Spoofy Randomness

Character: Katie

  • Miss or Not, Part 2

    Miss or Not, Part 2

    Ref: Weather Underground

    And that, my friends, is a wrap on Not on a Camel! This is the last comic of the series. It’s been a good run, but my contract is up and I’m back in America now so it’s time to end it. Thank you to everyone who read my silly little comic.

    Josh gets a cameo here for the sole reason of I needed someone taller than me because of the panel design. And panel two is true in two senses: sometimes, especially with foreign languages, what is meant as a good-natured joke doesn’t always land and I was being cautious, and there was so much stuff at that school that was completely ridiculous/sometimes edging on the illegal side that it would not present well…

    I did get the worst food poisoning of the entire two years the weekend before I was due to come home, hence the lateness of this comic. Not fun when needing to pack.

    The final panel obviously does not include everyone I met, but I just didn’t have room/skill to draw everyone. I tried to stick to people who had appeared previously, but Rhonda did get to appear for the first time. She is a teacher at Schutz that I got to be good friends with and would have likely appeared in the comic had my update schedule been better this year.

    And yes, that is a picture of my visa with ‘WORK IS NOT PERMITTYED’ circled (I did not add the circling). That was a thing that caused much frustration, including (as I later discovered) some of the issues with getting into Turkey. One of the requirements for me to stay at this job was to go to the visa office every few months and lie to a government official, claiming I’m a tourist. That is an experience I will never do again and I absolutely hated it, to the point that I almost left multiple times and probably should have (note: this was not revealed to me until I was already in the country, one of many omissions I encountered). The only thing that kept me from doing so was my life outside of work; I didn’t want to jump ship without completing what I set out to do.

    That being said, overall the last two years was a very positive experience and I’m glad I did it. To my friends in Egypt, I miss you already! To everyone else, Egypt is a wonderful and safe place and I hope you get the chance to go sometime!

  • Discoveries I

    Discoveries I

    Yay, medley comic! And Gavin, the Brit who lived in the Czech Republic for years before coming to Egypt, makes his first appearance.

    Christmas music is played year-round here. Usually it’s just instrumental, though.

    Maybe in other parts of the States those iPhone mics are actually used. I’ve just never seen it. I have since used mine as well, though!  I’ve mostly seen it on the trams.

    And unfortunately tortilla chips in the store were short-lived. They haven’t had them for months. I have found a couple Mexican restaurants, but I haven’t found the chips to be as high-quality here as, say, El Portal (my favorite Mexican place back in the States).

  • Dr Pepper

    Dr Pepper

    First of all, let me make one thing clear: if you are not Muslim, DO NOT TRY THIS JOKE.  Alcohol is harām in Muslim faith, meaning that it is forbidden to drink it.  Moustafa and Aya were also drinking Dr Pepper when they pulled this one on Alaa (and obviously the Dr Pepper was not spiked).  It resulted in much hilarity.  It also led to the discovery that Dr Pepper is available at one grocery store!  We then had a hard time convincing Moustafa that root beer doesn’t have alcohol despite having beer in its name.

    Because Egypt is approximately 90% Muslim, this also means that it is difficult–but not impossible–to find alcohol here.  Most upper-class hotels do allow foreigners to come in for a drink, and there is one chain of stores (appropriately called Drinkies) allowed to sell it, but apparently not corkscrews to open the wine, oops.  I don’t drink much so it’s not a big inconvenience, but if you’re the type to enjoy a good brew with your dinner, you’re gonna be severely limited in your restaurant choices.  But hey, drunk driving isn’t really an issue here!  You just have to watch out for all of the normal drivers…

    Lots more people showing up in the comic!  I tried to show everyone who was at Thanksgiving.  I thought I had everyone, then I realized I didn’t draw myself.  Oh well.  Oddly, I have not shown many Egyptians in the comic.  That should be changing as I make more friends and attempt to learn more Arabic.  Emphasis on ‘attempt’.

  • Thanksgiving

    Thanksgiving

    Happy Thanksgiving!

    Kind of a nifty little mashup of the three comics–thankful for having the ability to bring back Spoofy Randomness as a brand!  And of course you can show how thankful you are that Spoofy Randomness is back by donating to the comic’s Patreon to support the comic through the holidays!

    Panel 1 is what was meant to be its own comic when the news was first announced that girls would be able to enroll in the BSA program.  I never had time to make it, so this works.  (Technically Sally can’t join for a couple more years, but the point stands.)  Also of note (I think I’ve mentioned before) is that events in SR: Scouting takes place before SR: Not on a Camel.  And yes, Sally has been part of a co-ed Scouting program before.

    Us Americans at AIA are planning on having our own little shindig (along with a few others) at my place to celebrate, which is nice.  And hey, Cliff FINALLY made it into a comic!  Amazed it took this long; he is my counterpart in the science department as well as teaching math.  And he’s from Texas, hence his Dallas Cowboys shirt.

    I don’t really have anything to say about Percy. He’s Percy. I am playing as him in the Ultra Moon game, though. He uses a Delibird with Splash. It’s been interesting.

  • Eid

    Eid

    Wikipedia reference: Eid al-Adha

    A lot of foreigners are repulsed by this ‘savage’ holiday as at first glance it does appear to be on the brutal side, but once you take the time to learn about it, it is quite fascinating, respectful, and very steeped in religious tradition, representing Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son and God providing him a goat instead. And then there is feasting!  In the days leading up to it, there are lots of animals in the streets for sale, including camels (I did not ride one). I tried to avoid mentioning to Meagan WHY I saw a camel; I was successful for about a week and then she figured it out. Haven’t seen any camels since, SO THERE.

    I did want to go out and wander the streets during this to start to experience the culture (Eid was 1-2 Sept, so I actually got the USA’s Labor Day off!), but I was still fighting jet lag and slept in.  I’ll probably miss it next year too, as it will be earlier and probably before I get back from the States.

    Most foreigners here come from cities, and so there tends to be an impression that foreigners aren’t used to seeing such things, so they have the (mostly accurate) idea that foreigners would not feel comfortable with this. I come from a hunting family and spent a lot of my life in rural Nebraska, plus I’ve taught dissections. I’m good!

    Got to add Sarah and Katie to the cast list! They are also new teachers here, in the PYP (Primary Years Programme). And there ARE other Americans (contrary to what I was told).  Cliff is another American who also started at AIA this year; he’s my partner in crime in the science lab.

    This comic got delayed by several things, including a 4 TB external hard drive biting the dust (third one in four months; I’m never buying Seagate again) and discovering that Windstream was still charging me for internet back home despite telling them three times to cancel it. That gets a lot harder to deal with, both in hours and method of contact, when abroad. (Plus Windstream in general is hard to deal with, ugh.)