Zenah is in London

I know it's been a ridiculously long time since I created a blog entry, but I'm now on vacation and I have the time (and most importantly, the peace of mind) to write an entry!

So I'm in London, been here for two days, and it's FREEZING! I'm from the desert! People with camel fat pads on their feet can walk on burning sand, and not on rain (even when in boots)!

I decided to come to London for two reasons: 1) My childhood best friend (Nicole) and university best friend (Hala), and childhood neighbor (Alaa) are here (all are from Dubai too, by the way) 2) I wanted to go to a new destination.

The day started off quite badly. Hala only yesterday asked Nicole, who's been here for a month and a half only, if she had been stolen yet. Nicole was super happy that she hadn't been..........Yet. It only took 24 hours for that fact to change. Today Hala, Nicole, Alaa and I were at H&M on Regent street, and what do you know? Nicole's iPhone was stolen! The girl بالغربة flipped out! She started mourning her parents' pictures and Whatsapp messages! We had a five minute fit while comparing بلاد الأجانب to Dubai, where you can just leave your phone on the table and come an hour later and find it there (that actually happened to me). You know, the very Arab thing to do. So anyway, Nicole was beyond being in a bad mood, so she decided to head home, while Hala, Alaa, and I decided to go eat as Nicole gets her space so she mourns her phone in peace.

Alaa has a friend named Jalal from university back in Dubai, who's also visiting, and decided that he should come along for lunch/dinner, and he did. We went to get Thai food. So everything was going great, and chatter and laughter were arising. I don't know how the topic of carpets came along, but speaking of carpets, Alaa switched the subject to Sedar Al Emarat and how uncreative their ads are (Click here to get a taste of their ads). Every household in The United Arab Emirates, has been subjected to their atrocities after Iftar in Ramadan. So Hala and I just went on and on and on and on about how hideous they are, and cracking jokes about how low budget they are. "I can't belieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeve they had an executive meeting and someone got an epiphany that a dubbed Japanese woman is actually a good idea in an ad, and people agreed and walked out of the meeting feeling good about it" I said at some point after the ad they released this Ramadan (I can't find the exact ad, but it was an ad for the same collection as this one). And Hala was laughing until she started crying from laughter. So then Alaa says: "You guys wanna know what's funnier?"... We go like: "What?".... "Jalal's family owns Sedar"... And Hala and I start laughing even more from embarrassment!!! "We're so sorry" we say... "but these ads are just HORRIBLE" I add so inconsiderately. I really didn't mean to say that.. But they reallllly realllly are! Anyway, he was a good sport about it and actually agreed that they are quite hideous, but apparently their targeted audience were actually pleased with the ads. So doesn't matter what our generation says about them!

So yeah. All in all, that was a funny anecdote from today that I thought I would share before I forget it forever.

On a side note, I think London without the cold is pretty interesting. And just like Dubai, it has more people from all over the world than English people. I've heard Spanish, German, French, Indian, more than I've heard English. I also LOVE the tube! It's so efficient.

Oh and apparently they have self checkout at Tesco, which is a local supermarket. I was SO amused. I'm sorry I come from the third world, okay?

I'll try to include pictures for the next blog. Until then, good night/day m'dears.

Happy Memory

You guys wanna know a happy memory?

When I was around 10, I had a neighbor my age in Amman. She was Swedish, and her name was Andrea. I once decided that since we have two sunbeds on our roof, we should probably make them beds, and start sleeping there. And we did.

We used to have these blankets that would wrap around you with a zipper. The kind mostly used in camping. The nice thing about Amman is you'd see the stars and the moon clearly, and sometimes the sky would somehow turn pinkish/orangish (I dunno what this phenomenon is, but it occurs). And Andrea and I would find it so amusing, and start theorizing that maybe it's the end of the world, or some monsters are gonna come.

I'm sure I learnt new viewpoints from her but I don't remember. She was actually my first foreign friend. She told me all about how her parents are divorced and how she had a crush on a boy. And I haven't really heard stories like that from the kids around me in school. Such phenomena were still alien.

I honestly don't know how I remembered this, but it was actually cute, and thought I'd blurt it out.

Must I grow up?

I admitted something about myself to myself today. I don’t like getting attached to things because I never get over them. If something enters my life, that’s it. Even if IT decides to exit, I still hold it dear to my heart. Even if I don’t interact with it, ever again.

We had our final senior year design presentation today, which marks the end of my four years in the school of engineering. It hit me right after the presentation (I did great for those of you who are wondering, or would like to see me revel in myself, whatever) that I’m leaving behind what could possibly be the best years of my life. And according to legend, they are. Everything just flashed in my head like a series of Christmas lights on a tree as I drove back home. The first year was kinda horrible because well, long story. Maybe later. But the rest went great. I met the kindest people, the smartest people, and the stupidest people who helped me improve my skills in mockery and sarcasm. I learnt a lot. I became a better writer, a better speaker, a better thinker. I lost, and I won. And I made good bad decisions. The best nights were spent supposedly studying in the engineering lab, and I’d turn them into karaoke nights. We’d sing, laugh, until we’re in tears. Steal doughnuts at 4 AM, then feel bad about it and go pay for them in the morning. We’d just stay up helping each other even if some of us didn’t have work for themselves. 

We literally just lived in AUD for the past 4 years. Some of us even brought suit cases and moved in E101, our infamous Engineering lab. Nights and days would just be spent discussing the definition of right and wrong, the philosophical view points of what life is, argue about who’s gonna be successful or not all as we dip chicken pieces in the purple sauce, from Texas Chicken in the Meadows’ Enoc petrol station, at 3 AM.

At points we hoped engineering would die, and we broke down. We crashed into concerts in Media City that were almost playing on campus anyway, and well, they were right there, and we had nothing to lose.

I can still go on and on. But let me sum it up by saying I just loved it. I loved the days. I loved the nights. I love my engineering friends. And my teachers. The buildings. The memories.

But the silver lining lies in the fact that the next thing that comes along, might as well be something that I won’t like getting attached to. But I will anyway.  And its memory will cause my heart to smile for the fact that it made me happy one day.

Live hard. Ease life.

My major beef with humans is this: they love everything easy. In everything. In anything.

It’s so easy to complain. They do it. It’s so easy to say something is hard, so they avoid doing it. Basically, nobody appreciates the fact that being hard on yourself now is going to make things easier later. But when, exactly, is later?

Today, was “The Annual Wooden Bridge Competition”. An event that our school hosts every year. It’s self explanatory really. Civil engineering schools from across the UAE build bridges; we load them, the one that carries the most, wins.

Unfortunately, I was the one in charge of the whole thing because accidentally, on purpose, I’m the president of the student association. Not fun, or cool, or smart, I assure you.

I was basically the punching bag of 25 participating teams. 6 members per team, on average. The caterer. The trophy guy. The wood guy. The certificates guy. Anyone today was basically Aladdin, and I was the possessed carpet everyone was stepping all over.

EVERYONE was just complaining. They lose, they win, inevitably, they complain. What bothered me the most is the word “unfair”. How easily people just throw it out there. I can’t begin to describe how infuriating this word is. Simply because it’s the easiest way out of a situation. Not quantifiable. Not tangible. An absolutely preposterous word.

Yet, everyone uses it as if it is a solid argument, because it is after all, easy. You can argue that your whole existence, the very core of your being, is unfair. Can’t you argue that it’s unfair that the choice you’re on this Earth isn’t yours? Can’t you argue that it’s unfair you have no control of when this same life will be taken away from you?

But in this situation, people just accept that it happens. Because it’s easier to accept its reality, rather than to ponder the complexity of it.

But the truth of the matter is that, the previous questions were nowhere close as to how simple the little trifles everyone today was complaining about are. If some of the yappers knew the technical background of some things, they’d realize the thing they were arguing was unfair, was actually fair. But it’s easier to want to win, than admit they lost because they didn’t know something. If they had explored their surroundings a little to realize how futile their “it’s unfair” argument is, they might have had a chance to accept they were wrong. But again, admitting you’re wrong isn’t easy.

But life is easy. Work is easy. Love is easy. Our mistake is that we over simplify them, until we discover they are hard. If only we do it the other way around. Accept that they are hard. The easiness lies in the complexity. They’re simultaneous. When we discipline ourselves to do something on the basis that it isn’t easy…… Well, it becomes easy.

                        

Heartlurch

I have an inexplicable affinity towards the working class. I see no reason why I shouldn’t love 3ammo il 3ajooz who is scrubbing toilets so his kids in India go to university, or why I shouldn’t love Rose who does my nails and has four kids in the Phillipines, the eldest of which is 7, or the Egyptian shisha guy who is so proud that his son made it into "الكلية البحرية". The star of my story today is the Egyptian. But not the shisha guy. He is the valet guy. 

It was my friend’s birthday in Emirates Towers, and on my way out, I gave the valet guy my card, he smiled at me and said  "السلام عليكم" . I loved that, because truth be told, the times I’ve spoken Arabic to any worker, or clerk in Dubai, can be safely estimated to be below 10. And usually, I am the one that initiates the Arabic conversation, after I either read the person’s tag with an Arabic name on it, or when I realize that the person is struggling with English, so I just cut it short and speak Arabic to make it easier for both of us. But today, I loved the fact that he initiated it. "و عليكم السلام"  I replied cheerfully.  The car came, but I soon found a different Egyptian guy in it. 

When he came to step out of the car and hand it to me he said: "انا مش عايز انزل بصراحة"  I was surprised for a minute. Because he definitely wasn’t relishing the journey from the parking lot to the entrance in my modest Toyota. So on my part, I asked him: "ليش؟"  … " عشان الاغنية دي جامدة اوي"  he replied. The radio was on, and Abdul Halim Hafez’s Ahwak was playing. I told him: "طيب ما تنزل.. انزل بس تخلص"  and as if I had told him the opposite. He jumped out of the car and said: "لا ربنا يخليكي مش هقدر" I insisted he goes back and finishes the song and that I wasn’t in any hurry, but he refused.  So I asked him if he’d like it if I just lurk on the curb and raise the volume so he can finish listening to the song, and he said that he would. So I did. And there we were. I was sitting on the edge of the driver’s seat and he was standing outside. The funny truth is that, it didn’t feel awkward at all. I felt totally at ease with the situation. As if this is what normal human beings do at all time.

Then he broke the silence and said: "الاغنية دي بتفكرني..." and he couldn’t continue. I didn’t wanna ask. So I playfully said: "بتفكرك بايام زماااان و الزكريات"… He smiled a broken smile. I didn’t know what to do or say. But thankfully, at that moment, a car came behind mine, that he had to attend to.

 He said: "اتبسط بالكلمتين العسل الي انتي قولتي هم لي اكتر من الاغنية".. I smiled and said: "الله يخليك" ..  

And I drove off with Ahwak still playing. It left Egyptian Valet Guy’s broken heart, to stay with me and sing to mine.