So America has been great, to say the least. While I can update you on my American adventures some other day, I wanted to share this series of e-mails with you that I found absolutely hilarious.
The background is that my Dad works for a Properteries Board for Pi Kappa Phi fraternity and they recently remodeled a chapter house at Auburn. The initial internet line installed is too slow, so the men wanted a faster line. It doesn't seem to complicated, right?
To: Jay Stuckel
Sent: Fri, April 22, 2011 3:09:33 AM
Subject: ARIN POC Created
ARIN received a request from ATT Inc. to create a new POC.
This request has been processed. The POC is STUCK2-ARIN.
The POC record will be visible in ARIN's Whois shortly.
You can manage this POC record by logging in to ARIN's website at https://www.arin.net and linking to it.
This courtesy notification has been sent to all e-mail addresses listed on the POC Handle.
If you have any questions, please contact us for assistance.
Ask ARIN via our website: https://www.arin.net/public/communication/message/beginQuestion.xhtml
E-mail: hostmaster@arin.net
Regards,
ARIN Registration Services Department
From: Jay Stuckel
Sent: Friday, April 22, 2011 8:45 AM
To: BARAN, EVA M (ATTAIS)
Cc: FLEMING, ZACHARY S (ATTCINW); O'BRIEN, SHANNON M (ATTSI); THOMAS, ASHLEY J (ATTBST); DUNN, CHRIS (ATTBST); Greg Buehner; Betsie Fehr
Subject: Fw: ARIN POC Created
Eva and all: What am I suppose to do with this? I don't understand what is being requested of me with this email and web site. I don't know what POC means and how this has to do with upgrading the speed of the internet service that we currently have.
Let me know what I have to do. Please respond in common language that a non ATT employee would understand, NOT in acronyms, that the average person has no idea what you are talking about.
Jay Stuckel
Pi Kappa Phi Properties
From: "BARAN, EVA M (ATTAIS)"
To: Jay Stuckel
Cc: "FLEMING, ZACHARY S (ATTCINW)"; "O'BRIEN, SHANNON M (ATTSI)">; "THOMAS, ASHLEY J (ATTBST)" ; "DUNN, CHRIS (ATTBST)"; Greg Buehner; Betsie Fehr
Sent: Tue, April 26, 2011 11:23:27 AM
Subject: RE: ARIN POC Created
Hi Jay:
POC is Point of Contact. I went to the ARIN website and they appear to have something to do with managing DNS (Domain Name Service).
Do you manage your DNS with ARIN?
Best Regards,
Eva Baran - (Complex IP Support)
AT&T BVoIP Service Delivery Team
voice - 440-717-0685
fax - 440-838-3970
email - eb5693@att.com
6889 Snowville Rd - 3N-074
Brecksville, OH 44141
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Insanity.
There is a lot to catch up on and a lot of writing I need to do in general but for now I will give you the highlights and elaborate on them later. I hope that is alright blog-o-sphere.
Things with my counterpart have improved by a thousand percent. I think standing up for myself and making sure we were on the same page, literally and figuratively, made a huge difference. I am actually excited about projects now, and it's a good feeling.
The Tashlheet (Berber) channel came to my village and did an entire day of filming last Thursday. There must have been 2,000 people that showed up for the parties they filmed. Because I am an American gal living in a rock house in the middle of nowhere AND I speak Tashlheet (sort-of) I had to be interviewed, 3 times. I got to do one section in English just because I protested enough and I think they were tired of listening to my broken Tashlheet. Some of the questions they asked were extremely difficult, even in English but overall, I think it went well. My house was a staging place for the 10 or so crew members and reporters who came to tape, so that made for an interesting day. As a note, I don't have running water or a big bathroom, plus I am not Moroccan meaning I am not equipped with "Moroccan" necessities. It was an experience and it took me an entire day to recover. It was AMAZING to see all of these people in my village and outer areas that I have either never seen before or am seeing again for the first time in a while. My co-op ladies were so cute in their new matching smocks. They were hamming it up to the camera. We also made our famous rock oven cooked bread which I love. All in all, it was a great day and a cool experience. Plus, I get to be on T.V. (You can see some photos on Facebook)
Thursday was also the day of the bombing in Marrakech. If you are interested in knowing more specific details, feel free to Google it, there are a ton of articles. The jist was that it was a remote controlled bomb, filled with nails, exploded in a tourist cafe in one of the most heavily visited tourist (and volunteer) destinations in Morocco, Jemma El Fina. There are 17 confirmed dead, more than 1/2 of which were French tourists. Luckily none of my fellow PCVs were hurt or killed, just a little shaken up.
Saturday I hosted the most successful event to date. I invited women from all over the village to come to the commune and watch a video on women's empowerment called, Women Can Dream, which was made by a fellow PCV. I was nervous people wouldn't show, or the TV wouldn't work but my fears were never realized. 75 women came to my event. I want to say it again, just because of how monumentous it was, 75 women. Women came from far away villages to watch. Women who NEVER leave their homes came to see my video. It was amazing. The video was in Arabic (with English subtitles) and since most of the women are uneducated and don't speak Arabic, two high school girls volunteered to translate the video. It worked out amazingly. We drank tea, ate cookies, talked about the challenges facing women in Morocco and all over the world and even got a women's development association started. Yes, it got its roots at my meeting. Pretty cool, huh? Anyway, I know I am gloating but I am just so happy at how successful it turned out and how great it was to see women together, achieving things. It reminded me of my sorority days and how proud I was when I saw a group of motivated and dedicated women tackle a goal. It brings tears to my eyes.
I spent the past few days with my dear friend Donielle in her site outside of Kech, preparing for my trip to AMERICA. I am so excited I could pee my pants.
I am writing this blog post from BEAUTIFUL Madrid where it is currently 76 degrees with not a cloud in the sky. This place is amazing.
Tomorrow I get on a plane for America and after a 4 hour layover in Philly, I touch down in St. Louis, the Gateway to the West, at 9:10pm, just in time to grab some cold ones and some food after a long day of travel.
I will be in touch soon!
Things with my counterpart have improved by a thousand percent. I think standing up for myself and making sure we were on the same page, literally and figuratively, made a huge difference. I am actually excited about projects now, and it's a good feeling.
The Tashlheet (Berber) channel came to my village and did an entire day of filming last Thursday. There must have been 2,000 people that showed up for the parties they filmed. Because I am an American gal living in a rock house in the middle of nowhere AND I speak Tashlheet (sort-of) I had to be interviewed, 3 times. I got to do one section in English just because I protested enough and I think they were tired of listening to my broken Tashlheet. Some of the questions they asked were extremely difficult, even in English but overall, I think it went well. My house was a staging place for the 10 or so crew members and reporters who came to tape, so that made for an interesting day. As a note, I don't have running water or a big bathroom, plus I am not Moroccan meaning I am not equipped with "Moroccan" necessities. It was an experience and it took me an entire day to recover. It was AMAZING to see all of these people in my village and outer areas that I have either never seen before or am seeing again for the first time in a while. My co-op ladies were so cute in their new matching smocks. They were hamming it up to the camera. We also made our famous rock oven cooked bread which I love. All in all, it was a great day and a cool experience. Plus, I get to be on T.V. (You can see some photos on Facebook)
Thursday was also the day of the bombing in Marrakech. If you are interested in knowing more specific details, feel free to Google it, there are a ton of articles. The jist was that it was a remote controlled bomb, filled with nails, exploded in a tourist cafe in one of the most heavily visited tourist (and volunteer) destinations in Morocco, Jemma El Fina. There are 17 confirmed dead, more than 1/2 of which were French tourists. Luckily none of my fellow PCVs were hurt or killed, just a little shaken up.
Saturday I hosted the most successful event to date. I invited women from all over the village to come to the commune and watch a video on women's empowerment called, Women Can Dream, which was made by a fellow PCV. I was nervous people wouldn't show, or the TV wouldn't work but my fears were never realized. 75 women came to my event. I want to say it again, just because of how monumentous it was, 75 women. Women came from far away villages to watch. Women who NEVER leave their homes came to see my video. It was amazing. The video was in Arabic (with English subtitles) and since most of the women are uneducated and don't speak Arabic, two high school girls volunteered to translate the video. It worked out amazingly. We drank tea, ate cookies, talked about the challenges facing women in Morocco and all over the world and even got a women's development association started. Yes, it got its roots at my meeting. Pretty cool, huh? Anyway, I know I am gloating but I am just so happy at how successful it turned out and how great it was to see women together, achieving things. It reminded me of my sorority days and how proud I was when I saw a group of motivated and dedicated women tackle a goal. It brings tears to my eyes.
I spent the past few days with my dear friend Donielle in her site outside of Kech, preparing for my trip to AMERICA. I am so excited I could pee my pants.
I am writing this blog post from BEAUTIFUL Madrid where it is currently 76 degrees with not a cloud in the sky. This place is amazing.
Tomorrow I get on a plane for America and after a 4 hour layover in Philly, I touch down in St. Louis, the Gateway to the West, at 9:10pm, just in time to grab some cold ones and some food after a long day of travel.
I will be in touch soon!
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Happy Easter
It's Easter Sunday and I was shocked to wake up this morning and see that the Easter bunny did not come. There were 4 anxious girls in the room, but no baskets. My guess is that the bunny doesn't like countries far away from America.
Today we went to mass, ate a delicious meal and did some much needed shopping at the Sunday souk in Agadir. It was quite a great Easter Sunday.
Being next to the beach wasn't too bad either.
Also, I drank my first soda since Fat Tuesday when I gave up soda for lent :) It tasted pretty darn tasty.
The beach on Easter Weekend
The church in Agadir
Since I gave up soda for lent, this was my first one, post-church on Easter.
Today we went to mass, ate a delicious meal and did some much needed shopping at the Sunday souk in Agadir. It was quite a great Easter Sunday.
Being next to the beach wasn't too bad either.
Also, I drank my first soda since Fat Tuesday when I gave up soda for lent :) It tasted pretty darn tasty.
The beach on Easter Weekend
The church in Agadir
Since I gave up soda for lent, this was my first one, post-church on Easter.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
I'm a Nerd
Yep, I'm a nerd. This will come as no surprise to anyone but my biggest kick lately has been the NOVA science now series brought to me by PBS.
When I lived in America I did not take advantage of the public broadcasting out there. Now that I am in Morocco, I do.
If you don't watch NOVA science now with Neil DeGrasse Tyson, you should. If you like science or technology, you are going to love it.
Another thing to check are the Planet Money and Freakconomics podcasts. They are free to download and AMAZING.
My days are better when the newest Planet Money downloads, no joke.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/
I just wanted to share these things with you and tell you to check them out. Yes, that means you Dad, download Planet Money from the iTunes store now, it's free.
When I lived in America I did not take advantage of the public broadcasting out there. Now that I am in Morocco, I do.
If you don't watch NOVA science now with Neil DeGrasse Tyson, you should. If you like science or technology, you are going to love it.
Another thing to check are the Planet Money and Freakconomics podcasts. They are free to download and AMAZING.
My days are better when the newest Planet Money downloads, no joke.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/
I just wanted to share these things with you and tell you to check them out. Yes, that means you Dad, download Planet Money from the iTunes store now, it's free.
Earth Day in Morocco
This year I planned an Earth Day celebration with the women in my co-op and some other women who take Arabic classes with a friend of mine in the village.
Despite its slow start, the homemade cookies and brownies really kicked things into action.
We had a great time, collected a of trash and talked about some of the environmental issues in our village and worldwide.
It was awesome, one of the most successful projects I have been a part of!
Yep, lots of trash.
The kids helped out picking up trash.
Despite its slow start, the homemade cookies and brownies really kicked things into action.
We had a great time, collected a of trash and talked about some of the environmental issues in our village and worldwide.
It was awesome, one of the most successful projects I have been a part of!
Yep, lots of trash.
The kids helped out picking up trash.
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