Couple Of Advices

(1) Praying Taraweeh have never felt more beautiful than having to do it at the mosque almost every single day. Take this from me and don't waste this rare opportunity.

(2) Mosque is a place for praying, reading Quran and not for women to bring their babies along. Coming to the mosque is important but you can leave your kids back at home or at your family's, let the others worship Allah in a quiet atmosphere. Of course, I'm talking about 1-4 years old who would not only speak loudly, but keep running around causing havoc for one whole hour.

(3) If an act of kindness was presented to you, please welcome it with a warm heart. Even if it were simple things like someone is trying to open up the door for you, and most importantly, take the time to thank them.

(4) Set every hour after every prayer to at least read a single chapter of Quran, that way, you would finish reciting the Quran by the end of Ramadhan.

(5) TV is a total waste of time, especially in Ramadhan with what the Khaleeji shows, etc. Watch some good & beneficial shows like Khawatir and the like; you'd learn a lot in a mere of 20 minutes.

First Taraweeh Prayers In Years

Remember how in my previous post I mentioned about wanting to do the Taraweeh prayers in a mosque? Well, last night, I did just that. When Dad knew about the women-area in the same mosque he and my brothers go to, he agreed to drop me by. I entered, made the wu'9oo and joined the ladies lined up for prayers. The women next to me tugged at my arm, asking me to squeeze in so as to make room for the others. Gladly, I made it just in time for Ishaa prayer and we all prayed with the Imam. This brought a rush of memories of my previous years in praying in a mosque as a jama3a, and there are absolutely no words for this heartwarming feeling.

After finishing the 4 ruk3ats of Ishaa, people rose again to pray the sunnah prayer and copying them, I did the same. Immediately after I finished, the Imam started the Taraweeh prayers that consisted of 8 ruk3ats. I couldn't help but remember how I used to get tired of standing for the long prayers back when I was 10. I also recalled the fact that my aunt used to tag my sister and I along in the same period of time to a mosque both at noon and night, and once, I drank water from the tank, thinking it was night and we came for Taraweeh instead of spending few hours of noon in reading quran at this same mosque. Then, my aunt told me, god loves you so much that he allowed you to drink few drops of water and that I'm supposed to continue fasting as it obviously was a silly mistake. I can see the incident so vividly as if it happened last night and not few years back.

The witar prayer followed (I knew this because the mother of the child next to me explained so before we started) and the reason I found the explanation useful is because the Imam prayed two ruk3ats, ended the prayer, prayed another single ruk3a, then ended it once more. I was confused and thought better than to ask Dad as I’d be accused of not paying enough attention, but thankfully, Dad explained it all later on: Some Sunni and Ibhadi people do it this way: Two shafa3 and one witar, each separated. Also, the other minor difference is at the salam part, some do it once, and others like me, twice.

If if ever got the chance to do it all again, then I'm sure there will be no hesitations.

The Concept Of Ramadhan

(1) With Ramadan approaching, the TV seems to be flooding with various ads about new shows that had started featuring since today. Why, we should ask, is this so? Have the concept of spending the days of Ramadan in worshiping Allah and increasing our faith changed into anticipating these useless shows?

It reached to a point where we now refer to them as Ramadan TV shows, hence the title. I’ve been pondering on this for a while now and some answers have been ‘because we don’t have anything better to do during fasting’ Is this right? How is Ramadan any different from the rest of the months? Are we too hungry that we’d spend the time from sunrise till the Mugrib prayer watching TV? What bothers me the most is that these shows were especially done for Ramadhan, and to make it worse, by Khaleeji people, or Arabs.

(2) Come to the other part where it's all about preparing various dishes, many of them that end up in the trash. It's both saddening and depressing to spend the whole day cooking this as the main course and that for dessert. Again, you'd notice how this relates to the first idea of watching TV all day long so as to be full, as if food & TV shows are important in this holy month.

I, for one, never cared about following a certain show during fasting, but once a while though, I'd watch some cartoons with my little siblings. If I liked a specific show, then I might watch it later on, as they'd obviously re-play it after Ramadhan. The same goes to food, if it weren't for my family, I wouldn't have participated in cooking, but then again, that (they tell us) IS the spirit of Ramadhan; being with and helping the family.

On a different note, some have been complaining about the weather and how unhelpful it would be for fasting, but let me tell you this; my sister & I have been fasting for the past days (something we do before Ramadhan so as to get used to fasting) and it's nothing out of the ordinary (considering the fact that we're indoor most of the time). And since my parents were in UAE, they fasted along with them and we sensed the Ramadhan-ish vibe on today's Futoor, with all the family gathered around. What I couldn't enjoy is the Taraweeh prayers, even though I insisted on going, there's no women-area in any mosque nearby. (Hopefully one day, I could, inshallah!)

Ramadhan Kareem to all of you, hope we could make the best out of this one.

Note: Follow my dear friend and blogger, Sarz, who has such interesting and informative posts in regards our beautiful religion, Islam. Also, check out her advices on how to invest the days of Ramadhan here.

Neoteric Glance [3]

Neoteric Glance ~ Chapter Three
By Kitten

A/N: Since part 2 was extremely short, here’s a long one. Also, a comment about the character Mohammed in Shattered Hope said that he wasn't manly enough, so I figured to get more in character in Neoteric Glance, hence Ryan get to speak most of the time. Let me know if I'm doing a good job at it or not.

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Ryan

8:15. I wanted to be late by 15 minutes so that I could meet Sarah based on her own timings. We were supposed to meet up at the main center, at the waiting hall but she wasn’t there. For five minutes, I kept wishing if I had slept off till the day after, since I stayed up all night yesterday, watching WWE Monday Night Raw.

Jeanne walked past me smiling and said, ‘Good morning, Ryan. I see you are alone’, this was her usual joke the moment she seems me without the company of a teacher. ‘Guilty as charged’ I shrugged and nodded.

Seating myself on one of the empty chairs, I grabbed today’s paper and went through the headlines. Noticing nothing out of the ordinary, I rested my face in the hems of my palm and sighed heavily.

‘Hey, sleepy-head’, it only took me a second to figure out it was Sarah’s soft voice. Raising my head, I was dazzled by her mini red dress. I have always hated bold colours, but on her, it looked…right.

‘Hey’, I surprised myself by smiling and trotting off, closely followed by Sarah. ‘You are late, you know’, I said without facing her.

‘C’mon, I have been here since 7:30 in the morning’, she replied.

Leaving this aside, I thought we could stop on our way and grab a bite at the cafeteria. Before knowing it, we were there when Sarah said she had hers already.

Since she was supposed to stick around with me at all times, I bought a waffle for her, even though she insisted on being full, she ate it afterward. We did not speak much on the table, although I noticed that I was not as tensed as I was with her yesterday. She’s just a natural, I assumed, at making everybody at ease around her or at least, me, in particular.

At 8:45, we were heading to the kindergarten’s section when Ms. Kate abruptly stopped us and asked me to let Sarah fill in her place for the day as she had an emergency back at home. I wondered what the hell was it this time?

I knew Kate for three years now, and she is the kind of person who would do anything to stay in here. Which was weird, if you ask me, because a lot of teachers have confided me in about how hard teaching can be and that I should be grateful for having an awesome thing to do everyday instead. What is so good in repeating the same thing billion of times, but with different people?

Knowing me, I only do this for the cash. If I did not, my landlord would have kicked me out ages ago and I would have to suck up at Dad’s for money every time a new music album came out.

After pointing out the class she’s supposed to be teaching I said, ‘Hello kids, this is your new substitute teacher, Ms. Sarah’, then I seated myself at the back like Sarah did yesterday.

‘Thank you, Ryan’, she whispered as she lifted up her black purse, took out flash cards with the alphabets printed on them and soon, started asking this one and that to pronounce them out loud, though mostly, they struggled in differentiating between d and b, n and m. Later on, she had them write those over and over again.

Here and there, she would crack a joke or two, sing a song and watch them all struggle upon catching the lyrics. It was funny, I should admit. And Sarah, well, she was a different person right then and there.

Sarah

Today’s highlights would have been getting all attached to Ms. Kate’s class that I secretly wished if she’d have some kind of emergency everyday. I know it makes me selfish, but hopefully, nothing bad happens to her or her children. If only it was urgent enough to be allowed to teach the class again tomorrow and, the day after that…

Ryan

On the way back to my flat, I kept thinking of Sarah. I have seen many good-looking, if not attractive, women before but they weren’t Sarah… In the back of my mind, flashes of her smile faded in and out while I am not even brave enough to actually admit them to myself, in the first place.

Ever since my parents’ divorce five years ago, I have been afraid of committing to anyone. I sort of pushed the idea of getting involved completely away as I obviously feared ending up just like Mom and Dad.

I am twenty-five now and my thoughts are filled with Sarah to the point that I forced myself asleep the moment the clock struck 9 PM because, I figured, if I get to shut down my brain, I will be fresh tomorrow and Sarah will be gone as fast and she came in and took control of my remaining senses…

***

Click here to view part One, Two & Three

Neoteric Glance [2]

Neoteric Glance ~ Chapter Two
By Kitten

A/N: Based on the feedback I got (Okay, two of them but they're highly appreciated people) I decided to post the next part, which isn't as long as the first one.

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Sarah

Day one was a success, I would say but I am not so sure my new instructor would agree. Ryan was his name and I do not know for how long I have been in love with his name and if someone was to ask, I would say I haven’t got a single idea why. While spending a few hours together today, I noticed that Ryan had a lingering irritation, the one that is not hard to figure out no matter what.

Apart from his attitude, the kids were amazingly cheerful and adorable hence I cannot wait to get back tomorrow. After leaving Ryan to himself at the end of day, I decided to take Ms. Kate aside so that I could be filled in with the day’s schedule, all the while, she repeatedly pressed on drawing a smile on my face all day long, because, she said, ‘teachers are supposed to’. ‘This’, I told her, ‘you wouldn’t have to worry about’ as I am always happy around children, and who wouldn’t be, if I may ask?

Kate

Ever since I was given the honour of teaching here, in the North Creek institution, I haven’t heard anything of volunteer work. So this Sarah girl comes up with something new and generally, to be honest, I hate new-bies. My friend Jeanne thinks I’m being paranoid but I do have the right to be ‘the one’, not just anyone, and this will probably happen if someone, like Sarah today, fills in my place. Just saying.

**
Click here to view part One, Two & Three

Neoteric Glance [1]

Neoteric Glance ~ Chapter One
By Kitten

A/N: I came back from China

on Tuesday and I've been meaning to blog about the trip but I haven't finished uploading the pictures so that might take a while. But then I hated the idea of abandoning this place that yesterday, at around 2 AM, I picked out my notebook and searched for a story I've started writing sometimes back but haven't finished. I'd started scratching this line and adding that, in the hopes of publishing a polished piece of writing to you. Enjoy and let me hear your thoughts.

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Ryan

She’s late. Why I am not surprised?

I checked my watch and realized that I have wasted 15 minutes of my time waiting for this new teacher, or as they call her, a volunteer. And for the life of me, I cannot seem to understand how can someone, in his right mind, willingly volunteer for babysitting children. Or maybe, she had lots of free time and is desperate for a job that she would try to delude these co-workers of mine into believing she is capable of pulling this thing off so easily. As if.

‘Hi’ a woman approached me. ‘Are you the instructor? Hmm...’ she has forgotten my name. Perfect.

‘Ryan..?’ I guessed.

‘Yeah’, she answered.

‘I am your instructor, Ryan. Remember the name or you will get lost around here someday’ I hope, I muttered under my breath and I didn’t care if she heard me because she seemed busy, registering the shapes of the similar buildings nearby.

‘If you will come with me’ I gestured to the right direction, ‘we will be done with this in no time’.

She turned around and considered me for a second and said, ‘I am the one who is supposed to be grumpy. It is not your first day here, is it?’

‘No’, I replied back, ‘less chatting and more touring, okay?’ When she didn’t say a thing, I added, ‘Come on,’ and walked off to lead the way.

It is going to be a very long day, I assured myself.

It took us merely two minutes to reach the second building which had the kids’ classes. We walked in silence till I broke it and explained the locations of all classrooms. She just nodded without further questions and I thanked god for that.

On the second floor, one of the classroom’s doors stood ajar that I pointed out as the kindergartens'. Without a word, she walked over to the class, introduced herself and began asking weird questions like, ‘what are your hobbies?’ and ‘do you enjoy drawing?’ I stared, gaping over her behaviour. Why did she care about their favourite colour and whatnot?

When I came forward, I noticed them responding back. She had made friends already, I guessed because they all gathered around her, forming a round circle, asking and answering questions. She, unlike me, seemed to be enjoying herself and laughing for the first time since I met her a while ago.

A teacher came in her class and was shocked to see an intruder. Sarah introduced herself again rather briefly, took permission and seated herself at the far end of the class. I wanted to get in but I was kind of relived to have a few minutes break so I quickly hit the cafeteria and ordered a snack. When the bell rang announcing the end of the lesson, I climbed the stairs in a hurry and stepped in my track the moment I saw students hugging Sarah and asking her if she would come back tomorrow. A bright colour of red rose on her cheeks as she said goodbye to her little friends. Spotting me over their little heads, she came forward and looked at me, waiting for my next sentence. I blinked repeatedly and said, ‘what was THAT all about?’ almost screaming.

‘What?’ she asked, innocently.

I wanted to yell at her for abandoning me because it’s my duty to have done so, yet, the stupid and innocent face she had on made it all the more impossible for me to even resume staring. ‘Nothing’, I fumed. ‘Where are we going next?’ she inquired almost immediately. ‘Over here’, I led the way again, past the main center to the third building on the left. ‘This the building of the older group of students’’, I repeated what I usually said, ‘aged 12 to 17’.

She nodded and we entered. The atmosphere here was a bit serious than the latter. It was quiet and I could sense the surprised look on Sarah’s face. I laughed and said, ‘They are supposed to be studying’. She didn’t seem to get the joke yet she smiled politely, showing the same dimpled, perfect smile of hers.

Her silence, I have to admit, was irksome for she wasn’t like the other teachers I have encountered before. They had asked about when the school day would come to an end, where are the meeting-halls, ladies’ room or if they would get to meet up with me a second time and they would flirt a little when asking, but all of this…doesn’t seem to interest Sarah in any way possible. Based on what I observed, she had this habit of staring at every corner, like she is contemplating mysterious beauty, which I found quiet fascinating.

‘Ryan,’ she interrupted my thoughts, ‘what are we doing here?’

‘Huh?’, I asked.

‘I mean, why aren’t we touring around the place?’

‘Uh-oh, I guess we have done that part already’. I shrugged.

‘Oh, then, what are YOU doing here?’ she asked again.

‘I do not know,’ I said ‘maybe I am your instructor and I am not supposed to leave you till you get the place, and that’s hmm, let see…a week from now?’

*

Click here to view part One, Two & Three

7 Hours Prior To My Flight...

Just last night, I finished packing and was mentally ready to go. As a hardcore procrastinator, I always knew that I'll only start packing when reality hits me; when there's no other escape. My family and I will be flying tonight via Qatar Airways and arrive at Doha after an hour and a half for another one hour transit at Doha's airport. After a 9-hour flight, we'd reach Guangzhou, China at around 8 AM local time and 3 PM China's time.

With much luck, I'd keep a journal filled with our daily roundabouts and would only publish it on here when I get back along with some snapshots, inshallah.

Kafa/Enough! Oman Campaign

I recently had the opportunity to interview Kafa/Enough! Oman Campaign's manager/creator, Torey Beth Jackson for my column and here it is for you. If you're one of those who haven't heard of them, all you have to do is join in their Facebook group, take the Twitter survey or simply follow their blog.

(1)What inspired you to start the campaign?
Torey: During my study in Oman, the very first thing I was warned about was that the traffic situation in Oman wasn't exactly desirable. I was told that the accident rate for Oman's population was disproportionately high and that being in an accident was a very real risk to our safety. I made a mental note of it but it bad driving was never really a problem with me- both of my host parents were very safe drivers and we never had accidents. Even though I witnessed quite a few accidents in my stay in Oman, it never occurred to me to do something about it there and then. I guess I was so lost in the sheer beauty of Oman and the time of my life that I was having to realize that bad driving could affect me at any moment. It wasn't until I lost a very close friend in a car accident that I decided to do something, because suddenly, it was so real to me. It never, ever occurred to me that this could happen to me and to my circle of friends, and I was so devastated. I think the only word to describe how I felt is an Arabic word, and that's masdouma. Shocked. I decided to honor a great friend by starting a campaign to prevent this from happening to others; to prevent unnecessary deaths as well as utter heartbreak and sorrow that always follows the loss of someone in your life.

(2)How was the feedback you received at first?
Torey: At first, feedback was painfully small, albeit strong. I had support from good friends from the Facebook group's baby days, but it wasn't until very recently that support increased. And when we did get support, it poured in dramatically. Our group size doubled in about four days and comments were pouring in. This was so refreshing to see, because clearly, others agree something needs to be done about this.

(3)What is the exact aim of wanting to raise awareness about safe driving?
Torey: What this campaign is aiming to do is to spread the message of how important it is to drive safely. Driving is a complicated task, which many don't realize. Your actions while driving affect those driving around you, and it's so important to follow the "rules of the road" per se. Basically, I want to tell the whole of Oman- from down in Dhofar to the farthest point of Musandam and everywhere in between- that driving safely and correctly is so important, and may even save your life or the lives of others if an accident ever occurred. This has gone on for too long, and we have lost so many lives because drivers think it's okay to speed or talk on their cellphones while driving or overtake when they're not supposed to, etc. These deaths are so preventable, and they've got to stop. Everyone in Oman, young and old, needs to know how important it is to be responsible behind the wheel.

(4)What are you future plans for this campaign?
Torey: I plan to continue this campaign for as long as possible. In the beginning days, we had a long name: Society for Bettering Oman's Traffic Conditions, but in the past weeks, we've been totally revamping everything. We decided to change our name to the Enough! Oman Campaign, or in Arabic, حملة كفى! عُمان, as in we've had enough of bad driving in Oman. We are gaining a range of supporters quite swiftly these days, and we're currently branching out to other social networking sites other than our Facebook group. We created an online campaign blog where we post traffic tips as well as updates about the campaign. We are currently trying to decide if we should expand to Twitter by surveying our support group. I plan to keep growing our campaign and spreading the word about us and our message, and hopefully in the future, we may be able to organize an event, such as an awareness walk. In the meantime, we're working on gaining supporters from all over Oman, as well as the support of local businesses. Together, we can all work together to prevent deaths and spread the message of the importance of driving safely.

(5)Do you have any words you’d like to say to those who drive recklessly?
Torey: What do I have to say to reckless drivers?
It is never worth your life. Talking on your cellphone, speeding, overtaking illegally, or participating in a very popular thing among youth- drag racing- all of these things are not worth your life. Your calls can wait, you can be late, you can be patient, you can stay away from foolish things, because the people around you that love you are going to miss you terribly if something tragic as a death happened. It's never worth your life to do anything like those things. I remember when I got my license in the United States, the judge in the courtroom told us not to speed if we were late for something, because our loved ones would rather be late than dead. Keep this in mind. It's not worth your life. And I'd like if reckless drivers kept in mind that their actions affect others around you. Speeding, overtaking, anything like this- you are not only putting your life at risk, but others too. I am 100% sure that if you harmed or even killed someone because you were driving recklessly, you wouldn't be able to live with the guilt- that if I had done something differently, they'd be alive today. Keep it all in mind, and drive safely, please. For your sake and for others.

[Book Review] Change Of Heart

The story is set about a mother (June) who lost her first husband in a car accident then married a police officer, Kurt, who raised Elizabeth, the first husband's daughter. Kurt and Elizabeth get killed by Shay, the house's carpenter.

The mystery surrounding the character Shay and his attitude struck me and I had to figure out what he truly was. He was sentenced to death and after waiting 11 years in prison for his fate things become exceedingly interesting for truth reveals it self eventually. Once inside the prison, Shay, somehow was responsible of turning water into wine, bringing back a bird from dead, healing an inmate from AIDs completely, multiplying food from one item. This whole drama caused people outside the prison and inside to mistake him for Jesus or a Messiah.

Meanwhile, Shay claimed nothing about himself of that sort that Micheal, a saint and a member of Shay's jury who convicted him years ago, struggles to heal the inmate's soul. Shay then fascinates Micheal by quoting some of Jesus' saying that is not written in any gospels of Bible but on the mysterious gospel of Thomas, written 2 thousand years ago.

Father Micheal doubted that Shay would have read such a rare book given his condition of having difficulty in speaking, writing and merely reading. Shay all the while insisted on donating his heart after his death to Claire, Elizabeth's sister and June's daughter from Kurt. An attorney, Maggie, fights along Shay & Micheal to make Shay's final wish happen by insisting on taking an alternative manner of death sentence which is none other than hanging since it only causes brain-death and keeps the heart functioning.

At this point, Jodi Picoult, captivates her reader by a thought-provoking situation when June, the mother, decides on either forgoing the past or accepting Shay's heart that will somehow ensures her daughter's Claire transplant and would give her years to live.

The ending sparks endless questions on my mind so I wouldn't ruin it for you, except that if I ever got the change of asking Judi anything it would be these;

What is Shay exactly? How could he revive the dead and do other miracles?
How can he insist on going to jail instead of someone else?
How did he know things of other people's lives?
When and why did he steal Micheal's grandfather's picture?
....

Philosophy and religions were mentioned a lot in this book that I would have skipped some pages if it weren't for the thought-provoking storyline and to admit that this book kept my insominac for three long nights isn't an exaggeration for it deserves more than just this. Give it a try, you won't regret it.

My rating: 9/10. Judi continues to amazes me.

[Book Review] عشت معها

Another story distributed by Rikaz campaign based on a true story, written by Siham Khalid AlAmer. The writer starts off explaining how badly treated she was, and how her parents gave her younger brother their full attention.

After returning from University one day, she sees both her parents in a miserable state: mother in tears and father in awe. They didn't answer her question so she went up to her room and that's when her brother came in and the fight erupted at the living room. She ran back to ask again, and this time she was determined to get an answer.

Her brother was addicted on drugs, and so, his parents decided to send him away; shut him off to get a special treatment. The writer then decided to do something different for a change and offered to take care of the situation. Both her parents were shocked but agreed, nonetheless. The writer then left her studies behind in order to help her brother in the procedure. Both siblings then lived out of town, based on the Doctor's recommendation and that's where the journey began. Her brother refused to take his medicine and wanted drugs instead. He would beg, hit his sister but she refused with all her might to do so.

It reached to a point where she had to shut him in a room so he wouldn't hurt her anymore. She stood beside him and endured his hysterical moments. A week later, his situation stabled, making him realize what he got himself into. He stayed focused on quitting on drugs and continuing with the medication.

Months later, the two siblings went back home and the parents embraced the writer with such a warm and loving heart. They praised her determination and thanked her for everything. For once, the writer felt how it is like to be needed and wanted.

The writer remarked on how good it is to be responsible of something so big and important like this. And so, she lived with the joy of this responsibility forever.

You can read the story online here.

This Time For Espana

The fun ended last night with Spain's celebration when scoring a goal at the last minutes of the extra second half and winning the title of the World Cup Championship 2010.

Spain deserved this title as it showed great possession of the ball ever since the beginning of the finale match yesterday Vs. Netherlands, whose players missed a lot of chances in scoring. Yes, I'm talking about Robben.

Fireworks erupted at the top of soccer city stadium last night as a closure for an exciting and nerve-wrecking world cup tournament.

I'd defiantly miss all the amazing nights my family and I went through while watching the games and we're looking forward for 2014 world cup that will be hosted at Brazil.

Congrats Espana and hard luck Netherlands!

Inside Stories

A strong demand was on the inside drama that happened during my teaching course so here it is. (for you, @GazelleR)

Most of the stories happened with two of my older students who, for some reason, couldn't understand that speaking in English was for their own good and gave me a hard time for not doing their homework the way I asked to be done.

Above all of that, they'd often ditch the lesson for some bizarre excuse together. Yes, they were the best of friends who wouldn't dare attend the class without the other and this pissed me off. She's sick but what about YOU? Umm, I don't know. So not only do I have to teach once, but repeat it twice!

Anyhow, just a week before the course came to a close, I decided to change the timings to 1-3 PM to have enough time and get back home and watch the Wold Cup games. The next thing, their moms are in rage and wonders which teacher on earth would care about the World Cup, little did they knew that I was THAT teacher. Just because you do not watch it doesn't mean others don't too.

The principal got fed up with the two of them and kicked them out as they've been giving excuses after another, showing their little interest in learning. But what came after their absence was more sickening; a parent says that she regrets sending her daughter as she didn't learn a thing. And just two weeks back, her own daughter begged me to tutor her 18 years old sister for thanawiya alamma next year. Where did that go?

Wait, what was that? How come all I heard during the lessons were praise and happiness to be here and not anywhere else...?

Turned out, the mother just said this because she was angry and her daughter would like to resume but guess what? We don't want you!

My other sophisticated students said that this was much unneeded drama wrapped up in lies and that they learned a lot and would like to be taught again next summer and I shall do just that without already-pampered girls.

My Style

Polyvore.com is a cool site that allows you to display your style using infamous brand names of clothes, accessories or any fashionable item. I was bored enough to place each item and show you all how simple my style is;

For a formal outing:

A red empire-waist pleated maxi, black high heels, Chanel's lambskin handbag, single strand peal necklace, pearl dangle earrings, crystal ring and a couple of Twinkle Bow Bobby pins to wrap it all up.

For a girls get-together:

A blurred floral gradient dress, black jeggings, sonnenbrille sunglasses from H&M, heart-shaped pink earrings from Elle, Sabrina's necklace, stamped patent-leather wallet, crystal-studded flats, Valentino's Rock n' Rose perfume, LV's Luxist watch and a sidekick (because I've always wanted one).

China, Here I Come

You're probably wondering; Why CHINA? Well, my mom has a thing for Asian countries. You see, last holiday we went to India and the one before it to Iran, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, etc. So you kind of get the point by now.

We're the type of family that only sets its mind at the last minute so the idea of traveling to China came up a month ago and till date, I might be materialistically ready but defiantly not mentally.

Shopping wise, my mother covered practically the whole clothes side so that's done. The only thing I really worry about is: When the hell am I going to get my books? The girl has to have some light books to tag along. Last time, amazingly, The Harry Potter series provided a good company and I'm planning to have the same this time. Any recommendations?

On the other side, my uncle have been to China on April and gave us stunning reviews about the place. We all had this idea of China's products are not to be trusted, blah, blah, but there's a nice place called Guangzhou;


عرض خريطة بحجم أكبر
And I'm pretty excited about exploring the Chinese lifestyle and tradition, not to mention, their very-hard-to-catch Language. So far, I know that 'nihao' means hello/how are you? and 'xiexie' as thank you but wait till I get hold of a dictionary, I'll be speaking it fluently in no time (yeah, right!)

Another thing we've been warned about is their weird food; fried worms, cockroaches, etc..so we'll be taking some caned food with us just in case we get stuck at some point and have no idea what 'normal food' stands for in Chinese.

Till then, I'll resume my shopping & packing. What are your summer plans?