So far I have spent the majority of my break doing nothing. I told myself I was going to memorize like three chapters worth of Arabic words/grammar that I did not properly memorize during the last few weeks of school, final papers and all that. So far, I’ve not even opened the book once and my break is over in 10 days. I should do it though, it can only help me next semester what with my overloading on credits. I picked up the second book in the Al-Kitab series while I was visiting some friends in Sacramento, and I just happened to read the back of it today. It tells me that I get to continue to enjoy the story/relationship between Maha and Khalid. Ustathati told me that the second book did not contain the story. Clearly, that was a lie.

I picked up a new Digital camera over the break as well. My Canon Rebel, while still a good camera, is entirely too bulky for me to be lugging all over Egypt. I think that if I have a camera that I can put in my pocket, I’ll be more apt to bring it along with me. I don’t want to get done with my Masters and have no pictures to remember Egypt with! That would be a sad, sad day.

This website continues to not get used. This is also a sad thing. Mostly all the stuff that I do is behind-the-scenes, and only involves keeping the software up to date. Maybe trying to update this on a daily basis will be my New Year’s Resolution? Probably not. I’m not a pessimist, just a realist. But I do have a lot more online stuff that I will have to do this year because of the Graduate Students’ Association, so perhaps I can manage to work this in? Hopefully.

Speaking of that illustrious organization of ours, check it out! http://www.aucgsa.com.

Yours,
Scott

So school has started again, and I am beginning to question my basic understanding of myself. Case in point: my Arabic class is four days a week at 8:30am. That means I have to get up at 7am 4 days a week. Why did I not learn my lesson in during my undergraduate career? I keep saying I’m going to pick a later class next semester, but Lord knows I’’ll probably end up signing myself up for the early class again. So goes the plight of Scott.

So yeah, that’s all for now.

Two weeks ago I was in Seattle visiting family. It was nice, I had not seen them all since they came down to Sacramento for my college graduation. While I was there, I got to take a day trip to Port Angeles, Forks, La Push and all of the surrounding area. It was amazing. Lots of photos will undoubtedly follow at some later point.

For now I continue to study for catechism, as well as worry about the future studies.

Much more later, I promise.

Scott

Maybe this will turn out to be a blessing in disguise. If I do poorly I won’t be able to complete my degree in the two year time frame, unless I take some intensive Arabic courses. I am not opposed to such a thing, and I think that if I start from the beginning I will be able to pick it up a lot easier. Now that I am a graduate student, I will not be working. I spent at least 40 hours a week while I was in my undergraduate career at Sacramento State, and I know I would have done better in all of my courses if I had not worked and spent more time studying. So, Insha’allah, I will do better this time.

I believe that I am still on course ( I make it sound like a race) to be baptized this August. Hopefully it will be on August 15th, which is the Feast Day of the Assumption of the Blessed Mother. Being baptized on that day was not my idea, it was my Priest…and he only mentioned it in passing. But somehow, it seems right.

I’ve much more to say, mostly about my upcoming trip to seattle, but I have to go now. So, until next time…bye!

Yours,
Scott

The Holy Spirit on Pentecost

And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. (Acts 2:2)

Today is Pentecost Sunday, the birthday of Holy Mother the Church. Rejoice and be glad!

I recently stumbled accross this video after being reffered to it by the kindly souls at the SQPN Network. Please take a moment to view it.

I remain forever yours,
Scott

Now that I have much more free time, maybe I will actually get to work on this website with some real gusto. Not sure how that is all going to pan-out for me in th end, but I will give it a try. There are some minor changes I want to make to the navigation. For instance, the photo gallery section…when I create a new Album in the gallery, I do not want it to show that Album in the main navigation of the site. Right now, it shows up as a sub-page to my navigation and I don’t like it. Death to sub-pages! Also, I would not mind taking some more pictures to add to my rotating main header. Have you noticed that it rotates yet? I have!

Not sure if I mentioned this in a previous post before, but I finally spoke to my Priest about getting baptized. It only took four years of discernment. But whatever. I meet with him every two weeks (tomorrow will only be the second time that I meet with him) to go over some literature about the Catholic Church. So far, I have gone through the “Inquiry” pamphlet that he gave me, and it really only had some basic information in it for me. Maybe it wouldn’t seem so basic if I wasn’t the type of person who wants to know everything. Also, Wikipedia traps me in its never ending cycle of clickable links.  Father Clooney also gave me a copy of the Handbook for Today’s Catholic. It is an interesting read, I knew most of the information in it but it also gives a little bit of background as to why we believe such things. It’s always good to know why we believe something, rather than blind faith. Unless it’s a Dogma. Then you just need to sit down and believe! No really, you should know why.

I think that is all I have for now. Still waiting on Egypt. I emailed both the Financial Aid and Housing departments and I’m waiting to hear back from them. I should leave the middle of August for Cairo so I can get settled in before school starts. My grandmother told me she wants to come visit while I’m there. That will be interesting…though she has been to Africa before. Curing Polio, or something like that.

See you around the bend,

Yours,
Scott