On Olives and Sake

I just had my busiest day ever…
Tuesday… woke up exactly 5:30am… back to the same bed at exactly 6:30am the next day….

I got 2 swollen feet, one reallllllllyyyyyyy screwed up t-shirt [u should've been there Dina when I landed face2face into a lovely muddy pool... thank god my flat was 10mins away], a nerve-breaking headache and the best time ever with syrian bloggers…

here’s a quick glance of yesterday….
05:30 woke up
07:00 my bus to damas took off
11:30 finally, got to damas after one whole hour delay
12:00 chasing time with Alaa to get to the jp embassy on time [thx a lot Alaa for waiting all that time, u rock]
17:30 got out of the embassy after 5 straight hours of tests including a japanese language test [regardless of what the hell the quiz was I maintained a "B" choice in that test... at least one of those Bs is gonna be right], that’s where I got the Headache…
18:00 I met with Sinan in Nofara… then a nice tour in old damas, it’s nice having someone who actually knows the area on such tours.
19:00 THE MEETUP [details are due VERY SOON].
21:30 Started the quest to answer the eternal question.. “Should I sleep over today.. or go to Latakia…?!!”
23:00 Tryna find a taxi so I could be on time for my 23:30 bus…
03:30 u’d think I’d give up and get some rest but NOOO… I get a call from Maad that they got a night shift in Roula’s pharmacy… and so it is…!!!! another 3 hours of wandering around and driving lessons… [that's where i got the swollen leg]…
06:20 finally, home sweet home…. NOP.. I still got one more bump… I know I usually bump into posts and cars but into MUD?!?!!!!!… well, for my defence.. I was very tired!!!

I’m sooo proud I survived yesterday… hell, I’m proud I was able to maintain a human-kinda-appearance in the Meetup… [u know, 5 hours of scratching ur head could lead to a very very fucked up hair...]!!!

thx for everyone for making my day.. Alaa [Hope I didn't screw up ur Bakaloria chances this year.. hehe], Sinan for the lovely tour and everyone else from the blogging team for a great time after a hectic morning [Ayman, Ammar, Amr, Dina, Sara, Baher, Majd, Annie], the japanese guy who actually sat with us for 5 straight hours without a single word [man, get a life]… everybody in the pharmacy [there was a lot of ppl.. I don't even know half the names!!! Roula, Maad, Roa, Ayham... everyone..]….

cheers everone…

soo… I just finished my last exam in my first year at university life..!! I just finished 1/5 of my higher education… academic life.. [hopefuly I'm not gonna be stuck in first year]… so, it’s been exactly 9 months… what did I come up with since last september…

-The honor of studying in the main library… before it turned into a meeting place and then into a cafe… and now I hear they’re planning to start raves over there next semister.. they just need some lighting installations during summer…
-Accomplished the dream of every high-schooler of hanging out in “tijara” and skipping classes…
-Getting over the fact that we are the only faculty in this whole univ. with no Cafeteria… and getting over the phobia of buying drinks from other cafes…
-A good laugh whenever I remember our “Computing Basics” prof’s 30min thesis about how VS.NET isn’t an OOP platform.
-A hillarious laugh when I heard that that same prof is the dean of our faculty.
-A well-learnt lesson not to get into fights with ur profs cuz u may never actually pass their course ever again…
-Being a real idiot and answering the “How does a computer work?” dumb question with a bright supposed-to-be-sarcastic answer “Sharply and Brilliantly.”… True, everybody laughed that day.. but it wasn’t quite cool when I got 13/20 on my exam paper…
-Having the memory of an all-white-dressed-blonde tripping and falling with her nose on my shoe infront of more than 500ppl in “tijara”… never seen her since.. I think she dropped out or sth…
-534209437 ways of sneaking around and not getting to meet the guys from “al-hay2a al-edaryeh”… I donno why I hate them… nothing personal, but seems like theri jobs are to flatten ppl and shut em up and choke every single bit of creativity that might actually bloom!!!
-settling on 77% in my Communication Skills project [I busted my ass for 3 weeks on that one] about “Linux and OSS” because I didn’t write the prof’s name on the cover sheet while some peeps got 100% talking about “Bermuda”. YEAH THE TRIANGLE!!!
-Fell in love with these little nescafe machines.
-I still donno why I’m always 5 mins late… I mean if I could make it there on 8:05 why can’t I be there 8:00 sharp, and spare myself a couple smart-ass remarks from profs thinking that they’re being quite funny!!! still a mystery.. maybe next year..
-Added some point to my putting-up with ppl skills and found some ppl who can actually put up with me.. [we even had bets on How Long they can?!]…

Well, u know me… I can only point at the dark side…

cheers

I haven’t really been in the mood for writing all through last week…
I mean, look around, what am I supposed to write about?! ha..?!
have ya noticed that stuff are really going in a weird way all through last week, hell all through this month..
Should I write about George HAWI, should I say how odd it feels to find ppl like QASIR and HAWI dead while the warlords are still there playing their stinky games..?! it doesn’t feel so odd after after a while ha?!
well, whatever I write about HAWI is gonna be well worn-out now…
Should I write a thank u letter to the syrian govt. for giving IDs to 225 thousand kurds after 40yrs of under-humane life conditions… well, thanx!! now they should start making the rest of the population feel like real citizens…
Should I write about Abu Jamal’s latest lecture about freedom and how the Arab regimes are repressing their citizens and how we need democracy to evolve..?! am I the only one wondering if that was so hard to comprehend while he was still an active vice-president for one of the worst totalitarians in the 80s and 90s??!!
I’m starting to get sick… but I’m not finishing this post before throwing up completely…
Should I write about the closure of “Al-Mubki”?!! less than two weeks after the anti-currption congress…?!!
Should I feel happy because I was right.. because they clearly don’t have the intentions or the powers needed for reform…?! am I right?!! I’m still keeping this small hope that I’m not… and I’m gonna hide it very well, otherwise I’m sure they’ll be intrigued to come here and arrest IT!!
How bout writing how shocked I was, when god decided to bring down hails of rain in the middle of june…!!! and how soaked I was when I got home that day… well, someone got his share of curses for this…!!
or maybe about how MTV2 is playin Non-Stop “Green Day” while MTV-Hits is playing the new Foo Fighters’ amazing single..?! did they flip-flop names or sth?!
or maybe I’d write about how the waiter in the Italian Corner brought us 1 gen-tonic when we asked for 2 and charged us for 4…

no…, non of em feels good enough so I’m just gonna post this line out of Radiohead’s “Creep”…

You’re so fuckin’ special
I wish I was special
But I’m a creep, I’m a weirdo.
What the hell am I doing here?
I don’t belong here.

Cheers everybody…

U wouldn’t believe what i found today…
I’m toooo thrilled right now.. so this won’t seem so coherent..!!
I was going through dad stuff from Beirut… and I found a poem I’d written for him when I was like 8 or 7 or sth… OMG>>>> I actually written that… I even remember the memo i used to write on it..!!! Jesus,…

In my whole life I wrote 2 stuff [I wouldn't call em poems in a lifetime]… this and another [I'm desperatly looking for it now]… this one I wrote in some bus while mom was sneaking me to beirut to see my pa.. in 1994.. cuz we weren’t allowed to leave the country.. so she’d forged an ID and one for me too [we were the countrfeit family!! hehe]… and all the adrenaline at the borders and the looks… OMG everything comes back…

I love me… I’m actually giving up suicide for the time being!!!!!!!…. u don’t know how it feels to find something like that after all this time… WOW… … soo soooo thrilled..

Album: Don’t Believe The Truth
Band: Oasis
Notes: To those who are into Oasis’ style.. this album is a much mature one… The guitars and Vocals are absolutly brilliant… If u’re looking for another “Wonderwall” this isn’t the place.. but if u liked their last album “Heathen Chemistry”… this one’s the one! I loved Tracks 3,7,11… and “Lyla” is one beautiful song… I still can’t get over it… it’s been on my playlist since day 1… Lovely album… it slowly grows up on u… but if u’re not an Oasis fan, it’ll be a bit hard to comprehend their music… it’ll take sometime… ;)

well, I’m going through this low couple of days… when u really got nothing to say…. so I thought I’d just post my all-time favorites.. in anything… in this Recommendation section…

Novel: Ports of Call (Les Echelles du Levant).
Novelist: Amin Maalouf.
Rated: 14368400635999/10.
Note: I read both the [Dar Al-Farabi] Edition and [Dar Wared] Edition.. and the first is soooo much better… get the first… the translator is Nahla Baydoun… I totally loved the translation!!

heys…
mmm, I just got a call from Lyse Doucet (Talking Point Host) YAAAAAAY!!! and they want me again in their show.. next sunday… at 5-6pm… they’ll be talking about the Lebanese elections… and how they affect Syria and Lebanon… and yeah I’m gonna be talking!! hehe…

okay… this was just me showing off…!! BUT plz dooo watch the show…. I hope i don’t screw up real bad..!!!!!

fingers crossed everyone!!!!!! yalla…

blood news coming from the east… 20 Iraqis are killed in a car blast in Karkuk… and 5 Iraqi souldiers are blown off in Bakouba…and it’s only 6:00pm…well, the [Courageous Resistance] is doing a great job there…

Shame on u… shame on anyone who’d feel okay to name this as [Resistance]… They ARE TERRORISTS… BLOODY FUNDEMENTALISTS… and THEY ARE TERRORISTS>>> and I don’t care if Dick Cheney or Mr. Rumsfield or even Mr. Sharon, I don’t care if they feel the same way… that doesn’t change a bit of the truth out there… the fact that they are murderers killing Iraqis.. and the Syrian TV. is calling them [The Iraqi Resistance Groups]…

Human lives should be a little bit more precious… to us… This Death Culture that’s making its way through our societies is frightining… young ppl from Syria, Kwait, Saudi Arabia… full of life… go to Iraq just to die and kill ppl… life must mean a little bit more than that… is it so hard to see that there’s more to live than DEATH…