The Ya-Ka-Mein Lady

 

When I first got here, the first place I visited was the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. I thought it was a pretty cool museum, and they also had music that day so, the atmosphere was great. But, one of the things that called my attention in the museum was this African American woman serving soup in a table, inside of the museum with a line of people waiting to buy some “Ya-Ka-Mein”. Later I found out that this was a type of soup with shrimps, vegetables, noodles and meat (very delicious) , and I also found  out  the lady’s name: Ms. Linda who by the way was incredibly nice; she told me that Ya-Ka-Mein was one of New Orleans well best kept secrets, and an old family tradition. Another thing that I found very impressive is that she was the winner in this cooking show called: Chopped. But, I think the most amazing about her is that she is keeping this type of tradition, which in my opinion is very important to preserve the culture in a community, and in a country.

My busiest life since I got to America

I hadn't realized my studying life could be such a busy daily event. I realized we have lots of things need to learn, and lots of thing need to practice. We do homework a lot, every day and every weekend. I don't have any spare time to do something I want. I can't do anything out of house during weekend, otherwise I won't be able to finish homework.
Maybe intensive program just means learn lots of things in a short time, but the problem is I stay busy with my homework everyday. I don't have time to review what I've learned from the past.  Also there is no way for me to have time to cook and watch TV. I don't feel get rested. The only rest I get is the bed time. I try to finish homework before 8 pm, I can go to bed early, so next day I won't be sleepy, but now it seems a little bit hard for me to achieve that.

Krew du Viex - New Orleans

    Two weeks ago, I went to the French Quarter to see the Krewe the Vieux. It was so fun, I liked the adult theme. I saw that the themes focus on local and national events with a strong satirical leaning. The parade is mainly a walking parade, with mule drawn floats which handmade and much smaller than traditional parades. The members walk and interact with the crowds. I highly recommend this parade. 

 

   I watched it on the corner of Elysian Fields and Royal which seemed to be a perfect spot. I hope I have the time off again to go next year!!!

 

The parade is definitely adults only,  but here’s my only question: why do parents let children go to this kind of events?

 

 

A Parade in Front of My House

 

Last Friday when I just came back from the school, I heard sound of band music was coming from outside. I checked through the window, and found many people were gathering at the intersection of South Carrollton and South Claiborne. I immediately headed to the intersection with curiosity. There were many high school bands and cheerleaders waiting for the parade. I enjoyed their play and dance even though it was a very short parade. The parade wasn't big, but I was happy I could enjoy such a parade in front of my home. It was a good chance to feel that I am living in the party city.

 

Crawfish

Have you ever eaten a crawfish?  If you say “no”, you are the same as me since I have never eaten it.  However, it is not any longer because last month I had a chance to try it first.  Someone who I live with bought it from the restaurant depot and cooked it for me.  I was excited at it when I took a close look.  Even though, it resembled a shrimp, it did not look friendly as a shrimp I thought.  Perhaps because of its arm that is bigger than a general shrimp.  When cooking, we put many kinds of seasoning in the big bucket.  I felt a little guilty because we had to put it in the boiling water ̶ it was still alive when we put it.  Approximately 20 minutes later, it was done.  I learnt a little technique before eating, which helped me peel it easily than my own one ̶ my technique comes from skill of eating a shrimp.  Although I normally love eating a shrimp, a crawfish is different.  It was pretty delicious even if its taste was quite spicy.  For me, I recommend you eat it with Sriracha Sauce.  It will increase the taste from delicious to incredible.

Advertising

Dalal Alokla

American Culture

Jan 24^th, 2013

Advertising

            In yesterday’s culture class we learned some details about advertising such as some advertising techniques, strategies, and the target groups that they try to attract based on their gender, race, age and so on. Our assignment was about watching magazine ads, television commercials, and internet- based advertisement. Since I have neither television nor magazines, I decided to drive to my brother’s house as the facilities are better, and I was able to practice driving as well.  My sister in law was very nervous from her son (my nephew). He is six years old and his mother was trying to convince him to do his homework. While I was flipping the magazines, he had kept looking at me and asking me, what are you doing.  “My assignment “I said. “You are so lucky “he said. My little nephew was jealous of my research about commercials.

something weird

     I have been about one year and month in the US, and I didn't get chance to learn about the american culture very well, because i have been hanging out most of my time with my Saudies friends and some friends from other countries. but thing getting change the last four months, I started to meet a lot of american people ,Like my roommates and my neighbors and in the gym in my school from TOLEN university everywhere. My community started to change, and I just found something weird for me. drinking alcohole and and having a boy/Girlfriend is something almost basic in their life, and sometime smoking. and whenever i tell them i dont drink or i dont smoke they look at me like this >>(O_O)'!.  How did  alcohol and smoking became something basics in the human life or in (Our life) !

My experience in Las Vegas Last Year

Last year, I went to Las Vegas. I could see many tall building with advertising, hotels and casinos for everywhere.  I went to the Circo do Soleil and I watched several people dancing and singing with an amazing choreography and huge scenario. I will never forget the experience in Las Vegas. I lived a memorable experience in this trip to Las Vegas, I don´t have doubt that is a great place to visit and when I have the opportunity, I would like to go to Las Vegas again in any time.

Crabbing in Pontchartrain Lake

Catching crab by myself was hard to imagine when I was in my country. When one of my friends said, “Let’s go to catch crabs”, I thought he was joking. However, we bought chicken drumsticks, and also brought fishing tools like nets, strings, and an icebox.

We crossed Pontchartrain after driving 45 minutes from New Orleans, and we finally arrived at a swamp nearby. I wondered how I could catch crabs with only these simple tools, but it was so easy: just hanging a chicken drumstick on the string and throwing to the water was all we needed to do. After waiting for a while, it was the time to check that a crab grabbed the bait. I could feel something was pulling the string. I slowly pulled the string so as not to scare the crab. My friend was waiting with a net to catch the crab when the crab could be seen through the water’s surface. Finally, a vague black thing was appearing little by little. My friend immediately swung the net into the water. There was a big blue crab in the net. We were so excited.

We stayed there around three hours to catch more crabs. Before 3 P.M., our icebox was filled with a bunch of crabs. I felt like I became a skilled fisherman. Maybe we can do some business like selling the crabs to an Asian market.

During dinner time, we invited some friends, and cooked the crabs we caught. The crabs were especially delicious because we caught them ourselves. It was an exciting experience for me because I can fish by myself now. After that day, I began to like New Orleans more.

 

First Experience with American Football

   I want to say, football is much more fun to play than to watch. I know when I watched it, I felt it is such a fool game! I wasn't interested in seeing knock people down at all. I think that's violent. But last week in our culture class we played the flag football, to my surprise, it was very fun. It is much easier than playing basketball and soccer. Football didn't have that much skills required like the other games, at least the football I played made me feel that way. I liked running around and pull down peoples' flag. Because I didn't have to worry about whether I can be driveling the ball or not, like the basketball we played later. All I need to paid attention was catching the ball or run to pull flag. It was easy, relatively. I liked it, because I felt I joined that game very quickly.

Turducken

Since I got here one of the things that I have found most surprising is definitely the food. It's more delicious than what I had thought before I came here. This is probably because I'm a really picky person, so I wasn't expecting that I would like Louisiana food at all.

The other day I went to this awesome fast food place. I think it's very popular here in New Orleans, because it was pretty crowded; it's call Dat Dog. Anyway, I think myriad things made it a good fast food place, the most important would be: the good food of course. The second one: the attention to the client , and the third one, the atmosphere of the place. Everything was great in Dat Dog. The menu had a big variety of hot dogs including Alligator Sausage, Crawfish and a Slovenian Sausage. I had a Turducken (Turkey, Duck, Chicken), for me having duck in a sausage was very unusual because it's not something that you usually eat in my city, and especially not in a hot dog. I also ate Chili Cheese Fries, which was a combination that I had never tried before. And besides all this, I had a nice time.

FootBall

                It was Wednesday, the last class of the day. We had Elective class with Ms.Magnotta.  Two days before, in the same class we learned so many things about football. We learned the rules of the game. On that day we were supposed to play the game. We went to the gym. The gym was magnificence; it was at the 5^th floor of a parking space building. I know so many people would say you are exaggeration. But I mean. Swimming pool, basketball court, baseball and so many other things that you would see in a gym but not in the 5^th floor. We choose the teams and start playing. I never knew that I would be good in this game. If anyone sees me they would say I was playing this game for a very long time. But the funny thing is that it was my first time. In fact I made 3 touch downs. After a while we took a little brake and played once more. I made a really good through and he made a touchdown for the team.  I learned even more about the game by just playing it. After playing football we played one of my favorite sports. We played basketball. Even though we lost the game but we had a really great time.  I had so much fun and learned so many things about a sport I used to watch but didn't understand what was going on. 

My first impression

             This is my first time to study aboard.  Even though it is just studying a language, I feel very excited and get a little nervous because I am not confident my language skill.  I feel like someone punches me at the stomach when I have to speak, which make me cannot speak at all.  I am also confused when somebody talks to me because I do not get used to it and the way he talks is very much different from the way I talk in my country.  However, my friends and teachers here are so kind and friendly, which make me feel relax.  I am very impressed this university and people here.  Thank you my friends, my teachers and New Orleans, you make my first experience in the U.S. very exceptional.

American Football

Thursday, Jan 17^th, 2013

Dalal Alokla

American Culture

American Football

One day ago, I had learned more about American football when I was practicing it with my friends in school. It was fun and a different experience, which led me to change my mind about some kinds of sports in general.

I often feel that I am against the idea of some sports for many reasons such as wasting time; money, energy as well as hurting the body in case of accident. Also sometimes it creates bad competition between different groups.

After this experience, I realized that I had enjoyed playing it for a reasonable time without wasting money, losing friends, or getting hurt.