Looking on the bright side

[jmc_bks]

The Orioles seem to be most comfortable when about 10 games under .500...which drives me crazy. Forget firing the manager, half the team needs to be fired. But. But! Watching from left field as the Yankees lost on Tuesday night (the O's didn't actively win, they just happened to be on the field while NY lost) was still a pleasure. Go, Jeremy Guthrie! Even better would've been to watch Bedard and Clemens pitch last night. But no, I was sitting in class. *sigh* Still, a win is a win :)

What have I been reading? Well, not much.

What Hala Bustani does every day
Hala Bustani is a student, she studies medicine at the university in Aleppo. She lives in an apartment with her friend, Sahar Hallaq.

Hala gets out of bed at 7:15 in the morning and she goes to the bathroom and she bathes or washes her hands and face with water and soap and she cleans her teeth with a toothbrush and paste.

After that she goes to the kitchen and she prepares breakfast food. For breakfast Hala usually eats two eggs or a piece of bread and a piece of cheese with a glass of milk.

On Friday Hala and Sahar make eggs or stewed fava beans for breakfast and they drink tea after eating.

At 8 in the morning Hala goes to university by bus. She does not go by car because she does not have a car.

At 8:30 Hala arrives at university and she goes to the library and studies there until 11.

At 11 Hala goes to chemistry class with her friend Rada. And at 12 in the afternoon they go together to the university cafeteria and eat lunch there. Sometimes Hala eats an Aleppo kebab and sometimes falafel, but Rada eats yogurt or salad only, and sometimes she eats tabouleh.

After that Hala goes to lab from 1 in the afternoon until 3. After lab she goes to biology class.

At 5 in the evening Hala goes/returns home and she is in at home by 5:15. In the evening Hala prepares dinner and usually eats olives and cheese or vegetables or fried eggs and she drinks a cup of tea after dinner.

Hala watches a bit of TV each night. She likes watching Arabic and English series and the programs of news. Hala usually goes to bed at 10:30 or by 11 at the latest.

The preponderance of "and"s and lack of punctuation is a function of the Arabic. According to my instructor, originally there was no punctuation in Arabic and the "wa" (and) was used as a sort of marker. It is still used to connect clauses that in English would have a comma, colon or semicolon.

I thought about trying to do a mock review of the passage, as if it were a book I'd read since I spent so much time on it (nearly 3 hours to translate and transliterate those 2 pages plus a 3rd page with Adnan Martini's diary), but I'm lacking in imagination at the moment. 'Sides, what could I say? Great plot and character development? (Although Hala is a recurring character in the text book, so her character is pretty developed, because we've read about her family and her home and her classes and her friends.)

So that's what I spent my reading time on this week. My TBR and library books are languishing, but I think that'll change once my copy of Legacy (which shipped on Saturday and should arrive shortly!) arrives.

Comments

[readalljournals.livejournal.com]

Congratulations, your LiveJournal has been chosen as part of the No Journal Left Behind project.
No Journal Left Behind is a Mission to read everyone's LJ. For real.
I chose your journal because you list manchego as an interest.
I'm one journal closer to never being done because I just read yours. This is what I thought:

601.jmcarr2001 How the Yankees can implode like that is proof that they won't make the playoffs this year. I work in a bookstore but you'd hate it because they hardly ever carry Romance.

I can explain why this isn't a complete waste of time at readalljournals,
but if you find the comment attached to your journal problematic it will be taken down -
comment or contact me at readalljournals@gmail.com about it.