ohh its hot, hot hot Dubai

Well I finally made it.
Im in the middle east. It hit me actually when i got off the plane in 40+ weather... at midnight!

then we went to Arwas parents and uncles place, where we ate on the ground, prawns and nice and yum yums. I ate fresh Lychee! INBAL FRESH LYCHEE!

AT that momment a smile played across my face. This moment i have been preparing for for so many months now, has finally arrived.
I am here, and I already feel like home in this strange land.

Pics later...

Karlstejn and Big Small Amerika

Karlstejn is an amazing castle. Maybe i'd like to live in it one day...

The city is very quaint, quite touristy now. We spent awhile trying to find secret entrances, found one but got too lazy to climb up a rope and into a window in broad day light.

I did have very good Goulash though, with bread dumplings, very yummy, reminded me of eating beef stew and Ugali in Kenya. :) but the ugali was more bread like, and the beef was actually less lean...

Afterwards we decided to trek to ap lace that wasnt on any tourist maps, a place called Big Small Amerika (still dont knwo why its named that) it was an old mining site thats became a huge crevice in the middle of nowhere... It was illegal to go down into it becaus eof danger I presume, but I had to do it anyway, so here is a pic of me before climbing down, and me in the crevice.

I think I will comeback with rock climbing gear, its a PERFECT place to rock cimb :)

The day was long, and adventuresome, but very fruitful :) Got to see some great sites and my calves are soon to be made of steel ;)

In Praha

Praha? where is that?...

Is what I thought when we drove from Frankfurt into the Czech Repulik.
Well supposedly there is about 5 different ways of saying Prague (english)
Praha is the Czech, and correct way to say it.

Czech is located in Central Europe! NOT EASTERN Europe. They're very conscious about this fact...

My first time in a post-communist area, and as you can see, its quite amazing.

Beautiful architecture, history and traditions...
oh and VERY cheap beer. They wernt kidding then they said Beer is $1 here...

I've met up with Old friends, Erik (LCP UBC 03-04) and Eva (CEEDer to McMaster 03). and so say the least, days of Mac have come to haunt me in this place... lets just say $50 Canadian goes a LOOOOOOOOOOOONG way here...

Wie gehts?

You know what i love about europe?its the smell.
rain drops on cobblestone roads, overcast skies and SMALL cars,
is the first thing one notices in this historical land.

Frankfurt ist schön (nice)



And so begins my travels. I will of course update more very soon!
>Tomorrow off to Prague!!

Auf wiedersehen.

Welcome to the ladoo shop

pause

sometimes things pass us by when we least expect it and remind us of where we are.

see the beautiful work of redmotel here

I highly recomend watching 'anonymous' '5' and 'miss india'

anonymous especially captures beauty and sadness in the heart of americas homeless.
very moving video.

how lucky we are.

May Showers

Ok, no excuses, Sorry for the lack of updates

Here I am, in my hometown, Bragg Creek, where I grew up and spent most of my life!

I woke up this morning, like i have every morning since ive been back at around 8am... since when did I become a morning person? I have no idea... but i dont mind it really :)
mornings ARE great :)

Anyways, so I wake up, look out side and there is SNOW...

yes, only in Bragg Creek does it still snow in May...

I've just received a late Bday present from Steph: Lords of Poverty!
I am sooo excited to crack it open!

I JUST finished reading The Map pf Love, by Adhaf Soueif.. a great read about the political and social situations in Egypt ca. 1900 and ca 1999... very insightful, and I even picked up some great Arabic words. did you know that the word Fellow comes from arabic word Fellah, which means tiller of the land, or peasent.

1 week left in Canada then it is off to Frankfurt, Germany then Munich, then Prague, Czech then Stuttgart for an AIESEC conference and DAMU screening event! (it'll be HUGE 300+ ppl!, way to go MATT)

Then on May 31st I am off to the desert (Dubai, UAE). Then June 2nd, 2006 I land in Karachi, Pakistan... my new home :)

Thats it for now, chalo, Khuda Hafiz...