It was an incredible event!! Margaux got the ball rolling and encouraged us all to sign up, and Im so glad we did!! Margaux, Sophie, Alex, Gwen, Lacy, Hannin, Lauren and I proudly represented "team TINA" for the day (the name we gave ourselves because everyone else had a legitimate team)!
We were fortunate enough to take a bus with a sponsored group of Egyptian students from AUC. They were really nice, and very very excited to be going. The energy at the event was so awesome. Everyone was singing, dancing, clapping, chanting. I didn't notice how huge the crowd was until the races started and you could see the asphalt turn white and pink all the way down the way. It was like a flood of pink hijabs and white t-shirts. It was awesome.
I know there were at least 2,000 people "running" because I saw numbers that high (mine was 5!) but I feel like there were more. It was also really interesting to notice all the different nationalities there, I saw a lot more white people than usual. Haha.
I think my favorite part of the whole thing was people watching. We saw a lot of survivors with pink shirts on, and international visitors with shirts dedicating their run to a loved one. All the hijabis were decked out in pink and white and there were a ton of little kids running around with their baggy shirts dragging on the ground. It was awesome. My favorite favorite outfits were the survivors wearing abias (in America we dont distinguish so that would just be "burka"). The fully vailed women pinned their survivor shirts onto their abias, it was so cool!!
 |
| Personal hero <3 |
I loved the energy and the view and the spirit! It was such an amazing day!!!!!
Other notables this week:
Shami night! :
"Shamis" are the people of Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Jordan, supposedly named after the ancestors of Noah's son Sham! The Shami students at AUC organized an awesome even to tell a little bit about their culture and celebrate it. It was really really cool. The Lebanese and Palestinian students rehearsed some native dances and showed them and the Jordanian and Syrian kids brought delicious food. Each country also showed some pictures and talked about their culture, and there was lute playing and dancing and socializing, it was so fun. The Palestinian dance was the most fun, they tried to teach it to all of us in the audience but we couldn't really get it. Either way it was a really fun night.
Basketball! :
Last night, Alex, Sophie, Mia and I went to watch the Egyptian national basketball team play the United Arab Emerites.... we won... the thing is, well... I think it's safe to say arabs are not good at basketball. Before our game started we caught the end of Iraq vs. Algeria, and that was cool too. Whether or not the teams were good wasn't important, it was still really fun to be there, and yell with the crowd as they clapped and shouted YALLA MASR (Let's go Egypt)!! =))
Most Epic Event of the World:
SO! Margaux and I had discovered a really cheap rooftop bar earlier in the week and thursday night we brought Aaron, Sophie and Alex there. It was a really nice relaxed night, then Aaron went to the club and we went to a friend's appartment downtown. On the way though... here's where it gets good.
We stepped into an ordinary taxi, on an ordinary night. We agreed on a fair price and were on our way. Less than a minute into the drive our cab driver gets a phone call. He's speaking excited loud arabic and frantic "humduallah, humduallah!!!"s. He hangs up and says "my wife!" then motions a large belly and says "pregnant!... baby boy!!"
We all responded accordingly with the AAHs and AWWWs and YAAYs and CONGRATULATIONS!! And he says to us "name!"
We were confused for a minute but laughed hysterically when we realized he was asking us what he should name him!
First we suggested Alex.. he said "no, no, Egyptian name" We said yeah he's Egyptian, "Eskandar" but he didn't like that one.
We thought we'd try something Muslim then sense Alex is a Christian name, and threw out ALI! And he says "ALI ALI, OK!!!"
So then he got another call and it was more frantic arabic but we made out enough words to gather that she liked it. He also told her he was with Americans and kept saying Ali insha'allah and after he hung up more "humduallah." SO! Happy birthday Ali! Welcome to Earth!!!!
It absolutely made my life, and we skipped all the way to Danyal's house =))
My name is Kjrstin كر سثن Berg, and I love my life.
No comments:
Post a Comment