so what do you do? oh.. this and that

Yes, this is the story of my life nowadays.. After recovering from eid week which felt nothing like eid at all, I am ok again. So yesterday a couple of friends invited us to have dinner with them and other friends in a Peruvian restaurant. So there we were, a very nice mixture of cultures: an Australian married to a Peruvian, an American couple one of them born in Jamaica, a young lady from Barbados and an Egyptian couple all having dinner in London. Actually we came to know that this restaurant Tito's is the only authentic Peruvian restaurant in London (if you click on the link though it will tell you that the description of the cuisine is American!!!!! but take my word for it). It was hot and noisy, the food was really nice but I really think it helps a lot to have a Peruvian with you to recommend the interesting things. Then it so happened that I was asked what do I do for a living.. ah yes.. :) so first I started with the general PhD thing and linguistics. The reaction to that was: "isn't linguistics that thing about dialects and stuff?" So I did some explaining.. Then I was asked what exactly do I do in my PhD.. so I had to go to the "this and that" story.. and there was a hint of sarcasm and a touch of humour that I detected in someone's question: "you're doing a PhD on this and that?" Yeh yeh..

Well.. no hard feelings.. so what if financial traders who make a lot of money don't get that I am dedicating a few years of my life to "this and that"? ...mmm, actually, it would be nice if I can get a career out of it in the end.. do you think I have a chance? Anyone?

Mai

happy eid

My first eid with Ali is tomorrow, he's working from 9 to 6 and I'm in a conference from 9 to 8, and it's forcast to be rainy and windy... happy eid to us and everyone.. :) But what really makes it feel like eid is that I managed to get the famous song "ya leilet el eid" (eid night) for the legendary Om Kalthoum just minutes ago.. ok, got to go sleep now, have a looooooooong day tomorrow and we have to wake up early to catch the 7:00 am eid prayer before heading to the city together.. of course i'll be humming this song all night long :)

ya leilet el eid 'anestina (eid night welcome)
we gadeitty el amal feina (you refresh hope inside us)
ya leilet el eiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiid.. (eid night)

Mai :)

the perfect workshop

On what?

"Workshop on Common Sense and Intelligent User Interfaces"

And where?

Honolulu, Hawaii

Aloha academia.. :)

Mai

quote of the day, week and probably month

Get me to my self..

(as seen on London cabs)

Mai