Thank you for making my day! :)

I am sure many of you may relate to this. Sometime last week I had to go to university and while I was there I saw Raghda. She is a good friend of mine; we have taken around 4 classes together, if not more. Yesterday, I was at a building checking to see which floor GRC is at and as I came out I coincidentally saw Aruba. She is another good friend whom I have taken almost the same number of classes with. Seeing them both at those different days put a big smile on my face.

So anyways, this got me thinking, sometimes whether it is a work place, gym, class or the like, there are certain people whom a simple chat with always makes being somewhere not much dreary anymore, or even seeing them there makes you smile. As far as I can remember, I have thankfully been fortunate enough to have such people; I consider them friends, in almost every class, meeting, or work I had. I would even say that with some a little chat usually led to more talk and we developed a good friendship and trust to some degree. I remember countless times how just seeing one of them would just make history or whatever class not so much a bore to come to. Some of them are not even in any of my classes, I have happened to meet them in a meeting or the like. Seeing them randomly as I am making my way around university, with a quick hello or a small chat, always made a lot of difference when I was tired or fed up, and I would like to say to all of them “thank you for making my day”

Here they are:

Zol :) what can I say!! There is a lot. Even though he is one of the group and would go above the criteria to a best friend, the fact that I couldn’t see you often as you were in engineering, made seeing you such a delight. I know I miss that the most out of uni.

Dalia – the kindest of beings and the most generous, always there when I needed something and ready to listen. I met her in the most random of ways and yet we ended up in almost 3 classes together, INSA, and MUN. Having her in all of them always made it much fun. We developed a very good friendship and told each other countless stories. Ah she is also one with the funniest stories to tell. She is my laughing buddy, whenever we see each other, we are all smiles and laughter…you might think it weird, it is, but with her it is only normal.

Raghda - :D you are my motivation. In one semester she would be in at least 3 of my classes. A semester came and I only had one course with her, I missed her much. She is a very kind girl and always willing to help.

Aruba - She is simply a sweetheart. She is my economics buddy :) and also other classes. She is one of the people that a chat with always made me feel better.

Ahmed Ali Abdulla - or as he puts it, AAA. I never took a class with him, but he is with me in MUN and of course an INSA member. He is always throwing jokes and taking it easy. Often times last semester he would make faces at the window door during my POL class, really helped in waking me up. Thanks ;)

Louise- Ah he is always always all smiles. He makes me laugh so hard. Around twice I was laughing so hard that my tummy hurt. I met him in MUN and seeing him around was such a delight and always put a smile on my face.

Our Graduate! :)

January 08, 2009, 10 in the morning, was a very exciting, memorable and what I would like to consider a “rites of passage” day for the whole family. It was Razan’s graduation ceremony.

The first daughter in the family has finished the second most important phase of her life and has gotten her Bachelor in Business Administration. My parents are very proud and so am I.

As much as you talk about a graduation ceremony, its actual importance and excitement can only be described and truly felt when you attend a graduation ceremony for a member of your own family or a close person.

I feel very fortunate and glad to have been able to be with Razan before and after the ceremony, sharing with her all the feelings that accompanied that day. I still remember her telling me how nervous she was, while putting on the gown before going in the hall; I just had a smile on my face. This is definitely not something you get the chance to do often at all. It took 4 years to get there :)

With my parents having to leave to the U.S. just before the graduation, my paternal uncle, was kind enough to come from Kuwait to attend the ceremony. And so it was him and I.

Luckily, however, a Sharjah TV broadcasts live the graduation ceremony every year and does a repeat. Thanks for today’s technology my parents were able to get the channel by connecting to the satellite and watched it on the computer.

The graduation ceremony takes places at the University Hall. As we entered the building, it was stimulating seeing all the graduates rushing to put on their gowns and full of enthusiasm. The noise was a buzz of excitement and euphoria for all. Getting into the hall you see and feel the other side of this excitement, the anticipation of parents and close friends of the graduates. It was a shared feeling for everyone there. I got a tingling feeling throughout my body and goose bumps once I got in. Everything looked so grand and eloquent. The hall is nicely decorated with mahogany red/maroon and just enough gold, giving it an articulate look and feel. The decorative patterns are not too composite making it simply appealing, and the classical music playing in the background, as always, never fails in enforcing the feeling and observance of grandeur.

I teared when I got in. I just knew how much it would mean for mum to have been there, it is like a dream come true for her. She has worked so hard to ensure that this day would come for Razan and now it has and she wasn’t there to witness it. For all that matters, I was thankful for being there.

As you can tell it has been a while since the ceremony, but I just about got the time and chance to go through all the pictures and videos I took. I kept clicking, nonstop, every time trying to get a closer zoom or a better angle from where I was at. So here are the best ones I took, according to my own judgment :p Do enjoy them! I took them all :) you can see how everyone is just so happy and Razan looks beautiful!

http://picasaweb.google.com/rama.isaac/OurGraduate#

"Wasta"

I was poking around trying to find an RTA website or the like outlining the documents needed to renew my licence, when I came across this page! http://www.dubaifaqs.com/wasta.php
very interesting...wasta is indeed a hard concept to explain as the people it is applied to and the ways it is applied varies amongst countries, and in my opinion it has a cultural attribute. In a way offering "wasta" is seen as a generous gesture, even on the simplest of matters.


The one time I used it and felt its strong impact was around 3 or so years ago in Syria when my sisters and I had to get our national IDs. They were introducing a new system of IDs at the time and it would normally take an average of 6 months to a year to receive it. We got it in 3 weeks, through wasta, as we were only there for the summer.

Zol I know you have plenty of stories to share on that field, especially as mentioned in the "driving experience"...please do mention some :)

A warm haven ;)

My feet have especially been getting cold as the temperature here has been dropping and it has been getting cooler. Yes, I know, there isn't snow or even a temperature below 10C, but in the Gulf anything below 20C is cold. That is a fact! our bodies are just not adapted. So earlier this week Razan and I went grocery shopping to Carrefour, which is a big chain French hypermarket, equivalent to Walmart, and I bought these slippers.

They are not only cute but ever so comfy and serve the purpose of keeping my feet warm. I am proud of them, they are of convenient price and very efficient! :) I have been looking forward to coming back home ever since to slip my feet into them...total relaxation and warmth...but I would have to say that I do think that my house is exceptionally cold as there is hardly any furniture and no carpets at all!

What a girl does when she is stuck in traffic! :p

So for the past weeks most of my time has been spent on the roads, as I have been needing to get this and that done...sometimes enough sleep or not, bumper to bumper traffic wears you out, or simply being on the roads for long just gets too boring.So, my solution has always been to play my play list of sing along songs. Basically, songs I can sing along to. People who know my passion for techno/trance do get surprised by this side of me...but yes my best sing alongs are oldies...Elton John, Simon and Garfunkel, Dire Straits, Eric Clapton and the like. So today one of my all time favourites came on, mind you my play list has 146 songs, Dire Straits- Walk of life!

This song, particularly, always sets my mood. It has a jubilant rhythm and beat to it, and always certainly reminds me of mum. I think I got my string of oldies music from her...I still remember when she'd be playing most of this music in the car when I was around 7 and this is one of them ;)

I thought of sharing it, maybe, you would enjoy it. The video is definitely funny...this is the first time I ever see it!! Was being skinny and lanky in anyway sexy for men?! :p

Zol to the rescue!

I am happy to inform you that the sink drain is finally fixed and running, and I have finished cleaning up the kitchen! :) Thanks to Zol, one of my closest friends, who always comes to the rescue when I am in need of help!! So I initially decided to find a pluming shop and get a plumber over to the house, however...it is not very safe, here, for me to do that by myself, so Zol came over and I showed him the sink drain. We decided to take the broken part of the drain with us to the shop so maybe we'd find a solution, and be the plumbers ourselves :p and so it happens we had two choices; get a whole new pluming system or get a water tape to put it together, we opted for the latter and the kind man at the shop demonstrated for us how to fix it...and that got done when we headed back!!

You would think that our day got over with that, however, this morning while getting the laundry out before leaving, I found out that the washing machine decided to not rinse the clothes!! This has happened for the second time.Hence, the ever so sweet and patient Zol stayed until two washing machine technicians came to see what's the problem. The motor isn't working properly and they took the washing machine away!!! It will hopefully be back by Tuesday :)

Hmm....I'm wondering what will be next!! :p

Without a functioning sink!

This morning, since I happened to have gotten enough sleep, I decided why not give the kitchen a nice full clean up...the fridge certainly needed a second look after all!! well there you have jolly me cleaning around with channel 4 FM playing in the background and they had pretty good tracks on as it was their "drive home triple play show" I'll have to admit that I do enjoy cleaning when I don't have anything pressing to attend to afterwards.So I take all the food out of the dear fridge to give it a nice shiny spotless look, and of course, part of this cleaning process is the ever so dependable sink that I am using to wash the drawers and whatnot. After a while, I suddenly feel water trickling into my toes making my flip flops all squishy with water!! I stop in horror open the cabinet doors below the sink and the sink's drain breaks lose out towards me, filling the kitchen floor with water!! I close the water tap in a hurry and then open the drain on the floor to let the water go through!! I am slightly annoyed...I try fixing it but with no luck...I noticed that there was a stick holding one side of the pipes up...apparently Razan must have had trouble with it earlier this week and never mentioned :p!! I try putting it together but it just won't work...I need a plumber!! should I go get one now...I should have been done in a while to head to Fitness First for a "body pump class" and a run!

hmm well so I decided that my clean up can wait....Fitness First can't :p so I unfortunately returned the food to the fridge, leaving it looking as it just did when I started and I attempted to make a clean look of the mess! So for now there is no functioning sink at our kitchen...maybe until later in the evening. I will be heading to Fitness First now..hopefully missing traffic. Razan is still in bed...I'll let her know of the affairs of the sink so she won't get a nice water splash!

My high school!

So last Thursday I had to go to Cambridge to collect Bibo's transcript which the school did not have ready before mum and dad left. Cambridge High School is the school my sisters and I attended and so did Bibo, for two years now, before having to leave the country. Having entered Cambridge at 11-12 years of age almost all of my adolescence experiences, friends(I have friends from almost everywhere...the diversity in nationalities was great) knowledge and memories were acquired during my time there. I absolutely love that school, even though not perfect...I do believe that my years there, though with some not being my best or mum's for that matter :p have been of immense help in shaping my thoughts, values, tolerance and the person I am today.

So it was nice, I admit, to have the registrar and almost everyone who has been in the school for long to just recognize us, not because we're bibo's sisters but for being the ones to start the tradition of going to that school :p so after finishing from the admin block,we got an assuring OK to roam around the school beyond that point and go to the clinic to collect Bibo's file :p

so you can imagine as soon as Razan and I entered we started reminiscing on the GOOD OLD DAYS and telling/reminding each other of the different spots and what happened here and there.... FORTUNATELY since I always have the camera in handy...I took pictures of all my memorable spots and so here they are...I hope you enjoy them as much I enjoyed taking them :D Here is the link to the album http://picasaweb.google.com/rama.isaac/CambridgeHighSchool#

Missing you! :(

Last weekend as I logged on msn, guess whom I got a video call from?! Bibo...it was late here, about midnight and I got very excited. It was the first time I see and hear him since they all left. ahh he looked ever so grown up to me and adorable as always. I was getting all teary as I was talking to him. Hind, my mum's cousin's daughter told him to come and play to which he responded to by saying "no I want to talk to Rama"...Bless him!! You realize it is not everyday that my little cup cake takes time away from his toys to talk to me..and that touched my heart!

It was wonderful having a chat with him just like when he was here, asking questions, telling me random stories that amuse him and the like. It was nice seeing his usual gestures as he talks, he would lean on close to the web cam when telling me a secret which starts with a low voice of "Rama..you know" He even maneuvered the web cam around to show me the snow outside... it was ever plenty!

ahh I've been missing mum and him ever so much since they left. It is very hard. Mum called a couple of times and it is delight and a comfort hearing her voice again, makes her feel closer than she really is!