Scooby-Doo! Where are you!

I discovered something about myself!

I almost never sit and give my back to the door!

How did I get to conclusion? I don't know, but I remember that I thought of that before I sleep and thought of where I sit in all my classes, of my bed's position, my place in the living room, my place in our dinner table, etc.

… and then I had some weird dreams.

Then woke up to my sister talking about Scooby-Doo! Yes, the same Scooby-Doo from CartoonNetworks.


Why?

Our neighbors who didn't move to their house yet hanged two Scooby-Doo's from their roof.

Why?

I will just tell you the whole story.

Few weeks ago, the 'men' came and tried shooting all the pigeons and scare them away, but the problem is, they came back.

Ladies and gentlemen, the men's way of doing it didn't work this time so the women took charge.

Today, the women came with two Scooby-Doo's and a Pakistani guy and hanged the two Scooby-Doo's from the roof to scare the pigeons away.

So do you think Scooby-Doo is capable of the job? He will spend the night hunting ghosts (from all the running I see him doing on CartoonNetworks I'm guessing that's what he does…) and the day scaring pigeons away.

Genius idea of the women, isn't it?

I will keep you updated with the results of this experiment. :)


By the way, I don't think they meant for it to be a Scooby-Doo, they just wanted a dog!

It's raining – Alain is the place to be!

It rained all over the UAE, but Alain people know how to celebrate and enjoy it like no one else. :D

Rain in Alain is different too because the weather is not as polluted, and Clouds, green of plants and sand dunes make such a nice picture. Rain in Alain is not grey from all the pollution and dust in Dubai, its clean!

Friday, as we were driving back from Dubai we passed by "7araka" and oh my. It was all covered with cars!! Everyone was outside! Everyone was going there, and there was traffic in Alain and not in front of private schools, no.

It was a rain festival.

They hold events there whenever it rains, so the police and 'ta7areyat' come and they arrange the cars and everything and guys get to "e5amsoon" in turn and all.

I took some pictures but they are not as good as the videos.

When I called my brother to make him feel bad about 'oh all the fun he is missing' he said that Dubai Marina is just perfect and talked about it and made me wish I was there.

Oh yo Bald guy!

My younger brother is getting so into Arabic poetry and reciting it, his Arabic teacher asked him once to show the other students how poetry should be recited; he went out and recited this:

يا صلعة لابي حفص ممردة
كأن ساحتها مرآة فولاذ
ترن تحت الأكف الواقعات به
ا حتى ترن بها أكناف بغداد

Which he memorized from satirical poetry and the guy is basically saying that your bald is like a mirror, and if I touch it the sound would echo all over Baghdad.

The teacher got mad at him; even though I don't think she should have because it's Arabic poetry!

My brother went on to tell her that 'it's Bin ElRomi' and to explain it to her… she still didn't let him say another one.

I found that he knows more than I do, which is basically nothing. He told me this one too:

يقتر عيسى على نفسه
و ليس بباق و لا خالد
فلو يستطيع لتقتيره
تنفس من منخر واحد

Which is that this guy is saying that the other guy is so cheap and greedy that if he could he would breathe from only one nose. (One side!)

(This will probably be my last post that includes arbic, it took me forever to write and edit it, and then I still couldn't do it the way it should be - two columns.)

Pretty deep.

In my communication skills for business first class, the teacher was asking my friend which high school she went to and my friend also mentioned the school I went to but the teacher assumed one way or another that I went to a different school, and I only knew that two weeks later.

Last week, I was leaving class and was ready with my iPod on and all, when she caught me and started asking me questions; I answered but kept walking toward the door. Her husband came, I smiled said hi and thought that now is a good time to leave class, when I was at the door she said 'oh she is the one who went to *insert school name*' and he was like 'ooh!'

I didn't know what to do, I might have told her that I didn't go to that school if she mentioned it when I was the only one there, but the way she said it to her husband, I felt bad about telling her I didn't go to that school.

She then turned to me and asked 'do you know this person?'

MJ: 'eh no' *is walking out*
Husband: 'do you know this person?'
MJ: 'no' *I'm no outside the class and they could see that I was not really paying attention to what they are saying because I had iPod on*
Husband: 'the principle…'
MJ: 'ooh!' *runs away*

In another class…

I like to write my notes on the computer because I always lose papers, they get all mixed on paper, it's neater and easier to study from and because I already have to use the laptop when I'm studying so it's easier to have everything in one place and always with me.

I was answering questions and debating things with the teacher and the teacher kept calling me 'o'7t MJ' (sister MJ) but because the students didn't get what I'm saying, he started explaining it to them in Arabic and English. I thought that now is a good time to read my notes, organize them, and add things to them.

He kept talking and talking.

… And I opened a website and started reading.

'o'7t MJ, what do you think?'

I look up to find that teacher and students are all waiting for my answer.

I think… 'Crap! I'm in trouble!'

And I just said the last number that I heard another girl saying '350!'

WRONG ANSWER!

The teacher had the evilest smile on his face, I could see that he was thinking 'I got you didn't I? Acting all smart and here I got you! You better learn!'

Teacher: 'it's what you were just explaining to us MJ, the answer is 500 because…'

I was going to go after class and show him my notes, just to prove that I was not playing… not that much at least.

The very real Malsoon

The very real Malsoon *insert my family name here* drinking pepsi, but found it's empty and still won't give it back! (no one was holding the pepsi for him in the picture)

He is the cutest thing ever. and so clever too!

He thinks of himself as part of the family, and that he has the right to everything just like every one of us, he has to eat, drink, play, talk, walk, etc. when we do. Only thing he doesn't have is a laptop, and he gets so annoyed when we all use ours and he doesn't have one and so tries to break the laptops or cut the wires.

I love him when he is walking around and then hears my dad's voice and run to him! He does run!

He acts so human at time with all his face expressions. When you talk to him, he turns his head to one side as if he is really listening to what you are saying.

oh, he is an African grey parrot.

I was right...

I never thought that heav'n would lose its blue
And sullen storm-clouds mask the gentle sky;
I never thought the rose's velvet hue
Would pale and sicken, though we said good-by.
I never dreamed the lark would hush its note
As day succeeded ever-drearier day,
Nor knew the song that swelled the robin's throat
Would fade to silence, when you went away.
I never knew the sun's irradiant beams
Upon the brooding earth no more would shine,
Nor thought that only in my mocking dreams
Would happiness that once I knew be mine.
I never thought the slim moon, mournfully,
Would shroud her pallid self in murky night.
Dear heart, I never thought these things would be-
I never thought they would, and I was right.
Dorothy Parker

Thursday = Family Time

Its part of the culture here I believe, but it can be a Thursday or a Friday. In my family it's s Thursday because Friday we go back to Alain, so today was one of those Thursday's.

The only interesting part to me is not seeing family and smiling and answering the question of 'how're you?' one hundred and one times, I just like sitting and listing to the topics discussed, and the topics can be so random that I sit there not listening to what they are saying but thinking how they got to talk about that.

In the past few months, politics, economics and religions have been the main topics, like probably every other family they talked about the new cabinet and I agreed with almost everything they said except the part that some of the new ministers are not 'pure Emarati's' but originally from Iran and therefore 'Eyam' or '3eyam', I was about to slap someone when they started saying that because we all are Emarati's and we are all living in this country and we all want to give it back and make it a better place so who you great-grandmother is is not an issue, if the person is a local who wants to give to this country and is a hard worker then I would vote for him/her to be there because that person deserve it more than a Sheikh who got it only because he is a Sheikh and wants the title, not because he worked for it.

Now it's a different matter if that person doesn't deserve the position and only got it because he works for some Sheikh and would clean their *&^% if he was asked to.

Gas prices where talked about in every gathering.

Crime was one of the main topics, and it scared my mother that she said we might get a dog again. A Pakistani guy raped and killed a local woman in Sharjah and everyone knows about it so how come I didn't hear of it?

Maids and them raising kids was another issue discussed, some new stories about maids abusing kids and how women never give up, they would be talking about it and then go 'MY maid is different!'

… If they only know!

Never send your kids with the driver alone, even if boys.

If you have to work and leave your children with the maid, don't do that, take them to a nursery.

Cars and window's tints were discussed, if you are a women you can have more tint and when a police guy catch you just tell him to go talk to all the guys and then come to you because you are a woman and so has the right to it! (I'm joking but I swear that a relative did it!)

Ajman smells so bad, you can't breathe!

Cars and which ones use more petrol – Lexus's use double what a Nissan's use.

Go read the Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights; link is at Emarati's blog.

Philipa Gregory is one of the best authors ever – I love her books!

Let's paint

The prophet Mohammed PBUH was insulted and hurt by the Jewish and the nonbelievers in Makkah, and he never insulted them, he lived with them, did business with them and then prayed for them, what does that tells us about Islam?

Maybe Muslims around the world should stop for a minute and think, think of why were these cartoons printed and why do people all over the world has a certain wrong view about Islam, why are all these people against Islam.

We, as Muslims, can't deny that the picture Muslims around the world are painting of Islam is not a really nice one; if you ask a western about Islam they would think of 'Afghanistan', 'Bin Laden' 'oppressed women', etc. knowing that, what should we do to change it?

It's marketing.

Was the decision to boycott all Denmark products the right decision? I can't decide that because you need to study it and think; I know thought that what happened in Syria and Lebanon was not the right decision, it was completely wrong and actually hurt us more than it will help, it just help in sketching more lines that shows we are violent in that painting. I also know that I have my own view and know what I would do if I was given the decision.

I would demand an apology and make sure I make them understand that I don't accept what they did; I might decide to stop importing their products if they didn't accept that what they did was not acceptable.

I would put more effort on improving the look or their view of Islam and try to show it with my behavior and acts, not by reading papers or talking to them about how 'good' Islam is, because what is good? I have to show it!

Talking to someone about how Islam is 'good' would be like going to a non-Arab and telling him that the Quran is a miracle and expecting him to covert, Quran is in Arabic, how can you expect them to understand it's miracle? Quran in English or any other language is a translation of a text and no more, there are probably many mistakes in each one of them; the miracle of the Quran is that there is not even on single mistake in it and that is in Arabic.

I think I went out of topic here.

Some Muslims got so angry at these cartoons to the point that they started to insult Christianity, Judaism and other religions. How can they insult other religions and prophets? How would this help us as Muslims or people living in this world? First thing, it's prohibited in Islam to insult any prophet and your Islam is not complete if you don't believe in all prophets. The result of such an act would be more hatred from all sides toward the others which is exactly what we don't want.

I will stop writing and pay more attention to what the professor is saying.

Books distribution

Every female student who has been to UAE University will know what I'm talking about when I say 'the books distribution nightmare'.

Every semester, more than 15 thousand students has to go through a killing routine to get their books, girls faint and other puke from the bad smells, and most of them will be pushed and hurt one way or another and I would guess that most of them will leave with their books and a ripped abaya.

It would be an average of 350 students every hour and so around 5.83 every minute. If there are 3 windows then each one will have to do 1.94 every minute. Thinking of the workers; it's impossible to work smoothly especially that some times are more crowded because of the schedules.

Yes, it was scary going to the building and seeing all these black waves of women fighting to go through because they never heard the term 'in line'.

Students first go to a room where there are 3 computers and one printer and most of the time on the computers won't be working too, they are given a transaction and then they go to another room with 8 windows and give the transaction and wait for their books.

Through out of my years in university, I have been saved from the nightmare one way or another and I only tried once and left with no transaction but with a ruined abaya. My sister would get my books, or I would slip my ID with a friends and she will get me the paper. Last semester I went a week early and when the guy said he can't give me my books I was like 'okay' and was turning to walk away when he spilled his drink and I gave him a tissue so he asked for my ID and my friends' and gave us our books!

I went yesterday to get my books and oh my shock when I saw that they changed the whole system!

It's in the 'gym' which is more than just a gym and I used for many things. You enter and they give you a number and you sit in chairs, which are so comfortable btw. There are 14 windows and extra people who help the 14 at the computers. Over each 'station' there is a screen that shows the number of the student who should go and they also call the number and to which screen.

So I was sitting there with my friend, eating and chatting and we could also have used the internet; why can't student appreciate what they have? I heard some students complaining that they have to wait 'forever' to get their books! I left with my books around 20 minutes after I came in, last semester I would have waiting for at least 2 hours! I honestly felt like slapping all these whiny girls!

It's interesting how they changed from a 1990's system to a 2006 system in one semester!

Just another day at university

I didn't write much in this blog because I couldn't thin of anything to write; because I couldn't think of the purpose of this blog and everything I could think of writing about sounds personal and so I just post it somewhere else.

From this day, this blog is to write about my life. I will write about every day's incidents in my life; a young Muslim and Arab women enjoying her years in university.

A group of university students from America visited the university and I was one of the students who represented our university and met them, which was really interesting even though at some point it felt as if the main purpose of this is for our university to take pictures and write about it in newspapers which was really frustrating.

It took place in the Medicine College since that is the only university campus in which female and male students can have easy access. They first made a presentation and then showed a very boring video about the university, almost everyone was falling asleep while watching it and then suddenly it said 'laptop is running out of battery' and turned off, which was really fun and everyone woke up and laughing and was happy again.

After we went to a conference room and the students met the vice chancellor and asked him few questions. When he left they took the 'male' students to another conference room and we stayed to talk with the female students and they asked us many interesting questions and we wanted to talk more but they made us leave!

Most of the questions where about our culture and Islam and our views as women about them all, they said that since they came they never got the chance to talk to women and really wanted to talk more to us, I didn’t even get to ask them anything.

If we talked more they would have realized that we are younger than them, around 3 to 5 years? I'm just guessing here.

We will try to do this again, but next time we will ask them to stay longer and visit all the campuses and meet more students; the university should just realize that the point of it is not related to media, we need these people to come and see and learn more about our culture and religion.

(the picture was taken last spring on Mosaic day in the university when more than 8000 students put a piece of mosaic in the border of the largest mosaic in the world - it's supposed to be anyways. The mosaic is now in the university's Maqam campus)

JUMP!

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.- Mark Twain

It's good in every way to do something new, something that will make your heart beats faster, something that before you do you know that it's not safe, that it won't be all fun, but just do it because normality and consistency kills something inside every person whether they realize it or not; it's their choice if they want to live with that or not.

I always hated to be just 'one of them' but I found today that I also don't like being the different one; being starred at and talked to as if you are really from a different plant.

Go out there and do something you thought once you would never do, go jump in a freezing pool or try some new food or buy an extra bright or dye your hair a new color try to have fun doing it do.

My best wishes to all these people out there who still have to go to school or work tomorrow, I feel sorry for y'all because I got Monday off and tomorrow too!

For the first time in a long time, I can't think of a book to read so please if anyone out there in this world has some really good books recommendations, I need help!

(This post was written yesterday but I couldn't post it because internet is not working at home, Etisalat better fix the problem before Saturday. I know where the boss live and his children! *devil face*)