Erwartungsvoll

In honor of the season of Advent, over the past few days I've been quite crafty and have successfully created an advent calendar made from construction paper and toilet paper rolls that I've been saving up for nearly two months now. Inside each calendar marker 'roll' is a chocolate treat and a good deed challenge. My idea is to invite those interested in celebrating Advent to a nightly advent time at my apartment, where in which we will open up another day on the calendar. The person who's turn it is for the day will take on the good deed challenge, whether it be cleaning someone else's stove, washing someone else's dishes, or simply smiling at ten people. With people being gone for the Eid break, we won't officially start for a few days, so I'm filled with expectation until then.


Yesterday, E was interested in going to a TJ-Maxx-like place called CityMax to check out some of their clothes and wares. I was able to find a simple white candle to act as an advent candle and a hooded zip up sweatshirt (it is getting nippy in the evenings and mornings). I made the mistake of getting in line just at the end of prayer time, so there was already a long line with no cashier to check us out. Once a cashier arrived, though, the loosely formed queue in the ladies only line became a push to the front to vie for the cashier to scan our items. Originally, I thought I was the seventh person in line, but turned out to be the fifteenth person when all was said and done. Essentially, all the women are in their black abayas and full face hijabs. It is difficult to differentiate between who is together as a family, and who is not. One person from the family may be holding the spot in line, and at the last minute, other family members will come in from the side and take a spot in line, which expands the queue to the sides. I enjoy my personal space, and so I had to suck up my anxiety and stand sandwiched between people, at times sticking my hip out to the side to block a young girl from pushing up in front of me. The whole ordeal took literally 35 minutes to get through a 'line' that was originally only ten feet long in the first place. It was worth it for the advent candle, though.

In other Advent decoration news, I've been able to save up enough pop cans to create a pop can tree. I just need four more empty Sprite containers to finish the sides...