"I know a lot about cars. I can look at a car's headlights and tell you exactly which way it's coming."
Mitch Hedberg
07 April, 2007
06 April, 2007
Adham 2.0?
Will, not quite yet!
A little less than four months in Egypt now. The rate of new stuff happening to me is slowing down or is it that I'm just getting used to all of it. The rush of getting into something new is fading away yet I'm on the door of what could be the experience of my life time. The Army.
Have I changed during this short period? Certainly. Am I satisfied with the results? Well, thats a much harder question to answer now. I don't even think that the question is a valid one. I certainly weigh less, laugh less than I used to, I take more care of what I say and do, much more care, than what I used to. I'm still in this weird spot where I'm still trying everything and decide which is better. I'm accumulating as much experience as possible dealing with people. I used every type of public transport in Egypt except the "tok tok"! I feel changed, but its a hard thing trying to keep the things I liked the most about me, or at least getting them under control, and at the same time not be like everybody else or what everybody else thinks is the "normal"
I say English words when I speak way more than what I'm supposed to. I use the "comma" sign when I speak way too much. The kind of humor I'm used to is too different than what they have here. I still feel that I have this little kid inside that just wants to break loose and play and get away with everything but the reality is more difficult than this. I'm still deciding on how am I supposed to deal with people, family, friends, girls. I'm still trying to figure out what kind of persona I want to reflect to people, what kinds of limits do I need to set for people. I'm still learning how to not to treat everybody equally good -or bad-. I'm still trying to figure out where my life is heading right now but at least I know how I'm going to spend the next year. 10 months to be exact.
After 4-5 visits to the army recruitment camps my fate in the army has finally been determined. I'm going to go in for the compulsory 9 months plus an extra month for being late on my original recruitment date. I'm starting next week, on the 14th of April, my 45 days in the "training camp" which is supposedly the toughest period in the army and after that I still don't know whats exactly going to happen. I could be sent to any where in Egypt, but of course I'm hoping on Alex where at least I'm going to spend the nights sleeping in my own bed.
I'm taking the army thing with the most positive attitude I could summon. Most people around me are amazed on how cool am I with this army thing. My only second option is to blame the whole thing on my Dad who was responsible for making me miss my original recruitment date and the only chance I had to be exempted from the service -which I now know that I would've surely gotten for at least three different reasons-. The only thing I'm happy for now is that I'm only going to spend 10 months there instead of a nasty 27 months period which was a real possibility till a couple of weeks earlier.
I stopped my diet a month ago and have been keeping my weight at around 90 Kgs, and if you're saying thats still to much then you should know that when I first came here I weighed around 120, so thats a very good achievement for me. Plus, according to everybody here, I'm going to lose around 50% of my mass during the first 45 days period. The only thing I'm worried about in the army is bathrooms. You could do anything to me but when it comes to bodily functions thats a major do-not-miss-with part of my life. I'm also going to be able to run 15 kilos straight which has been a dream of mine for a very long time now.
This is probably my last post before going in. So, to answer the question I started with, am I "Adham 2.0" yet? Will, No. "Adham 1.6" maybe. But I'm guessing "Adham 2.0" is coming in two months with the latest version "Adham 3.0" coming early next year.
A little less than four months in Egypt now. The rate of new stuff happening to me is slowing down or is it that I'm just getting used to all of it. The rush of getting into something new is fading away yet I'm on the door of what could be the experience of my life time. The Army.
Have I changed during this short period? Certainly. Am I satisfied with the results? Well, thats a much harder question to answer now. I don't even think that the question is a valid one. I certainly weigh less, laugh less than I used to, I take more care of what I say and do, much more care, than what I used to. I'm still in this weird spot where I'm still trying everything and decide which is better. I'm accumulating as much experience as possible dealing with people. I used every type of public transport in Egypt except the "tok tok"! I feel changed, but its a hard thing trying to keep the things I liked the most about me, or at least getting them under control, and at the same time not be like everybody else or what everybody else thinks is the "normal"
I say English words when I speak way more than what I'm supposed to. I use the "comma" sign when I speak way too much. The kind of humor I'm used to is too different than what they have here. I still feel that I have this little kid inside that just wants to break loose and play and get away with everything but the reality is more difficult than this. I'm still deciding on how am I supposed to deal with people, family, friends, girls. I'm still trying to figure out what kind of persona I want to reflect to people, what kinds of limits do I need to set for people. I'm still learning how to not to treat everybody equally good -or bad-. I'm still trying to figure out where my life is heading right now but at least I know how I'm going to spend the next year. 10 months to be exact.
After 4-5 visits to the army recruitment camps my fate in the army has finally been determined. I'm going to go in for the compulsory 9 months plus an extra month for being late on my original recruitment date. I'm starting next week, on the 14th of April, my 45 days in the "training camp" which is supposedly the toughest period in the army and after that I still don't know whats exactly going to happen. I could be sent to any where in Egypt, but of course I'm hoping on Alex where at least I'm going to spend the nights sleeping in my own bed.
I'm taking the army thing with the most positive attitude I could summon. Most people around me are amazed on how cool am I with this army thing. My only second option is to blame the whole thing on my Dad who was responsible for making me miss my original recruitment date and the only chance I had to be exempted from the service -which I now know that I would've surely gotten for at least three different reasons-. The only thing I'm happy for now is that I'm only going to spend 10 months there instead of a nasty 27 months period which was a real possibility till a couple of weeks earlier.
I stopped my diet a month ago and have been keeping my weight at around 90 Kgs, and if you're saying thats still to much then you should know that when I first came here I weighed around 120, so thats a very good achievement for me. Plus, according to everybody here, I'm going to lose around 50% of my mass during the first 45 days period. The only thing I'm worried about in the army is bathrooms. You could do anything to me but when it comes to bodily functions thats a major do-not-miss-with part of my life. I'm also going to be able to run 15 kilos straight which has been a dream of mine for a very long time now.
This is probably my last post before going in. So, to answer the question I started with, am I "Adham 2.0" yet? Will, No. "Adham 1.6" maybe. But I'm guessing "Adham 2.0" is coming in two months with the latest version "Adham 3.0" coming early next year.
05 January, 2007
My First New Year's Eve...
For the first time in my life I've celebrated new year's eve and it was everything I hoped it to be. It was on of the best days of my life.
I was in Cairo during the eid to visit my cousins, a visit that ended in me regretting that I don't have a sister! We arrived at 11:00 pm the night before, left our stuff at my uncle's and started a marvelous 30-hours activity-filled day of fun that ended with Mohammad Mounir's concert at the opera house where I spent a lot of energy jumping and screaming and singing. The party along was one of the best things I've ever went to in my whole life and I was only disappointed that Mounir didn't sing longer. I wasn't a big fan of mounir until I heard his album "3an2ood el 3enab" and I was instantaneously hooked up to his style and at the concert I discovered that the dude has A LOT of great songs that I haven't heard yet. One of the best was a song called "7addoota Masreya", the whole concert had a "national" theme and almost all the songs were about Egypt. It was great.
I've seen a lot of people that day that I haven't seen for more than 7 years including some of my own cousins!
Anyways, I know that some people are frustrated because I didn't write a lot since I came here and I'm sorry guys, especially Jawad, but nothing much happened regarding my army thing. I've discovered a couple of days ago that nothing is going to happen before the 15th of this month so I'm technically on vacation for two more weeks but I'm starting to get a glimpse of what is going to happen on that day. The funniest thing is how the medical examination goes in the "largest room on earth" according to my cousin who's been there. The whole room is empty except from a bench that spans it 1.5 m from its wall and it has two small door at each end one that you come from and the other one to exit. Everybody should be standing almost naked on the wall waiting for the doctor to pass by them if you have a medical problem you're told to wait on the bench for another doctor to examine you. After everybody is examined you're told to leave through the other door for the eye examination, and yeah, you're expected to be completely dressed by the time you reach that door. This's one version of the story, the other version is that you're still half-naked and after the eye-exam thing -which is not an exam at all but a simple question of if you suffer from a problem or not- you're told to wear a jacket that 5000 people wore before you to take your picture and then after that you could slip into your clothes again.
I'll keep you updated with what exactly is going to happen!
I was in Cairo during the eid to visit my cousins, a visit that ended in me regretting that I don't have a sister! We arrived at 11:00 pm the night before, left our stuff at my uncle's and started a marvelous 30-hours activity-filled day of fun that ended with Mohammad Mounir's concert at the opera house where I spent a lot of energy jumping and screaming and singing. The party along was one of the best things I've ever went to in my whole life and I was only disappointed that Mounir didn't sing longer. I wasn't a big fan of mounir until I heard his album "3an2ood el 3enab" and I was instantaneously hooked up to his style and at the concert I discovered that the dude has A LOT of great songs that I haven't heard yet. One of the best was a song called "7addoota Masreya", the whole concert had a "national" theme and almost all the songs were about Egypt. It was great.
I've seen a lot of people that day that I haven't seen for more than 7 years including some of my own cousins!
Anyways, I know that some people are frustrated because I didn't write a lot since I came here and I'm sorry guys, especially Jawad, but nothing much happened regarding my army thing. I've discovered a couple of days ago that nothing is going to happen before the 15th of this month so I'm technically on vacation for two more weeks but I'm starting to get a glimpse of what is going to happen on that day. The funniest thing is how the medical examination goes in the "largest room on earth" according to my cousin who's been there. The whole room is empty except from a bench that spans it 1.5 m from its wall and it has two small door at each end one that you come from and the other one to exit. Everybody should be standing almost naked on the wall waiting for the doctor to pass by them if you have a medical problem you're told to wait on the bench for another doctor to examine you. After everybody is examined you're told to leave through the other door for the eye examination, and yeah, you're expected to be completely dressed by the time you reach that door. This's one version of the story, the other version is that you're still half-naked and after the eye-exam thing -which is not an exam at all but a simple question of if you suffer from a problem or not- you're told to wear a jacket that 5000 people wore before you to take your picture and then after that you could slip into your clothes again.
I'll keep you updated with what exactly is going to happen!
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