Wednesday, September 06, 2006

At Last!

I fixed the post. It's only now that I knew where the library is!! :P

This post might look kinda awkward. Well, that’s cuz I’m using my roomate’s PC for the time being. I’ve made it to the U.S. just two days ago!! I just didn’t want to talk about it until it happens. I was back to the Fulbright on the time when I was in Jordan; they called me and said that they got me a placement but the email from the university got late and they didn’t think that I would really get accepted here… bla bla bla..

So anyway, on Saturday morning I went to Jordan and stayed there for one night, then on Sunday morning I went to London, Heathrow Airport and stayed there for a few hours, then to Washington D.C. Then I had another flight on the same day to another place but it was canceled so they checked me into a hotel for a night. Then on Monday morning I flew to another palce then I took a transportation to my final destination. Because Monday was a holiday, I had to stay at a motel until Tuesday (today) and wait for someone from my university to come and pick me up.

Now I’m trying to send an email to my family but everything is not working with the email! I just get “email address is invalid”!! I tried all accounts but nothing is working at all.

To Micho, I miss you so very much. I can’t wait to read your emails and call you on the phone. Your last post made me cry. I’m doing fine here, tell them that. I will have to get internet connection tomorrow but I need to change the plug’s head cuz they use another one here, and the laptop is out of charge, that’s why I’m using my roomate’s pc now, she is from Taiwan!

38 comments:

programmer craig said...

Such good news, I'm very happy for you Morbido! You need a 110 volt adapter? Yes, we don't use the same power outlets here that everyone lese in the world does, we're special :P

So great that you got a placement after all, congratulations :)

And welcome to America, though I'm sure you have been hearing that a lot since you arrived :)

PS-Does your friend use Chinese windows? I tried copy-pasting your post for somebody who didn't see it displayed properly, but the character's pasted illegibly.

programmer craig said...

Oh! Just so that you know, Morbido... some people are not able to read this post at all! I can see it, but without puncuation! SO, maybe you can refoprmat it when you get a chance? And give us more details please, while you're at it :)

David said...

Morbido, at the moment I can't read your new post. The text is all tiny rectangles instead of letters! :( Bad Blogspot! However, I can read the comments. One of the best places in the U.S. to buy any sort of electrical adapter is a store called Radio Shack. It is a nationwide chain of stores, so I assume there is at least one Radio Shack store where you are now.

I hope I can read your post later!

David said...

Hi again, a quick trip to Radio Shack's web site found a store near you. It is located in a Mall (named for the town you are in - don't know if you have revealed that yet). The street address is 2334 Oakland Avenue. The phone number for the Radio Shack is 349-6230. You could just call them and ask if they have the adapter you need. Good luck finding it!

David said...

Hello Lisa, I tried your trick of copying the post to MS Word, but I still got a bunch of tiny rectangles. Please transcribe the post. Thanks!

Bill said...

muhahaha we got ya now hehe

Welcome to the US Morb

CharlesWT said...

You must be really spaced out since your post looks fine on my computer except there are no spaces in the text! :o

Congratulations! :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

CharlesWT said...

But, when I pasted the text into a text editor, the spaces appeared!

I'm very happy for you.

:) :) :) :) :) • (: (: (: (: (:

Anonymous said...

oh, i can't read the post. but i guess everyone is happy about where you are now!;-)

David said...

Thanks Lisa! :)

CharlesWT said...

Chatbox:

6 Sep 06, 00:56—Morbid Smile: Hi, this is to Micho! I made it here at last, everything is fine and I have a placement and everything except for the internet which I will get tomorrow

6 Sep 06, 00:57—Morbid Smile: This looks funny! I’m using a roommate’s laptop from Taiwan! the email is not working with me!! So i had to write here

Anonymous said...

Hi Morbido!

Great news! I'm glad to hear that you finally made it! :) Although maybe not to Hawaii? Who said I wasn't psychic? :)

I can read the post, but it does look funny. There are extra spaces between all of the letters. Maybe since your roommate is from Tawian her computer is set to send in a different language other than English? Which would make the e-mail address incomprehensible. Is that possible?

Looking forward to hearing about your experiences here. :)

Take care.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Blogger isn't working worth shit today. Pardon my language.

That Anonymous was me. And I've tried to post here about 4 times now.

Mad Canuck said...

Hey Morbido, I'm really happy for you! Congratulations!

On the laptop computer, you need an adapter. Iraq uses 220 volts, and a different plug from here. Here, we use 110 volts.

Most laptop computers have a power supply that is designed to work at either 220 volts or 110 volts, you just need a different cord for it or an adapter for the plug - the same power supply should work fine. If you want to make sure, you can look on the back of the power supply unit - it should say "Input: 110 to 240V) or something like this, which means it can handle power at either 110 volts like they have here or 220 volts like in Iraq with the same adapter.

Here in the US, there are a number of big computer supply stores that should sell adapters like the one you need: Best Buy, CompUSA, and Circuit City are three of the big ones. You can also sometimes find things like this at office supply stores (Staples and Office Depot are two of them).

If you don't know where some of these places are, you can visit their websites (www.bestbuy.com, www.compusa.com, www.circuitcity.com) - all of them let you type in your ZIP code (the five-digit postal code you use for receiving mailed letters) and they will tell you where the closest stores are to you.

Anyway, I hope this helps... :)

Hajar Zamzam Ismail said...

Congrats! I'm glad you finally got here! This is good news!

Original_Jeff said...

Morbido,
This is terrific, fantastic, wonderful, and excellent news! Welcome to the United States of America. I sincerely hope you enjoy your stay here.

I'm so glad I don't have to hide my face in shame when I post a comment to your blog any more. (I was so ashamed and embarrassed when my own country's program officials seem to have dangled you the prize and then pulled it away. Very cruel.)

I am sure you will be super-busy, but, over time, I'd love to read any observations you have about America and the American people. I would love to read about things you notice that are different from what you expected or are different from what you are use to. Do Americans think differently or have different attitudes about school, work, family, government, religion, relationships, etc than Iraqis?

Oh, and I'll repeate what I wrote to 24 steps for you: I know this sounds crazy, but please be careful. I am worried that the apparent safety of the USA would cause you to do something unsafe. So, don't walk alone at night, and ask questions if you feel unsafe!

(Tech note: As you probably know, Windows is a multi-language operating system. Being from Taiwan, your roommate might have the Windows "locale" set to the Asian locale (i.e. traditional Chinese). It may be using the wide-character Roman alphabetic characters rather than the standard ANSI/ASCII character set. In the lower right corner in the status bar, there may be a two-letter locale indicator that can be switched to "EN" to fix things. She probably also uses the IME (input method editor) to enter Chinese text, which you'd want to turn off.... This would explain why some people cannot read your blog posting (they don't have an Asian language pack loaded) and why all of your emails bounced (because the email addresses should be in ANSI character code set, not the Asian-double-wide roman character set!).)

original_jeff@Gmail.com

Fayrouz said...

Hey Morbido,

I'm so glad you made it here. Looking forward to reading your new posts.

Take care,

Marshmallow26 said...

Dear Binal3raq,

Congratulationssssssssssssss :)

You deserve after all that hard work you put plus the forebearance you showed!

I am so happy and hope the same thing goes well for me God willing

hala_s said...

Hello Morbido
Lovely news, well done.
I wish you enjoy and benefit from every minute you are there.
You are a confident young lady and I am sure you will make the most of it.
Take care of yourself

Anonymous said...

Congratulations!!!!!!!!! Welcome, I hope you enjoy your stay! If you ever find yourself in Indiana, look me up.

CharlesWT said...

She already is, sort of. :)

Bassam Sebti said...

Hey!! welcome to to our new world! I'll email you my number in case you want something. At least I've been here for a while :P

You know what?! I should have told about the plug. I had the same problem. But don't worry. Go to the nearest Radio Shack Store and you'll definitely find one.

Have you started your classes? I've been having great assignments and work. wow... I can't beleive that you, 24, and I are here. I am not sure if Zeyad had made it or not! I hope he did.

Good luck again and don't hesitate in calling me.
Bests.
BT

Zappy Corleone said...

مبروك عزيزتي،
موفقة ان شاءالله تمنياتي لك بدوام الصحة والسعادة، عمو "دجلص" طلع شريف.

neurotic_wife said...

Hey MS, Wowww, I just am reading your latest post....Congrats on the scholarship...I really hope you will have a good time in the States...Enjoy it while it lasts...

CharlesWT said...

Blogging from Iraq: INTERVIEW: Four Iraqi bloggers[including Morbid Smile] describe what the war has done to their country—and to them.

Mad Canuck said...

BT is right - I forgot to mention Radio Shack. They sell all kinds of stuff like this.

Melantrys: It's not just the US on 110 volt electricity, all of North America is. The US, Canada, Mexico, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, etc. all run 110 volt with the same type of plugs we have here.

Morbid Smile said...

Hiiiii everyone! :)

Thanks all and welcome new readers. I'm going to Radio Shack today finally!

I'm celebrating my first weekend here today, at the library! :P

Charleswt, this interview was going to be the topic of my next post!! :( but it's ok ;)

Hey, Zappy, how do you know "3mo Douglas" ??

See you all later :)

David said...

Morbido, I hope the interview will still be the topic of your next post! I will save my comments until you have published the new post. I hope you are having fun at the library. :)

Najma said...

HEEEEY, it's been a long time and see what happens!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!! Really! Alf Alf mabrook!

Fatima said...

Great news. I have a distant relative who came on a fulbright from Baghdad with basically the same travel story as you (missed his flight, had to wait till next morning, flew, then a bus, then hotel,. etc). Wonder if you're at the same university? His name is Umar.

jarvenpa said...

Oh, welcome to my country!! I hope you can continue posting somehow...and that you will enjoy your time here.

Zappy Corleone said...

I Have a Cristal Ball ;P Cheers and have a great future!

Anonymous said...

aleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeefffffff

mabrooooooooooooooooooooooooooook , your really deserve it

Anonymous said...

Your blog is very inspiring, and you speak (write) unvelievable English (better than some Americans I know, (wink, wink)). You might want to take a look at the One Laptop Per Child (www.laptop.org) Project. It is a project to help bring education and communications to third-world countries. Perhaps it could be brought to Iraq? If so, please suggest it to the Baghdad University or the Red Hat OLPC team. It is quite interesting.

Anonymous said...

Hey Morbido,
I hope everything's going well.
When are we going to see a new post... it's been almost 2 weeks!

Captain Jarred Fishman, USAFR said...

Congratulations- next time you are in Washington DC let me know and I will give you a guided tour and interview you for my blog :)

CharlesWT said...

Hmmm...must be the never-ending frat parties... :)

Original_Jeff said...

Morbid Smile??? Morbid Smile??? Are you there???