FOLLOW US ON OUR JOURNEY...

Time is flying by

2009-10-15T07:15:00.000-07:00

Salaams all,

Alhamd, we are doing well. IA all of you are doing well. Its thursday evening and we will be going to our school soon for our Thursday programs. The students take turns in reciting Dua, Quran and Ziyarat, and every other week one of the students gives a lecture in Arabic. Its nice, this way we get to practice public speaking but more then that to practice our arabic. After the program, we go to the Haram for a little while, we cant overstate how nice it is to be in the proximity of the Haram.. Alhamd... we really feel fortunate.

School is going well, busy, we have taken some extra classes on our own, without going through the school, just easier that way, less questions. We got a teacher to teach us this extra subject and then at home we are listening to a series of lectures on Akhlaq. That is a class on its own, and ALhamd we are taking it seriously, good routine we have going ALhamd, please pray that we can maintain it iA.

We just want to say that even though things are not ideal, but thats life, we are not that frustrated, and even though we may sound like it at times, overall we are quite happy... will tell you a secret: sometimes when we want things to change or certain things to happen we put it on the blog, just incase there are some ppl who have influence can read it. :)

OK, thats it for today, we will write more later on iA.

Take care

Salaams

The weekends go by too quickly

2009-10-04T07:10:00.000-07:00

Salaams all,

sorry for the long delay in writing, but the truth is we dont think anyone is reading..lol.. oh well, we will try to write as much as we can.

so we have completed a full week of school plus two days... the classes are going well, not at all as hectic as last year, we mentioned in our other blogs about the changes that have taken place so no need to repeat it.

the classes we are taking this semester include: Usul al-Tafseer, Arabic Morphology and Grammar, Fiqh, Arabic in the Media, Akhlaq, Ulum al Hadith and Aqaid. Not a bad load, and then we do have our Masters class...so pretty busy, but because the schedule has changed, we are in school from 7-1 instead of 8-5, we have lots of time in the afternoons...

sad news about on of our teachers, his grandson, very young, passed away due to some inhalation of gas... really sad, lets pray for them iA.

Besides that, our apartment is nice, we are still waiting on our school to give us a new stovetop, we have been waiting for a while, patiently, ALhamd, while others' problems are getting fixed before ours... but thats ok, lol, just wanted to write that incase there is someone who is reading, LOL...

anyhow, thats it for now, we will write back later iA. please remember to pray for us!!

Eid Mubarak!!!

2009-09-21T08:23:00.000-07:00

Salaams all...

Eid Mubarak to each and everyone of you. iA this Eid was truly an Eid where we returned to ou orginal sinless state. Ameen

As usual, there was always controversy with Eid.. I heard ppl did it on sunday, monday and i believe london might be doing it on tuesday...lol. Here is Sayyida Zainab AS, Khameini and Fadhlullah did it on sunday while the rest did it on monday. We went for Eid salaat this morning and it was nice ALhamd.

We were supposed to start school tomorrow, but they postponed it and are giving us a few more days off until saturday iA. As we mentioned they changed a few things with the syllabus, however now they want to make sure its the correct thing to do, so Sheikh Muhammad Khalfan is coming today, he is in charge of the Hawza studies. IA things go well.

If things are still slightly watered down, then we will see if we can get a few extra classes from different places, teachers and hawzas. Just want to make something clear, the classes are ok, but we want more. Alhamd, we have that thirst to constantly want to strive harder and faster. Alhamd this is a gift from Allah SWT. He has let us taste knowledge and we are thirsty for more. ALhamd.

Ok, its almost namaaz time, better get going. We will write soon iA.

Salaams and remember to pray for us.

Nearing the end of the Holy and Blessed Month

2009-09-15T13:20:00.000-07:00

Salaams all,

Its hard to believe that the Holy Month of Ramadhan is nearing to an end... IA the month was spiritual and benefitial to all. As we know the blessings of Allah SWT are abundantly flowing during this great month, its up to us to maximize the intake...

This Holy Month has been really good in Sayyida Zainab AS. Last year we were holding programs at school so we didnt get a chance to go out at nights to participate in the lectures.. but this year there are not that many students, lol, so we go out every night.. we still recite dua together at school after Iftar which is nice, everyone gets a chance to recite and then we go out to different centers where they have Majalis... its a nice feeling... some places even recite dua before the programs and they do have amaals, we thought they didnt before, but they do have it, however the ones that we have attended, they only do the Qur'an aamaals....but Alhamd, its a nice feeling.

The 23rd night of the Month of Ramadhan we spent a good portion of it at the Haram, and there was a special and nice vibe that you could feel throughout the haram.. we truly are blessed to be here and are trying to capture as much as we can before our time runs out.

Last blog entry we mentioned a bunch of changes that took place at our school, something else they have done is given us the last 10 days of this Holy Month off. It was a nice surprise but they said they wanted us to focus on our ibadat and spirituality... and because they like to be involved in ALL facets of our lives, they gave us an assignment...LOL.... no such thing as a free lunch i guess... so our project is to attend a lecture every night and then write a paper about our spiritual progression during this month and how the lectures helped us become more spiritual..or something like that... it was really annoying to be honest... cause we were planning to attend lectures anyways but now they made it a burden... so instead of willingly attending lectures now we are forced...lol.. i know we are complaining, but we dont understand the need to try and dictate our lives... oh well..

besides this, im sure there are other things that we will write about in the future... until then Eid Mubarak and please remember us in your prayers...

Salaams!!

Big changes at our school

2009-09-08T08:47:00.000-07:00

Salaams all,

Hope all of you are in the best of health... tonight is a big night, the beginning of many big nights, please remember us in your prayers and iA we will do the same here is Sham... cant believe how fast time has gone, already 18 days have past in this Great Month, hope each of us feel a sense of progression in our lives iA...

Life here in Damascus has been good... finished the first week of school and oh myyy... many many changes. before we mention the changes, one thing is important, that we all remain positive. The course is new and for some reason people are skeptical, but if you are going to read this blog, then you cant be :)

For one thing, there is no new intake of students... i know, i know.. really sad, we are really sad about it as well, because for the perception of success of this course, there has to be intake of students. what happened? we dont know... we heard rumors that there were no new students before we came, but it was confirmed when we got here...

2 couples dropped out... i know i know... really sad... they both had good reasons iA and we pray for their success... they are really nice people, so no bad feelings towards anyone... we become like a family last year so its sad to see them not here. but this more then anything has been the hardest thing for us to get over..we had a nice community atmosphere here last year, and it is unfortunate that it will not be the same this year...

Sheikh Sami - the director of education - is no longer here with us... this is huge, supposedly he was let go because his position was taken over by new roles which were assigned to others... people dont understand what a big impact this move has..... as far as most of the students are concerned, Sheikh Sami was the rock of the Institute. His akhlaq, conduct, advise, smile were always there and things are no longer the same at our school... For people who dont know, it was Sheikh Sami and Jaffer D. who raised this institute from zero... this one was hard to get over.

They also changed the schedule.. instead of being in school from 8-5, we are in school from 7-1.. big change, frees up our afternoons and this way the complainers have no reason to complain anymore.. last year, there was quite a bit of complaining from students that the course was too difficult, it seems they have catered for them this year and have not done much for those who said the course was fine or even too easy (us) lol....

Have more to say about other things, however the Azaan is going and we have to go.

Take care!!

Back in Sham - Year 3

2009-09-03T12:16:00.000-07:00

Salaams to all our readers...Ramadhan Kareem to all.

Sorry for the long hiatus of not blogging, but last year there wasnt much to blog about but will iA blog more this year, hopefully there will be someone who will be reading :)

Our flight here was good ALhamd, we invested in a luggage weight scale, so we can know exactly how much our bags weigh before we go to the airport... GREAT INVESTMENT...even the lady at the checkin was impressed... so after that, our bags were checked in from TO all the way to Damascus, so we didnt have to worry about it. The flight from TO to London was not the most comfortable, if the person infront of you reclined their chair, the TV was in your face, almost literally... lol.. but we managed, then had a 3 hour break in London, where we stalked up on Dairy Milk and then made our way on BMI to Damascus... the plane was kind off empty so we both were able to sleep.

We landed in Dam around 945, went through immigration without any problems, Alhamd and got all our bags, ALhamd!! Then we took a taxi from the airport, they have raised the prices even higher... charged us 2000 pounds, over $40, because they said we needed a van, assuming that a smaller car would be cheaper... then we went to our new flat... its nice, much smaller then our old apt but nice... our old place was 3 bedrooms, however this one is 1 bedroom, living room and a small kitchen... both the bathroom and kitchen are quite small... the bathroom is such that the shower head is right ontop of of the toilet, kind of right on top, but no shower curtains, so when you shower, the entire toilet gets wet... will have to figure out a good system for that one!!

Just went to the Haram to greet and pay our respects to Sayyida Zainab AS.. that felt really good Alhamd... then came to the internet cafe to talk to family and update the blog... iA we will be doing it once a week, IA!!

It looks like there are A LOT of changes with our school this year, once we get some concrete details, will let you guys know, because it would only be fair :)

Please remember us in your prayers...

Salaams

We have Internet!!! pretty fast too

2008-10-19T03:44:00.001-07:00

Hello all, hope you are doing as well as we are over here, busy but we doing good Alhamd.

Just wanted to inform you guys that we have internet, at pretty good speed at our school. Alhamd... its high speed and wireless, but kinda wireless, only 2 computers can access the internet at one time... first time we are hearing about this new method, but Alhamd :) Now we have to come up with a schedule that all the students can use it without any problems...lets see how it works....

Ok, we will write more, pray that once we get to our house, it works over there too...

Take care

Eid Mubarak to All

2008-10-02T09:50:00.000-07:00

Salaams everyone, Eid Mubarak to all. The Holy Month of Ramadhan has sadly come to an end, and we pray that everyone's prayers and fasts have been accepted by Allah SWT, iA.

If you have been reading our blogs, you wil know that last Eid was fantastic here. It made up for the fact that Ramadhan wasnt packed with the same feeling as it normally is back home, due to the community atmosphere that is lacking here. But anyways, Eid last year made up for it. This year, not quite :)

So there is a story to all this. Eid was either supposed to be on Wed or Thur. Our school is normally off on half of Thur and all of Friday. If Eid was on a Wed, we would have to come to school for half a day on Thursday. The Institute did not want to give us that half a day off :) LOL, everyone tried, from teachers to students..lol... but we have to obey the rules.. anyways, much more to the story...

So as we got closer to the date, it was still unclear when Eid was going to be, however it was clear that the Country of Syria had confirmed that Eid was going to be on Wed. Because it is a govt holiday, the Inst. was forced to close its doors. That meant that we had Wed off for sure. There was a catch though, if our Eid fell on Wed, we didnt get that Thursday off.... basically a two in one kind of holiday. We waited patiently Tue night to find out when our Eid was going to be, and at midnight we received a message that Ayatullah Sistani declared that Eid would be Thursday, you know what that means, a 3 day weekend :) wed, thurs, and friday :-)Well deserved for both students and staff. We were in class from 9-5, 5 and a half days a week while fasting... not an easy task, though rewarding :)

However, ther was a catch to having Eid on Thur.. all other Maraja's declared Eid on Wed, therefore the formal Eid prayers that take place at the Haram was on Wed and we missed out on it :( We had a small eid prayer gathering at our school, where Sheikh Mohammad Ali Ismail lead the prayers and us students were there. Alhamd it was nice but not the same as last year... oh well, cant win them all:)

One of the couples at our school has started a photo diary, this way you can view pictures of happenings, he doesnt mind that we put it on our blog, so cut and paste the link below to view pictures.

http://picasaweb.google.com/JAMIL.BANDALI/JamilFatimaSYRIAPhotoDiary

Thats it for now, much more to come in the upcoming weeks :)

Salaams

Cant believe how fast the Month of Ramadhan has gone

2008-09-25T08:02:00.001-07:00

Hello all,

Start off with the customary apologies for not blogging enough, but our trips to the internet cafe have been far and few this year, as opposed to last year. Probably having to do with the Month of Ramadhan, as our nights are busy along with our days. We cant believe how fast this Holy Month has flown by, only 5 or 6 more fasts to go, unbelievable. We ask Allah SWT that he accept our fasts and prayers, and IA give us and opportunity to do the same, but better, next year.

Our school organized Aamal nights (prayer nights) for us at our school, and all the students came along with some other students from England who are studying here. Sheikh Mohamed Ali Ismail delivered some very nice lectures and then they had an Arab lecturer come and recite the Masaeeb portion of the Martydom of Imam Ali AS. After which we had our Aamals. It was nice to do it in a group environment, and since we have more students this year, it was a really nice atmosphere.

Quick mention that last time we blogged, we mentioned that one of the couples is from Peterborough, but it turns out they are from Portsmouth... (have no idea about the spelling ...) so we are sorry about that mistake :)

We went to the Haram on the day of the Martydom of Imam Ali AS, and it was amazing. We got there about 20 minutes before the time of Fajr prayers and the Haram was packed. Alhamd we got a place to sit and recite our prayers... Right after the prayers, they had set up a Minbar (pulpit) inside the Haram and a lecturer got on to recite the Gham.. it was amazing, to be in the presence of Sayyida Zainab AS and to be hearing about the tragedy of her fathers death, was really moving. Right after the Lecture, they removed the barrier between the women and the men, and a taboot (coffin) representing our Imam was carried in from outside and it went around the actual Tomb a few times... Truly amazing, it was like a wave, Jaffer got caught in the wave and it moved him without him having to walk... really amazing... and then they had Matam outside in the Sahan for an hour and everyone then went home. Another great experience in Seyyida Zainab AS :)

Anyways, thats it for now... iA we will have more to write about in the near future....

Take care and remember us in your prayers!!!

Finally a day off... kind of :)

2008-09-11T13:02:00.000-07:00

OK... so after a nice and long week, a week that we really found productive, we have finally come to our first well deserved weekend break...lol, and if you have been reading our blogs from before, you will know that it means one day off! but its ok, we kinda used to it after going through it last year. We have received information that some of the Coordinators of the course are coming down this weekend, or that they are already here, and they are hosting a student seminar that begins, yup, you guessed it, on our day off...but really, its all good, iA it will make our fasts go by that much faster. The really good part is that the seminar will go into Saturday and Sunday, so we will miss two days of classes. So it all works out :)

We got a message on our blog from someone wanting to know where the other couples are from. One is from Peterborough, one is from Ottawa and one is from Dar. Good variey and mix,and Alhamd all are really nice. But besides the students, there are a whole bunch of new teachers for the 2nd year students, and being really honest, they are all fantastic. So far, we have a few that are our favorites already, our teacher for Fiqh (Islamic Jurispudence), our teacher for Mantiq and Aqaid (same teacher for these two classes) and our teacher for Tafseer. Amazing people!!

Besides that, we had half a day of class today, so we along with another couple went to Sayyida Ruqaya AS to pay our respects to her. The weather is still hot but its definitely better then when we first arrived last week. We have nearly unpacked all of our luggage, to be honest, Sabiha has done most of it, while Jaffer has been relaxing...lol... moreso because Jaffer knows Sabiha will do it better....:)

So besides that, the Holy Month of Ramadhan is already 1/3 over, amazing how fast this Great Month comes, and how fast it goes. We pray that all of us make the most out of this Month, and that you remember us in your prayers.

If you want us to write about something in particular, let us know by leaving a message.

Take care

Back in school again

2008-09-09T08:42:00.000-07:00

OK... so now we are back in Syria, and back "home" again, so IA we will begin blogging again. After a long break between blogs, we do hope that people are still actually reading, but IA you are. We felt that no one really wanted to read about our 2 month vacation, but people actually cared about what we were doing here in Damascus. So now that we are back, expect regular blogs from us, please tell your friends to start reading again :)

We got back here last wednesday, the 3rd of September after a LONG flight from LA. We had to fly from LA to NY, then to Abu Dhabi and then to Dam. After a few days of extreme tiredness, our classes finally started. We never really got this tired last year when we came, or again because it was so long ago we dont remember.

So this year there are 3 more couples who joined the class, which makes it really nice because there are more people at the school, shows that the school is growing as well, and there are people that we can bully now, since we are the big kids on the block.. LOL.. just kidding...

So our school is WAY WAY more intense this year.. LOL, we kept talking about how crazy it was last year, doesnt compare at all.. lOl... its nice though, we have different teachers for every class, they come, teach and leave... not like last year where all the teachers were full time and were there all day. We have 10 different subjects our first semester.... they are: Tafseer, Uloom Al-Qur'an, Nahjul Balagha, Qur'an (tajweed and tarteel), Aqaid, Fiqh, Khitaba, Nahu, History and Mantiq (logic)... and since all are different teachers, all assign homework...LOL, almost :)

Anyways, almost time to break our fast... by the way Ramadhan Mubarak to all. Pray for us, and expect more updates in our blog IA....

Take care

Still blogging, but does anyone care!!

2008-07-14T16:13:00.000-07:00

Hello All, yes we are wondering the same things you are, why are we still blogging?? LOL, the first year of our studies ended, we are back home enjoying our summer vacation, so we were wondering if there is still a need for blogging...? But the fact that we are currently still blogging, must tell you of what our answer was to that question.... still with me...LOL.

So since we have been back, we have done quite a lot of nothing... we have hung out with family and friends, gone to eat at some nice restaurants that we were looking forward to (by the way, since we have been gone, there have been a few very nice restaurants that have opened up here in LA.. some fanstastic burger joints.. yummy...) we have also done a couple of presentations at different centers. A few weeks ago we did a presentation about our first year experience at our mosque, and then we were invited to an Iraqi mosque to do the same presentation. Alhamd, it was a big success, and one of the important things we learned is that the same issues which are effecting us Khojas are the same issues that are effecting others as well. Also, what we learned is that the Iraqi youth are just like our youth... they dont speak their mother tongue. So this is a problem that effects all of us, here in this land of the free and home of the brave :) actually dont this is a prob of just America, it is problem of the west, where people lose their identity and culture.

Oh well, besides that, we are soon going to Orlando for a wedding. Neither of us has been to Orlando, so this will definitely be fun. Really looking forward to it. Then we will come back to LA and then head out to TO.. we are planning a little get away just for ourselves in between those two trips, once confirmed we will let you know about it :)

Take care and remember us in your prayers...

Back in LA...

2008-07-04T14:50:00.000-07:00

It's funny how we used to have to go to the internet cafe in Syria and we were able to update our blog...since we've been back in LA we've had access to internet 24/7 and are just getting around to updating now lol perhaps it's because we've been so busy relaxing hehe!

well its been quite an eventful almost two weeks...before we get into how our stay has been so far...it was quite the journey getting here...it took us around 35 hours to get here! yup and with the 10 hr time difference we were exhausted to say the least when we arrived. it took us a few days to get over the jetlag...but it was definitely great to be back and to see family and friends! everyone was just as excited to see us as we were to see them...we've already visited some of our fav places to eat as well as enjoyed meals with our friends and family.

so guess what? as soon as we arrived...the next day when we turned on our laptop, our hardrive crashed!! we were lucky enough to have someone take a look at it and retrieve all our data...we need to get our hardrive replaced...better here than in Syria because we still have our warrenty!

a few days our community organized an event where they wanted us to share our experiences over the last year and tell our community more about our course. we created a powerpoint presentation with pictures (good thing we were able to retrieve them) and everyone really enjoyed it... there were people there from different communities as well and want us to go and do the same presentation at their respective communties...we're definitely looking forward to that!

we didn't realize that being away for 10 months would make so much of a difference when it comes to our health ... we don't if its the food in Syria or here that is dirty because as soon as we got here and ate we both got sick lol the fruits and vegetables are organic in Syria and perhaps our bodies are so used to that, either way we are both better now and are enjoying our vacation at home! more updates to come...

Exactly One Week to go!!!!

2008-06-14T07:25:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, yup you read the title correctly, we do have exactly one week to go in Damascus, before we head back home for a well deserved break. We dont think anyone is still reading this, because of the long interval between blogs, but if you are, hopefully you will enjoy this one.

Lots has happened in the 3 weeks that we havent blogged, it will be difficult to try and remember all, but we will give it a shot....

A few weeks ago, people from the Winchester University (the Uni. which is accrediting our program) came down to look at the Institute.. They are of course British, so they did stand out quite a bit. It was 2 men and one lady. They were here for about 6 days where they sat in a few of our classes, but were mostly involved in meetings and some touristy things. Sabiha gave the lady guest a chador and a scarf and took her to the Haram where she was asked by some lady to convert some british currency..LOL. One of the nights, we went to the area where our new school will be in 2 years and we had a wonderful bbq. We enjoyed some mushkaki, camel kabobs, chicken, rice, tabbouleh, mutabbal and some other type of salad. Great food and good times.

A week after that, we, the teachers and students went out on a little field trip for swimming and relaxing. They have a wonderful system here where they have swimming pools for men and separate swimming pool for women, this is one of the coolest things we like about Syria. It gave a chance for Jaffer to bond with his male teachers and Sabiha a chance to do the same with her teacher and their families. Since then, Jaffer has gone a few times for swimming with a few of his friends from school, but for sure we will make the most of this swimming thing in the years to come.

Lets see, what else.... oh yeah, WE ARE NOT PAKISTANI!!!!! LOL... everywhere we go, every store that we enter, the first question they ask... Antum min Bakistan??? and right away in a snappy reaction we say... Nahnu Lasna Bakistani!!! LOL, just kidding about the snappy reaction, but we do say that all the time... This has happened from the first day, probably because there are a lot of Pakistani tourists that come here, even our Nephew from NY who is studying here faces the same questions on a daily basis...LOL.

As the title tells you, we have exactly one week to go... infact less, it is currently 540pm our time, and our flight leaves syria next saturday at 4pm... exciting.... for those of you who are following (this might be a repeat, but oh well :) ) we fly to bahrain first and have a layover there for 5 hours, during that time we have made arrangements for a taxi to take us around Bahrain so we can see the country, dont know when we will get a chance to see it again.. ofcourse we will make sure to visit some good american restaurants, here they have a great steakhouse that we want to try...LOL, then we fly from Bahrain at 1am into London and have another 6 hour layover... yup, i know, thats crazy, we will no doubt be dead tired by then... then at 1130 we fly back to LA... yaaaayyyyyyyyyyy

In all this excitement of packing and wrapping things up, dont forget, we have our final exams this week... we just had our first and hardest exam today, Arabic! boy, was it a killer...lol... but thank goodness that its over with, and iA it will be easier from here on out... Please pray that everything goes well for us.

K, we gave you lots to chew over... maybe the next time we blog will be from LA.

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

2008-05-21T08:21:00.000-07:00

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"

2008-05-11T11:19:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-05-04T08:45:00.000-07:00

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!!

Its Playoff Time!!!

2008-04-20T08:05:00.000-07:00

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!!!

What to write about????

2008-04-10T12:58:00.000-07:00

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!!

New information received !!!

2008-04-02T10:57:00.000-07:00

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

Back from mini-vacation... school starting soon - AAAAHHHHH!!!!

2008-03-29T14:25:00.000-07:00

Yes, we are back from our mini vacation, a tour around Syria, thus the long delay between blog updates... and school is starting in a day!!! AAAAHHHH!!! lol, just kidding, all good, let it start, we are ready, so we can begin the major countdown - when we come home!!!!!!!!

Out trip was a lot of fun, really needed break to get away from our studies, and just go out and relax. It was us, the other couple and their family, a total of 9 of us. We left on saturday morning at 7 and made our way to Aleppo... on the way we stopped at a city called Hama when they have a water wheel (lol, sounds funny when we write about it, but its supposed to be a big touristy thing, so we did it :) for the 2nd time..lol, remember 3 months ago we went on a mini vacation?? we stopped at this city) after the water wheel we drove to Aleppo (another city we had been too, but worth it to go again simply for the religious sites at that city). After Aleppo we drove to Idlib where we spent the night at a 4 star hotel, the name of the Hotel was Carlton - no no, not Ritz Carlton, it was nice, not bad... or as they say in arabic 'la bas'.

The next morning we drove to Latakia, its a coastal town and we stayed there one night, then drove to Tatrous which is also on the coast... The Mediterraneans ocean is nice but it does not compare to the beaches back home in Mombasa or back in LA... the next morning we drove to Palmyra.. its supposed to be the most visited city in Syria, and there we saw only western people...:) Everything there is old and archaic, but real nice.. old buildings around 4000 years old.. really beautiful.. you know the best part of our trip tho... the hotel in Palmyra... lol.. it was great, the best hotel we stayed in without a doubt. It looked like cottages and felt like we were staying by the ocean, though we were in the middle of a desert!! haha..

OK, so by the time we publish this post, some things have changed.. for starters our school has already started, in fact the first week is almost over..lol, and we have some big news... so hope you read the next blog.. or you might have already read it if this is posted after it..dont know how that works...

Take care!!

EXAMS ARE OVER!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-03-20T12:30:00.000-07:00

Yes, thank goodness the exams are now over and we can relax!! We had our last exam today and we are sooo glad its over..lol. 6 exams in 6 days!! Alhamd, finished. We did well in them too, Alhamd, Sabiha ofcourse better then me, but that was expected :) We dont know how the other students did, but the teachers said everyone did well. So thats great!!

We just found out today as well where they are sending us for our 1 week break. So there is actually a story that goes with this, so be patient!! :) About a month and a half ago, we were told that they would send us to Umra - Mecca and Medina, because we are the first students and also we came into the course blind so they wanted to reward us for that. However, after trying and trying, the school was not able to obtain a visa, mainly because our residency in Syria has not yet been given to us. So that plan was put on hold.

Then about 2 weeks ago from today, they said Plan B would be to send us to Iraq - to go for pilgrimage to Najaf, Kerbala, Kadhmain and if possible Samarra... so we were excited, i mean who wouldnt be. However, they put together a Plan C as well, it was called "Syria - the cradle of civilazation" just in case the 'head people' of this course wouldnt accept plan b. so we waited and waited and waited, and they didnt tell us. We asked and asked and asked, and they wouldnt tell us. Finally yesterday they let us know that it is................. you ready?????

PLAN C!! lol, we are not surprised, but definitely excited. It will be a good chance to get away from here for a few days, and just relax. So Plan C we were originally told would be for 5 nights to different cities in Syria, 5 star hotels and 3 meals a day provided. That was yesterday... yup you guessed it, it has changed. Now its 4 nights (Palmyra, Aleppo, Latakia and Tortous - one night in each city) from 5 star hotels we are down to 3 stars, LOL, and from 3 meals a day we are down to only breakfast LOL LOL. Not the organizers fault at all, but the agency was giving him different answers, but thats Syria for you. We still excited, dont worry. We were planning on going to Latakia sometime in the future anyways, this way we dont have to go.

So we will be leaving early Saturday morning, that is what is confirmed right now, lets see what changes :) Its us, the other couple, and the other couples family, 5 of them, so all together 9 people. We pray that transportation is comfortable and we are not all cramped, especially cause we will have luggage as well. Tomorrow we plan on going to KFC..lol, its finger lickin good!!

LOL, ok, take care for now, wont get a chance to blog till we get back in 5 nights, i mean 4 nights... :)

Take care!!

3 down 3 to go!

2008-03-17T04:29:00.000-07:00

whew! we just finished our 3rd exam and boy was it an exam! since we have exams every 3 months now instead of every month...the exams are quite comprehensive...we've all been doing well on them alhamd...so we think lol - we'll know for sure once we see our results! the exams are definitely a good way for us to know though how well we are grasping the material...they are not difficult as such if we keep up with the material, there is just a lot of material to cover as they are finals; some tricky questions as usual...but hey, can't just earn a masters without hard work/exams/effort eh? lol

we just finished one - probably the most comprehensive and involved one of them all and decided to come to the int cafe for a break before we head back to study for the next few exams that we have left.

we have our last exam on thursday and then have a 10 day break...we're definitely looking forward to the break lol our school is planning a trip for us...we're not sure where just yet but hopefully we'll find out soon as there are few days left before our break begins...regardless of where we end up going, it will be a nice well deserved break for us all i'm sure!

keeping this one short as we have to get back studying...thinking of grabbing some ice cream on our way home as its a nice sunny day...till next time...

~peace

Its time for Finals!!!

2008-03-12T10:23:00.000-07:00

Yes, the title is correct, we have exams starting in two days...(can you hear the drum roles..lol) but its all good, we are pretty excited, to get them done... haha.. no no, just kidding, to actually see what we know and if we have truly understood the material. Our Arabic final is going to be crazy... Our teacher has told us he is going to challenge us, and knowing him as well as we do, we have no doubt it will be difficult. So here is the schedule:

Sat 3/15 - Fiqh (Religious Laws? dont quite know the best translation for it)
Sun 3/16 - Hadith (Sayings and Traditions from the Holy Prophet PBUH and his family PBOT)
Mon 3/17 - Arabic (Can you hear the drum roles again?!?!?!?)
Tue 3/18 - Imla (Our writing class, the teacher talks and we write, not too difficult, but would not say by any means easy, lots of rules in writing Arabic)
Wed 3/19 - Qur'an (Last time I thought this was going to be the easiest but ended up being my worst mark, mostly because our teacher expects perfection, soon IA :) )
Thur 3/20 - Comprehension (Dont quite know how to study for this class, so just pray for us :) )

Then we are done!!! Yes, and we have a 9 day break, really deserved 9 day break... Dont quite know what we are going to do, our school is planning a trip for us, but they havent decided yet, due to some issues regarding our residency here in Syria... we will let the experts handle that, but as soon as we find out we will definitely let you know.

We are still continuing to meet lots and lots of people here, really enjoyable, and we are told that more are coming, so we will wait and see :)

Thats all we have for now, sorry that this entry was kinda boring :) Will talk to you soon... please pray for our success in our examinations.

Peace!

Things we love about Syria!!

2008-03-04T12:38:00.000-08:00

Hello all, know we write this heading a lot, but is anybody still reading???? if so, thank you!!! Everything is going well for us, we have exams coming up in 2 weeks,not looking forward to that, but i guess we are in school, so its ok :) We just came back from KFC, Sabiha had a spicy Zinger sandwich and I had a 3 piece spicy dinner combo..lol, it was real good :) not as good as popeyes in TO but still pretty darn good.

I dont think we have written about things we love about Syria. I know we have written many times things we miss about home :),lol can you blame us, by the way we have 108 days before we return home, YAY!!! Anyways, here goes a list from the top of our heads, i know there will be many things that we miss.

1) Being in the close proximity of Sayyida Zainab AS - truly a dream come true, words cant express how blessed we feel, and how we truly feel that life has been really good to us over here, all because of her. No Doubt about it!!!

2) The Language - truly Arabic is an amazing language, beautiful and gentle, though when the locals speak it, it doesnt sound that gentle, lol. One of our teachers told us that once we start learning Arabic, we will crave more and more, and he couldnt have been more correct :)

3) The people - no were serious, lol. They are really genuinely nice people, most go out of their way to make sure we are comfortable.

4) Saying Salaamun Alaykum to strangers - We still cant get over this, just walking down the streets or to our neighbors, instead of Hello, we say Salaamun Alaykum, absolutely fantastic!!

5) Hearing the call for prayers (Adhaan) from everywhere - So Cool!! We have never had the opportunity to be in a place where we can hear the call for prayers, for every prayer. Really fortunate!!

6) Hearing "Ash-hadu anna Aliyyan Waliyullah" (I bear witness that Ali is the Wali of Allah (so many meanings of Wali, best english word for it is Loyal, but doesnt do it justice) - After being here for 6 months, we still cant get over the fact that this line is proclaimed loud and proud from the minarets of Sayyida Zainab AS, and it still gives us goose-bumps when we hear it, LOVE IT!!!

7) Everything is Halal to eat - Really enjoy not having to worry about whether the food is halal or not. Life is easier this way ")

8) The fruits - Seriously, you havent had fruit in the west unless you have had it from a third world country :) They taste real out here!!!

9) i know i know, we love the school too :) - if we start writing about our school and how much we love it, it will be too long, rest assured, we do love it! A lot!!

10) Our teachers - They are the best group of people we could have ever asked for. All of them are great and we Thank God all the time for them.

K - thats quite enough for now... hope all of you are well, pray for us!!

Arbaeen in Damascus

2008-02-29T13:11:00.000-08:00

Salaams all, hope you are in good spirits, we are doing great by the Grace of Allah SWT. We have just finished Arbaeen now, and the experiences were magnificent. For those who dont know what Arbaeen is, remember how we wrote about the Grandson of the Holy Prophet was murdered in the desert of Kerbala, we actually commemorate that for 40 days, and we just finished that period of mourning. It was packed packed packed here, but amazing amazing amazing!!!!

For the last 5 days, the streets have been packed with people, for the first time we saw more Pakistani's then we did Iranians. All the stores that usually played Arabic poetry (Mataams) were now playing Urdu poems, lol, guess they know how to cater for their audience :) Also, everything is slightly more expensive. Bread that we used to buy for 35 syrian pounds, is now up to 50. Someone told me they used to buy a sandwich for 85, it is now up to 150. Crazy, IA the prices will come back down after Arbaeen. Lots of our people (khojas) here too... really cool, we have met Loads and loads of them, lol. We actually met an uncle of ours that we havent seen in over 20 years, from East Africa, last week here. There is no doubt it is due the great presence of Sayyida Zainab AS that has made all this possible for us.

We have been fortunate enough to listen to many arabic lectures here, a few at the Haram and then on Arbaeen night and the next night, our school organized lectures for us, so it was nice to listen to as much arabic as we could. We also went to an english lecture by Sayyid Ammar N. at that Safir hotel, it was aiight, we prefer the arabic lectures, lol, just cause we are thirsty for it. But the coolest part of this whole week was that on Arbaeen night, around 4 in the morning, there are buses that take people from Sayyida Zainab AS to Sayyida Ruqayya (Sakina) AS, and then the people walk from there back, in a procession to Sayyida Zainab, nearly 15 KM. (On a side note, in our community we call that a Juloos, but a Juloos in Arabic means to sit, lol!!!!!!!!!) Anyways, we actually did that walk, took about 2.5 hours, it was amazing, thousands and thousands of people did this walk, we started around 6 and got back here at 830, it was really a great experience. Tiring, but we kept thinking that the family of the Prophet walked from Kerbala to Damascus in chains and shackles, we had no excuses :)

Besides that, things are ok here, a funny thing happened a few weeks ago. Our close friends from Los Angeles called us and it was really nice talking to them. The funny part was that I was talking to my friends Grandfather, and I normally speak to him in Swahili, but as i was trying to talk to him in Swahili, only arabic words were coming out...LOL, Sabiha couldnt stop laughing at me, luckily he spoke English so i was able to resort back to it. They say that when you are learning a new language, it replaces other languages that you are not too strong in, So Alhamd its good i guess...LOL.

Anyways, written a lot, please pray for us, and we will IA do the same :)

Take care!!

WOW, 2 blogs in 2 days

2008-02-17T08:27:00.000-08:00

So whats going on? Not much on our end, i mean we just blogged two days ago..lol. We are back at the internet cafe, to check our mail and talk to family. In a few days, we will have only 4 months left!!! ALhamd, dont get us wrong, we love being here, but we do miss our family and friends a lot. We are also looking for dates to spend between 2 homes, LA and TO

Now... for some Arabic!!!

alhamd nahnu takallamna ma' ahlina, wa kulluhum jayid alhamd. ukhti indaha camara fi al-bayt, wa hadha mufeed jiddan lana, lianna nahnu nastatee an naraa kulluhum.

huna jaw jayyid alan laysa barid katheer mithl qabla isbuain, wa lakin lana al-bard laysa mushkil, nahnu lam nabqa fil bait ba'da darse, kul yawm nahnu nadhhab wa namshee likay nakudh isteraha qaleel wa aidhan natakallam ma akhareen lil tamareen lilugat al-arabia.

alan kul yawm yujad zehma akthar fi alharam lianna katheer min zuwaar yatoon li ziyarat min kul anwah al alam!

hadha jayid lil aan... :)

Not bad huh? lol, iA soon will get better... Please pray for our success....

Ma'as Salaam

Popays

2008-02-14T12:41:00.000-08:00

so here we are nearly 6 months into our course - incredible eh? its seems as though sometimes time is just flying by - and at other times 4 years seems a long ways away. that's how it always is i suppose.

the past few days have been raining which means all the roads are muddy...its next to impossible to go out and not come home with muddy shoes and spots all over the back of your pants lol all the drivers still drive crazy - not like in some places where trafic slows down in the rain - la laysa hakadha huna ( no not like that here).

so last night, the administrator of our course (Hussein Ravji) was kind enough to take us out for dinner...jaffer and i and the other couple...we were all super excited as he was taking us to popeyes - we got there and guess what? it was actuallly 'popays' not the popeyes we know, but nonetheless it was great...lots of variety on the menu and was nice to just hang out and get away for a bit.

Its almost time for Arbaeen - 40 days since the martydom of Imam Hussein AS, and we hear its going to be crazy busy over here... we thought that Ashura was busy, but they said nearly 3 times as many people, we cant even imagine but definitely looking forward to it. We expect to meet a lot of people here, we already know that Sabiha's uncle is coming, as well as someone from LA, and we expect lots of Khojas.... lol

A couple of days ago we got a call from a guy who is living in Qum, his wife knows Sabiha from TO, dont know how they got our number, but its pretty cool they got a hold of us, they are coming down for a week, so we look forward to meeting them. He said that he reads our blog in Qum, the question i have is that how can Iran allow access to view blogs when Syria doesnt..lol.. all good though.

other than that not much else going on here...we have weekly lectures in the evening at our school which is great...different speakers come so we get to practice our listening and then have short discussions after... Today we heard a majlis from Sheikh Ali who works at Ayatullah Sistani's office and the amazing thing was we understood the whole lecture, no joke, though we have no doubt that he lowered the level of his arabic. Its really cool that we can understand and sorta speak this beautiful language. Our first week here a teacher told us that Arabic is like a key and this key opens up thousands of doors, we are beginning to really understand what he meant. Today we read Dua Kumayl and we understood most of it (without reading the translation), pretty darn AMAZING!!!

We learnt something amazing in one of our classes, and many of you might appreciate this. As we know, Our Prophet (PBUH) and his famiy were generous and sharing, however there was one fruit that they ate by themselves, and that is a pomegranate. Ofcourse they would always give another one to their guests, but they would finish the entire pomegranate themselves. And that is because as we all know that it contains the seeds of paradise. But more then that, and here comes the amazing part: It is said in traditions, that if one eats an entire pomegranate, first thing in the morning, before anything else, the entire pomegranate, all the seeds, Allah SWT removes the whisperings of Satan from your heart for 40 days!!!! and if someone eats 2, then He removes Satan for 100 days and 3 for 1 year!!! Can you imagine.... Try it, i know we will!!!!

Other then that, all is good, will leave you for now, will write more later.

alhamd kul shai jayyid huna. saqta al matar katheer min ams wa kul share' wasekh jiddan wa lakin alhamd matar baraka

Ma'asalaam

Hello Readers

2008-02-05T10:57:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, yup you guessed it, we are back at the internet cafe so thought we would update the blog. We cant tell if anyone is even reading anymore, as the counter page doesnt work here at the cafe, so if you are reading, THANK YOU!!

We are back in school in full swing after the 12 days of Muharram, no more holidays for a few more weeks, so nothing to really look forward to, lol, just kidding, we do look forward to school :) A week ago the Coordinator of the course along with some "consultants" were here to make sure everything was ok and to interview our teachers for next year. If most of you get the WF weekly emails, last weeks email had pictures of most of our teachers... lol... none of them speak english!! LOL, but thats good, cause IA by next year our arabic will be good enough to understand fully and carry a discussion with our teachers.

Also the coordinators of the course made some changes, trying to meet all the needs of the students to the best of the ability. Sabiha and I were craving more arabic from our school, we feel for us to get better we need more conversations and understanding. So they were nice enough to accommodate us by giving us an extra hour to practice our arabic, while the other students had different needs that needed to be met, and they were accommodated. Overall, the classes are going great and Alhamd, our progress has been good as well. They also gave us a possible good surprise, we wont share yet until it is confirmed, but pray for us that it works out....

In the next couple of days we will go to Town Center - a shopping mall in Damascus... yes they have malls here..lol. Normally we go to this mall called ski land close to the airport where they have a big super market where we do our shopping for the whole month. They literally have everything we want from spaghetti, sauce, tuna, cheese, cookies (like back home...lol) to meats and cold cuts..etc. But someone told us about this other place - town center- which is supposed to be a bigger mall with a bigger grocery store inside it too. So we are real excited!! But dont get us wrong, they dont have everything, we still occasionally randomly miss things like Del Taco, Taco Bell, Cold Stone, Lotus Chinese Rest...etc..lol, and ofcourse Steak!!

Ok, will leave it at that for now, by the way, super bowl was last sunday!!??!! what!! totally forgot about it, but amazing that the Giants won!! AND OFCOURSE THE BIGGEST NEWS OF ALL - THE LAKERS GOT PAU!!!!!!!!! WHAT!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! LOL, THAT IS CRAZY!! I know i have missed the entire season, but this HAS to make them title contenders!!! I'M LOVING IT!!!!!!!! take care

Muharram in Damascus

2008-01-23T11:12:00.000-08:00

Hello, again long time since last blog but we have been really busy cause of Muharram and all the programs that take place here, not forgetting school was there too, lol. For those who are reading this don't know about Muharram, please go to http://www.al-islam.org/short/Karbala.htm for more info.

Ok, so how were the lectures of Muharram for everyone out there? We had fanstastic lectures. Our school organized lectures for us, every night for 10 nights, after school around 6pm. So they were looong days cause we were in school from 8-530 and then had a lecture right afterwards. It was really good tho and totally worth it, Alhamd. And ofcourse the lectures were all in Arabic!!! The speaker's name was Sayyid Mudhar Qazwini, from the same Qazwini family that is well known in the states, but a distance relative. This guy who came for lectures, is one of the nicest people we know. He has such great Akhlaq-behavior and conduct, and you can just tell this from his face. He speaks in Fusha Arabic which is what we are learning, and Alhamd, we were able to understand about 90% of his lectures. It was awesome. The funny thing is that he also recited at another center right after ours, so the first time we went there to listen to him, we understood only half cause he was speaking in Aammi - the dialect spoken on the streets...lol, almost 2 different languages. But we continued to go and ended up understanding most if it and got the gist for the rest.

So after our program, for the last 4 nights before Ashura, we would go to his lecture at the other center as well. So we would leave our school at 7, and get there by 715, where we would stay until 830 and then come home around 9, eat, do some homework and get to to bed around 1130 and have the same long day again. But totally worth it, we decided not to go to any urdu lectures so as to practice listening to arabic only, which was a good idea. However on the 11th night of Muharram we were forced to catch an urdu majlis cause the place we normally go to didnt have facilities for women to sit, so we had a choice between pakistani urdu, indian urdu or some good-ol' fashion khoja urdu, and yup you guessed it, we went to the khoja majlis. LOL, there was a group here from London and were having a majlis at some hotel, so we decided to go there, and yup we heard some traditional marshias, traditional nawhas and ofcourse traditional Suff Matam...LOL, its in our blood, cant help it!!! Although we didnt do Suff ourselves.

The whole feeling here for Muharram was great. Everywhere on the streets people were serving tea or hot milk, hot chocolate, literally every few feet, and they would call you to come and have some, and there were Nawhas being played from loud speakers everywhere, black banners and posters all through the city, and you could literally go for lectures from 8 in the morning till 12 at night. Ofcourse we were in school but we managed to squeeze as many in as we could. We went to lectures as late as 11pm which would end around 1 in the morning. Absolutely great experience. After our Holy month of Ramadhan wasnt as festive as we thought it would be, this surely made up for it.

Anyways, have written alot, and i know have forgotten alot, but if we think of anything will add it next time. Still dont have internet at our school so we have to come to smokey internet cafes to check email and update blog, but def. worth it!!

Oh yeah, guess what, it snowed here!!! and not just some flakes, good fashion snow for 12 hours. People were happy, kids were playing outside. Last time it snowed like this here was 15 years ago!!

K, take care!!!!!!

Hello Readers

2008-01-06T08:52:00.000-08:00

Salaams to all... hope all of you are doing well, if anyone is still reading:) Lots has happened in the past week or so since we have written, we will try and get you guys updated with most of it, IA....

Sometime last week, all the pilgrims came back from Hajj, and we stopped over at Safir hotel to go and greet them back..lol, we met so many people, all our cousins and nephews from london, few of our peeps from Los Angeles, got a free meal out of it and met and got to know some new people we had never met. It was really nice to see everyone and thats one of the best parts about being here, especially in the heart of Sayyida Zainab, is meeting all these people who know about the course and are interested in learning more...

We have also become official Islamic ring (especially Aqeeq) buyers for anyone who needs help. In two days we helped about 3-4 people buy over 20000 syrian pounds worth of rings, i know its not alot in conversion, but its alot over here... lol.. our teacher showed us how to tell if a ring is Yemeni Aqeeq which is recommended to wear, so now we use that info and help all we can.... So if anyone is interested or wants a ring, please send a check to my brother in Los Angeles, and once the funds are deposited, we will purchase a nice ring on this end...LOL LOL hahaha...

I know we blogged a few blogs ago that we were home sick, but now that school has started, Alhamd we are not as home sick as we were, ofcourse we still miss our family and friends but its not nearly as bad.. now we miss some food that we dont get here or dont want to try and making here..lol... so here is the list :) enjoy :)

Steak - I'm talking about some proper Sirloin or TBone steak, marinated and grilled on the bbq...umm umm umm :)
Some proper Khoja bhiryani - like the kind they make at mosque..lol..
Some proper Khoja Pilau - with pettis or cutlass on the side.... dont get us wrong, they sell meat here, but it seems to risky to go and buy...lol.. you should come check it out for yourself to understand.
Virani's ribs - hahahaha enough said
East African Mushkaki - yesss
Fish Bhiryani - or better known as Machi Bhath..(only I miss this, Sabiha doesnt like it to begin with...)
Proper grilled fish with rice pilaf and mashed potatoes (from Red Lobster, again only me :))

Im sure there is alot more, but thats all we can think of right now...
Anyhow, take care, till next time, remember us in your prayers.
Ma'asalaam

Facebook is banned in Syria!!!

2007-12-26T09:21:00.000-08:00

Salaams everyone... hope everyone is doing well like we are over here.... as you can tell by the title, syria has blocked facebook...lol.. it really sucks cause that was the primary way for us to stay in touch with our family and friends...oh well, atleast we have email and this blog. We are back at the Internet cafe today to update our blog, cause we still dont have fast enough internet at our school. One of our teachers was really nice and he gave us a free internet card so we can use dial up, which we have been using to check our email, however its not nearly fast enough to do other things. Today, Sabiha and I are both updating, so there may be some repeat material, but its ok, im sure you wont mind :)

Last time we blogged, we talked about how home sick we were, Alhamd, now we are much better cause the institute we are studying at, planned a little trip for us to get away for a little while. I believe Sabiha is writing about the trip, so I dont want to repeat it, but lets just say, we are back, rejuvenated and ready for our next vacation!!! LOL, just kidding, we are ready for school, i think:) two more days of vacation and we are going to make the most of it, sleep sleep and sleep. LOL, cause once school starts, we will not be getting much of it.

Lots of people coming to Damascus this time of the year, we have met so many people, most we dont know, some we do, sufficient enough to say that our khoja radars are on...lol.. hahaha.... soon the pilgrims will be back from Hajj, so there will be a lot more people here. We have been speaking a lot of arabic the last couple of days, which has impressed a lot of people, considering we have only being studying it for 3 months. Alhamd, sometimes i pray a lot that we can learn a lot, but rarely do I thank Him for what he has blessed us with already, and truly he has... so Alhamd!!!

Today we had KFC...lol.. this is the 2nd time we have had it and it was darn good!! And i was real excited to see the Lakers beat the Suns!!! YES!!! still following the lakers and missing them dearly... no not dearly, DEARLY!!! lol.. and they are playing really well this year, so keep it up!!!

Anyways, gotta run, have already spent an hour here, need to go home and eat some more KFC...lol.. remember us in your prayers!!!

Peace

ootla huloo

2007-12-26T09:17:00.000-08:00

Our two week break is coming to an end really fast and back to school we go on sat! Our break started out quite slow but now its going by super fast. Last sat we had a chance to go to halab (aleppo) - the administrator of our course arranged it for us with a friend of his that had a nice comfortable car as its a bumpy drive there...it takes about 4 hours to get there...it started out with just jaffer and i and the driver...but when the driver found out it was just to of us he asked if he could bring his wife along...i was excited about that as it would be good company for me...so they came to pick us up at 11am...and guess what it turned out it was his wife and 2 kids ( 2 little adorable boys) lol in a 5 seater...but you know what? surprisingly we were still very comfortable...the best part was that they spoke NO ENGLISH so we really got a chance to use our arabic...alhamd we did quite well. it was a smooth journey and they were really welcoming..it wasn't uncomfortable at all...we all had a great time. we spent 2 nights in halab...we found a decent hotel - and that too was a great treat for us! on our way to halab we stopped at raqqa to pay our respects to the companions of our prophet (ammar yasir, and owais e qarani) then drove to halab and checked into our hotel..

the next day the driver came to pick us up...it was just him...and he took us around to visit all the different holy sites...as well as to qila halab and then went to a nice restaurant to have some 'kebab halabee' which was delicious...ohh yes, how could i forget - we also went to the suq for some shopping and believe me our driver taught us how to bargain like we've never before...if it weren't for him, we would have definitely spent double or more than what we ended up spending!

after our whole day of being out - we spent some time in our hotel relaxing - then went out for a walk on the street where our hotel was...there were lots of little shops so t'was nice to browse around...we found this perfume store...and went crazy there...50 syrian pounds for 1 small bottle of authentic name brands of perfums lol lets just say we're well stocked...the 'sahibe dukkan' (shopkeeper) was quite surprised at our arabic considering we've been here for 3 months...so alhamd that was good to hear!

we stopped at a few more places on the way back the next day and then were home on monday...rested on tuesday and then were out again today for our final visits...went to pay our respects to hazrat habil( able ) and KFC! lol its funny that with all the good food we get here sometimes its KFC that just does it...we had it for lunch and brought some home for dinner :)

ilal liqaa ~sabs

FINALLY AN UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-12-18T08:16:00.000-08:00

Hello all.... really sorry for no update in so long, but we havent had internet at our school in nearly 5 weeks, and we havent had much time to go to the internet cafe. So if there is someone still reading this blog, God bless you!!!

Alot has happened since the last time we blogged, for starters we took one more set of exams, Alhamd we all did quite well, but now the exams are being put on hold, because the coordinator of the program thinks they are too stressful for the students. So they are going to have a meeting to establish what they need to do that will serve everyone's interests. Sabiha and I dont mind not having exams, definitely means we dont have to focus as much..lol..jk, we are still focusing, we just wont be able to tell how well or bad we are doing. will keep you posted if anything happens.

We are getting a little home sick right now. The other couple went to their homes due to an emergency, and we wish that we could go back too!!! lol, the good thing is that we are home sick at different times, so we cheer each other up. Sabiha is usually missing home during the day, and I am usually home sick at night, so we balance each other out..lol... we were looking at the calender, and we have another 6 months before we can go back, yup you read it right, SIX months..lol.

We are meeting alot of people here tho. 2 weeks ago, we met a cousin of mine that I hadnt seen in 20 years, then the next day met some guy i hadnt seen in 10 years from Dubai... and then last thursday, all the pilgrims on their way to Mecca stopped in Damascus for a day, and we met some cousins and friends. So its really nice. We will meet a lot more people still, as all the pilgrims will stop here again on the way back from Mecca.

Well, trust me there is alot more to right, but dont want to bore everyone... keep checking, really dont know when we will update it again, soon iA. by the way, the Lakers are doing really well, so thats a plus!!!

take care

We have become old!!!

2007-11-12T11:06:00.000-08:00

Hello all... salaams.. hope you all are doing well, Alhamd we are doing great here in Damascus!!! As you can tell by the title, we are getting old!! lol, it seems that by the end of the day we are so exhausted that we are in bed by 10.. lol, thats never happened before.. but it is really a long day... as we mentioned in previous blogs we have 10 classes in a day, and by the end of it and after we finish our homework, go for a walk to practice our Arabic, or watch some tv (in arabic) we are pretty exhausted. Its good though cause we are well rested for the next day...

Our classes are going really well, we finished the first book of Arabic and have started the 2nd, which is much bigger then the first, so this one will take some time...and there are no pictures in this one! lol .... But according to our teacher, we are ahead of schedule which is great. Today in our tutorial class we did something interesting... the teacher turned on the tv and we started watching the news. Then he timed us for 3 minutes and told us to write down as many words we could recognize. It was a lot of fun and something different then our regular tutorial. The great thing was that we actually could recognize quite a few words, though because i was writing so fast, I could hardly read my own writing...lol...

So our reading and understanding are getting better, but we are striving to speak better. Though i have to say, for learning arabic for 2 months, we speak quite well, we just need to keep getting and finding more opportunities to practice our speakin... though far from good..we're progressing well :) Sabiha and I went out yesterday and bought little note books that we can carry around and write new words, to practice them in our conversation. Sabiha and I try to speak to each other in arabic at home, though our grammar is terrible and a lot of times we just throw in words in english if we dont know the arabic word.

It is getting colder now, we have started wearing jackets and more layers of clothes, and i hear its only going to get colder. The heating system here is different then what we have ever seen before, obviously...lol. There are these radiator things in every room but the main power switch for them is controlled by the building management. Yesterday they turned it on but unfortunately the heating system doesnt work in our apartment. So the manager said he would come by today to take a look at it, but ofcourse, he didnt. lol.. oh well, hopefully soon, but its not that cold yet, iA they will fix it before it gets much colder....

besides that, all else is good here, pray that we learn well, i know all your prayers are definitely helping us. we still cant believe that we are so close to the Honorable Lady Sayyida Zainab AS. Each day we are amazed and feel lucky that we are in her proximity. They call her the untaught Scholar, because of her wisdom, even though she was never taught. We pray that she will bless us so that we can learn and make her and her family proud, which in turn, most definitely will make Allah SWT pleased with us.

Take care for now and GO LAKERS!!!!!

Missin the Lakers!!!

2007-11-06T09:27:00.000-08:00

Hello all, pretty cool, much frequent updates...lol... now that we have internet, we check our email every two days and we have decided to take turns updating the blog.. so somedays our blogs will be really short cause not that much to talk about... but atleast updates will be there... btw, leave msgs cause we def read them and appreciate them.

anyways, as the title says, missing the lakers man!!!! since we have been here, the only thing we have missed is family and friends... i used to love watching football, but dont miss that at all, but now that the lakers season has started, really missing the lakers... im more excited to check the scores of the games then i am to check my email..lol. but im glad to see they are off to a good start, especially with Lamar Odom being injured...

as Sabiha mentioned, last friday we had a bbq with all the teachers and their families there, and it was really cool. but the best part of the evening was that we had Camel meat.. lol... they bbq'd camel kabobs and I really enjoyed them. They definitely had a different taste to them, but meat is meat...lol. Being here in Syria, we eat alot more bbq meat then we did back home, its the safer thing to order i think when we go to restaurants... and the Syrian ppl love their french fries, every rest. we have been to has had fries, and it works great for me cause I am a potato and meat man!!! lol.

ALSO.... we watched American Gangster last thursday... yup thats right, last thursday, and it came out in the states on Friday..lol..LOL.. thats soo cool... it was a good movie... as sabiha has mentioned in a previous blog, there is a store here that sells movies, so someone we know picked it up and we borrowed it... pretty cool...

AND... we bought our first Shisha (hooka) today..lol about time huh...lol, i know... it took us two months but we got a really nice one today. We went out with our friend Ebrahim today and he took us to Damascus to buy a good quality one. So we bought everything... the actual Shisha, three flavors of tobacco, foil paper, coal, coal holder... the works.. and for much less then we would have spent for a less then deceent quality shisha back home.

Anyhow, thats it for now... will write more later.

take care!!

nahnu nuhib suriya...

2007-11-04T08:50:00.000-08:00

here we are again..from jaffer's post you know our exams went well, definitely a relief that they are over and that we all did well in them...i'm glad the first set of 6 exams are over, though these are probably the easiest one's we'll ever take in terms of content...but at least now we know what to expect...we wont be as anxious anymore...we'll just have to study harder because i'm sure the content will be more intense...

as a 'reward' for our 'mumtaz' test results...we had a bbq last friday...we had a great time and it gave us an opportunity to meet all the families of our teachers...Dr. Hassam (president of the World Federation) as well 'Am Jaffer were here visiting, so it was nice to all get together...there was some really delicious food...and we all (the four of us students) gave a small speech in arabic...they were all pleased to hear us speak quite well, just after 2 months...yes they actually understood us lol...

here's what i had to say (grammar not 100% lol but we're getting there):

s'uhaawil an ataqallam qaleel bil arabiya
i will try to speak a little in arabic

ismi sabiha wa ana min america, wa qablahaa kuntu fi canada - lakin aslan min africa
my name is sabiha and am from the states, but before that i was in canada...originally from africa

ana mutazawwije, wa zawji ma'ee huna fi suriya
i am married, and my husband is here with me in syria

nahnu nuhib suriya jiddan
we really like syria

ana lam urid an akhudh katheer waqt lianna arabiyatee laysa jayid, inshallah fil mustaqbal saufa takun mumtaz.
I dont want to take to much time, because my arabic is not good, but Allah willing it will be excellent in the future.

most of the people there...ie the families of our teachers didn't speak English and so we were forced to practice our arabic...always jump at that opportunity as it is the best way to learn.

anyhow, i still have some wadhifa (homework) that i need to finish up - so i shall pen off...

m'a salaama...with peace

Apologizing once again...lol

2007-11-02T05:00:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone... long time no write again, i know... even though we have internet, we still havent been able to update as frequently as we would like. Though this time we have a great excuse... we had EXAMS!!!! such a scary word, but we made it through, Alhamd, but will discuss that in a bit... first a few things to clear up...

On my last blog, I had mentioned about our teachers and the administrators, but it looks like one of the comments was blown out of proportion... so first off, let me explain what a blog is.. it is a place for us to write our experiences and have our families and friends stay in touch with us... secondly, it is a place where we write in a humorous and sometimes sarcastic way, as it is meant to be informal, to keep our readers interested. Can you imagine if the whole blog was serious and boring.. who would read it???? lol...anyway...

so we did have exams this week.. 6 exams over 6 days, one a day... really rough schedule... all exams were in 100% arabic... no english at all... that was challenging but we did great... you want our results??? ok... here they are....

Our first exam was in Arabic - I got 19/20 and Sabiha got 19.5/20.

Our second exam was in Imla - Dictation - I got 19/20 and Sabiha got 19.5/20 (see a trend...lol)

Our third exam was in Qur'an - I got 17/20 (i know, i know, thats the exam i went in the most confident..lol..) Sabiha got 20/20 - Amazing!!!

Our fourth exam was in Hadith - I got 19/20 and Sabiha got 19.5/20

Our fifth exam was in Fiqh - the toughest one I think cause it was all major and long sentences we had to write in arabic and know the rules of religion (which isnt bad, but in arabic its something else.) I got 19.25/20 and Sabiha got 19.75/20.

Last exam was in Comprehension... unfortunately, we havent got the results back. The other couple did really well as well, but its not my place to mention their grades... but they did do really well, Alhamd...

Before i hear any comments, let me be the first one to give props to Sabiha and agree with all of you that she is smarter then i am... thats why i married her :)

Last thing to mention, I have officially stopped shaving and trimming my beard... lol.. dont panic, every week i go to the barber and for 2$ i get a trim and a nice shave.. lol... and if i want a haircut, just another $2... lol.. ok, thats it for now.. ttyl... Sabiha should be writing soon...

And we have internet!!!

2007-10-22T13:56:00.000-07:00

Thank goodness!!!! lol, perfect timing too, Sabiha's bday today so perfect bday gift. Alhamd... we are doing great, would like to apologize again for not updating more frequently, but its been real busy... as sabiha mentioned, her parents are here visiting so its been real nice the last few days. our cousin from london is here as well with his family so that has been nice...tho he isnt staying at our place.... but we do have exams coming up so please pray that they go well. Alhamd, we havent fallen behind at all, keeping pace with the homework and class work that we have. But since we dont know what kind of tests we have, what format they will be in...and etc, we are stressing a little... i mean i havent been in school in a LONG time so dont quite know what to expect anymore...

Our classes are going well and the course is fantastic... we have alot of people coming to visit the institution to see how it is going, it seems we have met more people here then we would back in LA... lol... anyhow, thought i would give you a little insight as to who are our teachers and staff are.

1) Hussein bhai - Administrator... he basically runs the admin part of this course... he is real nice cause he listens to our problems and issues and concerns that we have, and it feels good to know there is someone there who will take care of them... and he listens to us and most of the issues get addressed in a timely manner... ie.. syrian standard time. lol.. we keep telling him he has become syrian with his laid back attitude... and he keeps promising us some Khoja bhiryani and cutless that we are yet to taste...lol.. but inshaAllah soon. we do hope that he stays on this role because we find comfort in approaching him.. he keeps mentioning to us that this is a temp role, but IA, lets see...

2) Sheikh Qasim - he is our arabic teacher, and boy, what energy this man has... he can probably read 3 pages of text in one breath..lol.. and we have him for 4 classes and its non stop energy in all... but i feel we have learnt alot already in the few weeks that we have been in his class. and i can only imagine that at this pace of learning and teaching, we will iA know quite a bit by the end of the year... he does place alot of demands on us, which is good otherwise we would fall behind in his classes... he is one of the teachers who speak english, so it helps learning from him. in fact his english is better than ours.. lol... he knows more about grammar and rules of the language than we do....truly funny!!!!!

3) Sheikh Saami - he is our fiqh and tutorial (religious rules) teacher... he speaks english as well... and he is REAl patient with us... he has a great sense of humor and you can tell he is real educated about the rules of religion. he has been in syria for the last 20 years and is real well traveled.. by the way, he can eat spicy food just like we do, surprising since most arabs cant. he is also our tutorial teacher, meaning we spend nearly 3 hours a day with him.. and the time in his classes fly by.

4) Sheikh Abu Hamza - he is our qur'an teacher and dictation teacher - AND he only speaks arabic.. and the great part about his class is that we understand most of what he is talking about.. he does do great hand gestures, and it feels like we are playing charades sometimes..lol... but Alhamd, it gets the job done. and he has a wonderful, i mean great voice when he recites the Holy Qur'an.. supposedly the plan is that we recite like him, iA..lol... he did invite us to his house for dinner one night where we spent 4 hours talking to him and his family who speak absolutely no english... lol.

5) Um Hammza - she is the girl's qur'an teacher.. she speaks no english as well, and sabiha says she really enjoys her class... i think sabiha is her pet student in that class.. thats probably true in every class... ummm, i dont really know her that well, cause she just teaches the girls, but im sure sabiha will write more about her in the future...

6) Syed Mahir - he is the caretaker of our institution.. basically he does the up keeping of this place and takes care of everything that the admin. asks him to do. he does not speak english either, but we get along real well with him and we get to practice our arabic with him as well. he does make a mean cup of tea tho..lol sabiha and i drink black tea now days..lol...

ok, thats it for now, sabiha is tired and wants to go to sleep...lol... will try and update more often, iA.... anyways, take care and pray that our exams go well.

Peace

We have internet WOHOOOO!!! ('indanaa internet)

2007-10-22T13:13:00.000-07:00

so the long awaited day has come...we now have internet access in our building, so no more apologies before starting each blog (hopefully)...hoping to upload pictures too!

it's been a great few days because my parents are here visiting...yup, great huh? they'll be here for a few more days. they were really pleased to see that we are settled, are doing well in school and are happy. I'm glad they are here so they are reassured that we are ok and can pass on the reassurance to the rest of our family and friends. they were able to come and see our classes and met our teachers during one of our breaks...they were pleased and so were our teachers. :)

classes have been going well...the pressure is on as we have exams next week...sat - thurs...one exam a day...a total of 6 ...yes we've started studying already...and have been probing our teachers for details re the exams as it will be different to sit for 6 exams, all in Arabic...we'll see how it goes...

so get this, the other day we went to the haram ( shrine of seyyida zainab - the grand daughter of our holy prophet) and to actually go inside you have to take of your shoes for respect...i normally take off my shoes and leave them on the side where there aren't too many people...so that is what i did...i went to pay my respects and when i came out my shoes were no where to be found lol i looked everywhere...i ended up meeting up with jaffer and my parents and the other couple we study with...we were all going out for dinner and were waiting for the driver to come...lol i had to run out with jaffer to buy a pair of sandals...went out found something real quick...came back in our driver still hadn't come..so just like that i decided to take a quick walk to where i had left my shoes --- went there and lo and behold they were back lol guess someone must have just borrowed them...lol oh well got and extra pair of sandals out of it.

anyhow, other than that..all is well...arabiyatuna afdhal alaan wa nahnu nastatee' an natakallam jayid. fi isboo' al qaadim 'indanaa imtihaan wa inshallah kulluna will get mia bil mia!

'our arabic is better now and we are able to speak well. next week we have exams and god willing we will all do well'.

though we can speak more now, we still have quite a few blunders, lol jaffer is famous for holding up a certain number of fingers but saying a totally different number...like to the taxi driver he held up 4 fingers but kept saying inthnain which is 2 lol yup cab driver was looking at us like we're crazy...he did that once w 4 and 10 also...held up 4 fingers but kept saying he wanted 10 lol lol t'was too funny...anyhow...jaffer's waiting for his turn to 'blog' so will sign off.

more frequent updates from now on...so keep coming :)

Eid Mubarak

2007-10-14T07:46:00.000-07:00

s'nabd'a bil 'eid mubarak wa as'adu Allah ayyamakum! I begin with wishing you 'eid mubarak and may Allah help you through your years.

our month of fasting has come to and end and iA all our prayers will be accepted. the month of ramadhan was different - definitely and experience it being our first year here...though it was different from back home...our teachers and faculty went out of their way to make sure that had programs for us during the nights of ramadhan as we would not have known where to go for programs. We sealed the month with 'eid prayers yesterday morning...the eid prayers here was absolutely amazing...definitely made up for the the quiet evenings we had in ramadhan...the eid congregation was massive..lol u'll know from jaffer's story of his champals (sandals). anyhow it was great to have the other couple with us as we are now eachother's family...we had eid breakfast together and then went out at nite...we went to 'happy land' ( the major amusement park here) sat on a ride called pirata (pirate boat) and enjoyed some basket robens ( baskin robins) LOL anyhow we had a great time...aaaaaaaand back to dars (studies) today.

now that the month of ramadhan has come to an end, we will probably have more energy through out the day to focus on our classes...no more being kaslan (lazy)! we are now able to communicate much more, though sometimes our tenses for verbs are incorrect we make do alhamd. however i am REALLY really enjoying the classes and crave to learn more so I can converse properly...but for now, i try to use it whenever i can...

alaan inteha al waqt lil internet, thumma anaa adhabu ilal baytee...ma' salaama --- ie, times up, gotta go home - peace! ~sabs

Eid Mubarak!!!

2007-10-14T07:45:00.000-07:00

salaams to all, ok... again must start off the blog with many apologies... lol.. we really try hard to come and update our blog periodically, but sometimes, manytimes, it becomes a very difficult process... lol... last time we came with the intention to update it, however, checking our email took up the whole hour... so here we are again, with a 2nd attempt... but keep up the faith and please keep checking... you're the reason we write... but good news, they should have internet access soon at our school (sounds funny doesnt it, but lest you forget we are in a 3rd world country :)), but one connection, so we will have to share it with the other couple, but really, it doesnt matter... it will be good to go online more often, meaning... yup you guessed it, more updates on our blog!!!

so the holy month of Ramadhan is now over, meaning we can eat again..lol. jk, so eid mubarak to all of you.... the month of ramadhan was definitely different here, but in many ways it was the same... i really thought coming here i would get a new sense of spirituality that was really lacking in my life, being in a muslim country, around shia's would raise my level of spirituality, but guess what, that did not happpen. my level of spirituality has unfortunately been stagnat... lol... not really funny, but kind off... so that means that the enviroment doesnt really play that big of a role... sure it does a little, but spirituality comes from within, and it looks like i need to step up my game... pray :) but in many ways, it was fantastic.. walking on the streets at 1 in the morning, still packed with people, people eating and drinking (juice and milkshakes :))... we found a great falafel place which charges 15 syrian pounds... about $.33 (cents) and it filled me up good... and this great juice place across the haram that has vimto juice (fresh) for 25 syrian pounds ($.50) amazing, we eat comfortably sometimes for less then a dollar.. lol... sometimes...lol.

the day of eid was great tho... the feeling on the day of eid, at the eid prayers, made up for the fact that the month of ramadhan wasnt how i expected it... please dont get me wrong, we are having a great time here, just not what i expected. however eid prayers was amazing... the entire hall was packed, and when i say packed, i mean packed... it took me 5 minutes of walking and stepping on people before someone moved a little and i squeezed in.. great guy for doing that... the person reciting the duas had an amazing voice and the whole gathering was reciting with him... imagine a few thousand people chanting together... just great!!!! then afterwards, we went to Safir hotel for a nice western breakfast with omelettes and potatoes, beef and chicken... Alhamd, really nice... that day we spent a little (lot) more then $1.00..lol.. but definitely worth it... Tho the day was great, it was a little sad cause we dont have any family of friends here... but the other couple is alone too, so we had dinner and went out afterwards...

Funny thing happened when we went for our prayers... to get into the mosque, you give you slippers to someone to keep, and he gives you a token back so you can pick it up... however, i know this guy so i dont usually take a number... so i gave my shoes to him, his name is Ebrahim by the way, very nice guy.... but this day there was shoes all over the place, as i mentioned it was packed with people... so after it was over, i went out to get my shoes, and he handed me a pair of shoes, but they werent mine..so in broked arabic i told him that these werent mine and he looked around, and was really apologetic about giving my shoes away... so on the day of eid, i got a gift as well, a new pair of shoes...lol... so someone is damascus is wearing my shoes and i am wearing his.. atleast none of us are barefoot..alhamd... :)

so as we mentioned before, school is going well, we are getting into some slightly harder arabic material, so really need to focus, but ALhamd, its alot of fun... al-aan, nahnu natakalam qalil, insha-allah iltimase-dua, wa ba'da ithnan au thalatha shahr, nahnu saufanatakallam arabiya jayid... not sure at all about grammar....

k, take care and will write more later.... take care!!!!

'utla' for 3 days!

2007-10-04T08:06:00.000-07:00

so my vocab is slowly increasing and am ofcourse trying to pick up most important words lol 'utla' means holiday...we have a 3 day break, well today is almost over for us but we're off tomorrow and saturday. since it is the holy month of ramadhan; there are certain nights when we are awake and night in supplication and prayer to Him...it's nice to have these days off so we can focus on the spiritual aspect of this holy month.

we can't express enought how grateful we are to all of the people we interact with here alhamd...one of our teachers' invited us over to his place for dinner...his wife cooked a fabulous syrian/lebanese meal for us...neither him or his wife speak any english so we were forced to use the little arabic that we know - we did quite well as the 4 hours we spent there flew by really fast...

another person that we have failed to mention since we've arrived here, and has been extremely helpful is haji hussein - he is always there for us in any aspect since day one, and has continued to go above and beyond to ensure that we are well taken care of and are comfortable. he is always encouraging us to use our arabic with him and is always proactive in asking us about our classes to make sure they are goin ok. shukran jazeelan haji hussein. by they way remember in one of our earlier blogs i had mentioned how crazy it is driving here? well guess what? haji hussein got his licence just a few days ago - can u believe it? not sure yet if we're ready to drive with him, but sure he'll take us out once he gets his new car lol

as for our classes, they are going really well - each week is more and more exciting as we are learing more and more and are actually able to understand and communicate much more. just earlier we were watching some news on tv and we were actually able to pick up quite a bit!

al'aan nahnu nadhhabu ilal masjid lil salat wa ba'da namshee ila al-bayt lil iftaar! now we are going to the mosque for our prayers and then will walk home for dinner :)

Difficult to find time...

2007-10-04T07:59:00.000-07:00

hello everyone... again, sorry for not writing in so long but thanks to all the people who check our blog on a daily basis. you are our motivation to write. We have been wanting to come to the Internet cafe for the last few days, but things have been busy with the month of Ramadhan, school and then our night programs. But ALhamd, starting today (thursday) till saturday we have a few days off from school due to the important nights in this Holy Month. Ramadhan here has been different. For one thing, everyone is fasting... well almost everyone..:) occasionally we will see people eating, but its probably cause they are visiting damascus... there are no huge congregations for us where we get together and recite our prayers (aamals together).. so that's different, but ALhamd, Sabiha and I have been doing them at home. the really nice thing is that during the days, the streets are quiet and deserted, but at nights they are lively and filled with energy. So tonight, because we have no school tomorrow, we will iA go out for a walk and have a late night meal as well...

we received some sad news from back home, one of my good friends' son passed away, i believe he was less then 1 year old but was quite sick. because we are so far away, it was really hard news to take...

besides that, our arabic classes are going well. it is amazing that in 4 weeks of studying, we can actually make sentences and communicate with people. of course, it is far far far from good sentences..lol.. but we can communicate. a few days ago we went to dinner to one of our teachers' home and he only speaks arabic. for 4 hours we were able to have a good conversation with him and his family.. ALhamd... fantastic. the kind or arabic we are learning is really useful for speaking, iA down the line we are supposed to learn grammar, but not yet. let me make a sentence for you... "al-talibu kharaja min al-bayt, wa dhahaba ila al-masjid lil-salaat." pretty cool huh... lol... what that sentence says is the student left from the house and went to the mosque to pray... lol.. we are learning basic terminology or words and how to use them in sentences, for example words ike min, ila, fee, ala, huwa, hiya, dhalika, tilka...all these words are key for sentence structure.. and then with the vocab we know or are studying, we can make nice little sentences.. lol.. we are also doing skits, so that helps out with our fluency on basic terminology... but honestly, all praise is for Allah SWT because I am baaaaaddddd at languages, and ALhamd i am not doing too bad after 4 weeks. doing pretty good actually.. Sabiha is doing phenomenal... really, hands down the best student in this program... yup, and she is my wife:)

ok, we will write more stuff later, sabiha is updating right next to me right now...

take care and remember us during these special nights of the month of Ramadhan.

Quick update

2007-09-28T05:02:00.000-07:00

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.

Sorry for long delay

2007-09-25T08:00:00.001-07:00

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

Blockbuster in Damascus??!!

2007-09-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

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 .... :)

10 days in Damascus

2007-09-15T10:57:00.000-07:00

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.

long time no write....

2007-09-10T08:39:00.000-07:00

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 are in Damascus!!!! - and we have found Internet - cafe:)

2007-09-10T08:34:00.000-07:00

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

We are in London!! 1 day late

2007-09-04T09:51:00.000-07:00

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!!!!!

...No turning back!!!

2007-08-31T23:21:00.001-07:00

We're officially no longer in 'the OC' - we turned in our apartment keys earlier today and have brought all our luggage to Jamil's place(Jaffer's brother) - practically all that we own is in 4 suitcases, 2 carry ons, and my purse and Jaffer's laptop bag!!! We'll be here for 2 nites and then we leave for London to break our journey before our destination...

We had quite a hectic day today, though we kept saying that all is done and there isn't much left - there was A LOT of last minute sorting out to do...there was no 'oh we don't need to take this let's just leave it for now' we had to clear out EVERYTHING - crazy...i think it's definitely starting to hit me now, especially once i saw our empty apartment and handed over our keys.

The weekend will be a hectic one, we've been invited out for breakfast tomorrow and then have a mosque event to attend at nite...i'm looking forward to that as we'll get to see everyone and get to say our good-byes...i'm hoping there are no waterworks lol as i dont know if i can handle that...though we'll be back every summer and it's not a permanent move, it's still a HUGE change! We're also invited for breakfast on Sunday, the day we leave...it's been really amazing how supportive our community has been. I haven't had to cook for almost a month lol shouldn't get too used to it eh i suppose? I'm sure it'll be quite an experience cooking over there, i'm taking some spices as suggested by a few people, just to make sure i can make Jaffer his bhiryani ;)

All has worked out well so far as i'm sure u've read cos we've mentioned it several times :) ...and iA all will continue to work out well...we just have a little bit of drama with our luggage...we have 2 bags that we know will be over weight...we did a lot and i mean a lot of investigation (thanks to our lunch hosts yesterday who gave us access to their phone and internet lol ;)) we found out how much it will be for over weight bags - and surprisingly enough its not that expensive. However, since we break our journey in London - we're going to run into a snag cos we change to a different airline and they are not nearly as flexible as our first airline. Anywho we'll just have to hope for the best - don't worry, we'll be sure to update you all!

...back in the stoneage!

2007-08-29T00:24:00.000-07:00

Sooo...we're back from TO; we had a blast; it was great getting together with family and friends...got back late last nite; and what a journey back it was. We had a stop over in Utah - when we got on that flight we sat on the plane and amidst screaming and crying kids we heard the pilot let us know that there was a minor technical issue on the plane...and so we had to wait and wait and wait....we ended up gettin off the plane...and waiting another hour; we finally got on the plane and made it back home...lol the worst part thru out all this was that we had no way to communicate with our family letting them know that our flight was delayed...our cell phones are disconnected ... so once we got off the plane we had to get some change so we could use a payphone...yup they still have those...not as many but they have em...we had a hard time finding one on the road...but we managed. Once we got home...definitely hit us; our apartment is empty...aaand we have no connection to the outside world...lol no tv, no cell phone, no internet...no home phone..we had to go to a cyber cafe in our apartment complex to access the internet..definitely made us realize how dependant we are on certain things...lol we actually had to read and talk to spend time.

Tomorrow is our day to pack...we still have dinner and breakfast get togethers..so between all that we will finsh up all our last minute packing and then we're off!

We got a confirmation today that our apartment is ready and we will be picked up at the airport on the 5th...wow in about a weeks time we'll be there...time is just flying by!

Anyhow, that's it for now...It's been a while since I've written but will hopefully be able to keep up with Jaffer and his posts...lol I'll have more to say when we get there i'm sure...have just been pre-occupied with packing and sorting things out...everything seems to be shaping up really well Alhamd~ and we have no doubt that all will continue to fall into place ...

TIME IS FLYING!!!

2007-08-24T14:04:00.000-07:00

Whats up everyone, cant even believe its already Friday. You know what that means??? Day of Juma!!; 2 more days here in TO and we leave, OMG; I am reciting a majlis today!!; 5 days since we last updated the blog. LOL.... sorry about that... things have been moving at an extra ordinary pace lately. Days have been flying by and now we are faced with the reality that we dont have much time left here. Tomorrow should be exciting because the whole Jaffer family that is here will be meeting for dinner + a few others, but in reality, everyone wants to be a Jaffer anyway!!! hahaha...... jk..... not really :)

The last few days have been nice but busy.... Mon, Tue and Wed nights we spent with Mom and were back here last night. We will spend the remaining of our nights here at Mummy's (you should know the difference if you have been reading our blog :)) We have visited everyone we want to visit, well let me rephrase that, we have visited everyone that we had a chance to visit. There are still so many people that wanted us to come to their homes, but we never got the chance. And its not just because we are so popular (haha... we're not that conceded), its because we really have a lot of family here. It seems that no matter how long of a trip we plan, we never have enough time... but thats the story of everyones life right. Allah SWT says that surely we are at a loss of time, and boy those words are truly ringing true now!!!!!!!!

The next couple of days should be filled with laughter, excitement, sadness, tears and everything in between. We will have a lot of fun when we are all together tomorrow night but then after that when the reality of us leaving will hit, it will be filled with lots of emotions. Thats what I think anyways, but what do I know.... 'twill be funny if there are no emotions... haha...

BTW, we were waiting for our Visas to arrive, and Alhamd they did. So now we have our visas and tickets, looks like no going back now!!! haha...

Will keep you posted!!!

Busy in TO

2007-08-19T15:04:00.000-07:00

Sorry for not writing in soooo long, but we have been really busy here in TO. We have so many people to visit, back and forth between the two families, and mosque basically every day. Since our arrival in TO on Tuesday afternoon, we have been to 3 mosque functions, one more tonight, 3 weddings and 1 reception...and a partridge in a pair tree...lol....

Since we decided to go to Syria, we have always felt that it was meant to be.. you know how some things just seem to fall into place!?!? well, things have really been in our favor, once we decided to go ahead for this course, Alhamd. Pretty cool. So something exciting happened to both Sabiha and I. We came on Tuesday afternoon, landed around 330, got home around 5. Spent some time here at Mummy's (Sabiha's mom) and then went to go visit Mom (My mom). See the difference?? This is how Sabiha and I know which mother we are referring too..lol. During dinner, Akil (Sabiha's brother) mentioned to me he has to give a lecture at the Brampton Mosque and really didnt have time to prepare. So he asked if I wanted to recite..lol... what??? I have given many lectures at the LA mosque, but never anywhere else. lol.. so after further discussion with my agent (Sabiha), we decided to go ahead with it. First majlis for me at another Mosque, how exciting!!! and nerve wrecking ofcourse...lol...

So I did mention something exciting happened to both of us... On Thursday, we were driving around when Sabiha got a call from Mummy. Sabiha had been requested by some lady to give a lecture at her house. What????? lol, how exciting, we both just came to visit and hang out with family, and we are both going to give lectures..lol... Told you this whole thing is 'meant to be'..lol. So I did give my lecture on Thursday night and Sabiha did give her lecture on Friday afternoon. Its hard as a lecturer to say how it went, but both group of listeners said it went great! IA it will get accepted.

Besides that, we have been going to mosque a lot. Crazy the number of people who attend mosque here. Nothing at all like what we see in LA. But the community size here is HUGE. Overall, its been a fun trip so far, and we still have another week to go. By the way, we have paid our Salaams to Tim Hortons, Popeyes, and Shalimar (they serve an East African Menu there). Many more restaurants to visit :)

Will write more soon!!!

We're in Toronto!!

2007-08-15T11:54:00.000-07:00

Whats up everyone :) Hope you guys are doing as well as Sabiha and I are doing. We are currently in Toronto, got here yesterday, but the last few days have been filled with excitement..lol, not really but atleast it will keep you reading :)

On Sunday, I went to play volleyball in the morning. Might be the last time I play, tho I hope they will play on Sept 2nd when I am there. Said my goodbyes to a few of the guys who I may not see again for a year..then came home around 1ish, Salim and Jamil came also, cause Jamil was taking a few things from our house...also some things we wanted to keep so we gave to Jamil...etc. Also, we were selling our 2nd car today and would be then left without a car :( Also, our TV and dvd player was going as well. WOW, can you imagine, the house was completely bare, nothing was left..lol, but 2 air mattresses. We then went out as a family and Sabiha and I came home around 11 (Jamil let us borrow one of his cars, thanks!!), to a house that had no couches to sit on, no TV to watch, all we could really do was play some Scrabble!! lol, Sabiha had never played so I thought I would destroy her. And you know what, she almost kicked by $*#@...lol.. I wasnt even taking it easy, she just played really well. I think if she practices a few more times, she will consistently beat me, then I probably will stop playing..haha...

Monday was a busy day as well. We had to run a lot of little errands through out the day, went to lunch, went to the cemetery and then packed. Cause Tuesday, early early morning we were flying out to TO. So we packed and packed and packed. We ended up with 3 1/2 suitcases filled with stuff. And the funny thing is, 2 1/2 of them are clothes that we are leaving in TO, only 1 suitcase is filled with stuff that we are going to wear... lol.. too funny. then we went to Jamil's house cause LAX is close to there, and went with Salim to dinner. On the way home, we passed LAX and decided to stop by and have a rehearsal for the next day.. lol, jk, we wanted to go weigh our bags, and good thing we did cause we were over weight on 2 of our suitcases. So, because we are planners, we had taken a duffle bag with us incase this would happen... worked out wonderfully!!!

Tuesday early early morning, we left Jamil's at 415 - AM that is, and went to the airport. Long lines, surprisingly cause it was so early. But Alhamd, everything worked out well. We were flying from LAX to Salt Lake city where we had an hour stop over and then the rest of the journey to TO. But as it turned out, we were delayed for 1 hour in LAX and delayed for 1 hour in Salt Lake. Thats life i guess!!!

But, we are in TO, will keep you updated here, just lounging, so should have more time to write stuff..lol, if there is something to write :)

Peace!!

INDIO!! (not India :))

2007-08-11T15:08:00.000-07:00

OK, sorry for not writing in quite some time, but we were out of town for the last few days. Tuesday was my last day of work and on Wednesday, Sabiha and I, and my two brothers and their families all went to Indio for a few days to relax. By the way, its Indio, not India..lol..everyone we told about Indio, always said "INDIA???", lol, then we had to explain to them that its Indio...lol.. the desert.

My brother Jamil reserved a 3 bedroom suite at a resort in Indio, and it was a lot of fun. We got there Wednesday late afternoon and it was about 109 at 5..lol, quite hot... by the time we got settled in, played a few games of Wii, it was already night. We started bbq around 9, when it was still 80 outside..lol. The place was great tho.

On thursday we all just hung out during the day, ate and then ate some more, smoked some shisha during the afternoon, then decided to go the Cabazon-Outlet stores, in the evening. That was a nice outing cause we were all together and made the day pass by a little. Funny story about that.. all the girls were really excited about going, so us guys, who are not big shoppers all tagged along. After 2 hours of walking, guess what... lol.. all the guys bought stuff and the girls didnt get anything. LOL... funny how that happened.

Friday we had to check out by 12 and didnt want to stay too late anyways cause of friday traffic. We reached home around 230 in the afternoon. Really good times with the family. Sabiha will put up some pictures of all of us together. It was really good times and thanks to Jamil, Shabira and Inaya for putting it together, AND for Salim and Tahera for coming to NY for this and for us.

Its hard to imagine how little time we have left. Tahera bhabhi is leaving this sunday to go back to NY and I'm sure the tears will begin flowing. On Monday, Sabiha and I go to TO for 2 weeks, where there will definitely be a lot more tears... we are definitely packing the kleenex :)

Oh by the way, our Sofas got taken today. So I am currently sitting on an air mattress watching TV. Tomorrow, our TV will go also :( Dont know if I'm more sad of our TV going or the Car...lol..

Anyways, more to come, iA we will have pictures on here soon too.

Take care!!!

We got our tickets!!!!

2007-08-07T09:03:00.000-07:00

2 blogs in 2 days!! wow, this is fun:) So now its finally finally confirmed. Last week we contacted our travel agent and gave him the dates we want to travel. The next day he sent us a few itineraries and then we had to pick the best one. And now, we have it. Its paid and ready for travel!!! So, our trip details are:

Leave LA on Sept 2nd - fly to London (spend a day there to hang out w/ family).
Leave London Sept 4th - fly to Bahrain (2 hour stop) then fly to our NEW HOME!!!

We arrive in Damascus on Wednesday Sept 5th.

Long Journey, but all good, Alhamd. Its good that we arrive there a bit early cause it will give us a few days to get adjusted with our surroundings, maybe get a food poisoning under our belts before class starts (lol...jk...everyone we talk to warns us to be careful... i think 1 food poisoning and we should be ready to eat anything..lol). First day of class starts on Sept 8th. CRAZY!!! BACK TO SCHOOL!! AAAAHHHHHHHH.......

I know it seems like Sept 2nd is so far away, but really, its not. Check out the tickler at the bottom of the blog, and it will show you how long we have. Out of that, 2 weeks will be spent in Toronto, 3 days in Indio, leaves us with less then 8 days here in LA. Nuts!! Things are moving right along, and if we dont keep up, we will be swept underneath the currents...(cool analogy, huh!)

Ok, so thats the biggest update yet. Today is my last day at work. To all my work teammates who read this, it was truly a pleasure working with all of you and I leave with all good memories.

Take care for now!!

The Weekend

2007-08-06T14:39:00.000-07:00

Whats up everyone??? For those that have been following our progress thru these blogs, we would like to say Thank you very much!! This weekend that past was extremely productive and filling :)

We were invited out to different peoples house this entire weekend. It was krazy!! But at the same time, ALOT of fun!!!

Saturday afternoon, Sabiha and I were invited out to SK's house for lunch. Along with us, they invited my brother, Jamil and the family and a bunch of single LA Union guys!! It was good times and good food. The same crowd that was invited for lunch was also invited out to dinner at MK's house. There we all hung out as well and the guys ended up smoking some shisha! It was a good productive day of socializing and eating!!!

Sunday morning, ofcourse I went to play vball with the guys. Rushed home cause again Sabiha and I were invited out to lunch at one of our friend's house. There we ate some good food again and some more socializing. Afterwards, we went to visit my uncle where ofcourse we ate a little more. Sabiha planned well and only munched, but I quite dont know what that means...lol. From there we went to another friend's house for dinner. Man!!! are you tired? We sure are..lol.

We do want to say THANK YOU to everyone who took time out of their busy schedule and invited us to their house. It really means alot to us and makes us feel real good that people are so supportive of our journey. Thank you again!!!!

On a side note, tomorrow is my last day of work!!!! WOOOOHOOOOOOO

More updates to come, IA.

Peace!!

Just packing....

2007-08-01T14:39:00.000-07:00

Hello......:) so not much going on here, besides ofcourse getting rid of TONS of clothes and other stuff. Its hard to imagine how much stuff we humans possess.. krazy!!! but besides that, counting down the days to when i quit my job. After today, only 4 days left!! Looking forward to not having to work for 4 years..well, actually we will be in school for 4 years, so pick your poison i guess...lol. We should find out in the next couple of days when we are actually leaving LA for Sham, in the process of booking tickets currently. Details will be posted as soon as they are confirmed...lol...

This blogging thing is quite fun actually... IA more people will start reading when there is something truly important to write.. haha. In the meantime, tonight we going out to dinner to a Thai restaurant where they sell Madaf. I think we go there just for the Madaf..lol..

Ok.. will write more at a later time!!!

The Weekend!!

2007-07-30T08:07:00.000-07:00

OK, i have to say its pretty cool that we just come on here and write about whats happening in our lives, hoping that people actually care... lol.. so if you do, let me tell you about what happened this past weekend..

Friday: Since we are down to one car (we sold the other if you haven't been paying attention :)), Sabiha dropped me off to work in the morning cause she had a lunch date with her work friends. A few hours into my workday, I started feeling sick so she came to pick me up...Dont quite know what was wrong, just severe stomach pain... I came home and basically slept till the evening.. At night, we both went to KD's house where LA Union was throwing us a surprise (not really a surprise) going away party. Really nice of them and super nice of our chairman, KD, and his family who hosted the party (not really a party, more social gathering). Thank you LA Union!

Saturday: Saturday was not a good day for me (though could have been worse, so Alhamd!). I was much more sick then I was the day before, so basically stayed in bed. Sabiha, my gift from God, took great care of me and we actually got some quality time to spend toghether (however, i was sleeping for most of it, lol). The guy who bought out furniture came to pick up the rest of it, however the dude was 2 hours late!!! WHAT!!! 2 hours late, are you kidding me, like we had nothing better to do. Well, we truly had nothing better to do, but still, 2 hours late! That's ridiculous!

Sunday: Because I wasn't totally well, missed volleyball this morning, and u know what, life went on... though it was tragic!! Sabiha and I went out to lunch to one of our favorite restaurants, Aladdin, Jr, then went to CostCo with Jamil (my brother). You need a membership to get in and out of CostCo so Jamil had to come and get us in and then come and get us out..lol... Thank you for all your help Jamil!! So basically CostCo is this place where you can get everything you want in huge, bulk quantities. We bought alot of the essentials that we need for Sham, ie.. toothpaste, toothbrush, medications...etc (cause they dont have toothbrushes and toothpaste in Syria, lol.) We felt we should buy all the basic stuff from here, so we dont have to worry about them when we get there. Smart huh?!!! K, thats if for now... will write more later!! Peace

An eventful day!!

2007-07-26T11:15:00.000-07:00

OK, so getting a little better at updating this blog, iA it will continue :) so yesterday, we made some progress! I got to work and started calling different places to start cancelling our services...ie car insurance, house phone and internet...etc. Kind of a reality check, lol, its really happening!!! WOW! Then we decided to book our tickets to TO to say our farewells to our parents and family. A few months ago we checked United Airlines cause we had enough miles to get 2 free tickets but we never booked it at that time. Then 2 weeks ago we checked again and there were no available dates...WHAT???? lol, lots of suprises along the way. So yesterday, we did the 2nd best thing, we Priceline.com our tickets and WE GOT THEM!!! So we are leaving on Aug 14 and coming back on the 27th!!! You know what that means??? We hardly have any time left!!! AAAHHHHH...lol.

Also yesterday, Sabiha put picture of our Sofa's and coffee table up on Craigslist around 1 in the afternoon. Within half an hour the first person called and within the next few hours, we received 4 calls for them. Amazing! So the first couple that called came by last night and checked them out, aaaannnnddd, they bought them!!!!! Woohoo... this means that all of our big furniture is officially SOLD!! Alhamd!!

thats it for now...will write more later.. if anyone is reading...lol

...packing...packing and more packing!!!

2007-07-24T21:42:00.000-07:00

Ok so I keep going through these phases where I feel like we have SOOO much to do still and are going to be in a state of panic until the last minute...and then all of a sudden my nerves calm down and I begin to feel like there's not much to do and that we'll be ok lol I can't decide...the good thing I suppose is Jaffer and I take turns to panic lol ok ok i take that back, he never panics it's just me - he's always the one keeping me sane!

Sooo the awesomest ( yes i just made that word up! ) thing happened...one of Jaffer's friends told us that there's this family that is looking for a car...and so they came to see one of our cars that we wanted to sell...and guess what? they bought it...not only did they buy the car, they bought both our cars, our TV, bedroom furniture, shelves, dishes --- they practically bought everything!!! so what a huge relief that was...everything seems to be falling into place.

My last day of work was on Friday, so this is my first week at home...and I'm getting quite a bit done, in between lunches with friends and stuff. It feels more real now that I'm not at work and our apartment has filled up with boxes and suitcases! Anyhow that's it for now...things should start to get more exciting as we get closer - and then especially once we write from there...

...packing...packing and more packing!!!

Long time no write...

2007-07-23T18:42:00.000-07:00

Ok...so I know its been a looong time since the last entry, but this is all kinda new for Sabiha and I. So, alot has gone on the last few weeks. Yes, its true, we are going, but since then alot has been going on. Alhamd, we found someone who wants both our cars...i know, can you believe it!?!?! and the same guy is buying most of our furniture. Truly, there is no doubt God is Great!! Besides that, Sabiha quit her job last week (she will mention more about it in her entry), so now everything is becoming a reality. We are really anxious i think, want things to happen right away and for us to get answers right away. But thats really not happening :) either way, things are moving along.... will write something more later!!

It's OFFICIALLY official!

2007-07-02T13:41:00.000-07:00

A lot of of our close friends and family know we have been thinking of moving abroad for further studies...for those of you who didn't know, guess what?? we're thinking of moving abroad!!! lol

So the long awaited decision has been made, and we have decided to take on a once in a life time opportunity. We are moving to Syria to pursue a 4 year postgraduate course...to begin a journey of a lifetime for our betterment and that of our community. We thank you all for your constant encouragement and support. We hope to keep this page updated as often as possible and would love for you to follow us on our journey...

FOLLOW US ON OUR JOURNEY...

Time is flying by

The weekends go by too quickly

Eid Mubarak!!!

Nearing the end of the Holy and Blessed Month

Big changes at our school

Back in Sham - Year 3

We have Internet!!! pretty fast too

Eid Mubarak to All

Cant believe how fast the Month of Ramadhan has gone

Finally a day off... kind of :)

Back in school again

Still blogging, but does anyone care!!

Back in LA...

Exactly One Week to go!!!!

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

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

48 Days and counting...

Its Playoff Time!!!

What to write about????

New information received !!!

Back from mini-vacation... school starting soon - AAAAHHHHH!!!!

EXAMS ARE OVER!!!!!!!!!!!

3 down 3 to go!

Its time for Finals!!!

Things we love about Syria!!

Arbaeen in Damascus

WOW, 2 blogs in 2 days

Popays

Hello Readers

Muharram in Damascus

Hello Readers

Facebook is banned in Syria!!!

** ootla huloo **

FINALLY AN UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have become old!!!

Missin the Lakers!!!

nahnu nuhib suriya...

Apologizing once again...lol

And we have internet!!!

We have internet WOHOOOO!!! ('indanaa internet)

Eid Mubarak

Eid Mubarak!!!

'utla' for 3 days!

Difficult to find time...

Quick update

Sorry for long delay

Blockbuster in Damascus??!!

10 days in Damascus

long time no write....

We are in Damascus!!!! - and we have found Internet - cafe:)

We are in London!! 1 day late

...No turning back!!!

...back in the stoneage!

TIME IS FLYING!!!

Busy in TO

We're in Toronto!!

INDIO!! (not India :))

We got our tickets!!!!

The Weekend

Just packing....

The Weekend!!

An eventful day!!

...packing...packing and more packing!!!

Long time no write...

It's OFFICIALLY official!

ootla huloo