latest adventure: NEWPORT

On November 30th of 1987 Ahmed F Khan was born (sorry Ahmed i forgot how to spell your middle name). He was definitely one of the better gifts given to the world =)

For Khan's birthday we woke up early and headed out to Newport! It was pretty last minute but it worked out because who wants to be at an aquarium all freakin day anyway right. I remember I was falling asleep in the car, pretty much because ahmed was going on and on about something or other.. haha. jk. No, it was just early and i hadnt had my morning coffee. Us, being the cheap-o's that we are, went to Kroger to get the huge 2 dollars off coupon for our tickets.

So when you walk into the aquarium the first thing you do is go down escalators, which is pretty sweet because it feels like you are going "under the sea." The second thing you do is take a picture behind a huge jaw thing. The first picture was a normal one, which was fine. But then in the second one the dude told us to make jaws. And of course i was like "make jaws??" well good thing Ahmed understood it, but why would we "make jaws" inside of a jaw?? well the picture came out stupid anyways because i was just confused and embarrassed that i was "making jaws" with my arms.

So then after that I think we went into a theater thing to meet Santa with a bunch of other 2 year olds.. haha. It was cool though. Santa was in a huge tank full of fish, turtle, and sharks. Apparently, this year Santa's reindeer all ran away so he had to resort to using his horsefishes and travel through sea... poor Santa..

Here is one of Ahmed and the gross jellyfish. I think the jellyfish were his favorite thing at the aquarium.. not sure why it would be though since he got stung by one once AND they are like the pests of the ocean.

My favorite part was definitely the penguins. I love watching penguins. They are REALLY neat creatures.



<---This is what Ahmed would be if he were ever a sea creature: Another cool part of the trip was the birds. After we got used to the immensly disgusting smell, we got to feed the birds some nectar and they started to get really mad at each other over who would get to drink the nectar.
All in all this was an awesome trip and I hope Ahmed had a good birthday. I wasn't able to get him a proper gift because i'm a broke but hopefully he will forgive me and let me give him something later =)

picture of the day: me and scuba santa.. yea we're close buds. he definitely said i am on the good list this year.. haha

Return of the Jedi

So I've been searching

for the right answers to the

wrong questions tonight

It has been much too long that this blog has gone neglected.  It was in major need of an update.  So what has been going on in my life... I was studying hardcore up until 11/24. Thanks to Rach for keeping me sane up until then.  She made sure to check up on me every few days so I could catch my breath.  I enjoyed our random breakfasts. Especially the one where I cooked GIANT omelettes and she made awesome pancakes.

11/24 USMLE Step 1

The test was hard as was expected.  But I felt like I was much more prepared for it.  There were clues sprinkled through some of the questions that I would have never even thought to pay attention to before.  Im just praying to God that I did well so I can put this past me forever.

11/25: New Moon

I got up bright and early to eat waffles (Yayyyyy!!!) and watch Twilight (Booooooo).  Seriously the first Twilight movie was hilarious.  I couldnt stop laughing.  Not only was the acting awful and the story ludicrous. But there was no chemistry between the characters in a movie that is supposed to be all about this intense all-encompassing love... It was a good laugh.  Then after watching half of that "movie" if thats what you want to call it... I got conned into watching ALL of Twilight: New Moon.  Most memorable moment of the movie -> Edward and Bella Skipping/Frolicking through a forest with campy music in the background.  Just the thought of that scene in my head is making me crack up all over again.

11/26: THANKSGIVING.

So much to be thankful for. Good friends. Family. Needs, wants, and desires.  All is being taken care of. Its sad that a day like Thanksgiving is even necessary to remind us how much we have that we take for granted.  How much we are ungrateful for...  How much we waste......  But it is necessary as a reminder and a good opportunity for self-reflection.  I think the best way to be thankful on a subconscious level is to make the the most of every day.  Be more today then you were yesterday or else in a way you are saying that yesterday was unneccessary... a waste of time..... and time is the thing that we need to be most thankful for.  It is the thing that is taken most for granted until it slips away without us even realizing where it went and who it took with it.

Reminds me of a saying of Prophet Muhammed (Peace be Upon him)
"Take advantage of five matters before five other matters:
your youth, before you become old;
and your health, before you fall sick;
and your richness, before you become poor;
and your free time before you become busy;
and your life, before your death."

Thanksgiving dinner at my cousins in Columbus was Amazing! (Turkey dinner, raspberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet peas, pecan pie... it was a very legit Turkey Day.)  I ate way too much and felt morbidly obese.  Days like Thanksgiving are why exercise was invented right?

11/27: Black Friday/ Eid
Haha. what a night... So after Turkey Dinner in Columbus we came home.  Madiha went straight to bed like a smart girl to her nice and toasty bed.  Me and Saarah decided to scope out Best Buy to see if a line had started.  I was expecting to check it out and then go home to catch a couple hours of sleep.  To my surprise there were already 40+ people standing in line at 11 PM Thursday night... I had wanted a Sony PS3 for a long time and Best Buy was having a Black Friday Bundle giving a PS3 along with two high quality games (Little Big Planet and Ratchet and Clank) that was selling for the normal price of the PS3.  Also there was a Doorbuster sale on videogames where games that are usually $60 were now $35.  So being the smart man I am I got in line to catch these deals.  So while Saarah chilled in the car and listened to music.  I stood in line. For hours.  Haha. It was so cold... I am just glad I dont have to do this on a nightly basis cuz it was unbearable...  Anyways 6 hours later and my toes feeling like theyre gonna fall off they finally let us in to Best Buy.  Saarah and I were in by 5 AM and out by 5:10.  We got what we wanted and left even before the line began forming so I guess that was good.  I was so tired though that I accidentally picked up the wrong game (Madden 10 instead of FIFA 10)... I ended up being able to exchange the game later in the day for the one I wanted though.

Eid Prayer.
In Islam their are 2 major holidays both are called Eid.  Eid Al Adha and Eid Al Fitr.  One Eid is at the end of Ramadan (our month of fasting from dawn to dusk) and the other Eid is at the end of the time when the pilgrims are performing pilgrimage in Mecca.  This Eid I got to see all of my friends that I grew up with.  This is the first time we all got to spend Eid together since we all went our different ways in high school and college.  It was really nice feeling like I fit in with this group of brothers whom I grew up with.  On this day and for the next few days we spent a lot of time together and reconnected.  I couldnt have asked for more over this Thanksgiving/ Eid Holiday...

11/27: Farhan's Wedding Reception
My friend Farhan got married.  Strange to see your friends growing up and beginning a totally new life and building a family.  Guess it happens even to the best of us.  Good luck Farhan. Wish you all the best mayne. :)

I should be updating this thing more often, but too bad my life has been extremely non-adventurous lately..

EXCEPT for going to chicago was a BLAST! Other than having to see Ahmed (which was mainly because i felt obligated to chaperon him) I had a great time with close friends from Northwestern - Jess, Amrita, and Michelle. The whole time was full of drinks, recovering, and laughing a LOT. My stomach hurt so bad from all the laughing and im sure we were laughing because we were either really slap happy from being tired or we were still a little drunk and everything seemed funny.

But just kidding about the Ahmed part =) Seeing him in Chicago was pretty awesome. His friends were all so nice and keen of making fun of him so I felt right at home. haha The restaurant was SO amazing but i felt weird going to the bathroom at the same time as Ahmed... just too close to be going pee at the same time.. their bathrooms are WEIRD

Other than Chicago I've been doing the same old - waiting for Ahmed to come back so i have a life again, studying, and working part time. Today is my brother's birthday so i got to spend some quality time with six 12 year old boys. AND i finally finished Twilight!! So now i have to realize that there really are no vampires or shape shifters and i REALLY have to convince myself that Edward is a fictional character and no matter how much i try Ahmed will never turn into a wolf. but seriously... i need to stop being a loser and get over that book. THANKS to vinita i have officially become a Twilight addict haha

so, till the next time i see Ahmed again, which will hopefully be in a week, there will most likely be no adventures to talk about... haha and hopefully ill have pictures or something later on.

From Champaign to Chitown

On the way to Champaign: Realizing that every cloud has a silver lining.

So these last two weeks have been incredibly busy, but I am glad I am at the PASS program in Champaign.  I am being taught to look  at and learn medicine in a completely different manner than the past.  Instead of just memorizing everything and forgetting it right after an exam, I am beginning to learn why everything in our body happens the way it does.  This experience will not only make me more prepared to take my board exams, but will also help me to better understand how and why the human body functions and dysfunctions in the way it does.  The long hours we put in every day will be worth it in the long run...

This weekend is the halfway mark before the program ends.  I needed a night of relaxation, so my friend Erum (she officially DID NOT flake) and I went up to Chitown to meet with some friends.  The two hour ride flew by as we were both excited to forget about studying for one night.  I was looking forward to trying good sushi for the first time, meeting Jay and SK, and just relaxing and talking with a fun group of people.



In Chicago we picked up Erum's sister followed by the infamous Rachel who is in Chicago for the weekend chillin with her friends from her alma mater.  On the way to dinner at Sushi Samba Rachel told me all about how unadventurous her life has been without me in Beavercreek.  That is why she hasn't updated the blog since I left.  I have really missed making fun of her on a daily basis over the last 2 weeks.  She retaliated by cracking up every time I tried to use chopsticks while eating sushi.

Sushi Samba is probably definitely the most hip place I have ever eaten at.  

We arrived at Sushi Samba only 40 minutes late (Sorry SK and Miladin).  As we were walking in, I was following Jay whom I had grown up with but had not seen over the past 6-7 years...  She was on the phone, so I didn't let her know I was right behind her since we entered until we almost reached our table.  "Juhie!" and then I got all the hugs we had missed over the time we've been apart in ONE GIANT HUG.  haha. It was the kind of hug where you didn't want to let go because you weren't sure if it was going to be another 7 years before the next one...

After reuniting with Jay, I met SK for the first time.  I was waiting to get slapped for all the times I have made fun of her when we talked online, but she decided to forgive me and gave me a hug instead.  Haha.  I really hope she had a good time, I couldn't tell if she was really comfortable around the random group that had assembled to hang out last night...  I am really happy that I got to meet her though, she is just as predictable as I thought she would be ;P


At dinner Rach and I decided to split Sushi Rio Rolls and Spicy Tuna Rolls between the two of us.  This sushi was so much better than the stuff I had in Akron.  Before I didn't see what the big deal was about sushi and why every one made a huge deal about it.  I liked the sushi at Sushi Samba.  It didn't taste like eating raw fish/lobster.  And the Wasabi definitely had a nice kick to it.

The bathrooms at this place were also pretty baller.  Once again I'm not used to high class and having people open the stall door for you.  Squeeze soap on your hand.  Or give you a towel to wipe up with.  It was definitely unique.

After dinner, Rachel headed out to hang out with cooler people than me.  I wish she could have hung out for longer but it was nice that she could meet up even for a lil bit.  It was like having a familiar piece of home with me for the night. :)  The rest of the group moved the party to Arabia Hookah.

We got our hookah on.  Jay almost had a decent amount of smoke by the of the night.  Erum and SK with their powers combined became Captain Fob.  and I proceeded to repeatedly embarrass myself by continually confusing Albania with Serbia (where Miladin is from.) Thanks for being patient with my ignorance man haha.

The night ended early aka right before the belly dancer arrived.  We all said our goodbyes and headed our separate ways.  The ride back to Champaign seemed so much longer than the ride to Chicago.  There was nothing to look forward to.  However, me and Erum had a good chat on the way back.

All in all. I couldn't have asked for more from my night of relaxation and friends.  Thanks Chitown :)

DAI Part 2 and W_ndering What Comes Next

This painting/ picture is by the famed pop artist Andy Warhol.  It is cool because it is a black and white picture which is awesome in itself, but also because of the awesome paint job on top of the enlarged image that bring the character to life.  I dunno why, but art is hard for me to describe as to why I like it.  But I guess art is also one of the things that you don't owe anybody an explanation for... Right?

 Rach and I hit up the DAI on Friday for Round 2. This time we rushed through the European section to write down the answers to the scavenger hunt that we got last time, but had to copy again since Rachel is so genius that she forgot the sheet at home.  After that, we spent a little more time with the Impressionist paintings because we had to rush last time.  Then we moved on to the American art section which had a lot more paintings of people in desperate need of some sunlight, but now they had powdered white hair.  Also the Americans painted their babies uglier than European babies.  Also, unlike European art which had much more religious themes, American artists painted more about great American heroes like George Washington (back in the day, I guess he was like bigger than Jay-Z!) and the son of the dude who founded Dayton (OK he's probably just some random douchehound, but his mug is in an art museum...). 

American artists also painted some really idyllic (yeah SAT word) landscapes that really captured nature and its overall awesomeness.  2 great examples can be seen here.  If I had any artistic talent I would probably paint something like this.  Some awesome ruins in Italy on the coastline with a lot of detail...  In the picture on the right you will notice two important things... 1.) Rachel's face is blurry in every picture.  This is because in real life she has a blurry face... Just think of it like God just did us all a favor and pixelated her face so nobody would think it was Halloween every day.  2.)  You can see extreme amounts of detail in this painting that just continued to astonish me the more I stared at it...  These paintings of places that look so amazing make me wish I was chillin with the people that painted them back in the day...  Of course in this scenario I would also have the ability to challenge people to a duel, which was how people asserted dominance over one another before videogames were invented.

At this point in this post I want to remind all the senoritas out there that I am 100% heterosexual.  Ignore the fact that I wrote a haiku, went to an art museum out of my own free will, and without my knowledge but I guess well-known to Rachel wear aprons while I make baked goods.  Also the purple background in this picture above do not help my cause.  But ladies I can prove my straightness to you on an individual basis if you would so choose. Holla.

 As is demonstrated here, I am flying and looking super gangster simultaneously.  There is no trick photography or photoshop or any of that unlegit shiz here.  This is realer than real. 

We wrapped up our second 1/4 of the DAI with the modern art section.  There were some pieces in this section that I wouldn't call art and I just chose not to spend as much time staring at them.  Others were really cool looking and even though I feel like I could have made some of them, I didn't.  And because they made me feel a certain way by looking at them, I consider them viable art.  One of the items on the scavenger hunt required us to count the number of objects pinned on this pegboard artpiece.  This task brought out the OCD nature in Rachel and I as we counted each object, checked, and rechecked the number at least a dozen times.  I still swear we were right with 102 though, although the answer they wanted was 100... 

Quote of The Day: "Alright, now you count that half and I'll count this half" - Rachel and Ahmed, multiple times.

Moment of the Day: Enjoying my hard-earned Chocolate Chip cookie after completing the scavenger hunt

Picture of the Day: Rachel with our dog creation in front of the real giant dog creation that she didn't think was there last time even though it totally was.

I will be writing in this blog more sparingly over the next two months for two reasons. 1.) I will be busy in Illinois studying 2.) I wont be on as many adventures because of aforementioned studying (although I hope Rach continues our tradition of one week of doing, experiencing, and writing as much as possible) I have faith in you Rachel! :)

Until next time, peace.

Some stuff I wanted to share:

First, I would like to share a blueberry cobbler recipe that I got from my childhood best friend, Lauren. Ahmed, this is especially for you, cuz i know you love to sport the apron and do some baking every now and then. I've never had blueberry cobbler before Lauren and I made it, but BOY is it good. Especially with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. So here it is:

Blueberry Cobbler:

1. put 1 stick of butter in a square baking pan. Put the pan in the oven and preheat to 350 (until butter melts)
2. While waiting, mix one cup of self rising flour, one cup of sugar, and one cup of milk into a bowl
3. Pour this mixture into pan, then open a can of blueberries (or really any type of fruit except strawberries, oh and Oregon brand is the best) and pour on top in the middle
4. bake for 45 minutes.

Words of wisdom that i came upon:
Okay, so the only theme that resonates throughout the numerous popular life is love. Love, in all its forms, is the one powerful enduring force that brings real meaning to our everyday lives. I'm not talking about just the romantic "kissing, hugging, forking" love, even though that's pretty powerful stuff too. But what I mean is the love that is the fire that burns inside us all, the warmth inside us that urges us to reach out to others, to connect with family, to hold the door for someone, to pay for the next car's toll, to want to be a better human. It's the love of life itself. Sometimes we are so caught up in our daily hum drum activities, that we forget to dream, to try and discover more about ourselves because lemme tell you, there is a lot more to yourself than you can even imagine. Ya, i know, we've all heard the saying "one person can change the world.." blah blah, and more often than not that saying goes into one ear and out the other - BUT have you really challenged yourself today? We should all try it. ok not try it. just DO it. (this is what my sister tells me a lot). just do it. ya? WHO'S WITH ME?? ahmed? =)

.. ok and to be honest this message is really for myself because i do need some convincing and a good pep talk every once in a while..

song of the day: Three Little Birds - Bob Marley

My Thoughts on DAI Day 1

Me and this dude have a serious connection going on. We both look simultaneously creepy and serious. I think it just boils down to the ballertastic beards. Not gonna lie, I am jealous of his mustache though...

So after Rachel got off work today, we decided to hit up the Dayton Art Institute.  We got there around 2:30 without getting shot in Dayton. Yayyy.  They gave us a scavenger hunt to do to win a GIANT COOKIE, so you know us being obese people, we were down with that. 

They started us off on the Scavenger Hunt in the European Art section.  What I learned today was that back in the day in Europe they painted 2 things.  1.) Religious Stuff 2.) Naked people.  I liked reading about the religious stuff, it was cool to see all of the story they could convey in a painting.  The naked people were just funny cuz i didn't get why they were being painted naked.  And it would be even funnier when like most of the people in the painting would be clothed except for a random naked lady/flasher. If these painters were alive today they would probably be paparazzi waiting for Britney Spears to flash her vajayjay.

Another thing I learned was that women back in the day were super ripped...  Seriously, she has muscles on top of her muscles .  It was interesting to see the different ways Mary Magdalene was depicted.  In some scenarios she was portrayed wearing tight clothes, others loose fitting, and as shown here naked and buff in the buff.  But the Virgin Mary was always shown wearing modest clothing and looking super religious.  I just thought it was interesting the way that artists depicted these women so differently...

Added to the list of goals of the year: Get guns like Mary Magdalene...



So I mean that was the majority of the European art stuff... and then I got Rachel to pose like a major dork in  this picture. Click on the pic to make it larger in all of its glory!  (Haha, what now Ha).  That dude in the painting does look pretty badass and 300-like though.  I bet he pwned a lot of newbs back in his day. And is still pwning newbs named Rachel in present day.

So around this time, the security guards told us that the museum was closing in 5 minutes (4 PM), which was a lot earlier than we had hoped for.  We had to rush through the section with the Impressionist paintings which is my favorite style of painting...  Monet would be on my art All-star team.



So in about an hour we covered 1/4 of the museum before we were shown the way out by black Seth Rogan.  This was the first time in my life I went to an art museum without going on a field trip.  Hopefully I will be more cultured after this year!  My family never goes because of aforementioned naked paintings, sculptures, tapestries, or rugs.  It was a fun experience and I'm looking forward to covering the rest of the museum later.

QOTD: Rach: Do you ever feel like you can see the air... like the molecules?
             Me: .................. No.

Currently Listening to:  "Up Up & Away" - Kid Cudi

Currently Reading: Polaris by Jack McDevitt

- AFK

Dayton Art Institute Part 1

Okay so far we've been doing good on the not crapping out part of our adventures.

Even though we had to leave after an hour into our visit, looking at the European gallery part of the art museum wasn't too shabby. I noticed that it consisted a lot of Mary and Jesus and Jesus on the cross.. and Mary with Jesus and Joseph... and Jesus with his disciples.. and etc, but we still learned a lot. Like how back in the day artists liked to draw women with man arms and also liked to depict the seasons as people. Its pretty interesting how a random painting can tell a brilliant story.

Okay, here is my favorite photo of the day:

The Tree

crimson tree like fire
scorching the surrounding earth
with serenity

If Rachel ever makes fun of me, just ask her to demonstrate the Native American Bug Bite dance

-AFK

The day of fun in Beavercreek

Thank you Ahmed Khan. I had forgotten all about how embarrassing that incident was.

haha. By the way, for anyone who isn't sure about who Ahmed is yet, I'm sure our stories will explain a lot. He may come off as a real macho cool guy, and sometimes a little creepy when he grows out the beard, but deep deep down in there he's a huge softy who has an extreme fear of dogs (a childhood thing), and most importantly, he is seriously one of the greatest friends anyone can have.

OK but down to the real happening stuff. Today Ahmed and I woke up at the ass crack of dawn and went to First Watch (which is delicious but not as good as Le Peep or Ihop). Ahmed is watching his weight and ordered the non-cholesterol meal while i had the huge skillet of yummy potatoes, and egg with a pound of cheese.

At my house we decided to play a game of ping pong and let me just say MAN did I kick some serious brown butt.TWICE. I'm pretty sure Ahmed thought he'd dominate like he does in tennis. but no. he did not

Afterward we threw around a football at rotary. And by throw I mean I chucked it at him and he perfectly spiraled it back at me. I started getting the hang of it, but then again we did use a football half the size of a real one. We found this really beautiful tree there (Ahmed you should post that picture) and it's leaves were turning a pretty red already. We also found a tree that grew those berries that everyone knows not to eat. But Ahmed wanted to outsmart them all and decided to eat one. good thing he spit it out.

We ended the day with a serious Brain Quest for 7th graders competition. but ok, does a 7th grader REALLY know who the father of the Constitution is? And do they REALLY know that a sonnet as 14 lines?

Song of the day: Flying Horses by Dispatch
Quote of the day: "What's a filly? Wait, what's a mare??" - AFK

To Friendship

Ive known Rachel for 8 years now. She says stuff that makes me laugh because it sometimes doesn't make sense (at all). I'm not describing her as ditsy because on the downlow she is uber smart. She even went to a smart people school called Northwestern. They're a prime example of how brain power is inversely related to football skills. I bet they have an awesome Sudoku team though.

I started writing this thinking I was going to write about Rach, but since this is OUR blog I think our own writing will give you a better picture of who we individually are because me writing about anyone leaves out too much. So instead I will write about why we would share our adventures that have yet to be experienced to begin with. Our friendship.

In high school we shared classes, friends (her boyfriends, haha), sports, and even the nerdy clubs we were proudly affiliated with. And then after graduation we went our seperate ways hoping to experience the world beyond Beavercreek, but still keeping in touch when possible. And now we have returned full circle. Back to the beginning. Ready to make the most of whatever we choose to accomplish this year. The circumstances that led us to now I couldn't have predicted years ago. But I'm excited to see where we go next.

Through the years no matter where we were, who we were with, or what we did since our paths first crossed I can say that our friendship has always been there. We were distant at some times and closer at others. We have held each others secrets and have kept some secrets from one another. We do both of those things in order to not let each other down. Sometimes, letting down your best friends is even harder than letting yourself down. Damn, I started to get deep.

But anyways, like I was saying... I can't think of anyone else I would rather share this year's adventures because Rach is a great friend who has always been there and more importantly is fun to laugh at. And that is something I can't say of anyone else I have known since the Freshman year of high school. I could go on and on about all the funny things that happened. But for now I've just got one story to share.

Senior year of high school. Me, her, and our friend Das were walking to our cars after school.

Ahmed: Remember how Jon borrowed my calculator and then lost it?
Das: Yeah, and he kept saying he would give you money to buy a new one...
Ahmed: Well, I just found out that his graphing calculator broke.
Das: Karma's a bitch.
Ahmed: Haha, yeah.
Rachel: Haha... Wait, (pause.... and in a completely serious tone) Who's Karma?
Das and Ahmed: ... HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA (etc.)
Rachel: Wait, what? I still don't get it...

This inaugural post was wayyyyyyy too long, probably too formal, and definitely too serious. I promise I will do less of each from now on, haha. Until then, lata.

- Ahmed