Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Monday, October 25, 2004
Saturday, October 23, 2004
First post from Paki-land...
I have the WORST allergies here!! The whole week I’ve been here in Abbottabad (a city my cousin Rabia resides in that reminds me a lot of Yosemite) I’ve been sneezing and blowing my nose like no other. For those of you who can’t recognize who I am by now (and this will tell you how well you know me!), it’s me Alina. :)
Abbottabad is a pretty nice place… for Pakistan, I guess. No, actually it IS a nice place; the weather here is really pleasant (about 65 degrees Fahrenheit), unlike places like Lahore and Karachi where it is pretty hot. My cousin Rabia tells me tat Kashmir is about 6 hours away from here, so you all can imagine how nice the scenery is here. Two days ago we – me, Naiema, Daniah, Rabia, and my aunt Assiya – went to this beautiful place called Nathia Ghali. I almost could not even tell I was in Pakistan anymore-- there wasn’t any litter around and along our trip we saw these lavish resorts that the big shots here in Paki-land stay in during the summer.
I’m sorry we haven’t been able to update this blog lately. Since we arrived in Pakistan we’ve had hardly any access to the internet. Now, thankfully, here in Abbottabad we can finally connect to y’all back home, even if it’s via dial-up! Insha-Allah, we’ll be able to get online in Lahore. Tomorrow we are going back for Omar’s 7th birthday.
I’m missing my home very much… MCA, my friends, my house, GFC, just America in general. But Pakistan wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. The most pleasant surprise I discovered here is that they have two-way roads! No more of that terrifying car-dodging that I had to undergo in Dera and the trip to Peshawar in 2002.
Ramadan Mubarak! Are all the people still living in Santa Clara going to MCA for taraweeh prayers? God, I miss those days. Ramadan is pretty low-key here, however… not as exciting and lively as I expected. The restaurants and stores all close early and the tourist attractions in Abbottabad are closed because of Ramadan, too.
I did not really get to write about my reflections on London and Paris in previous entries. They were amazing. Soooooooo amazing. InshaAllah, InshaAllah I will do study abroad in London, it’s just the coolest place ever. It’s so pretty and cool and… wow. I really can’t describe it, it’s just the feeling you get over there. Londoners are pretty nice, too.
Okay, I gotta go. My sisters are watching Jerry McGuire (sp?) on HBO and I don’t wanna miss out, it looks like a good movie. Keep me updated on your lives, as usual.
Much love,
Alina
Abbottabad is a pretty nice place… for Pakistan, I guess. No, actually it IS a nice place; the weather here is really pleasant (about 65 degrees Fahrenheit), unlike places like Lahore and Karachi where it is pretty hot. My cousin Rabia tells me tat Kashmir is about 6 hours away from here, so you all can imagine how nice the scenery is here. Two days ago we – me, Naiema, Daniah, Rabia, and my aunt Assiya – went to this beautiful place called Nathia Ghali. I almost could not even tell I was in Pakistan anymore-- there wasn’t any litter around and along our trip we saw these lavish resorts that the big shots here in Paki-land stay in during the summer.
I’m sorry we haven’t been able to update this blog lately. Since we arrived in Pakistan we’ve had hardly any access to the internet. Now, thankfully, here in Abbottabad we can finally connect to y’all back home, even if it’s via dial-up! Insha-Allah, we’ll be able to get online in Lahore. Tomorrow we are going back for Omar’s 7th birthday.
I’m missing my home very much… MCA, my friends, my house, GFC, just America in general. But Pakistan wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. The most pleasant surprise I discovered here is that they have two-way roads! No more of that terrifying car-dodging that I had to undergo in Dera and the trip to Peshawar in 2002.
Ramadan Mubarak! Are all the people still living in Santa Clara going to MCA for taraweeh prayers? God, I miss those days. Ramadan is pretty low-key here, however… not as exciting and lively as I expected. The restaurants and stores all close early and the tourist attractions in Abbottabad are closed because of Ramadan, too.
I did not really get to write about my reflections on London and Paris in previous entries. They were amazing. Soooooooo amazing. InshaAllah, InshaAllah I will do study abroad in London, it’s just the coolest place ever. It’s so pretty and cool and… wow. I really can’t describe it, it’s just the feeling you get over there. Londoners are pretty nice, too.
Okay, I gotta go. My sisters are watching Jerry McGuire (sp?) on HBO and I don’t wanna miss out, it looks like a good movie. Keep me updated on your lives, as usual.
Much love,
Alina
Saturday, October 09, 2004
Bonjour from Paris!
Bonjour! (Ok, we just came back from Paris yesterday night, but I'll pretend we're still there) S'il vous plais, merci beacoup, pardon, execuse moi, au revoir, metro, reseraunt, musee! Yep, that's about all the French that we learned here - man, it's so hard to be in a country and not speak its language! But it's all good! Paris is bee-yooo-ti-ful! Today, we took the EuroStar train at 5:30 AM that passes under English channel to Paris, France. From there, we took a taxi to our hotel. However, what they don't tell you in Paris tour books is that Paris has its ghetto parts as well. And unfortunately, we are staying in the ghetto part of Paris. But oh well, as they say in French, c'est la vie. Our hotel room wasn't ready so we took the Metro to the Musee du' Louvre - The Louvre Museum. Omg! It was awesome!! We saw Venus di Milo, the Mona Lisa, ancient greek vases, medieval castle peices and so much more. From there, we walked down the Champs Elysee towards the Arc de Triomphe. But we didn't make it to Napoleon's great sculpture because having kids on a vacation through Europe is not really a vacation at all; it's a huge baby sitting job - and the kids got us tired. So we stopped for lunch. That was fun. I must say, everything in Europe is sooooo expensive. 1 euro is aboutt $1.50. Our lunch of two tuna sandwiches and a quiche was like $40.00!
Many people told us that the French are really snobby and never want to help you out, but for us, that wasn't so, alhamdulillah. All of the people we met were so freindly and helpful. They did not seem to be bothered by us at all.
Well, that's the update from day 1 in Paris. You'll hear more about days 2 and 3 soon, inshaAllah. Au revoir!
P.S. Thanks for the comments, everyone. It was great hearing from you and continue to write to us! We miss you TONS. Everyday we think about California and how much we miss it... the weather (we really took it for granted!), the freinds, our house, and of course, MCA.
Many people told us that the French are really snobby and never want to help you out, but for us, that wasn't so, alhamdulillah. All of the people we met were so freindly and helpful. They did not seem to be bothered by us at all.
Well, that's the update from day 1 in Paris. You'll hear more about days 2 and 3 soon, inshaAllah. Au revoir!
P.S. Thanks for the comments, everyone. It was great hearing from you and continue to write to us! We miss you TONS. Everyday we think about California and how much we miss it... the weather (we really took it for granted!), the freinds, our house, and of course, MCA.
Daniah's Account of London...
Hey Everyone!
Daniah here. London was great. It's a really pretty city. We took a train from the Rochester train station to London Victoria. When we walked out of the train station and into the street, it was like, WOW! It's really different there. Especially the weather. It can get really cold, and to them, it's nice weather! Weird. Oxford street was really cool. It's a really long street full of stores. It was really hard for me to not go into the stores and buy stuff. REALLY hard.
We also saw Big Ben and the Buckingham palace. And I got stung by a bee for the first time in my life-- outside the palace.
It was also really cool to hear everyone talk in a British accent. But people were friendly and helpful to us, so it was all good.
aight, I gotta go eat breakfast right now. I miss you all and inshAllah I will see you all soon.
Daniah here. London was great. It's a really pretty city. We took a train from the Rochester train station to London Victoria. When we walked out of the train station and into the street, it was like, WOW! It's really different there. Especially the weather. It can get really cold, and to them, it's nice weather! Weird. Oxford street was really cool. It's a really long street full of stores. It was really hard for me to not go into the stores and buy stuff. REALLY hard.
We also saw Big Ben and the Buckingham palace. And I got stung by a bee for the first time in my life-- outside the palace.
It was also really cool to hear everyone talk in a British accent. But people were friendly and helpful to us, so it was all good.
aight, I gotta go eat breakfast right now. I miss you all and inshAllah I will see you all soon.
Sunday, October 03, 2004
Cheers from London!
From the place where "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." all started from - Rochester, England - the birthplace of Charles Dickens; greetings! Well, we safley made it to England. But let me start from the begening:
We woke up at 4:30 AM Saturday morning and started packing like mad. Our family and friends came by to say our last goodbyes and see us off. We all drove to SFO and then made our way through the checking process. However, since there was a "Hightened security alert" in the airport, (not to metion our family being Muslim and all) we were "randomly" chosen to go through additional screening. After our family of 8 was deemed non-terrorists, we were allowed on board. The flight was tiring - especially with all of the kids and our luggage. We arrived at London on Sunday and then got picked up by our dad's good friend, who then took us to his very quainte home in Rochester. Right now, we're unpacking and will stay here for 3 days. We're then headed off to Paris, France and will come back to England. Until then, salam!
We woke up at 4:30 AM Saturday morning and started packing like mad. Our family and friends came by to say our last goodbyes and see us off. We all drove to SFO and then made our way through the checking process. However, since there was a "Hightened security alert" in the airport, (not to metion our family being Muslim and all) we were "randomly" chosen to go through additional screening. After our family of 8 was deemed non-terrorists, we were allowed on board. The flight was tiring - especially with all of the kids and our luggage. We arrived at London on Sunday and then got picked up by our dad's good friend, who then took us to his very quainte home in Rochester. Right now, we're unpacking and will stay here for 3 days. We're then headed off to Paris, France and will come back to England. Until then, salam!
