Summer Books 2008

I'll be starting school tomorrow so my summer holidays have come to an end, so I thought I'd post my summer reading list which I'm very happy about. I had a To-Read-List for my summer and I read them all and I've read some more. :) So here is what I read and what I thought about it:

The Runaway Jury- John Grisham (It was a great read! I really liked it.)

The devil wears Prada - Lauren Weisberger( It was a nice book, although I think the movie was better which is a shocker since most books are better than movies but oh well...)

Playing for Pizza - John Grisham (I liked it, it was a wonderful read that left me wanting to go to Italy and taste their food so badly. )

A thousand splendid suns - Khalid Hosseini ( Probably one of the best books ever written, I just loved it!!! I recommend it highly!!! I'm a huge fan of Khaled Hosseini's books!)

For one more day - Mitch Albom ( It was really nice.)

The other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory ( I didn't like it, but I liked the fact that I was getting to know a bit of history since it was historical fiction and it was my first time reading that kind of books.)

One hundred years of solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ( I am very happy to have read it, it is a must!!)

Love at the time of cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ( I just loved it. Simply loved the love story and everything, it was amazing. )

PS I Love You – Cecelia Ahern ( It was a nice romantic novel that I enjoyed. )

Digital Fortress – Dan Brown (I am thrilled that I read it because now I've read all the books by Dan Brown and it's great!!! )

Dubliners – James Joyce ( It had some nice stories. )

Journey To The Center Of The Earth – Jules Verne ( I really liked it, it was nice getting back to classics and it was perfect for that. A must read!)

ذكريات جونو – عبد الرزاق الربيعي

The first arabic book that I read this summer and it was about Gonu, so it was a nice read

ماجدولين – ترجمة المنفلوطي – ألفونسو كار

It was the second Arabic book I read, and this was the last one I read from my Summer reading. My IA obsession led me to read it since they both shared the same name and IA's name was taken from the title of this novel, and it was such a sad love story, it was a really good classic! I liked it!! :D

So that's all that I've read, I think I'll be starting with The Choice for Nicholas Sparks since I'm in the mood for love!! Or for love stories that is... :D Hope everyone had a nice Summer. :)

Apologize

I was tagged by my friend Waed so here we go, the first one is this:

The rules are :
a) Put your iTunes/music player on Shuffle.
b) For each question, press the next button to get you answer.
c) YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER WHAT!!

1. IF SOMEONE SAYS “IS THIS OKAY” YOU SAY?
Hero - Enrique Iglesias


2. WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
I'm movin on - Rascal Flatts

3. WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
She's no you - Jesse McCartney


4. HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Make up - Jesse McCartney


5. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE?
Why Don't We - Tarkan (Gosh, my songs are so very irrelevant!)

6. WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
My Heart Will Go On - Celine Dion (That can be interpreted as in I'm sweet and they looooooove me so very much!!!)

7. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS?
Make It Work - Ne-Yo (Now, that's funny!)

8. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Please Don't Stop The Music - Rihanna


9. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Closer - Ne-Yo


10. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Barta7 Ma3ak - 3amro Mostafa (Well, at least that would have DEFINITELY worked if there was someone I liked)


11. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Kaleymooha 3any - Tamer 3ashour (Oh my God, that works! Talk about me all the time, because my life story is me talking about everything and my fav topic is moi)


12. WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Guilty - Blue (Ohhh, that's so sweet!)

13. WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Siberia - Backstreet Boys


14. WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Dayan Gonlum (I don't know the name of the singer but it's a Turkish song and it means Resist my heart, very romantic! So that's something nice!!! :D)


15. WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
My Wish - Rascal Flatts (OH MY GOOD GOD! THAT IS SO PERFECT!!!!! ME WISHING PEOPLE TO HAVE A GREAT LIFE.... :D)


16. WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
My Baby - Jesse McCartney (but hold on, who's my baby?)



17. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Save The Last Dance For Me - Michael Buble (That would be nice, maybe my secret wish is to have the last dance, who know? :P)


18. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Fever - Michael Buble (That makes no sense but the song is very cool so I guess I think of my friends to be cool)

19. WHAT SHOULD YOU POST THIS AS?
Apologize - One Republic (lol)

20. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOURSELF?
Ba7bek - Janat (The song means I love you so it defo makes sense, I just love myself!!)


Hey thanks Wa3d!! I liked doing this, I'm not tagging anyone but anyone can consider themselves tagged if they felt like doing this too. :)

Words

Me. Selfishness. Being human. Love. Family. Unity. Activism. Hope. Beauty. Nature. Global Warming. A need for a change. New things. Beginnings. Forgiveness. Compassion. Babies. Tender. Care. People. Busy. Work. Seriousness. Goofiness. Fun. Laugh. Silly. Childish. Growing up. Friends. Life. Short. Long. Purpose. Goal. Find. Lose. Meaning. Joy. Dreams. Night. Darkness. Fear. Courage. War. Poverty. Problems. Ending. Happy. Blessings. Enjoying. Traveling. Places. Things. Materialism. Modern. Technology. Progress. Moving. Cars. Pollution. Olympics. Sports. Walking. Productivity. Ramblings.


*I just had to do this, it's been on my mind a lot, finding a word and then seeing where I end up with, I just associate words that are connected... Do try it, it's fun*

News

What's up fellow bloggers? I'm kind of bored at the moment and I figured I'd update you on what's happening at my end of the world. Weekends aren't really awesome when you're on holidays, specially that one of the awesomest tv shows we're watching nowadays doesn't air on weekends so that's a bummer. But today wasn't so bad, because we had a girl's night out, with my sisters and it was nice to leave the house for a while.

Other than that, I've managed to finish 1000 Splendid Suns, and it's just perfect. I was left deeply moved, and it's just such a beautiful story. I do recommend it highly!!! My summer reading has been really fruitful and I'll be sure to dedicate a post for it when my summer holidays are done.

Now that I'm back from Turkey and trying to learn Turkish, I'm totally hooked to Turkish songs. They're simply the BEST!! :D

Oh and here's a random thing, even though I don't really follow sports or anything, I'm glad that the Olympics are held in Beijing because the Chinese authorities are doing their best to make the games greener and provide a good environment for the players, because athletes need a clean air so that they can perform their best. I actually heard this piece of news on the airplane and right now I checked it online because I'm bored. Here's an achievement, I checked to read some important news and actually read an article about it, all this volunteering by myself. Here is more information: Beijing Scrambles to Host 'Green Games'
I only read the first part of the article so yeah.

Right now I'm reading Journey To The Center Of The Earth by Joules Verne. And just watching a bit of tv and nothing much really. Hope everyone's spending a nice time. ;)

Ramblings!

My two front teeth are separated. I remember clearly going to the dentist for one obvious reason; fix my teeth! I didn't ask for them to be more screwed up. Seriously, my two front teeth weren't so bad, it was just that one of them was a bit on the other, so I wanted them to be nicely standing together. Now they're separated! I have an appointment next Thursday with my dentist and I am hoping that he does something about them!

Another thing is that I'm really useless these days, like all I do is watch tv or movies or read. It's fun, but I need to be doing something, get back to posting in YFCI and looking for articles for Viva, which by the way, if you're reading and haven't already written something for Viva, do write something. ;)

And another thing, everyone is asking about school and how are our preparations. There's still a month and obviously we don't want to be thinking about that now. Still some time to be worrying about it!! :D
Well, I think I've whined enough today, but I just want to get productive again. I think I'll start doing something productive now, because like an hour ago or so I tied the room a bit, the shoes were everywhere and now there's not one to be seen! I know, a big accomplishment that requires a celebration but there's no time for that now, I'm all about being productive now! Or at least for the next hour or so!

Enjoy!

So I got some really shocking news from mom the other day. T was engaged (let's refer to the girl as T). I was like, mom you're kidding right? The girl is like a year or two younger than me and well she's just way too young for her to be engaged. Of course, the girl had absolutely no say in the matter since she was marrying her cousin who is probably a graduate, and her family forced her into it. So it's arranged marriage and she's way too young. Well, you know I really think her family is doing her the biggest injustice in the world, because she's going to have to leave school, worry about getting children and looking after the house when all her concerns should be doing well in school and looking for a brighter future.

I really hate when these things happen. I mean ok even if they asked the girl about her opinion, she'd be too embarrassed to say what she really thought to her family, because in some families here the girl doesn't get a say in matters, or she just saw that it's what happened to her sister so it's what's going to happen to her too. That girl used to go to my school, we used to help her with English. She's just one of those girls that you know had still a lot of years to really know what's going on out there in the world. I know I'm still really young too, and haven't seen anything of the world, but I mean come on, doing that to her, how is she ever to break free from that cycle without getting her education? Well, hopefully in a way it'll work out for her and she'll be able to at least finish her education and lead a happy life.

Oh and let's not over-look the possibility of her actually wanting to marry, but at this age she doesn't know what she wants so yeah anyways, just had to mention that!

Noor

I’ve probably missed about 18 episodes of Noor. I could watch them all on YouTube but the thing is, I don’t really have the heart for it. My sister already filled me in with everything that happened. So let’s start from where I left it off from the last post. I think it was that Mohand and Noor have gotten back together and everything was good. But Mohand was trying to warn Noor from her partner because he clearly had a thing for her. Noor wouldn’t have it because they had her showing the goodie goodie person in the show because he was a really creepy guy. One time she and Mohand had set a date to meet up in a restaurant and so he sent he an SMS saying what time they’ll meet up. Noor left the office to get something so she left her mobile there, her partner was in her office getting some papers when he heard her mobile buzz so he opened the message and because he saw that it was from Mohand he deleted it. When Noor came back he told they had to go to the fabric factory to see the fabric they want. Of course he did that on purpose because he knew Mohand will be waiting for her and because the factory was like an hour away. So Mohand keeps waiting for her, but when she doesn’t show up he calls her up and asks where she is, and she tells him that he’s waiting for her. She told him she didn’t he was waiting for her, and then he told her that he sent her a message explaining when they’ll meet up. She told him she didn’t get anything, but he told her that the phone said that the message was delivered. Anyways he told her it was ok and he hung up.
Her partner was all innocent looking asking her what happened, and when she told him he was like ‘Oh it’s ok, it has happened to me before. I’ve sent message that weren’t delivered’
Now that was just one of the stuff he pulled off, but Noor didn’t believe Mohand. Anyways Noor and her partner had a business trip, they had a fashion show in a far away city from Istanbul. Mohand was planning to go after her without telling her so he calls the hotel and tells them to change Noor’s bedroom into a king-size-bed-bedroom. The hotel was full so they call Noor’s partner since they gave him a king-size-bed-bedroom and ask him if he could agree to change it into a single-bed-bedroom. He asked them why and they told him that Noor’s husband was coming. He agrees.

So they go and Mohand was going to follow them in his car but he got a call that made him cancel his plans. One of their company’s factories caught fire and a lot of people were hurt, and about two died. It was really hard for Mohand since he was trying to get the company back on its feet. And it was no accident. Noor’s partner made someone do it so that Mohand wouldn’t come after them.
After the fashion show, Noor was packing because a helicopter was waiting for them to take them back to Istanbul but some of the people at the fashion show used it and so they have to wait for the next day. She gets a call from the reception telling her that her partner was asking for her to come to the reception. She goes, and in that time her partner gets in her room and takes her mobile and he smashes it. After that he goes and talks to her and suggest since they have a day with nothing to do, they should go and see the city. Noor agrees and she goes to grab her purse thinking that her mobile was there. So they go and she wants to call Mohand to tell him that she’ll be arriving tomorrow and not today, so she looks for her mobile but she doesn’t find it. Her partner tells her that she probably left it at the hotel but she tells him that she is sure she put it in her purse, so she thinks that she lost it in the hotel. So her partner doesn’t want to take her back so he just pretends to call the hotel and he tells her that they told him they found it. And so Noor calls Mohand from her partner’s mobile and she tells him that her mobile was lost but her partner called the hotel and they found it.

It gets late so Noor tells her partner that they should head back to the hotel, but he tells her that they will but she should see a cave-house which was so beautiful. She agrees and he takes her in. It was really beautiful and Noor was just admiring the house when she felt her partner hold her and tells her that he loves her. She asks him what is he doing and that he should back off. But he doesn’t and when she keeps resisting he ties her up. And there you go, he just kidnapped her! Mohand was worried about her so he tries calling her partner several times but he doesn’t pick up so he calls the hotel asking whether they came back yet or not, so when they tell him that they haven’t he asks about Noor’s mobile which they supposedly found. The receptionist tells him that they didn’t find any mobile. So now Mohand is worried for real.
A day before Noor went on her business trip, she went to get a pregnancy test at the hospital because she felt that she was pregnant. She tells Mohand’s sister, Dana to go get the test results because she’ll be away on her trip. The next day Dana calls her telling her she’s pregnant!!! But they decide not to tell Mohand yet because she wanted it to be special. Now it’s a few days after that. Mean while, Noor’s partner’s ex-wife wants to see her daughter so she tries to call Noor because Noor once helped her see her daughter and she thought that Noor could maybe help her again. So when Noor doesn’t answer her cell phone she calls the house, and since Noor wasn’t around Mohand got the call. She told him she was the ex wife of Noor’s partner and that she was looking for her. Mohand thought that she could probably help him knowing more about Noor’s partner so asks her to come to the house. She does and tells him that Noor’s partner doesn’t let her see her daughter and how he’s a twisted person. It was enough to get Mohand extremely worried. He decides to go to Noor. When he tells his family, Dana can’t help telling Mohand that Noor’s pregnant. Now he has more than a reason to go. So he tries to find her but after a while he manages to go to the place he had her tied in, and he sees her necklace and her dress. Meanwhile back in Istanbul they’re trying to find any information about Noor’s partner and what they can find about what he’s planning to do with her. They find out that he wanted to take her to Paris. So Mohand goes to the nearest airport and he finds them there. He and Noor’s partner are armed so they get into a fight and Mohand gets a shot and Noor’s partner takes her and they leave. Noor was very much scared and now she she saw Mohand hurt, she tries to resist but she has no energy left. So Noor’s partner has arranged for a helicopter to come get them, but since they leave the pilot find Mohand shot and takes him to the hospital. Mohand is treated at the hospital and since he wanted to thank the person who rescued him he talks to the pilot and tells him ‘It was a miracle you were there’ but the pilot tells him that he was waiting for Noor’s partner because he to told him he needed to go with his wife somewhere but Mohand tells him that he was Noor’s husband and Noor’s partner had kidnapped her. They form a plan and the pilot calls Noor’s partner. Anyways Mohand gets in the helicopter and when it lands he gets out because Noor’s partner was waiting for the helicopter. They also get in a fight and this time Mohand’s gun gets thrown away and Noor’s partner had the better position and he was going to kill him until three bullets shot him in the chest. Noor shot him!

She just couldn’t have him kill the her husband. Anyways Mohand wanted to just leave with her but she begs him to help her take her partner to a hospital because she’s going to be a murderer if she didn’t do anything. She they take him. Anyways, he’s in a very critical condition. And they put Noor under trial. They take her to prison and her partner dies. But of course they release her because it was self-defense and since he had kidnapped her.

Things after that just starting hitting rock bottom. Even though they’re happy for a while considering the fact that they’re going to have a baby and everything. But when the baby girl is born everything starts hitting rock bottom. Noor’s only concern is the baby, and whenever Mohand suggests they go out she refuses. And to top it all, Nehal, Mohand’s ex-girlfriend, can walk now and Mohand gets her working in their company. Bana, Mohand’s cousin, sees how Mohand is spending a lot of time with Nehal so she talks to Noor about it and then she moves Nehal to another branch of their company. When Mohand hears of it he loses it! He gets drunk, because he’s had it with Noor, he thought she made Bana do it. So when Noor gets home he starts yelling at her and then leaves the house and goes to Nehal’s house. Nehal tries to kiss him but he backs off telling her he loves his wife. So he spends the night sleeping in his son’s room. When he goes home he tries to apologize to Noor. She asks him whether he spent the night at Nehal’s place, he says yes. She asks what happened. He tells her that Nehal kissed him and that he doesn’t remember what happened after that because he was so drunk! Oh my Good God! They just want to make things so complicated. Now Noor thinks that he cheated on her with Nehal. Anyways Mohand gets a house for Noor and she lives there with his mom and her daughter. He tries to apologize and stuff but she doesn’t give him a chance. One time he gets the whole family to stand out side her house, and he gets two musicians to play and when she gets out on the balcony. He says ‘Will you forgive me Noor? Please, I love you and I’m so sorry’. She just says ‘I can’t forgive you Mohand’
After that Mohand decides to just let her have her way because he’s so sick of having to apologize and running after her all the time. She doesn’t believe that he would just give up on her like that, so one time she receives flowers and goes to his office saying that he should stop trying but he says ‘Madam you are mistaken. I haven’t sent you anything, and I’m not trying to get back together with you.’ She just leaves the flowers on his desk and apologizes, but he notices a card on them so he tells her about it. That was a tough one for her.
And no one believes him when he says he’s just gonna give up on her because he loves her so much but now he’s trying to show the tough side and that I-don’t-care attitude so he got back with his old mates and one time they were out in a café and Noor was taking a walk with the baby and she sees him having a good time with his friends and just stares at him. He sees her and goes to talk to her, and just says hi and stuff, he doesn’t even play with his baby or introduce her to his friends. She leaves him and then goes to Dana and tells her about how Mohand treated her, but I mean the guy has a point, introduce her and say what ‘Hey guys, this is my wife but we’re getting a divorce.’ Plus even if he suggested that she meets his friends she would definitely not agree.
And one time they had a press conference announcing that Noor is now working for their company, Mohand was asked how is it working with his wife. Now Bana told Noor to act like she and Mohand are still together to protect the company’s image. But Mohand answers saying it’s ok because he and Noor have ended their marriage and they’ll be getting a divorce. Everyone was shocked, including Noor. But he had the right to do that. Honestly I never really liked Noor, and she’s a pain, having her the perfect person and the soo very nice. I mean she made Mohand go through some really tough stuff and now she deserves it that he’s had it. And she thinks that he doesn’t care to visit his daughter because he never came to visit her but the thing is he comes when she’s not home so that he won’t bother her since he’s giving her what she wants which is a space away from him.

Now one time Noor gets a call from Mohand’s grandfather telling her that he wants to see her for dinner. And Mohand gets the same call, so when Noor goes to the restaurant and sees Mohand she thinks it’s one of his tries to talk to her but he tells her that she’s completely mistaken and that he’s doing what she wants, he’s trying to stay away from her. They start to argue when their grandfather comes and he starts telling them how they should work out their issues and that they should think about their daughter and such. And then when they start arguing he gets angry and tells them to have some time apart and then they should sit together and decide whether to end this marriage or get back together.

Sorry for making it long but imagine if I had actually seen the whole 18 episodes how long this post would be. :P Anyways, it's getting kind of stupid, why can't Nehal just tell Noor that nothing happened? But of course that would be too easy or they could just make it that Noor wouldn't believe her. Anyways we'll see how it turns out soon enough.

My trip to Turkey

Heyyy I'm back from Turkey. It was AMAZING!! The bestest trip I've been to, I mean the country rules, the people are so nice and the weather is wonderful. You can't help falling in love with Turkey. So I'll try to tell you all about my trip. We stayed in Istanbul, which used to be the capital of Turkey but it's not anymore.

First things first, when we got out of the plane we simply knew we're going to love this place because of the weather. It wasn't disturbingly hot, or humid. It was just right. It even rained twice when we were there and one time we got soaked. But we experienced walking under the rain, I know that's something very normal for some of you but here we don't get that! And then there's the people, they're just so helpful and they can go with you all the way to where ever you want to go if you're lost. I mean the language wasn't a big difficulty. Turkish people don't speak English but you'll find a lot of them who talk Arabic. And Turkish isn't so hard to learn, throughout our 18 days stay in Istanbul we've managed to learn a bit Turkish and show off when we go to buy things. It was awesome. And that leads me to another thing, which is the shopping. My good God! Shopping in Istanbul is a must, the people there are so fashionable, I mean like really! And when you go to a mall or to a place with shops, you just can't not buy. The clothes there are amazing and you can get whatever you want with really good prices. I mean when you go there, you just bargin. If they say it's in 35 TL then you say I'll buy it for 10 TL, and you'll probably get the thing with 15 TL. It's amazing. My mom got us a kettle and a tray in 50 TL when the guy told her it was 180 TL!!! I mean that was pretty amazing.

Oh and people there are very social, and since we don't look Turkish they'll come talk to us and ask where we're from and stuff. We've had a few funny incidents there so I'll share them with you. First off, me and Huda were just walking looking at the shops, so one guy was sitting near where we were walking and he thought we were lost but when we told him we weren't he was like: Are you from Jamica? We're like 'Uh, no'. So if you've seen what we look like you'll know that we don't look Jamican, but I don't know what this guy was thinking. It was really hilarious. Most of the people there thought we were from Iran which is understandable. But Jamican? And another was like 'Are you French?'. I mean that's just really funny!

And we got more than 5 people asking us whether we're Muslim. We wear Hijab, and that indicates we're Muslims. And they funny part is that those who ask whether we're Muslims turn out to be Muslims themselves! But the incident which topped it all was when we were walking in the grand bazaar, which is a huge market with about 4000 shops and really amazing, and there was this guy sitting down and he said something like 'Ahhhhhh' very loudly when we were passing by so we like turned around and looked at him confused, so there comes this other guy who is probably his friend and says to him 'What are you an animal?' and then talks to us and says 'I'm sorry, he's not normal.' So we just shake it off and go on walking until the dude who said Ahhhh says 'I love you'. And we turn around and see him looking at us and we just keep walking but we laugh all the way out of the bazaar. Poor dude, he tells us he loves us and we just laugh at him! But that was sooooo hilarious...

Oh and the coolest thing ever was (ok it wasn't the coolest thing but from the coolest stuff because there were sooo many awesome stuff it's hard to choose the best thing) the fact that now we've been to Europe. Because you see Istanbul has two parts; the Asian part and the European part. We've stayed in the European part but we visited the Asian side as well. It's just really cool. I'VE BEEN TO EUROPE! NANANANA (Ok, allow me to be childishly excited :P ).

Coming to the transportation part, if you're in Istanbul, don't ever go to places in a taxi because it's very expensive. Instead you have a lot of options, the coolest way to move around the city has to be the tram. It's on the main road and it can take you to a lot of places and it's super cheap. Then you have the buses, which are also cheap but you have to know exactly which bus to take because there are tonnes of them, but if you ask anyone, they're surely going to help. And then we have the boats, they're so great. Like you enjoy the sea and they're very comfortable and very cheap. ;) We had a blast moving around Istanbul, sometimes when we didn't know where we're going to go, we just go on a boat and let it take us somewhere new.

Now going to Turkey just for site seeing is awesome, because there are just a lot of places to see. First off I'll take about the mosques. Most of them are from the Ottman era, and they're so beautiful. We have the Blue Mosque or it's called the Sultan Ahmet mosque. It has six minartes and from the inside it's huge. It's very beautiful:

And just across it there's the Ayasofia museum which used to be a mosque but they turned it into a museum. Actually they built it for St. Sofia and so it was a church and inside it you can see pictures of Jesus and Virgin Mary on the walls, but she converted into Islam so they turned it into a mosque and so you can see writings that say Allah and Mohammed on the walls which is just so very cool. I mean having things that represent both religions. It's a really beautiful building:

There's also a lot of other mosques we've been to and they're all so beautiful. Now we've been to this place called Thermal which is in a city named Yalova. Now Thermal is just a place for tourists. It has a lot of hot springs and the hot water that comes from them is very useful for the skin, the eyes, the stomach. Like each spring is useful for something. And there are a lot of trees, and the place there is just wonderful:

Then we've been on the telefrek (or however it's spelled) in Bursa. We went by the telefrek to the top of a mountain which is more than 1200m high. So the weather was chilly but it was just beautiful. And what's really cool is that the resturants there give you your own BBQ stuff so that you can grill meat and chicken, it was yummy. Here are some pictures:

And one of the coolest places we've been to is this place called Minia Turk, which is the world's largest city with miniatures of famous buildings in Turkey and there are some from other countries. It was really so cool, like there were places we couldn't go to in Istanbul or in Turkey because they were far so we saw exact miniatures:

So the trip ruled big time, and when we were there we were very much hoping to see Yahya (from a Turkish tv show called Snwat el daya3) or Mohand from Noor. Then it got to the point of wishing to see anyone from these two shows but well it didn't happen. So that's the only regret. But we're definitely planning on going there again sometime. Oh and Turkish guys are cute!! But we didn't hook up with anyone, I mean it's a little too early for that :P Just kidding!

Ambition

Having read The Other Boleyn Girl just recently, I've been thinking a lot about ambition. The book is about the Boleyn family, and what they do to get a heir for the king from one of the their daughters. Even though the king is happily married, well happily as in the queen is a very nice lady who gave him a princess but can't give him a prince. Back in the 16th century, that's all that mattered.
Anyways the family exceeds all expectations and does the unthinkable. They get two of their daughters into the king's bed, one of them who was originally married and gives him a son and a daughter, but the king can't acknowledge them. The other makes herself very enchanting and makes the king annul his marriage to the queen in order to marry her. The one who becomes the queen is Anne, she is driven by her ambition.

I am talking about this book because the story has actually happened in England in the 16th century. Queen Anne, actually existed and I don't want to spoil the book for anyone because maybe someone wants to read it. But what I want to talk about is ambition. And how far it can make a person go to achieve their goals. Queen Anne's ambition was like no other, she did everything to conceive a heir for the king, and by everything I mean everything!
There are two extremes in ambition. Some ambitious people would do anything and everything to get what they want. And some of them would take nothing but what they want, so that when they don't get what they want they wouldn't take anything less, and so their life is void and they're leading an idle life waiting and hoping for their ambition to come alive.

I know very well, that in a lot of cases ambition can be such a beautiful thing that drives people to be better people, and achieve greatness. For me, I'm not a very ambitious person, and while I used to think it's a very bad thing since I don't know what I want, these days at times I am thankful because I want to be ambitious and understand that I need to get what I want in the right ways, and not make my ambition become an obsession.

A Cinerella Story

I've probably watched 'A Cinderella Story' a dozen times. So I thought I would post some of the funny quotes in the movie. There are a lot, and since I practically know the dialouge by heart it won't be so hard.

So let's get going with this first one which I think is really funny. We have Sam, and her evil twin stepsisters. One of them is the smart one, and the other is such a goof.

The evil stepsisters arrive at the car wash where the handsome Austin works because his father own the place, and their cars are very dirty. They did it so that they could have an excuse to go see Austin.

Sam: What did you like pay someone to get your cars so dirty?

The smart twin: Like what are you? The dirt police?

The goofy twin: Yeah, like excuse me Miss. Do you know how dirty your car is?

The smart twin: You should have stopped at the dirt police.

I just love that scene!! Now here are two scenes with Sam and her evil stepmother who has her working at the diner even though she needs to study and wants to go out with her friends.

First scene:

Sam: I was wondering if I could go to the Hallween Party at school.

The evil stepmother (Fiona): Listen honey, you're not very smart, and you're not very bright. Ohh, I'm so glad we had this talk!

Sam: Uh!

Second scene:

When Fiona finds out that Sam wants to go to Prinston she says: Look Sam, people go to school to get smarter, so that they can get a job. You already have a job, so it's like skipping a step or something.

I just love that movie, it's the best movie ever!!! If you haven't seen it, then you should definitely try to watch it!