10 Things and 10 Thousand Pictures

1. I love pictures. I am going to put an obnoxious amount of pictures into this blog simply because I love them. Here are some pictures I've taken that I am rather fond of:

[On a Safari in Tanzania]

[From Left: A street cat in Cairo, close-up of Oscar Wilde's tombstone, a tree full of vultures]

[Blue skies in Tanzania]

2. I love my family very much. My father's name is Rick James, which my friends found amusing because of that one Dave Chappelle sketch based on Rick James. My mother's name is Melanie Rae, she got her middle name from my grandpa Ray). My sister's name is Samantha, she is seven years older than me. My brother's name is Chris and he is only three years older than me. We have a lot of fun together.

[From left: My bro, sis and I on Christmas 2010, A family breakfast back in the day, Chritsmas 2009]

[My parents, brother and myself dancing our faces off at a darts tournement]

3. Before moving here to Tuscaloosa for university I hadn't lived in the States since I was 9 years old.

Quick breakdown of places I've lived so far:
Dallas, Texas (3 years)
Houston, Texas (6 years)
London, England (3 years)
Cairo, Egypt (6 years)
Tuscaloosa, Alabama (2 years)

[I do not plan on slowing down]

Of all those places, Egypt is where I feel the greatest connection; it is where I consider home. I realize this is odd to most people seeing as I'm a pale skinned ginger with freckles and not some exotic, dark-skinned veiled woman... but who cares? I can decide for myself where my "home" is, it’s MY home.

[From left: Riding camels in the desert near the Giza Pyramids, Statue outside the Egyptian Museum, hieroglyphics in Saqqara, kissing the Sphinx infront of one of the Giza pyramids]

[My friends and I at Giza]

[My dad and I in front of The Bent Pyramid in Dahshur]

[In front of the Giza pyramids]

4. My favorite beer is called Sakara Gold and is named after Egypt's first pyramid, the step pyramid in Saqqara. There is something about a Sakara that I will always have a soft spot for. When I lived in Egypt, we drank it because it was the local beer, it wasn't expensive, and it was very tasty, so why not? But now when I have a Sakara, there is this whole other meaning behind it... It’s home. Whether it is the first cold Sakara I drink when I go home on holiday or if its been a hard week over here in Tuscaloosa and I crack open one of the bottles I smuggled back with me into the States, it is just like having a little taste of home.

[A picture I took of the beer in front of the pyramid]











[From left: A bunch of cases of Sakara, My friend and I enjoying a Saraka in the Waadi desert, Some friends and I enjoying a Sakara in front of the pyramid, A step pyramid I made out of Sakara cans]

5. I love to travel. Living overseas, I have had an amazing opportunity to travel all over the place. When our high school competed on a JV level for academic clubs or athletic teams, we would travel to other schools in the Middle East to have our tournaments and competitions and our Varsity teams competed with European schools. Another cool thing my school did was called "Week Without Walls" where you would travel to another country for a week with two sponsors and about 20 students. You could choose between a service, an adventure or a cultural trip. (I always chose service because its an adventure in itself and probably the most effective way of experiencing a culture). Plus, another bonus to living overseas is that my friends are scattered all over the world. Some of my friends go to university in Europe, some in Asia, many in Canada, and a ton all over the States. Because of that, I almost never have to deal with hotels. One of the reasons I love traveling so much is meeting different people from different backgrounds, seeing different places, and trying to take in as much of it as I possibly can. That is why I am so fascinated with the idea of making documentaries. I want to be able to create films that give the audience as much of the experiences gained through traveling as I can.

(I would post traveling pictures but I wouldn't know where to begin to choose which trips or what people I met on those trips.)

6. I don’t like the term "best friend". This is something that has bothered me ever since I was a little kid. I never liked the idea of singling somebody out and calling them my best friend, mainly because I didn’t want to hurt any of my friends feelings by only naming one of them "the best" but also because I guess I never really could choose a "Best" friend because I love all of them differently. I am fortunate enough to have some of the best people as my friends but they are all extremely different.

[From Left: The Eastside Grillz, The Sorostisistas, The Assholes (aka roomies)]

[From left: The snacks, the Egyptian mothers society, the sordid Crew]

7. I personally think that Montreal is the love child of Paris and New York. One of my closest friends moved to Paris after 9th grade (she is half-French, half-Texan) and I got to visit her there twice and loved it. I plan on living in Paris for some amount of time at some point in my future. Then for last year's spring break, I went to New York City with my sister and loved it. I plan on living in New York for some amount of time at some point in my future. And then this past spring break, I went to Montreal and group of us stayed at my friend’s house that lives there. While I was in Montreal, I figured out the reason I loved IT so much was because it was the perfect medium of Paris and New York. It couldn’t be any more of a perfect combination of the two. I loved it and I now plan on living in Montreal for some amount of time at some point in my future.

Paris

[From Left: In front of Jim Morrison's grave, Before Sybil's prom in front of the Eiffel Tower, singing in front of the Basilique Du Sacre Coeur in Montmarte]

New York

[From Left: sightseeing on St Paddy's, Statue of Liberty, New York Times]

Montreal

[From left: At a Canadien's hockey game, In a park covered in snow, walking the streets]

8. I love music. All sorts of it. Too much to name or try to decide any favorites. Instead I will post a link to a song that is currently playing on my itunes shuffle right now:

Widespread Panic-Airplane

9. I am the absolute worst person at making decisions. Not saying that I make bad decisions but that it takes me forever to decide something. I hate having to choose between two (or worse, more) things. Generally, if there is somebody else who the decision affects, I am fine with letting them come up with the answer UNLESS I have a specific reason for wanting it a certain way. This rarely happens so when it does I respect my decision enough to stand up for it.

10. Halloween is quite possibly my favorite holiday. Last year I celebrated it 6 days straight...

day one: blue man group (we even had blue glitter and silly string)
day two: Twin babies (we wore matching onesies with bottles and binkies)
day three: ghostbusters (with nerf guns and a ghost made out of a bed sheet)










day four: We dressed up as bums (with sign that read "need cash for alcohol research")
day five: Egyptian football fans
day six: we watched scary movies and carved pumpkins