A Middle Eastern Feast

One of my fellow international students is from Saudi Arabia and she has her family here with her! Because we just finished my finals and are waiting for the upcoming clerkship, we have a short 2 week break from school. I remembered my classmate's mom is good at cooking and so* I asked her if it is possible to taste traditional middle eastern food. Luckily, she said yes! Another classmate and I were invited to her apartment and she presented a tray with coffee and a bowl of dates. "This is the highest quality coffee and dates from Saudi Arabia!" She said proudly. I tasted the coffee and it was totally different from the coffee I have had so far. I did not need to add sugar or milk into it and could still taste the slight sweetness. The dates were awesome! They were tender and sweet! The best snack to get when drinking coffee! Her mom brought a huge tin bowl and when she opened it, a fragrance swirled from the light yellow rice. A roasted chicken was located in the middle of the rice and there were raisins scattered in between the rice. "This is my first time seeing raisins cooked with rice!" I said impressively to her mom. Another Saudi classmate who lives in the same building brought her hand-made salad and it was really tasty, totally different from the American salad! What a wonderful day to enjoy such an authentic middle eastern meal and catch up with my classmates!

*thus is very formal/academic. "So" is better for casual and conversational.