5 for Kuwait

Rallying for 5, I met the following wonderful bloggers today:
Zaydoun: His was the first orange shirt I saw.
Papillona: Lovely and beautiful but feeling a little hot tonight.
Nunu: I seem to have confused you with noony (Judy Abbot currently I believe). Nice meeting you nevertheless.
iDip: Spotted through a women's plot to find the mysterious iDip.
Ayya: Meeting you made my night. I felt like a teenager meeting her idol.
The Stallion: Who thought we were gathered to celebrate cinqo de mayo :)
Walladah: Another one of my idols. To see that a real person exists behind those poetic visions is always baffling.
Nibaq: Nice meeting you again. Didn't have the chance to chat this time.

Seeing the enthusiam behind this rally tonight made me feel very optimistic. I'm hoping for the best.

Crash

My Lexy got hurt today :(
Here’s a sketch. I’m gray. He’s pink.

1:15: I call 777 to report it
1:18: Faiha Police Station calls to get details. They ask that I drive to Faiha. I ask: “But shouldn’t you come over to sketch the accident”. He answers: “It’s Ok. You come to Faiha PS we’ll figure it out.” I decide a genius works there so I relent. Driver of second car, however, refuses to budge till his boss comes. I call Faiha PS to tell them. They say: “Who was it you hit? An Indian?” I flip and say what the hell does that got to do with it? He says they always crash!!! He says let me talk to him. he does. Then I tell him forget it dude. You come inspect scene of accident. He agrees after I seem to remind him of his job.
1:40 He comes. He sketches. I follow to Faiha PS to leave car there as he said he’d call around 5 when inspector’s there so report can be written.
5:06: He calls. I head there with brother. At Faiha PS he tells us to photocopy license and registration. Naturally they don’t have this service at PS so we head out to nearby copy center. We make copies. We return to PS. He takes copies. Puts together with his sketch. Tells us to head to Kuwait City PS (Now why couldn’t he have done that earlier when we headed to PS to leave car there? It’s a mystery my dear readers. But we are not to question authority)
6:00 (or thereabouts) We arrive at Kuwait City PS. After 30 minutes wait, we meet inspector. After asking the other driver about what happened, inspector asks me: “Is the car in your name?” I say: “Yes”. Inspector/genius has car registration with my name in his hand while asking question. Next question: “What’s your address?” I give address. Then our noble inspector turns to my brother and asks “What’s your phone number?” My brother gives him his number refraining from making an obvious comment here, but couldn’t completely hold himself when inspector asks me to sign and wonders “Shouldn’t I sign since you took my number?”

Home and in bed. But worried about my baby sleeping all alone in an unknown area. Only soothed by the fact that my 2 other, not-so-baby babies are also not home. So I'm home alone. No kids. No car. Just me, myself and my Sony.

You know you're old when ...

... you no longer enjoy your own company.

When I was younger, I loooooved staying in my room all by myself. I mean what's not to love? I had my books. I didn't need to acommodate anyone else. It was time for me and me only. And what better company can there be?

Up till very recently, I loved being alone. Ba3ad shasawee I'm a hermit by nature. Utterly anti-social. I'm the boring one you find sitting quietly in social gatherings. The one who can never start a conversation and when addressed responds briefly. So quiet and withdrawn that people often mistake my inability to mingle as excessive pride "shayfa roo7ha."

But lately, maybe due to the fact that I live in a house with two boys who are rarely home themselves, I get bored staying home alone. It's too quiet. I think I need noise in my life. Maybe staying alone in my room before was doable because the house was always noisy and you don't get this sense of being alone.

Or maybe ...

maybe ...

maybe ...

Dare I say it?

maybe ...



... it's a sign of getting old :)

Birthdays Birthdays Birthdays

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROS

We had a wonderful time last night. Candlelit night, oud music, and amazing company (family only actually, which is really the most amazing and fun company I know)

Thanks A and E for a wonderful night.

المسجد

كتاب اللغة العربية للصف السابع - ص.120

This is part from lesson 20. I'll sum the rest here:

Aside from their religiouos purpose, neighbourhood mosques have a social purpose of caring for members of each neighbourhood. As a hospital cares for the sick body, so the mosque cares for the sick soul. It educates the ignorant, helps the poor, offers advice for distressed families, and much more. Such mosques are a necissity in life, functioning like schools, courts and charity organizations.
Why can't the mosque also be a school for women just like it's a school for men? Why can't each mosque devote lessons to educate women with regards to their religious and social duties, with guidance to how a woman can fill her house with happines and joy? (personal note: of course, what else is a woman good for other than adding joy to her home?)
(this is where the scanned excerpt fits: my humble translation: woman is now deprived of her spiritual and religious nourishment, being away from the mosque, deprived of it for no good readon ... as woman is deprived from her mosque, so will her children be deprived from religious compassion ... and if a woman strays from the right path once and finds no solace in the mosque, she will err again ... she now wanders from home to malha (bar/game/fun/play) with no mosque to balance between the boredom of home and the extremity of having fun)
The piece continues explaining how this is the purpose of mosques, educating both men and women and that lately people have been drawn away from mosques because the preachers can't get to their hearts.

I don't even know where to begin to comment on this piece of crap.
Ok. So all if fine and dandy. So mosques are an institution that assists in the role of schools and court. Fine. I'll shut up about all that.

But why dedicate a whole paragraph to women strayingfrom the path of righteousness? What about men? Don't they ever err too?

**egh anger anger**egh smashing whatever's close at hand**egh hates our stupid educational system**egh hates that her sons have to read this nonesense**f**s**who the hell approves of these books?

**The piece is taken from فيض الخاطر for أحمد أمين

The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" has always been one of my favorite poems. I thought I'd share and see what you think:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

To King Zaydoun with Love

No no no I'm not hitting on you :P

This started as a comment on your blog. But then I realized it's getting long so thought of making use of it to fill my lately-quiet blog.

So...
It's Thursday. Family gathering. We want to go out. Took me forever to find numbers to Totally Fish (fully booked) then Biella (reservation secured)

So suggestion extended to you, King Z, for the following reason:
Whenever I google any restaurant in Kuwait, your blog comes up as first on the list. You seem to have inadvertently covered most restaurants in Kuwait.

So ... why not make that a vocation? Why not devote a blog for restaurant reviews? This way you can give the ignorant among us a guide to refer to. (I suggest you include address and phone number too to make it easier on me :)

Now your not so loyal subject has to return to work to avoid being banished from your Kingdom.

The cutest 'Notice' ever

Don't you just love this? It's posted on the main door to my building. Apparently the maids have been having trouble cleaning the 'big mash' caused by cat and dog in the 'down steared'

Sorry, but the English teacher in me can't leave this undocumented.


How's your week everyone?

Dear God ...

My favorite DEAR GOD's:

Dear God: Did you mean for giraffe to look like that or was it an accident?
Dear God: Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don't you just keep the ones you have now?
Dear God: Thank you for the baby brother but what I prayed for was a puppy.
Dear God: We read that Edison made light, but in Sunday school they said you did it. So I bet he stole your idea.
Dear God: Maybe Cain and Able would not kill each so much if hey had their own rooms. It worked with my brothers.


Sorry if the picture is too small to see. Picasso would've been a better choice but this is faster and I'm getting sleepy.

Crash

Now this is one hell of a movie. But I don't wanna ruin it for you by telling you how great it is. So watch it. You won't regret it. I got it a few days ago and only now got the chance to see it. I think the Oscars might have hastened my decision to watch it now. But it has certainly not affected my judgement of it.

Oh and this scene here. This is when ...

Naaah. I ain't gonna spoil it for you. :)

Enjoy

أسـبـوع الـفلـم الـلبـناني

تحت رعاية المجلس الوطني للثقافة و الفنون و الآداب
نـادي الـكـويـت للـسـينما

يقدم
أسـبـوع الـفلـم الـلبـناني

في الفترة من 5 إلى 8 مارس 2006

الأحد 5 - 3 - 2006
طـيـف الـمديـنـة
إخراج : جان شمعون

الأثنين 6 - 3 - 2006
طـيـاره مـن ورق
إخراج : راندا شهال
أحـلام المـنـفى
إخراج : مي المصري

الثلاثاء 7 - 3 - 2006
لـما حـكيـت مـريـم
إخراج : أسد فولادكار

الأربعاء 8 - 3 - 2006
بـيـروت الـغربـيـة
إخراج : زياد دويري

يبدأ عرض الأفلام في الساعة 7 مساءً , و سيكون إن شاء الله في القاعة السمعية البصرية في مبنى المجلس الوطني للثقافة و الفنون و الآداب في منطقة الشرق , مقابل غرفة الصناعة و التجارة و مقابل وزارة الداخلية

للإستفسار
تلفون - بدالة : 2420848 الداخلي : 124

. . . . . . . . . .

LATEST UPDATE:

الأثنين 6 - 3 - 2006

طـيـاره مـن ورق

إخراج : راندا شهال

الثلاثاء 7 - 3 - 2006

أحـلام المـنـفى

إخراج : مي المصري

الأربعاء 8 - 3 - 2006

لـما حـكيـت مـريـم

إخراج : أسد فولادكار

تم إلغاء بـيـروت الـغربـيـة لعدم ملاءمته للمجتمع الكويتي المحافظ

نشكر الرقابة على حرصهم على أخلاقيات الشعب الكويتي وجزاكم الله ألف خير

ونأمل أن تصدق الإشاعة بشأن منع لما حكيت مريم أيضا

Child Labor

He said he was nine. The denied he was here last Tuesday at 9, a school night. When he realized I'm interrogating rather than buying, he evaded by saying it's turning green. It's gonna be green now. شبت خضرا. Then he ran to the other side of the road.

Child labor in Kuwait. How long before someone puts a stop to it? Are these kids being sent by their parents? Are they copying all the other kids who are doing it and easily winning their parents' approval to do that? How is it even legal? They close the 'baqala' in our neighborhood (and other hoods of course) but this, they endorce ... Go figure!!!

Is there a Charles Dickens in Kuwait?

Analysis of a Blogger's Block

This can't be a writer's block because I can't claim to be a writer. Lately my blogging has diminished. I can find two main reasons for that:
1) There hasn't been anything interesting going around in my life lately.
2) I am becoming really busy.
3) Blogging no longer interest me.

Now to analyze these point:
1) assumes that what I have been rambling about previously was interesting. Searching through my recent blogs I found some on my trip to Albuquerque (that can't be interesting), my KG report (like who cares), the ugliest collage ever of some breakfast item ... you catching my drift? Lack of interesting things to write about has never been the case.

2) busy? but i manage to find time to go out, to watch lost, to teach, to watch desperate housewives, to chat aimlessly with friends ... so again, busy is not an excuse here.

3) I can't analyze three, because if you have been a careful reader you'd notice I said I can find two reasons for that, not three. So reason three does not exist.

Here now (and not 'here boy', my sister's not so loyal old cat) A post is made. Enjoy and good night.

Week One

Week one started last Saturday. My classes seem promising so far. I'm not very crazy about segregated classes, especially of girls only, so that one is already my least favorite. Too soon to judge of course, but my first impression is very promising so far.

Officially week one was last week. But since I was away and missed Saturday and Monday*, my students assumed I won't show up Wednesday as well.


* I spent Monday in London. Arriving at the hotel at 8:30 am, leaving it by 9, I took the Bakerloo line to Piccadilly Circus and walked from there to the fascinating National Gallery where I enjoyed the fastest tour ever inside a gallery, arriving 9:30 and leaving by 12:



After that I walked to Westminster Abbey, stopping for a quick picture of Big Ben:

Another fast tour, this time of the Abbey, lasting less than 2 hours.

By 3 pm I was starving so took the famous London taxi towards Harrods knowing that if I go there hungry, I'd shop for food and thus satisfy my need to buy something at Harrods, and at the same time not burden my budget by buying something from Harrods. So it was Pizza from their Pizzaria. Delicious.

By then I was totally and completely exhausted from lack of sleep ( I took a 5 hour sleep in the airplane getting there, but that was far from enough), so I took the underground again to the hotel for a nap.

Waking up, I took the Bakerloo line again to Piccadillly for some gift-shop hopping before going in for a fascinating night of Mama Mia:

London Baby :)

**Bader Ben Hirsi, director of The English Sheik and the Yemeni Gentleman, just left a comment on my blog of that title. Check it out if interested.

Albuquerque - Day 4

Picture taking was to its minumum today. This is my rendition of the San Felipe de Neri that I had on my February 5th post.

The church is in OldTown. I wasnt impressed with OldTown. Its not very old. Our Mubarakiya has more of an old look to it. Shops repeated same old Native American merchandise.

Later went to watch The White Countess. A bit on the dull side though it has some interesting moments. I don't really recommend it.

In 9 hours I head to the airport, so I better get some sleep now.


Albuquerque, 13 February, 1:05 am

Albuquerque - Day 3

Hippie Town (Madrid) on the way to Santa Fe

Nedra Matteucci Galleries - Santa Fe

Sculpture Garden at Nedra

Lunch at Santa Fe

Loretto Chapel - Santa Fe

And thats all for today :)

Albuquerque, 10 February, 10:12 pm

Albuquerque - Day 2

Touring the city in the morning, my camera captured the following:

Casino in the middle of the desert. This is no Vegas, folks.

Winery: I was tempted to bring in a bottle of chocolate sauce with a hint of Cabernet. Would go perfectly well over some ice-cream or pie, or even as pancake syrup.

Statue at Botanic Gardens and Aquarium

Movie of the day: Brokeback Mountain. Wonderful story. Very much worth watching. Don't think they'd show it in Kuwait but oh well, long live piracy :)

Albuquerque, 9 February, 10:37 pm

Albuquerque - Day 1

After a restless night in bed, I finally woke up and headed to register and collect conference material. Around 12, and after chatting with this and that, my stomache started to protest, reminding me that I have been neglectig her (or is it him?) for the last 21 hours. Happily, I followed my stomache to a cafe where she ordered me soup and sandwich. We were both happy and decided to take a nap after such a satisfying meal to make up for last night's restlessness.

Alas, the nap lasted longer than expected and by the time I was up I could only catch the last session of the day, one against Spivak's Subaltern*. No harm done. I can still enjoy the rest of the night, maybe catch a movie. When lo and behold, here I am acting the role of the speaking subaltern as soon as I open my mouth with the words: 'Kuwait, I teach at Kuwait University.' Question upon question came tumbling on my head: do you wear burga' at home? do you date? do you have alcohol? do you eat meat? do you breathe? do you sleep? do Kuwaitis have 2 ears, 2 eyes like us Westerners? I submitted to these questions, like I usually do, by telling them 'No, No bother at all, ask away'.

When the subaltern in me satisfied herself by speaking, I decided to shut her up by taking her to a good-old American thriller. I mean heck, we Kuwaitis can watch thriller too, can't we?

I wasn't thrilled, neither was my muted subaltern, nor my grumpy stomache. Other than a beautiful house, the movie** had nothing. Why is it that thrillers always come with a beautiful house? Are we not to fear and pity those who live in projects? Such an Aristotelian mentality***!!

On the way back to the hotel, a mere 5 minute walk I spotted this and the blogger in me said: 'hold on here, let me entertain my blogging community with the first picture of Albuquerque downtown' I indulged, here's the result:

Church at 3rd and Tijeras.

And now me, stomache, subaltern, blogger and all are tucked in bed hoping to catch more sessions tomorrow.

*Spivak's "Can the Subaltern Speak" basically argues that no, she/he cannot speak, since speech utilizes the hegemonic colonial discourse which makes them speechless to begin with. So by speaking the language of the west, we become Westerners and thus our words are not those of the subaltern anymore.

**Movie: When A Stranger Calls.

***Aristotle tells us that the best tragedies are those with noble heros.

Albuquerque, 9 February, 1:19 am

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Leaving to Albuquerque, New Mexico this Tuesday. It's gonna be one hell of a trip. 3 flights, a total of 21 hours to get there. I hope Panadol night does the trick and puts me to sleep for at least 6 hours of my 9 hour Frankfurt/Chicago flight. Of course knowing me, the thing that is most likely to keep me up is my getting really really cold in those damned airplanes. Stacking up on layers of clothing won't help either, it'd only make me uncomfortable.

Now enough whining. I plan to spend a full day and night in London on the way back, so should be arriving home totally rejuvenated. I hope :/

San Felipe de Neri, Albuquerque.

Westminster Abbey, London.

My Multicultural Breakfast

picture's ugly but have to rush so don't have time to edit:)

Items on my breakfast table:

French white cheese
Kuwaiti milk
Swiss via Turkish chocolate powder
Danish butter
German Philadelphia cheese
American honey
Australian Kraft cheese