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