phone competition

I was reading the paper today and came across this article about the new Blackberry that will available for personal use here. Funny how this press is released a little over a month before a new phone provider, Vodafone, is due to begin mobile phone service here. Two phones that Vodafone will be supporting are the Blackberry Storm and the iPhone, though there hasn't been any announcement on when these phones will be available for purchase. In my honest opinion, I think a lot of people will be trying out Vodafone to see if the service is better. Even if the cost is a little higher, I'm sure many will be willing to dole out the extra cash to finally be able to use the iPhone in its full capacity. I know a lot of people who have bought the iPhone from the states and haven't been able to fully use it here, even after installing the proper software. So let's keep our fingers crossed for entering the iPhone world.....

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Money on the go

I went to this outdoor event here and I saw the strangest thing. Because this event is sort of far from any shopping centers, there were not 1, but 2 ATM trucks. Yeah, that's right. A truck with an ATM built into it. There were special stairs connected so that people can reach the ATM machine. These trucks were provided by a major bank here. The kicker is, these trucks were not guarded at all. In fact, there wasn't even someone in the driver's seat. If you place these unguarded trucks back home where I'm from, they wouldn't have lasted 2 seconds. Someone would have stolen them right away. Now, it is a good idea that the trucks were there given that it was a bit isolated; and I'm guessing that did help with sales that customers didn't have to go far at all to obtain the money to make their purchases. But, when I saw that these trucks were not manned or guarded by anyone, ....I just couldn't help but busting out laughing. I imagine that would make a good monologue for any comedian in the states. To be fair, maybe there was some type of alarm or something on the tires that would make it hard for any burglar to steal the trucks without making a big scene. However, I didn't see any type of thing. Just goes to show how things here are a lot different from back home.

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Trip to the US-building bonanza

One thing I was happy to see in my hometown is the number of new building that have gone up since I left. My hometown has a reputation of not being a city of growth. One famous author has been qoted as calling it "There is no there there." Well, it's definitely a place to be now.There were tons of new apartment buildings. Now how many of them are affordable, I'm not sure. Then again it's not surprising how many housing units have been built considering that a lot of people are getting priced out of San Francisco. For a while there was a mass exodus out of SF and into the East Bay and beyond. But for the most part, housing prices have gone down considerably. So hopefully those who have moved to my city will stay.
There's also so many new office buildings! My city has a bad rep in the past of not hiring from within the city and instead hiring from the more affluent surrounding cities. Let's hope this time that people who live in my city can also work in my city.  It was good to finally see that the renovation of the Fox theater is underway. There's a gorgeous brand new church on the lake. I was totally blown away at all the development that has gone on and is still going on.

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Customer Service

The one thing I missed so much from the states is customer service. It was so nice to walk into a store and have the employees of the store ask "Can I help you find anything?" or "Did you find everything?" or "Would you like me to check if any of our other stores have this?". It was almost shocking. Now the best customer service in a grocery store that I saw in the states was in a chain that's specific to California, whose initials are NHF. Now this chain was mainly in San Francisco but just recently spread to my part of the bay. I just couldn't believe how friendly everyone was. It definitely gave me a good first impression of the store.
In this part of the world, I'm lucky if I'm even acknowledged by employees. I have to search to find someone to ask where an item is. On one of my first trips since I got back, I asked an employee where a certain item is located and he replied, "I don't know." and turned his back on me and went right back to stocking the store. How rude! Now this is not to say that everyone is like this, but for the most part it seems that customer service is one part that was left out of employee training.

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1st Ramadan in the Middle East

This is my 3rd Ramadan away from home and my first one in this area of the world. I had iftar on the first day of fasting with friends of mine who have lived in the area for over 15 years and its definitely different from what i'm used to. They live away from downtown so as soon as they hear the adhan (aka call to prayer) they break their fast with dates and water and immediately start eating. I was given a cup of soup at the same time as the big meal and also gien desser. It was only after they finished eating that they prayed the sunset prayer, Maghrib. Back home, I break the fast with dates and water and then pray Maghrib. Dates are a complete sugar and by the time I finish praying, which is not more than 5-7 minutes, my body has started to digest the dates and water, making my body ready to digest a meal. Then i start off with hot soup. Then I can eat a meal. This is sooooo much easier on my body then to just start immediately eating food. Needless to say, that i had a headache after eating at my friend's house. Not to sound ungrateful, because i really thank her for making  the food and inviting me to eat with her and her family. It's just interesting to see the different ways people break their fast.
On the other hand, today i broke my fast with members of my Islamic study group. For the past couple of months we've been meeting once a week later in the evening, but decided to have the talk at the same time as the iftar during Ramadan. We broke the fast with dates and water and then prayed Maghrib. Then we ate a meal. After eating, we had the talk, which lasted about 20 minutes. Then we had dessert. This sequence of food is what i'm used to from back home. Eating dessert a while after eating a meal is easier on my body. In the past, when I've eaten dessert at the same time as the meal, would give me a headache. Most of the members of my study group are expats from the US, UK, and Canada. So they're used to breaking their fast the same way as I am.
Another big difference is the Taraweeh prayers. These are special prayers done after the last prayer of the day, Isha and are only prayed during Ramadan.Ok, so one thing that is similar is that these prayers are offered in the mosque/masjid right after the Isha prayer. The difference is the length of time used to pray these. Here, the taraweeh prayers started at around 7:45pm and finished about 8:45pm. A total of eight rak'ahs (unit of prayer from standing to kneeling) were prayed with about a 1-2 minute break between each of the 2 rak'ahs. In the states, on the other hand, taraweeh prayer rarely finished before 10:30 or 11pm. It will last for 8 rak'ahs BUT there is a longer break between each fo the 2 rak'ahs of prayer. After reaching the halfway point, there is a huge break that last anywhere from 20-45 minutes depending on the mosque/masjid. During this break, sometimes there is a small sermon on how to improve oneself during this month of forgiveness. Sometimes, there is a plea from the leaders of mosque to donate money to the mosque. My friends and i call it "the donation break". I can't blame them for appealing to members of the congregation in the month where we should donate money to good causes even more than we should during the rest of the year. Plus all the mosques are independently funded. But sometimes, I'm just so ready to pray and go home and donate money on my own time. I'm guessing donations are not needed here since the mosques are funded by the government (don't hold me to that-I could be totally wrong so please correct me). Anyways, I think it's sooo cool to finish all the prayers early and go home feeling relaxed from the prayers.

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Remembering Amy Knapp

I just recently found out that Dr. Amy Knapp, one of my fave grad school professors passed away in May. She taught Government Documents and was one of the coolest professors I've ever met. Although she has her doctorate, she insisted on her students calling her Amy. She was one of those professors that people said " You have to take Amy's class before you graduate. You won't be sorry." And it's true, because that was the most enjoyable class I had. Even though, the class was from 6-9, she had a way of teaching that just made people pay attention. Because she was so laid back, I felt comfortable asking questions during class. She took a real interest in me to make sure I understood the material. On top of all that, she was super stylish.
She had a lot of funny stories to tell us. I'm telling this the best way I remember, so if I've missed anything, please let me know.While she teaching our class she worked full time in the main library. One time while she was at the reference desk, she saw a woman walk in, sit at a computer, and open the library's home page. She typed something and emphatically pressed a button and looked over at Amy. At first Amy didn't notice, but the woman kept doing this over and over again-typing something, loudly pressing one key, and turning her head towards Amy. Finally, the woman walked up to Amy and said, "I've been pressing the "Help" button for the last 10 minutes and you haven't come to my computer!" As cool as she was, Amy went over to help her and then let her know that the best way to ask for help was to come to the desk. She had our class rolling with laughter.
And that's the type of person she was. She will surely be missed.

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Good bye radio station

Ok, so one thing I do like about living in the middle east is the radio station that's all Quran. Not that I'm the most religious person, but I do like listening to it, especially when I'm driving. I've developed a "mouth like a longshoreman" or " a Soprano mouth" in adapting to the driving patterns here in the middle east, so listening to Quran helps to humble me and watch my mouth....sort of, when I'm driving. Anyways, now the station is no longer on the air. It's been replaced with traditional native music. As if there's not enough stations with that type of music already.

At the same time there's talk of starting a dress code for expats here. Not that they're related,but i do find it kind of odd that this station has been taken off the air and at the same time there is talk of a dress code to conform with Islamic society. So if the Qur'an is the heart of Islam doesn't removing this station from the airwaves show the value placed on religion in society? Just saying....