Hello everybody,

This blog has been inactive for quiet few months now and I thought it's by time I publish some news. I've been in touch with some of you, filling you in on what I've been up to so feel free to skip on the parts you know.

Many things have happened since October. After spending some time here I realized that keeping a record of my life in this place would be a far more difficult job that I imagined. I've been through a vast number of experiences; academically, socially and otherwise. It didn't take me long to realize that am probably going through the most interesting change in my life.

At the moment, am doing the second semester of my degree program. The first semester was very interesting in terms of subjects, lecturers and schedule. I enjoyed every moment of it, excluding the Christmas vacation when everybody here went back to enjoy the holidays with their families and I was left freezing :P

Despite the stacked schedule, I've been to a number of places during the first semester; notably York and Edinburgh! The latest trip to Edinburgh was magnificent in every aspect! Below are pictures of Edinburgh ...



Some of Edinburgh's Castle ...



and more of Edinburgh from the top of the castle ...



(Photos by Giùlia)

The second semester is going great so far. The courses am doing now are even more interesting than those I did during the first semester. I must say I so much enjoy doing my masters and peruse my studies in gratitude to the chances that brought me here.

Apart from my university, I get to do a whole lot of activities whenever I have the time. I can say my lifestyle has drifted considerably during my stay here. I find myself doing things I never thought I'd be capable of, also enjoying things that never made sense to me ... unbelievable!

Am also adoring the technology available at hand here. Everything starting from life at campus, government work, paying the bills, shopping and down to the simplest things such looking for a place to enjoy a Friday evening is only few clicks away.

The weather in Newcastle is fairly more pleasant than Amman. Although it can get very cold in some days, I still find it more convenient to cope with on contrast to the ridiculously-rapid climate changes in Amman!

Below are photos I've taken for my university during the recent snowfall ...



My friends in this place are adorable! Despite our different cultures, backgrounds, and interests, we still manage to enjoy each others' company and chill like life-time friends. I never bonded with anybody so firmly within months of meeting them. It is really hard to imagine parting ways with them.

Next week I'll be in London to spend a couple of days with the international students society. Chances are I might have something interesting to post about by the time I get back ...

If not ... see ya in some months :P

Sorry for the delayed post guys! Time passes quickly here :)

I've been taking lectures for the past two weeks and was given some tasks to attend to during my free time. Many things are happening around here and posting about each is pretty much impractical.

To put my news in short, I moved into a shared flat with other International students (no more stays at hotels), met a number of friends, went on a couple of trips around Newcastle, and best of all: got a broadband Internet connection at my place! :D

Anyway, here are the details, starting with the incidents that were mentioned at the end of the previous post ...

An Evening at a Bar

Victor is a Spanish undergraduate student that I met during my first week at the university. He studies music at Newcastle and has invited me to a "Jam Night" at one of the local bars. He said that this bar holds Thursday evenings for jamming sessions and that many bands and solo artists perform there every week.

I made it there that Thursday and watched some bands perform; the evening was amazing! Anybody who wants to play would simply write their names on a chalkboard and wait for their turn. The songs  played ranged from country to some rock oldies, in addition to few originals.

Victor was expecting me to bring my guitar and jam along, but I told him I've been in town for a couple of days and it's not the right time ... yet ;)

Luckily, I got away with my vile no-drinking habit that evening with a simple "Sorry, I have a medical condition, I can't drink" :P

 The Tap

This happened during my first week too! I was heading someplace for dinner when a girl got almost ran over trying to cross the street to my side while yelling "Hey! Hey!".

She looked terrified and asked me if I can get her "a tap". I asked her "What's a tap?" and she acted out smoking a cigarette. I figured that a tap is slang for a cigarette! She said "I can't buy it because the guy at the supermarket thinks am a minor but my 18th birthday was just yesterday!".

Now in normal conditions, if somebody approaches me with such a proposition,  my reaction would range from simple refusal to beating them to death :P, but this girl really did crack me up! :D

So yes, I went to the supermarket and bought her a tap (how responsible). She gave me a pound and asked for the change but I didn't want to bother counting the pennies so I just told her "It's on me" and she was like "Ooooooh" and she hugged me :S

Of course I didn't let her go without some lecturing about the risks of smoking but she looked like a lost cause, or else I wouldn't have saved myself the hassle of denying her request.

Trip to Tynemouth

A couple of weeks ago I went with some friends to Tynemouth, a town at the mouth of the river Tyne at the east coast of England.

We passed by the historical Tynemouth Castle, a castle that stands on a high rocky cliff and is believed to have been there since the 10th century (making it 1000 years old). Anyway, embare7 wella el youm, it looked nothing more than a deserted bunch of stones to me :F

Hello everybody, this is to let you all know that I’ve arrived safely and am currently doing just fine in Newcastle, UK!

My trip to Newcastle was great. I had a five-hour stop at London’s reputable Heathrow airport, one of the world’s largest airports, which was such a nice opportunity to look around. I’ve wandered for hours but couldn’t see but a tiny portion of the airport. Heathrow is so big that people use metros to travel from one terminal to another!

My flight to Newcastle was a little bit delayed so I arrived late, unpacked and fell to bed. I woke up the next morning and took a walk around, checking up the places and the routes. My WLAN-equipped mobile phone and Google Maps are really doing me a great service here; I can locate any place and determine the best route to it with only few clicks on my mobile phone! :D

Next week will be our last in our training at KADDB. Our 3D Laser Scanner is now completed and we're adding the final touches. The scanner has undergone tremendous upgrades and is now performing way better than it used to last month.

To put it in short, during the past month we've managed to complete multiple viewpoint scanning and 3D mapping. The device can now automatically capture data from multiple views of the object and merge these sets of data to form a complete 3D model.

We've corrected serious bugs related to surface sampling. We've also programmed algorithms to compensate for inaccurate calibrations and instrument errors. Using these and some additional tweaks we've raised the maximum sampling rate to an amazing 6.66 samples/mm while cutting half the scan time!

The models we're producing now are extremely accurate and look amazing.

Take a look ...