Life Rambles On...

So I had good intentions of keeping up this blog much more frequently but life has gotten busy here I am not doing a good job. Sorry to those who would like more….feel free to email or skype. It is funny because often I have “blog” moments that I think I need to tell the world about – that really are noteworthy, but it is always at a very inconvenient time to sit down and actually blog. Like in the middle of a MUN conference or out in public. No halting to blog so I forget to. Thus my blogs are so long and a massive summary. My goal is to blog more frequently, less like novels, more along the lines of chapters  short ones…snapshots of my days.

Life as of late:

Learning and growing: starting to learn more about the realities – both joys and hardships of being overseas for an extended time. Out of the honeymoon phase for a while now. I will start with this:

The loss of a friend from the States recently has caused a lot of processing of life, including the implications of what it means to make the most of life and what that looks life for me living abroad. Learning what it means to make the choice to live abroad – the things you give up and the things you miss. Missing the joys of things like marriages, births, etc. in friends’ lives and being apart from friends in hard times. IT IS HARD sometimes. It STINKS sometimes.

As much as I have been walking through a harder time in life the last couple of months some things that I have realized through all of this are that I love being abroad. I want to do this long term. I love how the world is so much bigger. I love how I will never see people or places or food the same. I love how I am challenged to grow and change and live life fully. I don’t want to miss a beat and there are so many things to see and do and people to learn about and meet, teach and learn from. This I was created for in so many ways I feel. I LOVE the adventure!

I have loved the joy of new life as well. I seem to be surrounded by babies here and have done more babysitting since I have been here than I did in the last seven years of my life combined. I will be babysitting a baby baby next week – my favorite little Eva who is almost two months old now. Being around all of these babies has really good for me. I really used to have a baby phobia – they were boring to me and scary all in one. Afraid to drop or hurt them, I avoided holding them at all costs. NONE of that for me. Well this little Eva and all these little kidlets have expanded my horizons – watching them grow and change…..I like it and can kinda see what parents talk about

Speaking of kids, had one of my favorite memories here the other day. Was out bowling the other day and a bunch of kids came up and were watching us….no parents around - typical here. They loved watching us and would get so excited every shot. They didn’t talk to us but would just jump up and cheer and mimic things we did. I decided to try my very menial Arabic out on them and introduced myself and then asked their names. They looked at me surprised and one said, “Arabie?” (translation = you speak ARABIC?!?!?!? WHITE girl?!?!?!?!) It was great! I just love the kids here, they are so cute and I NEED to work on my Arabic again!

Another funny quote set from my students before our Model United Nations conference we hosted:

Student: “Teacher, since we are security at out MUN conference, do you have something for us to, you know, get people with?”

Me: “You mean like a tazer?”

Student (obviously excited): “YEAH, I want to zap people!”

Me: “Oh yeah, I will get right on that!”

I will post more of these more frequently, I promise!

FOOD UPDATE:

What I miss:
- CUBAN
- Chipotle
- Maggie Moo’s
- Amelies
- Good breakfast places

What I won’t try again:
- Vine leaf thingys
- Arab and Indian sweets – generally not my favorite – the spices don’t rock my world like chocolate and ice cream do

What I find interesting, yet not top 15:
- Tomato Ketchup Potato chips (though I don’t usually eat chips, I had to try these)
- Shwarma from street vendors


Top Fifteen, not in any particular order – they are all good:

1. Poulet Braise
2. Club sandwich from Cocos
3. Hummus from Al Abraj with Lebanese brown bread
4. Fresh Juices
5. Fresh calamari
6. Calve Peanut Butter
7. Beef Wellington
8. Butter Chicken with Butter or Garlic Naan
9. Chicken Tikka Masala
10. Peach Iced tea (especially from Cocos)
11. Indian coffee
12. Mille Foui (for all you French speakers, sorry for the misspell)
13. Chicken Halloumi Avocado salad with balsamic dressing
14. Pumpkin soup with lemon