I managed to drag Jonmikel out to a IMES (Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies) social event. Every once in a while the crowd does something not involving tedious Iranian existential films or extensive discussions on the Medieval history of Islamic philosophy. I may be getting a degree in this stuff, but I'm more into the nitty-gritty violent and anger-ridden aspects of modern ethnic politics. Give me a Tuareg attack on Malian military and Bedouin attacks on Egyptian police any day.

And go ahead, call me an Orientalist, but I dig the belly dancing, too. Which is some of what this social event involved. It was a performance of the Dunya Emsemble, a group made up of students and profs alike, all playing a vast array of Levantine and otherwise Mediterranean instruments and/or vocal talents. They played a mix of Greek, Turkish, Iranian and Arabic music, sometimes all at once. It was pretty rockin', actually. The vocals in each type of music includes such complicated rhythms and vocal pitches and tones... it's amazing those sounds can all come out of the same person, or better yet, any person at all. It's tingly. Plus, I'm having a love affair with any and every bongo-ish drum I hear, and the performance was full of them. Hence the belly dancer. I've taken lessons before, so I can attest to the fact that it's easier to keep a dancing rhythm with a well-placed drum. The effect was beautiful, and the dancer was very good. She wasn't the best dancer I've seen, by way of basic skill, but she was the most natural I've seen live (OK, I mean, Shakira pretty much beats out, well, everyone), which I think counts for a lot. I've seen some dancers who, while knowing how to make very sensual movements, have made it all look very forced. At any rate, I enjoyed it much, and I found myself taking pictures of her feet and their movements. There's something very cool about a dancer's feet. Hmmmm....

Also, I wanted to mention that Jonmikel is a magnet for curious people. Everywhere he goes, he finds people who want to talk to him, and I have no idea how he does it. This night, it was a dude (the name was lost through both language barriers and loud music) from Dubai. He was sitting next to us idly and decided to just talk to Jonmikel. He proceeded to ask us how we could stand it here in Edinburgh. He said, and get this, that it was too SMALL. He found himself soooo bored all the time. He wanted to know how we entertained ourselves. Now, I have heard Edinburgh described as "wee" by a great many UKers, but I could never imagine being bored. Especially if I were a young, wealthy Emirati. For those of you wondering, he was a wealthy Emirati as 1) he was a Dubai citizen, 2) he talked a lot about going out in Dubai and 3) he was a fairly heavy drinker. If the first weren't enough to convince you, all three strongly indicate his standing as wealthy. All Emiratis are wealthy. If you're not wealthy, you're not a citizen. It works out well for them.