birthdays all around!

so, i have to admit that i was totally suprised to find that we had a TGIFriday's in our city when i arrived back in April. it has been a great place to gather and celebrate birthdays. most recently i was fortunate enough to help celebrate two birthdays with friends there. the staff does a great job of wishing the birthday guy or gal a great big TGIF birthday!it was happy birthday to my roommate! it was great to have her folks there, too. we had quite the crew there, so it was a special celebration for a special lady indeed. below was the spread after the meal at TGIFriday's. yummy cake and ice cream. the candles are arranged into the number 25 since it was her 25th birthday! beautiful!
then the next day i was so excited to take my lang helper, dear NA friend out for her birthday! i asked her if she wanted to go either ice skating or bowling--her choice--whatever the birthday gal wanted! she chose ice skating. i was so proud of her. she had a great time i think. it was fun to be back out on some ice. i can't even remember the last time i went. below is us at the end of our skate session.

then off to TGIFriday's! yes, again. she loves snacky foods, so i thought she would enjoy this place. also, i really wanted her to experience the birthday song and dessert there. we started out with the boneless chicken wings and we both had the bacon (beef bacon:), cheese-burgers. then the fabulous folks at TGIF came out with the yummy brownie dessert and a wonderful happy birthday song to serenade her! she enjoyed it:) below she is blowing out the candle on her birthday dessert!

i was so excited that she stayed the night! my first overnight local houseguest! we woke up and i made her a birthday breakfast! i made up some bisquick mix biscuits. she really liked them! we had a great morning of just talking, sharing, and laughing. i am just so glad to know Sa. she is such a dear, dear friend to me. i am so grateful to know her. what a joy!
so, this week has been exciting to say the least. i am back in class taking a class that covers the upcoming Big Eid. looking forward to Thanksgiving and thankful for so much that i am truly grateful for like my family, friends, this opportunity to be here, food, shelter, water, and most of all my G. i hope you have a really great Thanksgiving with you and yours.

please know that i will be traveling next week. so, you may not hear from me for a bit. so, stay tuned! i will have many, many photos and updates after my trip (going to two pretty amazing places). thanks again for journeying along with me. i am oh so thankful.

ancient rock city

yes folks! throw up your ancient rock fists!:)
i recently had the absolute privilege of visiting these incredibly well kept Roman ruins here in this country. it was a couple hour train ride from my home-city here and quite the day trip. the sky was beautiful, the temperature pretty much perfect, and loads of photos were taken by our group. it was fun to say the least.hey mom! here's me with some of the ruins. we immediately started taking photos and were snapping shots just about every moment we were there. there was so much to look at and observe. i wondered about so many of the people and the places that existed there. what was it like? amazing really. kind of makes me think about the impression i or we will make on this place. hmmm.

above is maybe one of my favorite shots from the day. it almost looks like a movie set, huh? imagine all the hard work that went into building these archways, houses, shops, baths, etc. truly amazing to me.

this place was an important Roman town situated near the westernmost border of Roman conquests. it was built on the site of a previous Carthaginian settlement from (at the latest) the third century BC, but that settlement overlies an earlier neolithic habitation.
this was the administrative center of the province in Roman Africa . the fertile lands of the province produced many commodities such as grain and olive oil, which were exported to Rome, contributing to the province's wealth and prosperity.--info from wikipedia.com
i was most suprised by the number of still intact mosaics. i was thinking there would maybe be like a couple, but there were at least 10 that looked amazing. such incredible craftsmanship here! and these folks were very creative. many were of animals and people and their gods.

i love all the archways and you can see the triumphal arch in the distance to the left. it was quite impressive. much of this place was pillaged by invaders in order to take the resources (marble, stone, etc.) to build other buildings for their cause elsewhere--very interesting, huh? can you imagine what more would still be here today if that had not happened. i also think that this particular invader wanted to disassemble this place because of its idolatry and to claim their stake in this new to them place.

there were many baths there. some looked public while others were for more personal use. amazing how their tubs remained. obviously this was a big part of their culture/life. pretty cool. i liked this one especially cause it had the cut-outs for folks to maybe have their own space.

overall the trip was a neat step back in time. i took about 250 pictures while i was there that day. very cool indeed.

seven months in

greetings friends and family! i am excited about this update as it captures just the everyday life kind of stuff here--which i have realized many of you enjoy seeing these kinds of images and hearing about these daily ins and outs. so, let's start of with one of my favorite activities to do here in the city: shopping. if you know me well, this activity is one of my favorites where-ever i am and with who-ever is right there beside me. i especially love bargain shopping and this process of bargaining here has become quite fun and a great way to build rapport with the folks i see each and every week. and of course it provides great language practice! so, this week i came across this amazing hoodie in the m'dina. i was really excited about it cause i have been wanting something with script on it. and this shirt has a great message: always nothing bad (essentially). this script here is really stylized and can be found in Quranic type of writings or artwork. then on the back of the hoodie is a less stylized script--which i could read at first glance. this one below took my lang helper to help me in figuring it out. sadly, i am realizing that when you live overseas the expat community can sometimes be equated to a revolving of old folks leaving and new folks coming in. i am sure other folks that are studying in other parts of the world can relate to this. it reminds me a lot of the college campus--always in the rotation of coming and going. there was yet another goodbye party this past week that i attended to see of a fabulous lady. above is the couscous that was served to us. it was really, really good--some of the best yet i think i have had. this was just one table's serving--there were two other tables. this lady leaving was pretty loved! below is me and her before leaving the farewell party. she is really cool. so, i decided to take a couple of days to wash all the farosh and pillow covers while my roomie was out of town. this has been quite a process (i still have covers on the line drying). but it has been fun and they look really great now! our house helper lady was really glad that i was doing this i think. she also enjoyed showing me how to restuff the pillows. she was proud of what i had learned. here are the pillows stacked up ready to be dusted, then stuffed back into the covers.here are the covers out on the line--it thankfully hasn't taken loads of time for them to dry as they are made of upholstery fabric. the sun has been shining in the mornings and i have been trying to rotate them to get maximize their light exposure. fun, fun, fun! so, here comes the fun part! getting the stuffing back into the cover. i thought it to be interesting that the word our house helper used most in teaching me the proper way to stuff them was slowly. at one point i did not heed her advice and heard a stretching of the seam i didn't want to hear. there was no apparent damage--but it reminded me that some jobs must be done slower than others and this was one of those. :)

so, then came the beast! i was actually complimented when our house helper lady asked how i had gotten these off by myself. i told her this was like sport/fitness for me. thankfully getting the farosh covers back on the faroshes hasn't been too bad. just two more to go! i have to say that it just feels good to have them cleaned. do you ever have that feeling--just when the house is cleaned and picked up. it just makes me happy--maybe i am a nerd. well, i hoped you enjoyed this update with a look at the oh-so-normal day to day life things here. i can't believe seven months have passed. i feel like i am still so new here, yet i feel like sooo much has happened that it sometimes feels like i have been here longer than just seven months. i took my lang exam last week and that went really well actually, so i am super grateful for that. i am hopefully going to be taking a course similiar to the R-dan one i took back in Sept, except this one covers the Big Eid. i am excited to learn the vocab and hopefully be able to see more as to why and how this celebration is celebrated. i am also looking forward to Thanksgiving next week! we have a few things on the agenda to celebrate--so that will be fun. with Christmas decorations going up quickly after T-giving. then the week after i have travel plans out of the country! these next few weeks will be quite a fun ride i think:)

thanks again (always) for your continued support. it means so much. really.

my first youth deal ever & this week

so, i got to attend and help out with my first youth deal ever. it was for ex-pat kids that live here in NA. it was an interesting weekend in more ways than one. we all traveled to a school campus that was like a mini-America. it was quite a shock actually to be in that kind of atmosphere while still being here in NA. i jokingly asked my roommate if we should have gotten our passports stamped at the gate. all in all, it was a neat weekend. hope you enjoy this update...so, i got to lead up a free time of crafts and such. it was fun to watch these kids and their creativity run free. i really enjoyed getting to talk with them while we crafted and hung out. thanks mom for sending me some of my stamping stuff!we had an incredible treat one night with a bonfire and s'mores! we were totally stoked for this oh so delicious treat. can you tell? :)here is the group of ladies i got to kick it with for the weekend--we were the LADYBUGS. they were great ladies and i was in awe of their walks with the Father. it was cool to watch. i am not sure if i really did a whole to encourage them, but i was amazed just to be able to kick it with them and thankful for their devotion. so, my roomie and i have decided to make Tuesday night BREAKFAST NIGHT. we have realized that we need to eat up some of the great imported foods we have received or still have even from when we came here initially. we definitely are looking forward this new weekly tradition and ate up some good food this past Tuesday night. chocolate chip pancakes--my favorite! well, i have a lang exam this week and i have been logging extra hours with my lang helper to review and get ready. i am really grateful for her and her willingness to listen to me slowly read through sentences, ask questions, mispronounce words, and forget what some words mean even. i have had the opportunity to go to her house to study and it has been fun. i happen to go during a time in the day here when they typically serve like a snack to hold folks over til dinner that will be had later. this mini-meal is called casse-croute, which is actually french for sandwich. some folks may eat a sandwich for this time, but a majority of the time folks will serve sweets or local specialties. quite the after school snack i must say. above was one of the casse-croutes i enjoyed this past week. my friend is quite the cook as she prepared everything you see here except the s'fuf (brown, powdering looking stuff). i am excited because i am hoping to learn from her how to make up some of these delicious treats during my upcoming break from lang school.

october into november

so, i decided to venture on my own this time to get my hair cut. i decided to take some pictures with me as i wanted to make sure that what i wanted was communicated. i ended up having to take photos of pictures from the Internet--technology is amazing. i really wanted it pretty simple as i guess i am growing out my hair. check it out:
i was super excited to receive this lovely package from my dad and bonnie. i really appreciate these fun gifts to celebrate the holidays. it really brightened my day and the goodies inside have been quite a hit. thanks so much!

recently i was able to finally meet the family of a friend that i met within the first month of being here. i was so excited! i went over for couscous and her family is really quite lovely. the picture below might not give it complete justice, but this was a huge serving of couscous. i started out trying to make the balls with my hands and eat it that way, but for some reason this time my couscous balls weren't sticking so well. below on the table and to the left you will see glasses of what looks like milk. it is in fact leben. leben is something i had yet to experience, but had heard much about since arriving here. i guess it is pretty traditional for folks to drink leben with their couscous meal--of course it helps the digestion (they are really big on that here). well, i have heard horror stories about the stuff and so of course was a bit nervous about it. it is a type of buttermilk. i haven't ever drank buttermilk, so i can't compare. i have to say it wasn't that bad. it was a cross between yogurt, sour cream, and milk. good thing i like all of those things. it was fun to be a part of their family. they treated me to some henna! i was really excited to get it and talk to the friend of the family that did it for me. i asked her how she had learned (cause i want to practice) and she said she taught herself! so, there is hope for me:)

some of us ladies decided to treat one of our friends to a night out to the theater. we totally surprised her with a night to the Moscowian Circus on Ice. it was fun to get all fancied up and enjoy a neat show. i was totally in awe most of the time as the entire performance was done on ice. it was cool! sorry that there aren't any photos, but they were not allowed. bummer.

some of decided to do a little trick or treating actually the day after Halloween. we went to the home of the family that helps keep things in line here. it was fun! we even brought candy with us to do a reverse trick or treat. Kev is a guardian (parking attendant), Jenn is Cruela DeVille, Sherry is a magic/flying carpet, and I am the Wash My World girl. my character was inspired by this techno song that has been heard all over the place here. it is all about making the world a cleaner place. it is pretty catchy. it was really fun to get all dressed up and surprise the family.

we got a new to us rug from a friend that is moving. it is so nice and has been helpful in making our home a little warmer as it is cooling off here. the apartment actually gets colder than it is outside and there is not any central heat. it was a pretty good deal i think and i have already laid down on it once--you don't realize how much you like carpet until you don't have it!

i was so excited to get this package from my mom and a friend. birthday gifts are still coming in. i had also asked my mom to package up my down jacket for me as i may be traveling to some colder places over the winter (and may not mind having it here:). thanks so much to all of you that send items, notes, cards, etc. i am so grateful!of course there was gonna be a food shot, right? so, my roomie and i went to this shopping mall in our city to check out a pet store that she wanted to go to. we had also decided to go there to eat lunch. well, we topped the stairs and saw a sign for this beauty! i am pretty sure it is a turkey frank, but it was delicious! really fun. we just love fun finds like these.