my sister(apparently solving a crossword puzzle or something): hey, i bet you can't name an animal that starts with "U".
me: you.
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Saturday, August 04, 2007
things that happened in the past few weeks
- went to sa7el with friends...had a great time
- grades came out - i have now officially graduated ahl :) i could write ALOT about how i feel right now, but i'll save you the headache. "happy and proud" should do for now.
- had an interview with a leading architecture firm...i impressed them and they were willing to hire me, but i wasn't happy with the conditions...they improved the offer and i declined again. my family and friends think i made a mistake.
- my sister got married, beautiful outdoor wedding. now spending her honeymoon in Paris and Venice.
- trying to learn Interior Designing on my own through books and internet while searching for available courses in cairo.
- grades came out - i have now officially graduated ahl :) i could write ALOT about how i feel right now, but i'll save you the headache. "happy and proud" should do for now.
- had an interview with a leading architecture firm...i impressed them and they were willing to hire me, but i wasn't happy with the conditions...they improved the offer and i declined again. my family and friends think i made a mistake.
- my sister got married, beautiful outdoor wedding. now spending her honeymoon in Paris and Venice.
- trying to learn Interior Designing on my own through books and internet while searching for available courses in cairo.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
finally.
i'm done. after 7 years of torture i finally finished college.
how much time do u think is appropriate before i start looking for a job? keep in mind that i apply for the military service next january. so during these 5 months any job i take will not be with a contract.
how much time do u think is appropriate before i start looking for a job? keep in mind that i apply for the military service next january. so during these 5 months any job i take will not be with a contract.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
treat urself with some stand up comedy
found these guys on youtube, apparently they're a bunch of arab guys trying to improve our image in the states through stand up comedy. really funny stuff.
Monday, July 09, 2007
nope, not done yet.
they gave us an extra week to work on the project, so the final due date is next friday. only 4 days to go.
i got another phone call from this lady asking me to work in her firm as soon as i'm done with the project. i had already made up my mind that i didn't want to work in an architectural firm, at least not in egypt. so instead of excusing myself politely and thanking her for the opportunity (which would be the mature/responsible way of handling the situation) i decided to have a little fun and and let her have second thoughts about hiring me. childish and stupid? probably. but it felt like it would be something that would cheer me up at the time.
normally when someone is applying for a job he tries to give the impression that he's really eager to work, and that he can do anything they ask for. i did the exact opposite of that.
this is how the phone call went:
her: "introducing herself and politely asking if i needed help with my project"
me: thank you. so if i do work for you, what exactly will i be doing? working drawings, designing, photoshop, 3d modeling?
her: a little bit of everything.
me: ok will i be working inside the office? or will i be supervising the project's construction in the field??
her: both. you'll visit the field every once in a while to see how everything's going.
(here's when i started having second thoughts - it sounds like an awesome job : tons of experience and a flexible job description.....but if you know me at all, u'll know that i don't miss a chance to have a little fun. especially if i'm not hurting anyone....so i decided to stick to my plan)
me: ok but you should know that i'm still technically a student, and my main objective would be to gain experience about the architectural practice in egypt, and ur firm would be helping me alot in that. so i'll be more like an intern rather than an architect.
her: uuuhh- well we all need a little help at first. that's perfectly normal.
me: great. so when do u expect me to start?
her: well ofcourse ur gonna need a vacation after ur done..
me: (interrupting) yeah, i'm gonna need like 2 months or so...i've spent alot of time in college and i need some time to relax - feel like i graduated.
her: 2 months?! ummm..(i could feel the disappointment in her voice) well that's fair i guess. but if you feel like you want to drop by at anytime during the vacation just to see what the environment is like, feel free to do so.
me: (really surprised at her tolerance) yeah sure, i'll do that definitely...thanks again for this great opportunity, and i'm looking forward to seeing you soon.
her: great! and if you want, u can bring a friend or two to work here as well.
ok so that phone call showed how cool that lady is. i felt like a complete idiot afterwards. she actually got me seriously thinking about working for her.
i hopefully will visit the firm as soon as i'm done, and if i like the place and if the pay is good enough i probably will be working there after i graduate. just because of that lady- seems like she would make a good, understanding boss.
i got another phone call from this lady asking me to work in her firm as soon as i'm done with the project. i had already made up my mind that i didn't want to work in an architectural firm, at least not in egypt. so instead of excusing myself politely and thanking her for the opportunity (which would be the mature/responsible way of handling the situation) i decided to have a little fun and and let her have second thoughts about hiring me. childish and stupid? probably. but it felt like it would be something that would cheer me up at the time.
normally when someone is applying for a job he tries to give the impression that he's really eager to work, and that he can do anything they ask for. i did the exact opposite of that.
this is how the phone call went:
her: "introducing herself and politely asking if i needed help with my project"
me: thank you. so if i do work for you, what exactly will i be doing? working drawings, designing, photoshop, 3d modeling?
her: a little bit of everything.
me: ok will i be working inside the office? or will i be supervising the project's construction in the field??
her: both. you'll visit the field every once in a while to see how everything's going.
(here's when i started having second thoughts - it sounds like an awesome job : tons of experience and a flexible job description.....but if you know me at all, u'll know that i don't miss a chance to have a little fun. especially if i'm not hurting anyone....so i decided to stick to my plan)
me: ok but you should know that i'm still technically a student, and my main objective would be to gain experience about the architectural practice in egypt, and ur firm would be helping me alot in that. so i'll be more like an intern rather than an architect.
her: uuuhh- well we all need a little help at first. that's perfectly normal.
me: great. so when do u expect me to start?
her: well ofcourse ur gonna need a vacation after ur done..
me: (interrupting) yeah, i'm gonna need like 2 months or so...i've spent alot of time in college and i need some time to relax - feel like i graduated.
her: 2 months?! ummm..(i could feel the disappointment in her voice) well that's fair i guess. but if you feel like you want to drop by at anytime during the vacation just to see what the environment is like, feel free to do so.
me: (really surprised at her tolerance) yeah sure, i'll do that definitely...thanks again for this great opportunity, and i'm looking forward to seeing you soon.
her: great! and if you want, u can bring a friend or two to work here as well.
ok so that phone call showed how cool that lady is. i felt like a complete idiot afterwards. she actually got me seriously thinking about working for her.
i hopefully will visit the firm as soon as i'm done, and if i like the place and if the pay is good enough i probably will be working there after i graduate. just because of that lady- seems like she would make a good, understanding boss.
Monday, June 25, 2007
don't need the money
if you've been through the 26th of July bridge/me7war in the past 2 weeks you would've seen a huge billboard that says:
i'm sorry i do not have its picture, but i'll try to take a photo of it soon.
why would someone do that? a billboard that size on that road would cost alot of money - around 100,000 LE a year. which means that if he rented it for only a month that would be around 8000 LE.
not only that, he rented 2 billboards, so that you could see it if you're going to the 6th of October City, or the other direction - to mohandeseen. which means he spent at least 16000 LE to let people know he's getting married.
why?
unless this is some creative way of advertising a new product or something, which i doubt because i don't see how they can make a connection, then i'm afraid something's wrong with this fellow.
Dr.Tamer Something
C H E E R S
Soon To Leave the Bachelor World
C H E E R S
Soon To Leave the Bachelor World
i'm sorry i do not have its picture, but i'll try to take a photo of it soon.
why would someone do that? a billboard that size on that road would cost alot of money - around 100,000 LE a year. which means that if he rented it for only a month that would be around 8000 LE.
not only that, he rented 2 billboards, so that you could see it if you're going to the 6th of October City, or the other direction - to mohandeseen. which means he spent at least 16000 LE to let people know he's getting married.
why?
unless this is some creative way of advertising a new product or something, which i doubt because i don't see how they can make a connection, then i'm afraid something's wrong with this fellow.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
lots of stuff going on.
i was able to keep my word this time and not smoke sheesha for one full month... i know i'll eventually get back to it (i can't imagine summer without smoking sheesha), but it's good to know that i still have some determination left in me when i need it.
in the past few weeks i got like 4 different job offers and i didn't even graduate yet...i didn't apply anywhere either, i get these phone calls from a friend's friend or a distant relative's acquaintance telling me that as soon as i'm done with the graduation project i should go and work in their architectural firm. cool. but that doesn't change the fact that i'm still gonna be spending A LOT of time considering which career i'm going to get myself into first.
my brother's wedding is tonight. he wants me to give a small speech/toast in the wedding. i don't know what i'm gonna say. also the whole dancing bit i talked about before in my earlier posts is making me nervous.
my graduation project is turning into a nightmare. we were supposed to submit our pre-final phase a week ago, and i didn't. i'm really falling behind in the project. the professor gave me a final chance to submit it next saturday. that gives me thursday and friday to work on it. and as you already know i can't work today because it's my brother's wedding. so that leaves me tomorrow only to finish up my whole project. sort of an impossible task but i'll do my best.
ok gotta run.
i was able to keep my word this time and not smoke sheesha for one full month... i know i'll eventually get back to it (i can't imagine summer without smoking sheesha), but it's good to know that i still have some determination left in me when i need it.
in the past few weeks i got like 4 different job offers and i didn't even graduate yet...i didn't apply anywhere either, i get these phone calls from a friend's friend or a distant relative's acquaintance telling me that as soon as i'm done with the graduation project i should go and work in their architectural firm. cool. but that doesn't change the fact that i'm still gonna be spending A LOT of time considering which career i'm going to get myself into first.
my brother's wedding is tonight. he wants me to give a small speech/toast in the wedding. i don't know what i'm gonna say. also the whole dancing bit i talked about before in my earlier posts is making me nervous.
my graduation project is turning into a nightmare. we were supposed to submit our pre-final phase a week ago, and i didn't. i'm really falling behind in the project. the professor gave me a final chance to submit it next saturday. that gives me thursday and friday to work on it. and as you already know i can't work today because it's my brother's wedding. so that leaves me tomorrow only to finish up my whole project. sort of an impossible task but i'll do my best.
ok gotta run.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
random thoughts
- i feel safer with a tank full of gas than with a pocket full of money
maybe that's because i live far away from the city... maybe it's because i own a credit card.
- i've been told several times that using credit cards to borrow money via ATMs is considered "7aram", yet i still use it occasionally.
- five years ago, i would spend most of my free time watching tv... now i only watch tv once a week or so, and it's only to see Amr adib's "el qahira al youm" or "el 3ashera masa2an" on dream tv...
- i enjoyed watching the interview with naguib sawiris in "el 3ashera masa2an" a couple of days ago..i was surprised to see him shed tears in front of the camera.
- i'm 3 weeks away from graduation and i'm not excited. i hate college, but i'm afraid of the responsibility of achieving my dreams...i don't want to be another "mowazaf" who waits till the first day of the month to get his paycheck and goes home to his routine-saturated life.
- i'm worried i'll get called to do the military services after i graduate which will waste another 1-3 years of my life.
- i'm bored
maybe that's because i live far away from the city... maybe it's because i own a credit card.
- i've been told several times that using credit cards to borrow money via ATMs is considered "7aram", yet i still use it occasionally.
- five years ago, i would spend most of my free time watching tv... now i only watch tv once a week or so, and it's only to see Amr adib's "el qahira al youm" or "el 3ashera masa2an" on dream tv...
- i enjoyed watching the interview with naguib sawiris in "el 3ashera masa2an" a couple of days ago..i was surprised to see him shed tears in front of the camera.
- i'm 3 weeks away from graduation and i'm not excited. i hate college, but i'm afraid of the responsibility of achieving my dreams...i don't want to be another "mowazaf" who waits till the first day of the month to get his paycheck and goes home to his routine-saturated life.
- i'm worried i'll get called to do the military services after i graduate which will waste another 1-3 years of my life.
- i'm bored
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Thursday, May 24, 2007
i hate it when this happens
i get a missed call on my cell phone from a friend of mine, so i call back to see what's up.
me: alo
him: aywa yabni ezayak
me: tammam ahl, eh el akhbar?
him: enta fel beet?
me: aywa
him: tab kallemny 3al beet delwa2ty
me: tab wenta matkallemtesh 3al beet mel awel leh?
him: makontesh 3aref enak fel beet
me: tayeb.
i call him at home.
him: aywa ba2ollak, hateegy el koleya bokra?
me: isa
him : tab ok..c u there isa..
and this is normally where i slam the phone down in his face.
he couldn't have just said these three words on the cell phone and got it over with??!
me: alo
him: aywa yabni ezayak
me: tammam ahl, eh el akhbar?
him: enta fel beet?
me: aywa
him: tab kallemny 3al beet delwa2ty
me: tab wenta matkallemtesh 3al beet mel awel leh?
him: makontesh 3aref enak fel beet
me: tayeb.
i call him at home.
him: aywa ba2ollak, hateegy el koleya bokra?
me: isa
him : tab ok..c u there isa..
and this is normally where i slam the phone down in his face.
he couldn't have just said these three words on the cell phone and got it over with??!
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
yesterday
yesterday was a big day. i woke up to a phone call from my cousin telling me he's in haram and he doesn't have a car, begging me to go pick him up since he's in no mood to go to home (heliopolis) using public transportation.
after i brought him back home with me we stayed for lunch then we started preparing ourselves for what we thought was going to be the highlight of the day: my sister was gonna be competing in the Virgin Megastore Treasure Hunt. if she wins she's gonna get a shopping voucher worth 10,000 LE to use in Virgin.
the competition was tight, she was going up against 2 other people, a boy and a girl, both around her age. to win the competition you have to know everything about virgin megastore (how the products are sorted out inside the store) so that if they ask you to find the Superman DVD you should do so in the least time possible. i of course predicted that the boy was going to win it easily since he would be a faster runner and he would probably have had alot of time to memorize the place. we live in the 6th of october city, so my sister didn't have any chance to go to city stars just to look around...the boy on the other hand probably went there everyday.
when the competition started the guy was running all over the place like crazy...my sister and the other girl looked very lost. Fortunately, the guy did lose some time looking for a specific dvd. my sister was looking for the ricky martin cd and i found it right in front of me, so of course i showed her where it was which made the Virgin guys give me a few words about how unfair that it is and that i shouldn't let it happen again. of course the competition was far from over but that little tip i gave her probably had a lot to do with the final outcome.
my sister ended up winning:)
it turns out that she's not allowed to use the voucher to buy laptop computers, mobile phones, or big-screen tv's. she had to choose between PS3's, ipods, home theaters, dvds, books, music cds......
i was trying to stay away from her and let her make all the decisions, and her fiance was doing the same....everyone else (we were 9 people all together) was giving her all these suggestions that made her really confused...
she ended up getting 2 ipods (one ipod video for her and another ipod nano for yours truly) , PS2, all seasons of Dawsons Creek on dvd (she loves that show), 7 books or so, some music cds, and tons of accessories for the ipods and PS2.
she was really hesitating on whether she should get the PS3 or not but she decided not too since its too expensive and it would mean she would have to get much fewer books and dvd's...
surprisingly, that was not the highlight of my day.
on my way home i was driving too fast as usual. apparently i made a sudden move which caused another car to almost have a major accident....the guy caught up with me and he started giving me these gestures with his hand...he wasn't doing anything rude, it was more like a "what the hell are you doing?!" kind of gesture. i was confused since i didn't remember doing anything extra dangerous so i asked him to stop by the road to see what he was talking about... the guy (in his late 20's) seemed really tense and he started explaining to me that if he hadn't pushed the brakes i would probably be dead now. he gave me a lesson about how i should be considerate about other people's feelings including my parents.
i got the message. i apologized and got into my car, as i took off i saw him sitting inside his car with his friend all shocked and speechless.
i'll definitely drive more carefully in the future.
after i brought him back home with me we stayed for lunch then we started preparing ourselves for what we thought was going to be the highlight of the day: my sister was gonna be competing in the Virgin Megastore Treasure Hunt. if she wins she's gonna get a shopping voucher worth 10,000 LE to use in Virgin.
the competition was tight, she was going up against 2 other people, a boy and a girl, both around her age. to win the competition you have to know everything about virgin megastore (how the products are sorted out inside the store) so that if they ask you to find the Superman DVD you should do so in the least time possible. i of course predicted that the boy was going to win it easily since he would be a faster runner and he would probably have had alot of time to memorize the place. we live in the 6th of october city, so my sister didn't have any chance to go to city stars just to look around...the boy on the other hand probably went there everyday.
when the competition started the guy was running all over the place like crazy...my sister and the other girl looked very lost. Fortunately, the guy did lose some time looking for a specific dvd. my sister was looking for the ricky martin cd and i found it right in front of me, so of course i showed her where it was which made the Virgin guys give me a few words about how unfair that it is and that i shouldn't let it happen again. of course the competition was far from over but that little tip i gave her probably had a lot to do with the final outcome.
my sister ended up winning:)
it turns out that she's not allowed to use the voucher to buy laptop computers, mobile phones, or big-screen tv's. she had to choose between PS3's, ipods, home theaters, dvds, books, music cds......
i was trying to stay away from her and let her make all the decisions, and her fiance was doing the same....everyone else (we were 9 people all together) was giving her all these suggestions that made her really confused...
she ended up getting 2 ipods (one ipod video for her and another ipod nano for yours truly) , PS2, all seasons of Dawsons Creek on dvd (she loves that show), 7 books or so, some music cds, and tons of accessories for the ipods and PS2.
she was really hesitating on whether she should get the PS3 or not but she decided not too since its too expensive and it would mean she would have to get much fewer books and dvd's...
surprisingly, that was not the highlight of my day.
on my way home i was driving too fast as usual. apparently i made a sudden move which caused another car to almost have a major accident....the guy caught up with me and he started giving me these gestures with his hand...he wasn't doing anything rude, it was more like a "what the hell are you doing?!" kind of gesture. i was confused since i didn't remember doing anything extra dangerous so i asked him to stop by the road to see what he was talking about... the guy (in his late 20's) seemed really tense and he started explaining to me that if he hadn't pushed the brakes i would probably be dead now. he gave me a lesson about how i should be considerate about other people's feelings including my parents.
i got the message. i apologized and got into my car, as i took off i saw him sitting inside his car with his friend all shocked and speechless.
i'll definitely drive more carefully in the future.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
i'm back
no i wasn't in alex all this time. but i've been in a pretty bad mood since i came back. 2 funerals, almost no progress in the graduation project and an aching tooth that makes me want to kill myself, are some of the main reasons why i haven't been blogging.
i'm not the kind of guy that likes to share my feelings when i'm feeling down. i'm trying to change that a bit through blogging, but it's not as easy as i thought.
on the bright side, the past few days weren't so bad. in college we're celebrating our final year by organizing all kinds of activities for the whole class to attend together.
there was a 5 day trip to luxor and aswan ( didn't go ), a prom (didn't go to that either), and a fun day in college where we all wear the same t-shirts (designed by us) and we go around crashing lectures with the assistance of oriental instruments, trumpets, and of course our chanting voices. i was determined not to miss this one since i always felt jealous in my previous years when i saw the older students celebrating that day.
also yesterday one of our female colleagues was kind enough to invite us over for lunch at her home. we were about 15 students all together. after lunch we sat down in a circle and each one of us started imagining what the other students will be like in 10 years time. surprisingly, they all agreed that i was going to be some sort of bill gates. and they all agreed that i wasn't going to work in the architectural field at all. i guess they're right about that part, i don't feel like the architectural work environment in egypt is suitable for me. too much routine.
i'm not the kind of guy that likes to share my feelings when i'm feeling down. i'm trying to change that a bit through blogging, but it's not as easy as i thought.
on the bright side, the past few days weren't so bad. in college we're celebrating our final year by organizing all kinds of activities for the whole class to attend together.
there was a 5 day trip to luxor and aswan ( didn't go ), a prom (didn't go to that either), and a fun day in college where we all wear the same t-shirts (designed by us) and we go around crashing lectures with the assistance of oriental instruments, trumpets, and of course our chanting voices. i was determined not to miss this one since i always felt jealous in my previous years when i saw the older students celebrating that day.
also yesterday one of our female colleagues was kind enough to invite us over for lunch at her home. we were about 15 students all together. after lunch we sat down in a circle and each one of us started imagining what the other students will be like in 10 years time. surprisingly, they all agreed that i was going to be some sort of bill gates. and they all agreed that i wasn't going to work in the architectural field at all. i guess they're right about that part, i don't feel like the architectural work environment in egypt is suitable for me. too much routine.
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