!!!!!!

YAY!!!!! my bb became famous on his 24th birthday AND (inshallah) the bill banning child marriage in Yemen will soon be passed!!!

some other articles by Oliver:
studying in Yemen after Abdulmutallab
almost-delicious (cheaper than faHsa) salta
nonprofit dar assalam fights extremism in schools

and some really FUCKED UP SHIT:
runaway child bride

and now that i have pointed you toward some informative articles and enlightened you on various goings-on in Yemen, i can feel comfortable blabbing about my personal life for the remainder of this post. first of all, i have yet to post about my new PUPPY! perhaps not so new anymore. i got her about 2 months ago from one of my students at AMIDEAST who will be participating in the YES exchange program and spending the 2010-2011 academic year studying in a US high school. he heard that i wanted a puppy, and offered to bring her by to my house. when i asked if he would be able to take her back if things didn't work out, or watch her when i traveled, he replied in the most nonchalant tone humanly possible "yeah, whatever you want, you just tell me." no pressure. but of course, when you adopt a tiny, little, adorable puppy who attaches herself to you in the course of a few hours and trusts you so much that she sleeps on her back with legs splayed, there is LOTS of pressure.

aaaand now i will edit this draft of a post, which i began over a month ago...oops. puppy is doing well, although still not potty-trained (probably my fault). she has grown from a tiny little near-hairless rat into a still very small shaggy old man in the past few months. still adorable and aggravating simultaneously...and now i think she has fleas. either that or i have bed bugs in my new house. YES i have moved into a new HOUSE! i have fulfilled my dream of living in the old city. i was getting a bit tired of tahrir square and all the traffic...and my $250/month rent started to seem really expensive after my trip to socotra (did i post about this...probably not...will do, or perhaps fb pics suffice). i am now living in a house with 4 foreigners, 1 chinese/american girl (soo-rae) who found the place and has taken all the responsibilities for it on her shoulders (AMAZING), 2 american guys (chris and justin) and 1 kickboxing frenchman (guillaume). we each have a bedroom, which has prevented us from having a mufraj (there are only 5 rooms that are not dungeons), but we also have 2 balconies and one has become mufraj-ish. the house is BEAUTIFUL, freshly painted and fixed up, and so far mostly problem-free (except for some water issues, unavoidable in the yem). AAAND only $100/month. be jealous. i do deserve this house though, after waiting 3 months for a supposedly phenomenally wonderful apartment that i could never move into. gave the landlord my deposit, then he proceeded to delay my move-in date by 2 months (the former resident wasn't moving out), and then 1 more month for repairs. i never even saw the house, and eventually got fed up and decided even the most glorious shiqa in the world was not worth having this landlord. still working on getting the remaining half of my deposit back, a couple weeks after that. but, i guess my house of foreigners was meant to be. glad to be living with people again...my old apartment was really too big for one person (even with a small dog and often a devastatingly handwome brit) and got a bit lonely at times. so, all in all, very happy with my living situation!

work...not so much. it's been insanely busy lately, and i have felt quite overwhelmed and NOT like an intern. i definitely think it's better than the opposite, being a useless intern who spell-checks and enters data into spreadsheets, but that doesn't really take away from the stress. it is still very rewarding though, and i love all the students participating in the programs i work with. edward is an excellent and ridiculously organized boss, so whenever i get overwhelmed or get a call from a parent telling me that their child is depressed because they cannot continue with a program (NOT MY DECISION!), i just go see him and he lays it out so that it all makes sense and i don't feel like a horrible person. not that i really feel like a horrible person, i just feel horrible for students sometimes. i suppose such is life. only 3 more months at AMIDEAST, and then i'll be escorting a group of YES high school exchange students to DC. we'll depart on august 4th (me, 23 yemeni kids, hopefully my pup), spend endless hours in transit, even more endless hours in immigration, and thennnn i'll be back in the US of A! really not sure at all what my plan is after that. so far i've come up with teaching english somewhere or trying to find another position in international education, but i am never sure about any one thing for more than a few days. any suggestions??

off to get some food, will tryyyyy to post more. OH also, oliver has a NEW BLOG which should of course be checked out (although i'm sure i will post his articles too from time to time).

xo