2-6-05

I have been feeling very sad lately and it really kicked in full effect yesterday (Saturday the 5th). Sometimes I get very cranky with Shakil because of this life that I'm living in. It's not easy AT ALL and I do get bored very often. But last night Shakil took me to this restaurant called, "Freddy's". It was just Shakil and I and I really enjoyed the time with him. It felt "normal" for a change. The food there was very tasty and they even had burgers/fries, etc. So it wasn't just Paki food at all. There were steaks, etc. All sorts of stuff. It very much reminded me of Bennigans. That's what I would compare it to. Yesterday (Saturday the 5th) in the evening we had been home and Shakil had convinced me to go out to dinner at about 10 p.m. We first stopped by his grandparents house as he invited us over. While there with his grandfather he talked us into trying some Paki dish of chicken. Something like chicken curry. It was soooo yummy and his grandfather sent it home with us. He also gave us a bunch of oranges and some bananas. The fruit here is absolutely amazing. It is sooo very sweet and soooo much better than in the U.S. The oranges here will knock your socks off!! They are tasty!! So that's what we did prior to going to this restaurant, "Freddy's" and we didn't get to the restaurant until after 11 p.m.!! Now that's late dinner for me and for Shakil. But I see that it's normal to eat here very late. Shakil says that normal dinner time is about 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. I like my dinner at about 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. ya know!!

Today (Sunday the 6th) we were invited over to Shakil's uncles house. Shakil has 4 uncles which are called "mamu's" on his mom's side. So we went over to one of their houses today for visiting, etc. Today there is a festival going on which is called "Basant" It's like a kite flying festival. Everyone tries to fly kites and cut them. There are kites in the sky everywhere, people on rooftops, etc. Very interesting I must say. There are also fireworks going on, etc. Fireworks went on last night until verrrrry late. I could still hear them at about 1:30 a.m. So back to going over to his mamu's. There were soooo many people showing up over there. I'm still having a hard time with being around big crowds. Especially people that I don't know very well. I know some people in his family but I haven't seen any of them since I was here in Pak a year ago. So I'm trying to get to know them and feel comfortable. I was telling Shak today that I hope that his family doesn't think I'm rude or something, I'm just trying to adjust and feel comfortable. His family has been very nice and welcoming to me and I really couldn't ask for anything more. I feel very lucky in that regard as I've heard horror stories!!! :-)

So right now its about 5:20 p.m. on Sunday and I'm here in the bedroom sitting on the sofa typing this up. Shakil and I have the tv on and I'm just relaxing. Life here is verrrrrrrry relaxing. There are no concerns, no worries, no nothing. Now if only I could adjust. I told Shakil today that I really wanted to learn the language which is Urdu. I've learned several words like clean = saaf, breakfast= nashta, etc. just simple words. I really want to work on learning much more. That is my biggest handicapp here...the language barrier. Everyone in Shakil's family speaks perfect English but when they all get together they speak Urdu. So that's why I need to learn more plus it will give me something challenging to do and would also feel like a great accomplishment if I'm able to learn quite a bit.

Until later...

Bye for now.

2-2-05

I think today makes it officially 2 weeks that I've been here in Pak. It just seems as if it has been so long since I have seen home. I'm still adjusting and I'm sure I will be adjusting for the rest of the time that I'm here. I get a bit cranky at times...ok...not at times...most of the time with Shakil out of frustration. In fact, I'm inches from starting it up again as he's sitting here right next to me saying "stuff". Men....geez...you can't live with them and you can't live without them!! :p He makes me laugh though. You just gotta have some humor about this whole situation he and I are in. I do think that he and I will do just fine in the U.S. just not here in Pak!! :p We have argued more here in Pak than we have in the almost 2 years we have been together. I can remember back when we were dating he and I never argued. But man we have had some good ones here!! :-) Making up is the fun part.

Today is Wednesday and Monday night I went with Shakil to the hospital to get his chest x-rays redone because they said Shak didn't hold his breath well enough and he had to go back. These x-rays are needed as well as other reports for the visa interview. The outside of the hospital looked nice but I stayed in the car because the parking was absolutely horrific and the path towards the hospital was soooo muddy and I was not in the right shoes to walk in that. So the servant and I waited in the car. Now let me tell ya what a good time that is chatting with the servant when he doesn't speak much english and I know maybe 2 or 3 words of urdu. :p But I managed to ask him about how many brothers/sisters he had as well as finding out their names. Don't know how I got him to understand what I asked. He and I do a LOT of sign language and pointing to communicate. lol

After leaving out of the hospital Shakil received a text message from his cousin Ismail if we wanted to go out for dinner. So Shakil and I headed over to meet him at his house. Shakil, me, his cousin Ismail and his wife went to a restaurant called Nando's. Everything there is chicken. The entire menu was chicken. I ordered the grilled chicken in a pita with some french fries on the side and it was very tasty but didn't settle well with me later on. I spent most of the night in the restroom. Not fun!!! :-(

Yesterday was Tuesday and nothing much was going on but today I actually accomplished cooking something on top of the stove. I had the servant cut up some veggies for me and I put it all together with some spices and cooked it up on top of the stove. I made that with some frozen chicken tikka. So I had that ready by the time that Shakil came home for lunch. 2 points for me!! :-)

Tonight we had leftovers for dinner and everything is going ok. The time seemed to go by much quicker today as I was doing more than I normally do which is waiting for the next thing to come on tv. So at least I was a bit more productive. I'll keep saying it over and over again that it's not easy for me here but at least I have the support and understanding from a wonderful husband!

Until later...

Bye for now.