School Homeworks!

I've been writing some papers for a school subject that I don't like but am forced to take. Anyhow, they told us to write about our hobbies and what interests us in life. I wrote one in English and one in Arabic and I'll post them here for you to see how different it is to be writing something for school and to be writing for one's self.
Here we go, this is the 1st:

It is said that reading is the food of the soul. I happen to believe that strongly. I love to read! I feel as if there's a whole new world when I read, filled with mystery and excitement. I feel that anything and everything could happen while I read. It's wonderful to be lost in another world.

Reading is fun and very informative as well.

At the moment classics and novels are the books that interest me the most. I have a nice collection of books. My favourties are numerous. I love all of Jane Austen's novels such as Pride and Prejudice. In addition I also consider Khalid Hosseini's books to be among my favorites.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, The woman in White by Wilkie Collins, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, are among the books that I've been fortune enough to read.

Reading is one of my pleasures in life. It helps me realize that anything is possible in life. It also broadens my horizons…

And this is the second

كطالبة في المدرسة أشعر بأني عالمي يجب أن يتوسع خارج نطاق المدرسة لأن العالم لا يتمحور حول المدرسة فقط. لذا فأنا أحاول أ أطلع على ما يجري في العالم من حولي، فأنا عضوة في منتدى "أصوات الشباب" الذي ترعاه منظمة اليونيسيف. كما إني مشتركة في عدة منتديات أخرى تهتم بعرض وجهة نظر الشباب حول ما يجري في العالم. انضمامي في هذه المنتديات يجعلني أشعر أكثر بالمسؤولية حول حياتي و الخيارات التي اختارها.

أنا أحب أن أتناقش حول ما يحدث حولنا إن كان ذلك عن المشاكل البيئية التي تهدد كوكبنا، أو الحروب التي تهدد حياة الشعوب، أو عن كيف نستطيع تغيير العالم الذي نعيش فيه. أظن أن الأنسان يستطيع أن يطور الأرض دون ان يهدد حياة الكائنات التي تعيش عليها. فنحن نرى و نشعر بالمشاكل البيئية من احتباس حراري و تلوث و هذا إنما يحدث بسبب إسراف الإنسان بموارد بيئته. فإنني عندما أتناقش مع الآخرين أرى أن ذلك يجعلني على إطلاع بآراء الآخرين و وجهات نظرهم مما يدعم من قدرتي على التواصل مع الآخرين و الحوار معهم. كما إنه من الرائع التعرف على حياة الناس الذي يعيشون على بُعد آلاف الكيلومترات منا و عن عاداتهم و تقاليدهم. و أنا أيضاً أحاول أن أشارك في تعريفهم على عالمنا العربي و عاداتنا و ديننا الحنيف.

إنه من الجميل أن يشعر الإنسان أنه يحدث تغييراً للأفضل في حياته و في حياة الناس من حوله، لأن الله تعالى وضعنا على وجه الأرض حتى نعمرها، و أنا أحاول أن أضع هذا نصب أعيني دائماً.

It feels so lame, but oh well, I'm bold enough to show you so feel free to leave your comments. ;)

Life @ my end

I just miss my blabbering posts here. I haven't written one in a while and I'm in the mood for it. I just woke up at 10.30 a.m. It's relatively late, but looking at the fact that everyone's still asleep, it makes it quite early.

So being on vacation is quite nice. We haven't been doing much, except tiding the room (which I still have some things left to tidy since I keep on postponing doing them and I have no idea why I put that first, it's not like all we do is that, but the room is in such a better shape after the exams that it's just inevitable to mention it), and reading! Oh we've been again to that awesome book shop that sells used books and got great stuff, now I'm reading the 1st part of the Lord of the Rings, and that's something I've always wanted to read, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be able to finish the sequel before we start school again. We've also been watching a few movies. Yesterday we watched Revolutionary Road, it was great, I mean Kate and Leo were just brilliant. Also, Bedtime Stories, and that was hilarious.

Other than that it's not much. The weather's been wonderful. It rained like 2 or 3 days in a row, and it kinda feels like winter. Because we don't get that really cold weather here, so we're very happy with what we got.

Now I'm in love with this probably 50s song, it's called Bye Bye Love by the Everly Brothers, it's just the coolest song ever. I wouldn't have ever heard it if it wasn't for the radio. So here's from me to all of you out there:


I haven't been watching much tv, tv shows are getting old but sometimes they air good movies, like the other day we were watching PS I Love You, it was amazing how much we laughed at that movie! You have to love Gerard's Irish accent...

Anyways, to wrap things up, inshallah a cease fire will be permanent, because the situation is only getting worse. May Allah be with them.
:)

Arabic Books

I've always thought it was a shame I wasn't much of a reader of Arabic books. I have tried to get recommendations but the thing is, I haven't been successful with finding them. Plus the thing with Arabic books is that I always end up wondering what the story meant or something.

The thing with Arabic writings in general, is that I don't get them. It's my fault entirely really, my vocabulary isn't large enough as I'd like it to be.
However, I'd like to offer my humble opinion about them, which shouldn't be seriously considered looking at the fact that I don't read a lot of Arabic books. Anyways, I just find most Arabic stories to be vague. They start with talking about a 'he' or a 'she' through out the whole story, without offering clear statements whether it was related to the name of the character, their situation in life, or anything that would help you understand their story. It offers thoughts about a certain circumstance and goes on from there to have a very open and vague ending.
I can absolutely understand how people can love such stories. The mystery and the amount of freedom that is left to the reader to build their own thoughts and ideas about the characters and the events is very appealing but I have to say that I have been very unfortunate so far to be a hard critic of Arabic stories.

I just wish I had more opportunities to read Arabic books, so I think I'm going to be starting a list of Must-Read-Arabic-Books, I already have a list of books I want to read and, surprise, surprise, they're all in English. It's just sad! Anyways, before I start blabbering all again I'll wrap this up by saying if you have a nice Arabic book to recommend please leave a comment. :)

Gaza

I feel as if I am obliged to state my feelings for what is taking place in Gaza. It is inhuman, and I really don't understand how can these people live with themselves. Do they not watch what it is they're doing to the people of Gaza?

I can't stand watching 2 minutes of their suffer there. It is a curious thing though, I am very ready to discuss any world issue and state my feelings towards it, but when it comes to this one in particular, I just feel that I can't simply condemn what is happening there. I think I'd feel as one of the hypocrite Arabs we all hate to be. The ones with speeches, and mottoes. The ones that are satisfied with blaming politicians, and resting their consceince. I may seem too hard on them, but it most true that there are certain people who are like that. Void speeches of how Arabs once were, and how they should be united against the enemy, and those who are against Israel and the USA for what they're doing. I don't blame them for hating, but it just feels hypocrisy, how one simply talks and talks about a certain happening, I know they may have no other way since they can not end what is happening, but I just can't help it.

I don't know what I'm trying to prove by this post, it's just for me to say that I feel for these people, I am not the one to change my display picture supporting Gaza, or my status, sending emails and starting discussions about it with my friends. I don't know why I seem to myself quite fearful or doing that. The last thing I wish is to feel that I am simply doing that to show to other people how much I care about what is happening and I am not afraid to show it.
Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against those who are showing their support to Gaza in every possible way. In fact I am encouraging them to keep at it since perhaps they are showing the world in their own way that there are indeed people who care about the people there and what misfortunes are taking place there. For my side, I don't know what I will be doing, perhaps I will keep at my silence about it, people differ in their ways of showing how they feel about things and I shall use my right of expressing myself the way I choose to.

It may seem as a blabbering of a teenager, and it may be for what do I know with the ways of the world? I just pray that Allah has mercy on us.

Or...?

I was ordering a meal at the food court in a mall, and the cashier said: "Would you like regular coke or diet coke?"
The place being very crowded and noisy I didn't hear her question properly so I was like: "Okay!" The lady had to repeat her question, and being my always-so-blunt-self I replied and told her whatever it was that I wanted.

I don't know if you've noticed it, but from my side it was merely a mistake of not hearing the question well. However, a lot of times it happens that you ask someone a question that has 'or' in it, they'd be like Yes, or okay, and what are you supposed to take from it?
I remembered it having watched Anne and the King, and she asked him a question with the word 'or' in it and he merely replied by saying 'Yes'. It was obvious he was teasing her but it happens a lot in life, and I simply get an affirmative to a question that requires from a person to choose one of the two things I stated in my question.

It is somehow a bit funny though.

Tagged

I was tagged by my friend Fast_HacKing to post 5 things that people don't know about me. So here are the rules:
1- List down 5 things people probably didn't know about you
2- Tag atleast three people

Okay let's do this thing. It's a bit hard to think of 5 things that people don't know about me though but here we go:

1. I don't know how to: swim, ride a bike, ride a roller skater or a scooter.
2. I'm a loud person, specially when I get excited. My sound waves are very annoying, like one second it's normal and the next you get a wave that nearly pierces your ears (that maybe an exaggeration but it's annoying).
3. I am great when it comes to telling someone about a tv show or a movie that I've seen. With all the details, and I get very expressive and my friends have said that they feel like they've seen it themselves. (Honest! No bragging!)
4. I'm always the last one to get a joke. After a joke is told I'm always like 'Huh what does that mean?'
5. I used to cry when I lost half a mark at school, yeah I know what was I thinking? But I mean that was a few years back, I don't do that anymore :D

I'm tagging Ashok and Victoria!

The Shoes Incident

I'm sure all of you by now have seen or heard the shoes incident. Most of the reactions I've heard were that people are happy (that is indeed an understatement, ecstatic is more like it) about the incident.
I just have to blog about this and say what I feel about it. I really think the journalist shouldn't have done that. I mean if he hates Bush so much, is that how he thinks he should express his feelings? Throwing his pair of shoes is highly impolite and uncivil. It's not just because Bush is a president, it's because he's human.
Come on, really is that the way to express our feelings and stand up for what we think? It saddens me to see this man's resort to convey his feelings, and I was very upset to hear about it and see it.

It just says that we blame Bush for everything happening in Iraq now. The blaming game should have been over by now. The Iraqi government is doing so well, and they're doing their best to improve the country. What did that reporter gain by doing that? Oh yes, he gained the love of many people in the world just because they hate Bush, and I've heard that many channels want to get him to work for them, and in a town in Iraq people went out cheering for him because they were happy for what that man did. He's sending a very negative image about the Iraqi reporters because now it will be generalized on all of them, and a negative image of the Iraqi people.
I don't know what you think, but I highly disapprove of what happened. I'd love to hear your feedback on it though.

Busy Bee

Let's face it, I've become a busy bee. I have a thousand things to be done. And the thing is, it seems that most of these things are not studies-related. It's about extra activities at school, teachers asking for these meaningless things. And the thing is I can't say No!

So I can't really write much now, so I just wanted to say if I'm not in touch or haven't been posting much, I'm here!! Most of my friends are complaining that they're not seeing much of me at school, I haven't forgotten anyone it's just that it's hard being an 11th grader.

All the best everyone ;)
Love

Simplicity of Relationships

I've been contemplating this for such a long time now that I just have to let it out and post about it. Although I have to prepare my Arabic presentation tomorrow and revise Islamic Studies, I just feel that I need to blog more.
I just want to talk about relationships with people these days, and I mean relationships in general, whether they're with your friends, classmates, family friends, or any one else. I'm just wondering why do we have to make our relationships so complicated? I mean, for an example, why do we always have to blame others if they forgot to keep in touch? Why can't we instead make matters simple and take a step and keep in touch.

That's just a simple example that I've noticed, if you don't send people messages, they'll be like 'oh you forgot about me.' Why can't we instead try to understand our friends' circumstances? Why are we failing to come up with excuses for people? It's something that has been really making me think, why people choose to make stuff complicated? Why not live in simplicity and goodness and be the one reaching out to our friends and loved ones?

And I want to add something else, which is if your friend didn't invite you over for their house, or if they had a party and you weren't invited, why do we simply take a stand and make things complicated, maybe they just didn't want you there.
It's not very pleasant but let's focus on something here, which is you can't have a nice life if your relationships with people were complicated, your life would be complicated since you'll be not talking to that because of a certain situation, and you're not friends with that because she forgot to keep in touch.

Let's be the better person, let's try to make excuses for people, let's be simple while dealing with people. If you do that, first off people will like you more because you're simple and easy to be around. Haven't you noticed that there are a few people when you're talking to them you're very careful with what you say because you're scared they'll understand it the wrong way? Who wants to be friends with people that make you uncomfortable?

Oh and don't get my words like I mean you should step over your pride if someone hurt you, I'm not talking about that, if people did you wrong then you have the right to take a stand but let's not let things go that far and befriend people in a nice way that it'll be difficult for them to do you wrong because of the positive look you have towards life and how you build your relationships with people...

Anyways, maybe that was too random but I believe in it strongly, I'm sorry I couldn't put it in a better way because my mind is too occupied to be editing and writing creatively but I hope you all got my message.
Love

Tips to brighten your day

From this:




To this:

So it's not everyday that you spend a nice day, some days are a drag! So in those days, all I wanna do is lift up my spirits. I have a few things that help making me feel better and I'll share them here with you...

-Have a facial, or put a mask or a scrub on your face, it definitely helps me because it makes me feel more fresh (lol, I sound like a fruit!! :P)

-Put on some lotion, if you're not one of those people who put on lotions daily then some lotion would definitely make you feel better.

-Wear something nice, even if you're not going anywhere, or stay in your PJs and put on some accessories. Sometimes people look good because they feel good but in this case maybe you're going to have to look good to feel good.

-Listen to some songs that can help lifting up your mood, and don't listen to sad songs because they'll make you feel more down but listen to dancable songs like for me I'd listen to Forever by Chris Brown or Shawty Get Loose for Lil Mama or any songs that you can move to because dancing and moving around will definitely make you feel better.

-Watch a funny video/ tv show/ movie.

-Go stand in front of the mirror and do your hair in a weird way, believe me breaking your hair style will definitely make you feel differently.

-Make yourself a cup of tea, it's great and it makes you relax.

-Be nice... (I know it's weird, but like when you're down and you do some acts of kindness towards others it will definitely make you feel better about yourself)

So that's what I do, or try to do when I'm feeling down and I want to lift up my spirits, do share what are your methods of making yourself feel better....

And I hope everyone's having a nice day. ;)