(Notes:
Now I am in Edmonton until Dec 31. Come visit me.
I hope you like the new look on the blog.
What follows was typed yesterday.)
I am in a great mood. I am sitting now in LAX waiting for my flight to Edmonton via Calgary. So I’m sure that that is part of the reason. Another reason is probably the great conversation I had yesterday with my friend Britta. We talked about all sorts of things, including environmentalism, politics (including Darfur, Iraq and Israel), and other stuff I don’t remember. Also, this morning I listened to a sermon by CS Weirsma. It was fantastic – first discussing global warming, and then relationships. So yeah. I’m walking around the airport with a smile on my face, and everyone is looking at me sideways, because people in airports are supposed to be quiet, not look at anyone or make eye contact, not smile, just keep to themselves and their own business in a pensive or focused way. So my behavior which messes with people’s expectation only serves to heighten the enjoyment I get out it.
So my quarter is over. Now I’m doing the “looking back” things. It’s been a wild 3 months. It’s hard to assess what I learned. Part of me thinks that I learned nothing, part of me thinks that I learned a lot. I think a good deal of my learning came from outside of class. This program is extremely expensive, and sometimes might seem hard to justify. But I think there is real value. The environment asks a whole different set of questions. I think this is the most important part. The way you think is shaped by the questions that are asked of you and the questions that you ask. And so far, the combination of seminary and psychology has forced a whole different set of questions on me, which is exciting. And I doubt I could it anywhere else. I mean, yes, every other place I would go would give me a unique set of considerations. But not every set of considerations are of equal value.
I have not found the program to be quite at the level of intensity I had expected it. But I think that’s okay. I think my anticipation was shaped from listening to Melissa talk about her optometry program. And it seems she is going full tilt, 95% of the time. This program hasn’t quite been like that. And parts of me were disappointed, and feeling like it’s not challenging enough, not intense enough, and can I really be getting good value. Yes, I could have worked harder, in my classes, no doubt. And I haven’t done much in the way of research. So the intensity will only increase. I hope that my efficiency increases to a corresponding degree. But those factors notwithstanding, I think that a program at a slightly more relaxed pace is of benefit in two ways: First, when I think about my values, I don’t want to be working at something all the time, with high intensity, high stress and high pressure (e.g. this summer at StatsCan). And second, when you have a little bit of leniency with your time, you have more time to read about your own interests, and get involved with other activities that can contribute to your learning in a way represented by Mark Twain’s quote, “Don’t let your classes get in the way of your education.”
(Now I am the airport in Calgary) I think another reason for my good mood, probably a large part of the reason, actually, is this book that I’m reading. The book is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. I decided to start reading it following a very brief conversation amongst a few of us on the type of books we enjoy and different styles of writing, (e.g. Catcher in the Rye as stream of consciousness). Istvan, a guy in my program, was trying to remember this book and said something about Zen and Motorcycles. For some reason this triggered some faint wisp of a memory of talking about this book. I still haven’t been able to place that memory. But often when I get confirming suggestions from very disparate sources, such this one, I strongly consider taking them. And no that I have gotten through about 160 pages of it, I am glad I did. The book is fascinating. It is the story of a man on a motorcycle trip with his son and two friends, which is the context for a journey of self discovery and a discussion of philosophy. The book is particularly meaningful in light of the unexpected presence of philosophy in which has penetrated my pedagogical experience at Fuller. Most notably is the tension between modernism and postmodernism, as each of these philosophical positions plays a large role in shaping past and current scholarship in psychology and theology. I don’t know nearly enough on anything in philosophy to speak of it in an educated manner, but I am excited to be reading about it and I can see that could become a central feature in my formation as a clinician and a theoretician/researcher and, more broadly, a person.
Okay, a sudden ending. But enough. Merry Christmas.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Prviate Health Care
Hey Folks,
I just saw this new item on msn (see link in the title). It's an article about the private ER clinic that opened up in Vancouver. I'm not going to say much here, because it's bed time and I have finals next week. But I feel I need to say something. Dear fellow Canadians: fight privatization of health care with all you've got. I love living here in southern California, no two ways about it. But privatized health here care is total shit. I'm serious. Things are so bad here. I don't care what anyone says about the promises and improvements. The American system is a very compelling example of why we can't go down that road; it is the inevitible future of privatization. You do not want what is here to come any nearer to you than it already is.
And that's my two cents. Go Canada.
I just saw this new item on msn (see link in the title). It's an article about the private ER clinic that opened up in Vancouver. I'm not going to say much here, because it's bed time and I have finals next week. But I feel I need to say something. Dear fellow Canadians: fight privatization of health care with all you've got. I love living here in southern California, no two ways about it. But privatized health here care is total shit. I'm serious. Things are so bad here. I don't care what anyone says about the promises and improvements. The American system is a very compelling example of why we can't go down that road; it is the inevitible future of privatization. You do not want what is here to come any nearer to you than it already is.
And that's my two cents. Go Canada.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
"The Resplendent Gender"
I am getting a lot of flack for having not posted anything about women. For this I apologize. But I'm sure you all have much more investment in my love life than I do ;) All snide comments aside, this is meant to be a light post. Don't worry, it's not like I'm not on it. But it is true, I have not been heavily on it. And the last day of classes is tomorrow and finals are next week. And then I'm back for Christmas (Dec 12-31, come visit me). So it's not going to get much attention in the immediate future. Sorry.
Friday, November 24, 2006
Happy American Thanksgiving
Well folks, for those of you who are up on your American Hollidays (and even for those of you who aren't), you ought to know that this is a big one. American thanksgiving. The fourth Thursday of November. So in honor of it (or more precisly, the day off that I get because of it) I'm writing a post.
It has been mentioned that I haven't been writing all that much interesting and personal stuff on here. I guess it's true. I would have to admit that I have become so successful at procrastinating in other ways that I'm having a hard time justifying yet another procrastination tool, like blogging. Also, as previously noted, blogging requires thinking and writing, which resembles school, so it is even harder to procrastinate in this way. Nevertheless, it is hard to pretend that these are more than just excuses.
So I'll talk a little about what I'm thankful for, and hopefully you'll learn a bit more about my life in the process.
I am thankful for my move to Pasadena to study at Fuller.
I really have to say that things are great here. I have said it before to people here and there (maybe even on the blog), but it seems worth reiterating. Given the opportunity to be anywhere else and doing anything else, I wouldn't take it. Why, you ask?
a. The program. A combination of psychology education, theology education, clinical training and research integrating the three together makes for a pretty unique program.
b. My cohort. I know a few people have expressed distate at the use of this word. But suck it up. Anyways, my cohort is the about 40 or so 1st year doctoral psych students (I wrote about this previously). Getting to know the class, having social activities, having study groups and collaborative learning, has been really fun. Our class is really social and supportive. Actually, we are downright voiciferous, you should hear us standing outside during break, it's so funny because we are so loud.
c. My research group. Working with Al Dueck, the Chair of Integration of Psychology and Theology, means we have two lab meetings. One is a theoretical group, where we investigate "integration," which means reading and discussing literature relating to clinical psychology, theology and philosophy, and an empirical lab, where we're coming up with research questions based on data from interviews and questionnaires from Prostestants, Catholics, Muslims and Jews. The integration lab is really interesting. Every one has a very different background and interest. But it is also very warm and personable. I feel welcome there. Which isn't a word one might normally expect to hear in describing an academic discussion group. But I would use it, and it is really significant for me.
I am thankful for my family.
a. Immediate family. On the whole my familial relationships are as good as they've been, I'd say. I speak semi-regularly with my parents and brother on the telephone, and I'm looking forward to spending time with them when I get home. My family is very supportive of what I'm doing, which is really good. I can share what's going on, or not, and that's okay. And they are respectful of my time, which can be busy.
b. Extended family. I have meaningful relationships with my extended family. They are sometimes sporadic, depending on location and circumstance, that hasn't generated animosity or resentment, only appreciation when present. Specifically noteworthy is time spent chatting with my cousin Blake on messenger, who is studying journalism. And a phone call earlier this week from my Aunt Doria in Providence (which came at like 10:15pm Pacific, so 1:15am Eastern!!). And emails from my cousing Monica. I also think of my grandparents, with whom I am privileged to share a very close relationship since they opened up their house to my during my undergrad study. And I am thankful for my grandpa, who is now able to spend time overseas with family and doing well and receiving support. I am thankful that Teta is no longer suffering.
So there you have it. Expansions on two elements of thankfulness in my life for American thanksgiving. You go and be thankful now too.
It has been mentioned that I haven't been writing all that much interesting and personal stuff on here. I guess it's true. I would have to admit that I have become so successful at procrastinating in other ways that I'm having a hard time justifying yet another procrastination tool, like blogging. Also, as previously noted, blogging requires thinking and writing, which resembles school, so it is even harder to procrastinate in this way. Nevertheless, it is hard to pretend that these are more than just excuses.
So I'll talk a little about what I'm thankful for, and hopefully you'll learn a bit more about my life in the process.
I am thankful for my move to Pasadena to study at Fuller.
I really have to say that things are great here. I have said it before to people here and there (maybe even on the blog), but it seems worth reiterating. Given the opportunity to be anywhere else and doing anything else, I wouldn't take it. Why, you ask?
a. The program. A combination of psychology education, theology education, clinical training and research integrating the three together makes for a pretty unique program.
b. My cohort. I know a few people have expressed distate at the use of this word. But suck it up. Anyways, my cohort is the about 40 or so 1st year doctoral psych students (I wrote about this previously). Getting to know the class, having social activities, having study groups and collaborative learning, has been really fun. Our class is really social and supportive. Actually, we are downright voiciferous, you should hear us standing outside during break, it's so funny because we are so loud.
c. My research group. Working with Al Dueck, the Chair of Integration of Psychology and Theology, means we have two lab meetings. One is a theoretical group, where we investigate "integration," which means reading and discussing literature relating to clinical psychology, theology and philosophy, and an empirical lab, where we're coming up with research questions based on data from interviews and questionnaires from Prostestants, Catholics, Muslims and Jews. The integration lab is really interesting. Every one has a very different background and interest. But it is also very warm and personable. I feel welcome there. Which isn't a word one might normally expect to hear in describing an academic discussion group. But I would use it, and it is really significant for me.
I am thankful for my family.
a. Immediate family. On the whole my familial relationships are as good as they've been, I'd say. I speak semi-regularly with my parents and brother on the telephone, and I'm looking forward to spending time with them when I get home. My family is very supportive of what I'm doing, which is really good. I can share what's going on, or not, and that's okay. And they are respectful of my time, which can be busy.
b. Extended family. I have meaningful relationships with my extended family. They are sometimes sporadic, depending on location and circumstance, that hasn't generated animosity or resentment, only appreciation when present. Specifically noteworthy is time spent chatting with my cousin Blake on messenger, who is studying journalism. And a phone call earlier this week from my Aunt Doria in Providence (which came at like 10:15pm Pacific, so 1:15am Eastern!!). And emails from my cousing Monica. I also think of my grandparents, with whom I am privileged to share a very close relationship since they opened up their house to my during my undergrad study. And I am thankful for my grandpa, who is now able to spend time overseas with family and doing well and receiving support. I am thankful that Teta is no longer suffering.
So there you have it. Expansions on two elements of thankfulness in my life for American thanksgiving. You go and be thankful now too.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Evangelical Survey
I always appreciated the UofA's joke issue newspapers at the end of the semester. It was certainly something to look forward to. So what does a seminary do for their joke issue at the end of the semester when all the students were stressed? I think you'll find this example quite amusing. I did. I've also included the link to the rest of the paper.
----
How Evangelical Are You? Part II
1. After seeing the movie Jesus Camp, you were inspired to:
a. Look up the camp in question — you’d love for your kids to get a solid foundation in matters of spiritual warfare!
b. Write a series of angry letters to editors of major newspapers, protesting the misuse of “evangelical” in that movie.
c. Vomit.
d. Jesus
2. A seeker-friendly service means:
a. Your congregation finally agreed to improve church signage.
b. Lots of drums, strobe-light, and a Rob Bell clone in charge of “sharing” some “random thoughts” as the “message”
c. Good intentions, lousy theology.
d. Jesus
3. When you heard about the Gospel of Judas you:
a. Downloaded the PDF from National Geographic
b. Immediately identified it as one of Satan’s snares
c. Wondered whether Mel Gibson had already picked up the movie rights
d. Jesus
4. Your myspace bio says:
a. Gurl4GOD!!!
b. Christian -- Other
c. Theologically, I sort of align with Moltmann, although I’m a little skeptical of his
Barthian influences and really wish his liturgical theology allowed for the incorporation of more Cappadocian elements.
d. Jesus
5. You think false teaching is:
a. A damnable heresy that will keep someone out of the Kingdom.
b. The beginnings of a really good theological discussion.
c. Whatever comes out of a Dr. Thompson/Karkkainen/Kraft’s course.
d. Jesus
6. Your idea of a summer vacation is
a. A Dobson family cruise
b. A couple of months spent witnessing in Honduras.
c. Retracing the steps of John Calvin across France and Switzerland.
d. Jesus
7. When Rumsfeld resigned you:
a. Said a prayer of thanksgiving.
b. Cried out to God in despair.
c. Secretly wondered whether you should know that name–until you realized that it was unlikely to show up on any midterm.
d. Jesus
8. A good sermon includes:
a. An altar call.
b. A half-dozen references to the “original text,” with powerpoint presentations in Greek and Hebrew.
c. Three points starting with “B.”
d. Jesus
9. When someone sneezes you say:
a. Gesundheit.
b. Can I pray for that nasty cold?
c. Stay away from me! I’ve got a paper due!
d. Jesus
10. When you see a homeless person you:
a. Try to share Christ with her–or at least give her a tract.
b. Take him to dinner and provide him with a list of resources for victims of the capitalist system in your local vicinity (...You carry a copy with you for just these kinds of occasions.
c. Scream and run.
d. Jesus
11. Born again means:
a. That biblical translators still don’t grasp the notion that another really means “from above”
b. That you’re saved/one of the good guys/going to that happy place/on Jesus’ team.
c. That you’ve entered a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, leaving behind your sinful nature.
d. Jesus
12. You started to suspect that your church may no longer qualify as evangelical when:
a. A sermon referred to Cain and Abel as “archetypes.”
b. The number of fish-stickers in the parking lot dropped below 50%.
c. You discovered that your pastor dates Luke-Acts considerably later than you do.
d. Jesus
A true evangelical knows that the only real answer to life’s questions is Jesus. If you chose any other answers, you’re a sketchy evangelical at best. My advice? Review the four spiritual laws, pray the sinner’s prayer, evangelize five friends, have a quiet time, rededicate your life, and then go church-shopping. If all else fails, go on a mission trip. Nothing stirs the evangelical heart like seeing how much more fortunate we are then others in the world.
----
For those of you who are offended...Feel free to email me or comment on this blog with your critique if you must, and I will reply. Or just lighten up.
----
How Evangelical Are You? Part II
1. After seeing the movie Jesus Camp, you were inspired to:
a. Look up the camp in question — you’d love for your kids to get a solid foundation in matters of spiritual warfare!
b. Write a series of angry letters to editors of major newspapers, protesting the misuse of “evangelical” in that movie.
c. Vomit.
d. Jesus
2. A seeker-friendly service means:
a. Your congregation finally agreed to improve church signage.
b. Lots of drums, strobe-light, and a Rob Bell clone in charge of “sharing” some “random thoughts” as the “message”
c. Good intentions, lousy theology.
d. Jesus
3. When you heard about the Gospel of Judas you:
a. Downloaded the PDF from National Geographic
b. Immediately identified it as one of Satan’s snares
c. Wondered whether Mel Gibson had already picked up the movie rights
d. Jesus
4. Your myspace bio says:
a. Gurl4GOD!!!
b. Christian -- Other
c. Theologically, I sort of align with Moltmann, although I’m a little skeptical of his
Barthian influences and really wish his liturgical theology allowed for the incorporation of more Cappadocian elements.
d. Jesus
5. You think false teaching is:
a. A damnable heresy that will keep someone out of the Kingdom.
b. The beginnings of a really good theological discussion.
c. Whatever comes out of a Dr. Thompson/Karkkainen/Kraft’s course.
d. Jesus
6. Your idea of a summer vacation is
a. A Dobson family cruise
b. A couple of months spent witnessing in Honduras.
c. Retracing the steps of John Calvin across France and Switzerland.
d. Jesus
7. When Rumsfeld resigned you:
a. Said a prayer of thanksgiving.
b. Cried out to God in despair.
c. Secretly wondered whether you should know that name–until you realized that it was unlikely to show up on any midterm.
d. Jesus
8. A good sermon includes:
a. An altar call.
b. A half-dozen references to the “original text,” with powerpoint presentations in Greek and Hebrew.
c. Three points starting with “B.”
d. Jesus
9. When someone sneezes you say:
a. Gesundheit.
b. Can I pray for that nasty cold?
c. Stay away from me! I’ve got a paper due!
d. Jesus
10. When you see a homeless person you:
a. Try to share Christ with her–or at least give her a tract.
b. Take him to dinner and provide him with a list of resources for victims of the capitalist system in your local vicinity (...You carry a copy with you for just these kinds of occasions.
c. Scream and run.
d. Jesus
11. Born again means:
a. That biblical translators still don’t grasp the notion that another really means “from above”
b. That you’re saved/one of the good guys/going to that happy place/on Jesus’ team.
c. That you’ve entered a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, leaving behind your sinful nature.
d. Jesus
12. You started to suspect that your church may no longer qualify as evangelical when:
a. A sermon referred to Cain and Abel as “archetypes.”
b. The number of fish-stickers in the parking lot dropped below 50%.
c. You discovered that your pastor dates Luke-Acts considerably later than you do.
d. Jesus
A true evangelical knows that the only real answer to life’s questions is Jesus. If you chose any other answers, you’re a sketchy evangelical at best. My advice? Review the four spiritual laws, pray the sinner’s prayer, evangelize five friends, have a quiet time, rededicate your life, and then go church-shopping. If all else fails, go on a mission trip. Nothing stirs the evangelical heart like seeing how much more fortunate we are then others in the world.
----
For those of you who are offended...Feel free to email me or comment on this blog with your critique if you must, and I will reply. Or just lighten up.
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Just an update
Hi folks,
I don't really know what to say here 'cause nothing extraordinary is going on. I'm just doing school most of the time, socializing too often and doing the life the whole time. And I don't have the energy to put into a great exposition on the experience of and taking the bus to south central LA today. So I'm sorry if I don't have it. I want to keep ya'll informed, but I get busy and tired. And if I'm writing papers, the last thing I want to do is organize another set of thoughts into a cohert structure and then articulate them cogently. But I'll hopefully blog some reflections over Christmas if I don't blog much know. Oh BTW I'm coming back to Canada from Dec 12-31. I'd love to see you then. I'll probably do some skiing and visiting of family in that time as well, tentatively 14th-19th give or take a couple days on either side. But other than that I should be in E-town. Peace.
I don't really know what to say here 'cause nothing extraordinary is going on. I'm just doing school most of the time, socializing too often and doing the life the whole time. And I don't have the energy to put into a great exposition on the experience of and taking the bus to south central LA today. So I'm sorry if I don't have it. I want to keep ya'll informed, but I get busy and tired. And if I'm writing papers, the last thing I want to do is organize another set of thoughts into a cohert structure and then articulate them cogently. But I'll hopefully blog some reflections over Christmas if I don't blog much know. Oh BTW I'm coming back to Canada from Dec 12-31. I'd love to see you then. I'll probably do some skiing and visiting of family in that time as well, tentatively 14th-19th give or take a couple days on either side. But other than that I should be in E-town. Peace.
Friday, November 03, 2006
Pictures
I'm hoping to start posting pictures to complement your blogging experience. I'm using Picasa, Google's version of an online album set-up. Sometimes I may wish to add pictures retrospectively to correspond to a specific post. Such an example has just occured, so scroll down to see the first album I've published (it's now on the "First Couple of Weeks" post). Keep your eyes out for other pictures. Should be fun.
Who know a bball game would inspire such a post?
Hey folks,
I know I only posted a couple days ago, but I'm at it again. What do I want to say? Well, I played basketball tonight. There is a large church near by and they have a small gym for drop in bball. We play 4 on 4. There's often many guys that come out. I'm quite out of practice and out of shape, but I think I'm improving on both counts. What I wanted to mention, though, is the multicultural dimension. I'm not used to playing with such a diverse crowd. I'd say on average the guys that come out are 25% caucasian, 25% latino and 50% african american. It's a new experience for me. I don't think I'm very good at it. Or rather, I don't know what good at it looks like. I'm not sure how "different" I should see everyone. At times you think you shouldn't look at someone and see their color, their race, their ethnicity; you just a person. But at the same time a person is made up of many features, and those are parts of them; denying that denies who they are. I'm just babbling as I usually do. I don't have any problem playing with any of them. Though I do feel like the african americans seem to be slighlty more of a "group" (which isn't surprising 'cause I think they've all gone to school together). But I've felt it. But I'd be lying if I didn't see people differently. We didn't have much ethnic diversity growing up in Devon (and then I remember that my dad isn't caucasian - this is a very new realization for me, actually). And that I am half "ethnic minority." But anyways, to illustrate, it went something like this. If any team we played against in high school had an african american on it, they were automatically good. It was like, "shit, they've got a black guy. We're gonna get smoked." It didn't even matter if that guy was any good, if he started or not. And we didn't believe that we would lose; we planned to beat everyone. It was more of a joke than anything. And obviously that wasn't an overtly degrading mindset. But it was still something. And I don't really know what it was. But it's my background. And I'm preparing to go into a field where cultural sensitivity is EXTREMELY important. I'd argue that it is as important in clinical psychology as any other field. I think it's good that I get the chace, because I'll get lots of opportunity to learn about it, to be directly trained in it, to experience it, etc. And it was a consideration in moving to southern California. At many stores (e.g. the Target a block from here) signs are in Spanish and English. I've gone to till's at small stores where the person speaks primarly Spanish only. There is a very large african american presence as well. And there is also a substantial asian community near by. There of course is varying levels of integratedness. I've never really had a close friend who wasn't caucasian. I hope that changes. Our psych doctoral cohort represnts to some degree diversity as well; we have caucasian (still the majority) with asian, latino/latina, african american, eastern european (in that order from most to least). It's just been a neat experience for me. We'll see how I grow.
I know I only posted a couple days ago, but I'm at it again. What do I want to say? Well, I played basketball tonight. There is a large church near by and they have a small gym for drop in bball. We play 4 on 4. There's often many guys that come out. I'm quite out of practice and out of shape, but I think I'm improving on both counts. What I wanted to mention, though, is the multicultural dimension. I'm not used to playing with such a diverse crowd. I'd say on average the guys that come out are 25% caucasian, 25% latino and 50% african american. It's a new experience for me. I don't think I'm very good at it. Or rather, I don't know what good at it looks like. I'm not sure how "different" I should see everyone. At times you think you shouldn't look at someone and see their color, their race, their ethnicity; you just a person. But at the same time a person is made up of many features, and those are parts of them; denying that denies who they are. I'm just babbling as I usually do. I don't have any problem playing with any of them. Though I do feel like the african americans seem to be slighlty more of a "group" (which isn't surprising 'cause I think they've all gone to school together). But I've felt it. But I'd be lying if I didn't see people differently. We didn't have much ethnic diversity growing up in Devon (and then I remember that my dad isn't caucasian - this is a very new realization for me, actually). And that I am half "ethnic minority." But anyways, to illustrate, it went something like this. If any team we played against in high school had an african american on it, they were automatically good. It was like, "shit, they've got a black guy. We're gonna get smoked." It didn't even matter if that guy was any good, if he started or not. And we didn't believe that we would lose; we planned to beat everyone. It was more of a joke than anything. And obviously that wasn't an overtly degrading mindset. But it was still something. And I don't really know what it was. But it's my background. And I'm preparing to go into a field where cultural sensitivity is EXTREMELY important. I'd argue that it is as important in clinical psychology as any other field. I think it's good that I get the chace, because I'll get lots of opportunity to learn about it, to be directly trained in it, to experience it, etc. And it was a consideration in moving to southern California. At many stores (e.g. the Target a block from here) signs are in Spanish and English. I've gone to till's at small stores where the person speaks primarly Spanish only. There is a very large african american presence as well. And there is also a substantial asian community near by. There of course is varying levels of integratedness. I've never really had a close friend who wasn't caucasian. I hope that changes. Our psych doctoral cohort represnts to some degree diversity as well; we have caucasian (still the majority) with asian, latino/latina, african american, eastern european (in that order from most to least). It's just been a neat experience for me. We'll see how I grow.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Happy Halloween
This post has nothing to do with Halloween. I didn't celebrate it today or anything, either. But I didn't know what to title this post. It's just an update.
This week is midterm week, so I'll keep this short. I've got a midterm tomorrow and two on Thursday. I handed in a paper, a stats homework and four journal article reviews. So it's been busy. Also, my bike was stolen last week. That was a bummer. I don't have a car, so my bike is how I get around (to the grocery store, to church, etc.). And I had to buy a new one. I guess it's an expensive lesson in obsessive locking (I did have my bike locked, just single locked with a cable lock; I have a U-lock which I almost always use, but I looked at it that morning and said, meh, I don't need it today). It was on campus (but some how I don't think a seminary student tood it). So anywaysm, that was just a nuisance. I borrowed my roommate's bike for a couple things. My new one should be arriving from the warehouse in the next couple days. Oh well.
What else? Things are pretty good, all in all. It is lots of work, partly because it's taken me a while to adjust to being back in school. I kind of forgot how to optimalize my time and efforts. But I think I've improved a lot; returning to a higher level of efficiency that is needed for academic success. I'm looking forward to getting into my research. That is good, cause I was worried about it and whether or not I'd like it. But so far all the lab meetings and data and proposals we have seem really interesting. I find myself frustrated that my classes take up so much time that I can't get into research. But it will come. It's really cool that philosophy is a big part of our lab's focus. Some of the readings we do and the discussions...wild. Such huge implications, too. For the way we see culture, psychology and psychotherapy, religion...the list goes on. Very neat. I mean, it's not going to be all roses. But at least I don't hate it right off the bat.
The weather has cooled off quite a bit recently. Today it the forcast said 20C but it was probably closer to 16. I haven't worn shorts in 2 or 3 days. But it's supposed to be back up to 24 for Friday so that's good.
Somehow I've earned this reputation as social convenor. Which is funny 'cause I havne't organized that much of social stuff, and I haven't taken every opportunity to be social (tho I have taken a number of them). But I don't think considerably more than others. I think it's more a result of timing, first and general impressions and relational heuristics that lead to confirming those hypotheses. Oh well. It's not a bad thing.
Okay, well, wisdom says..."It's midnight. Either go to bed so you can study tomorrow, or, if you can't sleep, study, so that you don't fail your 50% midterm tomorrow." So I'm gonna do one of those two thigns. Peace.
This week is midterm week, so I'll keep this short. I've got a midterm tomorrow and two on Thursday. I handed in a paper, a stats homework and four journal article reviews. So it's been busy. Also, my bike was stolen last week. That was a bummer. I don't have a car, so my bike is how I get around (to the grocery store, to church, etc.). And I had to buy a new one. I guess it's an expensive lesson in obsessive locking (I did have my bike locked, just single locked with a cable lock; I have a U-lock which I almost always use, but I looked at it that morning and said, meh, I don't need it today). It was on campus (but some how I don't think a seminary student tood it). So anywaysm, that was just a nuisance. I borrowed my roommate's bike for a couple things. My new one should be arriving from the warehouse in the next couple days. Oh well.
What else? Things are pretty good, all in all. It is lots of work, partly because it's taken me a while to adjust to being back in school. I kind of forgot how to optimalize my time and efforts. But I think I've improved a lot; returning to a higher level of efficiency that is needed for academic success. I'm looking forward to getting into my research. That is good, cause I was worried about it and whether or not I'd like it. But so far all the lab meetings and data and proposals we have seem really interesting. I find myself frustrated that my classes take up so much time that I can't get into research. But it will come. It's really cool that philosophy is a big part of our lab's focus. Some of the readings we do and the discussions...wild. Such huge implications, too. For the way we see culture, psychology and psychotherapy, religion...the list goes on. Very neat. I mean, it's not going to be all roses. But at least I don't hate it right off the bat.
The weather has cooled off quite a bit recently. Today it the forcast said 20C but it was probably closer to 16. I haven't worn shorts in 2 or 3 days. But it's supposed to be back up to 24 for Friday so that's good.
Somehow I've earned this reputation as social convenor. Which is funny 'cause I havne't organized that much of social stuff, and I haven't taken every opportunity to be social (tho I have taken a number of them). But I don't think considerably more than others. I think it's more a result of timing, first and general impressions and relational heuristics that lead to confirming those hypotheses. Oh well. It's not a bad thing.
Okay, well, wisdom says..."It's midnight. Either go to bed so you can study tomorrow, or, if you can't sleep, study, so that you don't fail your 50% midterm tomorrow." So I'm gonna do one of those two thigns. Peace.
Friday, October 20, 2006
First Celebrity Sighting (and other tidbits about me)
Well folks, it was bound to happen. I live in (okay, very near) L.A. So I was going to see a celebrity before too long. It happened on Thursday night. I was at a swing dance thing (not a dance club, but you know, that type of thing which is weekly, and where they have a lesson at the beginning, then just a specific type of dancing the whole rest of the night).
Can you guess who it was. A few clues, some from my (and your) past and some as trivia from his website...
If you're my age, you would have watched him on a t.v. show with his own name, about 10-12 years ago. You also may have watched him in late elementary or early jr high classes. He's funny and educational.
He owns about six dozen bow ties. He has a degree in mechanical engineering. He wears a lab couat size 38 tall.
If you guessed, "Bill,Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill Nye the Science Guy," you'd be correct. Interesting fact: Bill Nye the Science Guy is a great swing dancer. As I mentioned, we were out at this dance thing, which is every Thursday. And he was there (I guess he was there last week too. So I'll probably see him around.) I'm pretty sure it was him; my friends pointed him out to me, and he came pretty near. He looks older than I'm used to, but I probably haven't seen him in 8 years (or live, for that matter).
Anyways, enough about Bill. About me...
I'm doing okay. A much different sentiment now than the last post, but still good. School is in full swing (and has been since quite soon after classes started. A quarter system goes at a quicker pace than does a semester system. My classes are pertty good. My favorite one is my theology course. It is a New Testament (NT) Biblical Studies course on the Gospels. I've never really had a course like this, so I think that's partly why it's so interesting. And the prof is fantastic. So smart, so funny. Actually, that would be a good way to describe pretty much all my faculty to this point. Bright but down to earth. And approachable, and caring. Quite a good combo, actually. A few of us are going out for happy hour with my NT prof on Tuesday, just to talk about what we're learning in class, and its applications in all its forms.
My social life is decent. I'm really just getting to know people and find where I will fit in. I like my psych cohort, but I do want to have friends outside of it too. And friends outside of Fuller - though I haven't made too much headway on that one. I am excited about the potential for a wide range of cultural backgrounds of people here and the opportunity to expand my horizens by having meaningful relationships outside the tradition I'm used to.
Enough for now. Keep it real. Oh BTW sorry about my phone situation, if you've tried to call me. It's been a real nuisance. We'll see if we can get it figured out here.
Can you guess who it was. A few clues, some from my (and your) past and some as trivia from his website...
If you're my age, you would have watched him on a t.v. show with his own name, about 10-12 years ago. You also may have watched him in late elementary or early jr high classes. He's funny and educational.
He owns about six dozen bow ties. He has a degree in mechanical engineering. He wears a lab couat size 38 tall.
If you guessed, "Bill,Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill Nye the Science Guy," you'd be correct. Interesting fact: Bill Nye the Science Guy is a great swing dancer. As I mentioned, we were out at this dance thing, which is every Thursday. And he was there (I guess he was there last week too. So I'll probably see him around.) I'm pretty sure it was him; my friends pointed him out to me, and he came pretty near. He looks older than I'm used to, but I probably haven't seen him in 8 years (or live, for that matter).
Anyways, enough about Bill. About me...
I'm doing okay. A much different sentiment now than the last post, but still good. School is in full swing (and has been since quite soon after classes started. A quarter system goes at a quicker pace than does a semester system. My classes are pertty good. My favorite one is my theology course. It is a New Testament (NT) Biblical Studies course on the Gospels. I've never really had a course like this, so I think that's partly why it's so interesting. And the prof is fantastic. So smart, so funny. Actually, that would be a good way to describe pretty much all my faculty to this point. Bright but down to earth. And approachable, and caring. Quite a good combo, actually. A few of us are going out for happy hour with my NT prof on Tuesday, just to talk about what we're learning in class, and its applications in all its forms.
My social life is decent. I'm really just getting to know people and find where I will fit in. I like my psych cohort, but I do want to have friends outside of it too. And friends outside of Fuller - though I haven't made too much headway on that one. I am excited about the potential for a wide range of cultural backgrounds of people here and the opportunity to expand my horizens by having meaningful relationships outside the tradition I'm used to.
Enough for now. Keep it real. Oh BTW sorry about my phone situation, if you've tried to call me. It's been a real nuisance. We'll see if we can get it figured out here.
Saturday, September 30, 2006
First couple of weeks
Yo. What's up? I'm procrastinating from studying. I think a good number of my blogs will written in this context.
So, what do you want to know? I told you about my first few days here. Once Mom left, I was really on my own. It was a good time, I was quite alone but having some time to just be myself was okay. I think I sometimes run from loneliness, but it's not such a bad thing. I rode around on my bike and took public transportation to get a feel for what was around. I read a lot. It now seems like a long time ago, and it was uneventful, so that's about all I can think of.
Once Roger, my roommate, arrived from Laramie, Wyoming, things changed quite a bit. He got in on Friday, Sept 15. It was good to finally meet him after talking on the phone and with email. He is quite a social person, so we went out and met some people. It turned out some guys from upstairs had their door open, so we just walked in a met them, then hung for the evening. We have since learned that 305 in our building is the location of frequent parties. 4 guys live there, so it is affectionately known as the "Isle of Man" I actually mentioned it in my last post. But anyways. The next day was the office of admissions party, where I started to meet more people. A group of us formed which lead to enjoyable activities over the next fews days. Example: the beach, on Sunday. But I am beginning to realize that a day by day description of activities will be long and tedious. So here is the gist of things...
Orienation week was from the 18th-23rd. This week was predominantly spent with my cohort. My cohort is made up of the 43 Students (15 guys, 28 girls) who are entering the PhD (25) or PsyD (18) program of clinical psychology this year. We had lots of activities to get to know them and also the faculty of the program. There was also lots of free food. It was good to learn about our program and classes etc. It was a different feel because for the 4 days leading up to it, I had hung out almost exclusively with the group formed at the office of admissions party. Then, I hung out almost exclusively with people from the psych group, because we had so many cohort related activities. I will be a little more work to spend time with people not in the same program, I think.
Another beach trip was made on Saturday at the end of orientation. So I'm glad I made it to the beach twice. I'm not sure how many more times I'll be able to go now that school started and it might cool down in the future (but it's in no rush to do so; it's still usually about 30 every day).
Okay, it's a couple weeks after this draft, which I saved and then left and then forgot about. At least I've got the blog back online; it was inaccessible for a couple weeks there. Umm...so what else? I don't know. So I'll curtail it here and then give you a more recent update soon (hopefully).
So, what do you want to know? I told you about my first few days here. Once Mom left, I was really on my own. It was a good time, I was quite alone but having some time to just be myself was okay. I think I sometimes run from loneliness, but it's not such a bad thing. I rode around on my bike and took public transportation to get a feel for what was around. I read a lot. It now seems like a long time ago, and it was uneventful, so that's about all I can think of.
Once Roger, my roommate, arrived from Laramie, Wyoming, things changed quite a bit. He got in on Friday, Sept 15. It was good to finally meet him after talking on the phone and with email. He is quite a social person, so we went out and met some people. It turned out some guys from upstairs had their door open, so we just walked in a met them, then hung for the evening. We have since learned that 305 in our building is the location of frequent parties. 4 guys live there, so it is affectionately known as the "Isle of Man" I actually mentioned it in my last post. But anyways. The next day was the office of admissions party, where I started to meet more people. A group of us formed which lead to enjoyable activities over the next fews days. Example: the beach, on Sunday. But I am beginning to realize that a day by day description of activities will be long and tedious. So here is the gist of things...
Orienation week was from the 18th-23rd. This week was predominantly spent with my cohort. My cohort is made up of the 43 Students (15 guys, 28 girls) who are entering the PhD (25) or PsyD (18) program of clinical psychology this year. We had lots of activities to get to know them and also the faculty of the program. There was also lots of free food. It was good to learn about our program and classes etc. It was a different feel because for the 4 days leading up to it, I had hung out almost exclusively with the group formed at the office of admissions party. Then, I hung out almost exclusively with people from the psych group, because we had so many cohort related activities. I will be a little more work to spend time with people not in the same program, I think.
Another beach trip was made on Saturday at the end of orientation. So I'm glad I made it to the beach twice. I'm not sure how many more times I'll be able to go now that school started and it might cool down in the future (but it's in no rush to do so; it's still usually about 30 every day).
Okay, it's a couple weeks after this draft, which I saved and then left and then forgot about. At least I've got the blog back online; it was inaccessible for a couple weeks there. Umm...so what else? I don't know. So I'll curtail it here and then give you a more recent update soon (hopefully).
Saturday, September 23, 2006
I can't believe I'm at seminary
Honestly. I can't. I wouldn't know it was seminary unless someone told me. I mean, there are times. This week has been quite unlike anything I've ever done.
Where to start. I want to start at the very beginning, when I arrive, 'cause I haven't talked about that. I want to contrast the last 7 days with the 7 days prior, because they've been so disparate. I want to talk about the future and what I'm excited for. I guess that what I've just laid out is actually a reasonable outline. The only problem is I know there's no way I've got enough energy to write all that.
Okay. Lets start from the beginning. I arrived to LAX on September 5, 2006. My mom flew down with me. In Edmonton, we managed to miss our flight, but after some clever re-routing, still managed to arrive the same time we would have. And they processed my entrance to the US, as I am an international student. The we is me and my mom, she flew down with me. We rented a car (an '06 Mustang convertable, courtesy the free double upgrade in the entertainment book). We then spent the next 6 days getting me set up. That involved a lot of driving around to Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Costco, Target and elswhere. It's funny 'cause I know we did lots of stuff but when I write it down, it doesn't seem like much. I think we made numerous trips to Target, also to food stores, bed/bath stores, etc. I got some furniture from International Students Office. The community coordiators also gave us some furniture. We also cleaned the place and laid down shelf paper, etc. Mom did lots of that (thanks!). So by the time mom left on Sunday, I was pretty much settled. We didn't do tons of fun stuff. We did hit up the Huntington Library, a huge botanical garden with lots of different theme areas, as well as an art gallery. And then she flew back to E-town on Sunday the 12th. And then I was actually on my own.
Next post will continue with "what I did once I was actually on my own."
Just a note...It's about 10 minutes to 12:00am here, on a Friday night. I've just written a little bit before going to bed. But I can hear the party in my building that I just recently left, it's still going on and apparently increased in loudness, as the sounds of it are wafting down the floors from where it is (305) to where I am (104). Bits of my are curious, but I think I'll just have to live with decision to get home, slow down and get to bed to make tomorrow a day I'll enjoy that much more. But it's things like that which actually inspire a the title for this post. You'll hear more about them soon. Cheers.
Where to start. I want to start at the very beginning, when I arrive, 'cause I haven't talked about that. I want to contrast the last 7 days with the 7 days prior, because they've been so disparate. I want to talk about the future and what I'm excited for. I guess that what I've just laid out is actually a reasonable outline. The only problem is I know there's no way I've got enough energy to write all that.
Okay. Lets start from the beginning. I arrived to LAX on September 5, 2006. My mom flew down with me. In Edmonton, we managed to miss our flight, but after some clever re-routing, still managed to arrive the same time we would have. And they processed my entrance to the US, as I am an international student. The we is me and my mom, she flew down with me. We rented a car (an '06 Mustang convertable, courtesy the free double upgrade in the entertainment book). We then spent the next 6 days getting me set up. That involved a lot of driving around to Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Costco, Target and elswhere. It's funny 'cause I know we did lots of stuff but when I write it down, it doesn't seem like much. I think we made numerous trips to Target, also to food stores, bed/bath stores, etc. I got some furniture from International Students Office. The community coordiators also gave us some furniture. We also cleaned the place and laid down shelf paper, etc. Mom did lots of that (thanks!). So by the time mom left on Sunday, I was pretty much settled. We didn't do tons of fun stuff. We did hit up the Huntington Library, a huge botanical garden with lots of different theme areas, as well as an art gallery. And then she flew back to E-town on Sunday the 12th. And then I was actually on my own.
Next post will continue with "what I did once I was actually on my own."
Just a note...It's about 10 minutes to 12:00am here, on a Friday night. I've just written a little bit before going to bed. But I can hear the party in my building that I just recently left, it's still going on and apparently increased in loudness, as the sounds of it are wafting down the floors from where it is (305) to where I am (104). Bits of my are curious, but I think I'll just have to live with decision to get home, slow down and get to bed to make tomorrow a day I'll enjoy that much more. But it's things like that which actually inspire a the title for this post. You'll hear more about them soon. Cheers.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Sunday, September 10, 2006
I'm here
Hey folks...I'm here. I'm gonna keep it short. But I've arrived to Pasadena California. I'm getting set up in my new place. I'll send an email with address and phone number once I've got that. The campus is really beautiful (except of course where the construction is still going on to get stuff ready for back to school). The area is an interesting mix. I and the campus are basically right in the heart of Pasadena, right in/near downtown (this doesn't mean skyscrapers, but lots of shops, lots of people, lots of concrete, etc). But just a few blocks in the right direction and you can get away from it all. It's going to be a pretty good mix. I'll post more in the future (I don't have a computer yet; I'm at the library). Peace.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
From Camping
Here's the group shot of us before we get ready to head out from camping. The girls are on Mark's bike (which as you can see is almost as hot as that tall guy in the white "Wildcats Basketball" shirt).From L-R, front: Kasha, Monique, Heather; back: Adam, Cam, Mark, Jeremy. (Bethany had left by this time)
Monday, August 21, 2006
Looking back, looking forward
Okay Dave, this one's for you...
So I never really intended to blog on my summer because I've never blogged while at home. But then I moved to Calgary. However, I was too busy and unmotivated to blog there. But also, I've realized that sufficiently enough of my friends now live far away from beautiful Edmonton Alberta to warrant it. And, since I told Dave to post and he did, and how he's asked, I owe it to him and all you globetrotters (a group I will soon again be a part of).
Looking back:
Most of you have heard me complain about my summer job this year, but for those of you who haven't, I'll spare you details and keep it brief. I jumped into a middle management position with Statistics Canada for the 2006 Census of Canada. I was a Field Operations Supervisor, looking after about 17,000 square miles of South-East Central Alberta (that estimate is very rough, but when you've only got Google Earth, you do the best you can). And that was divided into a number of areas, so at my peak I was managing 14 people, each of whom had their own team working in one of the areas. Anyways, the bottom line is that I worked a lot, was on a salary so didn't get overtime (though I did get a bonus near the end but it definately didn't cover it all) and found Calgary quite lonely as I really didn't have time to make a life. I did make a friend through work, Rhonda is a pretty cool person. And some of my friends (John, Jeremy, Mark) came down in that order to come and visit me and stay for a little while. Which was awesome. I also made it up to Edmonton a few weekends.
The highlights of the job were mostly two fold: experience and work ethic. I got supervisory experience in a big way - interviewing, hiring, training, managing, firing people. And I learned how to work hard, so hopefully Grad school won't be too much of a shock.
The lowlights were the long hours, the high stress, the loneliness and missing out on my last summer here.
But I'm back (I actually worked the last 3 weeks out of Edmonton, as I took a contract extension to make a bit more cash, to carry the job as far as I could until I had to get back to school, and to help finish up, since we were way behind, because stupid Canadians don't do their census forms!).
Other comments on the summer...
Oilers playoff run. Very exciting. Got to go to games, thanks to dad. Game 6 of Stanley Cup finals with Jer was absolutely out of this world (you may have seen us as we made the highlights behind a huge hit by the Oilers). Shame we didn't win the Cup.
Went camping only twice this summer, but what lacked in quantity was made up for by quality. Over Canada Day long weekend, Jeremy and I put about 100km on a canoe he got from work as we paddled from near Drayton Valley to Devon. (Thanks mom for driving). We just camped along the river where we could, enjoyed the peace, enjoyed the heat and cooled off by swimming and dumping the canoe :)
Camping trip number two was this past weekend out to Rochon Sands at Buffalo Lake. There was great irony in this as this area fell within my census territory and it was a huge problem chile area with work needing to be done, redone and complications throughout which cause me and everyone else large headaches. But it was a sweet trip, with Bethany, Kasha, Monique and Heather kindly putting up with Mark, Cam, Jeremy and myself. It was a very relaxing trip, just drove out there, ate a lot, sauntered over to the beach and back. And tos of fun, so much laughing and goofing off. We got some rain but even that was fun, especially when the thunderstorm was right overhead and the lighting was so close your eyes were illuminated even when looking straight down and the thunder was instantanteous and deafening.
After working so hard, not working is sweet.
Looking forward:
Two weeks, one day until I board a plan for Los Angeles International Airport. I've been thinking of this time at Fuller as going away for school. It's not really that. I need a bit of a mindset shift. I'm moving to Southern California for (at least) 6years, it's a totally new life direction, and I don't know if/when I'm coming back, who'll be here when I do, and what all our/their lives will be like. Masters/Ph.D. programs are different, they don't have your 4 month summers to come home to. It's gonna be good, but It's gonna be bigger than I realized, it's only barely starting to hit me. It's increasing my sadness as it does. I'm still learning about what is all going to be involved and that's a slow process, I think I'll figure most of it out down there as I go.
But I know that I have to go, have to grow. It'll really the be the first true, true, on my own experience. Living at Norm's, moving to Egypt, living in Calgary, they don't quite count. It's hard to place this in the bigger picture of life, but in a 70 year lifetime, 6 years is less than 10%. And it's just time. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared. Most of these realizations I haven't shared directly with anyone so I read them before I tell you, it's nothing personal, it's just that they are very, very recent (including coming as I type).
But I must also look forward to the positives. I'm gonna meet a lot of cool people (and here's hoping that includes a fantastic and gorgeous girl to spend the rest of my life with!). I'm gonna gain a whole lot of new skills. I'm going to be humbled because I'm gonna struggle with the adjustment. I'm hoping for a clearer sense of direction and calling for my life.
So there you go Dave, and the rest of the world. I'm not sure if I post again before I travel. And once I go, I'll do my best to post while I'm gone, but we all know how it can go. I don't know what my schedule, my life, will be like when I get there, so we'll see what we can do.
Adam
So I never really intended to blog on my summer because I've never blogged while at home. But then I moved to Calgary. However, I was too busy and unmotivated to blog there. But also, I've realized that sufficiently enough of my friends now live far away from beautiful Edmonton Alberta to warrant it. And, since I told Dave to post and he did, and how he's asked, I owe it to him and all you globetrotters (a group I will soon again be a part of).
Looking back:
Most of you have heard me complain about my summer job this year, but for those of you who haven't, I'll spare you details and keep it brief. I jumped into a middle management position with Statistics Canada for the 2006 Census of Canada. I was a Field Operations Supervisor, looking after about 17,000 square miles of South-East Central Alberta (that estimate is very rough, but when you've only got Google Earth, you do the best you can). And that was divided into a number of areas, so at my peak I was managing 14 people, each of whom had their own team working in one of the areas. Anyways, the bottom line is that I worked a lot, was on a salary so didn't get overtime (though I did get a bonus near the end but it definately didn't cover it all) and found Calgary quite lonely as I really didn't have time to make a life. I did make a friend through work, Rhonda is a pretty cool person. And some of my friends (John, Jeremy, Mark) came down in that order to come and visit me and stay for a little while. Which was awesome. I also made it up to Edmonton a few weekends.
The highlights of the job were mostly two fold: experience and work ethic. I got supervisory experience in a big way - interviewing, hiring, training, managing, firing people. And I learned how to work hard, so hopefully Grad school won't be too much of a shock.
The lowlights were the long hours, the high stress, the loneliness and missing out on my last summer here.
But I'm back (I actually worked the last 3 weeks out of Edmonton, as I took a contract extension to make a bit more cash, to carry the job as far as I could until I had to get back to school, and to help finish up, since we were way behind, because stupid Canadians don't do their census forms!).
Other comments on the summer...
Oilers playoff run. Very exciting. Got to go to games, thanks to dad. Game 6 of Stanley Cup finals with Jer was absolutely out of this world (you may have seen us as we made the highlights behind a huge hit by the Oilers). Shame we didn't win the Cup.
Went camping only twice this summer, but what lacked in quantity was made up for by quality. Over Canada Day long weekend, Jeremy and I put about 100km on a canoe he got from work as we paddled from near Drayton Valley to Devon. (Thanks mom for driving). We just camped along the river where we could, enjoyed the peace, enjoyed the heat and cooled off by swimming and dumping the canoe :)
Camping trip number two was this past weekend out to Rochon Sands at Buffalo Lake. There was great irony in this as this area fell within my census territory and it was a huge problem chile area with work needing to be done, redone and complications throughout which cause me and everyone else large headaches. But it was a sweet trip, with Bethany, Kasha, Monique and Heather kindly putting up with Mark, Cam, Jeremy and myself. It was a very relaxing trip, just drove out there, ate a lot, sauntered over to the beach and back. And tos of fun, so much laughing and goofing off. We got some rain but even that was fun, especially when the thunderstorm was right overhead and the lighting was so close your eyes were illuminated even when looking straight down and the thunder was instantanteous and deafening.
After working so hard, not working is sweet.
Looking forward:
Two weeks, one day until I board a plan for Los Angeles International Airport. I've been thinking of this time at Fuller as going away for school. It's not really that. I need a bit of a mindset shift. I'm moving to Southern California for (at least) 6years, it's a totally new life direction, and I don't know if/when I'm coming back, who'll be here when I do, and what all our/their lives will be like. Masters/Ph.D. programs are different, they don't have your 4 month summers to come home to. It's gonna be good, but It's gonna be bigger than I realized, it's only barely starting to hit me. It's increasing my sadness as it does. I'm still learning about what is all going to be involved and that's a slow process, I think I'll figure most of it out down there as I go.
But I know that I have to go, have to grow. It'll really the be the first true, true, on my own experience. Living at Norm's, moving to Egypt, living in Calgary, they don't quite count. It's hard to place this in the bigger picture of life, but in a 70 year lifetime, 6 years is less than 10%. And it's just time. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared. Most of these realizations I haven't shared directly with anyone so I read them before I tell you, it's nothing personal, it's just that they are very, very recent (including coming as I type).
But I must also look forward to the positives. I'm gonna meet a lot of cool people (and here's hoping that includes a fantastic and gorgeous girl to spend the rest of my life with!). I'm gonna gain a whole lot of new skills. I'm going to be humbled because I'm gonna struggle with the adjustment. I'm hoping for a clearer sense of direction and calling for my life.
So there you go Dave, and the rest of the world. I'm not sure if I post again before I travel. And once I go, I'll do my best to post while I'm gone, but we all know how it can go. I don't know what my schedule, my life, will be like when I get there, so we'll see what we can do.
Adam
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Friday, August 04, 2006
Home sweet...?
The Fuller Experience...
...is starting. I've been offered a place with Fuller housing. So I can start to get excited. I should expect to be living about 3 blocks from campus in a 2-bedroom with a guy from Wyoming. While I won't move in for a least a month and I'll probably have to pay 2 weeks rent before I show up there, it feels good to have that weight off my chest. Roger seems like a cool guy, and I'm excited to be living close. And the 860 sq ft should be decent enough to handle a few guests I would think ;)
I'm done work next week, so I'm looking forward to having a few days where I can actually get into all this stuff. Because even if I'm at home, my brain is by no means free of the black hole that is Census 2006.
...is starting. I've been offered a place with Fuller housing. So I can start to get excited. I should expect to be living about 3 blocks from campus in a 2-bedroom with a guy from Wyoming. While I won't move in for a least a month and I'll probably have to pay 2 weeks rent before I show up there, it feels good to have that weight off my chest. Roger seems like a cool guy, and I'm excited to be living close. And the 860 sq ft should be decent enough to handle a few guests I would think ;)
I'm done work next week, so I'm looking forward to having a few days where I can actually get into all this stuff. Because even if I'm at home, my brain is by no means free of the black hole that is Census 2006.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Sometimes you just gotta write
...and now is one of them, even though I have no plan for my writing.
Tomorrow is my last day in my basement suite here in Calgary. Some of you may not have known I was in Calgary for the last 3 months. That's how sad my life has been. Work. Oh, work. Statistics Canada. Census, 2006. Gong. Gong.
I tell you what, I am looking forward to having some time off before school. Because I need to debrief. Decompress. De-stress. But especially debrief. I think I've learned a lot in the last 7 or 8 months of being on the road, but I haven't had much time to process. Yes, I processed in Egypt, and blogged on it. But I didn't have time to process upon return. And I haven't done much thinking about my life in light of this summer, either.
All of that, to be honest, is just an excuse. It allows me to suck and not feel so bad. Lets be honest. I make poor decisions, choose negative coping, fail to set boundries, etc. Then I get miserable. Then I just say, well, I'll debrief. I'll reevaluate. And the hard part is the tension that exists because partly it's just a cop out, but on the other hand it's just really true. I do suck. And all that I can hope to do is notice it, think about it and try to learn a little about it so as not to repeat it.
I have more thoughts but they are mildly dangerous given the difficult medium of posting, with an absence of non-verbal communication and an absence of regulation as to who reads my post.
Peace.
Tomorrow is my last day in my basement suite here in Calgary. Some of you may not have known I was in Calgary for the last 3 months. That's how sad my life has been. Work. Oh, work. Statistics Canada. Census, 2006. Gong. Gong.
I tell you what, I am looking forward to having some time off before school. Because I need to debrief. Decompress. De-stress. But especially debrief. I think I've learned a lot in the last 7 or 8 months of being on the road, but I haven't had much time to process. Yes, I processed in Egypt, and blogged on it. But I didn't have time to process upon return. And I haven't done much thinking about my life in light of this summer, either.
All of that, to be honest, is just an excuse. It allows me to suck and not feel so bad. Lets be honest. I make poor decisions, choose negative coping, fail to set boundries, etc. Then I get miserable. Then I just say, well, I'll debrief. I'll reevaluate. And the hard part is the tension that exists because partly it's just a cop out, but on the other hand it's just really true. I do suck. And all that I can hope to do is notice it, think about it and try to learn a little about it so as not to repeat it.
I have more thoughts but they are mildly dangerous given the difficult medium of posting, with an absence of non-verbal communication and an absence of regulation as to who reads my post.
Peace.
Friday, April 21, 2006
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
This is the end
Last full day in Egypt and going fast. Don't have much time. If anyone is buying Oilers playoff tix, can you please buy me one - I'm going to be flying when the go on sale, I think.
See you soon.
See you soon.
Friday, April 14, 2006
Home stretch
Barring any unforseen complications, I will be returning to Edmonton in less than one week. Is anyone besides me excited about this fact?
Thursday, April 06, 2006
BTW
By the way, Morocco is super nice. I'm really having a good time. It has really beautiful countryside, and lots of places to see. If you're reading this, you should come here some time. I'd recommend it.
"Don't hate the player, hate the game"
Yo. What's up from Fes?
This now famous quote (one that incidentally I don't like all that much in some of it's applications), would have to be my theme quote for my couple hours in the medina (refers to old city) here in Fes. This thought made (hopefully) a lasting impression on me. If not, at least I'll have this blog entry to look at.
And by extension, it is easy to see the application of this quote to much of my time in the Middle East and Morocco. So what do I mean by this? Now it seems so obvious that I'm almost ashamed to discuss it; only 30 min ago it felt brilliant and freeing. The point is this:
You spend half your time focused on what you want to be doing while in the medina, and the other half dealing with people hassling you to take you somewhere, to show you something, to have you eat at their restaurant. After a while (not very long), you become frustrated with the people, hating them, their greed, their persitance, their laziness, their lack of sentsitivity to your needs, until you can't take it anymore! And then, your remember, "don't hate the player, hate the game." And you realize that on the whole, people are playing a game they don't want to play. In general, I didn't like this idea because of how closely the player and the game were in my mind. But here, people don't have a choice of games.
So what then is my job? And how can I live this quote properly such that I acomplishe the simultaneous goals of (a) having a righteous passion against an evil that destroys freedom and beauty, for the purpose of maintaining motivation to conquer this evil while (b) still maintaining compassion and love for those who are forced to play by it's constrictive rules?
Sounds grand doesn't it? Unfortunately honestly leads me to admit that indeed I feel so far from this ideal that I am likely more of a problem than a solution, and further that I have no idea how to move in this direction. Most hindering is a forgetfullness that removes the problem from my mind when it's not in front of me and an absence of burning heart to spur change. So what now? I don't know.
But I don't want to forget.
I keep forgetting but I don' t want to forget.
As CS Wiersmq put it one time, how can we be changed so we don't have to hear the story again?
I don't know. And I'm not impressive. I'm really bad at this; I'm just the only one saying it.
This now famous quote (one that incidentally I don't like all that much in some of it's applications), would have to be my theme quote for my couple hours in the medina (refers to old city) here in Fes. This thought made (hopefully) a lasting impression on me. If not, at least I'll have this blog entry to look at.
And by extension, it is easy to see the application of this quote to much of my time in the Middle East and Morocco. So what do I mean by this? Now it seems so obvious that I'm almost ashamed to discuss it; only 30 min ago it felt brilliant and freeing. The point is this:
You spend half your time focused on what you want to be doing while in the medina, and the other half dealing with people hassling you to take you somewhere, to show you something, to have you eat at their restaurant. After a while (not very long), you become frustrated with the people, hating them, their greed, their persitance, their laziness, their lack of sentsitivity to your needs, until you can't take it anymore! And then, your remember, "don't hate the player, hate the game." And you realize that on the whole, people are playing a game they don't want to play. In general, I didn't like this idea because of how closely the player and the game were in my mind. But here, people don't have a choice of games.
So what then is my job? And how can I live this quote properly such that I acomplishe the simultaneous goals of (a) having a righteous passion against an evil that destroys freedom and beauty, for the purpose of maintaining motivation to conquer this evil while (b) still maintaining compassion and love for those who are forced to play by it's constrictive rules?
Sounds grand doesn't it? Unfortunately honestly leads me to admit that indeed I feel so far from this ideal that I am likely more of a problem than a solution, and further that I have no idea how to move in this direction. Most hindering is a forgetfullness that removes the problem from my mind when it's not in front of me and an absence of burning heart to spur change. So what now? I don't know.
But I don't want to forget.
I keep forgetting but I don' t want to forget.
As CS Wiersmq put it one time, how can we be changed so we don't have to hear the story again?
I don't know. And I'm not impressive. I'm really bad at this; I'm just the only one saying it.
Monday, March 27, 2006
On Spontaneity and Stars
Yo. I think I’m not very good at this because my posts are too long. I talk too much. It’s just that I love to tell stories. So I can’t do anything about it. Anyways, I last posted Wednesday, March 22. That night I went to an end of the course party, arriving at about 11pm or so. I was invited by my friend Niko, whom I met at the Arabic course, of course. Niko is a German, from Berlin. Actually, the party was a celebration for a number of Germans who were all studying together at a different Arabic institute. They had been together since October, studying here on scholarship. Since Niko lived with a couple of them, the party was there and he invited me. It was the same place and many of the same people as the party I posted on earlier. But don’t worry, I’m going in a different direction.
While I was at the party, I was talking with Johannes (one of Niko’s roommates) about my travel plans and my ambivalence due to traveling alone. He said, “well hey, why don’t you come with us, we’re going down to the Sinai tomorrow.” I thought about it for a while, discussed a few more details with Niko, and decided, “sure, what the heck?”
So, after a bit longer, I went home, packed, went to bed at 2:30, up at 7 to go drop off a dictionary at the school from another guy in my class since it was the last day (which I was now skipping), and off to the bus station (hopefully there are still tickets). There were tickets, so indeed less than 10 hours after being invited, I’m now on a bus with 4 guys, 3 of whom I barely know, in the direction of Nuweeba, Egypt, for a trip I indeed know very little about. Sweet!
So the group of 5 guys was Niko, Johannes, Mattis (a German friend just visiting), Zed (an American studying at AUC) and myself. We were on route to meet 3 Israeli girls, one of whom is Niko’s girlfriend. They had found the place we would be staying at. So the plan is to arrive in Nuweeba, then get a call from them on how to meet them.
It’s a long story but eventually we found the guy that Niko’s girlfriend arranged to pick us up and bring us to our location (more on that later). Since we didn’t start our journey through the desert until after dark, we got a real treat. All 5 of us rode most of the 1.5 hour journey through the desert sitting in the bed of the truck with all our stuff, looking at the stars, listening to music and chatting. It was fantastic, a really precious time. The sky was totally clear, no lights except those of the truck, and no pollution, so it was one of the most beautiful skies ever. Just lolling over the rough desert, with mountains to the right and left under ten thousand stars was something else. And I saw 2 shooting stars, one of them fantastically bright and super long.
The place we stayed is called Laguna. It’s a collection of huts (thin wood frame, sticks/straw for walls and roof) as I said way off the highway through the desert. The place is named for its position on a beautiful green/blue lagoon, which is surrounded by mountains. We saw camels wandering through the desert within view.
Despite the upsides, the location is “rustic” at best. No electricity, no running water, no beds (and our part forgot to mention sleeping bags to Zed and I, oops). Bathing facilities were almost non-existent with the latrine being little more than a hole in the ground. But we certainly made do. It’s nice to be away from the comforts, actually. The place is run by a group of people who cook for you, and also help arrange some transportation.
So what did we do? Well, first off, we arrived late Thursday night, met the girls and some of the other people they had met there. We ate and then went to bed, Friday the weather was super nice, hot and sunny. Swimming was a very common activity. Besides this, there was a lot of sitting around, lying in the sun, some reading, a lot hanging out, some chess, backgammon, chatting and a lot of smoking weed. (Oops, did I say that)? Most of the people there were stoned a good deal of the time. Niko and I were the only two that didn’t smoke up at all. Actually, as you likely know, this would be a pretty standard approach to this type of holiday except that I and most of friends don’t generally partake of this type of activity so it was pretty new to me. But it was okay, overall. I mean it didn’t really affect the weekend too much given the type of activities we were doing anyways, though it probably limited the motivation to come up with other more active, adventuresome and exciting things to do, given the dulling effect of weed. But it was a good learning experience for me.
The wind began to howl late Friday night, and indeed didn’t let up for the whole rest of the time we were there (Zed and I left with a bunch of the Israelis on Sunday around noon, while the rest stayed another day). Thus Saturday and Sunday morning were slightly affected by the wind. There were no clouds, not much dust, no rain, just wind. So it just was a bit cooler and the sea was rough so we couldn’t go snorkeling.
One time swimming, we found sea urchins. Unfortunately, Johannes found them to be painful; he took a huge number of stings all through his right leg, so we had to carry him out of the water and back to camp. But he was treated well, so he’s currently healing quickly.
At night, Zed and I were quite cold, because we didn’t have sleeping bags and of course there are no beds or sheets, just a thin mattress. We were okay the first night, actually, but the second and third were cold ‘cause of the wind. But the nights were highlighted in mind by the stars. Seriously. Amazing. Amazing. What can I say? Perhaps see Job 38-41.
And one evening was also punctuated by a sweet conversation with Niko as the sun lowered and the stars came out. He’s a super guy. It was great to get to know him a lot more. As friendships often do, it ours started out at school during a break. He was looking for fool, I for a place to be outside. After that, we went regularly for fool or taamaya or koshery (falafel). So it grew there, but much more on the trip too. I’m really sad that I’m not going to really be able to continue this friendship on more than an email basis pretty soon; it sucks to just get to know someone just to have it be so short. But, I’ll just consider myself blessed for the 2 weeks or so that I did get. At least with my closest friend here, Diana (have I mentioned her? Sorry if I haven’t. She’s worth mentioning.), we’ve had a couple months to be friends, so while maybe it’ll be worse to leave in some ways ‘cause you know each other better, at least it’s more than a teaser.
So yeah, as I said, Sunday around noon we headed back through the desert. It was a neat and still extremely beautiful ride. The Israelis went to the border but Zed and I got off earlier, picked up some food and bust tix and were back on our way to Cairo. I got some reading in on both ways that was really sweet. I’m reading the Journey of Desire by John Eldrigde. I’d recommend it.
Okay, so anyways, that’s most of what I wanted to say here, and some other things thrown in there. I’m still figuring what’s up with the rest of my travel plans. I’ll let you know when I do.
While I was at the party, I was talking with Johannes (one of Niko’s roommates) about my travel plans and my ambivalence due to traveling alone. He said, “well hey, why don’t you come with us, we’re going down to the Sinai tomorrow.” I thought about it for a while, discussed a few more details with Niko, and decided, “sure, what the heck?”
So, after a bit longer, I went home, packed, went to bed at 2:30, up at 7 to go drop off a dictionary at the school from another guy in my class since it was the last day (which I was now skipping), and off to the bus station (hopefully there are still tickets). There were tickets, so indeed less than 10 hours after being invited, I’m now on a bus with 4 guys, 3 of whom I barely know, in the direction of Nuweeba, Egypt, for a trip I indeed know very little about. Sweet!
So the group of 5 guys was Niko, Johannes, Mattis (a German friend just visiting), Zed (an American studying at AUC) and myself. We were on route to meet 3 Israeli girls, one of whom is Niko’s girlfriend. They had found the place we would be staying at. So the plan is to arrive in Nuweeba, then get a call from them on how to meet them.
It’s a long story but eventually we found the guy that Niko’s girlfriend arranged to pick us up and bring us to our location (more on that later). Since we didn’t start our journey through the desert until after dark, we got a real treat. All 5 of us rode most of the 1.5 hour journey through the desert sitting in the bed of the truck with all our stuff, looking at the stars, listening to music and chatting. It was fantastic, a really precious time. The sky was totally clear, no lights except those of the truck, and no pollution, so it was one of the most beautiful skies ever. Just lolling over the rough desert, with mountains to the right and left under ten thousand stars was something else. And I saw 2 shooting stars, one of them fantastically bright and super long.
The place we stayed is called Laguna. It’s a collection of huts (thin wood frame, sticks/straw for walls and roof) as I said way off the highway through the desert. The place is named for its position on a beautiful green/blue lagoon, which is surrounded by mountains. We saw camels wandering through the desert within view.
Despite the upsides, the location is “rustic” at best. No electricity, no running water, no beds (and our part forgot to mention sleeping bags to Zed and I, oops). Bathing facilities were almost non-existent with the latrine being little more than a hole in the ground. But we certainly made do. It’s nice to be away from the comforts, actually. The place is run by a group of people who cook for you, and also help arrange some transportation.
So what did we do? Well, first off, we arrived late Thursday night, met the girls and some of the other people they had met there. We ate and then went to bed, Friday the weather was super nice, hot and sunny. Swimming was a very common activity. Besides this, there was a lot of sitting around, lying in the sun, some reading, a lot hanging out, some chess, backgammon, chatting and a lot of smoking weed. (Oops, did I say that)? Most of the people there were stoned a good deal of the time. Niko and I were the only two that didn’t smoke up at all. Actually, as you likely know, this would be a pretty standard approach to this type of holiday except that I and most of friends don’t generally partake of this type of activity so it was pretty new to me. But it was okay, overall. I mean it didn’t really affect the weekend too much given the type of activities we were doing anyways, though it probably limited the motivation to come up with other more active, adventuresome and exciting things to do, given the dulling effect of weed. But it was a good learning experience for me.
The wind began to howl late Friday night, and indeed didn’t let up for the whole rest of the time we were there (Zed and I left with a bunch of the Israelis on Sunday around noon, while the rest stayed another day). Thus Saturday and Sunday morning were slightly affected by the wind. There were no clouds, not much dust, no rain, just wind. So it just was a bit cooler and the sea was rough so we couldn’t go snorkeling.
One time swimming, we found sea urchins. Unfortunately, Johannes found them to be painful; he took a huge number of stings all through his right leg, so we had to carry him out of the water and back to camp. But he was treated well, so he’s currently healing quickly.
At night, Zed and I were quite cold, because we didn’t have sleeping bags and of course there are no beds or sheets, just a thin mattress. We were okay the first night, actually, but the second and third were cold ‘cause of the wind. But the nights were highlighted in mind by the stars. Seriously. Amazing. Amazing. What can I say? Perhaps see Job 38-41.
And one evening was also punctuated by a sweet conversation with Niko as the sun lowered and the stars came out. He’s a super guy. It was great to get to know him a lot more. As friendships often do, it ours started out at school during a break. He was looking for fool, I for a place to be outside. After that, we went regularly for fool or taamaya or koshery (falafel). So it grew there, but much more on the trip too. I’m really sad that I’m not going to really be able to continue this friendship on more than an email basis pretty soon; it sucks to just get to know someone just to have it be so short. But, I’ll just consider myself blessed for the 2 weeks or so that I did get. At least with my closest friend here, Diana (have I mentioned her? Sorry if I haven’t. She’s worth mentioning.), we’ve had a couple months to be friends, so while maybe it’ll be worse to leave in some ways ‘cause you know each other better, at least it’s more than a teaser.
So yeah, as I said, Sunday around noon we headed back through the desert. It was a neat and still extremely beautiful ride. The Israelis went to the border but Zed and I got off earlier, picked up some food and bust tix and were back on our way to Cairo. I got some reading in on both ways that was really sweet. I’m reading the Journey of Desire by John Eldrigde. I’d recommend it.
Okay, so anyways, that’s most of what I wanted to say here, and some other things thrown in there. I’m still figuring what’s up with the rest of my travel plans. I’ll let you know when I do.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
The long awaited...
The long-awaited, long-anticipated (and perhaps, highly enlightening, or more likely, disappointing) post on Jobs in Cairo. (BTW 'cause this is a long post, note that there is another new one below it. That post is more about me, so choose your poison.)
Okay so here’s the disclaimer. This post isn’t going to be based on statistics, numbers, research, or anything else that lends any scientific credence to it. So off the top, be wary of taking too much from anything you read. This post is based on my observations in extremely limited setting, and based on biases and predispositions inherent in my world view. Indeed I recognize the inherent problem in this, and also the chance that I’m going to say some dumb stuff so anyone who has information on this, feel free to point out mistakes or correct any assumptions you like. AND forgive my sensationalism. Because I’m a bit ashamed of the parts of this blog that are too sensational in that regard.
That being said, here’s the deal. This post (perhaps there will be most, I don’t know – these things have a bit of a mind of their own) will be concerned with 2 main concepts, which are intrinsically tied together: Population and Transportation.
Quite simply, there are too many people in this city. It is jam-packed. There aren’t enough jobs for everyone. This makes finding any job at all quite difficult and finding good jobs extremely difficult. The more education you have the better you are to find jobs, but even having lots of education doesn’t guarantee you anything, and you’re certainly not necessary to find something in your field. Now, of course I have to note that indeed this is true of jobs anywhere in the world. But it seems to be on a larger scale than that of Canada.
The other thing about over-crowding is the extreme stress on transportation. I’ve already mentioned to you about the problem with traffic. That in itself is a huge issue and of course it is a multi-faceted problem, but one of the key points is simply the overabundance of people wanting to go somewhere. The result of that is you’ve got so many cars, taxi’s and buses that the streets are usually filled to the brim with vehicles.
So one thing about jobs here, is that for the above reasons, plus for simple cultural reasons that are not readily explained out, in Cairo, you’ll find the existence of a host of jobs that are not present, or at least not common in say most Western cultures. Or if you find it in both places, there is a disproportion to what I’m used to.
Parking guy. This is the guy that helps you park on the street, when you’re out somewhere, visiting some place. Because there are so many cars and such little space, parking spots are commodities. This guy directs you to the spot, then helps guide you into it, because the spot is guaranteed to be about 10cm larger than the smallest physically possible space to put a car into. You pay this guy about 1 or 2 pounds when you come back to your car to leave. They may also clean your car.
Garage attendant. If you live in an apartment, a similar job exists for people who care for the parking garage of your building. Here, this group of guys (for the attendant is a 24, 7days a week kind of job) are paid out the monthly fee you pay to keep your car in the garage. Of course, they also clean your car, and look after the place to ensure the safety of the garage. But when I talk about crowding, you still don’t understand…
Cars on the street and in the garage are not parked like here. In Canada, you park in such a spot that you can get out, and so can everyone else. Here, not so. Impossible because there aren’t enough spots, and unnecessary because of the parking guys. Thus, cars are in many places double and even triple parked, and in the garage, many more cars fit that would be possible by each person parking his own car.
Thus, the job description of the above includes this work: moving cars around so that more cars fit, and people can go in and out when they come and go based on their schedule. Most cars here are standard shift. Thus, when you arrive home from work, you bring your car into the garage, and leave it somewhere central, in neutral, with no parking brake on. This allows the parking guys to move cars around to fit more cars into the same space. When you leave the next morning, you ask the parking guy where your car is. It has been moved, once or more than once to accommodate the coming and going of others who also keep cars in the garage. Hopefully, the garage attendants are good and the way of your exit is unimpeded by other cars. If you are leaving at a non-standard time (i.e. not a regular time based on your schedule), it is a good idea to phone down to the garage to have them move your car, so that they can have it ready. If you know when you’re going out next, it’s a good idea to tell them, for the same reason. It’s especially interesting to watch when cars are double parked tightly and your on the inside.
The idea is very simple, but since you never saw it in action, and I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it when I came, I used a lot of words to describe it.
Public Transportation. As I mentioned, transportation makes up a huge part of this job discussion. Indeed, I think many people are employed in the transportation sector. This involves 2 main classes of jobs – taxis, and buses.
Taxis are everywhere here. Seriously. At any given time when I’m walking down the street, (I’m guessing here but) 1 out of every 4 cars that drives by me is a taxi. And taxis come in a variety of shapes and conditions, but they’re almost exclusively black with white on the body over the wheels and most of them are old and in rough condition. Taxi’s here are quite cheap. And you have to know the price you’ll pay (of course there is no meter, don’t be silly). If you ask – especially as a foreigner, he will tell you a much higher number than usual. So in this case, you just know from family or friends who live in the area the appropriate price. When I arrive, I get out the taxi then hand the money through the window. And usually he’s moderately happy, sometimes quite happy and sometimes upset. How you deal with that depends on the situation but I won’t get into it.
Next, there are tonnes of buses and microbuses. I’ll save that for next time, because, well, this is enough for now.
Okay so here’s the disclaimer. This post isn’t going to be based on statistics, numbers, research, or anything else that lends any scientific credence to it. So off the top, be wary of taking too much from anything you read. This post is based on my observations in extremely limited setting, and based on biases and predispositions inherent in my world view. Indeed I recognize the inherent problem in this, and also the chance that I’m going to say some dumb stuff so anyone who has information on this, feel free to point out mistakes or correct any assumptions you like. AND forgive my sensationalism. Because I’m a bit ashamed of the parts of this blog that are too sensational in that regard.
That being said, here’s the deal. This post (perhaps there will be most, I don’t know – these things have a bit of a mind of their own) will be concerned with 2 main concepts, which are intrinsically tied together: Population and Transportation.
Quite simply, there are too many people in this city. It is jam-packed. There aren’t enough jobs for everyone. This makes finding any job at all quite difficult and finding good jobs extremely difficult. The more education you have the better you are to find jobs, but even having lots of education doesn’t guarantee you anything, and you’re certainly not necessary to find something in your field. Now, of course I have to note that indeed this is true of jobs anywhere in the world. But it seems to be on a larger scale than that of Canada.
The other thing about over-crowding is the extreme stress on transportation. I’ve already mentioned to you about the problem with traffic. That in itself is a huge issue and of course it is a multi-faceted problem, but one of the key points is simply the overabundance of people wanting to go somewhere. The result of that is you’ve got so many cars, taxi’s and buses that the streets are usually filled to the brim with vehicles.
So one thing about jobs here, is that for the above reasons, plus for simple cultural reasons that are not readily explained out, in Cairo, you’ll find the existence of a host of jobs that are not present, or at least not common in say most Western cultures. Or if you find it in both places, there is a disproportion to what I’m used to.
Parking guy. This is the guy that helps you park on the street, when you’re out somewhere, visiting some place. Because there are so many cars and such little space, parking spots are commodities. This guy directs you to the spot, then helps guide you into it, because the spot is guaranteed to be about 10cm larger than the smallest physically possible space to put a car into. You pay this guy about 1 or 2 pounds when you come back to your car to leave. They may also clean your car.
Garage attendant. If you live in an apartment, a similar job exists for people who care for the parking garage of your building. Here, this group of guys (for the attendant is a 24, 7days a week kind of job) are paid out the monthly fee you pay to keep your car in the garage. Of course, they also clean your car, and look after the place to ensure the safety of the garage. But when I talk about crowding, you still don’t understand…
Cars on the street and in the garage are not parked like here. In Canada, you park in such a spot that you can get out, and so can everyone else. Here, not so. Impossible because there aren’t enough spots, and unnecessary because of the parking guys. Thus, cars are in many places double and even triple parked, and in the garage, many more cars fit that would be possible by each person parking his own car.
Thus, the job description of the above includes this work: moving cars around so that more cars fit, and people can go in and out when they come and go based on their schedule. Most cars here are standard shift. Thus, when you arrive home from work, you bring your car into the garage, and leave it somewhere central, in neutral, with no parking brake on. This allows the parking guys to move cars around to fit more cars into the same space. When you leave the next morning, you ask the parking guy where your car is. It has been moved, once or more than once to accommodate the coming and going of others who also keep cars in the garage. Hopefully, the garage attendants are good and the way of your exit is unimpeded by other cars. If you are leaving at a non-standard time (i.e. not a regular time based on your schedule), it is a good idea to phone down to the garage to have them move your car, so that they can have it ready. If you know when you’re going out next, it’s a good idea to tell them, for the same reason. It’s especially interesting to watch when cars are double parked tightly and your on the inside.
The idea is very simple, but since you never saw it in action, and I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it when I came, I used a lot of words to describe it.
Public Transportation. As I mentioned, transportation makes up a huge part of this job discussion. Indeed, I think many people are employed in the transportation sector. This involves 2 main classes of jobs – taxis, and buses.
Taxis are everywhere here. Seriously. At any given time when I’m walking down the street, (I’m guessing here but) 1 out of every 4 cars that drives by me is a taxi. And taxis come in a variety of shapes and conditions, but they’re almost exclusively black with white on the body over the wheels and most of them are old and in rough condition. Taxi’s here are quite cheap. And you have to know the price you’ll pay (of course there is no meter, don’t be silly). If you ask – especially as a foreigner, he will tell you a much higher number than usual. So in this case, you just know from family or friends who live in the area the appropriate price. When I arrive, I get out the taxi then hand the money through the window. And usually he’s moderately happy, sometimes quite happy and sometimes upset. How you deal with that depends on the situation but I won’t get into it.
Next, there are tonnes of buses and microbuses. I’ll save that for next time, because, well, this is enough for now.
The joy of finishing
Hey Folks,
So what’s up? I hear E-town got a huge dump of snow this weekend. I hope you had a chance to go skiing, or will do so in the next little while. Indeed hitting the slopes for some spring snowboarding is one of the things I’m really looking forward to upon return. BTW today’s weather is 33C and sunny ;)
So back to the present. I’m feeling that same feeling I’ve experienced so many times and it’s as good as ever. The feeling after finishing a course, the one that comes immediately after handing in an exam paper or giving that final presentation. I did both of those today, and so I’m really enjoying the resulting emotion.
I had an oral presentation in my spoken Arabic class, 15 minutes on anything, in Arabic of course. I gave it on my time at Behman Psychiatric Hospital. I owe many thanks to Amani, Nabila and my friend Diana for their help in editing. The presentation went really well: everyone enjoyed it; people understood it in part (which in itself is a great success), asked lots of questions when they didn’t, and were in general interested in the topic. So I was really pleased.
After that, I had a written exam in Modern Standard Arabic. It also went really well, I think. We’ll see tomorrow, but it felt good. So we’ll see. I actually think I learned a lot in that course.
So now what? This is the big question. My return ticket is for exactly 4 weeks from today, so now I need to either: fill my time here with something useful, take my time elsewhere in the region, or come home early. I’m not interested in taking the next course. I don’t think it’d be a good use of my time and money. It was expensive-ish, it took a lot of time and I don’t have the motivation. Also, I’m not thinking there’s a lot I can start and finish here in one month that’ll keep me busy.
So my top 2 options are coming home early and traveling. The biggest knock against traveling is that I would be on my own for a great deal of it. This of course is one unique feature that isn’t in itself bad, but given that I’m a fairly social person, built for having a smaller number of more long-term, deep relationships, it’s a bit a scary proposition. I'm one who's not super interested in history or stuff like that - I just like stuff that looks nice and I enjoy sharing it with others. When I say scary, it's not as much the fear of the experience as it is thinking that I'm just not sure I'll really enjoy it. The advantages are seizing the chance to do and see stuff I have while I'm here, the learning experience of traveling, and the growth that can come from that, and especially from traveling alone, and the fact that I simply don't know how it'll be till I try.
The advantage to coming home early is that I can start working (insert sarcastic cheer here). But that has the advantage of bringing in, rather than spending, money. The influx of financial resources is considered useful for the partial funding of such educational endeavors as I will be undertaking in the upcoming 6 years. The other advantage is to come home and spend purposefully, as opposed to putsing around Cairo with little purposeful work or service driving my time. The disadvantage is that I’m here, it’s now, and there aren’t a tonne of opportunities like this, so I don't want to miss something that I'd miss just 'cause of laziness or lack of personal investment and some types of risk.
So I’ve thrown my thoughts of the present situation at you (like I’ve done with all blogs). I hope you don’t judge me for them. BTW You can be sure I’ll let you know what I plan is shortly after I know it myself.
So what’s up? I hear E-town got a huge dump of snow this weekend. I hope you had a chance to go skiing, or will do so in the next little while. Indeed hitting the slopes for some spring snowboarding is one of the things I’m really looking forward to upon return. BTW today’s weather is 33C and sunny ;)
So back to the present. I’m feeling that same feeling I’ve experienced so many times and it’s as good as ever. The feeling after finishing a course, the one that comes immediately after handing in an exam paper or giving that final presentation. I did both of those today, and so I’m really enjoying the resulting emotion.
I had an oral presentation in my spoken Arabic class, 15 minutes on anything, in Arabic of course. I gave it on my time at Behman Psychiatric Hospital. I owe many thanks to Amani, Nabila and my friend Diana for their help in editing. The presentation went really well: everyone enjoyed it; people understood it in part (which in itself is a great success), asked lots of questions when they didn’t, and were in general interested in the topic. So I was really pleased.
After that, I had a written exam in Modern Standard Arabic. It also went really well, I think. We’ll see tomorrow, but it felt good. So we’ll see. I actually think I learned a lot in that course.
So now what? This is the big question. My return ticket is for exactly 4 weeks from today, so now I need to either: fill my time here with something useful, take my time elsewhere in the region, or come home early. I’m not interested in taking the next course. I don’t think it’d be a good use of my time and money. It was expensive-ish, it took a lot of time and I don’t have the motivation. Also, I’m not thinking there’s a lot I can start and finish here in one month that’ll keep me busy.
So my top 2 options are coming home early and traveling. The biggest knock against traveling is that I would be on my own for a great deal of it. This of course is one unique feature that isn’t in itself bad, but given that I’m a fairly social person, built for having a smaller number of more long-term, deep relationships, it’s a bit a scary proposition. I'm one who's not super interested in history or stuff like that - I just like stuff that looks nice and I enjoy sharing it with others. When I say scary, it's not as much the fear of the experience as it is thinking that I'm just not sure I'll really enjoy it. The advantages are seizing the chance to do and see stuff I have while I'm here, the learning experience of traveling, and the growth that can come from that, and especially from traveling alone, and the fact that I simply don't know how it'll be till I try.
The advantage to coming home early is that I can start working (insert sarcastic cheer here). But that has the advantage of bringing in, rather than spending, money. The influx of financial resources is considered useful for the partial funding of such educational endeavors as I will be undertaking in the upcoming 6 years. The other advantage is to come home and spend purposefully, as opposed to putsing around Cairo with little purposeful work or service driving my time. The disadvantage is that I’m here, it’s now, and there aren’t a tonne of opportunities like this, so I don't want to miss something that I'd miss just 'cause of laziness or lack of personal investment and some types of risk.
So I’ve thrown my thoughts of the present situation at you (like I’ve done with all blogs). I hope you don’t judge me for them. BTW You can be sure I’ll let you know what I plan is shortly after I know it myself.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Oh yeah, other people exist too.
I finally got around to adding the links of other blogs that I visit (and by implication, you should also visit), though not all of them are regularly updated (ahem Marcia. Okay perhaps you're not blogging anymore since you returned from abroad [like I probably won't do for the summer] but how could I put your sister up and not you?) though actually you will find Marcia's blog interesting even if it's not updated 'cause she was also in the Middle East.
I especially encourage you to read my cousin Monica's blog 'cause even though she'll hate me for writing this, her blog is only a minute reflection of the inspiriation of a person that she is and it challenges me in my own life in so many areas.
If you are my friend and have a blog I don't know about and want me to link it, please tell me.
Special thanks to Alison for giving me the information on how to add the links to my sidebar.
I especially encourage you to read my cousin Monica's blog 'cause even though she'll hate me for writing this, her blog is only a minute reflection of the inspiriation of a person that she is and it challenges me in my own life in so many areas.
If you are my friend and have a blog I don't know about and want me to link it, please tell me.
Special thanks to Alison for giving me the information on how to add the links to my sidebar.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Still alive, but the kicking has ceased
Hey Peeps,
Seems I was better at updating the blog earlier in the trip, huh? I blame school. I regularly study 4 hours a day on weekdays. (on top of 4.5hours of classes). Maybe it doesn’t sound like too much for you grad/professional school types (I’m especially looking at my med school and optometry school friends) but it’s still a lot and it means I don’t sit down to BS on my blog as often.
Okay, so that’s the biggest thing that’s eating my time in Egypt. The course goes by fast and there’s lots to learn, and since the course is everyday, you have work to prep for the next lecture every day, plus homework. Okay so I’m just whining. This is just a warm-up for my own grad school experience, but I think there’s something about spending most of your time not understanding most of the words that you hear that makes it difficult.
Weather is usually decent, but sometimes up and down. The down happens when we have sand storms. I guess it was bad enough that one of you from Canada heard about it from somewhere. Yeah the sand storm sucked. That one last week was like the 3rd one we had. It must have been bad to get on your news (implied from your comment). It's been gone for a couple days, though today another light one started. It's hard to breathe, there's no sun and every thing gets covered in dust. But oh well, everywhere has it's version of bad weather, and our season for this is ending soon.
What else? I must admit I’ve really lost a lot of energy to be pure Egyptian. The western me has crept back in and resumed his place in my mind and heart. I think there are a number of reasons.
First: being at school. I now interact with a bunch of westerners, and if you ever went to school (which you all did) you know that you don’t spend all of your non class time working on your classwork, so that most of my chatting with new friends is in English (which everyone speaks, even though not everyone is native English speaking; not even the majority.) On that note, I went to a party last weekend, thrown by a roommate of one the guys in my class. It was his (the roommate’s) birthday. The party was really weird, really fun. It was weird in that except for the “Fool” and “Ta3maya” on the table along with all the other party food, you could have been in any house party in Canada (or, more likely, Germany, given that many of the people there were German). It was pretty sweet, it was the most western thing I’ve done since I got there. And indeed once you get sucked in, get given a taste of westernism, it’s easy to slip back into it. And it’s happened to me.
Second: loss of purpose. I think I’ve lost some of my feeling of purpose in Egypt. I’m learning the language at the end of the trip, and I haven’t done anything so far that has told me, “this is, without a doubt, THE place where you belong.” So while it’s good, I have enjoyed it, and I could see returning with a more clear sense of purpose, there is currently an absence of purpose that seems to influence my attitude in the direction away from exerting a lot of effort to put myself out to experience more of Egypt.
Third: awareness of the end. I know I’m going home in about a month. And most of my free time (except on weekends) is spent studying. So it hardly seems worth it to throw a whole bunch of energy into efforts and relationships that will be ending very soon. This is most especially given that I’ve sort of experienced a pattern of relationships here. This city is big, and not having a car and a super clear idea of getting around (or just an absence of desire to expend the large amounts of energy it requires to get around if you don’t want to take cabs everywhere, which I don’t) means sometimes relationships are difficult. This is coupled with an absence of activities that people seem to do regularly as things they use to pass the time (e.g. play pool/go to sporting events), and my conversational skills just means it’s a bit challenging and for the above reasons, my energy isn’t up to it.
So how are you reading all this? Good? Bad? Ugly? Don’t worry about me. I’m okay.
By the way one of my good friends here (my family who came to Egypt knows him) has had a couple of serious medical incidents in his family – his dad was just diagnosed with acute leukemia and this just 2 weeks after his nephew with found to be having a very serious congenital disease. So if you’re the praying type, please send a prayer up to our God for his family.
I know I didn’t post on jobs yet. I’m sorry.
And to those of you waiting on emails from me, I’m sorry. I’m thinking of you all the time. I’m just not writing lots. It’s hard to be super-super regular on those too. I hope this blog will satiate you until I get to it. I hope I make good use of this weekend for that, but don’t hate me if I don’t.
BTW what happened to the Oilers? I’m still following them over here (of course) and I hope they get back to reality. Bold prediction 1: they’ll make the playoffs.
Seems I was better at updating the blog earlier in the trip, huh? I blame school. I regularly study 4 hours a day on weekdays. (on top of 4.5hours of classes). Maybe it doesn’t sound like too much for you grad/professional school types (I’m especially looking at my med school and optometry school friends) but it’s still a lot and it means I don’t sit down to BS on my blog as often.
Okay, so that’s the biggest thing that’s eating my time in Egypt. The course goes by fast and there’s lots to learn, and since the course is everyday, you have work to prep for the next lecture every day, plus homework. Okay so I’m just whining. This is just a warm-up for my own grad school experience, but I think there’s something about spending most of your time not understanding most of the words that you hear that makes it difficult.
Weather is usually decent, but sometimes up and down. The down happens when we have sand storms. I guess it was bad enough that one of you from Canada heard about it from somewhere. Yeah the sand storm sucked. That one last week was like the 3rd one we had. It must have been bad to get on your news (implied from your comment). It's been gone for a couple days, though today another light one started. It's hard to breathe, there's no sun and every thing gets covered in dust. But oh well, everywhere has it's version of bad weather, and our season for this is ending soon.
What else? I must admit I’ve really lost a lot of energy to be pure Egyptian. The western me has crept back in and resumed his place in my mind and heart. I think there are a number of reasons.
First: being at school. I now interact with a bunch of westerners, and if you ever went to school (which you all did) you know that you don’t spend all of your non class time working on your classwork, so that most of my chatting with new friends is in English (which everyone speaks, even though not everyone is native English speaking; not even the majority.) On that note, I went to a party last weekend, thrown by a roommate of one the guys in my class. It was his (the roommate’s) birthday. The party was really weird, really fun. It was weird in that except for the “Fool” and “Ta3maya” on the table along with all the other party food, you could have been in any house party in Canada (or, more likely, Germany, given that many of the people there were German). It was pretty sweet, it was the most western thing I’ve done since I got there. And indeed once you get sucked in, get given a taste of westernism, it’s easy to slip back into it. And it’s happened to me.
Second: loss of purpose. I think I’ve lost some of my feeling of purpose in Egypt. I’m learning the language at the end of the trip, and I haven’t done anything so far that has told me, “this is, without a doubt, THE place where you belong.” So while it’s good, I have enjoyed it, and I could see returning with a more clear sense of purpose, there is currently an absence of purpose that seems to influence my attitude in the direction away from exerting a lot of effort to put myself out to experience more of Egypt.
Third: awareness of the end. I know I’m going home in about a month. And most of my free time (except on weekends) is spent studying. So it hardly seems worth it to throw a whole bunch of energy into efforts and relationships that will be ending very soon. This is most especially given that I’ve sort of experienced a pattern of relationships here. This city is big, and not having a car and a super clear idea of getting around (or just an absence of desire to expend the large amounts of energy it requires to get around if you don’t want to take cabs everywhere, which I don’t) means sometimes relationships are difficult. This is coupled with an absence of activities that people seem to do regularly as things they use to pass the time (e.g. play pool/go to sporting events), and my conversational skills just means it’s a bit challenging and for the above reasons, my energy isn’t up to it.
So how are you reading all this? Good? Bad? Ugly? Don’t worry about me. I’m okay.
By the way one of my good friends here (my family who came to Egypt knows him) has had a couple of serious medical incidents in his family – his dad was just diagnosed with acute leukemia and this just 2 weeks after his nephew with found to be having a very serious congenital disease. So if you’re the praying type, please send a prayer up to our God for his family.
I know I didn’t post on jobs yet. I’m sorry.
And to those of you waiting on emails from me, I’m sorry. I’m thinking of you all the time. I’m just not writing lots. It’s hard to be super-super regular on those too. I hope this blog will satiate you until I get to it. I hope I make good use of this weekend for that, but don’t hate me if I don’t.
BTW what happened to the Oilers? I’m still following them over here (of course) and I hope they get back to reality. Bold prediction 1: they’ll make the playoffs.
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Back to School
Hey folks,
Sorry it’s been so long. It seems whenever I sit down to write, I don’t have the energy or the time or the computer or something. Since these are the same excuses, I’ll chalk it up to energy, which if it were present, would let me work something out for the other two.
Okay, so what’s up? Here’s the news from here.
Weather is nice (I know it’s not so nice where most of you are, I hope it’s okay for the rest of you). This is much more what I expected (highs 22-27) and sunny. This is much better than the dust storm which we had last week (did I tell you about that? I don’t remember. It meant you couldn’t see much in the distance, and everything inside and out was covered with a layer of dust.
Okay, so I did start school last week, Monday to be exact. Sunday was placement testing, actually, then classes on Monday. There are 2 courses, Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (the language spoken on the streets, in the houses, on the non-formal media of Egypt) and Modern Standard Arabic, which is the universal written Arabic language, and is found in anything written, including newspapers, and anything formal, like news, government speeches, etc. I’ve been put in level 6 for ECA and level 4 for MSA. The MSA is what I studied at university, but ECA is what I’ve used since I got here, so ECA feels more comfortable since I’m so out of practice in the other, and also I didn’t take a lot of the grammar rules of MSA. Oh well, we’ll just do our best.
Actually, I think it will be good for the month anyways. I’ll reassess after a bit to see if I want to take another level next month. It will definitely improve my speaking and my vocabulary. And it’s a good reminder of what it’s like to be back in school (lectures and participation and homework) – all that good stuff that I haven’t done in just under 11 months but will be fully immersed into in 7.5 months. We have about 7 people in our ECA and 10 in MSA so they’re pretty standard.
It’s a funny little world, this institute. It only teaches Arabic, so all the people there are foreigners, and they come from all over the world, in all different levels. I don’t think you appreciate how multicultural Canada is until you come to a place like this. There are some parts of Cairo that are multicultural (e.g. Maadi) but mostly, when you see someone not-Egyptian, they stand out quite a bit, and it doesn’t happen all that frequently. So back to the institute, it’s like this weird little multicultural bubble swimming in a sea of Egyptians. It’s a lot like University in Canada (aside from the studying) in the ages, the attitudes and mostly the multiculturalism, again b/c (I get the feeling that) even University here doesn’t have the same diversity. BTW I like it, it’s a different feeling of acceptance, no one looks weird ‘cause everyone looks different.
So my schedule is Mon-Thurs, 9-2pm, (9-11: ECA; 11:30-2: MSA). After that it’s standard – homework and evening plans. I’m gonna see about continuing at the Hospital one day a week to work with a couple of the mentally handicapped people but it might tough, it might be busy with homework, gym, church and some social life (wow that makes me sound amazing self-centered. My only other excuse is I’m not a fan of the 1.5hr commute).
Okay so I really wanna post on job creation, the type of jobs you’ll find here and the economic situation of Egypt, but I’ve going to a church where one of my friends’ bands is playing tonight and I’ve never been there and I don’t really know how to get there and it’s far away, so I need to leave lots of time to make my way there (best compound run-on sentence ever!).
Another time.
Sorry it’s been so long. It seems whenever I sit down to write, I don’t have the energy or the time or the computer or something. Since these are the same excuses, I’ll chalk it up to energy, which if it were present, would let me work something out for the other two.
Okay, so what’s up? Here’s the news from here.
Weather is nice (I know it’s not so nice where most of you are, I hope it’s okay for the rest of you). This is much more what I expected (highs 22-27) and sunny. This is much better than the dust storm which we had last week (did I tell you about that? I don’t remember. It meant you couldn’t see much in the distance, and everything inside and out was covered with a layer of dust.
Okay, so I did start school last week, Monday to be exact. Sunday was placement testing, actually, then classes on Monday. There are 2 courses, Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (the language spoken on the streets, in the houses, on the non-formal media of Egypt) and Modern Standard Arabic, which is the universal written Arabic language, and is found in anything written, including newspapers, and anything formal, like news, government speeches, etc. I’ve been put in level 6 for ECA and level 4 for MSA. The MSA is what I studied at university, but ECA is what I’ve used since I got here, so ECA feels more comfortable since I’m so out of practice in the other, and also I didn’t take a lot of the grammar rules of MSA. Oh well, we’ll just do our best.
Actually, I think it will be good for the month anyways. I’ll reassess after a bit to see if I want to take another level next month. It will definitely improve my speaking and my vocabulary. And it’s a good reminder of what it’s like to be back in school (lectures and participation and homework) – all that good stuff that I haven’t done in just under 11 months but will be fully immersed into in 7.5 months. We have about 7 people in our ECA and 10 in MSA so they’re pretty standard.
It’s a funny little world, this institute. It only teaches Arabic, so all the people there are foreigners, and they come from all over the world, in all different levels. I don’t think you appreciate how multicultural Canada is until you come to a place like this. There are some parts of Cairo that are multicultural (e.g. Maadi) but mostly, when you see someone not-Egyptian, they stand out quite a bit, and it doesn’t happen all that frequently. So back to the institute, it’s like this weird little multicultural bubble swimming in a sea of Egyptians. It’s a lot like University in Canada (aside from the studying) in the ages, the attitudes and mostly the multiculturalism, again b/c (I get the feeling that) even University here doesn’t have the same diversity. BTW I like it, it’s a different feeling of acceptance, no one looks weird ‘cause everyone looks different.
So my schedule is Mon-Thurs, 9-2pm, (9-11: ECA; 11:30-2: MSA). After that it’s standard – homework and evening plans. I’m gonna see about continuing at the Hospital one day a week to work with a couple of the mentally handicapped people but it might tough, it might be busy with homework, gym, church and some social life (wow that makes me sound amazing self-centered. My only other excuse is I’m not a fan of the 1.5hr commute).
Okay so I really wanna post on job creation, the type of jobs you’ll find here and the economic situation of Egypt, but I’ve going to a church where one of my friends’ bands is playing tonight and I’ve never been there and I don’t really know how to get there and it’s far away, so I need to leave lots of time to make my way there (best compound run-on sentence ever!).
Another time.
Friday, February 24, 2006
Some thoughts
Yo.
Casey (ahem: Canada) stuck out. But no one here cares, because they don't even know that the winter olympics are on. Oh well. I saw the last 13min of the 3rd period. Sadness. But oh well. It's hard to be broken up about it when no one else is. And we're doing well elsewhere, so good for us and good for the atheletes that get greater spoltlight now that the people who usually get the spotlight 8 months of the year (NHLers) no longer have it for a couple days.
Actually watching the olympics is fun. You guys take it for granted. I only get it in German from the satelite. But I enjoy it. Especially speed skating, 'cause they talk about the Cindy Klassen.
What else? You know why they don't have winter olympics here? Here's why: Today was a high of 25C. Yes, that's right. Tomorrow about 31C. I'm going to Alexandria again, this time on the train. Should be fun. But back to today. 25, sunny, not much breeze in the afternoon. I'm walking in a golf shirt, khaki's, and a full backpack. I've been walking for about half an hour. So I'm sweating lightly. Lo and behold, here passes this guy wearing...long pants, turtleneck, medium wool coat, and toque. I'm not kidding you. It was wild.
What else? Bird flew. Birds fly all the time, what's the big deal. No, bird flu. Oh, I see. It's big news here. But I haven't died yet. I don't think it's a huge concern. But stuff like the aquarium was closed today (I wanted to go) and indeed closed for the next ten days. I don't know why, but I think it's related.
I had lots of random thoughts but I forgot them, it seems. Oh here's another one. This country runs on carbohydrates. Atkins would have had a heart attack if he saw how much carbs they eat (oh wait, didn't he have a heart attack?) Anyways, it's a bit sick, to be honest, you can have like 3 starches in a meal. And you don't find a lot of fresh crisp vegetables. Though I was all like, 'Okay, I'll be fine eating whatever and I can throw my died out the window when I get here,' I'm hurting a bit. Seriously craving crispy vegetables. Not like they don't exist, it's just not regular. And most people I talk to say you can't eat salad from anywhere in the street, (i.e. anywhere not at home) except very few restaurants that you know and can trust. So for a salad guy like me, I'm hurting b/c of it. And it's not a taste thing, I'm doing fine with the tastes too. (For those of you who don't know my diet, I'm not a vegetarian or anything - I love meat and I'm not an Atkins either).
Okay. Enough complaining. I have registration and placement testing on Sunday for Arabic class, and classes start Monday. We'll see how it goes. Bye Bye.
Casey (ahem: Canada) stuck out. But no one here cares, because they don't even know that the winter olympics are on. Oh well. I saw the last 13min of the 3rd period. Sadness. But oh well. It's hard to be broken up about it when no one else is. And we're doing well elsewhere, so good for us and good for the atheletes that get greater spoltlight now that the people who usually get the spotlight 8 months of the year (NHLers) no longer have it for a couple days.
Actually watching the olympics is fun. You guys take it for granted. I only get it in German from the satelite. But I enjoy it. Especially speed skating, 'cause they talk about the Cindy Klassen.
What else? You know why they don't have winter olympics here? Here's why: Today was a high of 25C. Yes, that's right. Tomorrow about 31C. I'm going to Alexandria again, this time on the train. Should be fun. But back to today. 25, sunny, not much breeze in the afternoon. I'm walking in a golf shirt, khaki's, and a full backpack. I've been walking for about half an hour. So I'm sweating lightly. Lo and behold, here passes this guy wearing...long pants, turtleneck, medium wool coat, and toque. I'm not kidding you. It was wild.
What else? Bird flew. Birds fly all the time, what's the big deal. No, bird flu. Oh, I see. It's big news here. But I haven't died yet. I don't think it's a huge concern. But stuff like the aquarium was closed today (I wanted to go) and indeed closed for the next ten days. I don't know why, but I think it's related.
I had lots of random thoughts but I forgot them, it seems. Oh here's another one. This country runs on carbohydrates. Atkins would have had a heart attack if he saw how much carbs they eat (oh wait, didn't he have a heart attack?) Anyways, it's a bit sick, to be honest, you can have like 3 starches in a meal. And you don't find a lot of fresh crisp vegetables. Though I was all like, 'Okay, I'll be fine eating whatever and I can throw my died out the window when I get here,' I'm hurting a bit. Seriously craving crispy vegetables. Not like they don't exist, it's just not regular. And most people I talk to say you can't eat salad from anywhere in the street, (i.e. anywhere not at home) except very few restaurants that you know and can trust. So for a salad guy like me, I'm hurting b/c of it. And it's not a taste thing, I'm doing fine with the tastes too. (For those of you who don't know my diet, I'm not a vegetarian or anything - I love meat and I'm not an Atkins either).
Okay. Enough complaining. I have registration and placement testing on Sunday for Arabic class, and classes start Monday. We'll see how it goes. Bye Bye.
Saturday, February 11, 2006
A couple of pics
I know you're just dying to see what I look like in the Middle East...you can imagine it's really different.
Okay, to appease you, here are two pictures...
I don't know how they'll come out, so this is a trial for size and embedding and such. Plus I'm tired and want to go home.
The pics are:
Me, with a background of Jordan, and Israel beyond. This is Mount Nebo where God showed Moses the promised land before he died (see Deut 34. We couldn't see quite as far as Moses did 'cause it wasn't super clear, it was a bit hazy.
Me with friends at the football match. BTW Egypt won the championship yesterday and it was total mayhem, and very exciting.
Random (?) Song Lyrics
Here are the Lyrics of a fun song by Hawk Nelson:
Title: California
Album: Letters to the President
I’m not falling for anymore of these tricks
I’m so tired of everything here
This sun is calling me to the west
Everyone’s having fun out there
My bags are packed as I’m looking out the window
Everything is so outdated here
I wanna move west to where the sun is shinning
I want my friends to all be there
Let’s pack up and move to California
She’s got lots of friends out there
We’ll never get bored cause we can go boardin’
Let’s let the sunshine take us there
I’m tired of taking it slow
So tired but I’m not sleeping
I’m wired about to pick up my board
Cause we’re all heading out for the weekend
Let’s pack up and move to California
Hop on board before we get older
Raise your hands and shout for California
Come on, come on, come in, come on
Let’s pack up and move to California
She’s got lots of friends out there
We’ll never get bored cause we can go boardin’
Let’s let the sunshine take us there
Come on, come on, come on, come on
Let’s pack up and move to California
She’s got lots of friends out there
We’ll never get bored cause we can go boardin’
Let’s let the sunshine take us there
Let’s pack up and move to California
She’s got lots of friends out there
We’ll never get bored cause we can go boardin’
Let’s let the sunshine take us there
Let’s pack up and move to California
Hop on board before we get older
Raise your hands we’re heading for the border
Come on, come on, come on, come on
Title: California
Album: Letters to the President
I’m not falling for anymore of these tricks
I’m so tired of everything here
This sun is calling me to the west
Everyone’s having fun out there
My bags are packed as I’m looking out the window
Everything is so outdated here
I wanna move west to where the sun is shinning
I want my friends to all be there
Let’s pack up and move to California
She’s got lots of friends out there
We’ll never get bored cause we can go boardin’
Let’s let the sunshine take us there
I’m tired of taking it slow
So tired but I’m not sleeping
I’m wired about to pick up my board
Cause we’re all heading out for the weekend
Let’s pack up and move to California
Hop on board before we get older
Raise your hands and shout for California
Come on, come on, come in, come on
Let’s pack up and move to California
She’s got lots of friends out there
We’ll never get bored cause we can go boardin’
Let’s let the sunshine take us there
Come on, come on, come on, come on
Let’s pack up and move to California
She’s got lots of friends out there
We’ll never get bored cause we can go boardin’
Let’s let the sunshine take us there
Let’s pack up and move to California
She’s got lots of friends out there
We’ll never get bored cause we can go boardin’
Let’s let the sunshine take us there
Let’s pack up and move to California
Hop on board before we get older
Raise your hands we’re heading for the border
Come on, come on, come on, come on
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go
The Metro, as promised. And other modes of transportation. I’ll do this by describing my trip to work/volunteering. So I leave my building and walk about 5 minutes to a major street that intersects perpendicular to my street so I can take the bus (whatever your picture is, my guess is that it’s wrong) to the underground train. I stand on the corner and wait until a bus looks to be turning right. I then wave to the guy who’s standing out the bottom step, leaning out the door and calling out the bus’s direction (Giza). If he waves me, I get on the bus, which may or may not come to a complete stop. I may or (much, much more likely) may not have a seat, and I may stand in the entranceway and hang on to whatever I can. (Don’t tell my aunt that I climb into moving buses and stand on the entrance. To my grandparents, don’t worry, I’m never hanging outside the bus, the guy who calls the direction is always outside of me.) I ride the bus 10 minutes to the end of the bridge over the street where you can find the Metro Station. The bus ride cost’s me 50 ersh (there are 100 ersh in a gineh). Since you can buy about 4.8 gineh for 1CAD, I’m looking at about 12 cents for my bus ride.
After getting off the bus, I walk 5 minutes to the Metro Station, and a buy a ticket for the Metro. Any ride on the Metro is worth 75ersh. I ride that line for just two stations to a major station, then switch trains at Tahreer. I then ride this line to either of the two places I volunteer. The psychiatric hospital is at the very end of the line, so it’s about 45 min on the train from Tahreer. The school for kids with learning disabilities is closer, about 25 min from Tahreer. From either station I walk to my place of work (10 min to the hospital, 15 minutes from the school. On the way home, I do it in reverse. So the total cost of my trip is 2.50 gineh (or just over 50cents Canadian). And it takes me 1.5 hours to the hospital, 1hr 10 min to the school. So as you can see, I have lots of time to think. I also now carry a book, so that I can read it while I’m on the train, if I’m fortunate enough to get a seat (not super likely until the end of the line, and only in the morning), or if I’m fortunate enough to be in an empty enough car that standing with a bit of room to lean on something and read is possible.
So that’s my commute. Let me just conclude it by saying this…How many of you see goats on your way to work/school?
After getting off the bus, I walk 5 minutes to the Metro Station, and a buy a ticket for the Metro. Any ride on the Metro is worth 75ersh. I ride that line for just two stations to a major station, then switch trains at Tahreer. I then ride this line to either of the two places I volunteer. The psychiatric hospital is at the very end of the line, so it’s about 45 min on the train from Tahreer. The school for kids with learning disabilities is closer, about 25 min from Tahreer. From either station I walk to my place of work (10 min to the hospital, 15 minutes from the school. On the way home, I do it in reverse. So the total cost of my trip is 2.50 gineh (or just over 50cents Canadian). And it takes me 1.5 hours to the hospital, 1hr 10 min to the school. So as you can see, I have lots of time to think. I also now carry a book, so that I can read it while I’m on the train, if I’m fortunate enough to get a seat (not super likely until the end of the line, and only in the morning), or if I’m fortunate enough to be in an empty enough car that standing with a bit of room to lean on something and read is possible.
So that’s my commute. Let me just conclude it by saying this…How many of you see goats on your way to work/school?
I spy, with my little eye...
I realized something yesterday, while thinking about what I might write about. I have a lot of time to think during the day, as you will soon learn. One thing I realized is that I have neglected one of the most important discussions, that of the everyday visual. That may be in part because it’s so obvious to you that you see with your physical eyes what you see, so why would you need to tell anyone about the ordinary view. Your thoughts are obviously something that others aren’t privy to, and from a visual sense, only when something spectacular enters your field of view do you consider it noteworthy to share. But you don’t see what I see.
What do I see? If you could describe Cairo in two words, they would be “big” and “brown.” Big. Of course the city is big, in a square area. It has to be, to hold the some 20 million it does (don’t quote me on that number, I hear lots of different numbers from different people). But what else is big? The buildings are. In this I mean that the majority of buildings are apartments, ranging from 5-12 stories high. And brown. All the buildings are brown, if they were originally made of stone, or reddish-gray if originally brick. This is because of the dust. This is a very dusty city. (A brief gross interlude: I learned that mucus and nose hair both have very useful filtering purposes. Now, when I blow my nose, I find that there is lots of grey in the Kleenex, because it is a collection of filtered dust and pollution.) As I was saying, all the buildings are the same color, a dirty, dusty light-ish brown.
There is a conspicuous absence of space and color. There are a few trees, but they do not dominate the landscape to say the least. Those trees that do persist are often quite dusty, and they don’t have a strong and healthy appearance. But of course, I’m painting a broad picture with a broad brush. It is more correct to distinguish between regions. The richer the area, the more trees, the lower the buildings, the more color, the greater the space. The poorer areas are more grey and brown and devoid of trees and color. I work in both types of places, and you can really feel the difference.
Then…the people. How to describe? Moustaches aren’t quite as out of fashion here as they are there, so you find lots of men with them. Most people look Middle Eastern, but there is a range of light/dark. Still, you don’t see many foreigners at all, except in certain places. Men dress conservatively, either button shirts and slacks, or galabayya’s (I don’t know the proper spelling). A galabayya is basically like a nightgown. It’s more common for older men and people from Upper Egypt. The galabayya is often accessorized by a scarf wrapped around the head. And it’s still winter, so for everyone sweaters and (regular) scarves are common. (This is a guess, but) about 70% of the women (i.e. females above say 15) wear veils of some type. These come in a variety of shapes and styles. This percentage also varies by region, with some regions having a higher percentage of Christians/Muslims, or varying by conservatism. When you consider that this 70% of women includes 20% Christian, the figure comes closer to 85% of Muslim women are veiled (again, this just by my estimation).
I can’t put a percentage on it, but a very small but present population is fully veiled, exposing only eyes or not at all. And almost always she is wearing all black. This was one of the biggest culture shocks for me when I first came, but I’m fairly used to it now. It’s still weird to see a fully veiled woman when she’s walking with her regularly dressed husband, and they are talking or shopping or doing anything normal that couples do. It’s weird because 2/3 of equation (the activity and the husband) looks totally normal to me, and the other 1/3 seems out of place. But, like most things, I’m getting used to it. I expect some visual reverse culture shock upon coming home.
Okay so that’s just a bit on what you see here.
What do I see? If you could describe Cairo in two words, they would be “big” and “brown.” Big. Of course the city is big, in a square area. It has to be, to hold the some 20 million it does (don’t quote me on that number, I hear lots of different numbers from different people). But what else is big? The buildings are. In this I mean that the majority of buildings are apartments, ranging from 5-12 stories high. And brown. All the buildings are brown, if they were originally made of stone, or reddish-gray if originally brick. This is because of the dust. This is a very dusty city. (A brief gross interlude: I learned that mucus and nose hair both have very useful filtering purposes. Now, when I blow my nose, I find that there is lots of grey in the Kleenex, because it is a collection of filtered dust and pollution.) As I was saying, all the buildings are the same color, a dirty, dusty light-ish brown.
There is a conspicuous absence of space and color. There are a few trees, but they do not dominate the landscape to say the least. Those trees that do persist are often quite dusty, and they don’t have a strong and healthy appearance. But of course, I’m painting a broad picture with a broad brush. It is more correct to distinguish between regions. The richer the area, the more trees, the lower the buildings, the more color, the greater the space. The poorer areas are more grey and brown and devoid of trees and color. I work in both types of places, and you can really feel the difference.
Then…the people. How to describe? Moustaches aren’t quite as out of fashion here as they are there, so you find lots of men with them. Most people look Middle Eastern, but there is a range of light/dark. Still, you don’t see many foreigners at all, except in certain places. Men dress conservatively, either button shirts and slacks, or galabayya’s (I don’t know the proper spelling). A galabayya is basically like a nightgown. It’s more common for older men and people from Upper Egypt. The galabayya is often accessorized by a scarf wrapped around the head. And it’s still winter, so for everyone sweaters and (regular) scarves are common. (This is a guess, but) about 70% of the women (i.e. females above say 15) wear veils of some type. These come in a variety of shapes and styles. This percentage also varies by region, with some regions having a higher percentage of Christians/Muslims, or varying by conservatism. When you consider that this 70% of women includes 20% Christian, the figure comes closer to 85% of Muslim women are veiled (again, this just by my estimation).
I can’t put a percentage on it, but a very small but present population is fully veiled, exposing only eyes or not at all. And almost always she is wearing all black. This was one of the biggest culture shocks for me when I first came, but I’m fairly used to it now. It’s still weird to see a fully veiled woman when she’s walking with her regularly dressed husband, and they are talking or shopping or doing anything normal that couples do. It’s weird because 2/3 of equation (the activity and the husband) looks totally normal to me, and the other 1/3 seems out of place. But, like most things, I’m getting used to it. I expect some visual reverse culture shock upon coming home.
Okay so that’s just a bit on what you see here.
Monday, February 06, 2006
On Media, Matches (and Metro next time)
So…sorry it’s been too long. What do you want to know? I guess until I guess a response for that question, you’ll learn whatever I talk about. I’m always hurting for time to type, ‘cause I have lots to say. But I’ve only got so much time and computer access. So here’s what I got for now.
Media. So I know it’s somewhat inappropriate in certain circles to discuss the musical, moral and lyrical prowess of America’s own Marshall Mathers from a positive point of view, but, given my safe distance from the majority of my readers, I’ll dive in.
I saw the video for “When I’m Gone” a couple nights ago. Since I don’t know how modern the Arabic music station is, pardon me if I’m out of touch and this song is old. Nevertheless, though I only saw maybe 2/3 of it, missing the beginning, I have to say it’s an all around grand production. First of all, the song is great…nice music, classic talented beats and beautiful rhyme scheme as per the known talent of Eminem. Furthermore, the lyrics are great, exploring the relationship of father and daughter, father and wife, and musical demands. The video itself is good, putting forth the group setting and integrating his daughter and her lip-syncing for the parts designed to be her speaking. You gotta think it did something to me to write about it given what I just said about time, and given it’s not all that different from what I get at home, as opposed to riding the bus here (consider that a teaser till next time).
What else? I saw about 20 minutes of the beginning-middle of a movie called Julian Po. Did anyone see (even hear of) this movie? It looked good, it looked intriguing in its story and the commentary it made on people. Now you know what kinds of movies I like. I think I’ll try to see it sometime.
Matches. Just another example of the difficulty of language. Did you think I was talking about the little wooden things you strike to make fire, or about the noun to describe a sporting contest? FYI I was referring to the latter.
Since the middle of January, the African Football (read: Soccer) Championship has been going on, and Egypt is the host country. The city has been fairly nuts about the whole thing, whenever Egypt plays it is a big event. It’s been magnified by the fact that Egypt has been doing well. I finally made it out to a game last Friday, after trying (through friends) to get tickets. I owe Friday’s game to Kareem and his friend Dalia, and her brother Shady. Tix were not easy to come by, we paid twice their face value on the black market, though it’s not quite the same as scalping at the door.
It was quite an event. The tix are not assigned seating, only assigned by section according to the class of the ticket. Level 1 had the best seats (and is therefore the most expensive). There is level 2 and 3. We sat in level 3. Since there is no assigned seating, we had to get there early to hold good seats. We tried to get there early, but Kareem forgetting the tix on the way to picking us up, and one girl from our group hitting a child while driving (before meeting us) and giving him a broken leg (so we all went to meet her at the hospital) meant we didn’t get there that early. In fact, our friends (the larger group) were having a hard time saving us our good seats. So we only made it by like 2:30. For the 7:00pm match. Imagine! The plan was more like 12:00. It was nuts. They showed the other quarterfinal that day, which was playing in Alexandria, on the big screen. It was from 3:00-5:00pm. Which still leaves a lot of time for free time. This time was spent singing songs and yelling and clapping. It was an experience. I was tired before the match started.
Actually, Egyptians are a loud, fun, sing-y, type of people, in the right situations. I am reminded also about the retreat I went on. During the sports, everyone (and mostly, especially the girls) shouted/sang about the group, and whenever one of the players did something well, they would sing about them. Actually, it’s fun to be sung about. They’re not like complicated songs or anything, and definitely more of a shout/cheer than anything, but enjoyable nonetheless.
For the match, the whole stadium was clothed in Red, White and Black (the colors of the flag if you didn’t guess). It was pretty spectacular. And you’ve never seen so many flags. We had at least 4 good productions of the wave. And Egypt won handily, 4-1, which made it all the better. But for me, it was too long a day (i.e. I’m not going to any other matches – the semi-final is tomorrow, and the final on Friday). Still, I’m glad for the event.
Media. So I know it’s somewhat inappropriate in certain circles to discuss the musical, moral and lyrical prowess of America’s own Marshall Mathers from a positive point of view, but, given my safe distance from the majority of my readers, I’ll dive in.
I saw the video for “When I’m Gone” a couple nights ago. Since I don’t know how modern the Arabic music station is, pardon me if I’m out of touch and this song is old. Nevertheless, though I only saw maybe 2/3 of it, missing the beginning, I have to say it’s an all around grand production. First of all, the song is great…nice music, classic talented beats and beautiful rhyme scheme as per the known talent of Eminem. Furthermore, the lyrics are great, exploring the relationship of father and daughter, father and wife, and musical demands. The video itself is good, putting forth the group setting and integrating his daughter and her lip-syncing for the parts designed to be her speaking. You gotta think it did something to me to write about it given what I just said about time, and given it’s not all that different from what I get at home, as opposed to riding the bus here (consider that a teaser till next time).
What else? I saw about 20 minutes of the beginning-middle of a movie called Julian Po. Did anyone see (even hear of) this movie? It looked good, it looked intriguing in its story and the commentary it made on people. Now you know what kinds of movies I like. I think I’ll try to see it sometime.
Matches. Just another example of the difficulty of language. Did you think I was talking about the little wooden things you strike to make fire, or about the noun to describe a sporting contest? FYI I was referring to the latter.
Since the middle of January, the African Football (read: Soccer) Championship has been going on, and Egypt is the host country. The city has been fairly nuts about the whole thing, whenever Egypt plays it is a big event. It’s been magnified by the fact that Egypt has been doing well. I finally made it out to a game last Friday, after trying (through friends) to get tickets. I owe Friday’s game to Kareem and his friend Dalia, and her brother Shady. Tix were not easy to come by, we paid twice their face value on the black market, though it’s not quite the same as scalping at the door.
It was quite an event. The tix are not assigned seating, only assigned by section according to the class of the ticket. Level 1 had the best seats (and is therefore the most expensive). There is level 2 and 3. We sat in level 3. Since there is no assigned seating, we had to get there early to hold good seats. We tried to get there early, but Kareem forgetting the tix on the way to picking us up, and one girl from our group hitting a child while driving (before meeting us) and giving him a broken leg (so we all went to meet her at the hospital) meant we didn’t get there that early. In fact, our friends (the larger group) were having a hard time saving us our good seats. So we only made it by like 2:30. For the 7:00pm match. Imagine! The plan was more like 12:00. It was nuts. They showed the other quarterfinal that day, which was playing in Alexandria, on the big screen. It was from 3:00-5:00pm. Which still leaves a lot of time for free time. This time was spent singing songs and yelling and clapping. It was an experience. I was tired before the match started.
Actually, Egyptians are a loud, fun, sing-y, type of people, in the right situations. I am reminded also about the retreat I went on. During the sports, everyone (and mostly, especially the girls) shouted/sang about the group, and whenever one of the players did something well, they would sing about them. Actually, it’s fun to be sung about. They’re not like complicated songs or anything, and definitely more of a shout/cheer than anything, but enjoyable nonetheless.
For the match, the whole stadium was clothed in Red, White and Black (the colors of the flag if you didn’t guess). It was pretty spectacular. And you’ve never seen so many flags. We had at least 4 good productions of the wave. And Egypt won handily, 4-1, which made it all the better. But for me, it was too long a day (i.e. I’m not going to any other matches – the semi-final is tomorrow, and the final on Friday). Still, I’m glad for the event.
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Ode to Akhuya
“Ode to Akhuya”
Akhuya in Arabic means “my brother”. And since today, Jan 29 is my brother’s birthday, I want everyone in the world to know how wonderful he is. So happy birthday Simon! You are fantastic – as a person, as a brother, and (for all those ladies out there) I’m sure you’ll one day be a fantastic husband too :)
So welcome to geezer-hood, you old 21 year-old. Know that I and lots others and God all love you. But of all those people who love you, I love you fourth! (honestly, probably God, Mom and Dad, are all ahead of me, so fourth is pretty good).
Akhuk (your brother),
Adam
Akhuya in Arabic means “my brother”. And since today, Jan 29 is my brother’s birthday, I want everyone in the world to know how wonderful he is. So happy birthday Simon! You are fantastic – as a person, as a brother, and (for all those ladies out there) I’m sure you’ll one day be a fantastic husband too :)
So welcome to geezer-hood, you old 21 year-old. Know that I and lots others and God all love you. But of all those people who love you, I love you fourth! (honestly, probably God, Mom and Dad, are all ahead of me, so fourth is pretty good).
Akhuk (your brother),
Adam
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Comment on my comments (and your potential) 2
Okay, this type I'll copy and paste properly.
And I realized this...the starting things are lower down, so don't start here, start at the post lower down called...I forget...the one more recent than Going, going, going.
The only other thing I want to say today, comes from a sentence or two I put in the last post. It goes something like this. Yes, things I write are neat and weird and different. But, on some level, I’m not living a really different life, I’m just having an opportunity to look at things a little differently, then talk about it. Yes, I write for your enjoyment and entertainment along with an interest to convey culture. You’re also feeling the part of me that is a bit of an exhibitionist, as I shine the spotlight on myself at the same time as I do the whole culture and experience. But the point is that indeed, were any one of you to actually hold a candle to your own life, analyze, question, and document it, it would be of the same interest and value. And if you think that all you live is the same as everyone, and there’s no way to experience a different culture where you are, then I think you are subjecting yourself (by choice or by default, an even worse way to live) a very narrow range of experiences. Because even those living in Edmonton, if they wanted, could spend a good deal of their free time with people who live a whole different type of life. So, yes, enjoy my stories. Enjoy the differences. Learn from what I say. But don’t think that what I’m doing is not possible from where you are. And if you like it, find it enlightening, enjoyable, whatever, then use this as inspiration to start re-examining your life, the life of people around you and, put yourself in a different culture in the area you live if you need to be stimulated in that way.
(If you’re stuck for where to find a different culture, I think the easiest thing to do is hit up the inner city. When I was working downtown, I learned that you can, without even trying to, by not ignoring people in the place they are, and not being so busy that don’t have time to accept an invitation to a rooming house, or carry a drunk on the way out of your office, meet a whole different world than the college/university educated semi-affluent, good-looking, socially supported collection of people that predominate my circle, and perhaps yours.)
And I realized this...the starting things are lower down, so don't start here, start at the post lower down called...I forget...the one more recent than Going, going, going.
The only other thing I want to say today, comes from a sentence or two I put in the last post. It goes something like this. Yes, things I write are neat and weird and different. But, on some level, I’m not living a really different life, I’m just having an opportunity to look at things a little differently, then talk about it. Yes, I write for your enjoyment and entertainment along with an interest to convey culture. You’re also feeling the part of me that is a bit of an exhibitionist, as I shine the spotlight on myself at the same time as I do the whole culture and experience. But the point is that indeed, were any one of you to actually hold a candle to your own life, analyze, question, and document it, it would be of the same interest and value. And if you think that all you live is the same as everyone, and there’s no way to experience a different culture where you are, then I think you are subjecting yourself (by choice or by default, an even worse way to live) a very narrow range of experiences. Because even those living in Edmonton, if they wanted, could spend a good deal of their free time with people who live a whole different type of life. So, yes, enjoy my stories. Enjoy the differences. Learn from what I say. But don’t think that what I’m doing is not possible from where you are. And if you like it, find it enlightening, enjoyable, whatever, then use this as inspiration to start re-examining your life, the life of people around you and, put yourself in a different culture in the area you live if you need to be stimulated in that way.
(If you’re stuck for where to find a different culture, I think the easiest thing to do is hit up the inner city. When I was working downtown, I learned that you can, without even trying to, by not ignoring people in the place they are, and not being so busy that don’t have time to accept an invitation to a rooming house, or carry a drunk on the way out of your office, meet a whole different world than the college/university educated semi-affluent, good-looking, socially supported collection of people that predominate my circle, and perhaps yours.)
Conference...relationships continue, and now add girls!
Okay, now girls. Here, at the retreat, it was more like at home (i.e. Canada), but you could tell it is more conservative. This might be a bit more useful if I had in the past described the conservatism of Egypt in the first place, but I haven’t so bear with me. In general, guys hang out with guys, girls with girls, if there is no specific activity. Similarly, during the service, for the most part, guys sit with guys and so on. Meals were a little more integrated. During activities sports, the whole conference was divided into six units who you stayed with, and accumulated points (my unit won!!), and here there was a little more interaction still. The most interaction came during less sporty-type games, the sports tended to be male-dominant, especially soccer (which of course is the biggest sport, just like the rest of the world). Still, by Egyptian standards, actually, the interaction between the genders is very open. It is socially acceptable for me to go up to a girl, introduce myself and strike up a conversation with her. This is not at all appropriate just in the street or at work or anything like that.
(It should be noted that I didn’t go strike up a bunch of conversations with girls before I knew them, for a number of reasons: I was still learning what was and was not appropriate, and, just because it’s okay, doesn’t mean it’s really the norm [i.e. it still felt like it would have been a bit weird, given the feeling of some segregation] plus it’s not like my conversation skills are great, and I still had lots of opportunities by being introduced when people were in a group and in meeting my sports unit).
To continue, actually it was really nice to meet and visit with girls. We all know that there is a time when people of the opposite gender are icky, but once that has passed (and I think it’s more or less passed in me), I don’t think guys do well without knowing girls and interacting with them socially. So I think this culture would be difficult for single guys, given its cultural restrictions on the interactions. That statement most heavily applies to people outside the evangelical church.
[Sorry, I’m finding it difficult to accurately portray the picture here, but bear with me. By the end of my months of rambling, you’ll probably eventually get it, as the sum of my interactions].
(It should be noted that I didn’t go strike up a bunch of conversations with girls before I knew them, for a number of reasons: I was still learning what was and was not appropriate, and, just because it’s okay, doesn’t mean it’s really the norm [i.e. it still felt like it would have been a bit weird, given the feeling of some segregation] plus it’s not like my conversation skills are great, and I still had lots of opportunities by being introduced when people were in a group and in meeting my sports unit).
To continue, actually it was really nice to meet and visit with girls. We all know that there is a time when people of the opposite gender are icky, but once that has passed (and I think it’s more or less passed in me), I don’t think guys do well without knowing girls and interacting with them socially. So I think this culture would be difficult for single guys, given its cultural restrictions on the interactions. That statement most heavily applies to people outside the evangelical church.
[Sorry, I’m finding it difficult to accurately portray the picture here, but bear with me. By the end of my months of rambling, you’ll probably eventually get it, as the sum of my interactions].
Conference... commentary on relationships begins
Secondly, new people: I met probably over ½ the people at the conference. Which is a lot, when you’re working with either brand new names (like Fady, or Methat etc), or common names (only among Christians), like 3 Peter’s and 3 Michael’s etc. Meeting new people, making friends here is different than back home. One of the guys in my group described it like this, putting explicit awareness and words to the experience: “When I first met you, and we shook hands, it was different than when you shake hands with an Egyptian. I felt as though you were looking for something else, something more. [I felt there was a bit of a negative connotation in his voice here, though it wasn’t harsh]. To you, we weren’t friends yet. In Egypt, all that is required to start a relationship is a handshake. In Canada [and elsewhere, obviously], it seems that takes more than just a handshake, something else has to happen; people have to do other things before there is a relationship.”
I felt this was an extremely interesting and important (and, to my experience, true) observation/description on his part. It really made me think about friendliness, openness, warmth, and relationships. So many people wanted to visit with me, in Arabic and English. Most people’s English is a bit better than my Arabic, but everyone is patient on both sides. I felt bad because I met so many people, and in a lot of cases, I felt like I was meant more to them than they did to me. In my case, I probably came out of the conference with maybe 12-15 people who I consider to have been important in a give/take type of relationship (which, in my opinion is a substantial number). However, I feel that more people than this were interested in a relationship with me. Even at the end as were getting ready, people wanted to exchange email addresses and phone numbers with me, and I couldn’t remember their names until they wrote them on the paper with their number. And similarly, I got a hug and kisses, words of affection (I love you so much) and praise (you are so nice, so very kind) from a guy whose name I didn’t (and to this point, don’t, remember.
So read my correctly on this. I’m not trying to puff myself up (everyone loved me) and I’m not trying to put others down (they weren’t worthy of my attention to remember their names). Obviously for all the mentioned reasons, I wasn’t going to know and remember everyone. And one new guy with a well known name is not hard to forget. But the openness, the “invitational-ness” the warmth, and the absence of any requirements or conditions on relationship was quite remarkable, and honorable.
For any of you who know Millwoods Pentecostal Assembly, and their Sunday evening young adults ministry, you’ll recognize that what I’ve just described is one of their essential goals, and one of the key points of former pastor C.S. Weirsma (I’m assuming it will continue to be a focus, but I haven’t seen much of their new look since C.S. left). To be honest, it’s a neat congruence, because it’s basically exactly the way he put it. If you’re interested in them, you can hit up www.the-project.ca for more info.
But I digress. So it was good on a relationship level. It should be noted that this friendliness is to a very large degree an Egyptian trait, and not limited to the evangelical Christians, though I expect it was slightly increased given the specific group and the setting. But at a place where there would be significant discordance between evangelical Christians and Egyptian culture in general would be at the point where you introduce the opposite gender into the equation.
Before I do that, though, I should just mention that lots of people want to improve their English, and of course I want to learn Arabic. Every now and again, someone would offer that we meet regularly for 2 hours and devote an hour to each language.
I felt this was an extremely interesting and important (and, to my experience, true) observation/description on his part. It really made me think about friendliness, openness, warmth, and relationships. So many people wanted to visit with me, in Arabic and English. Most people’s English is a bit better than my Arabic, but everyone is patient on both sides. I felt bad because I met so many people, and in a lot of cases, I felt like I was meant more to them than they did to me. In my case, I probably came out of the conference with maybe 12-15 people who I consider to have been important in a give/take type of relationship (which, in my opinion is a substantial number). However, I feel that more people than this were interested in a relationship with me. Even at the end as were getting ready, people wanted to exchange email addresses and phone numbers with me, and I couldn’t remember their names until they wrote them on the paper with their number. And similarly, I got a hug and kisses, words of affection (I love you so much) and praise (you are so nice, so very kind) from a guy whose name I didn’t (and to this point, don’t, remember.
So read my correctly on this. I’m not trying to puff myself up (everyone loved me) and I’m not trying to put others down (they weren’t worthy of my attention to remember their names). Obviously for all the mentioned reasons, I wasn’t going to know and remember everyone. And one new guy with a well known name is not hard to forget. But the openness, the “invitational-ness” the warmth, and the absence of any requirements or conditions on relationship was quite remarkable, and honorable.
For any of you who know Millwoods Pentecostal Assembly, and their Sunday evening young adults ministry, you’ll recognize that what I’ve just described is one of their essential goals, and one of the key points of former pastor C.S. Weirsma (I’m assuming it will continue to be a focus, but I haven’t seen much of their new look since C.S. left). To be honest, it’s a neat congruence, because it’s basically exactly the way he put it. If you’re interested in them, you can hit up www.the-project.ca for more info.
But I digress. So it was good on a relationship level. It should be noted that this friendliness is to a very large degree an Egyptian trait, and not limited to the evangelical Christians, though I expect it was slightly increased given the specific group and the setting. But at a place where there would be significant discordance between evangelical Christians and Egyptian culture in general would be at the point where you introduce the opposite gender into the equation.
Before I do that, though, I should just mention that lots of people want to improve their English, and of course I want to learn Arabic. Every now and again, someone would offer that we meet regularly for 2 hours and devote an hour to each language.
Part 3 - Conference (To be cont.)
Then. Next is the retreat I just went on. It was in a nice area (translate, actually some trees, and a bit of grass b/c they water it, as opposed to desert only, though also a pool – but too cold, and a couple of playing asphalt/concrete playing surfaces) about 1-1.5hrs outside of Cairo, on the way to Alexandria. We arrived in the late afternoon on Tuesday night, and left early afternoon on Saturday. So it was a long retreat. But it was good. I am quite tired, owing to staying up late and waking up early.
In the midst of describing the retreat, I will continue my attempt to describe Egyptian culture to you…However, the caveat here is that we’re dealing with a distinct group of people here, evangelical Christians. So while they are still obviously Egyptians, their traits are not fully the same as orthodox Christians, or Muslims. I’ll try to distinguish where appropriate. So you’re aware, the percentage of Christians in Egypt is just under 20%, I think, which is the largest minority of Christians in the Middle East (to compare, for example, in Jordan you’re looking at 6%, and other countries, open practice of Christianity by nationals is forbidden. That means just over 80% Muslim in Egypt, and also, you should know that Coptic Orthodox entertains the majority of Christians in Egypt.
Okay, refocus. So the retreat. It was basically the same schedule each day: Wake up, breakfast, personal quiet time, worship service (worship+prayer, preaching, worship+prayer), free time, lunch, group games, worship service (as before), supper, free time, bed).
I went to the retreat with a group, in some sense. I mentioned that after church last week, I was invited to a small group the next day. So they, including their leader, were essentially the group I was with, and they held the responsibility/privilege? of showing me around. Besides knowing 7 or so people from the group, I also knew slightly more than 0 other of the 150 or more that were there. So there are two groups of people: People I know very poorly (my small group), and people I don’t know at all. These can be further sub-divided: people who speak lots of English, and people who speak some English.
So why spend all this time describing this? The reason is this. People were EXTREMELY friendly. I’m continuously relearning the concept of hospitality. Granted, I was the only foreigner there (until 2.5 days in, a girl, from Germany came with the people she was living with – she’s teaching their kids German). Still, you don’t know what it’s like. To be honest, it’s fantastic. However, I have to pause, to remember how difficult it was when I went to the church for the first time, because I didn’t know anyone. At that time, no one came up to me, I initiated it by walking up and saying, “hi, I’m new. After that, I stuck with (he stuck with me?) one of the people I introduced my self to. Perhaps it was less obvious that was I was new. Or perhaps less obvious that I wasn’t with or waiting for anyone else. I’m not sure what the difference was, though, as I said, once it was known that I was new at both times, it’s an experience.
First of all, my group. It consists of about 7 guys, plus a leader and sub-leader. Usually one of them would take me, lead me, guide me, instruct me. It was nice (and much appreciated) when I didn’t know what was happening, and downright generous when I did (such as when we were eating, and they’d get my dinner for me, and take my plate and etc.) And they introduced me to people.
In the midst of describing the retreat, I will continue my attempt to describe Egyptian culture to you…However, the caveat here is that we’re dealing with a distinct group of people here, evangelical Christians. So while they are still obviously Egyptians, their traits are not fully the same as orthodox Christians, or Muslims. I’ll try to distinguish where appropriate. So you’re aware, the percentage of Christians in Egypt is just under 20%, I think, which is the largest minority of Christians in the Middle East (to compare, for example, in Jordan you’re looking at 6%, and other countries, open practice of Christianity by nationals is forbidden. That means just over 80% Muslim in Egypt, and also, you should know that Coptic Orthodox entertains the majority of Christians in Egypt.
Okay, refocus. So the retreat. It was basically the same schedule each day: Wake up, breakfast, personal quiet time, worship service (worship+prayer, preaching, worship+prayer), free time, lunch, group games, worship service (as before), supper, free time, bed).
I went to the retreat with a group, in some sense. I mentioned that after church last week, I was invited to a small group the next day. So they, including their leader, were essentially the group I was with, and they held the responsibility/privilege? of showing me around. Besides knowing 7 or so people from the group, I also knew slightly more than 0 other of the 150 or more that were there. So there are two groups of people: People I know very poorly (my small group), and people I don’t know at all. These can be further sub-divided: people who speak lots of English, and people who speak some English.
So why spend all this time describing this? The reason is this. People were EXTREMELY friendly. I’m continuously relearning the concept of hospitality. Granted, I was the only foreigner there (until 2.5 days in, a girl, from Germany came with the people she was living with – she’s teaching their kids German). Still, you don’t know what it’s like. To be honest, it’s fantastic. However, I have to pause, to remember how difficult it was when I went to the church for the first time, because I didn’t know anyone. At that time, no one came up to me, I initiated it by walking up and saying, “hi, I’m new. After that, I stuck with (he stuck with me?) one of the people I introduced my self to. Perhaps it was less obvious that was I was new. Or perhaps less obvious that I wasn’t with or waiting for anyone else. I’m not sure what the difference was, though, as I said, once it was known that I was new at both times, it’s an experience.
First of all, my group. It consists of about 7 guys, plus a leader and sub-leader. Usually one of them would take me, lead me, guide me, instruct me. It was nice (and much appreciated) when I didn’t know what was happening, and downright generous when I did (such as when we were eating, and they’d get my dinner for me, and take my plate and etc.) And they introduced me to people.
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