SPRING BREAK

...is here.

Yesterday my dad arrived in Egypt. Unfortunately my mom got sick and wasn't able to come. But today we forged on without her. We spend all day in Islamic Cairo, and now that Dad is worn out, I have a chance to put up an update.

In case you haven't seen my pictures that I posted on Facebook, here is a link to see them.

I've been counting down the days until Spring break for the last 4 weeks and am really glad to have a bit of a break, even though my teachers all gave us homework to do while we're "vacationing." Oh, well. I think I will be able to handle it as I'm sitting in the shores of the Red Sea...

Tomorrow Dad and I are headed down south to Aswan and such; hopefully it won't be too hot! But I'm so happy that he is here to see what I have been writing about all semester.

Have a good Friday!

Comparison of AUC and Purdue

***Warning***Sarcasm reigns in this post...though it's not too far from the truth.

(You can click on the pictures to make them bigger so you can see my awesome sketches)

Game! Guess where the following conversations would take place:

Conversation #1 (anytime, anywhere on campus)

I'm so happy it's March. I love March Madness...Boiler Up!

Conversation #2 (anywhere crowded)

I wish my daddy would buy me a new Mercedes.

Conversation #3 (while walking to 7:30 a.m class)

I was up until 5 a.m finishing my 27 pages of dynamics homework

Conversation #4 (under the no-smoking sign in food court)

Oh, man, that was my last cigarette. Do you have any more?

Conversation #5 (in the aerospace building)

I've decided that the size of girls' sunglasses are inversely proportional with their intelligence.

Conversation #6 (Gucci corner)

I want those new Gucci sunglasses.

***End Sarcasm***

Now don't get me wrong, I love both Purdue and AUC. But sometimes the differences between the two are just too astounding to not mention to anyone.

Only one more week until SPRING BREAK!!!!!

I hope you have a great Friday.

Party in the Elevator

• This week the elevator in our apartment was rigged so that every time it goes up or down a recording of a man reciting the Qur'an plays. Not only do we get to hear it when we're actually in the elevator, but our apartment is close enough to the elevator shaft that we get to hear it when we're in our apartment! Johan has proposed that we re-program it so that it plays Miley Cyrus' song, "Party in the USA."
• If you've ever rented an apartment in the US before, then you probably know that the owners of the apartment like to get their payments on time. Well, I guess things work a little differently here--our landlady thought it would be good to come collect our rent 2 weeks after it was due...at 1 A.M.
• No more being locked in the apartment this week, but we did have a little bit of a fiasco with the light in our hallway. It looked like it was going to fall off of the ceiling, so I grabbed a kitchen chair and was going to screw it back in, when it completely fell out of the ceiling. It wouldn't have been that big of a deal, but I couldn't get the screws back into the ceiling...and we have no tools. So, since the light was really heavy, made of glass, and was hanging from its wires, I decided I should build a tower to hold it up until we could get our bowab (fixer-guy) to fix it. Eventually some random guy came, took the kitchen scissors and cut the electrical wires, and ran off with our light. It's fixed now.

• There are officially 13 more days until Spring break, which means 13 more days until I get to see my parents!!! I'm so excited for them to get to Egypt!

Have a good Friday!

Locked In...

This weekend Lucy and I decided to go to Family Fun Land, or something like that. When our taxi drive dropped us off in the general area of Family Fun Land, we were kind of concerned because the area didn't look all that family-friendly...it was kind of run down and trashy. But then we wandered around for a little bit and eventually found what we were looking for--the ice skating rink! It was definitely not like the nice rinks we have in America, but it was still fun to go skating for 30 minutes. We may have skated long if 1) the rink didn't smell like there were 1000 cats living there 2) the ice wasn't bumpy and 3) the skates weren't from the 1950s and had a little bit of padding in them...it was painful.

But I went ice skating in Egypt. That's all I really wanted to do.

Sunday morning as I was getting ready to leave for school, Lucy decided to take out the trash. Normally when you unlock our door you have to turn your key 3 times before it's completely unlocked. I noticed that she kept turning and turning and turning. Then she tried another key and kept turning and turning and turning. Then I tried my key. It wouldn't open. We tried putting pressure on the door, but nothing helped. We were locked in.

I saw from the 5th floor of our building the bus that I was supposed to be on leave without me.

We called our landlady and she basically said that there was nothing she could do. We called the man who lives in our building and takes care of things like jammed doors. Fortunately he was wake and was able to come up and get us out. Just had to break a small piece of wood off the frame and tighten up a screw. But at least we're not locked in our house.

Have a good Monday!

Mosab, "Son of Hamas"

Over the last week, the story of the oldest son of a Hamas leader becoming a spy and converting to Christianity has been making international news. And I think rightly so--it's a good story. If you haven't read about it, here is the link to the story.

The other day Christian author and speaker Joel Rosenberg was able to interview Mosab. You can read more of the interview here, but I wanted to share just one question Joel asked Mosab (I highlighted in green some my favorite parts of the answer):

JOEL: What can followers of Jesus do in real and practical ways to love the Palestinian people and reach them with the gospel of Jesus Christ?

MOSAB: This is an excellent question, thank you. Christians have a huge duty to love his neighbor and his enemy. Every Christian needs to carry this heavy cross. Loving Muslims and Palestinians is our responsibility. And our duty as Christians to show God’s love toward Muslims is more important than governments, the United Nations and the international community. All of those don’t have a clue how to deal with the Islamic problem. We know as Christians that the conflict is spiritual and ideological. You can’t kill an idea. You have to replace it. Governments can send troops to change a regime or kill terrorists, but they don’t have the type of weapons that we have — love and hope and grace.

Today, I need from my Christian brothers and sisters to understand the sensitivity of our mission of hope, love and forgiveness. Without these values humans will self-destruct everything beautiful. Be proud of our God and take Him to the Muslims. How come Christians are ashamed of such a loving, forgiving God? Our God is sending a great message of hope through my experience with Him. He is telling the Israelis, my people and everyone who is involved in the Middle East conflict that unconditional love and unconditional forgiveness through the example of Jesus Christ in our lives is the only hope for peace in the Middle East and the entire world — peace with God, peace within, and peace with others.

Love is not an idea, it is a reality. Our Lord showed us His love through the shedding of His innocent blood. His love is a reality we live in everyday of our lives. We can’t be perfect, but if we show the world the minimum of our Lord’s love we will be able to change the entire world in few years. Get out of your churches! Remove the dust of religion and human traditions and go out to the world. Show humanity who we are in Christ and who our God is. Humanity is hurt and its wounds are bleeding. Let’s heal it with the cure of love, the love of Jesus!

Have a good Thursday!