Focus on Four for Friday

1. Rain in Egypt - Before we came, I read that the average precipitation is less than 2 inches PER YEAR and it happens between Dec and February. So not only did I survive the record-breaking rain fall last March (or was it May?) accompanied by the first hail in my lifetime here...but today...I survived the next record-breaking rain fall!

That's right! It POURED! I stopped into a small store looking for cream of chicken or celery soup (dying for homemade mac n cheese)...and I stepped inside...WHAM! 30 min of downpour! I'm from Michigan people, I'm saying DOWNPOUR! it would soak and bounce up (a phenomenon I forgot is normal in Michigan, raining "up" and "sideways") for 5 min, then drizzle solid for 5, back and forth for 30 min....during a drizzle I ran 1/2 block for a taxi.

THE SMELL WAS AND REMAINS GLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the smog I woke up to is COMPLETELY cleared away!!




Took my grocery delivery guys 45 min to get here...apologizing profusely but I told them I was glad they didn't get out!

(in case you feel my pain and hunger for mac n cheese, neither store had those soups...sigh.....)

The wet roads here - there's only one way to describe it - oil slick on top of ice! all that Nile Muck combined with oil that NEVER gets rinsed off...eeew! and plus most of the drivers panic in the rain - lol!!!

2. Dents and Smooshes. Smooches are what I give to chunky babies!! I'm talking about cans, boxes and bags. I realized today and snickered at how I don't make sure the chips or noodles are "solid" but I'm just THRILLED to find a bag available!! I also don't even look if a can is dented - I'm just THRILLED that I found 2 cans of red kidney beans ;) So everytime you are putting back a dented can that has a very slight chance of having a broken seal..think of my glee over that one can you're putting back...and you can chuckle too!! I only check for "pinholes" in the bags of stuff.

3. Sheepsie, Toast and eye-eesh. Toast is American-style bread, nothing meaty or beautiful, nothing worth bragging about. Eye-eesh is the local bread - sorta like a pita, but meatier - even Germans would be happy! Well, finally last week, I asked my Arabic teacher how to put a clear sentence together to get the pt that I want my toast and eye-eesh and chips in a bag to themselves and I want to carry it home!! sheeeepsie is "local" word for chips. Tortila is the local word for tortilla - in spanish, the double ll says "y". I did not make a spelling error, you spelling diva's! lol *so today the cashier tells the bagger in Arabic - she wants delivery to home of momma yasmeen, write that down, she wants 1 exchange of water Nestle only and she will want to carry her own chips, toast and eye-eesh. For some reason, not only did I find deep satisfaction in the "community" of being known..but I giggled....I had to lol outside of the store.

4. Languages My beloved B who is learning Hangul (Korean) can understand this and I am sure there are others who will as well..but sometimes I feel as if I'm having an out-of-body experience when I don't use English at all - the family is gone - I haven't spoken in English all morning since they left...even laughed and spoke to a woman about her baby....sometimes it's an out-of-body experience. The Arabic and Asian languages are just in a class of their own...it's truly - indescribable that it makes sense. Standing in the rain with 3 Egyptian families and kids, laughing, talking....really amazing!! Then there's the added aspect of reading "symbols" - right B? WOW! Watching Joshua read and understand just blows my mind..it's like he's not even "mine." He is actually faster at reading than me! If any of you have ever taught your children to read (love that I have had that priviledge w/ Joshua and now with Jasmine), you understand the pain our teacher is in when he works with Joshua and I with Arabic! LOL

Last week, we read a story about a racoon and a bear. It was cute! And truly outstanding!! So here my mom sits reading Karen Kingsbury Take 3 (she's on Take 4 now, btw) and we're next to her reading in Arabic - poor woman!

lol

Well, if you read my mumbled thoughts this far, I'm impressed! Those were four things my mind focused on when I felt like blogging..so there ya have it, folks!! Take care! STAY DRY AND WARM, MY N.E. USA FRIENDS AND FAMILY!