Exactly One Month Left!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whats up everyone... We doing good, as you can tell by the title, the countdown is ticking away...lol... I wish it was that easy tho, just to sit back and then catch the plane home... We have exams coming up!!!!!! And we still have to study, though it is safe to say half of our minds are back home already, the other half wants to join but its not allowed :) Not yet anyways, besides that, we have begun to start packing, i know you may be thinking, but why start so early??? well, there are many clothes that we brought here that we havent worn all year long... For example, I dont wear short sleeve shirts here anymore, most of the time I am wearing the traditional Arab dress (dishdasha/khanzu) and sabiha is always wearing an abaya, so alot of clothes we will only wear back home, therefore those things have been packed :)

We havent seen too many pilgrims these last few weeks, in a way its been good cause we have been able to focus on our studies (just kidding...lol.) We finally got a book in arabic about rings and stones... There are lots of important stones (like diamonds or zarconians, ruby...etc) in Islam and lots of significances to wear them and the good it does to you.. so we are almost becoming experts.. lol, atleast we learning something right...haha..

On a final note, the LAKERS are in the Western Conference Finals...OH MY GOODNESS, we really missing it alot... Our brother in LA has recorded one of the games, but if anyone wants, you too can record the games for us and save it onto a DVD...lol...

K, pray for us!!!

Khushali Mubarak to all of you!! 'kul 'aam wa atum bi khair iA"

Salaams to all of our readers, if anyone is still reading :) Today we are celebrating the birth anniversary of Sayyida Zainab AS and it is an honor to be here in Syria, in the close proximity to her tomb. kul 'aam wa antum bi khair iA! We had a day off today, ALhamd, lol, long time over due and really needed by us :) so we did the only thing students know how to do on a day off, we slept :) LOL, then we actually studied... haha.. we went to the Haram last night and it was amazing packed with people, it hasnt been this packed since the 40th of Imam Husein AS. It was nuts, but Alhamd. Today we had a bbq at our campus and all the teachers and their families came, we had some mushkaki, kabobs and chicken tika..lol. It was a good change to the everyday routine of school.

So for those keeping the countdown like we are, we only have 41 days left before we come back home.... will be definitely nice to come home, we were thinking the first thing we would like to do is go to the cemetery and pay respect to our father, and then relax and not have to worry about studying for a while..lol. Our arabic teacher said he will give us assignments over the summer so we dont forget our arabic, which was appreciated by all the students, cause he doesnt really have to do that. But then he said he would email us assignments every day.. and the entire class said no!!! LOL, we agreed to once a week which is much more doable.

One of the things we are looking forward to is food when we come back, ... some of the things we are looking to is: IHOP - International House of Pancakes...lol.. i know, we get pancakes here, but its not the same... There you get Pancakes, eggs, hasbrowns all for $5.99... WHAT!!! LOL, unless the price has gone up... we are also looking forward to Chinese Food, Red Lobster and ummm... cant think of anything else...LOL...

Anyways, time to get going, remember us in your prayers.. talk to you soon!!

48 Days and counting...

Haha... i know we have been counting down for a long time, but dont worry, we still love it here and love being in school. The environment, people, and city is excellent, and definitely cherish every moment here. Not to mention that we meet someone we know or someone who knows us every week or so... lol. We just got a call from someone who knows our cousin in London and they heard that we know some good ring places or tasbih places... so we are taking him shopping today... LOL... .we just asked our teacher that the prices here compared to the prices back home are much different, so are we allowed to charge people more who order stuff, and we got the approval...LOL... just kidding.... about what, i will never tell!!

So, major developments here over the last few days, prices of nearly everything has gone up in Syria, and all to do with Gasoline and Diesel prices... Diesel used to be 7.5 cents per liter, and it just went up to 36cents... thats nearly a 360% increase, so everything also went up.. All the taxi people were on strike yesterday cause they wanted permission from the government to change their rates, and they were given the permission today, so we the students who are receiving a monthly stipend based on old figures, are now also going on strike until they increase our stipend...lol, just kidding... But really they should increase it :)

We went out walking through Damascus a few days ago, from Sayyida Ruqaya AS to Abu Rumana where KFC is, and it took us nearly 3 hours because we stopped at a lot of stores on the way, but we did end up buying lots of DVD's, of new movies that are in theaters back home... each movie costs $1... lol.. now we just need to find time to watch them... haha... all good tho.

Anyways, thanks for reading... we hear we were in the new INFOCUS magazine that the WF came out with, though we ourselves havent read it... So if anyone is coming this way, bring a copy with you please :)

Take care!!