Hookah Stories - Hookah South African Style part 1

My parents scared me away from using cigarettes, but they couldn't keep me away from Hookah. In my senior year of High School a South African exchange student took our school by storm. The girls thought he was the dreamiest, and the guys were enthralled with his cool cultural sensibility. He was into DJing and having a really good time. I happened to become very good friends with him and started spending lots of time with him at his host families house. His host family had a girl my in my year, an older son, and an older daughter. One time when I was over at the house the older son, who was studying 3rd World Development, was smoking from a 4-stemmed Hookah with a few of his buddies. I asked if I could try, but also expressed that I didn't like smoking. They said that it was OK to do it every once and a while, and that Hookah Smoke was less harsh then cigarette smoke because it was filtered through water. I looked over at my South African friend and he took a drag from one of the long tubes and blew out a series of perfectly formed smoke rings. WOW! I thought to myself, that is so cool. I instantly wanted to have the ability to blow smoke rings like that, like I had seen on the movies. I sat down at the table and grabbed my own hose. I took a long drag in, I could barely feel the flavorful smoke enter my lungs. It tasted discreetly of mango. When I exhaled the fluffiest, puffiest, air come steaming out of my mouth. I loved it. I took another puff. And another. I just loved the feeling. I tried blowing the smoke out of my nose. While doing it I flared my nostils and the smoke came shooting out in nearly opposite directions, I felt like a dragon.