Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away!

Eastern just keeps getting worse and worse. We found out today that they did indeed calculate Nidhal's GPA wrong. Idiots. Complete idiots. We wrote a harsh but polite letter to the head of admissions, and hopefully something will be done. Idiots.

In other news, the departure date is getting closer and closer! We're almost all packed and ready. Almost. I'm worried that our bags are going to be too heavy... but we'll figure that out.

So the trailer for the new Harry Potter movie is out. Intense! I can't wait to see it in November. ...and I can't wait for the fall semester to be over. Ugh. Stupid program. I am thoroughly dreading the fall. Also, I know my grades this semester might not be as high as I'm used to, but I'd still like to see them! (They haven't been posted yet and the new semester started today). Hurry up, please.

One More Week

This evening, I found €10 and a 2 dollar bill in a drawer. ...Possibly the highlight of my night.

EMU continues to try my patience. I can't wait until I'm done with them.

I love watching HGTV's real estate shows. I recommend House Hunters, House Hunters International, Selling New York, and Income Property. One time on House Hunters, they did a show in Ann Arbor. With all the interest I have in houses and floor plans, perhaps I should have studied architecture or become a real estate agent.

There was another tornado warning yesterday, which made it the third time in my life I've heard the tornado siren. We were at a friend's house at the time, and so we got to be introduced to their basement.

As for the Doc-Twin, he called a spherical chair with a butt imprint a "Birkenstock for your butt". 100% Doc right there.

Every semester, I get 900 pages of "free" printing at EMU, and so yesterday, we went to the library and used about 85% of that. I've already paid for it with my [ridiculously expensive] tuition and so I might as well use it, even if it is only pictures that I'm printing.

Soccer... my teams stress me out. At least the US and Germany are through. I jsut hope Switzerland wins tomorrow.

Painfully Delicious

A couple nights ago, I made spicy cheddar venison burgers with homemade baked potato wedges and a tomato/basil salad. Those burgers were intensely delicious.

Nidhal's shin splints are continuing to pain him. He could barely walk last night and this morning. But the stubborn boy refuses to give soccer a rest.

So there is this guy in Ann Arbor (Nidhal's friend) who is very much so the Arab version of Doc. He has the same hair, same face, same stature, same choice of clothes, and the same personality/comments/jokes/ways of delivering said comments/jokes. The only difference is the eye color, the fact that he's a bit shorter than Doc, and the fact that he is more intellectual than Doc. Otherwise, the resemblance is unbelievable.

The departure date is fast approaching!

World Cup Mania

It's OVER! My class is done... probably not with the best result, but it's done. Now I get to focus on soccer, packing, cleaning, and vacation! I can't wait to be out of this country again. Nidhal and I have gone to Canada twice, but that hardly feels like a different country... more like a different state.

Nidhal and I have been watching the World Cup daily. We usually catch the 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. games. The 7:30 a.m. game is a little too early for us. France got clobbered by Mexico today, which is unfortunate. I was almost neutral about the game, though. I don't like Mexico and they seemed arrogant, but Nidhal says that the coach is racist (France is racist) and didn't put two Arab strikers on the team even though they're very good. I don't know if that's true, but it made me mad. And France has been really stupid lately. Sarkozy is an idiot who thinks "foreigners" shouldn't be in France even though he is half Hungarian. There's more, too, but I don't feel like doing the research right now to get my facts straight. Germany plays at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning on ESPN, and the US plays at 9:30 a.m. On ESPN2 at 2:30 p.m. is Algeria vs. England. ...I just realized that three of my four favorite teams for this year are playing tomorrow. Switzerland is the other favorite of mine for this World Cup.

In the last World Cup, I was very good at predicting the outcomes of the games even though I knew nothing about the teams. And for one of these NBA finals games, I predicted that the Celtics would win by at least five points... and they won by seven. If only I had bet some money on that...

SCHWEIZ!

So, you know the song Edelweiss written for The Sound of Music? Well, apparently the writers of the words and music are jerks.

I hate EMU more and more each day. Frustration. At least this semester is over tomorrow. Stupid.

Yesterday, Nidhal and I bought some gifts for his sister at Bath & Body Works and at Marshalls. They gave us a clear bag and some of that Easter basket straw stuff, and I got to arrange it in the bag. It was quite fun.

The World Cup got off to a boring start. The 2006 World Cup feels like it was more interesting. Not much happened in the first set of games. I'm following Germany, USA, Switzerland, and Algeria. Germany won their game, the USA tied with England, Algeria lost, and Switzerland upset Spain. The Switzerland/Spain game was really good.

Almost done...

There was a traumatizing insect experience today... and I'm not quite over it enough to say any more than that.

Nidhal and I went to Kalamazoo on Wednesday to check out WMU's Ph.D. program in economics. At first, the campus reminded us of Eastern's, but then we saw that it is much better than the crap that is EMU. The highlight of the trip was seeing Danielle and her husband, Jake. It has been years since I've seen Danielle. They were wonderful enough to show us around the campus. And on top of that, they introduced us to the best pizza we've ever had.

We went to Kohl's today and "saved" $70. Kohl's seems to always have these so-called sales, but we also had $10 Kohl's Cash and a 30% off coupon. We bought 2 pairs of jeans, a dress shirt, and a tie and ended up paying less than the combined sale price of the two pairs of jeans. Not bad. Ah, I love shopping.

The actual reason we were out and about is because Nidhal's sister needs a laptop. Has anyone seen any good, reasonably priced 12"-13" laptops? Our best option was at Walmart, but it didn't have a CD drive, the processor wasn't the best, and it was bright red. We tried Best Buy and Sam's Club, too. Any suggestions where we could find more laptops?

One week of classes left! And then two weeks until TUNISIA!

Excitement

I had never heard a tornado siren in my life, and a couple nights ago, I heard it twice. There were three separate tornado warnings Saturday night, interrupting my viewing of The Karate Kid 2.

Nidhal's soccer team won their game last night. They've only lost one game this season.

I forgot what I wanted to write. I haven't made any interesting food, I haven't done anything noteworthy, I haven't done anything at all. So I don't know.

The move out has slowed down, but I do have a few more boxes ready to go. Only three and a half weeks left! I can't wait.

More Almonds

So... those almond things I made on Monday night, I came back from class on Tuesday night to find only eight left. And within about 30 minutes, he had eaten the rest of them. Yeah, I guess they tasted ok. I made some other almond things tonight... we'll see if he loves these when he gets home.

There are only 14 days (4 classes) until my class is done for this semester. And there are only 30 days until we arrive in Tunisia. Exciting!