Blog Moved to New Website

From now on, this blog will no longer be updated. You can check out my new website and blog here:

Expat Heather

Beauty is Gori

Pakistani journalist Talha Zaheer takes a look at racial attitudes in the Indian subcontinent. This article points out a lot of the things I wrote about earlier on the blog here. Check out Zaheer' post at Dawn News:

http://blog.dawn.com:91/dblog/2009/10/19/beauty-is-gori/

Fashion Design Schools in Lahore

I recently wrote a piece about where to study fashion design in Lahore. Check out the article if you're interested in learning more, and be sure to add a comment if you know of any other good fashion design schools in the city.

Where to Study Fashion Design in Lahore

6 Months Later - The Pakistan Post Delivers!

Packages from Lahore Have Arrived!

After 6 months of waiting, last week I was lamenting our half-empty book case and wondering if our packages sent via Pakistan Post would ever arrive or if they had been lost somewhere in the sea. We sent 6 packages in April and May 2009, and until today only two of them have been received. We got the first two packages in June, so we were expecting the remaining four to follow shortly. When they didn't come by September, we started to think they had been lost or not sent at all. Last week I said a quick prayer for our packages, as I believed there was no earthly way they were going to make it. Just today we received the news that all four of our remaining packages have arrived! I'm feeling a mix of excitement, since the packages actually made it, and dread, since once our packages arrived via the Pakistan Post completely waterlogged as if they'd fallen off the ship. In any case, praise the Lord for getting our packages to this side of the globe!

Taste of Pakistan

I must admit that before I left Pakistan I stowed some spice packets away in my luggage. The other night I was craving a taste of Pakistan, so I tested out my own version of chicken jalfrezi. It was delicious! Basically I just cut down on the oil, left out the green chillies, and used only 2 tbsp of the spice packet.

The Pakistani Diet: Tips for Healthier Eating

When it comes to life expectancy, Pakistan comes in at number 136 out of 191 countries in the world. The average life span in Pakistan is 64.9 years according to the CIA World Factbook 2009 Estimates. There are numerous reasons for this, including poverty, infant mortality, lack of clean drinking water, poor sanitation, not having access to medical care, etc., but dying younger is not limited to only the poor.

I have met many middle class and upper class Pakistanis who suffer from health problems such as high cholesterol and high blood pressure as early as in their 20s. A nurse friend of mine living in Pakistan was convinced that the Pakistani diet factors into the low life expectancy, and I could see why!

If you are accustomed to eating a typical “Desi Diet,” here are some tips to help you eat and live a healthier, longer life.

Tip for Healthier Eating #1 – Say No to Ghee and Use Less Oil

You may love your sweets, treats and meats swimming in ghee (animal fat), but the best thing you can do for yourself and your family is to stop cooking with ghee altogether. My husband and I always found it shocking, and a bit sickening, how much cooking oil is on sale at the supermarket. Do your regular cooking with olive oil, and cut down the amount of oil that you use significantly. A few tablespoons of oil are enough for most dish. Olive oil is more expensive, but the health benefits are worth it.

Continue reading more tips here

Travel from Lahore to Amritsar - Crossing the Indo-Pak Border

The Wagha/Attari border is the only place you can officially cross from Pakistan into India, and travelers usually make the trip between the Punjab’s two major cities: Lahore in Pakistan and Amritsar in India.

In order to cross the border from into India from Pakistan, you need to have valid visas for both countries. If you are planning to return to Pakistan, make sure that you have another entry left on your visa before you leave the country, unless you are planning to apply for a new Pakistan visa in New Delhi.

There are often buses that go straight from Lahore to New Delhi, and sometimes there is a train service operating across the border, but these services are vulnerable to the state of government relations between the neighboring countries. Not only that, services that join the two countries directly are seen as symbols of friendship and cooperation, and these services are accompanied by heavy police escorts due to the fact that not everyone thinks friendship and cooperation are the best policies to pursue. It’s safer and faster to stick with local transportation on each side of the border rather than to use a special service that operates between the two countries.

Continue reading step by step instructions here

Back to the Blog!

Hello everyone! It's been a while but now I'm back to the blog. Working at camp this summer was certainly busy, and I didn't have much time to write. My husband Duarte and I are now residing in Fall River, MA. We are both going back to school to pursue our teaching licenses: for me in English and for him in Physics. Our long term plan is to re-enter the world of international teaching once we both have our licenses. For now, being on a student budget again, we won't get to do much traveling. I still plan on taking photos and doing some writing about our past travels, but the blog will probably be focused more on life here in the US for the time being. I do have a backlog of travel articles and reviews to write about places in Pakistan and India, so keep checking the blog for stuff on the subcontinent.

Photos from Camp Brookwoods & Deer Run

From Camp Brookwoods & Deer Run

We are entering into our fourth week here at Camp Brookwoods and Deer Run in Alton, NH. Check out the photos and see the horses! We have 8 horses at camp this year.

To the Land of Red, White and Blue

It's been a while since I've blogged, but we are back in the US and currently working at Camp Brookwoods and Deer Run in Alton, NH. We had a few days with each of our families before we were off into the world of camp, and at my parents' house they threw us a patriotic coming home party complete with red, white and blue balloons, delicious catered food, a variety of wines and a cake! It was so good to see some friends and family after being gone for two years, although we did have to rush a bit to get unpacked, packed and ready for the summer at camp. Here's a pic of our welcome home cake!

Amused by Clueless Travelers

Well we are back in the US, thankfully without having to run through airports to catch our connecting flights like we usually have to. On two of our flights though, we had some interesting neighbors.

From Lahore to Abu Dhabi on Etihad, we sat next to an old Pakistani man who didn´t speak any English and was deaf. It seemed it was his first flight, as he had no idea how to buckle the seat belt and seemed totally intrigued by the food. When he got to the butter packet, he opened it and started eating it with a spoon!

From London to Boston on American Airlines we had a South Indian couple across the aisle from us. I have no idea how they made it to London. They were trying to put their buckles on backwards, and the man was standing up and trying to talk on the phone as the plane was getting ready to take off. The stewardesses could not communicate with them at all, so I tried talking to them in Hindi. Turns out they only spoke Tamil, but they could at least understand more Hindi than English. Either that or my hand motions were enough! Thankfully the man had the same model of phone as I do, so I was able to turn it off before getting him and wife properly buckled in. The stewardesses gave us drinks on the house for the translation help!

Fees to Deposit Money in the Bank!?

So I opened a dollar account recently at Askari Bank in Lahore. The minimum initial deposit was $500, so I changed some rupees into dollars and deposited it. Today when I went to check on the account balance, it was only $497! I was confused and asked the guy, "Where did the $3 go since I deposited $500?"

"There is a cash handling fee," he replied.

I was thinking (but didn't say), "What? A fee for handling cash? Isn't that what a bank does?"

I read the account opening forms thoroughly, and I don't remember it saying anything about a cash handling fee for foreign currency accounts.

If I'm going to lose money every time I make a deposit, then why should I keep an account there? Maybe this 'cash handling fee' is normal in Pakistan, but if I put in dollars into a dollar account, I don't understand why there should be any fee. Banks here don't do currency exchange, you have to go to Western Union or other money changers to do that, and there you lose a bit of value when you exchange currency. If you open a dollar account at Askari Bank, you will lose some money when you exchange your money into dollars, and then you'll lose more money when you pay the cash handling fee.

If the 'cash handling fee' is normal for foreign currency accounts, the bank employees should at least tell you before you open the account.

Sunday Brunch at GunsSmoke in Lahore

A few weeks ago we went to the Sunday brunch at GunSmoke. "Brunch" is a relative term in Pakistan, as I believe it actually starts at 1:00pm and goes until 4:00pm at this particular restaurant. The brunch menu includes steak, eggs, salad bar, soup, juice, coffee or tea, bread and a side of potatoes. None of us could finish our plates! I can't remember the exact price, but it was less than 400 rupees ($5) per person. The brunch deal is only offered on Sunday afternoons.

Goodbye Party at Ali Institute

Today my students threw me a goodbye party at the Ali Institute. There was tons of delicious home-cooked food, and everyone was dressed to the nines. We endured the heat for a few minutes and got some great photos outside. I'll be posting them soon!

Our BEEPIN' Neighbors!

So I know a lot of my blog posts about Pakistan are negative, but hey it's the negative things I need to vent about. Blogging is such a great way to get out all of that pent up angst and frustration!

One of the things that drives me crazy is people I call "beepers." Beepers are too lazy to get out of their cars themselves and ring a doorbell or open a gate. They drive up a house and immediately start beeping. "Beep beep beep beeeeeeep!" Two seconds later (not near enough time for anyone to actually get out of the house and open the gate), "BEEEEEP BEEEEP BEEEP!"

These beepers have no concept of disturbing the peace. At least once every day I am woken up by a beeper. At four in the morning, when even most Pakistanis are sleeping, they seem to beep longer and louder than they do during the day. What a nice alarm clock. "Beep beep beeeep! Beep be beep beep beeeeeeeep!"

They beep in the morning. They beep in the evening. They beep when I am enjoying my dinner .They beep when I am sleeping. They beep when I'm talking on the phone. They beep so loud I can barely hear myself think. This is not a nice little 'honk honk,' but a laying on of the horn as if the driver is constantly in an aggravated state.

If you are a Pakistani who gets out of the car to open to your own door, I respect you. Thank you for being considerate and thinking about the sanity and peace of others. Even if you give a missed call to someone, but stay in your car, this is still much appreciated. Beeping is not necessary for doors to open and shut. My gate seems to open just fine without a password of "Beep beep beep beeeep!"

If you are a beeper, you may not think your beeping bothers anyone, but I'm sure you have woken someone up at some point with your incessant honking. If you ever move to a country where disturbing the peace is a crime, you will be faced with steep fines and a lot of angry neighbors. Beeping on the road at dangerous drivers is fine; but beeping in quiet residential neighborhoods is just plain rude.

Fried Chicken Cheese Balls: Wholesome Snacks?

There is a huge billboard towering over the road on the way from Lahore Cantonment to Defence. The bright red and yellow billboard shows the new Mon Salwa Chicken Cheese Balls that are meant to be deep friend before eaten eaten. At the bottom of the billboard it reads "Wholesome Snacks!" Hello? Does the person who made this advertisement have any idea what the 'wholesome' means? If Fried Chicken Cheese Balls are considered a healthy snack, it's no wonder why so many people in Pakistan have high blood pressure and heart disease before the age of 40.

I saw another funny billboard for the new Media institute opening in Defence:

Excited Career Opportunities!

Of course it should have read "Exciting Career Opportunities!" By using 'excited,' it makes it seem as if the career opportunities are excited about something. In this way, the 'opportunities' are personified and have their own personality.

Why do people spend so much money on advertising and paste it all over town without getting it checked over?

My Three-Year Love Affair with Lahore

This month I wrote a 'letter to Lahore' for the Pakistani e-zine The Green Kaleidoscope. It's a reflection of my last three and a half years here.

Check it out:

My Three-Year Love Affair with Lahore

Bible Plagiarizer Confronted

"Look, you didn't write these poems. This one is a famous limerick. It was written well before you were born. Did you write it in a past life? And this one, this one is from the Bible! It's almost two thousand years old. Don't even try to tell me you wrote this."

"But miss, I wrote those other poems."

"I don't care if you wrote some of the poems, although I don't believe you did because I didn't see you write them in the class. Look, here underlined in red, 'any instance of plagiarism will result in a zero.' Zero. That's what you are getting."

"Miss, miss, can I resubmit? I will email it to you."

"No. I told you clearly that you must write the poems yourself, and that if you did not, you'd get a zero. If you email me I will not read it."

You think by now the girl would have some dignity and either confess or give up. She stayed around for 20 minutes begging me to let her re-do the assignment. Two former plagiarizers who had changed their way were also there to witness the scene. They had learned their lessons and handed in excellent work. One of them even earned 97% on her assignment.

I was adamant with the newest plagiarizer.

"Look, would you take verses from your Holy Qur'an, and put your name on them? Would you say that you had written them? This is exactly what you've done. You can not steal other people's work and lie and say that it is yours. This is not acceptable."

Finally, she gave up. The sad thing is that she'll surely try it again with other teachers.

Car Air Filters in Pakistan - Change Every 2 Months!

Yesterday we learned something that would have been useful to know when we bought our first car in Pakistan. In the US, car air filters are usually changed once a year. I thought I was doing well to make sure our car had its air filter, fuel filter, and spark plugs checked and changed annually. Well, I forgot to take into account the amount of dust in Pakistan! Our landlord's son showed us our car's air filter, and it was totally clogged up, cracked and dry after 11 months. I remarked that it must be time for a new one, as we had changed it a year ago. He replied, "A year? Here in Pakistan we change them every two months!"

Yikes!