Hello everyone, hows everything going. Alhamd, we are doing good, busy with school and studying...lol.. Alhamd, we have found a good niche and have learned how to manage our school time and at the same time find time to relax. But now we are looking forward to coming home, i know we have said this many times over the past few blogs, but just to get a break from classes and studying, and to be back home with family, really looking forward to that. We dont really miss any amenities, maybe ofcourse for some different types of food that arent available here, but Alhamd as we have mentioned before, pretty much everything is available here. By the way, if anyone is keeping tabs, tomorrow will be exactly 2 months before we come HOME!!!
This last week of school we have been getting lectures from our next year teachers to see if we are ready to take Hawza lectures in Arabic, and Alhamd they have been very happy with us and feel confident that we will be able to take classes next year. Sabiha and I just hope that we dont forget the arabic we have learnt when we come home. We have made a pact to speak to each other in arabic for at least an hour a day, though Sabiha just mentioned to me that we had decided to only speak to each other in arabic, and our teachers have said they will give us tools so we can prepare and practice when we are back home. We have started to take Aqaid - our core beliefs - classes this semester, just to get us ready and prepared for when we take classes next year. They have been great classes, cause a lot of philosophy and questions when it comes to this subject... really nice.
Lastly, the NBA playoffs are starting :( I cant believe the Lakers are number 1 and I wont be able to watch any of the games. This is heart breaking...lol, not really a laughing matter to tell you the truth. But we hope for the best and will be checking the internet constantly to see what the outcomes are....either way, GO LAKERS!!!
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
What to write about????
Hello everyone, hope you days are going as well as ours are over here. We finally are at our weekend, one whole day off!! miss our 7-3 schedule back home and two whole days off... JUST KIDDING!! dont miss anything about our old work schedule..we love it here and the schedule we have. no kidding about that..
the last couple of days was a blast, a lot of our family were here visiting... nearly 20 Jaffer's all together.. it was fantastic. We would finish with our school and right away go and hang out with them. Being here in Sayyida Zainab AS we see so many of our family members, more then we ever did back home. They have all left now, but most will be back in a weeks time for one more day before they all go back home. So we are looking forward to that one day again.
As I am sure you are aware, there is a countdown taking place, after today, we have officially 71 days left before we come back home..lol.. dont worry, we will regularly countdown, cause i know you are counting down as well.. LOL...
Also, we have mentioned, that we have become expert ring buyers and tasbih (rosery beads) buyers... lol... in this month alone, we have taken people to go buy stuff, and all together, we have given this one store 36,000 syrian pounds worth of business. Now, thats alot of money, nearly $700.00. Now if we receive orders from abroad, there is a service fee that we charge, so the price will be higher... lol, im just joking, not about the service fee, about taking orders from abroad :)
Oh yes, forgot to mention, last week we here at the internet cafe and some guy sitting next to me struck up a conversation with me and asked the usual questions that all do when they talk to us.. "Anta min Bakistan?" LOL, so i replied Im not from Pakistan (the B was not a mistake, no P in the arabic language..), but I am from Canada... lol, thats right, havent dont tell many people im from USA, just to avoid any uncomfortable talks... anyways, to get to the point, he showed me this computer program available here that lets us call people in the states or in Canada for FREE... you read it right, FREE... so we have been making lots of calls to family members, excellent way to keep in touch.
Anways, all for now, will talk to you later!!
the last couple of days was a blast, a lot of our family were here visiting... nearly 20 Jaffer's all together.. it was fantastic. We would finish with our school and right away go and hang out with them. Being here in Sayyida Zainab AS we see so many of our family members, more then we ever did back home. They have all left now, but most will be back in a weeks time for one more day before they all go back home. So we are looking forward to that one day again.
As I am sure you are aware, there is a countdown taking place, after today, we have officially 71 days left before we come back home..lol.. dont worry, we will regularly countdown, cause i know you are counting down as well.. LOL...
Also, we have mentioned, that we have become expert ring buyers and tasbih (rosery beads) buyers... lol... in this month alone, we have taken people to go buy stuff, and all together, we have given this one store 36,000 syrian pounds worth of business. Now, thats alot of money, nearly $700.00. Now if we receive orders from abroad, there is a service fee that we charge, so the price will be higher... lol, im just joking, not about the service fee, about taking orders from abroad :)
Oh yes, forgot to mention, last week we here at the internet cafe and some guy sitting next to me struck up a conversation with me and asked the usual questions that all do when they talk to us.. "Anta min Bakistan?" LOL, so i replied Im not from Pakistan (the B was not a mistake, no P in the arabic language..), but I am from Canada... lol, thats right, havent dont tell many people im from USA, just to avoid any uncomfortable talks... anyways, to get to the point, he showed me this computer program available here that lets us call people in the states or in Canada for FREE... you read it right, FREE... so we have been making lots of calls to family members, excellent way to keep in touch.
Anways, all for now, will talk to you later!!
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
New information received !!!
OK... its like a 2 for 1, two posts published on the same day... haha... i think it may be a first...
Last weekend our school had a meeting here in Damascus and a lot of people came down. For starters the Coordinator of the course, ex pres of WF, VP of Nasimco and Coej, our uncle from Mombasa and cousin from Switzerland and a few other very nice people from England... We were fortunate enough to sit in on the meetings and it was nice to see that people are putting a lot of effort to make this course successful. So all the future candidates for this course, have no fears, things are looking good... though there has been some changes that you should know about when you go back to your hometown for 2 months, this piece of info caught all the students off guard.
Before we came to Damascus, we had lots and lots and lots of questions, and some of those questions pertained to when we go back home for 2 months. We were told repeatedly that dont worry about a thing, everything will be taken care for you, and that we wouldnt want to make life hard for you. So what did we do? we sold everything...lol, both cars, all furniture, basically emptied everything we had... We asked our jamaat (mosque) if they would be able to pay for anything when we come back home and they said they couldnt because it would be too expensive for them, and we totally understood that... The jamaat themselves calculated and it would cost anywhere from 4000-4500 a month to live in LA, and for those that live in LA, they know that it sounds about right... but we repeatedly told not to worry about a thing, so we didnt....
Now, we just found out a day or two ago, that the only thing they are going to pay for is our Housing when we get back. So we asked the basic questions that anyone would ask.... why? have you ever been to LA, if so you know that you need a car, who is going to pay for the car? what about cost of living? what about food? why were we not told about this from before so we would have kept one of our cars? many questions were asked and no answers were given. Only thing we were told is that they are over budget and they cant afford to pay for anything else but housing!!!! Great!!!! Alhamd tho, we have no doubt that Allah SWT will take care of us, He always does, this post is just for future students to plan well for when you go back home. Dont let this worry you, at least you know about it so you can plan better.
Besides this bomb shell of information, everything else is good. Sabiha has lots to write but she said she will do it next time, dont think our readers can handle 3 blogs on one day!!!
Take care and pray for us :) we only have 80 DAYS left before we come back home!!! WOOOHOOO
Last weekend our school had a meeting here in Damascus and a lot of people came down. For starters the Coordinator of the course, ex pres of WF, VP of Nasimco and Coej, our uncle from Mombasa and cousin from Switzerland and a few other very nice people from England... We were fortunate enough to sit in on the meetings and it was nice to see that people are putting a lot of effort to make this course successful. So all the future candidates for this course, have no fears, things are looking good... though there has been some changes that you should know about when you go back to your hometown for 2 months, this piece of info caught all the students off guard.
Before we came to Damascus, we had lots and lots and lots of questions, and some of those questions pertained to when we go back home for 2 months. We were told repeatedly that dont worry about a thing, everything will be taken care for you, and that we wouldnt want to make life hard for you. So what did we do? we sold everything...lol, both cars, all furniture, basically emptied everything we had... We asked our jamaat (mosque) if they would be able to pay for anything when we come back home and they said they couldnt because it would be too expensive for them, and we totally understood that... The jamaat themselves calculated and it would cost anywhere from 4000-4500 a month to live in LA, and for those that live in LA, they know that it sounds about right... but we repeatedly told not to worry about a thing, so we didnt....
Now, we just found out a day or two ago, that the only thing they are going to pay for is our Housing when we get back. So we asked the basic questions that anyone would ask.... why? have you ever been to LA, if so you know that you need a car, who is going to pay for the car? what about cost of living? what about food? why were we not told about this from before so we would have kept one of our cars? many questions were asked and no answers were given. Only thing we were told is that they are over budget and they cant afford to pay for anything else but housing!!!! Great!!!! Alhamd tho, we have no doubt that Allah SWT will take care of us, He always does, this post is just for future students to plan well for when you go back home. Dont let this worry you, at least you know about it so you can plan better.
Besides this bomb shell of information, everything else is good. Sabiha has lots to write but she said she will do it next time, dont think our readers can handle 3 blogs on one day!!!
Take care and pray for us :) we only have 80 DAYS left before we come back home!!! WOOOHOOO
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