Monday, July 13, 2009

10 Things I Like About Homeschooling

I’m a homeschooler. Never been to any educational institution so far. The closest thing I’ve been to a school was last year, when I worked as a kindergarten teacher for a few months (didn’t like it, so I quit). I’m supposed to have finished my education and graduated from university by now. But I’m not in a hurry!
Homeschooling had its ups and downs. But from my experience, I think the advantages are more.
So here are the 10 things I like (or liked) about homeschooling :)


1- Not having to study physics and social studies!!
2- Not having my brain stuffed with information I’ll eventually forget
3- Watching other students agonize over exams, while I’m just chillin’!
4- Going to amusement parks on Mondays, and not having to stand for hours waiting for a ride :D
5- Making spontaneous trips in the middle of the week
6- Being creative and unique
7- Not having to suffer peer pressure or become a victim of bullying
8- Having an independent opinion and not being a slave to what’s “in”
9- Having enough time to discover my talents
10- Having a chance to develop my personality without any pressures

Would love to hear your opinion :)

Saturday, July 11, 2009

[18/52] Sushi, anyone?

The internet got cut off again, but only for a day. This time the modem broke. We got a new one, and the problem got fixed.
So anyway, we made sushi rolls yesterday!! I haven’t had sushi since I came to Egypt, so yea it was GOOD!! We got seaweed, fish eggs, crab sticks, smoked salmon, wasabi, avocado, cucumber and sushi rice. Making sushi rolls was a piece of cake really, not as hard as it looks. Well, my younger brother made them, I just sat there and watched, and occasionally ‘tried’ some of the ingredients to see if they taste good :p
But eventually I was asked to leave the kitchen, since I was distracting them and being useless (and I thought I was finally a grown up!! lol)
They turned out great! Had to drink a ton of water afterwards! But it was worth it :)

[17/52]


[17/52]
Originally uploaded by Midnight.Silver
I’ve been experimenting a lot with feathers and water drops those last two days. Its really exciting when you try something new and the results turn out better than you expected.
Taking macro shots like this with my point and shoot camera isn’t that easy. After shooting about one hundred shots, you choose only one or two! But I guess that proves that you don’t necessarily have to own a DSLR to shoot a good macro shot (although it makes a huge difference :D )
)

[16/52] @#$%*!


[16/52] @#$%*!
Originally uploaded by Midnight.Silver
Its been five days! I think its official… I’m losing my mind!! Last Monday, the electrician was here fixing some problem with the telephone line. He obviously isn’t qualified enough, and so.. he ruined it instead of fixing it! This resulted in disconnecting the internet. Ok, so how hard could it be to get the line fixed and connected again? Well… apparently, it takes more than you would expect!
The first day was fine. But it felt like there was something missing, like my life was on stand-by. I could deal with a few hours without a connection, right?
The electrician came by on the second day to try and fix the line again.
“The problem could be from the telephone company itself, so try calling them; maybe they could send someone over by tomorrow ma’am”. He doesn’t get it, does he!!!!??? I CAN’T wait till tomorrow!!
Well, tomorrow came; the telephone company called, and informed me that the problem could be from the cable connecting the lines together. And that this was the electrician’s job to fix. I just did not understand a word of what they said, but I was starting to get seriously impatient! One more day passed, and another.. and nothing was fixed. Today I called the electrician, “I’m sorry ma’am I don’t work on weekends”. WHAT??!! And what does he expect me to do? Wait till the week end is over?? (weekends start on Fridays in Egypt) Ok now I’m really frustrated!!! You know that feeling? When you just want to crush anything? Or slam that hairbrush in your hand on the mirror and demolish it??!! AAGGHH!!! That’s exactly what I want to do just now!!! The sound of glass braking would be such a relief! But it also could be a pain in the neck, since I’ll be the one cleaning the mess afterwards!
Hopefully the line would get fixed this Saturday, for the sake of that poor mirror :D

[15/52] You're my honey bunch sugar plum pumpie umpy umpkin... you're my sweetie pie!

This is my second attempt at making cupcakes.. and I think I’m pretty satisfied with the results! Last time was a total catastrophe! It was my first time to bake cupcakes, the cakes themselves turned out all right. But the buttercream was a disaster. I was supposed to add a few drops of food coloring to make it pink, well I added the few drops, and it was still white. So I just poured in some more food coloring, and still.. white! It was really stupid of me.. I should have looked at the bottle first. It was strawberry essence! And it tasted like cough syrup! It said ‘Strawberry Red’ on the bottle, and I thought that was the shade of red. I ended up throwing all the buttercream, and we ate the cupcakes without any frosting.
This time I made cream cheese frosting, and it was really good!
I know it’s not really fancy compared to all of those beautiful cupcakes out there, but I’m still learning :)
Dig in!!

[14/52] Camouflage!


[14/52] Camouflage!
Originally uploaded by Midnight.Silver
Most of my family members have cat allergies (including me!!), therefore some of the rooms in this house are forbidden for Lula to enter. But its known to the world that cats are one of the most manipulative creatures. This sneaky little kitty always finds a way to do what she wants. Once she is inside the room, she hides until I’m out of sight, then jumps on the bed and starts to cuddle on my favorite pillow; I just can’t find it in my heart to disturb her little snooze and wake her up. She always gets away with it!!!