Its Tag Time!

Hello everyone,

I was so excited to get on and realize that I have been tagged by Never Ever at Finding Guidance! For this one, the Honest Scrap Tag, I need to think of 10 things about me that are true. These are things that everyone may or may not know. I'll try to be creative and think of some of the ones that people are less likely to know.

1. I rarely cook American food.
My favorite things to cook are curries, (Indian and Thai), sambusa (Somali version of Samosa), Mexican food, and all other things that are spicy. I am known to add chilies to almost everything I cook.

2. I am into urban foraging.
Basically, this means going out in your neighborhood and looking for things that are edible and free. So far in Portland I have found cherries and a little fruit called an Oregon-grape that can be used to make jelly. It doesn't taste so good on its own though. Later in the year I am hoping to get blackberries, apples, pears, hazelnuts, and figs. Yes, figs grow in Oregon!

3. I went to a high school with only 280 students that was all white.
Its just funny that I am so multi-cultural considering that I went to such a hick school for most of my life. I always wanted to learn lots of languages, but didn't get the opportunity to do anything other that Spanish until I graduated.

4. I have been to the UK, Dubai, and Egypt.
I went to the UK for a trip when I was still in college, Dubai for my honeymoon ;) and Egypt right before I got pregnant with Layla. We were thinking we would want to move to Egypt, but Cairo was a little crowded for our taste.

5. I used to dress punk and hardcore.
I don't really follow music much anymore, but it was my life during high school. I had my hair shorter and spiked in back and dyed it a lot of crazy colors. Its funny considering that I like to cover it now. I also used to go to local punk and hardcore shows every weekend.

6. I grew up in a conservative Baptist Church.
The church I went to as a kid was so conservative that they believed that that King James Version of the Bible was the only inspired version. I ended up studying the original languages of the Bible (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek), and now understand just how ridiculous that was.

7. I am the oldest of 3 kids.
My brother, sister, and I are all pretty close. I am the oldest 26, my sister is 22, and my brother is 16. My parents just had their 30th anniversary this year. My sister and I fought a lot when we were younger, but we've gotten over all that now. My brother is one of my favorite people in the world. He has a great sarcastic sense of humor, and I love him as much as if he were my own child.

8. I have a terrible sense of balance.
This means that I'm bad at most sports, especially ones that require you to balance on small things like ice skating, skiing, roller skating, and skateboarding. I can ride bikes, but I'm petrified of going fast or completely letting go of the handlebars.


9. I love mint chocolate chip and cookie dough ice cream.
The best thing you can do is combine those 2 flavors together. I get the Cookie dough one at Cold Stone, but get mint ice cream instead of the vanilla. Its better, I promise.

10. I am planning to go to grad school!
Next year I am planning to start on a Masters program in the fall studying Biblical Languages. I'm going to see if there's any way I can add some Arabic and other ancient Semitic languages (Ugaritic, Akkadian, Aramaic) into it. I hope to eventually teach these languages at the University level InshaAllah.

Thanks for reading everyone! Now I'm craving ice cream...