling about and were told that he was upset because the candidate running from the National Democratic Party had way more money to campaign with than the other candidates, that the Muslim Brotherhood was not allowed to hang any campaign posters, and that generally the elections had been rigged. We asked others if they had voted and they held up their hands, showing us their fingers whose tips were marked with pink ink.

Earlier today, while she was touring the city, bouncing from poll place to poll place, Katelyn met a man and accompanied him to vote. She asked him why he decided to vote, even though it was seemingly pointless. He expressed that even though he knows who is going to win, it is still his democratic right and he has a duty to vote. 

It was really interesting to see the excitement around the polling station. Supporters of the Wafd party had stationed themselves outside the polling station, brought loud speakers and tablas and changed all of the traditional soccer cheers to cheer for Hosni Hafez, their candidate from the Wafd party. 

The polls just closed and from our balcony, we saw a caravan of men and soldiers carrying the big brown ballot boxes out of the school and take them to an unknown location. 

Last but not least- my balcony: The best spot in our apartment!

Election Time

Can you feel it, folks? Elections are in the air.
Everywhere you look around Egypt, there are banners waving, posters declaring the campaign promises of the various candidates they promote, candidates and their supporters driving around in pick up trucks with loud speakers- sharing their hopes for a reformed and stable Egypt with hopeful voters. Yes, friends, Egyptian parliamentary elections are tomorrow.
Now, what does this mean for Egypt?
There are several ways to look at this question- so let's start from the bottom up. According to Monica-Polling, when asked "do you plan on voting on Sunday?" 100% of respondents have said "no." Most respondents say that there is no point in voting. Only one person has said that they have actually voted in prior elections. Mostly, they say that they all know it's rigged, they know who is going to win, so why bother? Why take the chance? The "Hezb al Watani al Democrati" (The National Democratic Party) will surely win and Gamal Mubarek, whose campaign posters are already floating around Egypt although the presidential elections are a year away and he has not officially declared his candidacy, will also certainly be Egypt's next president.
When asked specifically about the Muslim Brotherhood, probably Egypt's largest opposition group who has been vying for power since the 1970s and who currently has about 88 seats in parliament, respondents have expressed a wide variety of feelings. Some say they do not like the Brotherhood because they do not want religion to rule politics. They find the prospect dangerous and scary, although they do fully support the Brotherhood's right to run in free and fair elections. Other respondents are not so wary of the Brotherhood, believing that they might do a better job at responding to Egypt's plethora of problems as they so far demonstrate considerable political prowess through their massive organization efforts and their ability to recruit and energize Egypt's youth. For instance- a personal anecdote- often, in my university class, my professors arrive 45 minutes to an hour late. More than once, student representatives of the Brotherhood have come in to our classroom and spoken with the students before the professor arrives. The first time, they typed up a survey asking what the students of Alexandria University want to see changed and reformed in the school- anything from improving the facilities, cleaner bathrooms, higher quality teachers etc. Another time, they made a little game- quizzing the students of the class about Egyptian history, Islamic history, the history of the Brotherhood, and Egyptian soccer. They had bought cakes and candies and gave them out as prizes for those who answer correctly. Another time, they came and led the students in prayer. Personal opinions aside, the Brotherhood is a skillful political entity that has been able to energize those who are generally a very politically apathetic group (and I say generally because there are obviously many many exceptions).

Another way to answer this question, "what do the elections mean for Egypt?" is to look at what happens on the ground. I have been told three times not to leave the apartment tomorrow because there will definitely be protests, clashes, and violence (don't worry, Mom, I promise I'll be fine! If it was actually dangerous the program would tell us not to leave!!) So far, in Alexandria alone, specifically areas of the city that are known Muslim Brotherhood strongholds, there have already been protests several times a week and arrests of more than 100 Brotherhood supporters. It is clear that although the elections won't necessarily affect the actual politics and policies of the country, there is wide felt feeling of urgency to reform the political system and make for more democratic practices amongst the citizens. At the same time, it is also very clear that the government does not necessarily feel this same urgency and is in fact quite resistant to it.

In terms of politics, as I've said, the actually elections will probably have very little impact. The ruling party probably already knows the outcome of the elections and it seems that voter participation will be very low. It seems that the government will not be letting in many international election monitors and that Monday morning, not much will have changed in the country. Leading up to the elections, many of the smaller opposition parties toyed with the idea of boycotting the elections, just to emphasize their disapproval of the electoral system and the corruption of the government. However, in the end, most opposition parties will be running their candidates, but it seems that the Brotherhood, who, as I said have 88 seats in parliament, will probably lose more than half of these seats to the NDP.

Here are a few good articles if you are interested in learning more:
Al Masri Al Yom: Elections in Alexandria: 'Ministers aren't allowed to lose'
Foreign Policy Magazine: Free media under siege on eve of Egypt’s elections 
And generally, Al Masri Al Yom has an entire election section on their online newspaper.
Al Masri El Yom Election Section

Also:

Remember all those American commercials encouraging us to vote? Here's an Egyptian one:

Egyptian Voting Commercial

The man standing there is saying,
"I've grown weary. Seriously, weary. Life in Egypt has become impossible. There is no security in anything.
There is no apartments. There are no jobs. There's no marriage. There is no freedom of expression. There is no respect for (something I didn't understand, sorry). There is no love between people. There's no education. There is no medical treatment. There is no dignity. There is no dignity. There is no point!"

After the minister gets a computer dropped on him- the voice says, "No! There is [a point]. Care about changing your life and choosing your future. You have a voice!"
(in Arabic voice and vote are the same word- sot, so this could be saying you have a voice or you have a vote).

Although many of us are disappointed in the way our midterm elections turned out, let's all take a moment and be grateful for the country we live in and the freedoms that we do have.

A trip to Upper Egypt- Luxor and Aswan

Last week was El-Eid al-Kabeer, the big holiday- Eid al-Adha. Since all of Egypt was pretty much on vacation, Flagship decided to take us on a special trip down south to Luxor and Aswan.

Factoid: the south of Egypt is called Upper Egypt (much to the confusion of us westerners) because the Nile flows from south to north. Upper Egypt was the religious and spiritual center of Ancient Egypt and most of the temples and monuments are located in this part of the country, and it is therefore an ideal tourist attraction for most visitors

So we packed our bags and after 12 hours on a freezing cold air conditioned train, we made it to Luxor!

Luxor:
Day 1:
First stop- Karnak Temple. Karnak was built over 1300 hundred years and about 70 or 80 kings contributed to its building. According to my Rough Guide, it can hold about 10-12 cathedrals and is just enormous and awesome.

 

 Roommate picture! (Plus our honorary roomy, Katelyn)

Luxor Temple: Ramses II built this temple supposedly to a god, but if you ask me, he was just way into himself and built it so that people could worship him. There are enormous statues of him everywhere! (we get it, guy, you conquered lots of territory). But it was also huge and awesome and we loved wandering around and refreshing our knowledge about Isis and Amun and Osiris and all of the other gods and their mythologies.(another factoid- Naomi Campbell plans on having her wedding here).

Then we all passed out in our hotels. We awoke in the night to do a little real Egypt exploration and we found the sha3bi market, made some friends, sat in an ahwa and chatted with the people who actually live here, trying to get a sense of what most of the residents of Luxor do, the major problems they face, and of course, reveling in their gracious hospitality.

Day 2:
Valley of the kings. My fav. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any pictures, but take my word for it. It was awesome. The group visited 3 tombs- Thutmas III, Ramses IX, and Ramses IV. We explored their burial chambers, tried our best to read the hieroglyphics and figure out the stories (who are these monkeys! and what do the crocodiles do! and why are there so many stars on the ceiling!) And then, a group of us paid a little extra and got to visit King Tut's tomb. It was the only tomb in the Valley of the Kings that was found completely in tact and his mummy was still there! So we paid our respects to one of the youngest kings of Egypt.

Hatchepsut's Temple: Hatchepsut, the first queen of Egypt, had a lover. And he decided to build her a temple for her to be buried in. But she was like, "forget it, guy, I'm a king! I wear a kingly beard like all the rest of them! I'm getting buried in the Valley of the Kings, yo!" So she left this not-so-wimpy and not-so-small and no-so-ugly temple to be buried with the rest of the kings of Egypt. Way to go, Hatchepsut- sticking it to the man thousands of years ago!






Collosi of Memnon: 2 giant statues (literally that's all I know)



Then after a bit of rest, those friends that we made the night before invited us to their cousin's wedding. We learned that a wedding in Upper Egypt takes place over three days (we arrived for day 1). The first day is a celebration in the street with the men of the community. The bride and groom watch from their balconies as the community gives them gifts and sings and dances, most of the time, all night. The next day, the women have a henna party while the men drive around the city announcing the wedding all over town. The 3rd day is the actually wedding, when the bride goes down into the street in her white dress and the couple is considered man and wife. Our group, getting a little agitated at the tourist game, was thrilled to be able to see a piece of real Luxor. So we were led out of the touristy area and down an alley. As we turn in, we see the entire street decorated with lights, chairs filled with the men in the neighborhood, children wandering around, and a band set up at the front. After seating us and serving us tea and shisha, we got to watch the band greet every guest of the wedding (including a special shout out to the Americans present). We watched the dancing, the singing and just tried to take in everything around us. But us American women quickly noticed that there really weren't any Egyptian women seated at the wedding. It was really all men. Although we are fairly used to this (men usually gather in public while women gather privately inside their own homes), and we are used to being somewhat culturally inappropriate by glimpsing a bit of a man's world in Egypt- sitting in ahwa's, smoking shisha- activities women rarely take part in, we all felt a desperate need to get to know more women. Fortunately for us, as we looked up and glanced the balconies around us, we found the women. They motioned to us, "come upstairs!" and we obeyed. What ensued is difficult to describe. For the next several hours we jumped from apartment to apartment, meeting the women in the community, chatting with them, dancing, smoking shisha, drinking tea, greeting the bride, playing with children. It was the first time that we felt we got to really get to know the women and felt like we were culturally in the right place. As always, their graciousness was astounding. After a minute of chatting, we are best friends. We hug, we kiss, we dance, we act as if we've been friends for decades and as if this encounter is nothing unusual. They are touched by our Arabic skills, by our eagerness to learn about them and learn about their lives and their culture. And we are equally moved by their hospitality and their openness.

I will share a bit of what I wrote in my journal the following morning, just to give you a sense of my sensory over-load and feelings:


All of our senses are stimulated at once- you have the ear droning music that makes you deaf- the guy's voice, the tablas, the horns, the speakers. Then you have the flashing lights, colors and colors of lights and you have the people to stare at who are staring back- the men on the stage, the kids dancing, the galabiya men, the western men, the women on the balconies, the women in black smoking down below, the decorations of the buildings- the blood hand-prints from the eid, the graffiti, the pictures, the windows, the balconies, the campaign posters. And then the smell, the smell of the reef, the garbage, the manure, the animals, the people, the puffs of shisha smoke, the cigarettes, the hashish, the tea. so many senses get overloaded. and then the language, you try and hear what they are saying, how they are saying it, what they mean by it, how its different than what they say up north, what you should say, how you should respond, what facial expression do you use, what hand gestures. what questions can you ask, how should you answer their questions. so many things go into the experience. and then there's the experience itself. the women motioning to you, looking around their house as you go up the stairs, the greeting, the kissing, the juice, the tea, the tying the scarf around you and telling you to dance, the trying to move, the embarrassment when you really just can't belly dance like they can, the shock when they bump chests with you, take your hand, hug and kiss you, kiss you on the mouth. the shock when women are smoking, breast feeding in front of you, insisting that you drink more, sleep over, come again, take my phone number, have my phone number, whats your phone number, play with my baby, talk to me about your world, listen to me about mine. don't laugh at our modest kitchens. we know your life is better in america. know that this tea i'm giving you isn't cheap for me. we are ordinary people, but this is our life and we are happy. and we say, no, please, ma'am, thank you for sharing this with us. we want to know you. this is why we came- to get to know you, to get to know the real people of egypt. and sometimes they don't understand. and sometimes we don't understand. but then we hug, and kiss, and look each other in the eye and thank each other from the bottom of our hearts and recognize how amazing it is that we can come from so far apart and sit here together.

So that was the wedding.

Day 3:
A free morning for Alberto and I to explore the museums. First stop- Mummification Museum. Ancient Egyptians- thank you. It is so so so cool that I got to see a mummified crocodile, monkey, cat, ram, ibex, and person! It is so cool that the tools that you used were so teeny teeny tiny! Really? You used tweezers to pull out entrails? Teeny tiny little tweezers that I use to pluck my eyebrows!? And a teeny miniature little blade to pull out kidneys and livers? Ancients- hats off to you. Your brilliance astounds me.
Next- Luxor museum. More statues and pictures and bows and arrows and learning about my favorite ancients.

Then, we boarded the bus and headed to Aswan.

We spent the night in the giant tourist market buying Christmas presents and cool tapestries that we hope to hang up when we move out of our parents homes and get our own apartments!

Day 4:
The High Dam: In the 1970s, the Egyptian government decided to build a dam in the south of Egypt and make one of the world's largest man-made lakes- Lake Nassar. The dam, though it has helped Egypt develop in so many ways- bringing electricity and agriculture all over the country, it also has its downsides. For instance, the dam building displaced around 50,000 Nubians as their homes got flooded with Nile water. In addition to Nubian displacement, the dam flooded several thousand Ancient Egyptian temples and monuments- the most famous of which are the Philae Temple and Abu Simbal. But, with the help of an enormous project funded by UNESCO, most of the remains were preserved and moved, stone by stone, to higher ground and didn't suffer tremendous water damage. So most of the remains that we saw were not in their original locations.


Philae Temple: A temple built for the goddess Isis. This temple also was the only Pagan temple left open after the Christians came and conquered Egypt, but it was eventually changed into a Church.
Generally- awesome.

Unfinished Obelisk: Exactly what it sounds like. For 4 years, these builders toiled to build the world's largest obelisk, but unfortunately, a blemish in the stone at the top spoiled their plans.

Botanical Gardens: Beautiful!!! And great views of my next big purchase- a falluca.

Day 5:
While most of the group went to a Nubian village, Alberto, Katelyn, Fatima, and I were going to try and go to Abu Simbal, but the plan didn't work out, so we decided to hit the Nubian museum- learning about Nubian history from prehistoric times until the present. Then, we rode on a falluca. A falluca is basically a sailboat, but really, there is nothing like riding on the Nile with the wind in your face and not a care in the world.

But after our joy ride,  it was time to get back on the freezing cold train and ride 17 hours back to Alex- back to homework, back to cheap food, and back to real life.

On meat, slaughter, and sacrifice

Yesterday, I saw a lamb being slaughtered. It was the first animal that I had ever seen being killed live. The experience had a surprising impact on me and got me thinking about life, death, and food.

Context:
This upcoming week, Muslims all over the world celebrate one of their biggest holidays, Eid al Adha, meaning literally "The holiday of the sacrifice." This holiday commemorates a very special story in the Koran. From my understanding, Allah called upon the Prophet Ibrahim and told him to take his son, Ishmael, and bring him to a mountain and sacrifice him to Allah. Ibrahim told Ishmael about the plan and Ishmael agreed, saying that it is best to trust in Allah. So the two went up to the mountain, tied Ishmael down, and as the Prophet Ibrahim was about to sacrifice his son, Allah sent a lamb and told the two that because they proved their loyalty and faith, Allah will be gracious unto them, and rather than sacrifice Ishmael, they should sacrifice the lamb.

The story should sound very familiar to all of us. But unlike Judaism and Christianity, Muslims make a holiday to celebrate both the graciousness of Allah and the faith of Ibrahim. The holiday is based all around sacrifice and meat. Most families will buy a lamb and slaughter the lamb and then eat and eat and eat. Every time I ask someone what they do to celebrate Eid al Adha, they answer, "eat meat!" They eat lamb and a special dish called Phatah which is basically bread, rice, and meat.

This week leading up to Eid al-Adha, the city has exploded with lambs and carcasses. On every corner you can see lambs, marked by red or black pant, waiting for the holiday in their pens, butcher shops are hanging up their meat, (more animal carcasses than I have ever seen in my whole life) and, in many cases, butcher shops slaughtering their animals in the street in plain sight of everyone around.

So, how did I, a vegetarian of around 14 years, come to see a lamb being slaughtered? Well, my friend, Jordan, chose to do his internship at a very "sha3bi (popular/ of the Egyptian people) coffee shop and has since befriended every shop owner and costumer in a 2 block vicinity. He invited the group yesterday to sit at his ahwa, meet the owners and the customers, the fruit sellers, the vegetable sellers, the bakers, and the butchers who have become his Egyptian family, and also share in the unique experience of watching a lamb being slaughtered. Being a squeemish vegetarian, I was hesitant to watch, but decided that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and that I shouldn't shy away from it.

So we all lined up in front of the butcher shop. And they took the lamb, laid him on the ground, and a little boy, probably around 3 or 4 years old, held the knife, while the butcher made the cut. It wasn't a clean cut, as it should have been, and the lamb struggled for several minutes after the incision was made. And we watched how nonchalantly the neighborhood walked by the slaughter, cleaned up the blood, and how proud the little boy was of himself for making the cut (he approached Mae afterwards saying excitedly, "did you see me do it! Did you see me kill the lamb! Have you ever killed a lamb! I did it! I did it!"). Although I was squeezing Katelyn's arm the entire time, I was shocked at myself. I wasn't disgusted. I was intrigued! I couldn't tare my eyes away. I even took a peek after the fact as they inflated the abdomen with air and starting skinning the animal. I was fixated! Entranced! And my head was swimming with questions!

Firstly, I asked myself, "why was this disgusting? Why was this inhumane? Is it actually inhumane?" In America, we pride ourselves on our clean meat, on the distance that we have made between ourselves and our food. It's great to eat meat in America because we don't have to watch it being slaughtered. Hamburgers are basically the same as carrots, right? They just taste better. But here, there was something amazing about the experience and about this holiday, a feeling that is entirely absent from our food discourse in the states. Personal responsibility. Here, everyone knows exactly where there meat comes from and on this holiday, they recognize their role in the killing process. They acknowledge that the food they eat did not magically appear in their markets and butcher shops, but it is a sacrifice. An animal is giving up it's life so that they can eat, so that they can praise God in the way that they chose, so that they can run their businesses and build their nation's cuisine and character and businesses around this animal's sacrifice. It is not hidden, it is not shameful. It is a gift. If you are going to eat meat, acknowledge that you are doing so and take part in it.

In every way, the meat industry here is infinitely more humane than it is in the states. As we drive through the countryside, we see cows grazing eating grass, not corn, not being injected with hormones and anti biotics that make the fatty parts fatter and the meatier parts meatier. We see how they are shipped from short distances to the butcher shop where they are actual slaughtered by a man, not a machine, not on a conveyor belt, not by electric shock or strangulation. We see how the butcher cuts the meat, skins it, slices it, and what he does with every body part. How he cleans up the blood. How he cleans his knife and the sidewalk. And then we see how it's prepared. Everyone here knows and it is just a part of life. And this is one of the amazing things about Egypt in general. I walk out my door and I am surrounded by fruits and vegetables and meats, shipped from no more than a few hours away. And yes, my tomatoes are a little dirtier than they are in the states. And sometimes I find maggots in my pomegranates. And sometimes, the batch of onions today aren't looking their brightest and their best. But I'm eating Egyptian food. Not Ecuadorian or Brazilian. And when I take a trip to the countryside, I pass the banana trees and see where my peanut butter banana sandwich actually comes from. And I see that the cows do live a nice life. They get to feel the breeze in their ears as they fly down the highway to Alexandria.

So I made a big decision based off of this experience. I decided to eat meat to celebrate Eid al Adha. To celebrate the idea of being part of the food process and part of the culture. Today, Katelyn and I made a trip out to Fua in Kofr el-Sheikh, the countryside province a little over an hour from Alexandria, and we visited my friend Eman and her family. Her sister cooked chicken and beef soup. And I ate every bite. Although I am still going to be a vegetarian, and I still really don't want to eat meat, I decided that because I so respect the food culture here, I am no longer refusing or eating around the meat when I visit a family. I want to show them that I respect their culture and their hospitality. And with a meat industry this ethically clean, I want to show them that I'm not a picky American and that I do prefer their meat over the meat in the states. And that I won't eat meat that I know was treated inhumanely. But when they offer me some chicken that was probably slaughtered down the street the day before, I'll say yes, please. And thank you.

Apologies and Daily Life

Dear all readers,
I apologize for being a big slacker and not updating my blog for quite some time. If it means anything, my computer charger broke, and I was without a computer for about a week. But finally (thanks to the best parents in the world!) my computer is up and running again!
So, in the past few weeks nothing terribly exciting has happened. We had a Halloween party (I was dressed as a red m and m, and other costumes included Egyptian men from upper Egypt (galabiya, mustache and all), a cat, a ninja, 2 more m and ms, a 20's flapper, the Morton Salt Girl, etc.). I made banana bread, others made chili, caramel apples, and it was quite a night! We even watched a scary movie and I couldn't sleep for 2 nights because of it! Other celebrations included a Shabbat dinner where I baked my first challot and showed my fellow Flagshippers Shabbat.
So, because of my uneventful few weeks, I will take this time to give you a little picture about daily life in the Flagship program.
My day starts around 7:45 am. I eat a bowl of cereal and some nescafe and take a mashrua to school. We are currently taking 3 courses with just the other American students. Sundays and Tuesdays is Egyptian Colloquial Arabic with Ustatha Radwa. Mondays and Wednesdays is Modern Standard Arabic with Ustath Nour, and in the beginning of the year, we chose between Arabic literature and political issues in the Arab world, so Tuesdays is my lit class, also with Ustatha Radwa. Class ends around 1:30.
My afternoons are divided between a few different activities. On Sundays, I go to my direct enrollment class at the University of Alexandria. My professors arrive about 45 minutes late each class, so I get to spend some time with my academic partner, Sarah, and her friends. We play charades and talk a lot about the differences between Egypt and America.
Other days I go to my internship. I am currently interning at Nadi Sporting, playing sports with kids and young adults with special needs. Nadi Sporting is basically the Egyptian equivalent of a country club. The grounds are huge and they have a ton of different sports facilities including a pool, polo, golf course, track, full gym, karate and horseback riding. The club also has activities for children and adults and is a center for socializing among the upper class of Egyptian society. The club trains the Egyptian special olympics team in swimming, basketball, track and field, gymnastics, and table tennis. The teams are amazing! They have won gold and silver is several international competitions, including beating the US in the Beijing Olympics. The participants are extremely talented and it's just amazing to be able to watch the coaches interact with them and how the interact with each other. I'm really enjoying my time there, although I have just started this week!
Other days, I meet for 2 with my language partner. Her name is Chereen (Cherry), and she and Rwan, Katelyn's language partner, are best friends. The four of us go out together, go shopping, eat together, and have a great time!
Then, my evenings are filled with wageb (homework) and lots of it. Lots of reading, listening, writing, and conversation activities. Mae, Nada, and I sit around our dining room table drinking tea and learning new vocab. We have also become master chefs in our apartment, coming up with creative ways to use Egyptian ingredients. Our specialties: vegetable fried rice, pasta sauce (made from scratch from tomato paste and any vegetables we find lying around), chili, eggs, and pradas. Our future roommates: consider yourselves lucky because we will know how to make delicious food cheaply!
Our weekends go from Thursdays-Saturdays, although Thursday is usually spent at our internships. Fridays and Saturdays, we take advantage of being able to relax a little bit, explore the city, meet each others families and friends, and also spend a lot of time on our balcony listening to music, drinking some wine, and having fun with each other!