Helina Blogs

I was honored and respected by a friend when she invited me over for dinner to have a taste of the most traditional Kurdish meal in Kurdistan; the “Sar-u-pe.” "Bloody me," I said to myself, "a head and legs?" Well, duh! This is what Sar-u-pe translates to in Kurdish. I joined the dinner table and sooner than later I was frightened to see them hammering the head of the animal hoping to break through the skull and grab a taste of the brain. I was more frightened to see the eye-ball falling out of the socket and grossed out to see them chopping up the tongue of the animal.  The picture says it all To the side, they laid out a few platters of intestines, nicely filled with a mixture of rice, almonds, spices, etc. The tripe was chopped into pieces and were turned into little pockets filled with the same rice mixture.  The intestines filled with rice mix pockets of tripes filled with mixture of rice, almonds, spices, etc.  I did have the courage to join the...

Enjoying the back view of Akre The idea of writing this post came to me after I skimmed through Martha Stewart’s blog, “The Life of a Busy Wife”. I found a post on her blog where she goes on to talk about the reasons she blogs. So, my dear readers, have you bothered to think about why I blog? Here are some questions, followed by my answers to them. 1. If I could sum up myself and my blog in one paragraph, what would I say? I am vocal, a ball of energy and rather jumpy person, who bounces around from one station to another, from one topic to another and from one thing to another. I am an academician and am so committed to my students and work. I am dedicated and faithful to those around, and would be there for them 100% even if I may not agree with all their actions. I like to call myself a “busy bee”. I always have to be doing something. I think that my blog comes off like this too, although I know it does bother people that I jump from topic to topic. What can I say; I like to k...