Wanted to share some videos to make you laugh, about life here:
She thinks My Camel's Sexy: www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9b-8C5RONk
Food Here:
Tabbouleh: (finely chopped parsley and tomatoes) All my language teacher can get her girls to eat is tabbouleh and french fries
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FaNzrtu0KM&feature=channel
Hummus:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIybz6axr1Q&feature=channel
Hope this makes you laugh!!
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Happy Mother's Day
Happy Mother's Day!
In honor of Mom, I am posting more pictures of the Beautiful Boardwalk here at Sunset! We may be across the ocean, but we have the same gorgeous sky!
Love you Mom, and Mema and Grandma Sue, and family!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2027646&id=79800981&l=d52ffb6652
In honor of Mom, I am posting more pictures of the Beautiful Boardwalk here at Sunset! We may be across the ocean, but we have the same gorgeous sky!
Love you Mom, and Mema and Grandma Sue, and family!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2027646&id=79800981&l=d52ffb6652
For the Oklahomans, out there!
Some things that I think all the Oklahomans out there will enjoy! (now that I have the fidget, I can see when you all sign on, and there are so many of you, so this one is for you!)
Missin' Tornadoes and Thunderstorms in Oklahoma Springtime
It doesn't rain here during the Spring and when it looks the least cloudy, the Oklahoman in me comes out and I look for the big thunderstorm or tornado. Who knew I would miss those living here? I guess it is the excitement of the storm or how great it is to sleep through the storm. And I hear that you all in Oklahoma have had a lot of rain and storms recently!
Driving 4-Wheelers in the City
So I have seen a couple of four wheelers in the city over the last couple of weeks, alongside all the mopeds here. It is actually, odd to see full-sized motorcycles, cause I have gotten so used to just seeing the mopeds. But to see 4-Wheelers, which remind me of Oklahoma country on these busy city streets was a shock!
Ready for Memorial Day at Lake Tenkiller
Living this close to the beach, but not going to swim in the Sea yet, has been hard. The public beaches are to be avoided here, because of the kind of guys that hang out there. And the private beaches are expensive. Makes ya miss just going to Lake Tenkiller, or the Illinois River for free. For Memorial Day, go out and enjoy the water and grill a steak out for me!
Missin' Tornadoes and Thunderstorms in Oklahoma Springtime
It doesn't rain here during the Spring and when it looks the least cloudy, the Oklahoman in me comes out and I look for the big thunderstorm or tornado. Who knew I would miss those living here? I guess it is the excitement of the storm or how great it is to sleep through the storm. And I hear that you all in Oklahoma have had a lot of rain and storms recently!
Driving 4-Wheelers in the City
So I have seen a couple of four wheelers in the city over the last couple of weeks, alongside all the mopeds here. It is actually, odd to see full-sized motorcycles, cause I have gotten so used to just seeing the mopeds. But to see 4-Wheelers, which remind me of Oklahoma country on these busy city streets was a shock!
Ready for Memorial Day at Lake Tenkiller
Living this close to the beach, but not going to swim in the Sea yet, has been hard. The public beaches are to be avoided here, because of the kind of guys that hang out there. And the private beaches are expensive. Makes ya miss just going to Lake Tenkiller, or the Illinois River for free. For Memorial Day, go out and enjoy the water and grill a steak out for me!
Monday, April 27, 2009
Visit to an Old "Walled City"
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2027386&id=79800981&l=285c3b2d72
Check out these pictures from a little day trip!
Check out these pictures from a little day trip!
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
Compliments and Arab life
In foreign countries, I seem to be known for my baby face! In another country, I always got my cheeks pinched. Here, I have been asked what facial moisturizer I use and if you can get it here. (I have also been told my hair is a "camp" multiple times by a hairstylist here, still not sure what that means.)
My language teacher has called my face a "garden" before. I always thought she was talking about my crazy hair. But today I got the reason for it! There is this green floral shirt I wear that she really likes on me, and says that it bring out the color of my lips and just works...therefore my face is as pretty as a garden, (Obviously, right!?!) This is the shirt below, although, I wear a long sleeve shirt underneath it here, but I don't have a picture of that.
So, since she was complimenting me, I told her that "Fustanik hilwe" your dress is beautiful. {Tangent: Arabic is a difficult language to master, but very convenient, see above, what takes 4 English words can be said in Arabic in 2 words! There are several phrases like this. For indirect and direct object you just add an additional suffix instead of another word, this is nice, but just another thing to have to learn} And this was a new dress or at least one, that I had never seen her wear and it was "mov" (mauve) her favorite color. She liked that I liked her dress and said that it was the color her husband like the most on her.
Well, about 15 minutes later, her dress gets caught in her chair, and an about an inch of eyelet material is ripped....and I AM BLAMED! Because I complemented her dress, then something had to be done, so I would not covet! That is the jest, anyway. Here it is always good to stay away from complimenting someone about a material possession, because then that obligates them to give it to you, or means that now, something bad will happen to them or to that material item. BUT, I thought that since I had already been complimented on my garden face, only minutes before, I could complement her dress. I thought that my language teacher was more Western and had moved past that tradition. And maybe she has, but she still took advantage of the opportunity to blame me in a joking way, for the rip in "Fustan hilwe" (beautiful dress).
Other notes from class today on life here:
My teacher is very jumpy around loud noises. Which can be attributed to the fact that most of her life she has lived through harab (war). And this is the reason she has stomach ulcers. She was very sick (could have been anxiety caused by the war, or just a stomach bug/virus) during the war, when medical help was harder to come by. So she went untreated and without medicine for such a long time, that she has now developed ulcers.
She also does not like the Call to Prayer here, that is broadcast from the mosques five times a day. I have not heard Nationals say that they don't like the Call to Prayer before. Foreigners either think it is beautiful, or become annoyed by it, or have a very hard time with it because of the beliefs it represents. But to have my covered language teacher tell me that it gives her chills, I was very surprised. When she explained though, I remembered, that the call also goes off during a funeral. So she also links the Call to all the people she knows that have passed away. Something that I had not thought about before.
Karaoke...Arab Style
Thursday night, the young professionals' club had a "social event," K A R A O K E! It said it started at 9. So being on Arab time, I left my house at 9, and walked the 10 minutes to the cafe. And of course the actually karaoke did not start till 10:30. But it was still a fun time. I had some "wing girls" come with me, that are not a part of the club. I have learned that I need to work on my small talk game. It was nice to have the girls with me to help with small talk, prove that yes, this poor foreign girl does have other friends, and of course to help me carry a tune! It was fun!
I was a little nervous about not being able to Karaoke, because I can't read Arabic fast enough to sing with it. But looking through the books of songs before we started, they had half-n-half English/Arabic, which was a comfort. And then it hit me, I really only know Ch and Country music enough to sing along with it! So, we looked and found 2 songs that I could sing: "That Don't Impress Me Much!" by Shania Twain, (listen to this song if you have it, it is very true about the men here, if I might add) and "Tim McGraw" by Taylor Swift. LHUMDILILLA (thanks be to God), my roommate sang with me on both of these, and the mic volume was low. We left the party at 12AM though, so I didn't get the worse voice award! Interestingly, only the chorus of one song was in Arabic, the majority of the songs were in English, with maybe a-third of the songs were in French!
So, I introduced the scene to my country music! I knew most of the English songs, some well enough to sing along to like "How To Save A Life," but there were a couple that I didn't really know.
Karaoke, Yes! A Success, and I think I could do it again someday! No one was all that great, but everyone sings along with you anyway. And now the ice is broken with the group, and we have things to tease each other about, which always helps in the small talk game! So a good night all around!
I was a little nervous about not being able to Karaoke, because I can't read Arabic fast enough to sing with it. But looking through the books of songs before we started, they had half-n-half English/Arabic, which was a comfort. And then it hit me, I really only know Ch and Country music enough to sing along with it! So, we looked and found 2 songs that I could sing: "That Don't Impress Me Much!" by Shania Twain, (listen to this song if you have it, it is very true about the men here, if I might add) and "Tim McGraw" by Taylor Swift. LHUMDILILLA (thanks be to God), my roommate sang with me on both of these, and the mic volume was low. We left the party at 12AM though, so I didn't get the worse voice award! Interestingly, only the chorus of one song was in Arabic, the majority of the songs were in English, with maybe a-third of the songs were in French!
So, I introduced the scene to my country music! I knew most of the English songs, some well enough to sing along to like "How To Save A Life," but there were a couple that I didn't really know.
Karaoke, Yes! A Success, and I think I could do it again someday! No one was all that great, but everyone sings along with you anyway. And now the ice is broken with the group, and we have things to tease each other about, which always helps in the small talk game! So a good night all around!
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