A Star from Mosul

Dad posted a very interesting post that he's been notified about in his e-mail.. Mark Manning, a California documentary film maker who was recently in Fallujah to talk with some of the Iraqis who managed to live through the U.S. "clean-up" of that city, wrote it..

Mom posted about life after 1991..

Hassan posted talking about a practical joke he was going to make on his friends.. It didn't work! He promised to post photos if he can. Just a reminder Hassan, I wish you could see your face when we made a practical joke on you.. I couldn't see it because I was too busy laughing at you :)

HNK posted updating about her life..

I posted about children of today, and how war is affecting their innocence.. I can say that war has affected me very much. All my ideas of "people are all good but the ones who are forced not to be" are vanishing, because too many things proved me wrong.

If it was better, tell me.. If it can be better, tell me!

Youth of today are surely not.. After a boring day at school the day before yesterday, we had a mathematics lesson and the teacher didn't come, so we went down to the cafeteria and had some conversations there..

I sat with my friends, their friends, and their friends' friends. My friends' friends are a little bit my friends, but their friends are not usually people I get along with. We reached a point in which we started to talk about kids, and how annoying they can be. One of my friend's friends' friend talked about how kids fear her a lot, and how when she gets in the room, they sit without making a move. She said that she beats them if they don't do what she tells them to do, "When they messed up with my room, Do you know what I did to him -She said smiling- I hit his head with the wall".

I was sitting there with an opened mouth, amazed, and hearing this girl proudly talking about how she controls kids..

Then, they talked about how their brothers and sisters in the primary school are getting bad behaviors from their classmates who publicly seem to express their feelings towards their fellow students (Which is surely not the way things used to happen in our days). Children are getting affected 'negatively' by the media, and are accepting the negative behavior (Anything) as normal, as long as someone did it on TV and was not punished.

What made me write this post is my neighbor, he's about 5 years old, his mother brought him to our house to have some medication (Injections). He started crying loudly, mom told him (Hoping that he'll stop crying) that the Americans in the street might hear him and think he's a coward, he shouted "Let 'em kill me, I don't mind if they behead me".. This might be out of anger, but for a normal kid to cry out this way, is not normal.. They're living in war, and it surely is affecting their lives.

In Baghdad (and that's what my aunt has told me about long time ago but I didn't have the opportunity to publish it till now), my cousin who's 6 years old plays a special game with his friends. A kid stands up carrying a piece of paper, other two stand next to him pretending to be holding guns, another lies on the ground, and the last sits next to him..
The one with the paper stats giving his speech, the other two shout Allah-Akbar and the one who's sitting on the floor pretends to be beheading the one who's lying on the floor.. That's it! A game for kids. Good news? Makes you like crying? Are we to expect a better generation?

Give them some space to have fun, let them watch TV to get them to stop crying for not going out.. That's what parents are doing to their children to make up for what they're missing. Which is just WRONG..

Dad posted three times, one talking about how we missed the spring, it reminds me of how we used to make lots of picnics and trips from school.. Last year, the only picnic was to the next school's garden!
And another post is an interesting update over the same issue of everyweek, the confessions.
And he also posted his grandfather's photo.. Which he'll be using as his profile photo for now and on.

Hassan posted about how small-minded some people can be.

HNK posted today, I'll read it after I post this..

I posted three times, one about what's happening, with a slideshow of Aya.. Another one about the terrible news from Basrah, that are still not so clear.. And the other is just an announcement for updates on the previous story.

Okay, seems like Raghda and Dalia are too busy with homework.. I'll hopefully write something in the next couple of days, if you're interested.

Zeyad has updated on the same subject.. Just so that you'll know!

Fayrouz has a more trustable update on the same issue.. I completely forgot that she is a Christian from Basrah, weird!

It looks like the girl did not die, but she's lost her eye.. Read the post, it's worth it.

I heard about this from my aunt on the phone yesterday, but I didn't post about it since she had no enough information about it, and I waited for the media to give me more info.

It seems that the media isn't intending to talk about it, and it's the bloggers' job to inform you of it..

I will just quote Zeyad, who posted about this today:

No one seems to have reported the latest events in Basrah. Not any of the news services or the blogs.

Students of the Basrah and Shatt Al-Arab universities in Basrah city have been on strike for the last three days as a reaction to the attack last week by Sadrists and Mahdi Army militiamen on tens of students organising a field trip or a picnic at Al-Andalus park, downtown Basrah.

Hooded men assaulted the students with rubber cables and truncheons which resulted in the death of a Christian girl, Zahra Ashour, and another student who came to her rescue after militiamen had tore off her clothes and were beating her to death. He was shot in the head.

Students say that their belongings, such as mobile phones, cameras, stereo players and loudspeakers, were stolen or smashed to pieces by the militiamen. Girl students not wearing headscarves, most of them Christian, were severely beaten and at least 20 students were kidnapped and taken to Sadr's office in Al-Tuwaisa for 'interrogation' and were only released late at night.

Students also say the police and British soldiers were nearby but did not intervene.

Read the REST here..

"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets."

Voltaire

The most thing I enjoy with my mobile is sending SMS.. It can draw a big smile on someone's face, and will cost only 2 cents in Mosul!

When I feel bored, I send a message to my aunt, and get four in return :) Mostly jokes, and they certainly make me feel better.

Sending messages to Baghdad is a little bit lousy, they get it hours after we send 'em, and they can't reply to them.. It costs them tens of cents, and it doesn't get here!

Finally, my aunt bought me a cable for my mobile, I want to add some of Aya's photos, along with some ringtones that I like.

The Biology teacher took some classes to take a look at our new school's garden, which seems (As she said) to be really nice. She said we'll be moving there on the 28th, next week. And I can't wait!

Tomorrow is a holiday, it's a celebration of Spring, and the mother's day.. My older sis couldn't go out to buy her the gift, she's sick now, and there's no way to buy one till tomorrow. As soon as mom and my sis get recovered from their flu, they'll go to some shops and buy a gift on mom's taste.

I've been writing this for too long, surfing the net at the same time..
Well, here's an interesting forum for you, English Cafe, a forum for Arab English-speakers. I don't think they'll mind your asking them questions! Arabs learn English so that they can communicate with the world. In Iraq, we HAVE TO learn English at school, for 8 years.. Some get it, and some forget it :)

There's something that I wonder about all the time, do you (the ones who live in countries that care about copy-rights and stuff like this) read those terms of usage or forum rules? If yes, then what is there anyway?

Okay, I hope nobody is bored so far :) Wait, I'll find you some stuff to talk about.. Let's see, quotations, heeey.. I think I'm getting this passion about quotations from uncle Ahmed, this trial to be him is going too far. But, what's not to like about quotations anyway?

Saddam Hussein didn't kill 3,100 people on Sept. 11. Osama bin Laden did, and as far as we know he's still alive.
William J. Clinton

True, TRUE! Both are alive in fact, Iraqis are dying instead!

The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.
Dean Acheson

If we can only have a hint on whether it's good or not, I'll be grateful!

My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there.
Charles F. Kettering

Me too, maybe we'll meet! Okay, now I'm being too silly.. Bye

Welcome to the third carnival of relatives.. Let's start from the oldest.

Dad posted twice, A joke (Two cows' tale) and an update over the TV programme about the criminals cought by the police.

Mom posted another post, part three of her life story!

Unlce Ahmed posted as well, talking about his own story, since 1988 till now.. War after war after war, a never-ending story.

Hassan posted about flooded baghdad, he also included some photos..

I posted about Saddam, things he's done and I wanted you to know.

HNK posted as well, updates about her grades and school problems.

We've been having electricity problems, the neighborhood's generator was broken but it got fixed today.. The electricity wasn't enough for me to write a post.

Our new school is ALMOST finished! A student told me that they'll open it in about 5 days, and the American soldiers will come to do that.. We'll see.

Najma

I ended my last post (Welcome back neighbor) with a quote, and I asked you to guess who said it. Only Libby answered, and it was surprising that she was right..He was Saddam Hussein, and this is the post I was referring to.

I'll just try to include whatever I remember, including 3 of his 59 recommendations!

Saddam Hussein was the president of Iraq, made several wars and killed a lot of people.. Made some good stuff as well.
First thing we used to hear in the news, was who he met, who he talked to and who he received a letter from, then some stuff he wanted us to hear. You can guess that the Iraqi media wasn't to be depended on, we fortunately used to receive Syria TV in Mosul which had very good stuff in it.

He made children watch what was called "So that we won't forget", some scenes of wars and the damage that was done.. That was just before the cartoons, everyday.

At school, we had a subject called Wataneya (Nationality), I was horrible at it, it made no sense to me, and it made me cry everytime I had to study it for the finals or for the mid-year exams.. Same stuff over and over every year, same meaningless stuff. Now, I call what doesn't make sense to me, a Wataneya book.

Every single book we had, had the picture of Saddam at the first page (I actually kept two for records in a box in my room, but I'm thinking of getting rid of them.. What if someone came to search our house? This year, and since we received old books at my school, we had to tear off the first page of each book!) And recently, his sayings were put at the end of the book's chapters. He made 59 sayings that were called (The president's recommendations), I'm not sure if he was the one who said them all, but most of them -as always- didn't make sense to me. We had to memorize a bunch of them.. I found three in my English book and I thought I would make you have a look..

* "Do not wound a friend's feeling with a piece of advice, but do not deprive him of it so that he may know his mistake"

And since I've memorized it in Arabic few years ago, it was easy to translate it into Arabic:
"لا تجرح روح صديق بنصيحة و لا تحرمه منها لكي يعرف خطأه"

** "Real chance is the chance you take, not the one you merely imagine possible"

*** "Seek not to wrong anyone. It is better that you let him who deserves punishment escape it and lay the blame on yourself than to wrong the human being and rebuke yourself for doing it"

Well, those ones make sense! But, what doesn't make sense is the one who said them -- Saddam Hussein, who obviously didn't have a clue about what he was talking about.

Saddam Hussein, made most of Iraq Baathist, not all out of their will, some were forced. None of my family joined the Baath party though, well, maybe two, two who you won't believe that they were Baathist.. A Shiite, and a coalition-supporter!

My friend's father was one of those Baathist in high places. He now has no job, but he surprisingly still gets his full salary from the new government without having to work, and this makes me angry. Other Baathist, some who are also from high places, are now trying to get involved with the new government..

I remember seeing those who work for Saddam, his administrators and such, kissing him on his shoulder.. I asked dad why, he said that he doesn't want to get flu :)

I think this man had a strong effect on most Iraqis, some were weak enough to force themselves to believe him, and some just did.
Saddam liked to release the prisoners (Those who are in prison for non-political reasons) from time to time.. Those prisoners (mostly killers and robbers)and some others (either too poor or too rich) used to go to the streets and cheer for their great leader. Cheer and call for his life ", "Bil-rooh, bil-dam, nifdeek ya Saddam" With our soul, with our blood, we'll protect you, Saddam.. And occasionally, the teachers would take us out of school to march in the streets and say those stuff as well.

It comes as a surprise to see that the same students who used to hang signs saying "Yes, yes to president Saddam Hussein" on the walls of the school, are now happy with his leaving. It makes me sad as well to see this dishonesty in everything they say now trying to hide what they felt. I personally hated all this, including Saddam, but very much liked our national song of Iraq, and the raising of the flag.. A thing that we don't do anymore! I'll try to translate some of our national song:

A nation that put its wing on the space
And wore the glory of the civilizations as a shawl
May God bless the land of the to rivers, as a country
And some other stuff I have no idea how to translate :)

(Update: from this site,you can find the rest of the song):



You can hear its music here..
وطن مد على الافق جناحا
و ارتدى مجد الحضارات وشاحا
بوركت ارض اللفراتين، وطن
عبقري المجد عزما و سماحا

At last, Saddam's ego gave him the idea of working for his win-or-win campaign, so, T-shirts (with his photo on) were given to the male students, and they had a sentence that said all what happened at that time (In his point of view): "If Saddam said, then Iraq said". But the ancient Arabs rarely say something that is wrong, and they said that as the birds fly and get higher, they fall the same way (Very poor translation.. Help will be appreciated).

So, what happened to Saddam at first, and at last, is what you've heard in the news.. I only said some of my thoughts.

Let's start from the oldest, dad posted a nice real story about the man who turned to a donkey.. Really interesting! Reminds me of my grandpa, the person who named me by the way!
Dad also posted about those criminals being shown on TV almost everyday.

Mom posted twice, in our family's blog, introducing herself. She seems to attract grandmothers a lot.. It's really nice to read what my parents write! (Read: Part I, Part II).

Hassan posted three times, one about Giuliana Sgrena, which I talked about too.. But my post was mainly about the daily victims of the same accident.

The second, about the advantages and dis-advantages of moving with grandma and grandpa. For me, last time grandma came here, we used to have at least one fight a day! I myself had a difficulty understanding anything of what Hassan says when he came to Mosul, he had to repeat and repeat!!I feel pity for all of them.

The third about the need for speed.. An attitude of average Iraqis.

HNK was so busy this week with her homework.. She posted three lines only this week(If we counted the title)

I wrote three times this week, one about Giuliana Sgrena, one about our family blog, and one about my neighbor's getting arrested.

Dalia wrote a great story.. Wise men always make nice stories. While Raghda, as always, is asking you to SMILE.

Okay, no more.. Till Aya starts blogging, Raghda, you're the cutest in the group :)

This post was written yesterday, but I couldn't publish it due to some Blogger problems..

Last Monday, at noon, we saw a strykers parking infront of our house, then we saw the soldiers rushing to the left of our house.. This was so strange. We didn't know where they were running to, we assumed that they went to the a company next to our house, but my cousin called from the company at once telling us that the Americans entered our neighbor's house (Which was my grandparents', few years ago). Mom started calling our neighbor (whose husband was in Baghdad) to see what's going on, or whether she needs us to come, our neighbor didn't pick up. We used to hear everything in my neighbor's house, we even had a door between the two houses but we built a wall there after my grandparents died. But, the house was strangely quiet. We started doubting that the soldiers went into her house at all. In a short time, all the neighbors stood at their doors, waiting for our neighbor to do something, or at least the soldiers, our neighbor's brother came and entered the house, that was when we heard some soldier yelling, and then we saw him coming out.. They were long 15 minutes, then we stared seeing the soldiers in our neighbor's garden. There were many of them.. The wall between our house and our neighbor's is low, we can see everything in their garden if we tried enough. A soldier was standing behind the wall just staring miserably at us (This was the most time I could put on a soldier's shoe, it was small enough for me.. He was a young boy, in a country he doesn't know, with no one who loves him, he wanted to go home A LOT, but he somehow couldn't.. I felt as if he wanted to trade places with me) our neighbor and her brother were talking to the soldiers and the translator was translating. In few minutes, the soldiers ran out of the house to their strykers and left.

Our neighbor and her brother disappeared in the house, mom and my neighbor went there on foot, I, HNK and our other neighbor walked there too.. As we got there, our neighbor was crying, I only heard her saying that "the soldiers are coming back on Wednesday to get him, it's his fault, he has a good heart and therefore gets in such troubles", I didn't get it and didn't feel it was appropriate to ask at that time.. We came home after calming her down, she didn't calm down but her mom came to stay with her.. Mom told us about the story at home.

The soldiers came and searched the house, they told her that they found weapons in her husband's warehouse, but he's left the warehouse for about a month, he couldn't pay the rent and so he left it. They came to arrest him, but since he's in Baghdad, they couldn't. They told her that they'll come back and take him on Wednesday, at 2AM.. He hasn't given her a phone number to call, and she had no idea when he'll be back.
Of course, we were so worried for her, sad as well, she has 3 children, the oldest is 6 years old. On Thursday, he called her and she told him that he should come. On Wednesday, he came to Mosul.

He came by taxi, and brought a friend who had good English with him. As soon as he arrived in Mosul, he went to the airport and surrendered to the soldiers with his friend, they told him that they didn't have his name anywhere in their lists and had no idea who came to arrest him. He insisted that they investigate more about it, they did and eventually gave him a card to show to the soldiers if they came to arrest him again. A woman who was at the reception gave him a phone number to give to the soldiers if they arrested him.

At about 5PM, I was studying upstairs in my room when I heard mom talking outside (from behind the wall) to our neighor, I knew something happened so I rushed downstairs to hear the news.. HNK told me that the Americans released our neighbor. Dad and other neighbors welcomed him at the door, the women started to do their famous thing (I have no idea what you call it. The women do it when there's a celebration usually, a wedding or something like this. It sounds like what the Indian Americans shout in their celebrations-- Kul-l-l-l-l-l-ish).. My heart started beating (As usual :)) and we all felt so happy for them. Nevertheless, we all expected the soldiers to come at night to take him, but they DIDN'T. He said they treated him very well at the airport :)
They came to his shop today, and sat quietly near him to ask some questions.. And then left.

We woke up in the morning to find out that my brother-in-law who started his journey to Baghdad at 1PM yesterday has not arrived yet to Baghdad.. We got worried again, and started thinking of what might happen. I went to school to tell my friend about my neighbor's news and my brother-in-law's news. Then proceeded to study, we had a math exam..We first had a Biology test, in which our loving teacher decided to make us a quiz (To raise our grades, she said), she did the opposite. I had all those thoughts and fear for my brother-in-law, and 5 minutes only to answer the really hard questions. I didn't do well, I did very bad in fact, but I didn't really care. Then we got the news that our math teacher decided to cancel the test (That was actually better, I wouldn't have done well without concentrating).. At the break, I sent mom an SMS to ask her about my brother-in-law and to tell her that we're still alive (There was a loud explosion), few moments after that, I got an SMS from her telling me that my brother-in-law (There really should be a shorter word for this) arrived at the hospital in Baghdad (He works and sleeps in the hospital, so he wasn't injured or something). He had to spend the night at Balad (80 km from Baghdad) since the car he took to Baghdad broke near Balad.

I came home at 1:15, hoping for no more HOT news.. Let me be bored. No more excitement please.

On Thursday as usual, I get stuck infront of the TV, as if I've never watched it before.. On Friday, I study a little then get stuck in front of the TV again.. On Saturday, mom will wake me up to study, I start studying and never finish before the family decides to go on a visit before the curfew starts. This happens every week, I get yelled at for my laziness every week. I'll try to finish my homework tomorrow! And try to read some extra Chemistry too..

You know about my attempt to speed-up (I keep discovering more words for this) and skip the 6th grade.. Well, my hopes have been shattering away lately. Our new Arabic teacher seems much worse than the one before, too young, with so many mistakes, and very limited knowledge. And my first mark in Arabic (The very first one, 86) made it impossible to get an average more than 95.. Nevertheless, I talked to uncle about it (Since I still have the opportunity to take a final exam which will be counted by itself and cancel the others) and decided to pray and ask God for guidance. I prayed the prayer I was supposed to pray, I asked God to make me do whatever is better for me. I didn't have any dreams that guided me to what I was supposed to do, not even a strong feeling (I'm supposed to keep trying till I get something.. I'll try to do it again today). But today, I was searching for signs. I think the way I did in Biology was a good sign from God (Do you want to take it easy and cancel the speeding-up? Or do you still want to speed-up and worry for every single mistake you're going to make from now till next year?), guess what I think I'll choose? I hate hesitation. I'll be giving up in PUBLIC.

"Real chance is the chance you take, not the one you merely imagine possible." Here's a quote for you. Who said it? I'll write a post about him next time Inshallah.

We made a family blog for the whole family so that mom can blog with us.. She says we don't give her enough time to write, I think she's too afraid of the reactions.. I shall warn you not to write harsh comments, I don't think anyone will like it, especially mom. I invited her to Gmail and she has her own e-mail account now.

All the family will be blogging in the new one, temporarily until mom gets used to blogging, and maybe then, she and dad will be blogging there.. I'm a little bit afraid of the comments' section there, it's on. It'll be a trial for me to know what will happen if I put it back here..

I also am talking my oldest cousin in Mosul into starting his own blog.. He seems to like the idea, I think he'll start one as soon as he can. You won't get bored of seeing more of my family blogging, because each one has his own perspective of what's going on.

Okay, enough staring at the monitor, I can't think of anything else to write but this little joke that only Iraqis will understand.. It actually is an SMS I received from my aunt, I liked it ALOT.

When you are alone, when you feel cold, when you are in darkness.. I will come on a white horse, under your window and say: "Kaaaaaz... kaaaaaaz...".

Little notes for non-Iraqis: Kaz is what you call kerosene, and those who sell it shout at the top of their voices while passing through the streets, on a horse dragging a cart: Kaaaaaas.

I'm getting used to it.. A mistake, the soldiers are very well trained and they can't possibly shoot randomly. Well, maybe it's not random!

"Freed hostage Giuliana Sgrena is back in Italy, hours after US troops in Iraq fired on the car she was in wounding her and killing an Italian intelligence officer."

This happens (believe it or not) almost everyday.. My brother-in-law's father, my classmate's aunt, my classmate's uncle, my classmate's brother, my teacher's son-in-law and many many others.. Surely can't be all counted. But, according to the US, it was just a mistake, and we're sorry. The family of those who are killed will never forget who killed their relative, they'll never understand why, and they'll suffer to get the death's certificate. The soldier who shot will have nightmares, but he was well-trained, and that's what matters!

I hope this time, someone will be punished, not that I accuse him of doing it deliberately, but unless someone is punished, all the others will think it's Okay. Just like .. I'll never understand why the US is allowed to have WMD and the others aren't. Well, this might be because no one tells the others what they're allowed to do and what they're not allowed to do but the democratic US..

It is interesting how she wasn't treated badly by her terrorist kidnappers but was shot, nevertheless, by the irresponsible soldiers!

Yes, this SHOULD be useful.. I think it'll be a great idea if I made a list of my relatives' post of each week and some thoughts on them. I'll post this on Iraq Blog Count too..

HNK, posted today. She talked about her latest exams, her friends, and her GREAT, PERFECT and GENIUS sister :) It's LUCK sis, two of the few things I'm really good at are teasing you, and torturing my little niece!

Dad posted twice this week, both are e-mails he's received from those Yahoo! Groups he's joined.. You'll get lost in his e-mail inbox, it's full of those stuff!

Hassan posted twice this week, I get happy whenever I see a new post, he's the only one of my cousins who really blogged, and not just posted once or twice! CAN YOU HEAR ME QAIS? Where's your serious blogging?
On Hassan's first post this week, 22 DOWN, he talked about those terror groups being caught in Mosul. We see a bunch of them everyday on TV, they make me disgusted. The someone who's interviewing them constantly ask them why they call this Jihad. They mostly get to the state in which they answer, when asked what they are, "I'm scum sir", "We're doing this to terror".. I think dad is preparing a post about those too.. In his second post, he explains what I think is the reason behind Raghda's absence from posting!

And, my favorite blogger, Najma, has posted two times this week two, one is this, and the other is mostly whining.

That's all this week, I hope I'll be able to continue doing this..
Najma

I finally bought a new mobile, not NEW but newer than the previous one. My financial status doesn't allow me to buy a new one, because I'm saving for a laptop, so I bought one that has everything I need, but used... Fortunately, its former user has downloaded some really good tones, but he's obviously an empty-minded guy, the collection of photos he has, and the saved messages shows how empty and shallow he was! I had to re-arrange everything the way I wanted, and deleted most of the photos and all the messages. And poof, it became my mobile :)

The school is drying, But some stuff are stuck on the ground! I don't even want to think what they might be.. Some students even drew comics on paper and hanged them on the wall, they were really nice and representative.. One was comparing us with the Titanic, it was really funny.

Today is the 1st of March, the day of the teacher, in this day, we celebrate the teacher.. We went to the other school on foot, they made us stand on the second floor while the younger grades (1st, 2nd and 3rd) stood in the first floor (it's their school after all), at first, a girl read some verses of the Qura'an, then some girls said poetry.. Then, the mistress starting congratulating and giving gifts to the girls who had good marks in last year's final exams and this year's mid-year exams. Unlucky me, I was very close to the third girl on the 5th grade! I wasn't congratulated.. My friend was the first on the 5th grade, she was so happy about it and didn't expect it at all. Anyway, that wasn't a problem for me, I didn't expect to get anywhere any way, my dear Arabic teacher has made my average of marks much lower than it had to be! What made me sad was the teachers, every one who saw me asked me WHY I wasn't one of the first 3, what were they expecting me to say? I just said "What can I do?".. Going back to my school, I had to be the last one to leave the school because my shoes had some problem, so the English and Chemistry teacher walked me and my friend to school.. The Chemistry teacher has really big hopes on me, although I always make mistakes in her exams! She was telling me that I shouldn't be sad, and that I should concentrate a little bit because I always make dumb mistakes.. The English teacher (For my surprise) immediately agreed with her, she said "She's so great in English, but she makes some silly mistakes, although not very frequently", the last part relieved me, I've only made 2 mistakes in English exams this year.. One was in spelling, and the other was so.. I still can't figure out why it was wrong!!

Anyway, the gift our mistress gave to the students appeared to be some biscuits, this was a shock!

Coming home, I started to remember how UNLUCKY I have become recently.. I was knows as the luckiest in my family, I'm daddy's spoiled girl and I started getting my first official government salary so young.. But, as soon as I received my first salary, the war started and the salary disappeared! In the 3rd grade, I was the 3rd on the school in the final exams, but the war started and I wasn't even mentioned (Although this was good too, most people think that I was the 1st somehow!.. The others think that I was the 2nd because my friend had something wrong in her marks and fixed it late :) ) But, the year was an exception, and they didn't honor us for our good grades :(

My mathematics' teacher has been away from school for a week, her son-in-law was shot in a conflict, and was killed. Apparently, her daughter (A mother of a 7-months-old baby) has told him that she's pregnant, so he hurried home and was shot in his way, widowing his wife and orphaning his two kids! She came back to school on Saturday (I think) and she looked so sad.. We're not used to seeing her like this. She's always angry , shouting and cursing! She looked so sad and tears filled her eyes all the time. Even those who hated her (I didn't) admitted that they almost cried for her.. She repeated 3 times in our first lesson "Life circle really goes on, none of us is going to last", she admitted for the first time that her brain was not with her and that we can correct her if she made a mistake.. I sympathized with her.

It can be surprising how a couple of e-mails gets someone to be depressed for few days.. I've used to ignoring things I don't like, but I can't completely ignore them, I still think of them all the time. It's like when I get a bad grade, I don't tell mom, I don't cry, I don't do any reaction, I just get depressed, and this depression gets to high limits some times. Today, I had a very high limit of depression that my friend was so sure that I'll cry, HNK's friends were talking with me and asking WHY I am not one of the first on our class, and my tears became so close to getting out! Well, they didn't, my nose became so red, but that was all.. The same thing goes with e-mails, I don't like hate e-mails like everyone else, and I'd appreciate it if you stop sending them. I got too angry few days ago that I started marking them as spam. Don't expect a reply, because you won't get any.. A bad start will make me dump the whole letter. Sorry for having to do this, but, my mood affects my writing here and my performance at school.