15 June 2010

Dearest sweetpea,

I missed posting a blog yesterday! I guess I'll just have to catch you up on everything today :D

14 June: Yesterday :)

I woke up, and I was able to pack my usual PBJ sandwich with my Granny Smith green apple, yummmm :D I'm actually serious! Peanut butter and apricot jam go magnificently well together! Who would have thunk it? I caught the bus and fell asleep on it, again. Lol, I always fall asleep on the bus rides. And although the seats recline somewhat, I still strain my neck after an hour of awkwardly sleeping with my head twisted sideways. Well, I am sure that one of these days I will start bringing that pillow that you encouraged me to buy, you know, that awesome idea of the many that you always have!
Classes went very smoothly. In colloquial arabic we reviewed some of our previous day's lesson for this one girl who had been absent. My Arabic teacher may be the nicest teacher I have ever had! She brought us chocolate bars for this lesson, for no other reason then just for us to eat something to wake us up! After we had reviewed our previous lesson, we went over the Arabic numbers. What she abounds in in good cheer and friendliness she lacks in focus! Lol, we spent another hour going over each number, which was great, because we definitely understood them at the end of the lesson! We studied numbers 1-1,000,000,000! Haha, I gave you a little sample last night ;) After that I went to the library and read some more of Son of a Witch, which I will briefly discuss in my blog for today later on in this message. Uhmm, let's see, I became pretty hungry after reading a bit of Son of a Witch and so I went to a private area to eat my lunch. This school is huuuge! I'm going to try and include a panorama of the main courtyard with the Library below this text, to give you a hint of how big it is!

Sometimes its size can be beneficial, and sometimes a hindrance :\ For example, when I went to find somewhere quite to eat my lunch and listen to music, I found a cozy little garden that no one else was even within earshot of, and so I settled myself into a nice bench in the shade and listened to some CCR, Kansas, Lady Gaga, and Disney (most notably Aladdin songs, go figure!) After I finished my lunch, it was about 11:50AM, which was perfect because I told my Arabic teacher that I would pick up a flashdrive that I had given to her at noon (The flashdrive was so that she could put the audio cd that goes with the book on it, that way we don't have to buy the cd! I'm telling you, she's super nice!). So here is why the magnanimity of this school can be rather frustrating. I went to the building that her office is located in, and getting from where I was to her office was literally like walking through a maze! I should have taken a picture of this one area, because it really reminded me of that movie Labyrinth, with the endless hallways one after the other! Luckily I found it around noon, so it wasn't too bad, but it was still kind of annoying! After that is when I bumped into Moe and Amber and I talked with Moe a little bit before my next class. Cultural Anthropology was nice, we met our teacher for the first time, and it's going to be a great topic because she seems very much in love with it :) The other students are blah, but that won't deter me from learning!!!
Lol, the bus ride back to my dorm, guess what I did? Bingo! I slept! Lol, yet somehow I always manage to wake up with enough time to get back to reality and not miss my bus stop. If I ever did keep sleeping, though, I ride the bus with a few of my friends here, so they would wake me up :) Yesterday after classes was really nice for me, as I told you last night. Instead of going to Khan al-Khalili, the large bazaar that is comprised of small alleyways and treasures behind every corner! lol, I stayed at my dorm and read for my classes and then read Son of a Witch (I'm reading it so much because I just want it to end!!). I went to Alex Top and ate a Shawarma Tagen, which I'm still not sure what the Tagen is, but it was noodles and meat and veggies, and for only 5 pounds, I was happy and stuffed. At that time it was 9:30PM here, so I sat in the common area and cheered for Italy! Luckily they tied! I was worried because after the first half they were losing, and I had decided to go to bed so that I could get some good sleep and be able to talk to you!

Now for today!
Lol, wellll, I woke up at 2:00AM my time so that I could talk to someone very special to me on Skype. She's always there for me, through the good and bad, and never asks anything but my love in return. I was so happy talking to this amazing person this morning, as I always am, even just thinking about her. And you wanna know something else? My heart lit up when after I told her that she is the one for me, she told me that I am the one for her! Don't tell her, but I've known she is my one and only for a long time now :D
Lol, and so, after I talked to you baby, ;), I went to sleep and rested well for another hour and a half until I started another day! I completed my morning routine, and got on the bus and lo and behold! I got to talk to you before you went to bed! I don't think I could ever get tired of talking to you. I would love to spend one night in the near future when we're together and just sit up all night, laughing and telling stories of what was, what is and what we will be together :D
Colloquial Arabic was a lot of fun this morning! I get such a boost in my morale and confidence from that class, which I haven't had from a language class in soo long! It's how I used to feel during Spanish in high school and beginning Arabic in college, back when I met you! My professor gave us apple juice boxes! Yeah, aaand she even cut class short because this one girl wasn't feeling well and kept blowing her nose! We had to create a short conversation with a partner today, and my group was undoubtedly the better of the two! We didn't read it straight from the book, but instead we made it more casual and even added our own stuff that we had learned by ourselves at the end! Next Sunday we have to prepare a conversation without looking at the book at all, and so I feel very good about that :) After that class I went to the library and read the reading for anthropology there. The book is on course reserve, and so instead of buying it I thought I may as well take the 2 1/2 hour break I have in between classes and read! It's a pretty interesting book about a woman who goes to live with a Bedouin tribe in northwestern Egypt called the Awlad 'Ali, and how she had to acclimate to the different mores and customs. I liked it because there were funny parts, but also parts that made you think about how you would react in her shoes. Then as I was on my iPod checking my emails and bank accounts, I found out that the loan money had posted!!! So I returned the book (it's only available for 2 hours at a time, which works out splendidly for me) and I asked the librarian where I would go to pay for my tuition. She was soo sweet, kinda like Nancy in 40 years! Except she was tiny and wrinkly and she spoke American English! Yay! Lol, she directed me to the Student Services Center, to which I was told I needed to get my checks approved of back at the Student Accounting Office! It was a major back and forth thing! Anyways, long story short, my tuition and housing are all taken care of, and I have $1800 saved up in Savings for you and me to have a ridiculously crazy fantastic vacation in Rome and London!!!!! And don't worry, that leaves me with enough money to have fun, eat, get presents for everyone and splurge a little too! Things are really looking up, and I have a lot of faith that your trip is going to be aaaaamazing as well! I can't wait to hear about your adventures and see your pictures!!! EEEKKKK!
Lol, right, back to my day! Anthropology was kind of boring today, because the two other guys didn't do the reading, and so we just went over what we did the previous day. She didn't even reprimand them for not doing the assigned readings! Grrrr >:|
I rode the bus home today, and I actually didn't fall asleep right away! I read some more of, yes, you guessed it, SON OF A WITCH!!! It's actually picking up now, and there are some twists that I think you'll enjoy! Phew, this has been a long blog so far! Must...carry...on...
Well, I got off the bus and walked back to the dorms and found my friend Mark, the son of the ambassador to the Republic of Congo, watching the New Zealand vs Slovakia soccer match, and so I watched the last 10 minutes with him :) Slovakia was winning 1-0 up until the last minute, when New Zealand scored a really nice goal! Heh, now I am here, relating my day to you because I love knowing that you can hear about it and that we can keep up! I hope your journal works out for you, although I know it will for sure! This is quite liberating and fun, keeping a record of my daily life. Sometimes it may seem mundane, but I feel good knowing you know :) I think now I am going to do my assigned readings for tomorrow, read Son of a Witch (lol), then later I will get some dinner (maybe I'll try someplace new!) and then I will take a shower and get an early night's sleep!
If you ever need/want to talk to me on skype, I would wake up at any time and talk with you about anything, even if it's something like you stubbed your toe and you want me to kiss it better. There is no thing too small to want to talk about with me, as I love talking with you and seeing your radiantly gorgeous face. You have such a great smile, ya know ;) Well baby, I miss and I love you so much, and I look forward to hearing all about your day!

- - -, sweetpea :)

Yours Always and Forever,
Joe