First Anniversary

Nidhal and I got married a year ago today! Yay! Happy anniversary, Nidhali!

And today, Nidhal went to his first day of classes at Washtenaw. So cute.

Today I made chocolate gelato. Well, I'm in the process of making it. It still needs to be put in the ice cream maker, but I have to wait for it to be completely chilled first.

Some Wife Swap people are so closed minded. Give me a break. They are so stubborn and so combative. It's ridiculous. But I suppose the show wouldn't be as appealing if everyone got along wonderfully. I am not a fan of the conflict, but I do enjoy the show. Hah, and I just found out that the one family in the current episode is Mennonite. Heh heh.

Spinning Around and Around

So there's this carrot salad... and I'm a little obsessed with it. We had it for the first time ever last year during Ramadan when Nidhal's cousin, Saber, visited us. It's just mashed boiled carrots mixed with garlic, spices, olive oil, and harissa and topped with sliced hard boiled eggs and olives, and it looks like a pile of orange mush. But it is so so so tasty.

Not having a job is nice. But being in Ann Arbor and not having a job has left me trapped in my apartment Trapped. As in I get up, watch TV, make use of the internet, make dinner, watch TV, and go to bed. And the TV really isn't that interesting to justify watching it so very much. Boredom. I want excitement... something interesting. BLAH!

Funny... The English patient looks strangely like Voldemort... I'm just waiting for him to jump out of bed and yell 'avada kedavra'.

Ugh. As it turns out, I have my work cut out for me. At EMU, that is. I checked the Rate My Professor website and two out of three of my professors got awful ratings. Apparently, one gives a crapload of work but is helpful and the other (who is the program coordinator) is very unclear and mean. Great. At least my linguistics professor is supposed to be nice.

Relaxation

Unlike many of my friends, I like spending time in Au Gres because I find it relaxing. I am not a big fan of the city, or at least the American city. I hate being so close to so many stupid people... either loud and obnoxious idiots or rude, stuck-up, arrogant jerks. I hate that I can't just walk out my door and go for a walk. At least in my last apartment I could walk into campus. There is nothing here... just apartment complexes and (a half mile down a busy 4-lane street) some ugly stores and gas stations. I hate that I have to listen to stupid people yelling and sirens and car alarms (the only city noises I like are the helicopter and plane noises). Living near a city would be ideal. All the advantages of a city without the crap. I like it that Ann Arbor is surrounded by highways and that it is therefore incredibly easy to travel quickly in any direction. But I hate it that when I go to one particular park, I can still hear all the noise from the highways. I like peace and quiet. I like slow and relaxed. I wish I were back in Freiburg.

Yesterday, I made some almond pastries. It took me a couple hours. There were quite a few complications and they turned out differently than I expected, but they are indeed a success. I think they are bigger than they are supposed to be. Nidhal loves them though. I needed to buy a rolling pin and a pastry wheel before I could make them, although the pastry wheel wasn't really a necessity.

I finished a book called Dancing Under the Red Star about an American woman in communist Russia in the 1930's, 40's, and 50's. It was an interesting story. From the back of the book: "The shocking and inspirational saga of Margaret Werner and her miraculous survival in the Siberian death camps of Stalinist Russia".

And hey Lyne, Phantom of the Opera is going to be playing in Detroit. :)

The Vacation Week

Well, we just got back from a week "up north". Activities included swimming in Lake Huron, putt-putting, traveling to Mackinaw City, exploring Mackinac Island, playing with cute kitties, mowing the lawn, watching movies, and eating ice cream. It was a thoroughly enjoyable time, but we were surprisingly busy and didn't even get to do a bunch of the stuff that we had planned to do.

On Monday, we drove 170 miles up I-75 to Mackinaw City. We got there a little after 10am, and we took the 10:30 ferry to Mackinac Island. Our first order of business was Fort Mackinac. We looked in some of the buildings and watched a rifle demonstration, which Nidhal enjoyed. And then we watched them fire the canon, which Nidhal loved. Apparently he is a fan of firearms. After the fort, we had some lunch. Our waiter was from Jamaica. He and Nidhal hit it off very well. We then rented some "mountain bikes" and rode around the island. About halfway through, we stopped at British Landing and Nidhal swam in the clear, cold, rocky water. When we got to the other side of the island, we climbed up to Arch Rock. I about died getting up there. After the bike ride, we walked around a bit, bought some fudge, and took the ferry back to Mackinaw City. We spent the next day in Alpena watching Anna. Adorable.


The drive back to Ann Arbor was quite eventful. First, we saw the aftermath of an accident on the Zilwaukee Bridge. The cars were on the side of the road, there was a fire under one of the cars, and the drivers were jumping over the side of the bridge. A little later, Nidhal was convinced he saw a car getting on the highway going in the wrong direction. And then I felt something cold on my ankle and I freaked out, almost causing Nidhal to drive off the road. We stopped at the next stop, and the cold thing turned out to be a frog. Ick.

HARISSA

I've figured out how to write with the Arabic alphabet on this computer. It is really the highlight of the day so far. That and the fact that I have a bowl of fruit in the fridge waiting to be eaten.

Yesterday was my last day at work. Yes, I quit my job (and that was the decision that I was unsure about in an earlier post). I'm happy to not have to deal with that crap anymore, but it is still kind of sad. I liked the people that I worked with. I don't know... it just feels weird.

So yesterday, Joslyn and Alex visited me and Nidhal. Coincidentally, yesterday was my last day of work, exactly one year after Nidhal came to the US (the last time), and one day before Alex's birthday. To top it off, Joslyn had recently gotten back from Japan. Everyone had something to celebrate that day.

[written on Saturday]
It's a rainy day... but, you know, I'm kind of enjoying it. Because it's raining, I don't feel bad about sitting around and doing nothing and not really going outside. I find it hard to enjoy the outside where I'm living. If I want to go for a walk, I need to drive either to a park or to downtown Ann Arbor. Having to drive just to go for a walk takes all the motivation out of me. And I would really prefer to go to the Arb, but parking is the issue there. ...So it's a nice, rainy, stormy day.

I didn't watch Food Network's The Next Food Network Star except for the finale episode, but I think they picked the wrong person. Melissa's food and idea is overdone. There are already so many shows about homey meals. And the $10 thing is already being done by Rachel Ray on her non-cable show. So they should have picked Jeffrey, and not just because he used harissa, which is from Tunisia. His idea is original and interesting. I would've watched it. Meh. At least I found the recipe for his harissa steak sandwich.

Nidhal's friend moved out of his apartment on Friday and we got a bunch of the stuff he didn't need anymore, including a TV stand, a microwave, two tables, two chairs, and a bunch of kitchen stuff. When I moved in, I had absolutely no furniture. Now we almost have too much.

Joie de Vivre

I've been watching quite a bit of The Nanny lately. 11pm on Nickelodeon. It brings back memories. I have vague memories of watching it when I was a kid. In the summer of 2006 when I was living in the house on Division, my roommate and I discovered The Nanny in the afternoons and we often met in the living room at that time to watch it.

My finger is slowly getting better. I still can't bend it all the way, there is still a large bump, and it hurts when anything touches it. But I can bend it further than I could a few days ago.

I'm very tired.

And I'm very jealous of Barb and her Turkey adventures. I can't wait to get out of this country again.

Nidhal is taking two classes this fall. One is a writing class and one is an advanced vocabulary class. I've forgotten what my classes are.

I need to do laundry.

SLEEP.

Fly Away

There's this thing on Facebook called Living Social where people make lists of their top fives. I generally enjoy it. But today I found something intersting. When all the data was compiled, the only two presidents to be in the top eight on both "the worst presidents of all time" and "the best presidents of all time" lists are Barack Obama and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The farthest north I've been is Inverness, Scotland. 57°28' N
The farthest south I've been is Cairo, Egypt. 30°03' N
The farthest west I've been is Nashville, TN. 86°46' W
The farthest east I've been is Cairo, Egypt. 31°14' E

I found some more information about my ancestors on the internet. One line can be traced back to the 1300's in Switzerland. Exciting! Nidhal is jealous about the fact that I can find out all that information and I believe also about the Switzerland thing.

We saw Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince yesterday. I liked it... ...in some ways more than Order of the Phoenix and in other ways less. To me, the characters were more interesting this time around. Harry especially. Draco was rather attractive. The thing with the Weasley's house burning... that wasn't in the book, was it? I don't remember it, and I don't think it added anything to the movie. It had all the necessary elements from the book, but nothing got to be really explored. And I guess that is one aspect where Order of the Phoenix was better. And I liked the opening from Order of the Phoenix more, too. (Hot, in the park, dementors vs. death eaters in London and Harry in some cafe). But I like that this one was less silly somehow... and darker. Hmm, in this movie, I would change the beginning from cafe to Dursley's, I would add more Voldemort memories, I would get rid of the ridiculous burning of the Weasley house, more information about Voldemort and the horcruxes, and more about the whole half blood prince thing. I'm looking forward to the conclusion(s)!