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!!!
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Khushali Mubarak to all of you!! 'kul 'aam wa atum bi khair iA"
Salaams to all of our readers, if anyone is still reading :) Today we are celebrating the birth anniversary of Sayyida Zainab AS and it is an honor to be here in Syria, in the close proximity to her tomb. kul 'aam wa antum bi khair iA! We had a day off today, ALhamd, lol, long time over due and really needed by us :) so we did the only thing students know how to do on a day off, we slept :) LOL, then we actually studied... haha.. we went to the Haram last night and it was amazing packed with people, it hasnt been this packed since the 40th of Imam Husein AS. It was nuts, but Alhamd. Today we had a bbq at our campus and all the teachers and their families came, we had some mushkaki, kabobs and chicken tika..lol. It was a good change to the everyday routine of school.
So for those keeping the countdown like we are, we only have 41 days left before we come back home.... will be definitely nice to come home, we were thinking the first thing we would like to do is go to the cemetery and pay respect to our father, and then relax and not have to worry about studying for a while..lol. Our arabic teacher said he will give us assignments over the summer so we dont forget our arabic, which was appreciated by all the students, cause he doesnt really have to do that. But then he said he would email us assignments every day.. and the entire class said no!!! LOL, we agreed to once a week which is much more doable.
One of the things we are looking forward to is food when we come back, ... some of the things we are looking to is: IHOP - International House of Pancakes...lol.. i know, we get pancakes here, but its not the same... There you get Pancakes, eggs, hasbrowns all for $5.99... WHAT!!! LOL, unless the price has gone up... we are also looking forward to Chinese Food, Red Lobster and ummm... cant think of anything else...LOL...
Anyways, time to get going, remember us in your prayers.. talk to you soon!!
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!!
Sunday, May 4, 2008
48 Days and counting...
Haha... i know we have been counting down for a long time, but dont worry, we still love it here and love being in school. The environment, people, and city is excellent, and definitely cherish every moment here. Not to mention that we meet someone we know or someone who knows us every week or so... lol. We just got a call from someone who knows our cousin in London and they heard that we know some good ring places or tasbih places... so we are taking him shopping today... LOL... .we just asked our teacher that the prices here compared to the prices back home are much different, so are we allowed to charge people more who order stuff, and we got the approval...LOL... just kidding.... about what, i will never tell!!
So, major developments here over the last few days, prices of nearly everything has gone up in Syria, and all to do with Gasoline and Diesel prices... Diesel used to be 7.5 cents per liter, and it just went up to 36cents... thats nearly a 360% increase, so everything also went up.. All the taxi people were on strike yesterday cause they wanted permission from the government to change their rates, and they were given the permission today, so we the students who are receiving a monthly stipend based on old figures, are now also going on strike until they increase our stipend...lol, just kidding... But really they should increase it :)
We went out walking through Damascus a few days ago, from Sayyida Ruqaya AS to Abu Rumana where KFC is, and it took us nearly 3 hours because we stopped at a lot of stores on the way, but we did end up buying lots of DVD's, of new movies that are in theaters back home... each movie costs $1... lol.. now we just need to find time to watch them... haha... all good tho.
Anyways, thanks for reading... we hear we were in the new INFOCUS magazine that the WF came out with, though we ourselves havent read it... So if anyone is coming this way, bring a copy with you please :)
Take care!!
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!!
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Its Playoff Time!!!
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!!!
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!!!
Thursday, April 10, 2008
What to write about????
Hello everyone, hope you days are going as well as ours are over here. We finally are at our weekend, one whole day off!! miss our 7-3 schedule back home and two whole days off... JUST KIDDING!! dont miss anything about our old work schedule..we love it here and the schedule we have. no kidding about that..
the last couple of days was a blast, a lot of our family were here visiting... nearly 20 Jaffer's all together.. it was fantastic. We would finish with our school and right away go and hang out with them. Being here in Sayyida Zainab AS we see so many of our family members, more then we ever did back home. They have all left now, but most will be back in a weeks time for one more day before they all go back home. So we are looking forward to that one day again.
As I am sure you are aware, there is a countdown taking place, after today, we have officially 71 days left before we come back home..lol.. dont worry, we will regularly countdown, cause i know you are counting down as well.. LOL...
Also, we have mentioned, that we have become expert ring buyers and tasbih (rosery beads) buyers... lol... in this month alone, we have taken people to go buy stuff, and all together, we have given this one store 36,000 syrian pounds worth of business. Now, thats alot of money, nearly $700.00. Now if we receive orders from abroad, there is a service fee that we charge, so the price will be higher... lol, im just joking, not about the service fee, about taking orders from abroad :)
Oh yes, forgot to mention, last week we here at the internet cafe and some guy sitting next to me struck up a conversation with me and asked the usual questions that all do when they talk to us.. "Anta min Bakistan?" LOL, so i replied Im not from Pakistan (the B was not a mistake, no P in the arabic language..), but I am from Canada... lol, thats right, havent dont tell many people im from USA, just to avoid any uncomfortable talks... anyways, to get to the point, he showed me this computer program available here that lets us call people in the states or in Canada for FREE... you read it right, FREE... so we have been making lots of calls to family members, excellent way to keep in touch.
Anways, all for now, will talk to you later!!
the last couple of days was a blast, a lot of our family were here visiting... nearly 20 Jaffer's all together.. it was fantastic. We would finish with our school and right away go and hang out with them. Being here in Sayyida Zainab AS we see so many of our family members, more then we ever did back home. They have all left now, but most will be back in a weeks time for one more day before they all go back home. So we are looking forward to that one day again.
As I am sure you are aware, there is a countdown taking place, after today, we have officially 71 days left before we come back home..lol.. dont worry, we will regularly countdown, cause i know you are counting down as well.. LOL...
Also, we have mentioned, that we have become expert ring buyers and tasbih (rosery beads) buyers... lol... in this month alone, we have taken people to go buy stuff, and all together, we have given this one store 36,000 syrian pounds worth of business. Now, thats alot of money, nearly $700.00. Now if we receive orders from abroad, there is a service fee that we charge, so the price will be higher... lol, im just joking, not about the service fee, about taking orders from abroad :)
Oh yes, forgot to mention, last week we here at the internet cafe and some guy sitting next to me struck up a conversation with me and asked the usual questions that all do when they talk to us.. "Anta min Bakistan?" LOL, so i replied Im not from Pakistan (the B was not a mistake, no P in the arabic language..), but I am from Canada... lol, thats right, havent dont tell many people im from USA, just to avoid any uncomfortable talks... anyways, to get to the point, he showed me this computer program available here that lets us call people in the states or in Canada for FREE... you read it right, FREE... so we have been making lots of calls to family members, excellent way to keep in touch.
Anways, all for now, will talk to you later!!
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
New information received !!!
OK... its like a 2 for 1, two posts published on the same day... haha... i think it may be a first...
Last weekend our school had a meeting here in Damascus and a lot of people came down. For starters the Coordinator of the course, ex pres of WF, VP of Nasimco and Coej, our uncle from Mombasa and cousin from Switzerland and a few other very nice people from England... We were fortunate enough to sit in on the meetings and it was nice to see that people are putting a lot of effort to make this course successful. So all the future candidates for this course, have no fears, things are looking good... though there has been some changes that you should know about when you go back to your hometown for 2 months, this piece of info caught all the students off guard.
Before we came to Damascus, we had lots and lots and lots of questions, and some of those questions pertained to when we go back home for 2 months. We were told repeatedly that dont worry about a thing, everything will be taken care for you, and that we wouldnt want to make life hard for you. So what did we do? we sold everything...lol, both cars, all furniture, basically emptied everything we had... We asked our jamaat (mosque) if they would be able to pay for anything when we come back home and they said they couldnt because it would be too expensive for them, and we totally understood that... The jamaat themselves calculated and it would cost anywhere from 4000-4500 a month to live in LA, and for those that live in LA, they know that it sounds about right... but we repeatedly told not to worry about a thing, so we didnt....
Now, we just found out a day or two ago, that the only thing they are going to pay for is our Housing when we get back. So we asked the basic questions that anyone would ask.... why? have you ever been to LA, if so you know that you need a car, who is going to pay for the car? what about cost of living? what about food? why were we not told about this from before so we would have kept one of our cars? many questions were asked and no answers were given. Only thing we were told is that they are over budget and they cant afford to pay for anything else but housing!!!! Great!!!! Alhamd tho, we have no doubt that Allah SWT will take care of us, He always does, this post is just for future students to plan well for when you go back home. Dont let this worry you, at least you know about it so you can plan better.
Besides this bomb shell of information, everything else is good. Sabiha has lots to write but she said she will do it next time, dont think our readers can handle 3 blogs on one day!!!
Take care and pray for us :) we only have 80 DAYS left before we come back home!!! WOOOHOOO
Last weekend our school had a meeting here in Damascus and a lot of people came down. For starters the Coordinator of the course, ex pres of WF, VP of Nasimco and Coej, our uncle from Mombasa and cousin from Switzerland and a few other very nice people from England... We were fortunate enough to sit in on the meetings and it was nice to see that people are putting a lot of effort to make this course successful. So all the future candidates for this course, have no fears, things are looking good... though there has been some changes that you should know about when you go back to your hometown for 2 months, this piece of info caught all the students off guard.
Before we came to Damascus, we had lots and lots and lots of questions, and some of those questions pertained to when we go back home for 2 months. We were told repeatedly that dont worry about a thing, everything will be taken care for you, and that we wouldnt want to make life hard for you. So what did we do? we sold everything...lol, both cars, all furniture, basically emptied everything we had... We asked our jamaat (mosque) if they would be able to pay for anything when we come back home and they said they couldnt because it would be too expensive for them, and we totally understood that... The jamaat themselves calculated and it would cost anywhere from 4000-4500 a month to live in LA, and for those that live in LA, they know that it sounds about right... but we repeatedly told not to worry about a thing, so we didnt....
Now, we just found out a day or two ago, that the only thing they are going to pay for is our Housing when we get back. So we asked the basic questions that anyone would ask.... why? have you ever been to LA, if so you know that you need a car, who is going to pay for the car? what about cost of living? what about food? why were we not told about this from before so we would have kept one of our cars? many questions were asked and no answers were given. Only thing we were told is that they are over budget and they cant afford to pay for anything else but housing!!!! Great!!!! Alhamd tho, we have no doubt that Allah SWT will take care of us, He always does, this post is just for future students to plan well for when you go back home. Dont let this worry you, at least you know about it so you can plan better.
Besides this bomb shell of information, everything else is good. Sabiha has lots to write but she said she will do it next time, dont think our readers can handle 3 blogs on one day!!!
Take care and pray for us :) we only have 80 DAYS left before we come back home!!! WOOOHOOO
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Back from mini-vacation... school starting soon - AAAAHHHHH!!!!
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!!
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!!
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