Syria was a trip!!!

These are my favorite photos from Damascus, Syria.  We definitely weren’t in Kansas anymore but it was an unbelievable experience a lot like a James Bond Movie.

I saw the Umayyad Mosque which has a shrine wsaid to contain the head of John the Baptist (Yahya), honored as a prophet by Muslims and Christians alike and [...]

Arab mix

If you know these musicians, please comment on their name.

Petra

I’ve had the groovee fortune of going to Petra twice with 2 different groups of people. It was amazing. I found this great video and thought I should show it to you!

On a long walk to the El deir (the Monastery), we had tea with a bunch of Arab guys who [...]

My Way by George W Bush

I won’t be sad to see GW go. He’s been a real embarrassment to Texas and America. While I want history to remember all his bad bad badness where he ran this country into the ground like we’ve seen so many fancy business men do and sent us to war, I can’t help but feel [...]

R.I.P. Elizabeth ‘B.J.’ Warnock Fernea

Professor BJ Fernea had a huge impact on my life. I probably wouldn’t have gotten a degree in Middle Eastern Studies without her presence at the University of Texas Center for Middle Eastern Studies. I will try to continue passing on the lessons she taught me about a multitude of things. I tried to sum [...]

Trip to the Asian Market

I took these photos a few years ago at the Chinese New Year celebration in north Austin. Here are some of my favorites.

Happy Buddhas

Porcelain Lotus Ladies

Catfish!!!!

Jolly Asian Men
See more Chinese New Year photos

Googling my mother, not Elizabeth Fernea

Curious if my meta tags and html text were correctly being indexed on Google, I did a search for my mother’s name “Liz Lobban” and was happy to see one of my web pages came up first in the search. As I scanned the page in the 10th or 11th spot, I found the entry [...]

The Middle East’s Secret Weapon

Lebanese singer/model Haifa Wehbe

The Lebanese people are all very beautiful but she is mucho caliente.
 Habibi means “my love” between my ears, but it says
here it is “my beloved“. They use this word a lot in arabic
songs with this type of music. I used it a lot to talk about [...]

Olympic Opening Fun

I’m cooking up a sports article, enjoy this!

Hope you caught some Olympics from Bejing.
The opening ceremony was AMAZING!!!!

Cheb Khaled – Didi

When I was in the Middle East in 1993, the song Didi by Cheb Khaled was all the rage. While I didn’t get to see this guy live, I heard him everywhere on the streets and in peoples homes. This makes me want some good swarma. And for those of you who think all Arabs [...]