Adventurous Things

7/16/08

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:33:36 -0800

I'm back to Salem and working hard on my Lilly Grant . . . but also having some adventurous fun. Here is a segment from an upcoming feature-length filth, "Indiana Jones and the Serpent of Fire." This segment comes from near the beginning of the movie, depicting Dr. Jones chasing down a couple of Nazis who just killed one of his closest professorial friends . . .

6/24/08

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:25:01 -0800

Hello, anyone who is still looking here! I will be home in less than a week, and I'm looking forward to being with family and friends! I will definitely miss a lot of people and simply the lifestyle here, and am looking forward to coming back to continue my Arabic studies.

Today I went to the Giza Pyramids with a number of friends, including the whole family of the Egyptian, Maher, with whom I taught English, the Sudanese boy I tutor, Guma, a friend from Comoros, Ahmed, and a number of other Egyptians who I knew in my English class (or friends of those friends that I didn't know before today).

Here is a video and some pictures from today. If you've never heard the noises a camel makes, you're about to be surprised (at least, I was sure surprised . . . and a little freaked out!)!

Despise Guma's insistence on letting him down from the camel, by the end of the ride, we had to force him off as he insisted on riding it all the way back to his home (a one hour CAR ride away). In addition, I had taken him to see Indiana Jones 4, so the whole day he was either humming the theme music or, like me, saying "wow, this is like Indiana Jones" as we explored various tombs, tunnels and passage ways.

Here are some mostly self-explanatory pictures, with a few important notes:

Here Indy ponders a newly discovered tomb out of which have come some mysterious noises . . .

Once inside the tomb, Indy investigates the hieroglyphics and deciphers an encrypted message leading him to one of the greatest archeological finds in all history (which must of course not be mentioned on the internet) . . .

Indy exits the tomb, still overwhelmed with the discovery he just made . . .

!سلال
Andrew

5/13/08

Tue, 13 May 2008 03:05:58 -0800

Howdie!

I don't know if anybody is still checking this since school is finished in the States now, but here are some pictures if you have found your way to my blog.

These are all from a trip during spring break (a couple weeks ago) to Sa'ara, where the famous Step Period of Djoser is. It was fun seeing what I had studied in my high school art history class.

Here we are in a microbus which took us to our not-too-distant destination (just on the edge of Cairo). With me are my roommate Ted and two students in my English class, Peter and Bolis.

I never realized there was such a thing as a pretty countryside in Egypt, but here it was!

Here we are at the Step Pyramid of Djoser

And this is the temple entrance into the Pyramid's courtyard/arena area

I can't wait to see you all again soon!

Love,
Andrew

4/17/08

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 03:32:42 -0800

Here are some recent pictures.

This is my totally cute nephew back home, Zack.

These little girls live on the bottom floor of my building and greet me every morning and evening with a high-five.

This is at my good friend Hozaifa's favorite place in Cairo, "City Stars Mall."

These are my friends from Hai Al Asher

Peace.

4/6/2008

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 03:33:24 -0800

Dear Friends and Family,

I hope you are doing exceedingly abundantly supercalifragilistically well in all the ways that really matter. I have enjoyed hearing from many of you in the absence of my posting anything here.

This last month has been pretty tough in most ways. I’m continuing to press through in my studies and am enjoying my Arabic classes. So many of the Egyptians I’ve befriended speak English, which of course allows for easy communication, but is frustrating because I don’t practice any Arabic with them. Fortunately, I’ve befriended a fellow my age named Mahmud, who speaks no English and sells ice cream along my route home from the metro. I’m trying to save at least half an hour everyday to sit and talk with him. I’m also now teaching an English language class on Monday and Thursday nights. The class is composed of about twenty five Egyptians, and an Egyptian teacher who, along with his family, has pretty much adopted me. I’m also grateful to have some wise friends I met last summer back in Cairo who are doing precisely what I’m interested in.

I need your prayers that in whatever condition I find myself, the one thing that will remain is a dominant, burning DESIRE for continual fervent communion with God Himself. This can be very hard to maintain with an extremely limited Christian community here, but thank God that He says HE is the One who maintains love (Ex. 34:7). I am also really trying to get more sleep as that makes a huge difference in my day.

I love and miss you all and look forward to seeing you this summer, back at school next fall, or wherever our paths might cross again.

Love,
Andrew

Video and Pictures

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 17:24:30 -0800

Welcome to the blog of the most adventurous, Indiana Jonesy-type movies you'll ever find. Below you will find two films, beginning with an adventure/action movie "A Noble Struggle," filmed in June 2007. Following this is a short documentary of "Things Blowing Up," filmed in June 2007 as well.