Christmas in NA

well, Merry Christmas! we had a great one here full of fun, gifts, decorations, Christmas programs/parties, and friends to share it with. I hope you enjoy the photos that helped document this special holiday here...

this was right after we put up our tree. my dad had sent a basket for Thanksgiving, so i put the extra ornaments in there and put that under the tree as a little extra decoration. i bought the Christmas tree and ornaments from a friend that went back to the States. she was right in thinking that the holiday decor would help brighten up our season! i also was really excited to find this spray snow stuff for our windows. i knew that my roommate was used to snow, so i wanted to bring a little snowy feeling to our pad:)

nice and up close shot of the tree. in the middle there you can kind of see the genie lamp ornament--that was a gift from a shopkeeper in Egypt! fun!

so, my roommate suggested handing out goodies to our neighbors for Christmas. i decided to make up chocolate cookies, some mint candies, and these buckeyes pictured above! these are my most favorite things! i think i made close to 300 by the time it was all over. you will be seeing them in photos to come:)

my fabulous lang helper (and dear, dear friend) joined me for our Int'l Ch's Christmas program. it was a blast. it was a really neat, new experience for her and i think she enjoyed getting to hear more about why we celebrate. we had a really nice evening.

so, i got inspired by my lovely friend, Lesly, and made up some homemade gifts for my lang teachers, my classmate, and our building's concierge. i made up hot cocoa/mocha mixes. i was so excited to find everything needed to not only make up the mixes, but to wrap them up as well! the red and green wrapping is used for book covers here. it worked for me!

now, fast forward to Christmas day. my roommate was housesitting for a family, so we decided to have our group's Cmas there. here is lovely Shannon with a gift i got her and her family from Egypt. she cried, which in my family means SUCCESS! :) we had a really fun time opening gifts and sharing in the celebration.

of course we had to have great food! we decided that since we had gone all out for Thanksgiving, why not change things up a bit and go mexican for Christmas. i was in charge of the salad and fixins'. below was my first plate of food:) it was so delicious! enchiladas, beans, rice, pork tacos!

then came dessert! shannon made up delicious cherry and pecan pies (my two absolute favs). my roommate made up gingerbread cookies and of course there were buckeyes:)

so, after handing out the boxes of goodies to neighbors, we received gifts from two families in our building! one family brought flowers and a wonderful note of Christmas greetings while another family gave us this cute card with a wooden box for each of us! i was totally blown away! how generous and sweet this was!

after Christmas I had two friends, Ai and So, come over so they could check out our Christmas tree. they had never seen one before, so it was really fun to watch them check it out, take pictures, and comment on the tree and decorations. it was a really fun and the loved it all.

i have been so thankful for packages that have been sent! the one above came from Rogers and was full of some homemade peanut brittle, fudge, and divinity! i have gotten to know the package delivery guy and the folks down at the poste pretty well:) below are the goodies that my dad and bonnie sent to me along with the great box my dad painted up! i was so excited to receive these...thanks!

عيد الأضحى

so, living here allowed us the opportunity to experience the Big Eid (عيد الأضحى). in preparation for the Eid many sites, smells, and sounds arrived closer and closer to the big day. this is when Muslim families slaughter a sheep (or another animal) in honor of Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice his son, Ismael, but instead Allah provided a sheep for him to kill.

the Sunday before the Eid my roomie and I went around town a bit to gather some footage to share with friends and family like you! here you see the delivery guys with a family's sheep. living in a big city, there weren't large sheep souqs (markets) all around like there would be in smaller towns. i am thinking that the family went out to the ranches or farms to pick out a sheep and had an agreement of when it would be delivered.


here you see the sharpening guys. it is if utmost importance to have a selection of sharp, sharp knives. the knife to slit the throat of the lamb must be ultra sharp cause you are to only take one stroke across the neck as mandated in Islam. so, these guys set up shop all around town in order to offer their sharpening services.


then the other popular necessity for this big holiday: the grills and charcoal! since the family now has an entire sheep to eat, they get creative in how to prepare it. suprisingly they love making the meat into brochettes (skewers) on the grill. it is amazing how much charcoal smoke we smelled and saw after the day of the Big Eid! imagine every house on/in your block/apartment building grill sheep!

so, then we came back to our apartment building to find a couple of guys delivering another sheep for yet another family in our building. we started to smell the hay, their food, the sheep themselves, and of course their bi-products. it felt like we were back at the County Fair 4-H barn:)
then, the big day came: i was invited to join my friend, La, along with her family for the Eid. above is a photo taken from the roof looking down on the sheep for the families in their building. two were for La's family: one for her immediate family and the other for her uncle's family.

below is a shot that i thought captured a lot. here the men were in charge of wrangling the sheep. imagine two sheep being loaded into and out of the back of my Ford Focus hatchback (which is about what happened). and then the kids looking on. some kids are excited and then some are really sad cause they know what will happen to their family's sheep. it is an interesting time.

above is my friend's family's sheep. i wasn't allowed to photograph the actual slaughtering, which i was okay with. but it was interesting. the other sheep was in the yard and they covered it with a tablecloth to keep the other sheep from seeing the other sheep getting the knife. this was done out of respect is what i was told.then, after the sheep was slaughtering the skinning, the gutting, and cleaning happened like clockwork. everyone had a job and knew exactly what to do to quickly prepare the insides first as the meat would be prepared later as it is mandatory to leave the meat until all the blood drips from the corpse. above is the table of labor: preparing the brochettes of organs. my friend is cutting up rolls of fat (which was laid out to dry) that will be wrapped around pieces of lung, liver, or heart. salt and cumin are spices of choice during this holiday.another shot of the table. now, you can see the grill, too. they would put the organ on the grill whole to cook it through and then taken off to be cut up and then wrapped up with fat and then put back on the grill. mmm good.seriously nothing is wasted. the legs/hooves and head are also cut off and then roasted over a fire to get rid of the hair. they must be cleaned and then are saved for the next Friday's couscous. i actually helped clean a head (which was pretty intense) and then later ate some sheep head couscous on that following Friday! Fear Factor here I come:)this was later that night when we grilled up again some brochettes. what i thought was interesting was that they grilled inside the home! it was super smoky. the meat was pretty delicious overall. i stayed the night and then the next day we had even more sheep meat of course.

it was an interesting celebration and i was thankful for the course i took at my school that helped explain why and what was going on exactly.

Roma!

so, i had a nice, long layover in Rome on the way home from Cairo. i think i got into the city around 9am and caught the 4:30pm train back to the airport, so it was a quick trip, but well worth it! when i was in the airport terminal i stepped into a shop that had loads of English lang magazines--it was overwhelming! i was looking through an adventure magazine and found this little slice of heaven on a page that you see below. it instantly brought a smile to my face and i had to document this brilliant moment in print history:) ha! hey, it's Arkansas, the Natural State--you just can't mess with that.

so, onto the quick tour of the eternal city. i ended up taking a hop on/hop off double decker bus to tour around the city. it was a great deal and allowed me to see many sites from the bus, but also allowed me to get off at stops to explore particular sites of interest more in depth--a good option in my opinion. also, there was audio that gave some insight on the different sites along the way. anyways, onto the first stop: the Colosseo. the area around it was a little different than i had expected, but it was truly beautiful and amazing of course.


i didn't actually go inside (again, got to save some things for the next trip, right?) as i wasn't sure how much time i would have and spent all my euro cash on the bus fare. but i did walk all the way around peeking in on different openings to get glimpses of the inside. i was so happy that it wasn't raining yet. it was a nice morning for sure! i couldn't believe i was actually there!
then it was back on the bus where i saw many sites of course, but the next big one was the Circus Maximus that now operates as a park for the city.
then onto Campidoglio-Capitolino, the big steps. i tell you what, the bus offered some great shots on the fly!

then later, onto San Pietro square! again, it was different than i had expected, but pretty incredible to say the least. behind me is where the Pope gives weekly addresses as well as others. it was lightly raining at this point.it is just so huge! look at the people there at the entrance. i didn't wait in the really long line to go in here either (again, gotta save some stuff for next time:) but you can also see all the chairs they have out for people to come and listen.

i really liked this photo above. i feel like it captures it all. the basilica, the piazza, this man of God, the huge screen to broadcast the Pope, the fountain, the statues of saints up top, etc.

then i buzzed over to Trevi Fountain. this was much larger than i had expected. Romans knew how to go big, huh? there were a lot of visitors here as well. i can't imagine what it would be like in higher tourist seasons! i was just a tad happy to say the least here:) i also ate some yummy gnocchi for lunch just down the way from this fabulous fountain.then i followed lunch up with a healthy serving of gelato! right when i left the gelato shop it started to downpour! so, i rushed over to the closest bus stop to wait and try to juggle my gelato, umbrella, and bus ticket. thankfully there was an empty seat on the bus, so i could sit and enjoy my gelato while watching from the comfort of my seat.

then, it was onto the pantheon! i wasn't sure if i would have time, but suprisingly i was able to get around the city rather quickly, although i didn't spend hours at each location it was a neat experience to take in so many beautiful sites.inside the dome actually had this opening. the building was huge! at this point it was raining pretty good and the opening allowed rain into this place of worship. they had the wet area roped off, so it was just raining down on folks. i thought that was interesting.

so, it was a quick trip, but hey, you get what you can! i am really thankful i got to visit here as well. it was kind of a lot to take in just a week, but again, i am so thankful. if i look tired in the photos above, you have to know that i only got maybe a half hour of sleep the night before as my flight from Cairo left out at 4:30am. but it was worth it! as my sister would gladly reply: hey, you can sleep when you are dead. i don't try to abide by this advice, but i think sometimes it is worth it in the opportunity to experience some amazing places, foods, and interact with charming people.

also, a fun thing that was a total surprise on the way home: the airline i was flying with canceled my flight from Rome to NA, so i was on standby with another airline. well, after waiting til all the folks were checked in and other folks got picked to fly, i was told i would get on that flight! i was so excited as i was pretty exhausted and wet at that point. so, i hurried to the gate to find out that my seat was in first class!! wow! probably my first and only time in first class. it was an almost 3 hour flight, so it was fun. they served some nice salmon, bread, butter, a beef steak, veggies, fruit and finished it all off with cheese--very french inspired! also, i was totally blown away that they served champaigne and wine as the airline was that of NA and alcohol is not favored in this Muslim society. that was interesting for sure. thankfully, there was plenty of room to catch some sleep. to say the least, this trip was pretty fantastic. i just wish you could have been there with me:)

trip to Cairo!

so, i had the incredible opportunity of going to Cairo this month. it was a really neat vacay and included such an interesting mix of Western and Arab. greater Cairo has just under 20 million folks, so it is definitely the largest city i have ever been in. it was interesting in a lot of ways since i am living in another Arab country...you know, the similiarities and differences. i was totally excited the evening i got there, cause my friend that i stayed with offered me in opportunity to go with her to her Egyptian friend's house--which i absolutely loved (probably one of the main highlights). i just have grown to love the Arab culture. it was funny, cause i felt at home in Cairo. although my Arabic didn't translate exactly (which was kind of tough on me), it just seemed familiar. so, below i got to go to a famous (at least amongst the expats for sure) restaurant that felt like a piece of Americana! there was George Strait on the radio, a leather vest on our waiter, and biscuits and gravy! yummy! i had to order the waffle, mushrooms, and biscuit and gravy ala carte, cause i really wanted to try each of them:)then we moved onto the pyramids and sphinx! it was absolutely incredible. quite surreal, too. i was so happy cause it was nice, warm, and sunny! below i am in front of the Great Pyramid, the largest of the three. it was suprising how close the site was to the city, but you have to remember that the Nile actually ran right up next to the pyramids at one point in time.this guy was such a cutie. thankfully he (maybe she) belonged to one of the security officers, so we didn't get hassled about taking a photo with him (or get asked to pay). he (or she) decided to cheese it up with me for the photo--what a great photo opp! :)here, i am actually up next to ruins from one of the widow's pyramid. they were much smaller in comparison to the other larger ones, but they had the same blocks (meaning huge, rock blocks) that were used for the three larger pyramids. i don't think you can really climb all over the big 3, so i climbed up here to give you some perspective on just how large these blocks are and how intense building these great structures must have been! amazing!on the way to the middle pyramid, i opted to take a camel ride. for some reason the guy (photographed here to the left) decided that he wanted to ride with me, but that is kind of not very respectable in this culture and for some reason seemed to want to take advantage of the situation to ride with me. my fabulous friend insisted that this was not appropriate and i actually only rode for a few steps, got my photo opp and we walked the rest of the way. oh well. no big deal. at least i got the infamous shot! :)we walked up to the rear of the site so i could take some photos from behind. i was just so excited to be there and in awe of it all. jumping for joy here:mio and my fabulous tour guide/hostess with the mostess. she grew up in AR, too. we had a great time talking with each other about our experiences in northern Africa and encouraging one another. it was really refreshing to have this time with her as we could relate on some things and even talk about AR and understand what each other was talking about (she was like a piece of home:). it was truly a blssing to be with her indeed. thanks, thanks, thanks T! so, then more food fun! they had this insanely huge mall that had all kinds of restaurants, including On the Border. we just don't have any mexican restaurants here for some reason, so that was a major priority for me: fish tacos, chips and salsa, and queso!

then we went to a cinema in the mall--that was playing Body of Lies in English (with Arabic subtitles). it was a blast. i enjoyed some Starbucks during the movie (decaf mind you:) and also flipped out when i saw shots of my city in the movie! also, we could understand most of the Arabic in the movie, so that was really fun, too.

the next day i walked down to the mall/shopping area in my friend's hood. i found a scrabble game that is in Arabic! i was so excited! then i met up with my friend for some local cuisine: koushery and foul are pictured below. both were extremely tasty and really inexpensive.oh, then it was the next morning stop at this bagel place! this is the cinnamon crunch bagel with strawberry philly cream cheese! i went back for another--we just don't have these here either. it was so, so good!
i was really suprised to see all the Christmas decorations around Cairo. it was really fun thought, too. many stores had decorations for sale and also their store decorated! 'Tis the Season!then, i went down town to the big museum. it was incredible. i couldn't take any photos inside, but here is the entrance with a statue. there were so many tombs, mummy cases, etc. there! it was incredible and i was really excited that the King Tut exhibit was present and didn't cost extra:) wow, really.
then we went to the market (like our medina) to do some shopping and there were a couple of some of the oldest mosques in the city there. it was interesting to see the different architecture of their mosques than of ours here.

the last night there we went to go take a boat ride on the Nile, but the wind wasn't moving. we opted out, which was cool--next time! i did get to get some water from the nile though to take with me.
it was an incredible trip that provides me so many memories. i still can't believe i got to go really. very, very thankful indeed!

Thanksgiving goodness

so, i got to make my first from scratch carrot cake for our Thanksgiving gathering. i also tried a no-bake cheesecake recipe my mom gave me. it was a lot of fun! the carrot cake recipe was for a three layer cake, but i decided to make it up this way and it was huge and heavy.i also had the privilege to make up a cheeseball! it was a tweaked recipe from what is available here. and got to make up some mashed potatoes to share. let's just say it was an all out Thanksgiving bash! below is a photo of my plate--yummy teamwork, aye?

we had another Thanksgiving gathering the Saturday after and I volunteered to make the green bean casserole. i got maybe 2 or 3 kilos of green beans for this batch. i also made up my own fried onions and cream of mushroom soup. i am definitely learning a lot about cooking from scratch! fun!

so, it wasn't all about the food: i got to meet this sweet little lady and even hang out with her. she is adorable, right? :)

i hope you guys had a great Thanksgiving holiday celebrating with your family and friends. there is just so much to be thankful for isn't there?