Adapting to a new culture

New culture
People travel and go over seas to see different countries and cultures. Some of them leave their countries for short periods and others for a long one. They have different reasons to do so yet we see them all doing the same thing
Adapting to the new culture.. accepting the change and try to live with it..


1- Driving.. I was driving in Kuwait but without a navigation and without mountains and very high bridges...
So my husband was taking me to the university and bringing me back home with my little kids who will be sleeping in the way...
So me not driving will not work.. but the problem is that I was so nervous of driving
I still remember my first day of driving,, I was on a bridge.. I didn't know which direction to go so I literary stopped I was so afraid. lucky me my husband was near me and he helped me.. gradually with a push from my friend I was driving and I gained my confidence..
I learned how to drive and follow the navigator

Well I still don't like bridges but I find myself driving and depending on my own.

2- the chat:
In the classes I find some things that i don't understand because they are about  the culture like names of books, persons, sport teams...
I started to listen to the radio and maybe this kind of adapting will come by time

3- finding school and place to live;
finding a school and a house was too hard since we are new to the area it was difficult to search for a good school

4- we also searched for traditional food were we will find the brands and kind of food that we are used to.

5- It is also important to know the cultures norms.. what is accepted and what is not

7- finding friends and people that you build relationship with

6- the last thing that i would like to share  is that our fire detector was making a really annouing noise for approximately three weeks we didn't know whats wrong with it..
when we asked the lady who is charged of the house she said well
CHANGE THE BATTERIES

Adapting to the new culture and be yourself and keep your identity is a challenging thing.. you need to adapt and yet remember who you are..

At the end in the foreign country you will find people who will help you and make your adaption easier .. I would like to thank them and I will be them..

They were opened and respected the different in cultures and believes.. We have in our religion that no difference between white or black we are all the same what makes us different is our piety

What is a MOOC????

what does it mean to be a mom???

During my day I thought about this question and wonder what is it to be a mom..

Is being a mom means nurturing, raising, making the kid safe or what???
I think that the most important thing is to provide your child with love and accept him the way he is.

It is important to understand that this child is a gift from God and we will be asked if we full fill our mission.

Well being means:
1- provide ur child with his primary things such assaulter, food,...

2- teach ur child life and social skills. such as self defense

3- listen to him and enjoy his stories

4- share part of your life with him and let him now that he is important to you

5- make him choose. for example let him choose his bed sheet color or his pigamas.

6- respect him as a person and love him the way he is and don't ever compare  him with anyone

7- play with him and have quality time together

8- teach them rules and explain why you say for things no

9- check ur blood every six months


The secret is to enjoy his laughter and his stories. Enjoy going out with him, enjoy playing with him, enjoy being a MOM.
And remember the way you treat him now the same way he will treat you later..

Also it helps to have a mother community practice back in kuwait my friend was doing some mom gathering were mom will gather and exchange their experience..
lucky me my kid's school ,the children's school, does the same thing.. some moms will gather with some teachers and they will be chatting about parenting issues.
I went to one meeting were they were showing us some useful parenting books, also in the gathering we talked about our kids' food ect.



talking about parents I would like to thank my great mom and dad who always listened to me and provide me with strength. they are always there for me.

I LOVE U MOM & DAD

Horse ridding

the translation was horrible.. It has changed the meaning of what I want to say.

So I am going to write it again in English

their are some animals that I love. Horses are one of these animals.. before telling you about my horse riding experience in San Diego let me tell you about horses.



It is said that horses were created before humans and they were not ridden by human they were brutal. but it was     after the  Prophet Ismaiel( the son of the prophet Ibrahim) was a youth and had grown up God told him a certain prayer and after that  he was able to ride the horses. He was the first one to do so.


I would like to mention that the prophet Suleiman had horses which he loved them. he gave the Arabs horse and it was the best gift for them

The Arabs loved horses and felt that it is a source of proudness. they have treated the horses as if they were one of their family members.
Our prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) encouraged horse riding( for a good purposes). Also God has sworn in the Qura'n by horses.

horses has such good affect on human they will teach the rider leadership, self control and courage.



So back in kuwait I have registered Yousif in horse riding club

Yousif in his training

Zaina riding the horse

zaina washing the horse

As for me I have ridden a horse when I was young in one of the Islands in U.S It was so much fun.
In San Diego I wanted to repeat the same amaozing experience I had but it wasn't the same
the place where I put my leg wash't adjusted and we only walked,, the horses were trained to walk I felt that I was only setting on the horse....
Well the main thing about horse ridding is the challenge of controlling the horse...

Well I think that my future activity is to take horse ridding classes

horse riding

When I have used the translation icon in my blog, the transalation was awful.. the sentence structure was bad.. So I thought why don't I write in Arabic and check to the English translation then.... So here t begins:

The Translation was bad to read it in English see the next blog post

منذ زمن بعيد وانا اود ركوب الخيل و الركض فيه..اشعر ان لركوب الخيل تاثير كبير على شخصيه الانسان فهو يعلم الثقه بالنفس و حسن التصرف و الشجاعه.. كما انه 

يدربك على التحكم بالاعصاب ، الرحمه ، الصبر.

و لقد قيل ان الله خلق الخيل قبل خلق  الانسان و لم يكن مذللا للركوب بل كان وحشيا و لكن بعد ان بنى سيدنا ابراهيم و اسماعيل الكعبه ذلل الله لهم الخيل

  و لقد كان الخيل من ملك نبي الله سليمان ايضا

و مما ينبغي ان يذكر ان العرب عشقوا الخيول و اعتبروها من اهل بيوتهم

و لقد اقسم الله تعالى بالقرآن بها كما ان الرسول صلى الله عليه وسلم قال ان 
الخيل معقود في نواصيها الخير.

فللخيل شان عظيم عند العرب فهي وفيه لصاحبها تعرفه و تحبه..

ولحبي للخيول قمت بتسجيل ولدي بناد الفروسيه بالكويت

Zaina washing the horse in Kuwait

Zaina trying to be on the horse

Yousif in his training in San Diego

و لقد تسنى لي ان امتطي حصانا بامريكا باحد الجزر التي لا يستخدم بها 
السيارات و كانت تجربه رائعه
اردت اعاده التجربه بسان ديجو و لكن للاسف لم تكن التجربه ممتعه فلم نركض 
 بالحصان و اشعد انني فعلا من يقوده
كما ان المكان الذي توضع به القدم لم يكن مناسبا فالقائده قالت هذا افضل ما نستطيع فعله

me in San Diego(horse trail)

و بالنهايه فان مشروعي المستقبلي هو تعلم ركوب الخيل

Hope that the translation will work to  bring I want

My progress in the 20% Project

I was successful in making my life easier.. Instead of cooking every day for my family, the food was in the freezer and they can pick what they want.

In the past week I have clearer idea of what my kitchen is going to have and what kind of food I am going to serve.

So my freezer will include:

1- meatballs

2- our traditional food(machbos) it is chicken and rice with Kuwaiti spices.

I was able to put it in freezer in portions. 

this week I will work on the following:

1- chicken crumbs, I would like to replace the store chicken nuggets with it.

2- steaks

3- okra broth. It is served either with white rice or with Machbos see http://nouredu578.blogspot.com

I am searching for these recipes on line, send them to diigo and put them in a special list

her you go take a look  http://www.diigo.com/list/nour86/-

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Machbos Dish

What is Machbos?????

It is a kuwaiti traditional food. It is chicken and rice with Kuwaiti spices.
For me it was a huge task to cook it.
before coming to San Diego I had a one class with my mom in the kitchen. I wasn't really participating but I kind of saw what it is about.

When I can to San Diego I brought two cooking books and one cooking booklet(that a lady wrote it for her son)
So I had to see from them how to do it..
My husband was telling me why don't you just see on line???

I had cooked several times.. sometimes it will be successful other will have little success.

For this dish we use several bans, so I thought instead of cooking it every time, wait to the frozen chicken to go to room temperature and....
I thought why don't I cook a big portion and then put it in the freezer..
So I  cooked it and then frozen it..
We also put tomato garlic sauce on it. I also frozen that

*In kuwait they do it with whole chicken but I find it easier to use chicken tenders

tweet chats

tweet chat:

I was curios to see Arabic chats and see whats going on, but unfortunately I didn't know how to reach for one:(

I planned to follow a Sunday chat (Edchatri) at 8. But at 8 in san diego's time it seems that they have already started and the motion of the tweets was sort of dead.

So I have followed another chat (blogchat), It also was started. I have read something that I really liked and was thinking about. I was thinking well I am now exited about blogging because I know that someone is looking at it and that my grade depends on it... But if the corse end will I still be blogging????????

I had forgotten that benefiting one person is a big thing.. this tweet from the Blogchat had reminded me....

Blog feel small? If you have just one reader & your blog changes their life your blog is big 

this tweet was retweeted more than ten times mybe in the blog chat..

I also asked them what is the topic but no one answered.

But guess what.. they have followed me on twitter and I have followed them 
@bloggertalks

  and another chat followed me and i followed them as well @sandlitchat

My reflection

Asking me to write a reflect about my journey in this corse, reminds me with what what Jiff in the first begging said: Don't be an egg!!

And it is now just amazing to see to how far we have reached.. When someone asks me how is the master program, I will start telling them about a class that any personal thin we want to learn will be considered for credits.. That sounds awesome.

Well, but this doesn't mean that it is one of the classes that you are going to pass without effort... No No.. No...
For me I have these days that I want to know and search any thing I didn't know. even if it was a language that I didn't understand.. I hesitated to go and ask the ladies setting in one on USD's chairs who where talking this language and asks them what language do they talk
You have to spend hours in front of the your screen searching for things to share.. the sad part is when the times run and you didn't share something yet or when you don't find what you want..

So know let go more deeply to what I am using:
1- blog posts: I consider my blog to be to some extent my journal I will write the things I encounter and that I would like people to share.

http://nouredu578.blogspot.com

2- Diggolet: It is a great library, where you can organize your things in.








                        http://www.diigo.com/user/nour86


3- tweet deck: at the begging of the semester i didm't understand what is it but now i really see it as a beneficial tool, I now understood the meaning of this #

4-tweeter: after we have learned how to share without even going to tweeter I enjoy it.
 follow me at: nour86

5- tweet chat: see http://nouredu578.blogspot.com















6-storify: It is an interesting tool to share things.. but I haven't yet build a big network with this tool.

What I like in it that I can choose what I want from the web and simply drag it to my story.

http://storify.com/n_almutawa86

I hope that I will continue sharing my ideas to others even if the corse if finished..
When you share something with others you will have a great feeling.. a feeling of confidence.



And this is a check list that might help you during your social network journey:
http://www.wunderlist.com/home