jpaula

Sarah,

If he has to leave the airport in Europe ( to change airports, for ex) he will need to get a transit visa. This just adds an extra layer you do not want to have to deal with. So, get a ticket that does not require changing airports. Lufthansa flights through Frankfurt do not require changing airports. If you buy an Air France ticket just be SURE that the ALG to Paris leg arrives in CDG as that is where the Paris to US flight will leave from. DO NOT get a ticket to Orly. Double check. Triple check. I once bought a ticket on RAM through CDG so I would not have to change airports on my way to Marrakech and RAM just decided to put me on a different flight that left from Orly. No notice. Just decided I should be on a different flight from a different airport. So, I now demand, demand again, check, check again.

You can buy tickets on line from either of these airlines and then just have him go to the office in Algierswith the confirmation number and print out a paper ticket. Or, he can buy them there. Try both and see which gets you a better price. The only problem I forsee with buying it here or with buying one online is that you do not want him flying on an e-ticket as the check-in desk in Algiers won't take it (this could have changed recently. anyone?). So, be sure he gets a paper ticket. Call Lufthansa and Air France and ask. They'll tell you your options.

For international ticket searching, I like www.kayak.com

This is one of several sites I have found that lest freelancers bid on immediate projects. Because bidding is closed, I don't know what kind of rates freelancers are getting, but it is interesting to see the variety of work. Have a look around:

http://www.proz.com/

I think we should start a VJ MENA translation firm

Why were you told to stop pilates? I would do it every day if classes didn't cost a fortune. I mean, really, a fortune. It is kind of absurd. But, pilates itself is amazing. I did a dvd for a while but, like I said before, got bored with the same thing over and over. Now I try to add some of what I remember into my daily stretching or somehwhere in the middle of yoga. Not quite the same as the real thing, but so it is for now. My alter ego does pilates every day and has perfect, strong and lithe, posture. She is also tall and has a perfect French accent.

I work for a law firm that does mostly plaintiff's litigation. We have French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, and Arabic translators on staff, and there are also several ppl. who are bilingual who help out with translations from time to time.

If you can get certified to handle legal translations, I think you'd have a lot of options, actually.

There's the answer I was looking for! Any idea how people are certified?

I've tried it but it is just WAY too hot for me. Gasping, dripping--it was ugly. I have no idea how everyone around me was so zen while I was dying. Now I take an unheated class in a studio where they have a heated class before me so the room is pretty warm but I can still breathe. The heat really does help so I wish I could bear the really hot class, but I am a wimp. Boy, do I have respect for anyone who can sweat it out like that though!

Ok, I am not on a diet, but I do have an exercise related question and this crowd, disciplined as you are, seems a good one to ask.

Anyone do yoga? I have for years (but I still suck) and love it. I had a class I really liked but I keep missing it due to an ever changing schedule. Now I am looking for a good yoga podcast so I can do it at home. Anyone have one they like? I'm up for any suggestions, but prefer Vinyasa.

I know the obvious suggestion here is to get a good dvd, but I hate exercise dvds beacuse I can't do the same routine everyday without getting really bored really quickly. And somehow yoga just isn't the same if I have to stare at a tv screen while I am doing it. So, I am searching for good podcasts.

Looking into French/English translation jobs also. I do some business in France and have often had to pay translators--usually freelancers--and you can run up quite a tab. Paying by the page to get a legal doc translated is a pain in the butt, I tell ya. I think it may be frustrating to try to make freelance work your real full time job, but for the bilinual or even trilingual among us, a translators certificate and a few referneces seem like good things to have in your pocket. I started looking at it mainly because both my husband and I are interested in languages (and he, unlike I, is skilled in them) and I was snooping around some of the linguistic theory literature. Led me to think about the more practical side of things and what jobs were available. It strikes me as interesting supplemental work and a really good way to keep language skills current.

So, any other jobs that take advantage of foreign language fluency?

Well, there are a variety of jobs. Government, of course, especially with Arabic, but others as well. Courts and hospitals are two biggies. But, you can also do freelance work; help businesses translate marketing materials and reports, help people applying for visas translate docs I do academic work and have paid to have texts translated. Do a quick google search for translation or interpreter jobs and you will get a wide array. Because it can be flexible work, it just seems like a good thing to have experience/certification in.

So, I throw it out there as an idea and ask that if anyone finds good info, do share it. Thanks!

OT, but another idea for bilingual SOs is work as a flight attendant. Delta has announcements all over job boards that they are looking to hire people who speak more than one language and the more the better.

For those of you who are either bilingual (trilingual?) or have bilingual SOs. Do you have any info on translation certification programs? I am helping my husband look specifically for certification programs i.e. not Masters degree programs. Google led me to the American Translators Association, but I do not know if there are other, more known or respected organizations for these things. And, I did find a continuing ed crtification program at NYU that looks pretty good. Basic translator or interpreter courses in English to Arabic and/or French and then some choices for specialization--medical, courtroom, business and legal. We are in the info gathering stage here so if anyone has any experience with any of this, I would love your input.

Thanks so much.

Uh, not all of us think same sex marriage is yucky. Some of us could care less who anyone else marries.

This article was in last week's paper. This week, there was one letter in response to it (source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/magazine...ters&scp=1)

The letter follows:

Noah Feldman (March 16) argues forcefully that at the root of the Islamic legal system, or Shariah, lies an ideal of the rule of law — an ideal that can eventually foster and sustain democratic civil societies across the Muslim world. The disagreeable fact that Feldman most urgently needed to confront squarely, and didn’t, is that, as he says, Shariah is “not just a set of legal rules.” Shariah has a “metaphysical purpose”: to mete out the justice embodied in God’s naked command. Feldman owes us an explanation of how a system of law in which “God’s law sets the ground rules” can “function as something like a modern constitution” — how a religious authority that claims a monopoly on the truth can preside over a civil order in which the truth is an open question, not bound to the naked command of any authority, no matter what its “metaphysical” pedigree. Modern constitutions, one would think, are secular for a reason.

HAROLD SKULSKY

Forest Hills, N.Y.

My favorite spot is half way netween SF and Santa Cruz. You would need to rent a car, but it is a beautiful spot, often beyond the fog zone, and puts you in easy commute proximity to SF to touristy stuff and Santa Cruz for beach stuff. Plus, the drive down Highway 1 to get there is amazing.

http://www.costanoa.com/site.php

What good news Wharania!!! Can I tell you I told you so ???

We had a cheeky interviewer there too one time. I thought he was kind of funny, but then again, I was there and so knew things were going well so didn't take the comments as anything other than humor in an oterhwise tense situation. And, a cheeky American, I couldn't help but crack back.

So long as they give you the visa, I say Hooray!

Did they tell him when he would get it? Hoping they gave the 10 days at UPS estimate.

they had him buy the postage...but first asked if he wanted to come back in 10 days to pick it up.....he chose getting it mailed in 10 days...my husband was terrified at the consulate..

We had to pay postage too. Tis the norm, I think. Good news though!

Of course he was terrified. My husband was too for the first few times (we had to go in alot--long story). I wound up doing almost all of the talking. The jokes are actually what finally loosened my husband up, but even then, it is just a stressful situation and impossible not to be nervous. But, they are pretty lax and I don't think being nervous runs the same risk of messing thins up in Algiers as it might in other Consulates.

So, ten day countdown til "Visa in Hand." So glad to hear it!

What good news Wharania!!! Can I tell you I told you so ???

We had a cheeky interviewer there too one time. I thought he was kind of funny, but then again, I was there and so knew things were going well so didn't take the comments as anything other than humor in an oterhwise tense situation. And, a cheeky American, I couldn't help but crack back.

So long as they give you the visa, I say Hooray!

Did they tell him when he would get it? Hoping they gave the 10 days at UPS estimate.

These threads about culture always lead to the same back and forth. What gets frustrating to me is that they ignore the diversity within any culture. In the end we are talking about individuals--ourselves included--who each carry their cultural influences differently. And our marriages are each different for that. So for those of us who are entering into, or already in, bi-cultural relationships, generalizations about Arab men or Algerian (enter other nationality here) men or Muslim men only go so far. That said, I learned far more about my husband and our marriage by living with him in Algeria than I ever thought I would.

Jenn, I totally agree. Also, I think I should be clear that none of this is to say that there is anything objectively wrong with any given culture. It is just a question of establishing common expectations before you marry and this requires much more work when both people come with different cultural assumptions of what marriage, respect, family, religion, etc are. And, it is ongoing.

Interesting in this thread the difference in responses from women who met their husbands in the US or Europe and those that met online and/or solely in his home country.

No one is saying culture is not a factor. What many are saying is that culture is not an excuse--it is not a reason for you to accept behavior that is not alright with you. "Oh, it is his culture to..." Most marriages here are bi-cultural which means that both cultures enter in to it, so the cultural question is complicated. Do husbands say "well, it is her culture to interact with other men so I guess it is OK?" The point is that a couple has to discuss how their own marriage works and each partner must know, and be honest about, what they themselves can compromise on and what they can't. If you accept jealousy as an appropriate, or even desirable, aspect of your marriae that is your choice. But, for women who do not, for those of us who see it as control rather than love, there is no way, in our own marriages to excuse that jealousy as culture. You marry someone with who you are not only in love, but also compatible and these issues have to be honestly discussed becuase they play an enormous role in marriage.

He is somewhat backwards,jealous and sometimes makes me crazy, but I didnt fall in love with a metrosexual open minded man....

seriously....I have never met an arabic man who was truly in love with his wife that would be cool with her hanging out with men all the time.Maybe long term friends...but come on....Im in love with a muslim...How many husbands here would be ok with their wives ogling men and hanging out with them all the time...Oh hell no...Not if its a real marriage

I have many male friends and would not have married someone who was threatened by that. To me, jealousy is not a sign of love but of control and lack of trust. Everyone knows what they themselves are comfortable with and what compromises they are willing to make for the comfort of another. My line is very clear and I never would have entered into a marriage where I thought I could not be my true self. We are all dealing with cultural issues, but this is not a reason to feel like you have to accept things with which you really disagree.

I feel a little silly trying to give advice or guess at what will happen when your husband gets here because my husband had been in the US for a while by the time we met so you could say we both knew what we were getting. But, I just really worry when I hear anyone hope that things will be different in the future. None of us can know that. There is no innate mellowing agent in the US air. And frankly, having you cover head to toe in Oran is worrying to me as well as it is not at all the norm there.

Babbling away here as I want to give you some sort of reassurance or advice but have none to give. I do hope that you find a way to address these things and that you not use "culture" as a way to excuse things that cross the line (whatever your own line may be).

Do they not have smoked salmon in Egypt? I was pleasantly surprised to find it in many stores in Algeria. I would have killed for a bottle of balsamic vinegar, though. I like that idea. Plane rules and regs have made food products kind of tricky. I am nervous to pack any liquid in a bottle in my checked bags (imagining maple syrup and balsamic soaking the clothes as I write this) and now that you can not carry them on...

Aside from food items, I also bring nice socks. I am always cold so have quite a stash of socks and got many a comment on them the first time I went to Algeria. So, I bring nice ones with me as small gifts now.

And, if flying from Portland to a coffee drinking country, I bring some Stumptown also. I see it as doing my part to dispell the crappy American coffee myth.

My father travels all over the world for work and, whenever he needs to bring a present for someone, he throws in a few bottles of good maple syrup as he claims it is found no where else (save Canada, of course). It may be too small a gift for family, but it has been a hit wherever I brought it, especially if you add a pancake recipe.

That's the one! Thanks W.

From the subject I thought it was going to be the "I drive in Algiers" videos which I love. I have no idea how to post a youtube video here, but they are a charming, street level view of the city. The I Drive in Algiers 3 video passes right by our old apartment and then follows the route I used to walk up the hill.

The problem is not specifically a MENA problem, but I do agree that you should know the custody laws of any country you decide to bring your children to. And, you should know that for many countries if you have a child with a man from that country your child is considered a dual national and that may have legal consequences. We, of course, believe ours should apply. It should not be that surprising that they think their custody rules should apply. So, we should understand very clearly what those are as they are often very different.

Hmm, my mistake. I don't think they have signed it. I am not sure it really means much. Here is the DOS sheet on Tunisia: http://travel.state.gov/family/abduction/c...ountry_531.html

Wahrania,

An off topic question here, but I am a bit of an international law junky and so am really curious if the fact that Tunisia has signed the Hague Convention has made any difference at all in your friend's case. Just wondering if it has any "teeth."