Back at Home, Ilhamdulillah salama.

We got back home and it is so great to be here. My mom met us at the airport, along with my Dad. It was so great to see the both of them. Then as an added bonus, my brother Alex, and sis in law Renee were here at our house to see us as well with- Tada, mexican food from a local joint, Don Luis. So good to be home.
Also, did I neglect to mention (yes.) That my baby girl turned One year old yesterday? Such a big girl, and she is walking, people. She look like she has had a few shots of Jager, but she walks . Right now both are still sleeping, but i am going to be sorting some laundry, starting a load up, YAY! I have a dryer again, and then waking the angels up. Jennah has her 1st birthday party this weekend at a Alex and Renees and I need to start planning the shindig.
So I am back. Much love to my baby bro who hooked me up with a brand spanking new wireless router yesterday before i came home. Now i can still use my new laptop to blog and stuff, in the manner i have become accustomed. Love ya , Bro. And Oh crap, thank you to my Dad for picking us up and to my mom- who should have gotten hazardous duty pay while cleaning my kitchen, and organizing it for me.... Apparently, I have some Fear Factor-style hissing cockroaches in my kitchen. (not any more, Thanks Mom.) She also spruced up the rest of the pad which was so nice to come back to.
I love you guys.

Copyright Infringement, Huh? pt.2, and Finally, for My Dad.

This ad was on a garbage can at the country club that we went to, part of Egypt's "corporate responsibility".....
How fast would Disney shut this place down and sue them if they were in the US? And don't over look the Baby Bugs Bunny and Tweety on there too. Somehow I don't think copyright infringement laws apply here.... This is the second type of sign I have seen like this, the first one was a handmade sign by Uncle Saids house on a light post that said "Disneyland Daycare" I don't think that one would fly either.











Now this is the piece d' resistance of my "Huh?" series. Yes, my series is weak, there was only two parts to it, but hey, what can I say? This is a menu for a place Amr Al Samman took Amr and I for something called Fattah, which is kinda like a burrito bowl or something. On the bottom layer of the bowl, there is deep fried pita squares, then the next layer is saffron infused basmati rice. After that, the next layer is meat, sliced into little pieces, usually from one of those rotisseries you see in Tijuana for the street tacos. (Sorry if you haven't been to TJ, I can't think of anything else to compare it to right now.) Then, you put a sauce made of garlic and mayonnaise on top of the mixture and chow down. It was pretty good.
Where is the funny you ask? Look closely at the menu. Don't bother clicking, if you scroll down I have enlarged it for you.









Here it is! Shawerma Fart. Obviously no one who works at that restaurant is familiar with American slang. If they were, I don't think they would have worded this quite this way. My brother in law Maged tells me that fart in Arabic means loose. This doesn't just apply to meat, it can apply to anything, change , beads from a broken necklace....that type of thing. In the actual Arabic language, it is written "frt" with an accent over one of the letters to make the "a" noise. Eh, I like the idea of a Shawerma Fart. As my mom asked me: "Is that the meal or the final result?"















And finally these last two pictures are basically for my Dad, and any other Harry Potter nerd out there. I took pictures of the Harry Potter books. They are in Arabic. I didn't get the translation on all of the books but the first. The first book is called (for those of you that aren't 8 years old or a Harry Potter geek like me, I am on the down low...) 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone'. In Arabic, the title is 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Rock'. How cool is that? And no, the books aren't backward on the shelf, Arabic is read right to left, so they are just right.

Dinner with Tant Nabila and family at the Country Club

OK, I know the title of this post is "Dinner with Tant Nabila and family at the country club" I did an absolutely crappy job getting any pictures. I didn't feel well AT ALL. I did get some sweet pictures of Jennah and one picture of an Egyptian variety crow, so enjoy this lame-assed post.









This is Jennah on the kiddie swings at the club. I have to say, for being in the middle of Giza, you would never know it. They have alot of playgrounds for children of all ages ,two swimming pools, high dive platforms, a bakery cafe, a sandwich shop, a fancy restaurant, atrium's, patios, a track with a soccer field of course, and a mosque. You can't forget the mosque. In the above picture, Jennah is gazing at her father in that way that just makes you melt. What a sweetie. Why is there no pictures of Ayman, you ask ? Well, he is still with his cousins in Banha, having a great time. The poor boy is going to be heartbroken when we leave on Sunday....Sunday, I can't believe we have been gone for a month already. Last time, the time just dragged on by, but this time, it flew. I credit this to the great company of course, satellite TV, and my kick-ass laptop.










This is and Egyptian variety Crow (Update, this is called the Hooded Crow). It has a silver body, as you can see, with a black head, wings and tail feathers. It sounds just as annoying as any other crow, but I took the picture, because I found it interesting.











Here is my darling husband deeply engrossed in conversation. I am sure it was a interesting conversation, but I am just assuming, since it was in Arabic, and I just caught a word here and there. Everyone wanted to include me, but like I said before, I make people nervous about their English, and what ends up coming out is a lot of "yanni, yanni, eih" which is a lot like saying "ummmm" in English. I think it is cute, and God knows my Arabic is atrocious.










My baby doll again. she is so sweet.

Saturday the 11th continued.

I was not kidding before when I said I was behind in posting. Having caught a cold did not make matters any better. I am better now but you don't even want to know what the stuff I am coughing up looks like.
So, to continue our Egyptian Auntie dinner tour we went to Tant Fatens, or "Toona", as she prefers to be called, for dinner Saturday night. (don't ask me why or how the nickname for Faten evolved into Toona. I cannot tell you, and my husband was of no help either) The food once again, was delicious, as it has been at all the Aunties homes, and the company was excellent too. I was terrible with the picture taking, but Ahmed wanted Amr to take a picture of him.
Here it is:

Outstanding talent, there Ahmed!

Saturday Shopping Trip to Khan el Khalily

This is the entrance area for Khan el Khalili, a big bazaar in Cairo. I think this is a nice picture of Nancy and I. We went in on a little buying trip. I am going to be vague about what we bought because that is just how I roll. hahaha.










Nancy, Amr, and I made some purchases, then we walked a little bit to get out of the maze of shops. OOPS, we ended up here, a slightly seedier area than we had visited previously. I took a picture because the minarets in the distance looked super sweet.










I took this picture at the first storefront we stopped at. It kind of reminds me of Tijuana, with Arabic writing instead....and women wearing covers, it is slightly cleaner, so I guess the only similarity is that there is a bunch of overpriced crap for sale.

This is some serious traffic. I shot this walking back to our car. You can't see where we parked but i can give you the general idea. Look to the end of the row of buildings on the right of the street.there is a parking lot in front of the last building which by the way, is an enormous hospital. I wish i could have gotten a good pictures of Egyptians crossing the streets. There are NO crosswalks. I mean, I have seen a few, but they don't mean the same thing as in the US. The drivers want to hit you. They are practically begging for you to step wrong so they can hit you. because in Egypt, it is your fault. The pedestrian NEVER has the right of way. In fact, now that I think of it, there is no such thing as right of way; it is more like, anyway you can.

And finally we come to this gem. We stopped at this drink stand so I could get a bottle of water, (it must have been about 80 out there and all those cars are spitting out some lovely fumes) Amr and Nancy got this delicious drink (not) called 3sir asab. (sounds like AH-seer Kah-SAAB) I personally find it to be nasty, but Amr loves it. When we go to the marketplace in El Rehab, (which is just about every other day) he stops to get a glass. What is it made of you ask? Sugarcane that is put through what can best be described as two big burr grinders. Juiced essentially....gross definitely. To me, it tastes like fresh mowed grass smells. Cack.

All in all a good day had by all.

A Re-enactment

Ayman- up to his mimicry. There was no sound the first time I posted this, so I trimmed it down and re-uploaded it.
I have to mention that right now as I am typing this, my boy is on his way to stay for A FEW DAYS with his Tant Nancy, Uncle Maged, and his cousins. I am not quite sure that he knows that when he chose to get into Maged and Nancy's car that he was choosing being away from his Mom and Dad until Thursday, but we will see how it goes. He has his Bica, his monkey and some diapers, so he is good to go. Good Luck Maged and Nancy. Now lets see how Mommy and Daddy do with out him.

Then of course comes Friday....

We had a dinner at Tant Nahed's house. Once again, the food was delicious, but unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the spread. We had a really nice visit. Tant Nahed lives in Giza, right off of the same street that the pyramids are on. So, reasonable people, (and I know you all are reasonable people, for the most part,) would think that I would get some pyramid pictures. You'd be wrong. It was getting pretty dark on our way, we were following Maged, and pictures don't turn out well from a moving auto, observe: That is a picture of Mohammed Alis Mosque, or "The Citadel" as all the street signs call it, taken from the car.

This is a pretty awesome picture of my son, who is refusing almost any picture these days. He is wearing about 3 different sets of prayer beads around his neck in this picture. He does a decent re-enactment of his sisters crying, and I will get to work on getting that on video. Like I said, he is camera resistant at this time.











Another one who is camera resistant is Kooki. It must be the age. However, Nada, Kooki's older sister got the two of them to sit together for a few pictures, which I find truly amazing. Thank you Nada, much props.

Thursday night...(I am behind over here)

On Thursday night we ate at Uncle Saids house, in Nasr City. The food was just awesome. they had this kofta and baba ganooj that was out of this world. It was quite a spread. Such a spread, I took a picture of it before the feeding frenzy commenced. No, just kidding, no frenzy this time there was actually seating, so everyone behaved themselves.
















Observe, Kooki and Jennah playing nice. A problem has developed in the Kooki/Jennah relationship. Kooki wants to be Jennahs big sister/mommy, and Jennnah wants nothing to do with any of it. So as a result, Jennah starts wincing or swinging when ever Kooki gets near her most of the time. Poor Kooki, her cousin is sooooo stubborn.












In between being a pain in the butt and crying, Jennah was cute at Uncle Said's house. With the teething, and the excitement, she is really unpredictable.










Observe, Noha the Skittle holder. She has a crowd of kids around her all night. The Skittles worked magic, and she is really sweet too.










And finally, we have this pose from Jennah--it is her"I want it" pose. She has been doing it all the time. She wants everything.

For all you Jennah fans

And yes, I do have a son. It just turned out, he now hates to have his picture taken, and acts like a dork when a camera is aimed in his direction.

Jennah on the other hand doesn't mind it so much right now.

Enjoy, remember this is 15 seconds of your life you won't be getting back.

Keeping up to date...

Last night we went to dinner at Tant Na3mas house, and ate waaaaaay too much. Ayman has a new thing- calling Amr by his first name. Except for he calls him OM-ber. It is so cute. At dinner last night one of the cousins, Noha (the one who had the ceremony for the marriage contract) was Aymans best friend. She had Skittles. To curry favor with Ayman, she dealt them out over the course of the evening. Very smart. Also, after almost a year in the US, Amr's cousin Amr al Samman has returned to Egypt, so he was there too. He had stayed the weekend with us a couple of times and got to drive my dads boat when he was with us last summer. Amr AS is super smart by the way, "Like brain surgeon smart?" you ask? Funny you should say that. He is a brain surgeon. So yeah, brain surgeon smart. He is also really cool and speaks super good English. Since Uncle Maged was not there last night, it was good i had someone else to talk to that wasn't afraid to speak English to me. It seem most everyone has studied english, it just depends on how much they use it. When they talk to me, i tend to speak a little fast, even though i try not to, and then they get lost in the conversation, and embarrassed. It is all really sweet that they try to talk to me though. I really appreciate (and encourage) the effort. So tonight we are going to another dinner again, this time at Uncle Saids house in Nasr City. I took pictures from his balcony a little bit ago. Anyhoo, we will chow down there tonight, and hopefully i won't forget to get pictures like last night. Also, Maged and Nancy and the kids should be coming anytime now, so that will be nice. Ayman loves to imitate Ahmed, and they really play together.
That is all for now though....
Will do my best to post again soon, hopefully a video or something.
Peace out, yo.

By request....

A semi-retarded tour of our apartment, starting from the stairwell. Ayman gives a few shout outs at the end....

Good Times Go Bad 2007

OK, so this is Ayman and Jennah playing on the floor. It starts off with "Where's Jennah", then we go on to "Where's Ayman", then as some added Mean Mommy fun I have her daddy say "No, Jennah, no, Sissy!" and she bursts into tears, which are fake by the way. She does get a little butt hurt, but mostly the tears are for show. It is so cute. If you listen close you can hear Amr tell her "no."

And real quick, I want to take this time to thank everyone for their comments, I love them, and encourage them. I don't care if I have met you or not--(this means you, Katy from VPPS) just comment away. I am not always agreeable (Me? nawww.) But hey, the choice is always yours. So keep it up people, I am so glad someone is reading this.

Goodbye, Grampa.

My Grampas funeral was today. Here is the obituary that appeared in a local paper. I will miss him so much. A phrase from one of my favorite movies, Forrest Gump: That's all I have to say about that.


ARTHUR J. GARCIA NOV. 24, 1928 - FEB. 24, 2007 Arthur Garcia, 78, passed away Saturday, February 24, 2007 in his home after a short battle with cancer. He was born on November 24, 1928 in Turlock, California. He graduated from Rustic Grammar School and Manteca High School, after which he farmed sweet potatoes with his brother and father. Later, he worked for the Manteca Post Office, and Lou's Termite Control from which he retired. He was a member of the YMI with St. Anthony's Parish, and was active in The Boy Scouts of America with his sons. More recently he was a member of the Men of the Sacred Heart at St. Patricks Catholic Church in Ripon, where he and his wife, Donna, were active members. Mr. Garcia, beloved husband of Donna Garcia, loving father of Cynthia Smedley, of Stockton, Dennis Garcia of French Camp, Gary Garcia of Modesto, James Garcia of Manteca, and Brian Garcia of Ripon, as well as Michael Smedley of Stockton whom he thought of as his son. He was also a loving stepfather to George Azevedo, Jr of Stockton and Kathleen Riley of Manteca. He leaves many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and will be sorely missed by all. Mr. Garcia was very active in his church, and loved nothing better than to spend time at home with his family around him. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Barbara Garcia and son Mathew, and stepson, Cliff Corder, as well as his parents, Frank and Mamie Garcia of Manteca, brother Frank Garcia, Jr., sisters Dorothy Mendes, Mary Von der Heide, Adeline Dice, and Florence Gomes. He was the loving brother of Madeline Azevedo and Eleanor Andrada. The Rosary will be recited Wednesday, February 28, 2007,at 9:30 a.m. with services following at St. Patricks Catholic Church, 19399 E. Hwy. 120, in Ripon, CA. Friends are invited to attend a gathering in the Church Social Hall. Donations are requested in lieu of flowers to the St. Patricks Church Building Fund, or the Hospice of San Joaquin. 3888 Pacific Avenue, Stockton, CA 95204 www.hospicesj.org

New Arrival....

Amr's brother Ayman got here today from Albania. This is the first time I have met him in the five years that Amr ad I have been married. When I came in '04, his plane got stuck in Greece, so I missed him by like, one day.

Here is a few funny tidbits regarding the first time I met my brother in law. First off, he was wearing the same shirt my husband has at home. Jacket too. Let's not forget shoes: they were almost the same as Amrs, just a darker color. Then, when we came home, we were getting out of the car and I said to Jennah, "don't cry," and Big Ayman popped off with, "Don't cry for me Argentina." Now, for those of you who know Amr, you know that he does this type of thing all the time. It seems my husband and brother in law share the same weird, dry sense of humor. The above picture of Big Ayman and Little Ayman is the best I can do right now, Little Ayman is being kind of a flibberty-jibbett. You get the idea though.

This is too cute to pass up

This post is basically for my mom, so she can get her Grandma fix.
















They were having so much fun in there, I had to take some pictures. This trip to Egypt will be commemorated in bathtub pictures. Also here is a weird tidbit: Ayman walks around singing "cra-zy Apple-sauce, cra-zy Apple-sauce" For most of the day now. Were he got this, I have no idea.
















This is a cool action shot. If you click on the picture you can see it more closely, I got the drops of water hanging in the air. They were splashing around like crazy.

Tea at Uncle Saids after the Katb el Kitab

Uncle Said lives in Nasr City. He built the building when there was nothing around. It was literally out in the desert. Amr tells me people were laughing at him because of this. Well who is laughing now, People? The apartment itself is beautiful, and 2 floors. The upper floor are more causal living in the Western style, and the lower floor is a formal area for receiving guests. The furnishings and decor were beautiful-- and very Middle eastern style, gold trimmed furniture, large oriental rugs, cloisonne vases, very formal.


















3ola (i can not pronounce this name, closest think i can pronounce would be Ola) Ahmed, Kooki, and Ayman on Uncle Saids balacona.















The kids being kids....(picture taken by Uncle Maged)
















Kooki helps Jennah out with her bzaza. Kooki loves to mother Jennah, it is so cute.

















Uncle Maged- a Nasr kid favorite since 2003.

random pictures from Saturday the 24th

Family picture-why Amr doesn't smile, I have no idea.














Self portrait of Jennah and I. No one bothered to tell me all day that i had a stripe of unblended makeup on my face. Kind of like walking around with spinach in your teeth all day long....













Here is a nice picture of Amr, his mom Lilah, and Jennah.
















After the ceremony was over, they passed out individually wrapped chocolates and jordan almonds. The chocolates had little stickers on them. Aymans cousin Malak, (or Kooki, as everyone calls her) loved the stickers. she put them on her forehead. It reminded me of how when I was little, I would go insane for the sticker from the bunch of bananas. Not the bananas so much though....hahaha















They also passed out juice, kind of like a toast it seems. Since we are talking about almost all Muslims, at a room adjacent to the mosque, there was no champagne. This is a picture of (from left to right) Tanta 3ayda (the closest pronunciation of this would be Ida), Tanta Zooba, and Aymans Tetah Lilah By the way, Tanta means aunt, and Tetah is Grandma. All three are sisters.

Katb el Kitab (The Paperwork)

On Saturday the 24th We went to the Katb el Kitab for Amrs cousin Noha. For those of you who don't know, ( I am thinking that is everyone, in the US. The Egyptians who read this are good to go,) This means the paperwork. Noha and her fiance are now technically married. This ceremony is done as the religious portion of the contract of marriage. It is a contract literally, in that paperwork is signed by the bride, groom, the brides father and two witnesses. The two are now considered married. They will have a wedding party in April from what I understand, and will live separately until then. Amr tells me that this paperwork can be done 2 minutes before the wedding party, two years, or whenever. This is the real wedding. The party is just for fun.


















(L-R) Mo3taz (the grooms father, no, the three is not a mistake That represents a letter I do not have on my keyboard), Noha (bride) Khaled (groom) The Imam of the mosque, Uncle Khalil (father of the bride), Uncle Said (witness, mother of the brides brother), Abdelwahab (witness, father of the brides brother)















Khaled, and Khalil shaking on the deal so to speak.













The brides family with the groom.
(L-R) Khalil, Cousin Ahmed, Cousin Walid, Khaled the groom, Noha the bride, and her mom Tanta Faten, after the ceremony.

When in Egypt

....Dress like the Egyptians. Here I am in the brand new fancy abaya (uh-BYE-yuh) my husband bought me at the Genena Mall in Nasr City. Let me tell you first, that I hate to shop. My dear sister in law Nancy, went traipsing around to two malls with me to find this pretty thing. First we went to the mall in the town we are living in. The El Rehab Mall #1
I don't know where El Rehab Mall #2 is, but this mall is OK. Needless to say, we went all over it to find something for me. Since I am so fat from the squeezing out of children, I dont have the best body image, so I don't like hardly anything. I don't even want to shop. But I had to. So Nancy took me hither and yon. We ended up at the Genena Mall, and went to like a dozen shops. I tried this abaya on like, second, and I didn't think it fit right. They didn't have a size bigger either. You know when you find something you like, nothing else quite measures up? Well that is how it was with this abaya. I tried it on with my clothes underneath, and it was snug up top. We went to all the other shops, and then came back to the one that sold this abaya. I tried it on with out the clothes underneath, and voile. We can say it fit better, so I bought it. Or Nancy bought it. The transaction was all in arabic. Anyway, thank you Nancy for all of your patience. It is an abaya halwa. (beautiful abaya)

Sad Day.

Well, sad news today, about 2 weeks after finding out my Grampa had cancer, he has passed away. He was so sweet and kind, and I will miss him soooo much. It sucks to be so far away at a time like this. It is weird, and I really don't want to sound kooky, but here goes. This whole time he has been sick, I haven't dreamt about him. Except for last night. When I got the email from my Mom that he passed away, I knew what it was going to say before I opened it. Sure enough, there it was.

I love you, and will miss you Grampa.