Hartal Holidays

After getting back from the trip I finally got sick. I was really tired, so I didn’t go to class on Monday. I tried to go on Tuesday, but then left early. I went to the doctor and he said that I might be dehydrated. I feel much better now, but we’ve decided I may be anemic.
This week was very strange in terms of our schedule. There were two two-day hartals. We had class on Monday and Tuesday, hartals on Wednesday and Thursday, class on Friday and Saturday, and hartals on Sunday and Monday.
On the 1st hartal day (Wednesday), I was still taking it easy so I went over to Moumita’s house and studied Bangla. I had missed a lot of work because of being sick.
On the 2nd hartal day (Thursday) I went shopping with my roommate Margo in the morning. We went to Gulshan Dui and visited the bazaar there. I used my Bangla to buy some shoes and a couple ornas while Margo shopped for fancy ornas in a different shop. We then went to a check out some antique stores and went in an air-conditioned chocolate shop. In the afternoon I went to Moumita’s house to study. She fed me some fried potato thing that had mint and chilies in it. It was a very interesting combination.
We were finally able to go to class on Friday. Our bus driver had the day off because it was the holy day, so we had to rickshaw to school. In class, we read about Nazrul Islam, Bangladesh’s national poet, and learned a lot of grammar. After class Audrey and I walked to the restaurant Magpie for lunch, which is right across from Noddabajar. They have delicious naan. We later went out again to Noddabajar to visit my tailor. We then wandered through Nodda trying to find some henna, but couldn’t find any for sale. Since the cooks don’t make dinner for us on Fridays, we decided to cook for ourselves and went to the Noddabajar vegetable market. We talked to the vendors and bought waterlilies, kaklon, carrots, two different types of shak (leafy greens), onions, and garlic. The best part of the meal was the fried kaklon.