Just Like Life, Only Realer

Okay, I'll admit that the title has nothing to do with the blog entry, but I had to put something there.

We went to a picnic at Meg's school yesterday.  Her class was not very well represented, but I did get to meet a new classmate of Meg's as well as the girl's family, so that was nice.  We saw some of the teachers from last year, as well as a few new faces.  There's another new girl in Meg's class who apparently lives here in our village, and I would really like to meet her and her family, although we haven't had a chance yet.  The first parents' meeting is this Friday, so I'm hoping to meet them then.  It will be really nice if I can find an English-speaking friend in the village.

Right now, Meg is sitting outside with henna paste on her hair, waiting for it to dry.  For anyone who doesn't know, henna is an ancient tradition among Middle and Far Eastern societies where it is used as everything from a beauty treatment to a temporary tattooing agent, to a charm to ward off the evil eye.  It is also the only all-natural dandruff treatment.  Meg likes it for the color, shine, and softness that it gives her hair.  We use "chestnut" color, which gives just the lightest tint of red along with deepening her own natural chestnut color, but it also makes it so soft and shiny that it looks like it has a light inside it.  What an awesome, all-natural product!  And ridiculously cheap, too!  It costs 6 ytl (about $5) for a box of six packets and we use 2 packets at a time for her long hair.  Better than anything you can get at a salon!

I'm happy to report that the alfalfa tablets are kicking in and I have much more energy these days and am feeling considerably stronger.  My gums and conjunctiva are pretty much back to normal color, too.  I had my usual late-afternoon drop in energy today, but didn't feel that incredible urge to lie down and sleep.  It's nice to feel almost human again--except for this abdominal projection in front of me that's throwing me off-balance.  ;-)