Spoofy Randomness

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  • LDSG: Not Always An Adventure

    LDSG: Not Always An Adventure

    From Meagan: 

    Oh, look – there I am crying on Skype. That’s an exaggeration. That never happens *cough*
    Early on when Jake left, it was really hard for me for a lot of reasons but one of those reasons is that I felt like the least-interesting part of the relationship. Talking to him about establishing his new life in a foreign country made me feel like mowing my lawn and joining the YMCA just paled in comparison. Not that he felt that way, of course. Hearing about my more “normal” life helped us feel connected and helped him feel a bit more grounded in the reality of home.
    Then there were all kinds of questions about him, of course. It’s not that I minded the questions, but there were lots of instances where there was clearly more interest about how Jake was doing in Egypt than about anything I was doing in my own life without him. It was easy for me to feel like somehow the most interesting part about me was the fact I had a boyfriend in Africa. That didn’t feel good. I was an interesting person on my own before I even knew Jake existed, and I’m still an interesting person now.
    One of the things I actually looked forward to with Jake leaving was being able to really focus on me again. He got the offer for this job about a week after we started dating, so suffice it to say that this experience has really been at the center of our relationship. So much of my time and energy went into getting HIM ready to leave, but nothing was left over to help ME get ready for him to leave.
    So finding that balance of focusing on myself again, while talking to curious, well-meaning people who centered Jake in our conversations was difficult. Everything has gotten much, much better since then. But make no mistake – I wouldn’t want to do those first couple of months over again.
    From Stretch:
    A lot of people do have this impression that I’m always off exploring or something. But just like back in the States, most days I teach and then come home and crash. Not exactly the life of adventure! Meanwhile, Meagan is working on her house and doing half-marathons and whatnot.  And yet, just because I’m in Egypt, it’s considered more exotic or something? Early on, it took a bit of convincing that I do enjoy hearing about Meagan’s life and that it wasn’t boring, but we got there in the end.
    On the technical side of things, I think every cartoonist worries about someone accidentally viewing an antagonist as being based off of them. Now, throw in the fact that I have real people in the comic… I wasn’t sure how to show a generic character without accidentally making it appear like someone–and then I remembered that I had an entire cast I developed for five years that I could throw a cameo role in with. And Sally would be more interested in what people would be doing abroad (after all, she was crushing on the Canadian).
  • LDSG: Sync

    LDSG: Sync

    From Meagan

    Technology is a beautiful thing! Especially with Egypt post not sending to United States, I don’t know how we’d make it without Google Hangouts, Skype, and AppleTV. It’s the little things that make me feel so connected to Jake. They go a long way.

    And Supergirl especially is “our” thing. I’d never seen it until we watched it together for the first time on the night we decided to be in a relationship, and it’s been our show ever since. So still being able to share that is really meaningful. And there are some kind of heart-wrenching plots in that show that really resonate with us, our relationship, and being long-distance. Our song even came from a musical crossover between Supergirl and the Flash.

    But it’s all these little things and 1,000 more that don’t just make me feel connected, but allows us to continuously work on growing closer despite our distance. I think life is mostly little things and if we can find little things to share while we’re apart, it’s going to make sharing little things that much more special when we can finally be together again.

    From Stretch:

    Technology is a beautiful thing…but frequently is under threat of defenestration from me. We’ve had a few canceled or ‘Semper Gumby‘ dates because of it. But yes, it is wonderful, and I can’t imagine doing this without it.

    Credit to my friend Sheila for the TV idea; she used it to watch Grey’s Anatomy with a friend the first year we met and the idea apparently stuck with me for several years.

    One of my big points of life is to take joy in the little things, and I am fortunate to have found a partner with the same belief.  I will elaborate more on this in a future comic.

    I am not satisfied with my coloring of Bosco in this comic. I may redo that some day if I ever find the time.

    Also, I didn’t realize that I would be posting a comic ON Valentine’s Day until I went to save the sketches and had to put in the date it would be posted. Cool.  Our first Valentine’s Day, I introduced Meagan to the Nebraskan tradition of having chili with cinnamon rolls (it’s amazing).

  • LDSG: The Journal

    LDSG: The Journal

    From Stretch:

    It’s February! And that means Valentine’s Day! A day to spend with your loved one…who is ten thousand kilometers away. Oh. So instead, Meagan and I decided that we would present a monthlong ‘survival guide’ about relationships abroad.

    I was really looking forward to sending the journal back and forth, and the occasional letter as well.  It never crossed my mind that Egypt Post wouldn’t send to North America (apparently this is a recent development, and yes, they do send to Europe).  We do still send the journal back and forth, just not as frequently as we hoped, and I’ve taken advantage of situations like my sister coming to visit to get the journal overseas, along with some postcards that I had promised to send before I knew.  It is really nice to get it and read something that Meagan has physically written in (and adorned with ALL THE STICKERS).  And yes, the Arabic comment actually happened. This is why I don’t hand-letter comics.

    Been in a long-distance relationship? Have some useful stories? Comment below!

    From Meagan:
    I stole this idea from a friend who was long-distance with their partner domestically, and never really entertained the idea that it would be such an expensive hassle to have it mailed back.

    The bonus of getting the journal by DHL is that it will arrive in about three days. The downside of sending it back to him via USPS is that it takes three weeks or longer, and I’m worried the entire time that it has gotten lost somewhere in Egypt. So I get pretty anxious when I mail it. Every time we send it, it gets that much more valuable and important to me. It’s one of my favorite things.

    That being said, I’m so glad we’re doing this. It’s such a special and exciting day when I receive it. There’s just something really personal about getting to see his handwriting (even if I can’t always read it), and knowing that I’m holding something he’s held. It helps me feel that much more connected. It’s always full of interesting goodies like ticket stubs from all the cool places he’s been. And I’ll put in pictures and QR codes to different videos and really anything else I can think of.

    Communication is critical in any relationship, but especially when you can’t share a physical space, so having different avenues for that communication is really beneficial. I like to use it as an opportunity for Stretch to learn more about me.

  • Downside of Teaching Abroad

    Downside of Teaching Abroad

    Ref: Parents

    So for the most part I try to keep the comic light-hearted, but I also do want it to represent what living abroad is like and this is one of the drawbacks.  If I were home, I’d be helping Dad around the house, but instead I’m stuck here.  The good news is that my grandmother is out of the hospital and Dad’s surgery is pretty routine (I think they do something like 20 a day); it’s just hard not to be there.

    On a positive note, Nathan makes an appearance! I’ve known Nathan since elementary school and we chat often. Also, can you tell my mom likes purple?

  • Sister Visit V

    Sister Visit V

    The last of the Sister Visit series!

    While I may have gotten acclimated to prices in Alex, I am not normally in touristy areas. I definitely got thrown for several loops as Wendy and I traveled.  Thankfully in this case, I did manage to barter down to $40 (for some reason, I had two $20 bills in my wallet), which was still more than Alex but based on later conversations was reasonable for that area.  This is one reason why I prefer Uber because rates are set (most taxis will not use meters), but Uber isn’t in Hurghada…

    The other thing that surprised me is most places were surprised I had Egyptian pounds.  Apparently most people use US dollars, British pounds, or euros and don’t bother converting while on holiday.  The shops and hotels love it, because those are more stable currencies.

    Technically, this occurred before the previous strip, as it was actually when we landed from the airport. It fit better narratively here.

  • Sister Visit IV

    Sister Visit IV

    Wendy and I went out to Hurghada (and Safaga kind of by accident, more on that next week) and went scuba diving in the Red Sea.  I did enjoy it, but it’s not something I can see myself making a habit of.  It’s a lot of hassle to get to a situation where my breathing is controlled and I have to get wet, two things I’m not overly fond of.  But it was really neat to see all the coral and fish!  The little guy in Panel 4 was our favorite, it is a Klunzinger’s wrasse that is only found in the Red Sea.

    Wendy really did use her camera screen to see. Neither one of us thought about the glasses issue (and we both wear them…). My vision is passable without, so I didn’t have any trouble, but she would have been quite disappointed had she not had her waterproof camera.

    I’m satisfied with how the backgrounds turned out in this one, which is good given this comic took over twice as long as normal. I probably could have done more, but I’ve also been putting Douglas Adams to shame in regards to deadlines, so…

    Any allegations that I have too much fun drawing funky hair are just plain silly.

  • Sister Visit III

    Sister Visit III

    Hey, Wendy actually shows up in a Sister Visit comic! About time!

    ‘Tourist tax’ is not unique to Egypt, I know. But I did learn to play the ‘I live in this country’ card and sometimes that knocked the price down a bit. Wendy got the hang of bartering down quicker than I did. If I’m thinking about it, I do okay, but I really have to be in the right mindset. It doesn’t help that I’m well aware I have more money than they do and I don’t want to underpay. It’s tricky.

    One thing that both Wendy and I had to adjust to was calling the USA ‘America’ and not ‘the United States’. In our high school Spanish classes (and later, Wendy lived in Brazil for a few months during her undergrad), it was drilled into our heads that the USA was not to be called ‘America’ because the countries to the south consider themselves to be a part of America from the continental perspective. But here, that’s the term they’ve learned for the USA, so had to break that habit (it still hasn’t been totally broken).

    As for the romanized Arabic, habibi means ‘sweetie’ (there is a famous song called as such, which Moustafa sings very well!) and la’a means ‘no’; it’s one of the most useful words to know in tourist areas!

    In other news, after four months (almost to the day) of being in Alexandria, I finally went to see Pompey’s Pillar and sphinxes (which appear in the Spoofy Randomness logo). Wendy and I had a heck of a time getting there (the Uber drivers had no idea where it was), but we got there eventually and it was quite the archaeological site. Didn’t make a comic about going, but thought I should note it.

  • Sister Visit II

    Sister Visit II

    Happy New Year! Okay, done with fog comics. But it did help me get caught back up! End of term was a little more hectic than I would have liked (partly due to razzum frazzum grade report issues and partly due to Turkey issues).

    Moustafa gets all the awesome points for putting up with this chaos without complaint.  It got further complicated by the fact that both of our phones died (weak cell signal at the airport…) and he also had to bring his fiancée to the airport (and should have been spending the day with her instead of stuck at an airport with me), so when we realized that those waiting to depart had been taken to a hotel, we figured we should have some time to run back to Alex, get Sarah and power, and head back hopefully before Wendy landed. Moustafa took Sarah to the arrivals and I ran over to the departures just as people started coming out of the airport. Success!

  • Sister Visit I

    Sister Visit I

    Merry Christmas!

    In case it’s a little foggy (ahem), my speech bubbles are on the left and Moustafa’s are on the right.

    This marks the first of a series of strips showing my sister’s Christmas visit to Egypt.  Our whole trip will not be documented in comic form, but there are a few moments that were ‘comic worthy’. I’ll comment more on this particular situation in next week’s comic.  Suffice to say that I had not seen fog like this in Alexandria until that day, go figure.  I’m just glad I was not going home that morning like some of the foreign teachers did.  And it had to happen on the first trip someone made to Egypt; I had bought Wendy a SIM card, but she obviously did not have it yet. She will be passing it off and I’ll put money on the account when someone comes so that we don’t have this situation again, but I didn’t have a non-$50-shipping way to pass it off to her to start with.

    Because of Borg El Arab’s distance and remote location (the airport in Alex is closed for an indefinite time for renovations; it was supposed to reopen in 2014 but then the revolution happened), I’ve discovered that flying in and out of Cairo is almost as convenient. A little longer to get home, but it’s MUCH cheaper to fly there and the train system between Alex and Cairo is cheap and comfortable. Wendy and I also discovered that domestic flights in Cairo have almost no lines and that part of the airport is nice and quiet; it was an enjoyable experience.

    Speaking of the revolution, one side effect of it was that you cannot go into the airport unless you have a ticket.  This was confusing to me when I first arrived, as my driver was not able to greet me at the gate and it took a bit to figure out that I had to LEAVE the airport.  This also meant that Moustafa and I couldn’t go into the warm building and find a comfy seat next to an arrivals screen, so we had to sleep in his car.  (The lack of an arrivals screen is REALLY annoying.)

    The Arabic in the comic should give my Egyptian friends a chuckle. I apologize for poor translations. Also, apparently ClipStudio does not like Arabic (or I don’t know how to make it like Arabic, which is equally likely) because it goes from right to left, so I had to screenshot Arabic text from Google Translate and bring the image in.  This is the gripping behind-the-scenes stuff y’all come for, I know.

  • The Turkeys at the Turkish Consulate II

    The Turkeys at the Turkish Consulate II

    Suffice to say, I was not pleased.  Plus out about $200, between the cancellation fees, Uber fares, and paying the Turkish consulate to NOT give me a visa…  The good news is that Cliff had a good time there.  And yes, I was actually told that the official response was ‘no reason’.