Forum	Title	Content	Member	Sex	Country	Date/Time
Middle East and North Africa	Bidets	Meriem, once you get it, could you let us know how it is? For those of you who have one, which brand do you have?	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2006-08-16 08:24:00
Middle East and North Africa	Bidets	LOL! I forgot to tell you to pack your own toilet paper when you head to Cairo It was quite a shock the first time I went too. There is a little metal spigot in the toilet, and you turn a handle and water sprays. I'm definately a bad shot with it and usually end up getting my jeans or skirt in a few places. http://www.biffy.com...cat=0&id=1&sid= Right now we use a watering can + toiletpaper here, but I'm thinking of bday presents for my husband and this is one possibility. Watch him come and read this thread and ruin the suprise. He never liked suprises anyways.	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2006-08-15 17:52:00
Middle East and North Africa	Bidets	Ah, so, since most of us have been to the ME/NA, I guess we know that it's common to not use toilet paper post bathroom use and instead use water. Has anyone purchased a bidet system for their home here? Care to give a review? Thanks.	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2006-08-15 15:26:00
Middle East and North Africa	Change the way I dress?	regardless of any circumstances, it is utterly absurd to proclaim "the decision to hijab or not hijab is an even bigger one" than one's decision to convert to islam. as a muslim, i find saying such a thing downright blasphemous. Perhaps she meant that when one takes the shahada, it's not immediately obvious to everyone around them that they have embraced islam. But, when one dons hijab, it's like a big ol neon sign that says, hey, I'm a muslim, so you're subjected to scrutiny by your friends, neighbors and random strangers on the street. Reconciling oneself with islam is one's own struggle, but dealing with people's judgments adds additional stress. I just cannot understand why so many Muslim people feeling the guilt of so called being abused or targeted by others in a country that accepts all religion practices. Yes, we have a country that allows us the freedom to practice our faith, alhamdulilah, but that doesn't mean that everyone upholds those ideals. Having experienced discrimination and having been physically targeted, I can assure you that there is nothing "so called" about these behaviors. I'm very lucky to live in a large metro area that has a lot of muslims, but there are still bigots out there who feel that it's their right to verbally and physically harrass us. I'd like to reference this little rant by the Republican candidate for governor of New York from NPR on Wednesday: Mr. PALADINO: Oh, well, that's just wonderful. And we think it's great for Mr. Cuomo to have Mr. Bloomberg, who sides with him on the mosque issue. I mean, these guys are in another world. They're not standing up for the rights of the American people and the rights of the people of the state of New York. They're not protecting the honor of our soldiers and the honor of our fallen. Three thousand people died at ground zero. Their families are entitled to a little bit of respect, to respect the memory of those poor people that died there. And how about the families of all those soldiers that died in the two ensuing wars? Aren't they entitled to a little bit of respect - the kids, the wives, the parents? How sad is that when your public officials only think about politics and make an excuse that it's freedom of religion? How sad is that? And Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Cuomo, they deserve each other. From which I get that muslim americans are in fact not americans and do not have rights. Or that the rights of non muslim americans supercede the rights of muslim americans. This isn't to open up a whole nother discussion on the mosque issue, but rather to point out this sentiment that seems to be rising in american public discource that is hostile to american muslims. Anna, a few resources for you: *My list of resources for converts and people interested in islam *An introduction to islam online course that starts this weekend. Non muslims and new muslims get a 75% discount *Seeker's Guidance courses - you may enjoy this course on the life of the Prophet (saws). The Seeker's Guidance podcast is also excellent. *A podcast of lectures by Sh. Hussain Abdul Sattar. Edited by UmmSqueakster, 24 September 2010 - 08:58 AM.	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2010-09-24 08:58:00
Middle East and North Africa	Change the way I dress?	I've changed how I've dressed over the years, but I think that is more of a function of graduating from college and moving from jeans and long sleeve tshirts (with a scarf on top) to more business appropriate attire like dress skirts and button down shirts (with a scarf on top) than being married to an Egyptian. My post college wardrobe is almost completely taken from Shukr, to get a sense of my "style" (ha, as if I had a sense of style). It's hijabi western If you feel you want to dress a certain way, do it for the sake of Allah (swt) and not any man. Not saying that that's what you're doing, but that's what you'll be accused of If you want to wear abayas, go for it. If you want to wear shalwar kameez, go for it. I wear abayas on the weekend, more for function than form. That way, I can just throw it on over my PJs so I don't have to get dressed going to the store Also very easy to throw it on over my workout gear as I leave the gym. I dowear abayas on occasion to the masjid, but don't think it's something that's an absolute requirement. I got my first shalwar kameez this last Ramadan. I haven't worn them up until now because I feel like a big gori (aka white girl) poser. Still felt like a big gori poser but I didn't care because it was so pretty I actually did a culture mash up and wore it for eid with my hoodie jedi abaya partially unbuttoned over it so all the pretty sparklies could show. It would have been even more awesome if I had managed to find some matching lime green chucks, but alas, I have yet to convince AbuS that I need fluorescent chucks in orange, pink and green. As you get more involved in the american muslim community, you'll come across a number of american converts married to men from overseas, and in general, I think quite a few do adopt (at least partially) the dress of their husband's home country. Not making any sort of value judgment, just making an observation. I didn't even really think of it until I found another euro-american convert wearing a west african kaftan set and another wearing traditional somali garb (a long khimar and skirt). I was like, woh, what are they wearing? But then, it isn't any more unusual than my abaya collection. If you ever want to chat, you can reach me via my blog, since I'm not on VJ very often anymore.	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2010-09-23 11:59:00
Middle East and North Africa	How well do you know your MENA S/O?	1. He's sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen? He generally doesn't sit in front of the TV, unless it's some history documentary on PBS. He sits in front of the computer and watches egyptian political talk shows. 2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad? Nothing, lettuce straight up 3. What's one food he doesn't like? Not a big fan of italian, sadly 4. You go out to eat and have a drink. What does he order? water 5. Where did he go to high school? El-Sadat El-Thanawaya Baneen 6. What size shoe does he wear? 9.5 7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? nothing. 8. What is his favorite type of sandwich? tuna 9. What would this person eat every day if he could? apples 10. What is his favorite cereal? doesn't eat cereal, prefers ful 11. What would he never wear? a galabiya in public, sadly 12. What is his favorite sports team? Al-Ahly 13. Who did he vote for? All democrats, all the time (due to my fabulous brain washing) 14. Who is his best friend? Aside from me, Yousrey 15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn't do? Be so fastidious over details 16. What is his heritage? Egyptian 17. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind of cake? cheesecake. lots and lots of cheesecake 18. Did he play sports in high school? Football, aka soccer 19. What could he spend hours doing? watching egyptian political talk shoes 20. What is one unique talent he has? the ability to survive on only apples and tuna	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2010-10-18 15:25:00
Middle East and North Africa	Americans Soldiers Save woman who had her nose cut off	It's a straw man argument because you're arguing against something no one has posited here. You're talking about a group of people who are treasonous traitors because they bash america left right and center and spit on US soldiers. There's no one here taking the position you're arguing against (and even if they were, to label someone a traitor is serious serious business). Thus, strawman. and, just for the heck of it: SubhanAllah, w'Alhamdulilah, w'Allahu Akbar sayin it just because I can, not because I've signed an anti-american slam book, nor because I've given up my identity. Said because they are truly beautiful words meant to praise the Owner of the Most Beautiful Names. If that means I'm a treasonous traitor, then sign me up! Allah (swt) is Beautiful and loves Beauty SubhanAllah, w'Alhamdulilah, w'Allahu Akbar and again SubhanAllah, w'Alhamdulilah, w'Allahu Akbar How's that for random arabic words in an english conversation? SubhanAllah, w'Alhamdulilah, w'Allahu Akbar! SubhanAllah, w'Alhamdulilah, w'Allahu Akbar! SubhanAllah, w'Alhamdulilah, w'Allahu Akbar! SubhanAllah, w'Alhamdulilah, w'Allahu Akbar! SubhanAllah, w'Alhamdulilah, w'Allahu Akbar!	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2010-10-19 15:39:00
Middle East and North Africa	Americans Soldiers Save woman who had her nose cut off	Once again, strawman par excellence. No one is trashing anything. We are free to disagree with actions taken on behalf of the US government, including those taken by soldiers. Putting on a uniform does not give one immunity from criticism. Still waiting for my copy of the slam book. In the mean time, I'm going to ask my mom to send me my copy of this, so I can send away for my very own slam book with which to properly become a traitor or something or not.	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2010-10-19 13:47:00
Middle East and North Africa	Americans Soldiers Save woman who had her nose cut off	I think Hanging in There misread Hot Guy's post again. He did not say he hated the US army. In fact, he was making the OPPOSITE point. His post means that although he criticized the policy of the war, he not only does not hate the US in general, he does not even hate the army as a whole for implementing that policy. HG, please correct me if I read you wrong there, but it seems pretty clear to me that there is a total miscommunication between "I didn't say I hated the army" and "I'm horrifically offended that you hate our army." It's an informal logical fallacy called a straw man. You set up a weak, false argument that your opponent doesn't make, and then proceed to get all indigent and, emotional then smack it down and proceed to celebrate how much more righteous and moral you are than you opponent who (did not) make such a horrible argument. And speaking of emotions, I'll see HiT a relative in WW2, and raise her a great grandfather in WWI and a many times great grandfather who DIED in the civil war. I think that makes my argument worth at least 3 times as much as hers But speaking of trump cards, my late grandfather, a WW2 veteran, disagreed with the current US wars. Does that mean he hated himself? Edited by UmmSqueakster, 19 October 2010 - 08:18 AM.	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2010-10-19 08:16:00
Middle East and North Africa	Americans Soldiers Save woman who had her nose cut off	I never saw the slam book. It's just like high school, I'm always left out	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2010-10-18 15:35:00
Middle East and North Africa	Americans Soldiers Save woman who had her nose cut off	Couldn't have said it better myself. Egypt definitly isn't perfect but you won't EVER hear my husband criticize it. Therein lies the difference between many fickle Americans and the spouses we marry from 3rd world countries. Meh, AbuS criticizes Egypt frequently, because the government is a horrid little nepotistic dictatorship that is running the country into the ground. We're equal opportunity criticizers.	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2010-10-18 15:28:00
Middle East and North Africa	Americans Soldiers Save woman who had her nose cut off	If you do that excessively in Egypt or other places you get arrested on the spot. Try doing the things in mena that are allowed here and you will see how long you would last Um, yeah duh. That's why we live in the US. We appreciate the freedoms being a citizen gives us, and we enjoy exercising them freely.	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2010-10-18 15:26:00
Middle East and North Africa	Americans Soldiers Save woman who had her nose cut off	You know what I love about america? The fact that we're allowed to disagree with the government line, and generally talk smack about policies we don't like. Also, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Never ceases to amaze AbuS that they're allowed to say what they say about the gov'ment.	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2010-10-18 15:13:00
Middle East and North Africa	HALAL Food	We are very fortunate to live in a metro area with lots of muslims, and as such have access to zabiha meat. Heck, there's even a local free range, grass feeding farmer who arranges to have some of his animals slaughtered zabiha, so we're uber spoiled. When we first got married, we just ate supermarket meat, but after doing more research on the issue (see also this), we found that if zabiha is available, then one really needs to eat it, so that's what we do now. If it weren't available locally, we'd order some online, eat fish and shrimp, and more vegetarian. As it is, I've been working on AbuS' meat consumption for the last 2 years, and have cut it almost in half. I'm near vegetarian myself, so the extra cost of the zabiha isn't as much as it was when he was consuming tons each week. When shopping at a regular grocery store, I read a lot of labels, and am familiar with what foods are considered vegetarian suitable. Meat gets processed a million different ways and shoved into processed foods a billion more ways, so it's often lurking under an unassuming name. As such, I don't buy a lot of processed foods, which has had the unintended consequence of being a godsend for my high blood pressure and cholesterol.	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2010-11-11 15:57:00
Middle East and North Africa	MENA CR1/K3/K1 visas PART2	Aya - we didn't include any chat logs at all. We printed out screen shots of our email from various points in our relationship (to show we've been talking for a long time) and a few representative emails that didn't contain private or sensative information. If possible, I'd just do the screen shot and then cherry pick a few of the chats from across the period of time you've been talking. That way, you don't need to include anything that you don't want to.	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2009-12-11 09:02:00
Middle East and North Africa	MENA CR1/K3/K1 visas PART2	QUOTE (100% Al Ahly Fan @ Nov 16 2009, 10:14 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Well all I can say is my husband's interview didn't go well. Ahmed was put on AP and they informed him it could be up to 7 months maybe longer. It's related to him being here in the U.S. before, him having two nationalities and being born in a different country then the nationalities that he has. They want verify dates and do name checks or whatever. The DOS couldn't give me further information, the operator just said the AP will take a long time. I expected AP, although NOT seven months or more. For now all I want to say is thanks to all of you for your help, positive thoughts and listening to me venting when all I wanted to do was b1tch! I am not in a good place now and although it will get better inshaAllah....I am not looking forward to this waiting. Again, I want to thank everyone. Take care all and best of luck on your visa journey. Sharifah, on the bright side - at least they were honest with your husband. It used to be (to the best of my recollection) that Cairo didn't tell the interviewee anything about AP, or said it would only be a few weeks, and then drag on for months or a year or more. inshaAllah it will actually be less than anticipated, as that seems to be the way it goes these days in Cairo. If he wants something to do in the mean time, he can always chat with AbuS about life here in these united states and about the job hunt. Hang in there and inshaAllah we'll get together and do our best to forget all this visa crud.	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2009-11-16 12:57:00
Middle East and North Africa	MENA CR1/K3/K1 visas PART2	I think it's good to have people on board who are at all stages of the process and in all stages of relationships, from the good to the bad. Plus, this place is addictive. Once you check in, there's no checking out.	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2009-11-16 10:46:00
Middle East and North Africa	MENA CR1/K3/K1 visas PART2	Yaay, my first official VJ meetup I've met VJers in the past, but never been to a meet up. Jax, if we can get a firmer date, maybe we can get Amera to come up from Wisconsin. Turia, were you going to come up next weekend? We could have mini minnesota meet up parts 1 and 2.	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2009-10-06 11:51:00
Middle East and North Africa	MENA CR1/K3/K1 visas PART2	Sorry to hear things are so tough Jax. If you happen to make it to the twin cities, email me and we'll do lunch	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2009-10-02 10:17:00
Middle East and North Africa	Family member s wife lost family in bombng in Egypt	Nope, not much in condemnation. Just thousands of average ordinary Egyptians of all stripes risking their lives to act as human shields on Christmas. Just arabic language message boards being overwhelmed by debate and discourse on the issue. Just major Egyptian figures like Amr Khaled openly calling for dialogue and trying to organize events to address this disgusting happening, and al Azhar going along with him. Just the arabic language independent press and blogosphere adressing this issue and calling for change. Nope, not much condemnation if you don't look. And of course, the stellar response of the Egyptian government to the whole mess, including the torture death of a suspect and the mass roundup of "salafis" in Alexandria. Nope, nothing to see here, move along, move along.	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2011-01-13 14:42:00
Middle East and North Africa	Location of Egyptian Peeps	Yup, Twin Cities here. And FYI, there is a rally for Egypt tomorrow, Saturday at 1:30 pm at the State Capital I'll be there with a sign of Mubarak with every US president since Reagan inshaAllah. Edited by UmmSqueakster, 28 January 2011 - 09:23 AM.	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2011-01-28 09:21:00
Middle East and North Africa	NPR looking to speak to someone with Egyptian military connections	planetmoney NPR's Planet Money Anyone out there who has served/currently serves in the Egyptian military? We have some questions...planetmoney@npr.org Thanks! http://twitter.com/#!/planetmoney/status/32487297748312064 My favorite NPR program!	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2011-02-01 12:21:00
Middle East and North Africa	Language	AbuS took an ESL course aimed at new immigrants and refugees when he first arrived, but for the most part, he's improved his english on his own. He reads a lot of news stories, and when he comes across a word he doesn't know, he looks it up, asks me how to pronounce it and commits it to memory. He practices writing and has someone proof read and smooth it out. And, when we speak, he's asked me to correct any pronunciation problem he has. It's a bit tedious, but it's really helped to reduce his accent. It's still there, but he's much easier to understand now than when he first came.	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2011-01-31 15:06:00
Middle East and North Africa	Leaving for Cairo in 3 days	I don't ever remember being stared at. My poor brother on the other hand, whew. We visited Mahalla, and my brother was the center of attention. He was 16 at the time, over 6 feet tall, and blond, and he acquired a flock of followers. A group of school girls were trailing behind him, giggling, and trying to shoot him goo goo eyes	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2011-02-16 15:51:00
Middle East and North Africa	Leaving for Cairo in 3 days	Harry Smith, obvious american, seems to have had a pretty darn good time - http://www.cbsnews.c...ch/?id=7341978n If we could drop our jobs right now, AbuS and I would be there. We're trying to plan a trip there in March before or after we make umrah.	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2011-02-15 15:23:00
Middle East and North Africa	HEY MENA!!!!!	Hey congrats! Hopefully another one to add to the "have survived" column	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2011-02-10 09:39:00
Middle East and North Africa	MENA Men Being "Men"	(PS - my screen name means "cat" in Darija - as well as I could spell it at the time - and I'm guessing Squeaky has been waiting for just the right moment to make that joke! ) Alas, I know no darija, but now that I know the meaning, I'm adding it to my vocabulary One should know how to say cat in as many languages as possible. You found a real treasure Ummsqueakster...alot of Arabs find animals in the home repulsive. I've been trying to bring a little mini mini doxie into the home but no go.. AbuS' brother had pets from a young age, so he's used to having animals in the house. He was not, however, used to how americans tend to baby their pets. It took some time, but Squeaky has him wrapped around her paw and if he thinks she's in any way not happy, he'll do whatever he can to cheer her up He used to get all worked up about cat hair on his clothes, but a few weeks ago, I came home from work and he's like, I've got to show you something: Moral of the story - don't leave the drawer with your good work pants open.	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2011-03-02 17:24:00
Middle East and North Africa	MENA Men Being "Men"	Because I've decided every thread is better with cats, AbuS is getting this for his birthday this year: That's my definition of a "man" - a person with XY chromosomes who isn't afraid to get all squishy and sentimental over a fur baby. And who doesn't mind signing these checks: So yup, AbuS is a "man." We don't fit into any kind of gender roles. From the beginning, we agreed he wasn't getting an Egyptian wife, and I wasn't getting an American husband. Instead, we're something else entirely.	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2011-03-02 14:33:00
Middle East and North Africa	How come lots of MENA members don't have Pics posted	Let's just say that if you put your photos on this board, parties (be they VJ members, islamophobic bloggers or just random passers by) with potentially nefarious purposes may feel free to abscond with said photos and do tawdry things with them. capisci? And speaking of nefarious islamphobic bloggers who do tawdry things to VJ members' pictures, she who shall not be named just linked to the post re: the incident that shall not be mentioned in a new post of hers. Edited by UmmSqueakster, 04 March 2011 - 04:09 PM.	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2011-03-04 16:07:00
Middle East and North Africa	How come lots of MENA members don't have Pics posted	Congratulation on getting 1/2 way to your wt loss goal. Anything particularly useful and helpful you've been doing? Thanks! It's taken me a year to reach the halfway point, and I hope to be finished one year hence (wooo, I used hence in a sentence ). It's basically the usual - eating very healthy and exercising. I've reduced my meat consumption to almost 0, eat only chicken on occasion, and fill up on whole foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains (especially those close to their native form like brown rice, bulgar, etc, instead of whole grain breads) and beans. I make almost everything for myself, which is time consuming, but I've found that processed foods have so much crud in them, it's worth it to make stuff where you know everything that goes into it. And the biggest for me is not eating out. Even with being pretty much a vegetarian, there are still so many tempting choices for lunch close to my office that I have to hide my wallet from myself. Basically, when I eat out I fail. When I pack my lunch, all is well. I've tried to blog about this, but as with just about everything in my life that isn't Squeaky related, I'm not too good at keeping up with it. The 2 series are Food Rules and Food Matters.	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2011-03-01 16:33:00
Middle East and North Africa	How come lots of MENA members don't have Pics posted	I post pictures of my cat, because I don't care if the entire world sees my cat. I'd rather not have pictures of AbuS and I floating around the world wide web, being used as an example of MENA men using fat american women for GCs (although I'm halfway to my weight loss goal, so maybe when I'm a smokin hot babe, I'll put a few out there ).	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2011-03-01 15:44:00
Middle East and North Africa	Preparing for the benficiary's arrival	Here's a new one - there is the potential for harassment. Both AbuS and I have gotten snide comments in the past about go back to where you've came from (always a favorite of mine, since I came from Wisconsin). But today, while waiting for the bus, some guy started whacking AbuS with his backpack and telling him to go back to India Luckily AbuS kept his head and immediately pulled out his cellphone and called 911. The whacker started to walk away, and the 911 operator told AbuS that he shouldn't follow him. The officer who came to take his statement told him he had a right to self defense, but AbuS didn't fight back, for fear that it would escalate the situation and he'd get in trouble too. Now, bear in mind AbuS has been here 5 and a half years, and this is the first time harassment has ever been physical. It's not too frequent, and usually is just verbal. I've been physically harassed twice. The first time a group of teenage girls pulled my hijab off at a local grocery store. The second time may have just been runner harassment and not muslim harassment - as I was out running a few years back, I ran past a group of guys and one of them reached out and grabbed my chest. Piggies. Not saying that immigrants WILL be harassed, but at least be aware that it's always a possibility and that they should know how to act accordingly. I'd say AbuS did the right thing in not fighting back, since his life wasn't in danger and he wasn't too seriously hurt. He's a US citizen now, so he can't be deported.	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2011-03-18 16:16:00
Middle East and North Africa	Preparing for the benficiary's arrival	We had issues adding AbuS to my bank account. I believe we tried to do it the day after he arrived, and they initially refused, as he didn't have sufficient ID. He had his Egyptian passport, his US issued visa and his Egyptian ID card. They accepted the passport, but not the visa, as it was in the same book. I tried to argue that they were issues by 2 different governments and should be considered 2 forms of ID, but they weren't buying it. They wouldn't take his Egyptian ID card as it was in arabic. If they had had someone who spoke arabic on the staff, they said they may have taken it, but alas, that didn't work. We were preparing to leave, all dejected, when the banker whispered to us that they would take a Sam's club ID, so why not try that. So off to Sam's Club we went to get a membership. Poor Sam's Club employee, trying to figure out how to use his Egyptian passport as ID. They'd obviously never encountered anyone wanting to use a passport as ID, let alone a foreign passport. And once we got that, we went back and added him to my account.	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2011-03-17 09:42:00
Middle East and North Africa	Preparing for the benficiary's arrival	Also, want to say that there were a couple of things I did to prepare that weren't worth it in the long run. I ordered the soccer channels on cable so that he'd have that to watch. I also ordered another cable box and dvr so we'd each have a tv to watch and didn't have to interfere with each other. Turns out, American tv doesn't interest him, and he watches soccer on the internet. So, that was unnecesary. There were a couple of other things that I'm blanking on now that hopefully I'll think of later and add. The internet is a marvelous thing We just have very basic cable, like the cheapest you can get with just the major networks and PBS. If AbuS wants to see anything MENA-ish, he can find it online. He's found places to watch al-Ahly, and on youtube has hit the motherload. There are tons of egyptian plays there, as well as many of the egyptian political talk shows. There are websites that stream egyptian movies. And, there's always al-Jazeera that streams live, and has recordings of shows both on youtube and on their website. Just as a funny aside - one of my friends who is an ESL instructor was telling my husband he should watch American tv for increased language skills, etc. Husband was like "have you watched American tv?" He's not a fan. On a related note, I read somewhere that having subtitles on the TV helps with english comprehension. Turns out I'm the only one who watches american television, and now I can't watch it without subtitles. Whenever I go to my parents' house, I have to turn it on and they're like	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2011-03-17 09:03:00
Middle East and North Africa	Tired woman here!	I'm a loser who has no life offline, and have met many people in person that I've originally met online. I sometimes joke that I have no real world friends. But these are people that I maintain friendships with, not people I live with 24/7. I'm certain they're my friends, but if we lived together all the time, I'd learn a whole droyk* of a lot more about these people than I know through our hanging out together. Stang**, I lived with my best friend after college. We'd been best friends for 11 years. And knew a whole lot more about her when I moved out than when I moved in and she drove me barvy*** along the way From my own, humble experience living with AbuS after knowing him online for 4 years, I "knew" him well in theory, but put into practice, I didn't really know him at all. I've decided to use expletives only from the SW EU. Just because I can. *droyk- Corriliean expletive **stang - an expletive originating on Alderaan. ***an insult, used in conjunction with someone do something crazy	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2011-03-25 18:07:00
Middle East and North Africa	Tired woman here!	I think perhaps this kind of behavior takes different forms in different cultures, although in some it is more common then others? Aren't there american men who spend all their time in their man cave watching sports or out at the bar with friends? In Egyptian culture, men will often stay out late at cafes with other men talking while their wives stay home, at least from what I've observed and from what I've talked about with AbuS. To the OP, I don't have any real advice other than to stay strong and don't compromise to the point where you've lost yourself. I would hope that your kicking him out will be a wake up call and he'd be willing to change, but if not, then I do hope you are better off without him. Positive thoughts and vibes are headed your way.	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2011-03-22 09:23:00
Middle East and North Africa	MENA Relationships Poll	*UmmS - USC woman *AbuS - USC man, formerly MENA citizen *Met 9 and a half years ago *Talked online for almost 2 years before meeting in person *Visited Egypt 3 times over the next 3 years, including once with my parents and siblings *AbuS arrives in the US in 10/05, we get married per the US government that same month *07/09 AbuS becomes a US citizen *03/11 We're still married and inshaAllah anticipate continuing to be married for the next several decades While it certainly hasn't been easy, AbuS has never been abusive, disrespectful, unfaithful or irresponsible. We've both been naive when it comes to marriage, but then, we were both young when we met and this is our first marriage, so that's par for the course. And if, God forbid, we end up splitting up, I'd probably look for an american muslim to marry. Not a fan of the visa process and don't want to go through that again. Or, I'll just adopt lots and lots of cats and become a crazy cat lady. Yeah, I think I'll take option #2. Edited by UmmSqueakster, 23 March 2011 - 03:06 PM.	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2011-03-23 15:06:00
Middle East and North Africa	No Internet In Egypt		UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2011-02-14 10:04:00
Middle East and North Africa	No Internet In Egypt	Like with the Wael Ghonim situation, I won't believe it until I hear it, but it does look good http://www.msnbc.msn...ideastn_africa/ Of course, transferring power to Suiliman isn't really helpful. I saw this quote on twitter earlier today by Alexis de Tocqueville: In a revolution, as in a novel, the most difficult part to invent is the end. Mubarak out is but the first step. A lot still needs to be written. Corruption pervades most aspects of the government, and it needs somehow to be addressed and reformed. But if the government itself is corrupt, how then can it be trusted to make adequate reforms? Thus, the conundrum currently facing those who may lead.	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2011-02-10 10:47:00
Middle East and North Africa	No Internet In Egypt	Has Ben Wedeman always been as insightful/clear thinking as he's seemed to me thru this revolution? I forget where I saw it - think it was Hamza Yusuf's comments about situation in Egypt - he said that interviewers/reporters like Anderson Cooper (and another report whose name I forget)sound more militant about the situation than the guests they're interviewing! I honestly don't remember hearing about him before this - I'm more of an NPR gal than a CNN watcher. But I think that when you're on the ground, in the midst of the revolution, there's an effect on a person. Especially if you've been beaten by pro Mubarak thugs a la Anderson Cooper. I think a lot of the talking heads haven't actually been in Egypt during the protests. BREAKING NEWS ON TWITTER - MUBARAK MAY BE STEPPING DOWN TODAY!	UmmSqueakster	Female	Egypt	2011-02-10 10:26:00