Chess & Kentucky

A few weeks back during one of my language sessions I learned the word for chess; it's "shutarunj" by the way. I do like to play chess, though admittedly, I'm not the best chess player. I asked Muhammad, my language helper, if he liked to play chess. He said yes and we talked about going out at some point to play chess together.

He told me that many people play chess at the local coffee joints. When I say local, I mean not Starbucks or anything of the western sort. I mean hole in the wall, gotta know where you're going to get there, smoke filled from hookah, nothing but men sitting around and chatting playing various games (I'm pretty sure I saw a game of Texas Hold 'Em going on), kinda place. This is where Muhammad took me a few days ago.

I was very glad to be frequenting a place that probably only sees a few non-locals a year. I really enjoy seeing the more traditional places and experiencing things like the locals do. The culture is more interesting (to me at least) when I don't see things that I recognize as western.

We walk in and find a place to sit down. A waiter comes and we ask him for a chess set. He scuttles off to find us one. I noticed the place was quite filled with hookah smoke. They call it "Argiileh" here, and nearly everybody smokes it. I'm not the biggest fan, but I deal with it. When he returns he has a chess set in hand. This is no luxurious set, but it gets the job done.

We also ordered some drinks. I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but they serve a drink here in the Middle East that I'm quite fond of. It's nothing shockingly absurd, in fact I'm surprised this hasn't caught on in America; it's simply lemonade with mint in it - they call it lemon with mint - outrageous huh? They make it with either whole, crushed, or blended mint in lemon juice.

Delicious lemon with mint drink.

The chess game was fun. It wasn't too serious despite the look on Muhammad's face in the picture. It was just nice to get out and hang out with him. Funny little story, he offered to take me to dinner, though I told him I wanted to pay for us - he wouldn't allow it. He asked me if I wanted to go to "Kentucky." Not knowing what it was, I just said sure. Ten minutes later we're standing in line at "KFC" in a highly trafficked shopping area (I hesitate to call it a mall). That's right folks, they love Kentucky Fried Chicken here; and they call it Kentucky haha.

He's a grandmaster.