Hello everyone, its our one day off from school, so we just finised our Friday prayers, and since we dont have to eat, thought we would come and check our email. And since we have internet connection, might as well udpate the blog at the same time. We havent been out in the day time in a long time, and i know why. Its hot!! and now im thirsty.. lol.. but all good.. should be going home soon iA...
So sabiha mentioned our 7 course meal last time... amazing, dont think we have ever been pamperred like that..lol.. and the food was good and real reasonable... $10 a person... not bad at all.. not something we would do all the time, since we have to live like locals and not like tourists, so we have to spend wisely. Yesterday after our dua program we went out for a walk and I bought my first Halal belt... lol... so to explain quickly... to pray, you have to have a belt whose leather came from an animal who was slaughtered in the Muslim way... otherwise, you have to take the belt off during namaaz... and since we are in a Muslim country, i thought it would be easier to just buy a belt that is Halal..lol...rather then taking my belt off every time i pray... and it was cheap too... definitely worth it...
The part of the city that we leave in, is about 15 minutes away from proper Damascus... and the area we are in is filled with poverty, so its real sad.. however, what sabiha and i noticed is that there are no trash cans anywhere when you walk on the streets... that means if we have something in our hands that we want to throw away, we have to hold it till we get home..lol... or ofcourse we could be like the locals and just throw it on the streets.. we havent done that yet... maybe soon?? lol... i do think that if they placed trash cans on the streets, maybe things would look a little cleaner..lol... but then you would have to teach the people how to use it :)
Umm, it for now, told you will be quick... anyways, will write soon. remember us in your prayers.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Sorry for long delay
Hello all, sorry for such a looong delay but its really hard without having internet access all the time, we have to find an hour out of our day to come to the internet cafe, and i know it seems like its only an hour, but it is really hard to find that hour.. lol.. we came to the cafe a few days ago, but the internet was so slow that we couldnt even access our own email properly.. but anyways, we are on now and blogging!!! This time Sabiha is also updating along side me, so make sure to read both, they will be interesting, lots to write about...lol
Last time's blog had a lot of religious material, so for all those not Muslim or Shia it may have been too much information, so this week will try and tell you about life here and how classes are going, but I am sure it will be impossible not to mention some 'religious' items...
Classes are going really well Alhamd, we our into our 3rd week of classes and are 1 week ahead of schedule, Alhamd... that means that all your prayers and thoughts are really helping us, so thank you very much... our teachers are really nice and they really go our of their way to make sure we understand certain matters. Our first 2 classes of the day are Arabic, followed by a 1 hour tutorial class where we sit on the sofa and we go over things we have learned previously, just to make sure we understand it properly. Then we have a Fiqh class followed by another arabic class. All those classes lead us to lunch, where because we are fasting, Sabiha and I go to our apartment (which is downstairs from our classroom) and take a nap. The original plan was for us to sit around and read the Holy Qur'an during our lunch, but I dont think they realized how tired we would get, especially cause we are fasting... then we come back from lunch and have a Qur'an class, followed by another tutorial class followed by a writing class... phew... arent you tired?? lol... its hard for us as well, especially cause we havent been to school in so long. And starting next week, they are adding an additional Hadith class at the end of the day, we are looking forward to that, but i know its going to be tiring... but besides the load of classes, Alhamd we have no regrets or no complains....
The institute has also started Duae Iftitah programs for us every night... Its really nice cause they invite some fantastic reciters to come and teach us how to read the Qur'an and the Dua so we can improve on our reciting. However so far we have just been listening, but Sabiha and I told them today that we are ready to begin reciting. I know we are not perfect, but Alhamd we have fluency atleast. Sometimes, and this is on rare occasions, we get the feeling that 'some' of our teachers and the arabs we meet outside think we dont have any 'religiousness' in us because we came from the west. And we constantly have to prove ourselves. For example one of our teachers asked if we knew a particular phrase, and we didnt and he acted really surprised and then when he described what he was talking about, we knew it already, its just that he used an arabic term and we know it as something else. Even Sabiha's pronounciation is really good in regards to Arabic letters, and the teacher could have sworn she had spent years in an arab country...lol... too funny.
The culture here in Syria is totally different, and we are trying our best to blend in.. for example, the flush in our bathroom was broken and we had to lift open the toilet tank and pull a lever to make it work. We let the management know of the apartment building and he said he would be there in a few hours...a few hours led to 3 days before finally someone came to take a look at it... and it wasnt like we left them alone, we were there talking to them atleast 2-3 times a day... finally on the 3rd day someone came, walked to the bathroom, lifted the toilet tank, reached in and pulled the lever, looked at me and smiled, as if to say he fixed it...LOL... 2 days later someone came and actually fixed it properly. What we learnt from that experience is that things happen at their our pace.. we cant force things... hopefully we dont become like that... lol... another huge thing we noticed, from the first day we got here, is that guys hold hands here all the time... and its not wierd at all.. lol.. it was to us, let me tell you that... but i guess its totally normal... you know what that means, next time any of my friends come down here, you better watch out...lol..just kidding...
the cafe is closing for prayers so am hurrying up now... a bit of sad news now, i am down to my last 2 cigarettes that i brought from home.. i know, i know... i will have to switch to another brand because they dont have my brand here... please dont cry for me, it will be ok, but just incase you were wondering, i smoke marlboro mediums...lol..hint hint....:)
Ok, bye for now, will talk soon iA.... take care
Last time's blog had a lot of religious material, so for all those not Muslim or Shia it may have been too much information, so this week will try and tell you about life here and how classes are going, but I am sure it will be impossible not to mention some 'religious' items...
Classes are going really well Alhamd, we our into our 3rd week of classes and are 1 week ahead of schedule, Alhamd... that means that all your prayers and thoughts are really helping us, so thank you very much... our teachers are really nice and they really go our of their way to make sure we understand certain matters. Our first 2 classes of the day are Arabic, followed by a 1 hour tutorial class where we sit on the sofa and we go over things we have learned previously, just to make sure we understand it properly. Then we have a Fiqh class followed by another arabic class. All those classes lead us to lunch, where because we are fasting, Sabiha and I go to our apartment (which is downstairs from our classroom) and take a nap. The original plan was for us to sit around and read the Holy Qur'an during our lunch, but I dont think they realized how tired we would get, especially cause we are fasting... then we come back from lunch and have a Qur'an class, followed by another tutorial class followed by a writing class... phew... arent you tired?? lol... its hard for us as well, especially cause we havent been to school in so long. And starting next week, they are adding an additional Hadith class at the end of the day, we are looking forward to that, but i know its going to be tiring... but besides the load of classes, Alhamd we have no regrets or no complains....
The institute has also started Duae Iftitah programs for us every night... Its really nice cause they invite some fantastic reciters to come and teach us how to read the Qur'an and the Dua so we can improve on our reciting. However so far we have just been listening, but Sabiha and I told them today that we are ready to begin reciting. I know we are not perfect, but Alhamd we have fluency atleast. Sometimes, and this is on rare occasions, we get the feeling that 'some' of our teachers and the arabs we meet outside think we dont have any 'religiousness' in us because we came from the west. And we constantly have to prove ourselves. For example one of our teachers asked if we knew a particular phrase, and we didnt and he acted really surprised and then when he described what he was talking about, we knew it already, its just that he used an arabic term and we know it as something else. Even Sabiha's pronounciation is really good in regards to Arabic letters, and the teacher could have sworn she had spent years in an arab country...lol... too funny.
The culture here in Syria is totally different, and we are trying our best to blend in.. for example, the flush in our bathroom was broken and we had to lift open the toilet tank and pull a lever to make it work. We let the management know of the apartment building and he said he would be there in a few hours...a few hours led to 3 days before finally someone came to take a look at it... and it wasnt like we left them alone, we were there talking to them atleast 2-3 times a day... finally on the 3rd day someone came, walked to the bathroom, lifted the toilet tank, reached in and pulled the lever, looked at me and smiled, as if to say he fixed it...LOL... 2 days later someone came and actually fixed it properly. What we learnt from that experience is that things happen at their our pace.. we cant force things... hopefully we dont become like that... lol... another huge thing we noticed, from the first day we got here, is that guys hold hands here all the time... and its not wierd at all.. lol.. it was to us, let me tell you that... but i guess its totally normal... you know what that means, next time any of my friends come down here, you better watch out...lol..just kidding...
the cafe is closing for prayers so am hurrying up now... a bit of sad news now, i am down to my last 2 cigarettes that i brought from home.. i know, i know... i will have to switch to another brand because they dont have my brand here... please dont cry for me, it will be ok, but just incase you were wondering, i smoke marlboro mediums...lol..hint hint....:)
Ok, bye for now, will talk soon iA.... take care
Blockbuster in Damascus??!!
lol all our blogs end up starting with an apology since we are unable to update our blog as frequently as we had hoped but iA hopefully with time that will change...we came last week to the internet cafe but the connection was way to slow to do anything...anyhow here we are some days later with a lot more adventure! Jaffer should also be posting something today he's at computer 6 and i'm at 7 lol.
sooo get this! the first week we were here we were introduced to a movie store...Jaffer and I were super excited - we can keep up to date with our movies...we can buy them for a $1 - lol yes 1$!!! and a bonus when we go get our movies is there this exceptional milkshake place around the corner - okay wait a minute, we are actually studying here for real and not just having fun! its quite a balance alhamd.
anyhow, so for the past few nights - since the beginning of ramadhan (our month of fasting) we've had several brilliant reciters join us every night to recite the du'as (prayers) for this special month. It's a great way for us to pracitice our spoken arabic ofcourse as well as practise reciting the dua's ... for now we've primarily been listening...but i think we're more than ready to actually starting reading and having the recitors help us refine our recitation...as we've been reciting these du'as for years back home and have already become fluent....anyhow iA soon. So the other night one of our teachers brought his family, wife and 2 little girls. His wife spoke NO english at all! wow what a task...you all know that normally i have no problem talking lol but that night i really had to think before i spoke. But you know what, i didnt do so badly at all, i was able to converse with her in choppy sentances, i asked her about her family, how old her kids were, where she was orginally from etc..and alhamd was able to understand most of what she asked and communicated back as well...i suppose that is the best way to practise!
last thursday, one of our teachers took us on a field trip...we only have class half day on thursday, so in the afternoon he took us to 'baabe sagheer' - this place is actually and area where there are a lot of shrines and prominent historical figures are burried there...so we went to pay our respects to bibi fizza, hazrat bilal, saw a place where our fourth imam used to conduct khutba's and lead prayers...it was definitely unreal...we went with our colleagues ofcourse....all of us were fasting on that day and wow i don't think i've ever had such a tough fast - it was super super hot and there was a lot of walking...but we managed. The best part was after we were done our teacher left and the 4 of us (jaffer and i, and the other couple studying with us) decided to stay back and adventure out on our own for the first time. We had planned to go to this restaurant for dinner and needed to make our way to that area, we luckily asked our teacher about how much a taxi would cost, he advised us not to pay more than 100 - 150 syrian pounds...so we headed to the street and waved down a cab...we explained to him where we needed to go and he told us 200, straight away we said no and we were hoping he would change his mind but instead he drove off lol so we kept walking and finally decided to ask some locals for help, they were really nice and get this, they got us on this mini bus which is the local transportation...lol we paid 5 syrian pounds per person, lol so 20 instead of 150 or 200! crazy huh! anyhow, we had a great time venturing out; ate at this really good authentic syrian restaurant...we had a 7 course meal - no joke, appetizers, then cream of mushroom soup,then chicken dish, rice with peppers stuffed with ground beef, mashed potatoes and steak in this white sauce, and then syrian sweet pastries and fruit - it was fabulous!
so this is now our third week of class and we're definitely picking up speed with all our classes which is great. with several different institutions we've heard that their school days are only 4 hours long...whereas ours are more like 8 hours...so you can imagine how much we learn and how much home work we have...but we definitely prefer it this way! i cant emphasize how lucky we are, we are really being taken care of...we've heard of other students who have come through different institutions and have had a hard tiem settling in...where as we had a lot ready for us and prepared when we came, i.e a place to stay and meals etc..alhamd.
anyhow,i know this is a lot to read so i shall wrap up, besides the cafe is closing for iftar(the time when we break our fast) - its really cool how everyone is fasting here lol no temptation by watching others eat lol well, hopefully our next post will be much sooner ... stay tuned .... :)
sooo get this! the first week we were here we were introduced to a movie store...Jaffer and I were super excited - we can keep up to date with our movies...we can buy them for a $1 - lol yes 1$!!! and a bonus when we go get our movies is there this exceptional milkshake place around the corner - okay wait a minute, we are actually studying here for real and not just having fun! its quite a balance alhamd.
anyhow, so for the past few nights - since the beginning of ramadhan (our month of fasting) we've had several brilliant reciters join us every night to recite the du'as (prayers) for this special month. It's a great way for us to pracitice our spoken arabic ofcourse as well as practise reciting the dua's ... for now we've primarily been listening...but i think we're more than ready to actually starting reading and having the recitors help us refine our recitation...as we've been reciting these du'as for years back home and have already become fluent....anyhow iA soon. So the other night one of our teachers brought his family, wife and 2 little girls. His wife spoke NO english at all! wow what a task...you all know that normally i have no problem talking lol but that night i really had to think before i spoke. But you know what, i didnt do so badly at all, i was able to converse with her in choppy sentances, i asked her about her family, how old her kids were, where she was orginally from etc..and alhamd was able to understand most of what she asked and communicated back as well...i suppose that is the best way to practise!
last thursday, one of our teachers took us on a field trip...we only have class half day on thursday, so in the afternoon he took us to 'baabe sagheer' - this place is actually and area where there are a lot of shrines and prominent historical figures are burried there...so we went to pay our respects to bibi fizza, hazrat bilal, saw a place where our fourth imam used to conduct khutba's and lead prayers...it was definitely unreal...we went with our colleagues ofcourse....all of us were fasting on that day and wow i don't think i've ever had such a tough fast - it was super super hot and there was a lot of walking...but we managed. The best part was after we were done our teacher left and the 4 of us (jaffer and i, and the other couple studying with us) decided to stay back and adventure out on our own for the first time. We had planned to go to this restaurant for dinner and needed to make our way to that area, we luckily asked our teacher about how much a taxi would cost, he advised us not to pay more than 100 - 150 syrian pounds...so we headed to the street and waved down a cab...we explained to him where we needed to go and he told us 200, straight away we said no and we were hoping he would change his mind but instead he drove off lol so we kept walking and finally decided to ask some locals for help, they were really nice and get this, they got us on this mini bus which is the local transportation...lol we paid 5 syrian pounds per person, lol so 20 instead of 150 or 200! crazy huh! anyhow, we had a great time venturing out; ate at this really good authentic syrian restaurant...we had a 7 course meal - no joke, appetizers, then cream of mushroom soup,then chicken dish, rice with peppers stuffed with ground beef, mashed potatoes and steak in this white sauce, and then syrian sweet pastries and fruit - it was fabulous!
so this is now our third week of class and we're definitely picking up speed with all our classes which is great. with several different institutions we've heard that their school days are only 4 hours long...whereas ours are more like 8 hours...so you can imagine how much we learn and how much home work we have...but we definitely prefer it this way! i cant emphasize how lucky we are, we are really being taken care of...we've heard of other students who have come through different institutions and have had a hard tiem settling in...where as we had a lot ready for us and prepared when we came, i.e a place to stay and meals etc..alhamd.
anyhow,i know this is a lot to read so i shall wrap up, besides the cafe is closing for iftar(the time when we break our fast) - its really cool how everyone is fasting here lol no temptation by watching others eat lol well, hopefully our next post will be much sooner ... stay tuned .... :)
Saturday, September 15, 2007
10 days in Damascus
Salaams to all!! Alhamd, we are doing great, no complains at all. Life Alhamd here is good... just to let you know what we have decided, Sabiha and I will both publish posts so there is more to read because of the infrequency of our blog updates. sorry about the infrequency but we are real busy and have to come to an Internet cafe to update, and its hard to find time.
ok...so 10 days in Sham already, crazy its been that long already, but you know what, it feels like we have been here 10 months, lol, not really, but at least 1 month...lol, so funny how that works... normally when we go on vacation time flies by, but i guess we are not on vacation...lol... we are real busy with school and the haram, and now the Holy Month of Ramadhan, it definitely keeps us wrapped up... we figured out they dont recite Dua Iftitah here, kinda sucks, we wanted to get the whole spiritual experience of it, but we will likely have to do it ourselves. no biggie...
On friday we went to Hamidiya, thats where Sayyida Rukaya is buried (bibi sakina). definitely a heart wrenching experience. we first walked through bazare sham, everything was closed because it was friday, however the person who took us explained to us that it took the Ahlul Bayt AS three days to walk that area, which took us about 10 minutes. So sad, cause you can imagine how much heart ache they must have been going through. Real sad!!! then we went to the area where Yazid's court used to be and then went into the Umayyad mosque. Very big. We saw the tomb of Hazrat Yahya (John the baptist) and then saw the Mimbar of Imam Zaynul Abideen AS. Very spiritually uplifting... we took pictures that IA we will upload soon, when we have our own Internet.. pray that we get it soon :) it was almost the time of juma so the ladies were behind this partition, however we all walked to the tombs and then were politely asked to separate..lol.. however we left, cause we wanted to go pray at Sayyida Rukaya. From there we walked to this area where they have the Mihrab of our 4th Imam... let me tell you how sad that area was. not only was the Mihrab there, but also the tray that they placed Imam Hussein's (AS) head in was there. Also, some say the head of Imam Husein is buried there, but not everyone agrees with that. Either way we paid our respects. Real sad as you can imagine.
From there we started walking to Bibi Rukaya. We saw the ruins of Yazid's palace, funny that all of the Ahlul Bayt's (AS) tombs are standing with such reverance, however there is hardly nothing left of Yazid's palace. It was pointed out to us that where Yazid's palace was and where Bibi Sakina is burried, is a good 3 walk, yet when she was crying, it could be heard all the way to Yazid's palace. Can you imagine???? then we finally got to Bibi Rukaya AS and prayed our Juma namaaz there, ofcourse it was in arabic, and the amazing thing was that we understood a good portion of it. Alhamd. We then paid our respects to this honorable lady and made our way home. What a day and what an experience. On top of that it was our first day of fasting and we were exhausted due to the walking and heat. But definitely worth it!!
Other then that, we have met some high ranking people here in Sham. We met Sheikh Halimi who is the representative of Ayatullah Sistani in Damascus. We were given a 20 minute audience with him where he gave each one of us a copy of the Holy Qur'an. Also, he gave us his business card with his personal cell phone number and said if anyone gives us any trouble, give them his card and tell them to call him, and he will take care of it... lol, really cool!!! A double bonus that day was that also in Sheikh Halimi's office was Syed Mohsin from Qum, who is the representative of Ayatullah Sistani in Qum. We were informed that whenever we send a question to Ayatullah Sistani, it is Syed Mohsin who answers all of them. It was a pretty great experience.
A few days later we went to go see Ayatullah Husseini who is the representative of Ayatullah Khamenei in Damascus. He gave us an audience of nearly an hour where he answered 1 question from each one of us. While we were sitting there, guess what i did? lol, i spilt the cup of tea that was given to us all over his carpet and table. LOL, i was trying to say something to apologize, and Alhamd the correct word popped into my head, "Afwan" and i repeated it a few times and he looked at me and smiled, and made a gesture as if to say dont worry young man...lol... i think i left a little bit of an impression on him...lol..
wow, long blog huh...lol... our classes are going real well. I have to say, sabiha is a genius, she is by far the smartest one if our class, and when i mean by far, it is no exageration. Alhamd, luckily she is my wife :) but she has a great grasp of the language and is amazing at memorizing vocab. I on the other hand have to struggle with it, but luckily i have someone as smart as her to help me out at home.
IA we will update again soon, until then, remember us in you duas during this Holy Month and we will iA do the same.
Till then, take care... Ma-as Salaam.
ok...so 10 days in Sham already, crazy its been that long already, but you know what, it feels like we have been here 10 months, lol, not really, but at least 1 month...lol, so funny how that works... normally when we go on vacation time flies by, but i guess we are not on vacation...lol... we are real busy with school and the haram, and now the Holy Month of Ramadhan, it definitely keeps us wrapped up... we figured out they dont recite Dua Iftitah here, kinda sucks, we wanted to get the whole spiritual experience of it, but we will likely have to do it ourselves. no biggie...
On friday we went to Hamidiya, thats where Sayyida Rukaya is buried (bibi sakina). definitely a heart wrenching experience. we first walked through bazare sham, everything was closed because it was friday, however the person who took us explained to us that it took the Ahlul Bayt AS three days to walk that area, which took us about 10 minutes. So sad, cause you can imagine how much heart ache they must have been going through. Real sad!!! then we went to the area where Yazid's court used to be and then went into the Umayyad mosque. Very big. We saw the tomb of Hazrat Yahya (John the baptist) and then saw the Mimbar of Imam Zaynul Abideen AS. Very spiritually uplifting... we took pictures that IA we will upload soon, when we have our own Internet.. pray that we get it soon :) it was almost the time of juma so the ladies were behind this partition, however we all walked to the tombs and then were politely asked to separate..lol.. however we left, cause we wanted to go pray at Sayyida Rukaya. From there we walked to this area where they have the Mihrab of our 4th Imam... let me tell you how sad that area was. not only was the Mihrab there, but also the tray that they placed Imam Hussein's (AS) head in was there. Also, some say the head of Imam Husein is buried there, but not everyone agrees with that. Either way we paid our respects. Real sad as you can imagine.
From there we started walking to Bibi Rukaya. We saw the ruins of Yazid's palace, funny that all of the Ahlul Bayt's (AS) tombs are standing with such reverance, however there is hardly nothing left of Yazid's palace. It was pointed out to us that where Yazid's palace was and where Bibi Sakina is burried, is a good 3 walk, yet when she was crying, it could be heard all the way to Yazid's palace. Can you imagine???? then we finally got to Bibi Rukaya AS and prayed our Juma namaaz there, ofcourse it was in arabic, and the amazing thing was that we understood a good portion of it. Alhamd. We then paid our respects to this honorable lady and made our way home. What a day and what an experience. On top of that it was our first day of fasting and we were exhausted due to the walking and heat. But definitely worth it!!
Other then that, we have met some high ranking people here in Sham. We met Sheikh Halimi who is the representative of Ayatullah Sistani in Damascus. We were given a 20 minute audience with him where he gave each one of us a copy of the Holy Qur'an. Also, he gave us his business card with his personal cell phone number and said if anyone gives us any trouble, give them his card and tell them to call him, and he will take care of it... lol, really cool!!! A double bonus that day was that also in Sheikh Halimi's office was Syed Mohsin from Qum, who is the representative of Ayatullah Sistani in Qum. We were informed that whenever we send a question to Ayatullah Sistani, it is Syed Mohsin who answers all of them. It was a pretty great experience.
A few days later we went to go see Ayatullah Husseini who is the representative of Ayatullah Khamenei in Damascus. He gave us an audience of nearly an hour where he answered 1 question from each one of us. While we were sitting there, guess what i did? lol, i spilt the cup of tea that was given to us all over his carpet and table. LOL, i was trying to say something to apologize, and Alhamd the correct word popped into my head, "Afwan" and i repeated it a few times and he looked at me and smiled, and made a gesture as if to say dont worry young man...lol... i think i left a little bit of an impression on him...lol..
wow, long blog huh...lol... our classes are going real well. I have to say, sabiha is a genius, she is by far the smartest one if our class, and when i mean by far, it is no exageration. Alhamd, luckily she is my wife :) but she has a great grasp of the language and is amazing at memorizing vocab. I on the other hand have to struggle with it, but luckily i have someone as smart as her to help me out at home.
IA we will update again soon, until then, remember us in you duas during this Holy Month and we will iA do the same.
Till then, take care... Ma-as Salaam.
Monday, September 10, 2007
long time no write....
wow it's been a while eh? trust me we've been wanting to write on here as much as you've been wanting to read ( we hope lol). anyhow, we are both doin well and have finally reached --- after a long 30 hrs of travel! hmmmm so what can i say...its different here - but different in a good way. definitely a culture shock but we're adjusting quit well i must say. for one gettin used to the 'chaotic order' here...what we would consider a road or lane for 1 car is used for 6 cars here(busses, cars, vans, cyclists, pedestrians...we still haven't figured out who has the right of way)...it is definitely an art to drive here...the people here have mastered a skill that i can't even attempt. another is that here 'rules are meant to be broken' not sometimes, but all the time, wait i dont think there are many rules...but that all aside...the people here are 'mumtaz' excellent, amazing, more than kind...everyone we've met thus far have been extremely helpful and it is because of them we have become comfortable so quickly.
we've had a chance to see and do quite a bit alhamd...go to the haram ofcourse...gone to the city and had some amazing fawakeh (fruit) smoothies..and had some awesome food...for un-beatable prices!!!!
anyhow, hoping u guys are able to see this post cos for some reason our blog site itself has been blocked by the network firewall but i can access the account so here's hoping
Jaffer and i now know about this cafe ( $0.65/hr btw) lol so hope to be coming here again soon between our classes and studying ofcourse...until then fee amaanillah!
we've had a chance to see and do quite a bit alhamd...go to the haram ofcourse...gone to the city and had some amazing fawakeh (fruit) smoothies..and had some awesome food...for un-beatable prices!!!!
anyhow, hoping u guys are able to see this post cos for some reason our blog site itself has been blocked by the network firewall but i can access the account so here's hoping
Jaffer and i now know about this cafe ( $0.65/hr btw) lol so hope to be coming here again soon between our classes and studying ofcourse...until then fee amaanillah!
We are in Damascus!!!! - and we have found Internet - cafe:)
Whats up everyone... Long long time no write.. real sorry about that. Since we have arrived here, we havent had computer access, there have been many cafes around but we never got the chance, but Alhamd we finally got some free time after class, so we decided to come and check our emails..etc... and you know what we found out, our blog page is blocked here..lol, we cant access it. It is giving us permission to update it, so IA it will come on the blog itself..lol..
Sooo, updates!! We got here last Wed, no problems with the luggage, they call came out right away. Its really funny here, that there doesnt seem to be that many rules. We noticed this right after we landed... there were no smoking signs through out the airport and in customs, but everyone was smoking..lol... too funny, so yup, i lit one up too... When in Rome..... :0
Hussein bhai (the manager of the course) picked us up and took us to our new home... For those who have never been here, let me tell you something, there is ALOT of poverty here... but you know what, people are happy... makes you reflect that we work so hard and are Alhamd living comfortably, yet we never are happy... anyways... we got here and the first thing we noticed was that there are no driving rules...lol.. im sure there are, but we (foreigners) didnt see any... but we think we have figured it out... survival of the biggest... if you have a bus, you have the right of way... then comes the mini buses, then smaller cars, then motorcycles, then bicycles then pedestrians..lol... it is chaotic when you walk on the streets...lol, always people honking, 6 lanes of cars on a 2 lane road...lol, lots of fun... also, there was thousands of little shops, bazaars after bazaars, people selling everything... a few nights ago, Sabiha and I ate out, it cost us 85 pounds for 2 shawarmas and an orange soda, that comes out to $1.60 for a dinner!!! Nice!!! LOL
We did go to the Haram the first day and subsequently every day that we have been here. Alhamd, truly overwhelming and nice... but lots and lots of people. We are literally 5 minutes walk away from the haram... amazing!! we can see the Haram from our apartment...
Lastly for now, our classes are going good.. 3 days of class so far, pray that we learn alot!!!
OK for now, dont know when we will come back to the cafe, but hope you are reading.... dont stop coming to our page!!!! :)
Peace
Sooo, updates!! We got here last Wed, no problems with the luggage, they call came out right away. Its really funny here, that there doesnt seem to be that many rules. We noticed this right after we landed... there were no smoking signs through out the airport and in customs, but everyone was smoking..lol... too funny, so yup, i lit one up too... When in Rome..... :0
Hussein bhai (the manager of the course) picked us up and took us to our new home... For those who have never been here, let me tell you something, there is ALOT of poverty here... but you know what, people are happy... makes you reflect that we work so hard and are Alhamd living comfortably, yet we never are happy... anyways... we got here and the first thing we noticed was that there are no driving rules...lol.. im sure there are, but we (foreigners) didnt see any... but we think we have figured it out... survival of the biggest... if you have a bus, you have the right of way... then comes the mini buses, then smaller cars, then motorcycles, then bicycles then pedestrians..lol... it is chaotic when you walk on the streets...lol, always people honking, 6 lanes of cars on a 2 lane road...lol, lots of fun... also, there was thousands of little shops, bazaars after bazaars, people selling everything... a few nights ago, Sabiha and I ate out, it cost us 85 pounds for 2 shawarmas and an orange soda, that comes out to $1.60 for a dinner!!! Nice!!! LOL
We did go to the Haram the first day and subsequently every day that we have been here. Alhamd, truly overwhelming and nice... but lots and lots of people. We are literally 5 minutes walk away from the haram... amazing!! we can see the Haram from our apartment...
Lastly for now, our classes are going good.. 3 days of class so far, pray that we learn alot!!!
OK for now, dont know when we will come back to the cafe, but hope you are reading.... dont stop coming to our page!!!! :)
Peace
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
We are in London!! 1 day late
Haha... ok, so we are finally in London, Alhamd... however we got here 1 day late. So as you read on the last blog, we were having serious weight issues with our bags. Since we were spending 1 night in London, all our bags that we checked in from LA would come out in London. That means that if we pay for overweight bags or 1 extra bag, either or, we would not only have to pay in LA but would also have to pay in London. Double the charge....crazy! Also, since we are flying with Gulf Air from London, they charge some ridiculous amount, between 10-17 sterling pounds per kilo. That means 20-34 dollars per kilo. That means we would have to pay nearly 500$. Thats nuts!!! So what we decided to do was postpone our flight from LA, leave on Monday instead of Sunday, that way our bags would not come out when we landed in London. So, it worked out much better. And the good thing was, that when we took off from LA, we got some really nice porter at the airport, and we didnt even have to pay for the overweight bags. Alhamd!!!!
So after all that drama, we are finally in London. And since we decided to stay an extra day in LA, it messed everyones plans here in London, cause they had planned to pick us up and host us for one night. So when we finally landed in London, there was no one to pick us up... LOL... we had a 10 hour layover, so definitely enough time to come out of the airport and go somewhere. And since we already have our boarding pass and no baggage to tag along, we were pretty much free. So we thought we would catch a train to go to Nargis Kapuri, a restaurant that serves East African Cuisine. By the way if you didnt know, Sabiha and I are East African..lol... However, we checked their website from LA and they are closed on Tuesdays!!!! What!! LOL!! how funny is that...lol.. so that plan was cancelled. Luckily, our cousin said to come to his house by taxi or bus or train. So we finally landed in London, and no trains are running, they are all on strike. hahaha... how funny... so we did what anyone Londoner would do, we caught the bus. And boy that was a treat. It took us 2 hours to get home.... lol. We got here at 4pm and our flight is at 1030. But as i mentioned, we already have our boarding passes, so we just have to be at the airport by 9, IA. Phew.... long couple of days!!!
On a side note, before we left LA, on sunday I had my last volleyball practice and LA Union gave Sabiha and I a very nice gift. We pray to Allah SWT to bless all of them and iA give them more then they ask for. Thank you very much LA Union!!
OK, so we dont know what our internet status will be in Damascus, so until we figure that out, this might be our last blog for a few days. However, you never know, so stay tuned!!!!!
So after all that drama, we are finally in London. And since we decided to stay an extra day in LA, it messed everyones plans here in London, cause they had planned to pick us up and host us for one night. So when we finally landed in London, there was no one to pick us up... LOL... we had a 10 hour layover, so definitely enough time to come out of the airport and go somewhere. And since we already have our boarding pass and no baggage to tag along, we were pretty much free. So we thought we would catch a train to go to Nargis Kapuri, a restaurant that serves East African Cuisine. By the way if you didnt know, Sabiha and I are East African..lol... However, we checked their website from LA and they are closed on Tuesdays!!!! What!! LOL!! how funny is that...lol.. so that plan was cancelled. Luckily, our cousin said to come to his house by taxi or bus or train. So we finally landed in London, and no trains are running, they are all on strike. hahaha... how funny... so we did what anyone Londoner would do, we caught the bus. And boy that was a treat. It took us 2 hours to get home.... lol. We got here at 4pm and our flight is at 1030. But as i mentioned, we already have our boarding passes, so we just have to be at the airport by 9, IA. Phew.... long couple of days!!!
On a side note, before we left LA, on sunday I had my last volleyball practice and LA Union gave Sabiha and I a very nice gift. We pray to Allah SWT to bless all of them and iA give them more then they ask for. Thank you very much LA Union!!
OK, so we dont know what our internet status will be in Damascus, so until we figure that out, this might be our last blog for a few days. However, you never know, so stay tuned!!!!!
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