A Star from Mosul

Dad arrived today to Halab (Aleppo) in Syria.. He called us on the mobile. I haven't missed him till now. That's because normally we don't see him much. He has to work in the hospital and then in the clinic and he works on the compute a lot when he's home..!

The internet server had a virus yesterday, and we lost the internet connection.. I had to format the computer, and then install the windows and try to recover my e-mails and the installed programs.. It took me some time to do all this, and I went to bed exhausted.. I had a difficulty waking up for the morning prayer and saying good-bye to dad who left at 6 o'clock but I did wake up (Thank God).

My aunt spent the day at our house today to entertain us.. Aya is acting like a nut, she hold her hair and starts to pull it and then starts screaming!!

I don't know what to say more, but I just wanted to post something..

Bye and have a nice day.. :)

My uncle left for Baghdad yesterday, and we missed them already. The house became so empty and tomorrow it'll be emptier because dad is leaving for Cairo. Mom asked us to write a menu of things we want him to buy, but neither I nor HNK were able to find something we want and don't have!

I've noticed in the e-mails I'm getting that you haven't read this (At least, not all of you). Dad agreed to keep the internet connection but he might cut it at any time if I didn't do well in my studies.. Don't worry, I'll do my best, because after all this year there's tens of people who are watching my progress. When school starts I put about 2 (minimum) clocks in my room, I make schedules to organize my time. And it doesn't take much of my time to study, I don't study a lot but I concentrate while studying.

And thanks all for your explanations about the Ferris wheel.. Don't send more messages about it. Now I know that it's a ride, and that it was invented by an American named George W. Ferris, for the Chicago World Fair in 1893. And I know much more now.. I can write a book about it (Just kidding).

Today we went to my kindergarten when I was small. I didn't remember any of it but from what I saw in pictures.. My sister will probably write about our tour there so I won't repeat.

We have a problem these days with the Gasoline. All the stations are crowded with cars. My cousin called and said that he managed to fill his car, there were men (Teenagers probably) at the gate of the station, organizing the cars. And if you want, they can make you a way to the Gaoline machines, and you can fill your car, but they take a galon of gasoline from you to sell in the Black-market!!

I always have a problem in buying clothes. I'm a little petite and it's hard to find clothes that fit on me. HNK is much taller than me and she always find fitting clothes, so mom is buying her and feeling sorry for me. She was trying to please me today but nothing fits.
I remember about 4 years ago, when we go to Baghdad, mom buys some presents to my cousins from Mosul, and she makes us all stand in a queue from the shortest to the tallest. I used to stand behind all of them (I was the tallest, even taller than the older cousins -3 years older than me-) but I suddenly stopped being any taller. Now I'm only taller than Raghda in this queue. Thank God we stopped standing in queues or I will be too disappointed.

I was looking at my grades of the past years and then I saw my graduation certificate from the kindergarten.. I always enjoy reading what's on it. Here's it:

The child **** ****** ******** (My name) has finished the school-year (1992- 1991) in our kindergarten. And her evaluation for this year was as the following:

Health: very good.
Eating: good and organized.
Psychological status: very calm and gently acting.
The education level: very good, very concentrating, and distinguished from her friends.
hobbies: cartoons, listening to stories.
Other notes: A cute and lovely child, organized, acts like a lady (A great female) prim... She loves babies and everybody in the kindergarten loves her.. She becomes happy when she's in the kindergarten.

Isn't that nice!! I wonder if they evaluate us from the high-school, what will they say about me then!!! I'm sure that they'll say that "I ASK ALOT!"..

My uncle and his family are going back to Baghdad tomorrow.. So, I decided to ask him to tell me some of the differences he found between Mosul and Baghdad..

First, he was so busy working on the computer then the electricity went off, and he doesn't have a UPS. So, he had nothing to do but pleasing me! And my aunt came too to tell me what she thinks.

Here's what they said:

• In Mosul, the streets are better and there's less traffic. But in Baghdad, if you get stuck because of the traffic, there's more sub-ways to take than in Mosul.
• Gasoline is available here more than in Baghdad.
• The economical and structural activities in Mosul are less than in Baghdad. But the differences in these activities are less than before the war..
• No picnics in Baghdad at all.. They can go to restaurants and such places, but they can't go till night because of the heat in the day-time. And inspite of there's no curfew in Baghdad (Unlike in Mosul, we still have a curfew), they can't stay out after 11 o'clock because of the security situation.
• Baghdad in more expensive than Mosul. The fast-food places are much more in Baghdad, and their food is better than in Mosul.
• The family relations are stronger here in Mosul due to the small size of the city comparing to Baghdad, and therefore the houses are close to each other.
• The temperature is higher in Baghdad..
• The kind of cars the Americans ride varies between Mosul and Baghdad. In Baghdad, there's tanks (Which don't exist in Mosul). in Mosul, there're BIG heavy cars -With fences- so weird, and they don't exist in Baghdad.
• The electricity is the same, but the generators cost more in Baghdad than in Mosul.
• The kind of clothes they see in the bazaars of Baghdad are more revealed than in Mosul. Here, the clothes are more suitable to wear than in Baghdad..
• Here, there's two bazaars only. In Baghdad, there's too many bazaars to buy clothes from (Such as: Al-Mansoor, Arasat, Al-Rubaiee, Al-Karrada). So, in Mosul, they can buy everything they want from one place. in Baghdad, each bazaar has its own kind of stuff.
• The buildings for people to live in (Houses) are more in Baghdad than in Mosul. This is because of the financial situation of the people in Baghdad (Which is better than in Mosul) which causes that the newly married can live in their own place. While in Mosul, they can't afford buying their own house, so you see houses where there's the parents and their children and their grandchildren and their daughters and sons-in law, all living in the same house.
• The work-opportunities are definitely more in Baghdad than in Mosul.
• In Baghdad there's too many internet cafes.. They're everywhere. In Mosul, there's also a big number of internet cafes, but not as much as in Baghdad..
  
• In Mosul, there's Najma.. :) In Baghdad, there's no Najma :))

I then asked my cousin (A 7-year-old girl), she didn't have anything to say but "Mosul is much more fun"..

Then I went to my other cousin (A 16-year-old boy, the silly one) he said "Baghdad starts with a B, Mosul starts with an M" And he went on that way till he remembered his promise to not bug me today..

Okay, time to think of what to do.. I saw a paper yesterday about our internet connection and it says that the connection will last till the 27th f September (Tomorrow) And then we'll have to live without it :(
I'm sure we'll go visit internet cafes and then I'll just copy what I've already written home and post it.. Dad is going to Cairo this week and the only connection with him will be through the internet, so we'll always go to internet cafes. And my uncle still have an internet connection so we can go use theirs. Or dad will just not care about our studies and connect to the internet again!!

Well, it's not easy to say good-bye to the internet after using it for 6 months.. Not easy at all. It's not easy to leave friends I made for about 4 months.. But this is something that will happen and I will have to live with it.

But, I will write my posts at home and copy it to the flash disk or something and then just past it to blogger in the internet cafe..
Of course your e-mails won't be replied, at least not quickly. But they'll be read because I'll copy them to the flash disk. For now, I have

My aunt came to Mosul today. And she and my uncle will leave Mosul at the same day and dad at the next day and we'll be alone in the house after days of joy.. And then maybe at the 1st of October the school will start. I'll have to start working on my school's visual basic program because till last year, I'm the only one in the school who knows programming languages.

I keep forgetting to mention that in one of those explosions in Baghdad, my oldest cousin's car was next to the bombed car and it was damaged badly but he and fortunately was not badly hurt.. But really shocked.

I won't say good-bye because I'll keep posting but not as frequently as before..

I'll have to practice typing with ten fingers, because and till now I type with two fingers.. My cousin told me that I'm the fastest one he's ever Seen who types with 2 fingers.. I still look at the keyboard but I can manage writing without looking but it'll take a long time of trying..

The connection is lousy today.. I've been trying to open my e-mail for 20 minutes..I know that I have 5 letters in the inbox, and now I know the senders, but I haven't read the letters till now. Well, I read them now.. I think I'll copy some of the messages to my hard drive to come back and read them whenever I'm bored or angry..

I've just discovered that I didn't activate yesterday's poll :( Let's see if my uncle (Who's living with us now) would still have a connection when he leaves Mosul. Let's see if the company is going to cut the connection immediately..!

Aya came back yesterday after 2 days of absence.. She grew up a lot in two days, and she has flu..! I guess I'll post a picture of her before she's 1 month old because I won't be able to post pictures from the internet cafe.. I'm not sure..

This summer-break was the best although the situation was not good at all.. I read more than all the other breaks, I made lots of friends and I improved my English.. I went to the North a lot. The mid-year break was the worse this year because dad had a mild heart-attack in the first day of the break, and we weren't able to go out of the house..

I just discovered that today is my big sister's birthday and I've forgot.. :(
And this post is the 101st on this blog..

Good news... The connection is finally better. I was preparing the salad for lunch, and dad was adding some stuffs to it. He loves me when I'm making the salad, because I don't eat it and it takes me a long time to prepare it as he likes..
I said: "Dad, there's something I'd like to complain about. I did complain yesterday but you were busy and yelled at me"..
He said: "What was it?"
I said: "The internet connection will be over tomorrow.. "
He said: "What? Look at this paper"
I looked and it said that the internet connection will be over in the 27th of October.. Wow, but how can this happen?
Dad thought of how he's going to go to Cairo and we'll have to stay alone with no connection with him so he expanded the internet connection for one more month :) Nice.

Okay, the problem is over.. I guess I'll publish the post any way. It took me along time..

And my silly cousin was being good today, I sat on the chair at the table for lunch today, and he had to stand. I felt sorry for him and gave him my seat, but he refused :) I'm getting him to the right road..

I'm going to replace my poll with another... So, I feel responsible to tell you the results.

• Politics --- 22 voters --- 13%
• Religion --- 13 voters --- 8%
• General --- 25 voter --- 15%
• Personal --- 44 voters --- 26%
• Jokes --- 9 voters --- 5%
• Anything I want --- 59 voters --- 34%

That was great... Thanks alot.

Big dolls in Mazi.. With nice flowers.

This is one of those beautiful views in dream-city

This is the game that I don't know its name in English !

This was supposed to be posted yesterday, but I sort of forgot to...

Are you tired of my trips lately? I'm not.. We went to Duhok today. We started our way to Duhok at 10 o'clock.. Arrived to the first annoying check-point at 11, there were a terrible traffic jam (11 columns of cars) and we finally got out of there at about 12.. Then we arrived to the second annoying check-point, and they asked my dad for the car registration, and they said that they'll give it back to us when we get out of Kurdistan. Dad and my uncle didn't want to give the car-registrations away because it'll be hard to get them back, so we cancelled our trip and decided to come back. We were few meters only way from Duhok but we had to leave.. Then dad decided to try another road which caused that we arrived to Duhok at 2 o'clock. I had fun in the road more than the whole trip.. I and HNK sang some songs (Till I sang Portucala-A very lousy Iraqi new song- and I had to shut up after a strong command from mom begging me to stop singing), Then we got into one of those holes in the street suddenly and we flew from our seats and hit our heads with the roof of the car.. Then we turned on the radio, and here's a funny thing in the news..

The correspondent: Al-salamu alaikum (Peace on you) ladies and gentlemen wherever you are in our great Iraq, and god bless you with security and love..
here are the headlines:
-A number of people were killed on someday due to something..
-A bomb exploded somewhere and killed a number of people and injured a number of people.
-A number of people from a company were kidnapped on someday and the total number of kidnapped people from this company had reached a big number.
-A suicide bomber killed herself on someday and caused the death of a number of people in a country..

And the news go on this way to congratulate us of a peaceful day..
I couldn't stop laughing when hearing those news (All sad, but I couldn't help not to laugh).

When we reached Duhok, we were all so hungry, so we stopped in a restaurant (With really dumb waiters as you'll see).. We ordered 8 plates. We first got only 3, and waited and waited.. Three of us completed their meals, washed their hands and waited with us. We called a waiter to see why they were late, and he said that they had a mistake in counting the number of plates.. Okay, we ordered 5 plates. And again we got only 3, we waited and waited, I and my aunt were the only who hasn't yet eaten. We called the waiter again, and told him that he forgot our plates, and he said he was sorry and brought them to us.
My cousin (The 5-year-old girl) wanted a small dish of soup so we ordered ONE. But we got eight instead.. !!!

Then we ordered Pepsi and 7up. This time, we showed the waiter the number of cans we want with our fingers (In case he doesn't understand our numbers) , and he brought us the right number fortunately..
I had to go wash my hands and I left my Pepsi with the family and told them if somebody wanted it he can take it, if not I'll drink it in the car. I came back, and found it as it is (At least that's what I thought) and decided to drink it there instead of the car. I started to drink and noticed a rather strange taste but didn't care. But all the family started laughing. I asked why and discovered that uncle has replaced my Pepsi can with an empty one that he's filled with a mixture of vinegar and water just for fun.. Well, they had fun but I wasn't that angry because I kind of liked it.. I even made dad taste it..!

Then we went to Mazi (The best Super-Market in Iraq) In Duhok.. We bought some stuffs, and watched what we can't buy (They have really expensive prices). I decided to come buy me a good camera from Mazi when I become a millionaire!

Then we went to Dream-city.. It has really great views and it's been really taken care of. I'll post some pictures of it after posting this.. I didn't get into any of its games, I don't like these stuffs. I just enjoyed the views..

One of the games which I don't know its name in English (I'll post a picture of it and you tell me then) was too slow and silly. My uncle got into it with his daughter (My 5-year-old cousin) and he was stuck there for a long time, that even his daughter got bored.. We then discovered that he bought 8 tickets, a ticket for each person.. While he was supposed to buy 2 tickets, a ticket for each seat :) So they got stuck there for a long time..

Finally, we left Duhok at 8 o'clock and arrived to Mosul at 9 o'clock..

Another picture from the boat.

A picture from the boat..

:( This is the second time post this.. I always copy before posting.. This time I forgot to :( Okay, let's write again...

I woke up today at 6:30, Aya was already dressed up. And I was hardly being able to open my eyes.. I had to wake up because we're all (Our family, my uncle -My mother's brother-'s family, and my other uncle -My father's cousin'-s family) going to have break-fast near the Tigris..

My family went ahead of all of us, to buy some Kahy which is a meal you don't know for sure, if you're not an Iraqi. I waited with my uncle for my other uncle in our house, to make sure to lock all the doors.

We had fun as usual, this time I got into the boat with the others... I took lots of pictures from the boat, and with some cropping and playing with colors, they became the best (I hope!)..

Here's an interesting and EDUCATIONAL conversation between my aunt and her daughter (A 5-year-old girl) while we were waiting for my uncle..

- Mom, will we see some fish?
-Yes honey, we will.
- Will there be SHARKS ? *With a big, nasty smile on her face*
- No honey, just tiny little fishes.
- Aha!! can I take one home?
- No, their mothers will be sad if you did.
- Who are their mothers?
- They're bigger fishes.
- You mean SHARKS *The same smile again* ?!!

I'm sure there was something else I wrote before and forgot to write here.. Anyway, I'll post this now and remember later. I'll try to post some photos from the boat now.

Update: Today, I had to listen to my cousin's silly talking.. He's in my age, and he's way sillier than I am. I had a hard time trying to finish my meal, he did too, so we spent alot of time chatting SILLY stuff. I washed the dishes then, in the middle of this process, my other cousin (19-year-old boy) came with his plate, proud because he finished his food. We all had a hard time finishing our meal after the big break-fast..

After lunch, I took out the scale and made my silly cousinweigh himself, and discovered that he's 4 kilos less than I am.. This doesn't mean that I am FAT, this means he's toooo THIN.

PS: I do use the 'baby talking voice' sometimes.. When I talk to her, not about her. (I noticed this today).

If you're wondering why I mostly name my posts "What's happening?", here's the answer. Each time I write a variety of things that can't be titled together, I put this title instead of nothing.

The day before yesterday, I was so bored in the evening. I didn't know what to do, so I went and watched a football match between Liverpool and Manchester-united with my uncle and cousin. I was mostly enjoying the reactions of my uncle's face. And he had the right to react that way, after all Manchester-united (which we were cheering for) won 2-1 and the 3 goals were scored by the Manchester-united team!!

Aya is doing great, I'm not posting a picture of her because I want her to be 1 month old and ten let you see if she changed. She's gaining weight and love :). She's sleeping in my arms a lot. She has hiccups a lot, I said that she's my heart and it's beating ;)

Have anybody noticed how old people (Older than me :)) change their voices automatically when they talk with babies or near babies? It's strange and funny. You see them talking really serious things and then switch to babies with a switch in the voice too..!

Everyday, I wake up and have break-fast with my sister and cousins. It's great to have more people in the house. Today we were having lunch (PIZZA) and I had to stand and eat (there was no place for me at the table). HNK was telling us how great it is to have lunch with so much people and I was telling her that it's only great when you're sitting, not when you're standing.

Yesterday, something happened here that doesn't happen in your country for sure. My uncle bought an HP (HEWLETT PACKARD) Monitor-19 inch, used, and with only 70$ !! CHEAP! Right?

A bombed car exploded today near my grandparents house in Baghdad. We hurried to the messenger, and fortunately my cousin told us that nobody (From us) was hurt. It was in the same neighborhood, but not in their street.

What's al-Shabab TV?

It's one of the few poor channels we used to watch during Saddam's ruling. It was too silly. I didn't like anything in it except for the movies, although it starts too late (About 1:45AM sometimes) No fixed schedules and really dumb advertisements.

What were the news like?

• News about Saddam. Who he met, what good thing he did, blah, blah, blah.
• What happened in Palestine.
• Some disasters from all over the world.

I mostly remember about it:

• The girls who are in the advertisements, too dumb.. Especially in the ads about shampoos.
• The big sign of the channel. Each channel has its own sign as you know. Ours is too large and it varies in size according to the channel we're stealing our movies and programs from.
• We once were watching an action violent American movie. I and my sister were too interested, waiting for the next step. And suddenly, a sentence appears in the middle of the screen "That movie shows the violence in the American society and it shows this and they did that, another blah, blah, blah" And they stopped the movie. WHAT? No more? The Iraqi flag appeared and the national song started to play. No more movie..!
• Every Thursday, Uday would appear on TV wearing really weird clothes, trying to embarrass his father, sometimes he would wear a skirt. Our family meetings were in Thursday instead of Friday, and we would all watch Uday with his weird clothes.
• When we have examinations in the mid-year and in the finals, it'll view great movies. While in the summer-break it'll view lousy old movies.
• Each singer can't make his career, till he sings a song about Saddam. This caused that the songs of the only good Iraqi singer Kathim Al-Saher were not televised on TV al-shabab.
• Each day at nine o'clock, they televise a series. The problem is, all the serieses they televise are recorded on CDs. Then a high-ranked person would come and request a specified number of episodes from this series and we will have to suffer to figure out how the episodes are supposed to be organized.
• I asked my sister about what she remembers from this channel and she said: "It steals from all channels, and it's really good :-) ".
• Okay, that's it. Mom remembers Uday only. Dad doesn't remember anything..!

I searched for Al-Shabab TV on the web and here's some interesting things I found:

Firas from Iraq and Iraqis:

I remembered the days when Oday used to put hours of programs about Sadams visits and speeches on Shabab TV and we couldn’t find anything else to watch so we turn off the TV.

Nothing else..

During the war, all the Iraqi channels became unwatchable. It looked like we're winning the war (Who knows!). The only things we see were: violent movies, al-Sahhaf (Our media minister) lying to us with his new discovered words, people injured in hospitals, songs about Saddam.

I remember once, in the war,I and my dad were watching TV, lying on a blanket on the floor in the family room. And al-Sahhaf showed up on TV. I was too sleepy and I couldn't believe my ears. He was using really weird words like tarateer, ulooj. And other weird words to describe the Americans. I even remember him once explaining that "ilj" (Singular form of ulooj) is actually a word.

By the way: al-Shabab TV means: the youth TV. And it was controlled by Uday himself.

I woke up early this morning on my aunt' voice. Mom called from the university and asked her to wake me up and when I can understand things I should call her, . So, I did and gave her some help with computer stuffs.. And I was shy to sleep again, so I stayed awake..

Then I was surprised to know that mom has asked my aunt to make me clean the garage and make my cousin (Who's in my age) wash the car.. This was the first time I clean the garage by my own.. My other cousin (A 5-year-old girl) didn't stop talking while I was cleaning the garage and trying to make her stop talking. She believed in helping people alot and was eager to help me. So I let her clean the door with her water-gun :)

I have a problem now. What would you do, if someone you really hate, go to people and tell them that she's your friend? It's a big problem especially if that person is an expert in making problems..

I don't know what to say now, my stomach is whining from hunger... Lunch is late today :(

Aaah, Aya is coming with her mom tonight and they're going to stay in our house till my brother-in-law comes back from Baghdad.. I'll be more busy with her.

And because this post is short.. I'll link to a post by Fayrouz that I liked alot.

This is Seebah's waterfall...

This is Bakhal's waterfall. There were lots of people climbing the rocks with their slippers. We had fun watching them losing the slippers and trying to get them back without success.. :)

This is the water fall in Gail Ali Bak..

I've been so busy these days with some stuffs.. And today, we went to Kurdistan, and we had fun..Yaaaaay. But I was tired from not sleeping well, most of the trip.

I was supposed to write this yesterday, but HNK was sleeping and she starting yelling at me as soon as I started hitting the keys on the keyboard..
So, we went to the north yesterday..

My uncle came from Baghdad the day before yesterday, and since then I hadn't have the time to post anything.. Today, they'll go rent themselves a computer and work at it instead of ours. It's hard for 7 persons to share the same computer. Especially that mom is having some work on the internet in the last couple of days that she made me work for her for an hour at 6AM, I had a terrible headache but I completed my sleeping after all, and that's what's important.

My uncle's family told us about a scene they saw in their way to here, I thought a lot about posting it or not. But then I said why not! I'm not even using my real name.! So here I am posting it here..

In the middle of the high way between Baghdad and Mosul, there were tanks and American cars cutting the street, what for? An American soldier was urinating in the middle of the street facing the Iraqi cars and cutting the road for all the travelers causing a mess in the highway and a problem in traffic. They said it was the most impolite and disgusting this someone can do to offend other people..

Well, lets start to talk a little about yesterday's trip.. We went to three places, Mentioning the names won't make any use for most of you, but might interest some of you.. We visited Bekhal, which has a big waterfall, and can be a perfect place for tourist but isn't taken care of at all. We visit Gali Ali Bak, which also has a waterfall, smaller than the first but more organized and it has docks in the water.. We visited Seebah then, but we didn't stay but for about 15 minutes.

An interesting thing about the Kurdish writing is that they use the Arabic letter "Ha'a" a lot.. The letter Ha'a is much like H in English. Let me give you an example of how they write "Gali Ali Bak", "كلي علي بك"
They write it like this:
Gah-li Ah-li Bah-k
كه لي عه لي به ك
So strange but also funny.. So small words can be so long this way.

Somestuffs I noticed there,
we were driving in a road where there's lots of rocks on the sides of the streets (All the roads there are like this) And there were two (A woman and a man) Maha and Mohammed, have written their names on most of the rocks in that road.. With love words and such stuffs...
And the number of cameras is more than the number of families.
And everybody is wearing slippers, no shoes. The fun in seeing water is to wear slippers and feel the water between the toes.

I'll post some pictures of the places we visited.. I hope you'll like them..

Remember this..? Well, it's now different, It's improving..

The Tigris river near the casino we visited today.. With some of us in the boat.

We went to a casino (An open place that's near the water) today for lunch, and it was fun.. We were only women and teenagers, a group of doctors' wives. But there's couple of girls who are also my friends.

Some of us (I'm not included) , got into the boat and sailed a little in the river. I didn't get enough courage to do this, especially that I was all wet because of the boat...

Before going to the casino, we went with mom to the university.. Mom had to go to the councilor's room and she said that she'll come back in few minutes. But she was too late that I and HNK took a nap while waiting for her in her room.

What happened to mom was a strange thing that happened in too many places here in Mosul today. She wanted to open the door of the car, so she pressed a button that turns off the safety alarm and opens the locks of the door (Nearly everybody here in Iraq has it) But it didn't work. She tried and tried but it didn't work. So, she opened the door and the alarm started beeping and then all the surrounding cars' alarms started beeping.. She called some of her students and called my dad on the phone, he became so worried, mom's voice was tired and there's 'whoo woo whoo woo' (beeping) all around her. He thought something happened to us. He came in a hurry but my mom's students has already helped her turn off the alarm but then the car isn't working any more. Dad fixed some stuffs and drove behind us till we got to the casino.

Dad said that he had about the same problem after dropping us at the casino. One of my mom's friends' husband had the same thing too. A man said that three others in the university had the same situation. And in our way from my mom's room to the car we saw about two other car's alarms beeping and their owners trying to shut them up.

A funny thing about this, is that a man had the same situation is a bazaar and people told him: "That's what happens to you when you try to steal other people's cars"..! Two things wrong about this story are:
First: It's his car, Second: Nobody called the police...!

When I came back, dad told me that my friend called, so I called her back. She said that they're demolishing our school and they're improving another one for us.. She said that she was supposed to tell me this along time ago but she keeps forgetting. So maybe when I get back to school it'll be better than before. And she said that the school's starting date might have changed again and it might start on the 18th of October instead of the 2nd of it.

I'll post some photos of the Tigris river from the casino after publishing this...

Yesterday and as usual, I went up to my room at 12AM preparing my self to a deep sleep. I went in my bathroom, washed my face, brushed my teeth, and did al Wodho (Preparing for praying).

And then I got in my room. First thing I saw, is the Barbie posters on my room's door... I thought that I should get rid of them, because I'm not a Barbie lover or anything.. I hate Barbie!! So, I took them off, and gave them to HNK, and kept some stuffs to Aya when she grows up. When I was small, and when we went to Baghdad, HNK and Raghda would both bring their Barbies and play. They sometimes beg me to come and play with them. When I'm extremely bored, I accept and I do bad things. When they want me to play, I;m always the bad barbie, I kidnap people. It's not part of my personality, I don't remember why I used to do this. But they sometimes really have fun because of it.

And then I went to pray. It's strange that whenever I start to pray, and when I am supposed to handle myself to God, I start thinking of lots of stuffs, then it ends up with me not knowing what I did from the prayer and what I didn't. Here's some thoughts from my prayer:

• I thought of putting the slide projector(A machine that views photos on the wall) in my room, nobody is using it, my wall is big, I can make it...
  
• I thought of the night before my sister's wedding with few days. Before the marriage the men of both the families (The bride's and the groom's) all get together in the bride's family's house or in a mosque or in a restaurant. In this case, in our house. And my uncle started to take a video of the whole thing... He was trying to be productive so he turned the camera and started to take vertical views.. When we viewed the video, we had to turn our heads to see what's going on.. :)
• I thought of when I was small, and I see a woman on TV, besides the woman there's a TV and in the TV there's what we're seeing in our TV (The woman and the TV) and in the TV which is in the TV there's a woman beside a TV, and the circle goes on.. I've always wondered what will be inside the last TV.. It was so confusing to me then.
• And when I finished praying, I prayed for everyone I promised to pray to... I prayed for all of us to be guided to the right road (No matter what this right road is).

Then, when I finished praying, it's about 12:45 AM.. I turned off the lights and took a look from the window to the world in front of me. I didn't have my glasses, so that big ugly house in front of the street looked like a castle. While Al-nabi yonis mosque (Which I can see from my room) was just lights.. It was nice and beautiful...

My teeth are aching too much. Whenever I dring something cold they go nuts.. I'll have to go to the dentist soon, this time I'll take the camera with me. He's a relative afterall, he'll agree.

Yesterday, I opened the refrigerator, trying to find something I like to eat. And mom was next to me making some sweets. I said, "You are what you eat".. Mom immediately said: "You're a hot dog".. That was shocking but completely true. I am a HOT DOG, I can't eat a star, but I can eat a hot dog ... hehehe

Don't read this if you're in a bad mood. It won't make your day any better.

Today, my brother-in-law couldn't wait in Baghdad without his daughter. So, he came back and took his wife and daughter home. So, there's no Aya today.. But it's good that he came back because things are bad in Baghdad, he said that the garage that has all the taxis and buses for the travelers was like a battle field, it was full of soldiers and tanks.

We turned on the TV, people are getting killed in Mosul and in Baghdad. No good news. The most horrible event was the death of the correspondent "Mazin Al-tumaizy" who was talking on Tv about the situation, and then an American tank was attacked, which made an American helicopter to drop a bomb on the tank so that the attackers won't take something from it. And in the explosion, he died, informs of the camera.. It's too scary to see someone alive in a moment and then dead in the second. They were talking with another correspondent after that, and he was shocked, he looked like he can't talk..

My friend called me today. First, it was all happy talking, then I asked her how things are in their neighborhood. She told me that one of those days were it was like the war has started again in Mosul, She looked out of the window, and she saw a policeman near their house, and suddenly, he was shot, and he died.
She was in the house alone with her 6-year-old brother. The neighbors came quickly and took them to their house. Her mom and dad were stuck in the traffic, and they had to stay and have lunch with their neighbors.

In Iraq, and when somebody dies, they put a black sign(A peace of black cloth) that says the name of the dead person, and the reason of the death, and where can people come and visit his family. They put these signs in the streets, near his house and everywhere. So that if anybody reads a sign and knows the person, he can go visit his family.
Today, dad saw a sign with the name of the dead man (A dentist)and the name of the killer too, who they say is his neighbor.

Each time I hear such news, I look at Aya, I wonder if she's going to live in a better world. She looks so peaceful, will her future be as well? I hope yes. I hope I can see this future before I become 26. I hope I can live the life my parents once lived.

Today on lunch, we were discussing dad's journey to Cairo with his friends. They're going to a conference there for 3 days and they'll then go to Syria and have some good time together.
We had some plans to go to Syria this year too. But dad thought that the situation is not encouraging at all. I asked him today, and he said "No", after some pushing he didn't answer. Then he wanted to spoil me and I didn't agree, he told me to stop pushing, I told him to give me a promise to think about going to Syria and not to answer with "No" right now. He promised to think about it. I hope he will get convinced.
I know he'll read this post, and read all the comments. That's why I always whine here as well as in his presence :)

There's one good thing, that hasn't happened yet. But is going to happen. My uncle might come with his family to Mosul. And we might go to Kurdistan. :D

Bye now
PS: I keep updating my links, I hope you're noticing that.

I found this flash presentation. It has really great photos.. You surely will like it. Just press the title of this post and you'll get there. But you'll have to wait a little for it to load.
It's amazing...!

I can't control myself... Do you remember my cousin, Raghda? Well, she and her family and two of my uncle's families, all went to Kurdistan. I felt jealous for not going with them at first, but then they're in Baghdad and I'm in Mosul, so things are different.
Then Aya was born and I was sure that they're going to come to Mosul to see her after their trip. But they didn't and went back to Baghdad..

Okay, I wasn't really jealous till about 30 minutes ago when I got an e-mail from Raghda with pictures of their trip... And I got really JEALOUS... I want to go there.. With all of them. I want to have fun. Go outside, see the world. I want to swing with my uncles in that picture, and have breakfast with everybody in the other picture.. I want to be there : ((

I don't know what to do.. I go to mom and whine and say that I want to go to Kurdistan.. I want to go to that casino my brother-in-low once took us to. Mom tells me to wait till Aya grows up alittle bit, and we'll all go.

It's Friday, and it was supposed to be the family-meeting day. But a relative bought a new house, and all the families are invited to their house.. I chose to stay with my sister and Aya at home. Maybe I'll be lucky and see a good movie on TV. Who knows!

Raghda, you really owe me something ; :( You kept whining and whining all the time for not going to Kurdistan. And you had the best time WITHOUT me.

I wanted to write something badly in the last couple of days.. But I didn't have anything to say, and I had to reply to some e-mails.

In some families here in Iraq, there's the problem of having too many children.. Then add some grandchildren with irresponsible parents, the results are: A disaster. The irresponsible parents caused me a problem with children.

I used to hate children till I knew that my sister is pregnant. I used to hate children who're over the age of being held, and less than the age of being responsible (A looong time).
I have 6 aunts and uncles (Only my father's sister's and brother's) plus one aunt in Baghdad. 4 of them have grandchildren... Many of grandchildren.
When the family meeting is in our house in Friday. I always wished that I can gather the kids in one room (The bathroom in particular) and lock the door on them. That would be too good for me. No need to yell at people and make them hate you. But my sister handled this job instead of me (Yelling at children) and I handled sitting in the kitchen and whining to my cousin.

I've always wondered what will happen when I become a mother or an aunt.. Now I know. A fast turning to loving children, especially my own niece. I still don't love those children who's job is to destroy. But I can handle them (I hope). I can't stand spending one hour without showering my niece with kisses, and she's got used to it. The most amusing thing, is to talk instead of her, put a baby voice, and try to express her feelings, like: "What the hell is going on, I pied, nothing else, why are you so excited", or "I was there, in that lovely worm place, and suddenly you took me out. And now you want me not to cry. Well, no. I'm not going to take it. Take this, WAAAAAAAA"...

A scene in my house:
Mom holding Aya. Aya crying too loud. Dad comes near mom, and says.
- Don't spoil her too much. Don't hold her everytime she cries. -And the big surprise- Give her to me, I'll hold her instead.
Dad hold Aya and spoil her himself. :D

I was supposed to wash the lunch dishes today, but mom gave me a generous suggestion for her to wash the dishes instead.. "Alright, thanks mom". But then, I had to wash all the dishes and glasses and stikans (A small glass for drinking and serving tea) of the visitors.. Of course I was whining all the time. I hate washing dishes. But somehow this year, I was stick to washing it.. Nobody washes the dishes but Najma, it's her job.

This is how a stikan looks like (Not always, sometimes)



I've been yelled at too much today.. I hope dad won't yell at me too. I whine too much, what can I do.

I'm going to replace my poll with another... So, I feel responsible to tell you the results.

• It's great, I read it everyday --- 105 voters --- 61%
• It's good --- 48 voters --- 28%
• Not that good. but still, it's Okay --- 1 voter --- 1%
• It's bad --- 0 voters --- 0%
• It sucks, really --- 15 voters --- 9%
• This is the first time for me here, can't decide yet --- 4 voters --- 2%

That was great... Thanks alot.

Nothing... Nothing is happening. No crying and no fun. Aya is not home today. She went with her mom to visit her father and stay there coz he's leaving to Baghdad tomorrow..

Yesterday, they said on TV that they've caught Izzat Al-Doory, we believed them (At least I did) and found everything they said sensible and logical.. When we found out that he wasn't Izzat (No body knows the true story) everything is sensible again.. Thing become sensible when we want them to. How can Izzat have 150 guards after him while Saddam had so little. How come Izzat is still free while Saddam isn't. I think he's probably dead now, in his grave..

There's a known joke we used to say since before the war after one of these many wars..
Saddam is walking in the suqs (Bazaars) of Baghdad covered to see how people are doing. He saw a woman selling vegetables and decided to buy some.. He went to that woman (Who was wearing an Abaya) and asked her to bring him some vegetables.. She said "Amrak Saiedy" means "Alright my sir".. Saddam got confused "How did you know me while I'm under cover" He said. The woman replied: "Well sir, I'm Izzat Aldoury".. He he he..

This is my lovely Aya yesterday, in a break after crying...



And this is Aya again sleeping yesterday...



Good bye and don't forget to read my previous post... Buh-bye

I won't put a link coz there's plenty of them in the previous post..

Don't ask me questions about this, argue with yourselves.. I'll give you some articles, I was supposed to post them on the 11th of September but I think posting them today is better..I will disable the comments section for this post only, just because I know I'm not that good in religion, and I won't answer you as specific as you expect. These are links to articles, with a paragraph from each..

1- September 11th:

Some of those who say that something is done in the name of religion may, in fact, misunderstand that religion and as a result, practice it wrongly. For that reason, it would be wrong to form ideas about that religion by taking these people as an example. The best way of understanding a religion is to study its divine source.

2- Islam & Terrorism:

Every time speculation arises that a bomb is responsible for a tragedy, such as the TWA Flight 800 crash, we in America (including Muslims) suspect the Islamic connection. Of course the disclaimers abound, but a lingering suspicion about Muslims is left in the general views of terrorism, even if other groups are identified as the main culprits for any particular incident.

3- Islam Denounces Terrorism:

If Islam is a religion of peace, why the misunderstanding? How can a religion of peace gain a reputation for being a religion of war and terror? The answer lies in the way that Islamic scriptures are misinterpreted to suit perverted agendas. Words and phrases that are often repeated in the media have been misconstrued by individuals to give incorrect meanings. The deliberate blur between ‘jihad’ and acts of terror has been a phenomenon that has resulted from those unqualified in the science of Sacred Law.

4- Islam Is Not The Source Of Terrorism, But Its Solution:

During the last two decades in particular, the concept of "Islamic terror" has been often discussed. In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on targets in New York and Washington which caused the death of tens of thousands of innocent civilians, this concept has once again returned to the top of the international agenda.

5- Islam - A Religion Of Terror ?

A bomb goes off in a marketplace in Jerusalem. A suicide bomber launches himself into a bus full of women and children in Tel Aviv. Foreign tourists get massacred at a holiday resort in Luxor, Egypt. Villages upon villages get annihilated in Algeria. The list of events worldwide which have come to symbolise the 'Islamic terror' are endless.

6- What Does Islam Say About Terrorism?

One of the distinctive characteristics of the times we live in is the overwhelming presence of violence in our societies. Whether it is a bomb going off in a market place, or the hijacking of an aircraft where innocent people are held at ransom to achieve political ends, we live in an age, where the manipulation and loss of innocent lives has become commonplace.

7- Islam: A Home Of Tolerance, Not Fanaticism:

Media speculation since the horrific terrorist attacks on America has pointed the finger at Muslims and the Arab world, and that has meant ordinary citizens of the US and other Western countries becoming easy prey for anti-faith hooligans. Shame. Sadly, the latest horror to hit the US looks to have been caused by people of Middle Eastern origin, bearing Muslim names. Again, shame. This fuels more hatred for a religion and a people who have nothing to do with these events. This is why I want to explain some basic facts about this noble way we call Islam, before, God forbid, another disaster occurs - next time probably aimed at Muslims.

Enough about us... Let's come to you...
1- History of Violence in America

Violence as a way to achieve power is a everyday phenomenon in our world. The history of violence in America ranges from the pre-colonial past into the present. However, nowadays America suffers from an extremely high rate of violence. People are very disturbed by the increasing violence in the USA, especially among young people. It is a serious problem that more and more juveniles resort to violent acts.

2- Christianity and Violence: Modern America

Is Christianity only a religion of Peace and Love? I do not think that anyone can honestly and objectively examine these situations in American society and answer "yes" to that question. Christianity can encourage Peace and Love - but it certainly need not, and it quite often has done just the opposite.

I found other articles too, but I don't think they're right, maybe written by anti-Christian authors..

This is not to offend anybody, just to let you know that not only us who are being violent, America as a civilized country has large amount of violence too.
If you watch Oprah Winfrey Show, you would've known what happens to women from their husbands. What happens to the female soldiers from their fellows in the army... Not nice at all..

I know there's different slides in the society, educated, non educated, poor, rich, ..... In Islam we have those slides too... People who think logically and people who don't think at all.. People who think they're right, people who are afraid that they're wrong..

Don't make me want to close the comments section for ever... Give me a chance!

I'm not proud at all about what some Muslims might do or done.. In fact, each time I hear about a violent accident, the first thing comes to my mind is 'Oh God, let's not be from Muslims please"..

Many years ago, when the Islamic society was in its best days.. When Muslims used to have wars to free countries and slaves. Our prophet gave orders (In the war, where people are killed) not to rob, not to destroy,not to kill a woman, a kid, or an old (man/woman), not to cut a tree, not to hurt an animal... Who knows what happened and made the world change that way..

I'm that kind of people who can't wake up easily... I remember in the war, we used to sleep in the family room coz it has less windows than our room, we bring a blanket and sleep over it on the floor. And when there's bombing and loud explosions, I feel it but I don't wake up. Mom hold me up and hugs me so that I'll feel more safe, but I'm too sleepy, I don't want to wake up... And when the bombing is over, I continue my sleep easily.

I sleep upstairs in my bed-room now. And the family faces a difficulty waking me up in the morning or for the morning's prayer. At last, dad bought a bell for me, they press a button from downstairs and it rings loudly upstairs in my room. It's too loud, at first, I used to wake up and get downstairs begging them to stop ringing it. Then I started to put my hands on my ears and continue sleeping. But now, I just got used to it. The sound mixes up with my dreams and I don't feel it.

Since Aya is born, mom slept with my sisters in HNK's room, and I got jealous from them, so I moved with my dad.. Today, for the morning's prayer, mom was too active, and she did it and woke me up... And then after praying I went back to sleep as usual. Suddenly, a loud sound of crying in my ears... What's happening? I opened my eyes, and found Aya laying next to me and crying. My sister was too tired and she needed to rest. My mom was going to the university. So, they put her next to me to take care of her. Mom stayed with me for 15 minutes and left for the university.. I wasn't willing to wake up, but mom allowed me to hold Aya and take her for a tour in the house for the first time, so I woke up. But she was crying a lot, I didn't believe that she'll stop.. As soon as I got into the kitchen, she stopped. Oh, that was really nice of her, I really needed to rest my ears.. And gradually, she started closing her eyes. And at last, she slept. I put her in the cradle, and slept next to her on the couch. And that was the first time, I hold Aya and she sleeps in my arms too... :)

This is Aya today, after taking a bath..


Link of today:
You should know this man, man!

ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA confirms:
“.... A mass of detail in the early sources show that he was an honest and upright man who had gained the respect and loyalty of others who were like-wise honest and upright men." (Vol. 12)

Before a baby is born, the mother of the pregnant woman should prepare everything for the new born, from underwear to the baby stroller and bed...

And when the mother of the baby starts to get in labor, her mother and mother-in-law take her to hospital, they might take another woman with them if they wanted... The husband doesn't usually come, it's not a tradition here.

And then, the mother of the baby, her mother(A grandmother now), and the baby, all come to the grandmother's house. They stay there, have rest, and in the third day, the visitors will start coming to congratulate them for the new baby. While the father of the baby comes to visit his wife few times a day, bring dinner and lunch(Hey, we can't cook, we have to look after the baby) and spend sometime with his wife and new child.

Visitors bring presents, whatever they can bring.. Sometimes money, sometimes clothes, sometimes blankets. The host serves cookies, and some other sweets (Kleicha, Baklawa, cake, ...). And the grandmother or one of the aunts might bring the baby to a tour for the visitors, from lap to lap.

This is Aya this morning, on the balance.

Link of today:
What Does Islam Teach About The Family And It's Roles

When Islam came it paid a great deal of attention to the establishment of strong families and protecting them from things that could harm them, and preserving family ties whilst giving each member of the family an important role in life. Islam honoured women, whether as mothers, daughters or sisters.