Weekend (these seem to happen just about every week)

this was a pretty uneventful week. basically, i had class, and then i didn't, each day. sort of like a lot of other people that i know. this wednesday i got kind of sick. basically, this on wed mornings i have a class at 8 in the morning, which i wouldn't mind, except that factoring in the bus ride out to the new campus means waking up at six o'clock. my next class after math is at 1:00. a bit of a gap. it's only two days a week though. that won't stop me from complaining about it though.

anyways, tuesday night i was going to try to get to bed early, around midnight. so i sent one of my best friends, debra, an email, and it turned out she was on gmail at the same time. so then we called each other over skype (which is awesome-- free international calls over the computer. anyone who reads this, probably two or three people, should download it off google for free, and look me up and call me. or i'll call you). man, whenever i write anything i'm amazed by how easily distracted i am. anyways, we spoke for a while, and i ended up not getting a lot of sleep. i think i was kind of dehydrated the next day as well, so wednesday night i totally crashed, and went to bed around 7:30, plus an hour nap before dinner, and got up at about 10am the next day. i was pretty much in bed the whole time besides for quite frequent bathroom breaks. awesome.

but, hey. that's part of the experience, you know?

this weekend has been pretty enjoyable so far. yesterday i read seven pages of homework throughout the day, and then went over to a corina's friend's apartment. we had dinner there, and just hung out for a few hours. that was a lot of fun. i got to meet a few new people. plus a couple of them were musicians, and were pumped to hear that i play the saxophone-- hopefully we're gonna jam pretty soon. i would absolutely love that. after that i just came back to the room and read for a while and listened to music. i just started listening to some louis armstrong-- i can't believe i've barely ever listened to him before, i love his stuff.

tonight kevin, jason and i are going to finally extend some hospitality to mohammed, for a change. we invited him up here for dinner, so he's going to get here around 5:30, and we'll head over to some restaurant, and probably just hang for a while. he's up two-zero on us, given that he's had us over for dinner twice already. so we owe him.

oh. and i remember writing a while ago that i asked i taxi driver to go to midan (square) salah al-din, and saying i would try to learn what those words meant. well, it turns out they're not words, per se. salah al-din was a person, a powerful agent in the spread of islam to egypt. i mentioned this to a kid i met last night, and he added that al-din fought of the armies of one of the crusades. let's see what wikipedia has to say:

Salah al-Dīn Yusuf ibn Ayyub (Arabic: صلاح الدين يوسف بن أيوب‎; Kurdish: سه‌لاحه‌دین ئه‌یوبی Selah'edînê Eyubî ) (born, Tikrit, Iraq c. 1138, died March 4, 1193), better known as Saladin in medieval Europe, was a Sultan of Egypt and Syria. He was a Kurdish Muslim and led the Islamic opposition to the Third Crusade.
At the height of his power, the Ayyubid dynasty he founded, ruled over Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Hejaz, and Yemen. He led Muslim resistance to the European Crusaders and eventually recaptured Palestine from the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. As such, he is a notable figure in Arab, Kurdish, and Muslim culture.
Saladin was a strict practitioner of Sunni Islam. He did not maim, kill or retaliate against those whom he defeated,[1][2] with the notable exception of certain events following the Battle of Hattin. His generally chivalrous behaviour was noted by Christian chroniclers, especially in the accounts of the siege of Krak in Moab.

there you have it. now we're all a little bit smarter, or at least a little less dumb.

maa salaamah