This time of year we have many 'year in review' from various news stations and papers. This year since we are in Egypt I want to give you the Egyptian version.
News is an interesting topic, luckily Casey and I are able to keep up with the many sources in the US b/c of the internet. I keep up on the news by reading the official UN news letter which takes major reports from around the world and sends a list of the latest stories and links to the papers. Not surprisingly many are from Washington Post, New York Times, Wallstreet Journal and many other US news sources. Then there are the magazines I get to read at members homes who work for the University or at the Embassy, so I get my fill of TIME, Newsweek and others. Sometimes I read up on CNN.com, the BBC and lately I have been enjoying many surprises when I go straight to the sources and read all the major candidates official websites. One of my newest favorite sources of news in by drifting far from the pro-american papers and reading pro-middle east (secular and credible in case anyone is worried) news sources. Al-Jazeria is a very fascinating source. Another interesting source in Al-Ahram, which in an Arabic paper which is in the free press, secular, and one of the most credible in Egypt--I would say in Egypt it's comparable to Wallstreet Journal or Washington Post in the US.
It is fascinating to me to be able to read news sources from Arab perspectives and not only through the prism of the West. I've been doing a lot of reading and am coming to the understand of why the US has set foreign policy the way it has since WWII and why the east has set their foreign policy the way they have. Anyways, another discussion for another time---and Allan I'm agreeing these days in your multiple party system.
I want to share an excerpt from the Year in Review with you from Al-Ahram.
"At the end of a turbulent year it seems that there is not enough space for every one, whether here in Egypt or elsewhere on the globe. It's as if the world has been divided into two conflicting camps, with neither of them making the slightest effort to bridge the gap or comprimise to facilitate postitive exchange. In other words, it is the World Cup finals, with the two competeing teams fighting for their lives.
I every field the entire world reduces to the question 'with us or anaginst us?' The result is a balck-and-white picture where each and every one must endevour to fit, without the option of allying with any other shade of the spectrum. All through 2007 , indeed, the world afforded dozens of examples of people who failed to exert themselves suffeciently to find common ground accomodating differences. The evidence is all over, from the Saffron Monks challenging the military strictures of Burma to nuclear Iran wrngling with a resolutly arogant West...Pakastan lawyers obstinatly railing against the state of emergancy had to face the batons of President Perves Musharraf's security--until the General(President) was forced to take off his own military garb in the end. Every day held news of the inter-Iraqi vendetta of bobby-trapped cars, of which the occupation forces remained clear by and large, and likewaise the Palestinians: the war between Fatah and Hamas, who decided to kill each other by way of diversion perhaps, has eased the burden of Israel.
...In 2007 leaders of the Jihad Islamic group attempted to repent for their sins committed along time ago. 'Facebook' took the young by storm, with tens of thousands spending a total of seven billion minutes on the Internet, chatting and browsing(no on will ever know for sure if it was a waist of time).Absurd fatwas(religious decrees) further contributed to soiling the image of Islam, and swindlers found victims in unprecedented numbers...As for Venezuela, the people reminded their hero Hugo Chavez that there is no such thing as security in politics by denying him a new term despite his challenging Washington and making no end of fiery statements.
In the future, 2007 will likely go down, like so many years before it, as a time during which Egyptians and Arabs achieved far less than they aspired to. Yet this should not prevent us from endeavoring to make 2008 different. That said, could anyone foretell with any degree of confidence what will come to pass over 2008? Perhaps one can, since the crisis of 2007 will not simply vaporise once the year is over. Knowing, too, that the next year will happily witness the departure of US President George Bush, it may be wise for Arab capitals to familiarize themselves with the programs and agendas of the more prominent US presidential candidates and open up channels of communication with their camps rather than the usual practice of dealing with the US elections like a lottery card. The next year will no doubt carry with it new, gripping episodes of the saga of pursuing an ever elusive peace in Palestine. It will provide further evidence of the inefficacy of verbal battles not backed up by action, and the chances are there will be further pressure on Sudan and more violence in Iraq and grater deterioration in the international image and status of Arabs. This can be predicted with certainty, unless of course a different approach is adopted in 2008 to improve our performance...Better still we should endeavor to act, and act rather than simply wait to see what will happen to us. Perhaps then, by the time another 12 months have passed, we will be able to make optimistic prophesies. Happy 2008!"
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Hazel Nut Breaker
Merry Christmas to everybody!!!! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We are having a great time watching a friends home with a cool dog named Pumpkin. We have made some wonderful friends here in Egypt. We have a very close branch and it's a lot of fun to spend time with our church friends. We have had quite a few dinner Christmas dinner parties and have forgotten to take adequate pictures!!!
Yesterday Santa came and fill out stockings...It was nice to wake up to so much candy and presents. Overcourse many of the presents were Egyptian which is a lot of fun. I'm not sure if opening Egyptian presents or buying them at the markets is more fun. I enjoyed buying presents for Casey. I wondered into a shop down a small side street of off Rd. 9 here in Maadi and found a really awesome custom furniture shop with lots of really nice Egyptian stone sculptures, furniture, and pictures. I tried to speak in all Arabic as I usually do and the guys owning the shop were enjoying my attempts. We chatted for a while and they brought me Hibiscus Juice and after I spent some time making new freinds I bought a phot album, picture, and jewlery box for Casey. It was an ejoyable shopping expereince. It's nice to be able to communicate and Egyptians are always willing to correct my Arabic and teach me more.
Casey was very thoughtful in her gifts to me. She bought me some children's books in Arabic. I'm having fun reading them and the words I don't know I'm going to write down and get translated to build my vocabulary. Casey is right about me being a little school nerd. I love to read and study. I always have but Arabic has forced me to do it constantley, so now I have this hunger for knowlege of the world, so I enjoy reading and it's rleaxing to read what many call dry and boring history books. I'm seriously concidering doing a joint PhD in International Politics and History, but we will see there are many options for me to consider.
Later after we exchanged gifts we went to dinner with some friends--Lidia and Spencer Penrod. since our ward is so small, our church is not offically reconginzed in Egypt, or for some other reason we don't seem to call on another brother and sister very often. We go by first names. The missionary couples are not allowed to go by Elder and Sisiter, so they prefer their first names be used, and most of the members here go prefer to go by first names. I remember in South Africa the Elder people went by Mamma and Babba which is respectful in Zulu, Xhusa, and Sutho cultures. It's interesting and endearing for me, we will have to get used to the brother and sister protocol when we get back home or we may offend people. Spencer Penrod is the Elder Quprm President and speak beautiful Arabic, so he also leads the Arabic Sunday School we have in our home. It's a great help to me to be able to hear classical Arabic of the scriptures and here the Egyptian Arabic in another setting. We have a Sudanese member and 2 Egyptians they are all great people and are so nice and helpful to me. Spencer works at the Embassy with computers, and has 4 smart and energetic children. It was fun to have Christmas lunch with them and play with the kids. After we left we went to the nutcracker ballet at the Cairo Opera House.
I guess in Arabic the Nutcracker is called the Hazel Nut Breaker. It was a bit funny to me. I have fun with translation in Arabic. Languages are really fun sometimes.
Speaking of languages I got all A's in my 4 arabic courses!!! First time in my life to get all A's! there is usuallay a b or two that creep in there...However, I did get one A- in my egyptian arabic course. I don't like A- b/c I can't stop staring at the - sign. It is like an annoying syble attached to such a happy letter. Oh well I should be pleased and my hard work paid off. Sometimes I feel I'm so far behind in my language learning and I'm not moving forward fast enough--it's nice to see my grades and relize according to my program I'm right on track and right where I should be.
anyway, the Nutcracker was fun and we went with 2 couples we have become good friends with. There are a lot of fun and we get together often. Mark and April are about our age. He is finishing up his Masters in Middle East History at AUC and she is teaching here in an international middle school. Patrick and Melissa are here b/c Patrick is teaching American History at AUC. He has some interesting stories about that, but I may write about that later.
we have good friends and good times here in Cairo Egypt, but Casey is excited to go home. I'm not sure how I feel about that I'm excited to start next semester and learn some more Arabic. She sure does love me and is very supportive. I don't know many girls who would fly across the world to support their husbands the way we did. It hasn't been easy and she has had her fair share of challenging days, but she has been a great help and support to me. It's fun to be here with a best friend to come home to and go out on the town with. It's fun to have friends to get together with and play Settlers of Catan(One day I will win a game!!!) and it's great to have such a close and affectionate church family. For me, I enjoy the hustle and bustle of Cairo, the nose, the people and all the fun stuff to do, but I am glad it's not indefinite and i'm glad I have Casey I know it wouldn't be so fun for me without her.
Yesterday Santa came and fill out stockings...It was nice to wake up to so much candy and presents. Overcourse many of the presents were Egyptian which is a lot of fun. I'm not sure if opening Egyptian presents or buying them at the markets is more fun. I enjoyed buying presents for Casey. I wondered into a shop down a small side street of off Rd. 9 here in Maadi and found a really awesome custom furniture shop with lots of really nice Egyptian stone sculptures, furniture, and pictures. I tried to speak in all Arabic as I usually do and the guys owning the shop were enjoying my attempts. We chatted for a while and they brought me Hibiscus Juice and after I spent some time making new freinds I bought a phot album, picture, and jewlery box for Casey. It was an ejoyable shopping expereince. It's nice to be able to communicate and Egyptians are always willing to correct my Arabic and teach me more.
Casey was very thoughtful in her gifts to me. She bought me some children's books in Arabic. I'm having fun reading them and the words I don't know I'm going to write down and get translated to build my vocabulary. Casey is right about me being a little school nerd. I love to read and study. I always have but Arabic has forced me to do it constantley, so now I have this hunger for knowlege of the world, so I enjoy reading and it's rleaxing to read what many call dry and boring history books. I'm seriously concidering doing a joint PhD in International Politics and History, but we will see there are many options for me to consider.
Later after we exchanged gifts we went to dinner with some friends--Lidia and Spencer Penrod. since our ward is so small, our church is not offically reconginzed in Egypt, or for some other reason we don't seem to call on another brother and sister very often. We go by first names. The missionary couples are not allowed to go by Elder and Sisiter, so they prefer their first names be used, and most of the members here go prefer to go by first names. I remember in South Africa the Elder people went by Mamma and Babba which is respectful in Zulu, Xhusa, and Sutho cultures. It's interesting and endearing for me, we will have to get used to the brother and sister protocol when we get back home or we may offend people. Spencer Penrod is the Elder Quprm President and speak beautiful Arabic, so he also leads the Arabic Sunday School we have in our home. It's a great help to me to be able to hear classical Arabic of the scriptures and here the Egyptian Arabic in another setting. We have a Sudanese member and 2 Egyptians they are all great people and are so nice and helpful to me. Spencer works at the Embassy with computers, and has 4 smart and energetic children. It was fun to have Christmas lunch with them and play with the kids. After we left we went to the nutcracker ballet at the Cairo Opera House.
I guess in Arabic the Nutcracker is called the Hazel Nut Breaker. It was a bit funny to me. I have fun with translation in Arabic. Languages are really fun sometimes.
Speaking of languages I got all A's in my 4 arabic courses!!! First time in my life to get all A's! there is usuallay a b or two that creep in there...However, I did get one A- in my egyptian arabic course. I don't like A- b/c I can't stop staring at the - sign. It is like an annoying syble attached to such a happy letter. Oh well I should be pleased and my hard work paid off. Sometimes I feel I'm so far behind in my language learning and I'm not moving forward fast enough--it's nice to see my grades and relize according to my program I'm right on track and right where I should be.
anyway, the Nutcracker was fun and we went with 2 couples we have become good friends with. There are a lot of fun and we get together often. Mark and April are about our age. He is finishing up his Masters in Middle East History at AUC and she is teaching here in an international middle school. Patrick and Melissa are here b/c Patrick is teaching American History at AUC. He has some interesting stories about that, but I may write about that later.
we have good friends and good times here in Cairo Egypt, but Casey is excited to go home. I'm not sure how I feel about that I'm excited to start next semester and learn some more Arabic. She sure does love me and is very supportive. I don't know many girls who would fly across the world to support their husbands the way we did. It hasn't been easy and she has had her fair share of challenging days, but she has been a great help and support to me. It's fun to be here with a best friend to come home to and go out on the town with. It's fun to have friends to get together with and play Settlers of Catan(One day I will win a game!!!) and it's great to have such a close and affectionate church family. For me, I enjoy the hustle and bustle of Cairo, the nose, the people and all the fun stuff to do, but I am glad it's not indefinite and i'm glad I have Casey I know it wouldn't be so fun for me without her.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
So I know that I've heard lately how "informative" and "historical" our blog has become. It is really funny because Joe especially really gets into all these things. In fact yesterday something came out of his mouth I thought I would never hear. We were about to head over to the flat we're staying at for the next 2 weeks while the family is out of town we are watching their dog. We were making our plans for the rest of the day and Joe had suggested we just go pick up some food from the market instead of bringing food from home (because our food will keep). Now, you have to remember that Joe doesn't do a whole lot of shopping with me. Sometimes, he'll meet me at a market we'll shop together and then take a taxi home, but he hasn't been on any of my hit 3 markets at once trips. I agreed we should just pick up some food. I said we could go to Kimo then come bring the groceries back and then we could go to either Soudi's or Miriam Market.(kimo is smaller and doesn't have any meat) Joe said something like "but that will take all day and I've got to read my book I didn't get to yesterday and you promised that I could". What book you may be wondering is Joe reading over his break to relax and enjoy, and more importantly what book is more important to him than eating??? I'll tell you, and maybe you'll also stop wondering why he is sounding like a historian on the blog.
His pleasure reading over Christmas break includes, currently, a biography of President Nasser, a former president of Egypt, he also checked out 4 other great "vacation" books for the break, all about Middle East politics or policies or political leaders. No wonder that is all he can talk about on the blog-the history of Egypt- he is so enthralled by it all that it is mostly what he talks to me about as well and how he relaxes from studying Arabic all the time. pick up a good light read, an autobiography of a president of Egypt, or explore how NGOs fail or succeed in Egypt. And don't ask him to take time away from his reading to get food... who needs food when you've got such a cliff-hanger book! I thought I was going to die laughing when he told me that he didn't want to go to the 2nd market and get meat because he needed to read his book. Seriously it was so funny.
On a different note... can you believe that it is December 20th today? I can't believe how close it is to Christmas day! Merry Christmas everyone, Estrella, we can't wait to see you in March, and everyone else we'll see you in May or June! We love you all and we'll blog again (I'm sure) before Christmas day!
His pleasure reading over Christmas break includes, currently, a biography of President Nasser, a former president of Egypt, he also checked out 4 other great "vacation" books for the break, all about Middle East politics or policies or political leaders. No wonder that is all he can talk about on the blog-the history of Egypt- he is so enthralled by it all that it is mostly what he talks to me about as well and how he relaxes from studying Arabic all the time. pick up a good light read, an autobiography of a president of Egypt, or explore how NGOs fail or succeed in Egypt. And don't ask him to take time away from his reading to get food... who needs food when you've got such a cliff-hanger book! I thought I was going to die laughing when he told me that he didn't want to go to the 2nd market and get meat because he needed to read his book. Seriously it was so funny.
On a different note... can you believe that it is December 20th today? I can't believe how close it is to Christmas day! Merry Christmas everyone, Estrella, we can't wait to see you in March, and everyone else we'll see you in May or June! We love you all and we'll blog again (I'm sure) before Christmas day!
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Halas!
I've just returned from my finals! My first semester of Arabic is Finished! I'm not excited b/c I'm done with studying--I got a tutor that teaches at an Egyptian Language School called Kalimat(meaning 'words' in Arabic) we start on Monday 10hrs a week for the next 6 weeks until the next semester begins. I'm excited b/c I feel a sense of accomplishment.
Yesterday we had our Amea(Egyptian Arabic) final exam. Our teacher, Mona Kamal, is really great. It was a difficult class for her and for us. We had over 10 people in the class which is really hard to manage when no one knows the language and everyone needs work and attention. For example, we totally failed our 1st exam b/c it's a spoken language and we were really awful at trying to read it on a written test and we were even worse when we tried to write it! Mona was sick the following day, we all joked she got sick b/c of shock from our scores! Luckily, she took the time to try to understand why we did soooo horrible and adjusted accordingly. Instead of taking written tests she had us come into her office to take oral tests. It was pretty hard to try to see everyone for 30 min each to test or evaluate our progress. After I realized that b/c we complained so much about written test we had to go and actually be graded on pronunciation and really understand what she asked, and actually know the language it was a Scary thought! I never get nervous before exams, even if I don't know what's going on I always keep my cool and am able to do well b/c I relax. However, Arabic is much different for me I guess. Before my final with Mona I can actually say I was scared, I think my palms were actually sweating! Imagine that! I wasn't worried about my written exams, but with oral test there is no time to try to think about it, pick my brain for the vocab or grammar rules, guess, or all the other wonderful testing skills we learn over the years. All the vocab I need must be on the tip of my tongue and I have to listen, which is a problem sometimes. Many times I recognize the verbs, but don't wait for the interrogative, so I invent my own question and answer it---I must sound quiet dumb sometimes:) Oh well, it's my weakness and I'm learning to overcome it slowly.
The Amea final went well. There were some words I should have remembered that I didn't, but overall I think I did well, and I'm very pleased with all the things I'm able to say and all the things I'm able to mess up:) I took two other finals today--a grammar exam and the basic language class exam. I think I did very good.
Last week I typed my first paper in Arabic! It was all about my family and extended family. Spending the time to type the paper I was able to learn so much. It really helped me out with many of the vocab words I used and the conjugations. I think typing a great interactive way to practice Arabic. I'm going to start keeping a Journal in Arabic on my computer. It's a great way to keep my Journal to myself:) anyone want to sneak a peak they will first have to learn Arabic:)
Once I get Microsoft Word downloaded I will type all of your names in Arabic on this blog, so you can see how cool your names look in Arabic. I love Arabic Calligraphy and writing. Next semester if they offer a calligraphy elective I'm going to take it.
As for now, Casey is happy classes are over for a while. We get to spend a lot of time together. We are going to watch a bunch of Christmas movies, we have a Church Christmas party on sat, I think we are going to travel to Alexandria, Luxor again, and maybe Jordan and Israel. It will be a good break. I really love it here in Cairo. There is so much to do, see, and enjoy. It gets better and better the more Arabic I learn, it's amazing how things change when you are able to communicate and understand people more.
The picture above is our end of semester party my teacher, Mona, threw for us at her place. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the company, food, and the beautiful things she had in her house. I love art from places all around the world. Every time I see African, Indian, Egyptian, or any beautiful 'foreign' art I think how I can get it home and make it look good in our future house or apartment.
Our class was really fun--we had Brimha my diplomat friend from India, Sammy from Switzerland, Brooke from NY but who came from France where she was teaching, Rob from England, and students from all over the States, it's really fun to be around everyone from all over.
As for our Holiday adventures I'm sure we will be posting more shortly.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
A Messy Morning, Christmas is Coming, and our New Neighbors
I'm going to begin with my clumsy moment this morning. I'd gone shopping at a shop a little ways away, in Digla, that has the reputation for having the most selection of American style food (there have actually been rumors that they're stocked by the embassy which is of course not true). So I'd seen molasses there and had thought that maybe we could make some gingerbread cookies, so I checked online for a recipe and found that if I could find the right spices then we could! YAY. So today I went and picked up a few more expensive baking items including the spices I'd need, the jar of molasses, a chocolate cake mix, a brownie mix, powdered sugar... etc. I took a taxi home because it was a bit heavy and as I was coming in the gate I dropped one of my bags. (I had two) Guess which one I dropped? Yes, the one with the jar of molasses. and yes, it broke and goo-ed all over everything else in the bag. I rushed up the stairs to try to clean it all off. I tried to save some of the molasses but I'm afraid it was a goner there were too many pieces of glass in there. Cleaning molasses off things is sticky and not fun. Even my clothes were covered in it by the time I was done. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to go back over there and get some more.
About Christmas. I have added a few pictures, of our Christmas tree (we decorated), and our stockings (that I made!). We are going to be "house sitting" for some people that I tutor over Christmas break while they are home in the states. I am hoping to ask them to pick me up a few choice baking supplies while they are there! We're pretty excited they have a really nice 2 story flat and a ton of Christmas decorations up. Plus once we move our little tree and stockings over there it'll be perfect! Our Christmas day is getting some great plans too! For those of you who don't know, my family's Christmas tradition is hamburgers (you can only have so much turkey in a one month period) and i really wanted to do hamburgers here, but alas, I don't make very good hamburgers, I'll be the first to admit it. They taste fine, but they leave a little lacking in terms of ease and looks. But we found the perfect American restaurant that we are planning on going to on Christmas. It's called Lucille's and they have really great hamburgers AND bottomless drinks (no where is Cairo has bottomless drinks hence the excitement) Then we are going to the Nutcracker ballet that night at the Cairo Opera House (Joe just talked about that). Which I am really excited for, we've heard that the ballet company is really good here!
We'll be missing all of you though this Christmas season for SURE!
What about the animals are you saying? How do they fit in here? They are our new temporary neighbors waiting in the courtyard of the house we live in, waiting to be sacrificed for the Muslim holiday coming up. Each Muslim family who can afford to sacrifices one to celebrate Abrahams willingness to sacrifice his son. Apparantly the streets run with blood, that just sounds so exciting doesn't it? Anyways, we live with a Muslim family and had heard of this holiday but I was still surpirsed when I came home one day to see 3 sheep staring at me.
Happy Holidays!
About Christmas. I have added a few pictures, of our Christmas tree (we decorated), and our stockings (that I made!). We are going to be "house sitting" for some people that I tutor over Christmas break while they are home in the states. I am hoping to ask them to pick me up a few choice baking supplies while they are there! We're pretty excited they have a really nice 2 story flat and a ton of Christmas decorations up. Plus once we move our little tree and stockings over there it'll be perfect! Our Christmas day is getting some great plans too! For those of you who don't know, my family's Christmas tradition is hamburgers (you can only have so much turkey in a one month period) and i really wanted to do hamburgers here, but alas, I don't make very good hamburgers, I'll be the first to admit it. They taste fine, but they leave a little lacking in terms of ease and looks. But we found the perfect American restaurant that we are planning on going to on Christmas. It's called Lucille's and they have really great hamburgers AND bottomless drinks (no where is Cairo has bottomless drinks hence the excitement) Then we are going to the Nutcracker ballet that night at the Cairo Opera House (Joe just talked about that). Which I am really excited for, we've heard that the ballet company is really good here!
We'll be missing all of you though this Christmas season for SURE!
What about the animals are you saying? How do they fit in here? They are our new temporary neighbors waiting in the courtyard of the house we live in, waiting to be sacrificed for the Muslim holiday coming up. Each Muslim family who can afford to sacrifices one to celebrate Abrahams willingness to sacrifice his son. Apparantly the streets run with blood, that just sounds so exciting doesn't it? Anyways, we live with a Muslim family and had heard of this holiday but I was still surpirsed when I came home one day to see 3 sheep staring at me.
Happy Holidays!
Monday, December 10, 2007
Beauties of Cairo
The beauties of Cairo are many. Today I left school and walked to the Opera House to buy tickets to the Nutcracker. They say it's an Opera House, but it is more accurately described as a beautiful campus for The Arts. It was absolutely amazing. Right in the middle of the city overlooking the Nile lies this serene campus of walkways, gardens, and multiple buildings dedicated to the arts. There is a 'library of music', another building dedicated to the history of theater in Cairo, and multiple others including obviously an Opera House and Theater. It was incredible quiet and peaceful on the grounds---I was shocked.
I was also pleasantly surprised when I bought the tickets. I showed my student discount b/c it goes far in Cairo! At museums, temples, monuments the ticket prices go as follows: Egyptians 2 LE(Egyptian Pounds), Foreigner 60LE, Foreign Student 30LE etc... it's amazing the difference in price of the Egyptian and Foreigner!!! Also, it's very nice how everything seems to be 50% off for students!
No where on Earth could we see the Nutcracker for 25LE!!! That's like $5! And those were the expensive tickets we are front and center row D! How exciting is that! Sometimes I love developing countries esp. when they have an old world renowned theater. Always wanted to bring Casey to a play or musical and it looks like I will be able to sooner than I expected! So on Christmas Night we will be at the Nutcracker then possibly, if I can manage to keep Casey warm enough, we will stroll over to my favorite park on the Nile and enjoy the skyline of this big, crowded, noisy, absolutely beautiful and fun city we live in!
Two nights ago we went to a Christmas Party members of our branch hosted. It was lots of fun. We talked a lot and ate tons of Mexican food. The family hosting it just bought a house in Grand Prairie near Dallas. They are so nice and cook so well!!! Since they are with the embassy they get to buy food on 'base' so it's all American, even the milk! It was great to chat it up in their Christmas decorated house, enjoying the company of our branch family, and when we were walking home and passed our Church in a Villa and she told me she feels like Church is a real home since it's really in a real house. I concur it's really nice here, and the good company at the party made us feel the good times of Christmas. With the Poinsettia our landlord so graciously gave us, the little Charley Brown Christmas tree we decorated with construction paper, glue, and glitter, the good people, good times we are and are going to have it looks like we will have a fun and Christmasy Christmas.
I was also pleasantly surprised when I bought the tickets. I showed my student discount b/c it goes far in Cairo! At museums, temples, monuments the ticket prices go as follows: Egyptians 2 LE(Egyptian Pounds), Foreigner 60LE, Foreign Student 30LE etc... it's amazing the difference in price of the Egyptian and Foreigner!!! Also, it's very nice how everything seems to be 50% off for students!
No where on Earth could we see the Nutcracker for 25LE!!! That's like $5! And those were the expensive tickets we are front and center row D! How exciting is that! Sometimes I love developing countries esp. when they have an old world renowned theater. Always wanted to bring Casey to a play or musical and it looks like I will be able to sooner than I expected! So on Christmas Night we will be at the Nutcracker then possibly, if I can manage to keep Casey warm enough, we will stroll over to my favorite park on the Nile and enjoy the skyline of this big, crowded, noisy, absolutely beautiful and fun city we live in!
Two nights ago we went to a Christmas Party members of our branch hosted. It was lots of fun. We talked a lot and ate tons of Mexican food. The family hosting it just bought a house in Grand Prairie near Dallas. They are so nice and cook so well!!! Since they are with the embassy they get to buy food on 'base' so it's all American, even the milk! It was great to chat it up in their Christmas decorated house, enjoying the company of our branch family, and when we were walking home and passed our Church in a Villa and she told me she feels like Church is a real home since it's really in a real house. I concur it's really nice here, and the good company at the party made us feel the good times of Christmas. With the Poinsettia our landlord so graciously gave us, the little Charley Brown Christmas tree we decorated with construction paper, glue, and glitter, the good people, good times we are and are going to have it looks like we will have a fun and Christmasy Christmas.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Our Cruise!
Anyone feeling like this is very late coming? I know I am sorry about that! It feels like forever ago already and it was only a few weeks ago. Our cruise was AMAZING! We boarded the boat on Tuesday morning in Luxor and then checked out on Friday night in Aswan. I've never been on a cruise before but I definitely have known people who have and all, and let me say to those who have been on an ocean cruise and may not know, river cruise boats are VERY different. It was very much like a hotel ontop of a flat boat or something. A very beautiful hotel of course and it was really nice on the inside and pretty on the outside. We were also really lucky and all the rooms had balconies which were small but really nice! Usually cruise boats have a 24 hour buffet too (and I have to admit i was looking forward to this 24 hour buffet-- hoping for some great American food). Silly me. No 24 hour buffet. In fact we couldn't be 2 minutes early to any of our meals because the doors weren't open. But the food was good. We had 2 sit down dinners but most of our meals were buffets. On Thanksgiving for lunch we actually had Egyptian Bbq on the roof. Joe really likes a lot of the bbq foods so I think he was really happy. I have to admit that I really missed HAM and turkey! (muslims don't eat ham).
Also I know that typically cruises have nice dress and nice things and plenty of relax time on the boat and all. But most of the cruise were students from Joe's program, so it was a different kind of atmosphere. Plus Nile cruises aren't the relaxing type. They are stock full of tours (as you can see from my previous post before we left). We saw SO MANY old temples and tombs. We saw King Tut's mummy in the Valley of the Kings! and we learned SO much about old pharoahs and a little about hieroglyphics (so many really just repeat themselves on every temple). I have to admit that by Friday night though when we were going to the Aswan museum we were feeling very burnt out on the old things and not as impressed as we should have been. But you can't help being impressed still at least a little bit.
One funny story of something I accidentally did. It was one of those moments when after you say something you realize that this was not the place to share that particular opinion, but its too late to get your foot out of your mouth. We were sitting at dinner (one of the nice sit down ones) and the table was full of students in the Arabic Language program like Joe, (most of them were in the upper levels too). and just like everyone else they all wanted to know what I do here to keep busy (a question I am VERY sick of answering). Someone asked me if I was taking Arabic classes too. When I said no they asked why. Then came the foot in the mouth. I said I didn't think Arabic was a very pretty language and every sounds angry when they speak it. Silence. Although before most of the table were in different conversations previously it was like there had been a break in every conversation so they'd all heard me and were kind of staring. They asked if I'd heard Classical Arabic, because it is prettier. I had to admit that yes I'd heard it and still I just didn't think it was that pretty. Sometimes I am so awkward. I don't do it on purpose I guess I just didn't really think before I spoke.
It was a great cruise though. They'd give us a few hours here and there as we were going down the river to relax and enjoy. When we went through the Lock we were waiting in line forever and all these Egyptians came up on their little rowboats yelling and throwing things up at the windows and the people trying to get us to buy things. Like a little river market. It was pretty crazy! I put a picture up here of them. I'd have liked to have a little longer in some of the towns to stop and looks at their markets but we were booked solid every second the boat was docked. Oh well we got a few really cool things that we bargained well for!
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Lucked Out!
I lucked out!!! I went to school today---finally! I was a bit worried b/c I had missed 4 days and 1 test (we have 1 test per week in 2 of my classes). I was shocked to see that not very much new material was covered!!! Yay I really lucked out! We only covered one new lesson and everyone is still I a little shaky on it b/c there is so much new vocab. This buys me time to catch up over the weekend and no new grammar was introduced. I just need to master the new concepts introduced before the break, which everyone is solid on but I'm still a bit shaky. I just missed out on a lot of drilling in grammar over concepts introduced before i got sick, which stinks but it could be worse! And I have great news! I got back my grammar test from the day before the break and I got 100%!!!! I whispered I guess rather loud 'I am the man!' My friend Kumar laughed and said wow that is really great; we've missed you usef!
I took our Thursday exam and did perfect on the page I knew, but not so hot on the 1st page which was some new vocab. I hooked up with a friend after class and he loaded me up with the vocab., which is fun vocab I've wanted to have! It's all about families! There is much more family relationship vocab in Arabic than in English!!!! I'm shocked! I wonder if extended families are just not so important to us like in some other cultures. My class friend Brimha Kumar is from a pretty affluent family in India he is an Indian Diplomat studying Arabic as his diplomatic language at AUC. When we talk about families he is shocked it's the norm to move out of the home around age 18-20. I said it's logical really. People graduate high school go off to college and move in with roommates then eventually get married and start their own family. He was so shocked and said why? are families not important to you? It was surprising. He was filled with so much joy when he explained to me, with a huge smile and happy twinkle in his eye, about living with his family and how family remain very close and eat together and always have large gatherings that are so enjoyable. Extended Aunt, Uncles, Cousins are all important and close which makes it a large happy family. When he was explaining it to me I thought to myself if I even knew the branches of my family that extend outward. I don't really know my Aunt Margot's side of her family really well. I know she has a brother named Mark that I really like a lot! But when I spent time 2 thanksgivings ago the extended family on my Aunt's side where there and I only new a very small handful. It was really great to meet them and get to know them a little, but even now i couldn't tell you their names, where they live in the U.S., or their exciting life stories. That's just on my aunt's Margot's side of the family. Even with my Aunt Nancy I don't even know her children's names or their children or their stories, I feel kinda bad thinking about it! I love Aunt Nancy and enjoy the few times we have been able to get to know one another, how could it be I neglected her side of the family? Also, I have no idea about the extensions of my fathers side it's as if they have been cut off. Brimha would be so shocked to hear that from me. For me, it's an important lesson to be learned from Arab and Hindu culture.
In Arabic there are different words for Maternal Aunt and Paternal Aunt, Maternal Uncle and Paternal Uncle, etc etc. The words are very precise which triples and quadruples the vocab but makes it very easy to be able to speak about family relations. The problem for me is thinking hard enough about the relationships in English to be able to translate into Arabic is get a bit confusing sometimes. It took me a few minutes to remember what maternal and paternal even meant! Our teacher must think we are crazy! She told the class that when she was learning English it took her a sometime to figure out we didn't have distinctions for maternal and paternal aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and different generations of family. She couldn't believe there was no distinction for English speakers. At least since we have a teacher that understands we are having the reverse of her problem she can help us out to get it all straight.
My final writing project is about most of you who are reading this blog, my family. I have to fill pages and pages with Arabic, that is in my simplistic understanding of of this language so far. For this daunting task I chose to write about my family(that includes extended family) I will talk about what you study, where you live, what you do everyday, your ambitions, and interesting quirks I love, esp the fun stories of all the wonderful little ones on Casey's side. I'm sure I will have no problem writing 600 words about my family! Y'all are so interesting and I love you! (and I'm starting to say y'all more b/c it's used in proper Arabic! there are even 2 forms of Y'all: 2nd person plural masculine and 2nd person plural feminine so there is plenty of opportunity to throw a good y'all in there!)
I'll keep you posted on the excellent writing assignment, of which my 1st rough draft is due monday so I better get writing!
Kurt and Crystal I threw you out there in class today. The teacher asked me about my family and I told her about Crystal and how she works at the Pharmacy(everyone giggled cause I'm sniffling when I'm saying it) and is a student in Norfolk and is married to Kurt who is a Phd student studying---i got that all out in Arabic then Kurt you made me pause for a while dumbfounded!--- I finally broke a said sorry usteeza(professor) I don't know the word for Industrial Organizational Psychology. Then, I and everyone laughed and Grahm(our Tennessee boy) said Usef lets keep this within our spectrum of understanding I doubt they even have that in Arabic. The teacher said lets just stick with Psychology and gave me the word. She then asked me if I had a brother and I said yes I younger brother named Ammon (that name is not strange at all here since Amman is the capital of Jordan!) she asked me what he does and I couldn't describe it in Arabic so i said he studies. she asked what does he study and I thought of all the Time, People, Economist magazines he's subscribed to and I said Koolo Haga--Everything! He studies everything! There followed another burst of laughter and Brooke said Joe you just like saying Kolo Haga. I replied Taban--yes of course!
Maybe that was a bit more than you wanted to hear and it wasn't quite as entertaining to you as it is to me, but no you feel Casey's pain as I explain fun times in Arabic to her everyday. Sometimes I'm laughing so hard and she stands there with no change in facial expressions like she's still waiting for the funny part. Then I realize it wasn't really that funny it was just a little cute or sassy, but the fact I could express silly emotions in Arabic made it SOOOOO funny to me.
I took our Thursday exam and did perfect on the page I knew, but not so hot on the 1st page which was some new vocab. I hooked up with a friend after class and he loaded me up with the vocab., which is fun vocab I've wanted to have! It's all about families! There is much more family relationship vocab in Arabic than in English!!!! I'm shocked! I wonder if extended families are just not so important to us like in some other cultures. My class friend Brimha Kumar is from a pretty affluent family in India he is an Indian Diplomat studying Arabic as his diplomatic language at AUC. When we talk about families he is shocked it's the norm to move out of the home around age 18-20. I said it's logical really. People graduate high school go off to college and move in with roommates then eventually get married and start their own family. He was so shocked and said why? are families not important to you? It was surprising. He was filled with so much joy when he explained to me, with a huge smile and happy twinkle in his eye, about living with his family and how family remain very close and eat together and always have large gatherings that are so enjoyable. Extended Aunt, Uncles, Cousins are all important and close which makes it a large happy family. When he was explaining it to me I thought to myself if I even knew the branches of my family that extend outward. I don't really know my Aunt Margot's side of her family really well. I know she has a brother named Mark that I really like a lot! But when I spent time 2 thanksgivings ago the extended family on my Aunt's side where there and I only new a very small handful. It was really great to meet them and get to know them a little, but even now i couldn't tell you their names, where they live in the U.S., or their exciting life stories. That's just on my aunt's Margot's side of the family. Even with my Aunt Nancy I don't even know her children's names or their children or their stories, I feel kinda bad thinking about it! I love Aunt Nancy and enjoy the few times we have been able to get to know one another, how could it be I neglected her side of the family? Also, I have no idea about the extensions of my fathers side it's as if they have been cut off. Brimha would be so shocked to hear that from me. For me, it's an important lesson to be learned from Arab and Hindu culture.
In Arabic there are different words for Maternal Aunt and Paternal Aunt, Maternal Uncle and Paternal Uncle, etc etc. The words are very precise which triples and quadruples the vocab but makes it very easy to be able to speak about family relations. The problem for me is thinking hard enough about the relationships in English to be able to translate into Arabic is get a bit confusing sometimes. It took me a few minutes to remember what maternal and paternal even meant! Our teacher must think we are crazy! She told the class that when she was learning English it took her a sometime to figure out we didn't have distinctions for maternal and paternal aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and different generations of family. She couldn't believe there was no distinction for English speakers. At least since we have a teacher that understands we are having the reverse of her problem she can help us out to get it all straight.
My final writing project is about most of you who are reading this blog, my family. I have to fill pages and pages with Arabic, that is in my simplistic understanding of of this language so far. For this daunting task I chose to write about my family(that includes extended family) I will talk about what you study, where you live, what you do everyday, your ambitions, and interesting quirks I love, esp the fun stories of all the wonderful little ones on Casey's side. I'm sure I will have no problem writing 600 words about my family! Y'all are so interesting and I love you! (and I'm starting to say y'all more b/c it's used in proper Arabic! there are even 2 forms of Y'all: 2nd person plural masculine and 2nd person plural feminine so there is plenty of opportunity to throw a good y'all in there!)
I'll keep you posted on the excellent writing assignment, of which my 1st rough draft is due monday so I better get writing!
Kurt and Crystal I threw you out there in class today. The teacher asked me about my family and I told her about Crystal and how she works at the Pharmacy(everyone giggled cause I'm sniffling when I'm saying it) and is a student in Norfolk and is married to Kurt who is a Phd student studying---i got that all out in Arabic then Kurt you made me pause for a while dumbfounded!--- I finally broke a said sorry usteeza(professor) I don't know the word for Industrial Organizational Psychology. Then, I and everyone laughed and Grahm(our Tennessee boy) said Usef lets keep this within our spectrum of understanding I doubt they even have that in Arabic. The teacher said lets just stick with Psychology and gave me the word. She then asked me if I had a brother and I said yes I younger brother named Ammon (that name is not strange at all here since Amman is the capital of Jordan!) she asked me what he does and I couldn't describe it in Arabic so i said he studies. she asked what does he study and I thought of all the Time, People, Economist magazines he's subscribed to and I said Koolo Haga--Everything! He studies everything! There followed another burst of laughter and Brooke said Joe you just like saying Kolo Haga. I replied Taban--yes of course!
Maybe that was a bit more than you wanted to hear and it wasn't quite as entertaining to you as it is to me, but no you feel Casey's pain as I explain fun times in Arabic to her everyday. Sometimes I'm laughing so hard and she stands there with no change in facial expressions like she's still waiting for the funny part. Then I realize it wasn't really that funny it was just a little cute or sassy, but the fact I could express silly emotions in Arabic made it SOOOOO funny to me.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
interesting week of sickness
This week has been interesting. We have had mysterious sicknesses which are hopefully over. The Nile cruise went wonderful and we will be giving the update as soon as we can figure out how we want to post many of the amazing pictures we took. It's not in Casey or my personality to shoot pictures like a tourist. I remember when I took Casey to the Marine Corps Ball we were both so excited and Kristen and Brenna made us promise to take pictures--they even provided the camera! The only pictures taken that night where the ones they took of us before handing the camera over. I don't think it's b/c we hate pictures--I'm pretty sure we are quite fond of them actually, it's the fact that they are burdensome to take and we always forget! I can assure you that has not been the case here in Cairo. There were so many amazing things to see on the tours of the areas in Upper Egypt we took over 500 pics--well closer to 600! Glad we picked up a 2 GB memory card for our camera before we left Denton!
The last day of our trip my throat started to hurt. I started feeling post nasal drip going on and thought to myself oh no this is not good. I decided during out vacation not to bring one page of Arabic with me. I know Casey was getting sick of me studying all the time, which I understand completely. I'm just glad she is so unselfish and supportive! One week before our trip I was spending 12-15hr days at school the entire week. I didn't realize I was spending that much time everyday at school. It seems like when I spend a little extra time on top of the normal load a strange unquenchable appetite for Arabic comes over me. It has to be hard on Casey sometimes b/c Arabic is so time consuming then when we do get time together(which is a lot cause it's just us!) I can't stop talking about it! I guess it comes with the territory of studying one subject hrs and hrs a day. Since I wanted to have quality time with Casey and knew we both needed it I decided to do something quite difficult. I unloaded my backpack of every Arabic piece of material and filled it with travel items. I didn't even lecture her on the beauties or fun facts of the language either! However, it did feel quite strange. Thinking back I don't think there has been 3 days where I haven't cracked open an Arabic book or crammed more vocab into my feeble little mind.
In saying I didn't touch Arabic, I guess I should express that it was not completely shut out of my life. Arabic came in handy at the Markets. I was excited to rush to the markets outside of the Temples so I could have fun with my limited language skills while neg. for sweet 'Egyptian' items. It worked out great we were able to talk the merchants down from 250pounds to 70pounds on some items. It was a lot of fun. I enjoy negotiating and will surely miss it when I come home. Casey & I always talk about getting kicked out of McDonalds b/c we will try to neg. the price of a hamburger. In Egypt EVERYTHING is negotiable and if you offer more than 1/3 of the price at first offer you are not very smart and will get ripped off. It is a sign of great disrespect not to negotiate and sometimes if you are a 'hardliner' and won't play the game they will turn their nose up and walk away b/c you are rude even if they turn around and sell it much cheaper to an individual who will to be friendly and negotiate. During negotiations it not just explanations of why its this price and rebuttals of why I will only pay that price. It's much more than that. Conversation goes on like where are you from, what's your name, how are you, do you like Egypt,etc. etc. It's very fun to get to know a stranger, make a friend and beat someone down for 10min about a price until they break and give it to you for an excellent price b/c you are nice, trying to learn Arabic, and they like you. It made Casey and I very uncomfortable for a long time, but after 3 months of trying we have finally gotten used to it and love it!
Back to the narrative about getting sick--The last day of the trip When I started getting sick I swallowed hard and thought uh-oh this is not good. I had a 400 hundred word paper due in Arabic about the trip and needed to really bust my tail before exit exams, which will place me in a level for next semester. The morning after we got home we both were VARY sick. I missed school and thought it's okay there are only 2 classes on Sunday a drills class which is like a review class we have twice a week and a grammar class. Then the next day I was still sick with what I thought was a horrible Sinus Infection so I stayed home again which made me more concerned. My head felt like it was going to pop and I couldn't try to study Arabic or sit in a class. The following day I had horrible stomach problems and had all the symptoms of food poisoning--i'll save you from the details. Casey was sick one day the okay the next then sick again and now she is okay again-kida like a roller coaster. Finally, today I got some medicine. It's so wonderful in Egypt not to have to get a prescription for prescription medication! I just walked around the corner to our friendly pharmacist asked them in Arabic if they had zithromax and picked up a 3 days supply! The catch is the pharmacist close to us only speaks Arabic, so until recently it's been difficult to communicate.
I'm currently scared to death about this exam I have to take on monday. Brimha, a fellow Indian student, told me not to sweat it. He told the teacher why I haven't been there and informed me that not too much new material has been introduced and the exit exam is supposedly easy. I guess we'll have to see about that. I only have tomorrow left! Our Thursday is ya'lls Friday, so I will go to school get all the classwork and study all weekend and maybe I will manage to be in decent shape come the exit exam on Monday.
Whelp that's all for the post Nile trip. Casey is currently all better and is playing piano at the Church right now. She found a copy center that copies books for 15 egyptian cents per page which is well below 1 amercian cent, so she copied a bunch of piano books from a friend and is sounding pretty great. Since we have a nice Bowab that speaks great english guarding our church 'villa' she can stop by and play whenever she wants. As for me I'm drugged up and sniffling as I type this piece for your enjoyment.
We will be sure to post some entries about our amazing trip to Luxor, Aswan, and Abu Simble.
The last day of our trip my throat started to hurt. I started feeling post nasal drip going on and thought to myself oh no this is not good. I decided during out vacation not to bring one page of Arabic with me. I know Casey was getting sick of me studying all the time, which I understand completely. I'm just glad she is so unselfish and supportive! One week before our trip I was spending 12-15hr days at school the entire week. I didn't realize I was spending that much time everyday at school. It seems like when I spend a little extra time on top of the normal load a strange unquenchable appetite for Arabic comes over me. It has to be hard on Casey sometimes b/c Arabic is so time consuming then when we do get time together(which is a lot cause it's just us!) I can't stop talking about it! I guess it comes with the territory of studying one subject hrs and hrs a day. Since I wanted to have quality time with Casey and knew we both needed it I decided to do something quite difficult. I unloaded my backpack of every Arabic piece of material and filled it with travel items. I didn't even lecture her on the beauties or fun facts of the language either! However, it did feel quite strange. Thinking back I don't think there has been 3 days where I haven't cracked open an Arabic book or crammed more vocab into my feeble little mind.
In saying I didn't touch Arabic, I guess I should express that it was not completely shut out of my life. Arabic came in handy at the Markets. I was excited to rush to the markets outside of the Temples so I could have fun with my limited language skills while neg. for sweet 'Egyptian' items. It worked out great we were able to talk the merchants down from 250pounds to 70pounds on some items. It was a lot of fun. I enjoy negotiating and will surely miss it when I come home. Casey & I always talk about getting kicked out of McDonalds b/c we will try to neg. the price of a hamburger. In Egypt EVERYTHING is negotiable and if you offer more than 1/3 of the price at first offer you are not very smart and will get ripped off. It is a sign of great disrespect not to negotiate and sometimes if you are a 'hardliner' and won't play the game they will turn their nose up and walk away b/c you are rude even if they turn around and sell it much cheaper to an individual who will to be friendly and negotiate. During negotiations it not just explanations of why its this price and rebuttals of why I will only pay that price. It's much more than that. Conversation goes on like where are you from, what's your name, how are you, do you like Egypt,etc. etc. It's very fun to get to know a stranger, make a friend and beat someone down for 10min about a price until they break and give it to you for an excellent price b/c you are nice, trying to learn Arabic, and they like you. It made Casey and I very uncomfortable for a long time, but after 3 months of trying we have finally gotten used to it and love it!
Back to the narrative about getting sick--The last day of the trip When I started getting sick I swallowed hard and thought uh-oh this is not good. I had a 400 hundred word paper due in Arabic about the trip and needed to really bust my tail before exit exams, which will place me in a level for next semester. The morning after we got home we both were VARY sick. I missed school and thought it's okay there are only 2 classes on Sunday a drills class which is like a review class we have twice a week and a grammar class. Then the next day I was still sick with what I thought was a horrible Sinus Infection so I stayed home again which made me more concerned. My head felt like it was going to pop and I couldn't try to study Arabic or sit in a class. The following day I had horrible stomach problems and had all the symptoms of food poisoning--i'll save you from the details. Casey was sick one day the okay the next then sick again and now she is okay again-kida like a roller coaster. Finally, today I got some medicine. It's so wonderful in Egypt not to have to get a prescription for prescription medication! I just walked around the corner to our friendly pharmacist asked them in Arabic if they had zithromax and picked up a 3 days supply! The catch is the pharmacist close to us only speaks Arabic, so until recently it's been difficult to communicate.
I'm currently scared to death about this exam I have to take on monday. Brimha, a fellow Indian student, told me not to sweat it. He told the teacher why I haven't been there and informed me that not too much new material has been introduced and the exit exam is supposedly easy. I guess we'll have to see about that. I only have tomorrow left! Our Thursday is ya'lls Friday, so I will go to school get all the classwork and study all weekend and maybe I will manage to be in decent shape come the exit exam on Monday.
Whelp that's all for the post Nile trip. Casey is currently all better and is playing piano at the Church right now. She found a copy center that copies books for 15 egyptian cents per page which is well below 1 amercian cent, so she copied a bunch of piano books from a friend and is sounding pretty great. Since we have a nice Bowab that speaks great english guarding our church 'villa' she can stop by and play whenever she wants. As for me I'm drugged up and sniffling as I type this piece for your enjoyment.
We will be sure to post some entries about our amazing trip to Luxor, Aswan, and Abu Simble.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
The Fabric Market
Today I went with one of my friends, Melissa, to the Boulaq (I'm sure that is misspelled) market. She'd been once, I hadn't been yet. OH WOW! I have never seen so much fabric all there. You see it on the outside, bins of underwear in the middle, on then a few "shops" with just fabric fabric fabric. It is amazing. And that was only the beginning. You go down an alley way and it is a maze with fabric shops on every side, every inch covered in fabric. I think we were in there for 2 hours or something. It's funny, a lot of the shops had the same things as other ones... you wouldn't think they'd do so great next to eachother like that. Melissa is having a baby next month and she got the cutest material for curtains! She also got stuff to make sheets for the crib and to make a table cloth for their place. I got 3 kinds of material (I am attaching the pictures of the cloth I got) Next time I go I'm going to bring a camera with me, because it is hard to paint the visual. I wish I was better at sewing, without a pattern. Melissa said she has some patterns but I don't think that you can buy them anywhere here... I haven't seen any (not that I could read the Arabic to follow them regardless). So hopefully what Melissa has will work! With the rich green fabric, I'm planning a really cute skirt! I love the flowers on it, I think it looks so cute! Then with the black and white patterned fabric (it's the stretchy kind) I'm going to attempt a dress, it's perfect for the kind I really want, the only problem is again I have no pattern and I haven't seen Melissa's. My friend here though has one kind of the same pattern I'd like with my material, I'm not completely sure how to copy stuff like that, but I think it is possible. Then with the striped cloth I'm going to make sheets and pillow cases for our bed! I think overall they were all pretty good prices. The most expensive that the thick green one. But we bargained for it, and I think our prices were pretty good. about 25-30LE per meter. But then again, I don't know a lot about fabric costs. I know what clothes here cost and it'll be cheaper to make the ones I like (since I have yet to find ANY clothes I like very much here) Which is a bad thing since I packed really light on clothes assuming I could find some cheap, cute ones here. Then I get here and everyone buys their clothes in America when they go home for the summer. Ah...
Well here they are, and the fabric market was great! Not something I'd want to tackle alone at all-- but fun to do with a friend and I definitely want to go again! Maybe if the clothes I'm planning turn out decent, I'll make a hobby of it and come back a seamstress (thanks to the people here whose sewing machines I'll be using!)
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Informal Housing: in America, South Africa, and Egypt
Tonight I had the opportunity to hear a lecture by a visiting professor from the most prestigious university in South Africa: Witswaterand. It was on the most fasinating topic, a compartive study of informal houseing in South Africa, Egypt and the States. The professor is egyptian and grew up in Egypt then after obtaining his Phd from I beleiev AUC(amer. univ. in cairo) he moved to canada and taught in canada and in the states at various univ. for some years, then moved to South Africa and is a tenourd professor at Wits.
I think much of my interest in the lecture was b/c of my experince in South Africa and now in Egypt. He is in the city planning department and has just began in the last few years reasearch in the freild of sqautters. He had the most fasicnting info! He talked about rich and poor 'squatters' or the new term is 'informal housing' and all the different catagories of it. He wanted to reascher it in 1987 when he was teaching in Canada b/c one day he was on a tour and there was an island with the most fascinating houses. The homes were build by a group of hippies who went out to this random island in the middle of nowhere and build artistic homes and lived out there. The gov't didn't really know them and by the time it was discovered no one really cared to do anything about it and now its a really nice eccentric place people like to see. When he expreced the desire to look into squatter settlments in Canada and the Sates the idea was shunned and pushed oushed under the rug. Since then he has had the idea in the back of his mind until 2006 when reports in promentent journals traced 'informal living' in Europe and he decided to research it.
There are basically 3 different kinds of informal living. 1 if someone doesn't legally own the land, 2 if someone doesn't legally own the building, 3 if someone doesn't legally own the land or the building. It's complicated, and I don't know if i got it all right, b/c it was just a 2 hour lecture, and my brain can only absorb and retain so much. Sometimes a person can illegally live in a vacant building and no one cares, knows, or does anything about it. Other times a person or group can take over a piece of land and own the building b/c they legally purchased trailer homes or fabricated homes to quickly put on property they do not legally own, and sometimes a person can have a legal binding contracted, but the landlord doesn't legally own the property.
A entertaining example I really enjoyed was this: In Amsterdam a group of college student decided they were too poor to afford housing and got together and moved into a vacant building next to campus. No one around them realized it for quiet some time. After a while they noticed and the place started looking nice etc... so the police came to evict them, but they banded together by forming an organization to legally 'fight' back. Of course in a developed city like Amsterdam esp. near the higher learning centers there is no such thing as a squatter esp a college student most likely from a middle or upper class background. The authorities deemed it 'a social movement'. There are many examples of the college kid 'social movement' of squatting in many places including Canada.
In the States he studies the large informal living issues in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and some other states sepecifically I can't remember. It was very interesting that they were not illegal immigrants at all. Many times it was legal immagrant and poor whites that were promised by a land lord if they moved on an undeveloped piece of land and paid (avg of $200) month rent for the property they would be provided electricity, water etc.. In some cases the people have been living there for 30 yrs without a deed, electricity, water etc!!!! Crazy, these communities that were studied were specifically aorund the cities of dallas, austin, and lubbock. I remembered the texas ones only cause TX is the only state that matter(that was joke)
An example that surprised me greatly was in Egypt. In many areas the city has cut into farm land. Cairo just expands and expands. People flock into the city from other countries(like Casey and I) (there are an estimated 50,000 americans in Cairo alone!!!!) and the come from rural lands to find work etc... The boom has been in the last 10 years and it's been hard for egypt to keep up when the population is soaring at 22 million in greater Cairo!!!! People need to live somewhere so they build! The nation has done nothing to stop them, b/c how do you evict a person and give them no alternative, do u want millions sleeping on the street? Where do they go? the streets are already congested enough! In my opinion it;s not physically possible to evict them. So they illegally build on farmers land and other land they find. They have no formal land deeds. It was so surprising to me that huge blocks of developed high rises are illegal and 'informal residential and business areas' Most likely the people living there have no idea the landlords built it illegally. Also, in some areas there is a law stating no one can build above 6 floors, but the buildings are 22 floors high, so all those people (mostly rich to afford a loft that high!) are informally living and not legal.
It is not a new problem, but it has been pushed under the rug for a very long time. There has been very little formal research done on land, and property ownership. Even during the Ottoman Empire the island Zamalek that by my university here and is one of the richest areas where the majority of embassies are located, was a squatter settlemt. The turkish word Zamalek ment squaters. Then a very rich sheik build a palace on the island, which is the marriot hotel now, and Zamalek was cleaned up.
There is a million things to write so i will not go into much detail into South Africa--a land i love and could devote many words to. I will just say, South Africa has a huge problem with shacks and those types of squatter settlements. I just found out something most interesting: in 2003 (when I was there) the gov't was having a huge campaign to 'eradicate and evicte' everyone from these settlemts and 'clean up South Africa' This obviously was a contriversoul issue esp since the minister heading the campiagn was a Zulu. The issue went to supreme court which said it in uncontitutional to evict a squatter from a settlement unless the gov't provides him with an adiqaute place to live. Then, they went even further to make the gov't accountable by telling the gov't they had failed and must find these squatters adaquit housing. It was a hige blow to the gov't and since then the misiter of housing has lead some successful campagns to buidl gov't housing for the people. The indterestin question is South Africa is how to you sort out the immigrants from the natives. Another topic for another entry.
This was not an unprecedented ruling in South Africa. Amersterdam had the same ruling in their supreme court, but of course in Amsterdam it was a 'social movment' not squatting. Everyone everywhere want to provide a shelter for their families and have the basic necessities of life. There are great philisopical questions of who ownes the land? These questions are a real debate amoung the Sinai Bedouins who have roamed the penninsula for thousadns of years. Even they have tribal agreements where the roam and settle. This is not a new problem as the bedioun tribal agreements of land 'ownership' and the Roamn Empoire establishing land deeds in important poeces of land. The interesting part is that no country want to relize they have a problem with 'informal housing'. it is a very widespred issue and is so vast it's very difficult to group it under one dicipline. the professor did not try to answer the hard questions gov'ts need tot start thinking about to try to deal with this critical issue. When we asked questions he said yup thats a very good point that needs to be studied. It's really amazing and interesting no one has studied something so essential before.
There are some valid points he very briefly went over on why it has been pushed under the rug for so long across the globe. The people in poverty are constantly told that through backing a poltical canidate they will be given adaquit social services like lectricity, water, trash pick-up, access to educations etc... but by the time it comes to deleiver the canidates have long forgoten there promises until the next election. Votes was just one. There was many more possible reasons that were not so 'corrupt' more logistical and valid reasons that make it a difficult problem to solve.
The last interesting example I wanted to share was upper middle class and rich Informal living. In South Africa this professor live on a street where the people had really nice homes and it was definitely a middle class neighborhood. However, in the back of the houses the neighbors had build small homes for people to live in with a small back ally not visible from the street to the would pass in and out easily. Many the people were household maids etc.. and maybe other occupations outside of the neighborhood. whatever the case, the buildings were illegal and against property laws. this professor found out and was going to report it, but was asked not to from 9 of his neighbors, b/c it gave the people living there a good place to live and gave his neighbors some extra income. I don't know what he ended up doing, but it was a great example of middle class people involved with informal living.
I'll stop here and apologize for this unorganized rambling of this fascinating topic. I'm tempted to try to draw conclusions, but there is way too much to be researched to get close to conclusions at this point. I hope this topic is fully researched and the informations made available. I'm very blessed to be able to be introduced to these types of development lectures. The professor was excited to be a be to talk to me about my experience in SOWETO and KHUTSONG as SOWETO came up several times in his lecture. He gave me his email address and we were able to have a wonderful conversation about the development obstacles for South Africa. He urged me to come study with him in Wits, I don't know about that, but Wits is a good school and he is researching some fascinating topics. It's going to be great to have someone in South Africa to keep in contact with and find out more options in the field of International Economics.
I'm exicited about tomorrows lecture. It is by the Minister of Economics in the Palistinial Govenrment. He was a professor of Economics AUC and at the American Univeristy in Beruit. Then, he became the Economic adivor to Yasser Arafat and worked side by the in the Palensitinan Liberation Organization(PLO) until Arafat died and now he is one of the heads of the governemnt in the PLO party which is deemed a terrosrits organization by the United States. He is speaking on the future of the governement after Arafat. It is the 3rd anniversary of Arrafats death. I'm excited to hear what he has to say. Kinda funny an economics professor at AUC and AUB is now a 'terrorist' says America and that I, a marine, am excited to hear him speak tomorrow after class. Lot's of things are ironic like that in this region I guess, but that's a huge topic I'm growing tired of.
I think much of my interest in the lecture was b/c of my experince in South Africa and now in Egypt. He is in the city planning department and has just began in the last few years reasearch in the freild of sqautters. He had the most fasicnting info! He talked about rich and poor 'squatters' or the new term is 'informal housing' and all the different catagories of it. He wanted to reascher it in 1987 when he was teaching in Canada b/c one day he was on a tour and there was an island with the most fascinating houses. The homes were build by a group of hippies who went out to this random island in the middle of nowhere and build artistic homes and lived out there. The gov't didn't really know them and by the time it was discovered no one really cared to do anything about it and now its a really nice eccentric place people like to see. When he expreced the desire to look into squatter settlments in Canada and the Sates the idea was shunned and pushed oushed under the rug. Since then he has had the idea in the back of his mind until 2006 when reports in promentent journals traced 'informal living' in Europe and he decided to research it.
There are basically 3 different kinds of informal living. 1 if someone doesn't legally own the land, 2 if someone doesn't legally own the building, 3 if someone doesn't legally own the land or the building. It's complicated, and I don't know if i got it all right, b/c it was just a 2 hour lecture, and my brain can only absorb and retain so much. Sometimes a person can illegally live in a vacant building and no one cares, knows, or does anything about it. Other times a person or group can take over a piece of land and own the building b/c they legally purchased trailer homes or fabricated homes to quickly put on property they do not legally own, and sometimes a person can have a legal binding contracted, but the landlord doesn't legally own the property.
A entertaining example I really enjoyed was this: In Amsterdam a group of college student decided they were too poor to afford housing and got together and moved into a vacant building next to campus. No one around them realized it for quiet some time. After a while they noticed and the place started looking nice etc... so the police came to evict them, but they banded together by forming an organization to legally 'fight' back. Of course in a developed city like Amsterdam esp. near the higher learning centers there is no such thing as a squatter esp a college student most likely from a middle or upper class background. The authorities deemed it 'a social movement'. There are many examples of the college kid 'social movement' of squatting in many places including Canada.
In the States he studies the large informal living issues in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and some other states sepecifically I can't remember. It was very interesting that they were not illegal immigrants at all. Many times it was legal immagrant and poor whites that were promised by a land lord if they moved on an undeveloped piece of land and paid (avg of $200) month rent for the property they would be provided electricity, water etc.. In some cases the people have been living there for 30 yrs without a deed, electricity, water etc!!!! Crazy, these communities that were studied were specifically aorund the cities of dallas, austin, and lubbock. I remembered the texas ones only cause TX is the only state that matter(that was joke)
An example that surprised me greatly was in Egypt. In many areas the city has cut into farm land. Cairo just expands and expands. People flock into the city from other countries(like Casey and I) (there are an estimated 50,000 americans in Cairo alone!!!!) and the come from rural lands to find work etc... The boom has been in the last 10 years and it's been hard for egypt to keep up when the population is soaring at 22 million in greater Cairo!!!! People need to live somewhere so they build! The nation has done nothing to stop them, b/c how do you evict a person and give them no alternative, do u want millions sleeping on the street? Where do they go? the streets are already congested enough! In my opinion it;s not physically possible to evict them. So they illegally build on farmers land and other land they find. They have no formal land deeds. It was so surprising to me that huge blocks of developed high rises are illegal and 'informal residential and business areas' Most likely the people living there have no idea the landlords built it illegally. Also, in some areas there is a law stating no one can build above 6 floors, but the buildings are 22 floors high, so all those people (mostly rich to afford a loft that high!) are informally living and not legal.
It is not a new problem, but it has been pushed under the rug for a very long time. There has been very little formal research done on land, and property ownership. Even during the Ottoman Empire the island Zamalek that by my university here and is one of the richest areas where the majority of embassies are located, was a squatter settlemt. The turkish word Zamalek ment squaters. Then a very rich sheik build a palace on the island, which is the marriot hotel now, and Zamalek was cleaned up.
There is a million things to write so i will not go into much detail into South Africa--a land i love and could devote many words to. I will just say, South Africa has a huge problem with shacks and those types of squatter settlements. I just found out something most interesting: in 2003 (when I was there) the gov't was having a huge campaign to 'eradicate and evicte' everyone from these settlemts and 'clean up South Africa' This obviously was a contriversoul issue esp since the minister heading the campiagn was a Zulu. The issue went to supreme court which said it in uncontitutional to evict a squatter from a settlement unless the gov't provides him with an adiqaute place to live. Then, they went even further to make the gov't accountable by telling the gov't they had failed and must find these squatters adaquit housing. It was a hige blow to the gov't and since then the misiter of housing has lead some successful campagns to buidl gov't housing for the people. The indterestin question is South Africa is how to you sort out the immigrants from the natives. Another topic for another entry.
This was not an unprecedented ruling in South Africa. Amersterdam had the same ruling in their supreme court, but of course in Amsterdam it was a 'social movment' not squatting. Everyone everywhere want to provide a shelter for their families and have the basic necessities of life. There are great philisopical questions of who ownes the land? These questions are a real debate amoung the Sinai Bedouins who have roamed the penninsula for thousadns of years. Even they have tribal agreements where the roam and settle. This is not a new problem as the bedioun tribal agreements of land 'ownership' and the Roamn Empoire establishing land deeds in important poeces of land. The interesting part is that no country want to relize they have a problem with 'informal housing'. it is a very widespred issue and is so vast it's very difficult to group it under one dicipline. the professor did not try to answer the hard questions gov'ts need tot start thinking about to try to deal with this critical issue. When we asked questions he said yup thats a very good point that needs to be studied. It's really amazing and interesting no one has studied something so essential before.
There are some valid points he very briefly went over on why it has been pushed under the rug for so long across the globe. The people in poverty are constantly told that through backing a poltical canidate they will be given adaquit social services like lectricity, water, trash pick-up, access to educations etc... but by the time it comes to deleiver the canidates have long forgoten there promises until the next election. Votes was just one. There was many more possible reasons that were not so 'corrupt' more logistical and valid reasons that make it a difficult problem to solve.
The last interesting example I wanted to share was upper middle class and rich Informal living. In South Africa this professor live on a street where the people had really nice homes and it was definitely a middle class neighborhood. However, in the back of the houses the neighbors had build small homes for people to live in with a small back ally not visible from the street to the would pass in and out easily. Many the people were household maids etc.. and maybe other occupations outside of the neighborhood. whatever the case, the buildings were illegal and against property laws. this professor found out and was going to report it, but was asked not to from 9 of his neighbors, b/c it gave the people living there a good place to live and gave his neighbors some extra income. I don't know what he ended up doing, but it was a great example of middle class people involved with informal living.
I'll stop here and apologize for this unorganized rambling of this fascinating topic. I'm tempted to try to draw conclusions, but there is way too much to be researched to get close to conclusions at this point. I hope this topic is fully researched and the informations made available. I'm very blessed to be able to be introduced to these types of development lectures. The professor was excited to be a be to talk to me about my experience in SOWETO and KHUTSONG as SOWETO came up several times in his lecture. He gave me his email address and we were able to have a wonderful conversation about the development obstacles for South Africa. He urged me to come study with him in Wits, I don't know about that, but Wits is a good school and he is researching some fascinating topics. It's going to be great to have someone in South Africa to keep in contact with and find out more options in the field of International Economics.
I'm exicited about tomorrows lecture. It is by the Minister of Economics in the Palistinial Govenrment. He was a professor of Economics AUC and at the American Univeristy in Beruit. Then, he became the Economic adivor to Yasser Arafat and worked side by the in the Palensitinan Liberation Organization(PLO) until Arafat died and now he is one of the heads of the governemnt in the PLO party which is deemed a terrosrits organization by the United States. He is speaking on the future of the governement after Arafat. It is the 3rd anniversary of Arrafats death. I'm excited to hear what he has to say. Kinda funny an economics professor at AUC and AUB is now a 'terrorist' says America and that I, a marine, am excited to hear him speak tomorrow after class. Lot's of things are ironic like that in this region I guess, but that's a huge topic I'm growing tired of.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Korean Confusion
Many of you know that I am tutoring here for some extra cash (which comes in handy and we can save some to maybe buy some furniture for ourselves when we get home so we don't live in an empty apartment).
So right now I am tutoring 4 Americans, and 1 Korean. The Korean I am tutoring in English, her name's Ha Eun and she's really cute but tutoring english is a really time consuming thing to prepare for. I mean, the Americans I tutor in math and one chemistry.. not so much preparation needed there! But English is time consuming.
But all that is beside the point I am going towards. Monday I was trying to explain to Mrs. Lee that we would be out of town next week, (the Nile Cruise.. see previous post) and I wouldn't be able to come Tuesday or Thursday. It was one of the most confusing conversations I've ever participated in. Mrs. Lee does know English, but her English isn't great and while she understands simple things, this was just too much. She kept telling me that she has a practice on Thursday so I can't come Thursday (I was like... I can't come Tuesday OR Thursday I'll be out of town). Finally, she seemed to understand and then said she'd see me in 2 1/2 weeks and I would come on Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday. Hmm.... this is not what I was saying at all.. I could have certainly come this week, but that was just too confusing. And I can't tutor her on Saturday, Thursday is our day. But by this time I was almost 20 minutes late to tutor Rachel (Chemistry), so I told her I'd call her tomorrow.
It took another conversation yesterday before we worked anything else. I kept saying I could come Mon, and Tues. until their Christmas practices were over in December then we can start on Thurs again. But she thought I was saying I'd come after their practice at 9pm every thursday, in the end SHE suggested what I'd been saying all along, 2x a week until Christmas. So that worked out (eventually).
Tonight I have a busy night, I am visiting teaching our Relief Society pres at 1pm, then at 3:30 I have to be in Digla to tutor, then I tutor one more person after that, THEN I visit teach April at 5:30 (so right away I'll have to run to her flat which luckily is only about a block away) then at 7-9 over in the same area of town I have Enrichment... So I'll be home at like 9:30! And the last couple days have been that busy for me. It is funny because (except tuesdays when I volunteer in the library) I am so busy in the afternoons and evenings and Joe is so busy in the mornings and early afternoons. But its given him a lot more time to study Arabic.
I met another really nice "embassy wife" yesterday at the library and I was thinking how that might be a really fun thing to do! Be an embassy wife, and move around- see the world and get paid for it, get free language lessons wherever you are, and see just the amount of culture you wish to (because as an embassy wife you will always be surrounded by other americans) And have a mandatory time each year in the summer to go back to the states and see family. So, not that that is at all what we're going to do... I was just thinking it would be fun (maybe)
So right now I am tutoring 4 Americans, and 1 Korean. The Korean I am tutoring in English, her name's Ha Eun and she's really cute but tutoring english is a really time consuming thing to prepare for. I mean, the Americans I tutor in math and one chemistry.. not so much preparation needed there! But English is time consuming.
But all that is beside the point I am going towards. Monday I was trying to explain to Mrs. Lee that we would be out of town next week, (the Nile Cruise.. see previous post) and I wouldn't be able to come Tuesday or Thursday. It was one of the most confusing conversations I've ever participated in. Mrs. Lee does know English, but her English isn't great and while she understands simple things, this was just too much. She kept telling me that she has a practice on Thursday so I can't come Thursday (I was like... I can't come Tuesday OR Thursday I'll be out of town). Finally, she seemed to understand and then said she'd see me in 2 1/2 weeks and I would come on Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday. Hmm.... this is not what I was saying at all.. I could have certainly come this week, but that was just too confusing. And I can't tutor her on Saturday, Thursday is our day. But by this time I was almost 20 minutes late to tutor Rachel (Chemistry), so I told her I'd call her tomorrow.
It took another conversation yesterday before we worked anything else. I kept saying I could come Mon, and Tues. until their Christmas practices were over in December then we can start on Thurs again. But she thought I was saying I'd come after their practice at 9pm every thursday, in the end SHE suggested what I'd been saying all along, 2x a week until Christmas. So that worked out (eventually).
Tonight I have a busy night, I am visiting teaching our Relief Society pres at 1pm, then at 3:30 I have to be in Digla to tutor, then I tutor one more person after that, THEN I visit teach April at 5:30 (so right away I'll have to run to her flat which luckily is only about a block away) then at 7-9 over in the same area of town I have Enrichment... So I'll be home at like 9:30! And the last couple days have been that busy for me. It is funny because (except tuesdays when I volunteer in the library) I am so busy in the afternoons and evenings and Joe is so busy in the mornings and early afternoons. But its given him a lot more time to study Arabic.
I met another really nice "embassy wife" yesterday at the library and I was thinking how that might be a really fun thing to do! Be an embassy wife, and move around- see the world and get paid for it, get free language lessons wherever you are, and see just the amount of culture you wish to (because as an embassy wife you will always be surrounded by other americans) And have a mandatory time each year in the summer to go back to the states and see family. So, not that that is at all what we're going to do... I was just thinking it would be fun (maybe)
coming soon
So yesterday when Joe got home *late, because he had a meeting at school* He brought with him the itinerary for our trip next week! And can I just say really fast how excited I am? I AM SO EXCITED! There is one little snag we'll have to work out, we are leaving from his school at 3:15 am! Why does this pose such a problem? Well, we don't live close to the school, I mean it is easy enough to get there but it requires the metro to be running, which it doesn't do at 3 in the morning. So we could try flagging down a taxi and trying to convince them to go to Tahrir Square in the middle of the night. But I don't think a bunch of taxis are just hanging out at that hour... So we think we'll just stay with someone downtown on Monday night! MONDAY NIGHT! And today is already Wednesday! So I am going to type up all the places we're hitting on the trip (our first tour is Tuesday at 9 am, pretty much right after we get off the plane, after we've been up since 2 am, so expect us to look pretty tired in those pictures)
Luxor:
Karnak Temple
Luxor Temple
(Belly Dance Show <- which actually isn't VERY egyptian at all)
Valley of the Kings
El Deir El Bahari
Colossi of Memon
Edfu:
Temple of Edfu
KomOmbo:
Temple of KomOmbo
Abu Simble
2 temples (here our itinerary decides to be vague)
Aswan
Philae Temple
Nubian Museum
tour around the Elephantine Island
Then we'll come home Friday night/Saturday morning at about 2:30 am.
I am so excited! I need to get more batteries for our camera!
Luxor:
Karnak Temple
Luxor Temple
(Belly Dance Show <- which actually isn't VERY egyptian at all)
Valley of the Kings
El Deir El Bahari
Colossi of Memon
Edfu:
Temple of Edfu
KomOmbo:
Temple of KomOmbo
Abu Simble
2 temples (here our itinerary decides to be vague)
Aswan
Philae Temple
Nubian Museum
tour around the Elephantine Island
Then we'll come home Friday night/Saturday morning at about 2:30 am.
I am so excited! I need to get more batteries for our camera!
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Dust Bowl
Cairo is a dust bowl. All around us is desert, except to the north, and we are sitting down in a bowl. As you leave the city there are these sand or hard dirt cliffs a guess around 100ft high or so depending where you are. It looks like people build them to build a neighborhood with a good view, but they are natural. It's really pretty crazy and cool to see. Since we are set down into a bowl all the wind kicks up desert and as if drifts into the bowl of Cairo there is no way for it to get out, so it stays. Since Cairo has been build and rebuild since FOREVER-well before the Arabs arrived in 640 B.C. the original and other not so original ancient buildings and ruins are 18+ feet below the modern city. It's wild to see the museums dig our these magnificent structures and to walk up to them and realize as you look down Cairo was not where you are standing it was way down there. Over the thousands of years sand has been blown in little by little piling up and building have been demolished and build on top if raising the city centimeter by centimeter, foot by foot until it stand where it is today.
As you can see from the pictures there is a big problem with pollution. Everyday there is a beautiful blue sky, however you have to really lean back and hurt your neck to look straight up to see it. The think horizon is a mix of dust and pollution. It is very interesting to me because when we fly over Cairo the pollution is like a brown bubble covering the city, however it is not really much better elsewhere in Egypt. When we flew over the Sinai Peninsula it was difficult to see the mountains and terrain just below us b/c the wind was kicking up dust and sand, so it looked like a brown haze everywhere. Even the mountains not far away when we were at our resort looked that way. It feels absolutely wonderful to breath the air outside of Cairo b/c very few people live out in the desert. The pollution seems to howver around the dust bowl of Cairo. I don't think it's just pollution that causes the ugly scary looking air here; i think its also the sand and dust that does. In 2-3 days our flat looks so dusty it's as if no one has lived here for years, like a haunted house type movie.
Recently allergies have been bad. The only fertile land is to the north. The entire 22 million+ population of greater Cairo depends on fresh produce and food from this area. At night it is semi and semi transporting food into town. The older couples in our ward have seen it and told us it is a sight to behold, just hundreds of trucks on the road. Recently the rice crops have been harvested and they don't have the luxury of waiting for the rice hay to dry up and decompose, so they burn it to hurry up and start growing more or something new. There really has been no other solution to date. They try to burn it at the most convenient time, at night, so most people will be inside and not have to breath it in. The wind blows all the smoke into the city and at dusk when I leave the library and at 7:30am when I'm walking through downtown to go to class I cannot see 200yards in front of me. Its a intense stinky fog of smoke from the rice fields.
Cairo is such an interesting place with interesting challenges. The people have learned to cope with them and are pretty much laid back happy people. I love walking down the street and hearing many different languages, seeing original colonial building next to modern complexes, and all the different colorful people. There is never a boring day. Even when Casey and I tried to have a good ol' American weekend and stayed in to watch movies and order Papa Johns we couldn't escape the loud prayer call and funeral a couple of streets away. We got to listen to the Koran being recited over a million kilowatt speakers which broad casted it into a million homes.
well, I better get back to studying.I'm writing a story in Arabic about the time I was in S. Africa and got out of the car at a lion park with Elder Asheron to 'chase' lions, it was pretty scary and exhilarating--glad I'm still alive. it is pretty funny in Arabic. I love writing Arabic it's fun. We have to keep a journal and turn it in every week. We are up to writing assignment of 300 words now! Next semester I'm excited to take a calligraphy class, so I can learn how to do the beautiful writing Arabs are so good at.
Happenings
Joe's reminded me we've been neglecting our blog... So here is me NOT really neglecting the blog. It has been a little busy here lately and at the same time I think perhaps I have adapted the Egyptian concept of busy and you'd all laugh if you heard my day and think "she calls that busy??" Oh well, I guess we'll just see if I'm productive when I come home.
It's cooled off a little bit here which is great! All the walking I do around Maadi is so much more enjoyable and bearable when I don't arrive places drenched in sweat and all. But its really I think let out the animals. The dogs seem to have been barking and the cats fighting more than ever lately, and its not the absolute MOST enjoyable sound to wake up to at 3 am.
But we are really settled in here! And enjoying the life we have? Definitely! There are occasional "E Days" as the women here in the branch of our church call really bad days when Egypt is NOT where you want to be, and is really irritating... but less of them now! We've figured out a bit how to order things to be delivered here, we've successfully had boxes of bottled water delivered and Papa Johns! We're getting ready to go on probably our last trip for 2007, a Nile Cruise to Luxor and Aswan! (a trip organized through and subsidized by Joe's school). We are leaving next Tuesday and wll be spending our thanksgiving on a cruise boat on the Nile. Interesting place I think... Of course I'm used to spending it with family eating a ton of food!
It's cooled off a little bit here which is great! All the walking I do around Maadi is so much more enjoyable and bearable when I don't arrive places drenched in sweat and all. But its really I think let out the animals. The dogs seem to have been barking and the cats fighting more than ever lately, and its not the absolute MOST enjoyable sound to wake up to at 3 am.
But we are really settled in here! And enjoying the life we have? Definitely! There are occasional "E Days" as the women here in the branch of our church call really bad days when Egypt is NOT where you want to be, and is really irritating... but less of them now! We've figured out a bit how to order things to be delivered here, we've successfully had boxes of bottled water delivered and Papa Johns! We're getting ready to go on probably our last trip for 2007, a Nile Cruise to Luxor and Aswan! (a trip organized through and subsidized by Joe's school). We are leaving next Tuesday and wll be spending our thanksgiving on a cruise boat on the Nile. Interesting place I think... Of course I'm used to spending it with family eating a ton of food!
Saturday, November 10, 2007
The Sand is Always Moving
In the Desert the sand is always moving. It's a pretty amazing thing. People have told me that roads are covered up and whole sand mountains move. I never quiet believed them, or maybe I just never understood. Guess it makes sense, it doesn't take much to move a piece of sand. It's a interesting problem for countries to deal with in the desert. Every 2 days in stretches of road with fine sand and sand dunes the winds blows the sand and if there is a road there the sand covers it up. There are quiet a few deaths b/c its difficult to see at night and speeding cars hit 8-10ft piles of sand in the road. The US Embassy doesn't allow employees to travel at night b/c of the road conditions, and the crazy drivers. The street cleaner's can hardly keep up with large portions of long roads being covered every couple of days depending on the wind.
When we traveled to Sinai we left Cairo and traveled through desert for around 6 hours. It is interesting to see the differences in desert in just that 6 hour drive. The first few hours it wasn't the fine sand many think of when we think of deserts. It was Rockey and dry. It reminds me a lot of Ft. Hood Texas. I remember training there once as a machine gunner in my infantry squad and doing a rush to take a fortified position. The Marines in the fortified position were dug into the hard clay ground and were shooting at us. There was not a lot of cover to hide from being left wide open for there shots, so we found all the micro terrain me could to get some cover, so we could inch forward until we could lay suppressive fire and take the postion. Some Marines were fortunate enough to find old tank tracks that were deep enough a lay in and get decent cover. On the other hand I was pretty much in the open, so I sprinted to this small 5 foot bank that the tank created when it must have spun around in the rain and shifted a lots of dirt clay into a small 5 foot hill. I was running as fast as possible and threw myself into this dirt looking hill with my heavy machine gun. When I hit the hill I didn't sink into it as I planned. I hit this hard dried piece of clay that cut me up pretty good and bruised me up very good. That hard clayish dirt terrain is a lot of the terrain around here. It looks like dirt that you can go play in, but it's very dry hard and rocky.
However, that is just one type of desert around here, that describes the terrain around the Sinai Peninsula and the area on the west side of Cairo to the Peninsula. On the East there is the great saharra that reaches into Libya and is the Seas of Sand that is so beautiful. Casey and i are going to go on a desert safarri sometime we hope soon to see this desert. In this western desert there lies the black and white desert, and the large oasis's with over 300 hot springs. The white desert was discovered by an Australian 10 years ago. It doesn't look like earth. My friends that have stayed out there say it feels like the moon or something. Everything is white and there is no life at all. No plants not bugs no animals. It mountains of white sand and white rick like chalk. The wind kicks up the sand and the sand blowing across the sand carves very strange shapes on the rocks. Many of the pop out of the sand like pillars. When we have a chance to go out there we will take lots of pictures and write more.
Back to our trip to the Sinai Peninsula. We travels through this clay type desert for miles and miles, then we hit a part closer to the Suez that was fine sand. It was strange its was as if someone dumbed a few mountains of sand on this clay barren desert. It was so incredibly beautiful. The wind would move the sand into the road and it would pile up, as you can see in our pictures.
Then we saw the Suez Canal. Just a quick not on the Suez: The Suez is remarkable. I was so exited to see it up close, but to save myself from too much nerdy embarrassment I kept those feelings of excitement to myself in the car. To help me put the Suez into perspective I always think of the distance of the Suez to landmarks back home. The Suez was hand dug from Dallas 1/2 to Houston. I cannot believe digging that distance in the desert. It was constructed on Egyptian Slave labor by the Egyptian Government. A French investor worked with Said Pasha, the Egyptian Leader, to build the canal. Egypt could never really afford the canal, but the west really needed passage to the East, so it was a risk that Said Pasha would take b/c it would become very profitable on the future. When the project doubled in price Egypt was forced to go to European Banks to take out sizable loans and make the canal public so people would buy stock allowing Egypt to afford the project. Europe then seized the chance to gain ownership of the canal since it would save them millions if they didn't have to pay Egyptian charges to use the canal. The French and British banks would only approve loans with insane interest rates, and Egypt was forced to accept. Egypt worked for years digging the canal by hand, i still can't believe they had thousands and thousands of people down there digging the canal out with shovels and baskets. Then, when (int'l) slavery came into question after the American civil war Europe pressured Egypt to pay their laborers. Egypt was already in over their heads with loans and couldn't afford to pay their laborers, so the Egyptian Leader was forced to let the workers go and purchase new digging machines from Europe to finish the final stage of deepening the canal. Egypt could no longer pay the loans and were in way to deep, so Said Pasha sold the rest of Egypt's stock shares to the Brits, this enabled Britain to own the canal for 99 years. When that happened Egyptians were furious and the military leader rose against Said Pasha, and the Brits invaded to protect their investment, and there begins colonialism in Egypt. Many years later, during the Cold War, the President Nasser (egypt's president) nationalized the canal and took it back from the British before the legal contract had ended. Britain declared war on Egypt, and came back to Egypt to retake the canal, but the U.S. and Russia needed the canal for purposes relating to the Cold War, so the U.S. and Russia came together against Britain and stopped the war, which gave Egypt power over their own land. As you can see I get into this history a little, and was excited to see this engineering marvel that has cause so much political disputes and repercussions over the passed 100+ years.
When we approached the Suez Canal we saw a tower moving through the sand. Our driver told us to look at the ship passing through the Suez. That tower we saw was the mast of a huge ship passing through the Suez. It was so cool. No where near the Suez shows signs of water. We all thought we were in the middle of the desert then all the sudden a large berm of fine sand rose in front of us and all we could see was the tops of ships that seemed to be moving through the sand. It was incredible. Then the road headed down underground at a steep angle and we passed under the Suez. Soon the Scenery changes to sharp rock mountains everywhere and we were on the Sinai Peninsula.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Shopping in Cairo
While our stories and trips are SO exciting I am sure to read about, I realize that our day to day life is probably pretty interesting too since it is so different than life in the U.S.
One big huge gigantic difference is shopping. Say goodbye to Wal-Mart, Kroger, the Mall, etc and say hello to "metro mart" and "carfur" and the millions of corner shops that make up Cairo. I realized today how strange it is. I feel like I can't find anything here at all, and it isn't so much from a lack of shops. In fact I currently shop at about 5 different shops selling food. There is the nameless shop around the corner which is tiny and doesn't sell very much at all, but they've got some staples like rice, boxes of milk, and most of the time bread. Then about 15 min or so walk away there is the Metro Mart which is the closest thing here to some sort of chain, Metro caters to the expats with their large well lit aisles, prepackaged food, and many imported things. (and wide selection of meat that is in glass case and refrigerated) We buy a lot of our food here because it has the largest selection of most foods. Then right on the same block there are 2 more small shops (do they have names? I don't think so) one of these shops has all their food labeled in Arabic, and the other doesn't have prices on things which scares me because i don't want them to rip me off. Then across the street is another market, pretty big actually but it doesn't have a ton of food because it sells cleaning supplies, shampoos etc. It is good though for a few things. I would try getting meat there because it probably is cheaper than metro, but I can't read the price of their meat (It is only in arabic, and while I CAN read numbers, they have a huge sign up above the meat counter with all the kinds of meat and their costs, I don't know how to spell chicken in arabic)
Those are the shops closest to us. Then about a 30 min walk away (close to a few people I tutor) is another chain store, Soudis where I buy cereal, they have a pretty good selection of things available here, including Temmys brand cereal, and sometimes I can find other things there that i wasn't expecting. Like yesterday I found these little packs of "vanilla extract". It is a powder and instructs you to add it to the flour to sweeten things. I haven't been able to find vanilla anywhere so I bought a pack to try. I'm still not sure about it.
To buy fruits and vegetables I head to Rd. 9 *the road with Metro Mart* and there are multiple "stores" with fruit and veggies in boxes around inside and outside the small shop. I am told that it is cheaper on rd 7 but I haven't been over there to find one close enough to us yet. (plus it isn't expensive I usually spend about 5-7$ on fruit when I go and I get us A TON. Fruit here is excellent, we just make sure to soak it in water with bleach before eating it.
So like I said, shops everywhere... mostly with the same selection but each one has something (usually 1 thing) that you can't find anywhere else. But it is kind of exciting to walk around, sometimes. But as our friends April and Mark say, "you can't just go pick something up here, everything you do turns into a story"
So true. With an option of a few differnt kinds of canned goods, Strained Foul, Canned corn, tuna fish, and tomato soup (which is campbells and looks extremely beat up), and with one kind of bread option, when the US cereal is 40 pounds and the Temmys brand is 8 that leaves no question as to what we buy there! But there aren't many choices really... we eat a lot of corn flakes and museli. we also eat a lot of spaghetti and chicken and rice. Actually that is basically our diet! But we try to mix it up as much as possible, I think we've had french toast 50 times in a month! Good thing that it is so delicious huh? We went through I think 30 eggs last week, amazing? I know! I think we eat at least 3 eggs each day most days.
things they don't have: real cheddar cheese (the stuff we got IS very close though), vanilla, baking soda, cottage cheese, man and cheese, parm, lettuce, (i miss salads a lot), Dr. Pepper... and a lot more. It is really strange though! But exciting definitely.
One big huge gigantic difference is shopping. Say goodbye to Wal-Mart, Kroger, the Mall, etc and say hello to "metro mart" and "carfur" and the millions of corner shops that make up Cairo. I realized today how strange it is. I feel like I can't find anything here at all, and it isn't so much from a lack of shops. In fact I currently shop at about 5 different shops selling food. There is the nameless shop around the corner which is tiny and doesn't sell very much at all, but they've got some staples like rice, boxes of milk, and most of the time bread. Then about 15 min or so walk away there is the Metro Mart which is the closest thing here to some sort of chain, Metro caters to the expats with their large well lit aisles, prepackaged food, and many imported things. (and wide selection of meat that is in glass case and refrigerated) We buy a lot of our food here because it has the largest selection of most foods. Then right on the same block there are 2 more small shops (do they have names? I don't think so) one of these shops has all their food labeled in Arabic, and the other doesn't have prices on things which scares me because i don't want them to rip me off. Then across the street is another market, pretty big actually but it doesn't have a ton of food because it sells cleaning supplies, shampoos etc. It is good though for a few things. I would try getting meat there because it probably is cheaper than metro, but I can't read the price of their meat (It is only in arabic, and while I CAN read numbers, they have a huge sign up above the meat counter with all the kinds of meat and their costs, I don't know how to spell chicken in arabic)
Those are the shops closest to us. Then about a 30 min walk away (close to a few people I tutor) is another chain store, Soudis where I buy cereal, they have a pretty good selection of things available here, including Temmys brand cereal, and sometimes I can find other things there that i wasn't expecting. Like yesterday I found these little packs of "vanilla extract". It is a powder and instructs you to add it to the flour to sweeten things. I haven't been able to find vanilla anywhere so I bought a pack to try. I'm still not sure about it.
To buy fruits and vegetables I head to Rd. 9 *the road with Metro Mart* and there are multiple "stores" with fruit and veggies in boxes around inside and outside the small shop. I am told that it is cheaper on rd 7 but I haven't been over there to find one close enough to us yet. (plus it isn't expensive I usually spend about 5-7$ on fruit when I go and I get us A TON. Fruit here is excellent, we just make sure to soak it in water with bleach before eating it.
So like I said, shops everywhere... mostly with the same selection but each one has something (usually 1 thing) that you can't find anywhere else. But it is kind of exciting to walk around, sometimes. But as our friends April and Mark say, "you can't just go pick something up here, everything you do turns into a story"
So true. With an option of a few differnt kinds of canned goods, Strained Foul, Canned corn, tuna fish, and tomato soup (which is campbells and looks extremely beat up), and with one kind of bread option, when the US cereal is 40 pounds and the Temmys brand is 8 that leaves no question as to what we buy there! But there aren't many choices really... we eat a lot of corn flakes and museli. we also eat a lot of spaghetti and chicken and rice. Actually that is basically our diet! But we try to mix it up as much as possible, I think we've had french toast 50 times in a month! Good thing that it is so delicious huh? We went through I think 30 eggs last week, amazing? I know! I think we eat at least 3 eggs each day most days.
things they don't have: real cheddar cheese (the stuff we got IS very close though), vanilla, baking soda, cottage cheese, man and cheese, parm, lettuce, (i miss salads a lot), Dr. Pepper... and a lot more. It is really strange though! But exciting definitely.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Dynamics of Arabic
Sounds like a lot of people want to know how I'm coping with this great task before me--learning Arabic. Over the course of this academic year I'm Sure I will be posting a few entries about my learning process with this language. I guess I'm stressed. The funny aspect of my stress is that I'm not stressed all the time and learning Arabic is not particularly difficult. It is just a HUGE bite to swallow. It takes time, a lot of time! I'm learning diligence, which had been something I do not feel has been a particularly strong trait of mine in the past. I'm learning not to worry about what I don't know and my time constraints (even though I wish i wouldn't get so mentally and physically tired and the day would last 48 hrs instead of 24) I'm learning to just put my head down and push along. It seems easy to procrastinate and think about doing things instead of actually getting down to business and just simply doing it. In saying this I'm not confessing to laziness or too much procrastination. I can't remember even on my mission being stretched like this language is stretching me physically and mentally.
I think a big part of the difficulty with Arabic is that it is not a one or two sided language. It has multiple dimensions. For instance, the end of last week the entire class did very poorly on a quiz. Luckily the teacher foresaw we were not up to the standard she had hoped for us so before taking the quiz she told us it would not count for a grade, but it would allow her to find out where we are. I was particularly shocked at how easy yet difficult the quiz was. I knew what the questions said perfectly and I knew in English how I wanted to respond. Then, when I put my hand down to write it in Arabic I couldn't. Previously we have always had word banks and multiple choice test now it is time for us to be able to have the word bank in our head and be able to spit it out when needed. I just couldn't spit the majority of the vocabulary out. Since it is a new writing style it is much easier to recognize the words already written than to produce them myself.
Today I decided to fix this problem. Instead of studying by looking at the Arabic word and sounding them out then checking if they are correct on the English side of the paper, I decided to look at my vocab list in English and write it in Arabic. It was difficult. I worked at it for 2 hours and finally 100%! I knew about 100 of my vocabulary words and could write them freely out of memory! I was so excited! Since many of the words had to do with hotels and restaurants I decided to write myself a nice size paragraph and tranlate it from english to Arabic. I wrote 1/2 page in english and translated it almost perfectly into Arabic. Then I ran into the bedroom where Casey was reading a book and said I know you won't understand me, but I want to read this paragraoh outloud to you in Arabic. I commenced to read and less than 1/2 way though I was moving slower than a turtle and barley able to pronounce the words! I got so frustrated! I sent 2 hours really learning vocab from my brain not just recognizing it on paper and how to write phonetically. Then, I couldn't even read it out loud! It will take me another couple of hours to be able to pronounce it correctly and that just for 1 class! Then I have grammer which is extremly important because Arabic doesn't use punctuation it is all conjecation, atricles, and other grammer rules. They have a different word order and many new grammer rules to understnad. Then, there is the spoken language that is almost completly different.
I will be honest and say that sometimes I get frustrated like the story I just wrote. On the other hand, it is such a fun language to learn. I'm learning how to love the learning process instead of just wanting to know the language. I do have moments like what i just wrote about where I feel overwhelmed b/c there is so much to learn. The surprising aspect for me is that no individual part is difficult to learn. When I sit down to learn vocab I can learn 50 or more words and hour. When I do grammar after some hours of homework I comprehend it completely. It is just 4 classes of material per day that I feel the need to study 2-3hrs for each class and it is impossible.
I was telling Casey the other day that sometimes we want the short cut. We plan to lose weight by some new or exercise plan that does not require sacrifice and diligence. We would rather pay some personal trainer to do it for us. Those people are the ones that never do lose the weight. I'm learning that instead of planing to try to make ever single second of studying effective I should just do it and the effectiveness comes with time. As I apply myself i learn ways to help me understand and retain knowledge. It sounds good to try to come up with plans to effectively study and make it short and powerful before doing it, but those plans never turn out the way I planned them. As I really apply myself one step at a time and not worry about all the stuff I don't know, but worry about each individual thing I can learn then I see myself moving forward. When I look back i see how incredibly far I have come.
I think a big part of the difficulty with Arabic is that it is not a one or two sided language. It has multiple dimensions. For instance, the end of last week the entire class did very poorly on a quiz. Luckily the teacher foresaw we were not up to the standard she had hoped for us so before taking the quiz she told us it would not count for a grade, but it would allow her to find out where we are. I was particularly shocked at how easy yet difficult the quiz was. I knew what the questions said perfectly and I knew in English how I wanted to respond. Then, when I put my hand down to write it in Arabic I couldn't. Previously we have always had word banks and multiple choice test now it is time for us to be able to have the word bank in our head and be able to spit it out when needed. I just couldn't spit the majority of the vocabulary out. Since it is a new writing style it is much easier to recognize the words already written than to produce them myself.
Today I decided to fix this problem. Instead of studying by looking at the Arabic word and sounding them out then checking if they are correct on the English side of the paper, I decided to look at my vocab list in English and write it in Arabic. It was difficult. I worked at it for 2 hours and finally 100%! I knew about 100 of my vocabulary words and could write them freely out of memory! I was so excited! Since many of the words had to do with hotels and restaurants I decided to write myself a nice size paragraph and tranlate it from english to Arabic. I wrote 1/2 page in english and translated it almost perfectly into Arabic. Then I ran into the bedroom where Casey was reading a book and said I know you won't understand me, but I want to read this paragraoh outloud to you in Arabic. I commenced to read and less than 1/2 way though I was moving slower than a turtle and barley able to pronounce the words! I got so frustrated! I sent 2 hours really learning vocab from my brain not just recognizing it on paper and how to write phonetically. Then, I couldn't even read it out loud! It will take me another couple of hours to be able to pronounce it correctly and that just for 1 class! Then I have grammer which is extremly important because Arabic doesn't use punctuation it is all conjecation, atricles, and other grammer rules. They have a different word order and many new grammer rules to understnad. Then, there is the spoken language that is almost completly different.
I will be honest and say that sometimes I get frustrated like the story I just wrote. On the other hand, it is such a fun language to learn. I'm learning how to love the learning process instead of just wanting to know the language. I do have moments like what i just wrote about where I feel overwhelmed b/c there is so much to learn. The surprising aspect for me is that no individual part is difficult to learn. When I sit down to learn vocab I can learn 50 or more words and hour. When I do grammar after some hours of homework I comprehend it completely. It is just 4 classes of material per day that I feel the need to study 2-3hrs for each class and it is impossible.
I was telling Casey the other day that sometimes we want the short cut. We plan to lose weight by some new or exercise plan that does not require sacrifice and diligence. We would rather pay some personal trainer to do it for us. Those people are the ones that never do lose the weight. I'm learning that instead of planing to try to make ever single second of studying effective I should just do it and the effectiveness comes with time. As I apply myself i learn ways to help me understand and retain knowledge. It sounds good to try to come up with plans to effectively study and make it short and powerful before doing it, but those plans never turn out the way I planned them. As I really apply myself one step at a time and not worry about all the stuff I don't know, but worry about each individual thing I can learn then I see myself moving forward. When I look back i see how incredibly far I have come.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
