Almy and Tauhid’s Blog

I don’t know how those guys do it during Ramadhan — the Muslim brothers who work in Tyson’s food packing meat, those who do field work in the heat of the sun.. I tried working for about 2 hours doing a little lifting and I’m exhausted. It didn’t help that the place I was working at had no AC.. luckily there were some big trees providing shade.

I tried buying some ice in Downtown Houston today, they were almost out but I managed to get 3 bags. The place was crowded but I found a short queue. However, the guy in front of me didn’t have enough money, so he had to give back some of the merchandise that was already packed. I think it took about 5 minutes for him to sort it all out. Meanwhile, my bags of ice were melting. In hindsight, I should’ve help paid the difference to the guy although I’m not obliged to.. this being the last ten days of Ramadhan — so I’m kicking myself right now for not doing that.

Tau

Here are some pics that Almy sent to me from Indonesia. My little girl is growing up fast — she can actually count to ten!

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Quick recap of events of the past week:

-Ike made landfall on Friday PM, and really messed up Galveston. I actually have a pic of us in Galveston playing by the seawall. The seawall was completely engulfed by the storm surge during the Hurricane — you couldn’t see it at all!

- A few hours afterwards, Ike moved up to Clear Lake — the reporter who was there got knocked off his feet. He was amazaed because it was the first time a hurricane did that to him.

-After that, it was on to Houston.. those skyscrapers had their windows shattered. Transformers blew up, areas flooded. Meanwhile, the hurricane eye was over Galveston, bringing a false sense of calm.. and a lot of summer bugs.

-Ike kept moving up north, close to College Station. I heard the winds howling, but nothing major happened.

-As daylight came, the extensive damage to Galveston could be seen on TV. Highways flooded in Houston. And millions of people were without power and water. Gas became a rare commodity.

-Today I just found out that my zipcode won’t get power on Monday 22 Sep.. Innalillahi. Oh well, I just gotta press on with my life.

Tau

This time it’s real.. unlike Gustav, Ike is actually set up and ready to go to ravage Houston as a Cat 3 hurricane. After my zipcode was told evacuate, I packed my documents and important data, some clothes and food and fleed to College Station. The Rita nightmare, where evacuees were stranded for 36 hours on the highway, thankfully did not happen. I only spent 4 hours on the road on the way to CS. All hotels were booked, it was a miracle that I actually got 4 nights reserved at a hotel.

Can’t understand why people wouldn’t evacuate, even after told that Ike is ‘certain death’ for those who don’t.. I hope we’ll be able to recover from this.

Tonight, the show begins as Ike makes landfall at Galveston. A few hours later, Houston will get hit as us evacuees keep a close eye on any hurricane news.

Tau

When I think about Korea, these things come to mind: obscenely fast and cheap Internet connections, kimchee, one of the best animation industries in the world, taekwondo, mind-boggling movies (sympathy for mr. vengeance comes to mind), and the DMZ. I wonder if South Koreans really think whether the DMZ is still necessary or if it’s a Cold War relic being propped up by US fearmongering. But I digress.. hope you find what you’re looking for Hali. Visit her blog at “to omoimasu”