Hook-ah Me Up, Joe!

This has been a pretty busy week. I needed a little down time tonight after getting back from work. One of the best ways to blow off some steam is to blow off some smoke...no, not that smoke...I'm talking about a good hookah (hoo-kuh) session! I'm sure plenty of my readers have smoked some hookah at some point in their life, but for those who haven't (by the way, you're missing out), let me explain a little bit about this Middle Eastern practice.

Joe is so excited!!!
Pictured with roommate Zach Berg.

A hookah, or the device used to smoke a moist form of tobacco known as sheesha (shee-shuh), is a tall, slender pipe. The sheesha rests in a ceramic bowl on top of the pipe, with coals placed on top of the bowl. The pipe then leads down to a water jar, which filters the smoke as it is drawn down through the device. About halfway up the pipe are openings for air flow and for attaching hoses, from which the tobacco is inhaled by the smoker.

A hookah pipe, set up and ready to smoke!

Sheesha comes in a wide array of flavors. I have tried many, including mango, raspberry lemonade and Irish coffee. The flavors are strong (in comparison to other forms of tobacco) and make hookah smoking a very enjoyable experience. Also, because of the water filter, the smoke is much cooler than other forms of tobacco, giving it a less harsh feeling. Tonight, we smoked a sheesha called Sweet Drop, which had an intense menthol flavor over a less prominent fruity one.

The coals glow red hot
when air/smoke is inhaled through one of the hoses

Smoking with Joe and I tonight was Zach Berg, a fellow Bradley student and one of Joe's roommates. Hookah is gaining a lot of popularity with American college students and has become a recreational alternative to smoking other substances or drinking. Hookah leaves smokers with a slight head rush and an overall calm and relaxed feeling. It contains a minute amount of niccotine, but is considered non-addictive. I should note that hookah is not known as a safer alternative to other forms of tobacco, but it's health effects are not well understood. You can check out the Wikipedia page on hookah to learn more about the practice and its origins: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hookah.

Finally, I'll leave my readers with a couple videos from Joe, Zach and me's hookah experience:

Joe calls me "The Dragon."

I call him "The Ring Master."