R. Kelly

Last Wednesday after some host family drama I decided that I had to get out the house and try to relax for a bit (cause yall know I am not relaxing enough out here. My life is so stressful). Trying to think what I could do I asked my teacher to take me to the spot where we could smoke some “arquery.” Arquery we had established is what he called the hookah I showed him from my pictures in Egypt and my last semester at Harvard. Although I could not find the word in the dictionary I figured it was the French word for hookah, until I asked him how to spell it. R. Kelly. He was trying to say R. Kelly. I couldn’t believe it. What the hell does R. Kelly have to do with hookahs? Is there some chapter of the “Trapped in the Closet” saga where he smokes from a hookah? How come I haven’t seen it? Am I that out of touch with the young ones? I know I didn’t find out about the “Chicken Noodle Soup” song until two or three months into it, but I found out eventually. The spot where we smoked is a random fast-food joint here where you can get a greasy beef shwarma with soggy fries inside wrapped in three pieces of plastic for under $2. For whatever reason they had arquerys (and yes that is how we asked for it) for about the price of a sandwich. The hookah was not well prepared but it hit the spot nonetheless, and considering that one bowl in NYC can easily run you $15 I ain’t complaining.