The funniest thing about writing on the blog is that as soon as I sit down to write, everything goes zip right out of my head. There's so much I would normally like to write about, like the hopefulness of the morning sunlight, the kittens who play in the shop of a bike mechanic, and little boys hugging my legs, but I forget it all as soon as I see the one eye of the computer staring at me.

Today, as usual, we went to go play soccer. Regretfully, we gave up playing with the Turkmenistanians because there really is no point anymore. None of the old guard comes to play and those that do aren't really serious about playing, which is in stark contrast to the crazy Student group we play with. The inimitable "Sheikh" Hamza from Russia was in fine form today, holding his arms aloft like a bird after he scored his goal. I just shook my head. We form some pretty strong mental stereotypes about people. The fact that Hamza is studying "Usul-ul-Din" in Al-Azhar doesn't jive in my head with the fact that he is a really good soccer player that occasionally (like most soccer players) loses his temper on the pitch. You envision people who study the din as very skinny and quiet, or alternatively jolly and very unfit. Soccer: broadening your horizons.

I bought the third volume of Kitab ul Assassi and started reading it. Alhamdulillah I can read the newspaper and stuff, but reading those old texts made me feel like I was going to have start learning Arabic all over again. There is much that I don't know; well, yeah, that's kind of obvious, but it becomes more and more obvious all the time.

But like Ammi said, I should be more thankful for what I have instead of always thinking about what I have to do. At the game I was talking with one of my teammates when we our team was off the pitch in Arabic, and it was alhamdulillah not difficult at all. *Ameer attempts to grin weakly but the smile slides off his face and his eyes refocus on the balagah book in front of him*

~Ameer