lillithhanna's VirtualTourist Home Page

"The grammarian Ibn Babshad was sitting with his friends on the roof of a mosque in Cairo, eating some food. When a cat passed by they gave her some morsels: she took them and ran away, only to come back time and time again. The scholars followed her and saw her running to an adjacent house on whose roof a blind cat was sitting. The cat carefully placed the morsels in front of the blind cat. Babshad was so moved by God's caring for the blind creature that he gave up all his belongings and lived in poverty, completely trusting in God until he died in 1067". (oral tradition, recorded in the late 14th century by the Egyptian theologian and zoologist Damiri (d. 1405 from Cats of Cairo by Lorraine Chittock)

To see more of Lorraine Chittock's work, who is now in Costa Rica, see her website www.onamissionfromdog.com .

Now to Begin.
I think it is great to have friends from all over the world and staying in touch is the best part of traveling.

I want to travel more but for now let me share with you where I have been so far.

Here is my friend Laura in Makiki, Oahu. Because of all my ranting and raving about Egypt, Laura also went to visit and had a great time. Laura, is now living in Phoenix. She visited Egypt because she heard me brag about it so much that she had to go and visit her own country. Everyone should have pride in their country.

I lived in Hawaii for ten years and of course everyone knows Hawaii is so beautiful . There is no place in the world with mountains like the Hawaiian mountains.

I say "It's a good place to visit but not to live". I lived there 10 years.

Well before I left Cano and I walked the streets of Waikiki with his family. I met Cano in Egypt and bought him to Hawaii and we married. Halloween 2005 was fun but by November 2005 I had left and moved to NJ to be with my dad, who is battling cancer.

Cano and I and his sister and her husband walked via Kalakaua in the parade until we got tired. We took lots of pictures and drank tequila.

Egyptians are really nice people. I'm Puerto Rican and noone ever liked me much, so I went to Egypt and brought someone back with me - someone like my twin sister who is my total opposite. Opposites attract :)

I am from Puerto Rico.

I love Puerto Rico because that is where I can still find the best food. Puerto Rican food really does not get the attention it deserves, perhaps because we don't like to brag. But I especially, can not brag, because I don't cook.

My father loves Puerto Rico and he loves The Mets. I hope they win this year. Most of my family will retire to Puerto Rico. Some live in Jersey and some live in Florida BUT MOST LIVE IN PUERTO RICO.

I spent a month in Madrid while I attended a Teaching English as a Foreign Language course. Peter, my teacher from England taught me how to Teach English as a Foreign Language. My British Professor owns every single Rolling Stones Album. He really knew his stuff.

After completing the course I went to Toledo, Spain. Toledo, Spain is the most beautiful city on earth, they say and I tend to agree. I was lucky to be there during a big event, their annual Corpus Christi parade. It was so beautiful - cobble stone streets, lots of shops selling every kind of knife you can imagine. I spent more than an hour in the largest Cathedral I've ever seen. It was beautiful with many El Greco paintings, lots of chapels. I only wish I had taken more pictures. I will try to find some to post.

My father lives in Newark, New Jersey.

I always visit him and am not afraid to go to Newark while many people are too afraid. Some of my girlfriends from New Jersey, Portugese girls are not afraid to visit Newark. My father married an Italian woman and raised her four children when she became widowed. I lived with them and worked there two months last winter. There were alot of things I could write about and there are alot of reasons I could never live there but I do love New Jersey.

"New Jersey and You Perfect Together", "New Jersey - It Gets Inside of You". All these great slogans for New Jersey, The Garden State. With the malls and the snow and the consumerism and the simple people who just want to go to work, come home, pay their mortgages or rents, go to a movie, spend money in a restaurant, go to more malls. Yes I still do love New Jersey.

In 2001 I was lucky enough to spend five weeks with a host family in Egypt. I flew from Hawaii to Los Angeles to Holland to Cairo. I think it took me two days to arrive. During my stay in Egypt, I was in touch with family and friends back home daily via the Internet Cafes and it was the most exciting trip I ever had because everyone back home was involved. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed a 3-day cruise with Spaniards and a Sailboat ride on the River Nile, I visited many temples and many Coptic Churches in the desert. The Pyramids and The Sphinx were the final sights and then I headed back to Hawaii with wonderful memories of Egypt. The person who took it upon himself to tour me around is an artist of exceptional abilities and even though I did not speak Arabic and he did not speak English, we managed. We used an electronic dictionary and drawing on napkins to make conversation. It was an incredible five weeks. I found Egypt chaotic and beautiful. But the people are beautiful. Reminds me of my Puerto Rican people and of the Hawaiian people and of the.... people from Toledo, Spain and West Virginians... and people from New Jersey. Visiting different countries is good but having people from different countries visit me is even better! Attached is a picture of the guy who toured me around Egypt. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife... This was Hawaii Halloween 2005.

My husband and I - before we were married spent alot of time at Panorama, a restaurant at the top of a hotel where we could watch American music videos, smoke the Sheesha, waterpipe and drink beer.

There I met this beautiful Muslim baby girl. She liked my hair because it was not covered like her mom's. Her parent's were spanking her and she kept pulling her skirt down. Her mother covered her face with a black veil. I wanted to take her home with me.

I like it here. But what do you get when such a diverse mix of people begin moving into an area. History in the making. When I first moved here (yes a state of the U.S. called Florida) I had to explain to many people that I am a citizen of the U.S. by birth. I suppose they also didn't know that America had a program in which they sterilized 33% of Puerto Rican women between the years of 1944 and 1964, trying to help the island people. That's something eh? I was born in 1965.

I DO NOT understand the animosity some people have for Puerto Ricans. I have had to live with that all my life beginning with Cubans in New Jersey who I went to school with. How parents pass down prejudices to children from generation to generation simply amazes me. BTW, Now all those Cubans who were prejudiced against me are my friends and we stay in touch after a 25th High School Reunion that brought us all together.

I try to see how colorful the world can be and how much we can learn from each other when there is mutual respect and collaboration.

Peace in 2008.