A Star from Mosul

I'm in Syria now.. Do not worry if I do not reply or moderate your comments..
I'll be in Iraq Saturday.

Good bye,
Najma

Note: This post was written on Wednesday, but I only had time to post it today.

Ever since my aunt came to Mosul, barely anything is going right, and nothing is going as scheduled.

I've already told you about the 2-day curfew that we only knew about at the morning of the first day, and only knew it would last for two days at the last minute.

Yesterday, I went with dad and my older sister to the hospital. Dad had to work in the hospital, my sister was going to get her salary from a near-by hospital and I needed to go under a medical examination before I could apply for the university.

The plan was for my sister to walk me to the hospital where she'd get her salary after visiting the medical university (Just for fun) and then going to the health center passing by some shops in our way and then back to dad's hospital and then home.

We sat in dad's room in the hospital for a while, waiting for the right time to hit the road.. I sat a bit on the internet, and then found my friend's mother and talked to her for a while. Then I and my sister hit the road.

The road was long, but it was better than spending so much money on gasoline (The prices have gone a bit lower by the way, 1$/liter), and I enjoyed my sister's company a lot. My sister gave me a little tour in the medical university, where she met few of her friends, she bought me a falafel sandwich (A very delitious one) and a can of Pepsi, both of which I enjoyed a lot. A big explosion happened in the meanwhile, we called dad many times but he was out of coverage.

We walked to the health center and shopped a lot in the way.. At the health center, things didn't go too well. We arrived after 12 o'clock following dad's advice and we were welcomed with a very angry man shouting at us for coming after 12, "We have a meeting now, and you will never be examined today, go back tomorrow morning", we however decided to check a bit further. Another man upstaris told us to wait for a few minutes and the meeting will be over, we were shouted at again in the meanwhile, by the same angry man, but we were not ready to go back home while we had a chance to get the work done today..

Dad called, he was calling us since the explosion but he didn't succeed. We told him about the mad man and about the meeting, he sent a friend to help.
Few minuted later, the meeting was over, the men went out of the alleged meeting wiping their mouths and finishing their Pepsi, they were only eating inside. We could've went up and had the examination then but we had to wait for dad's friend.. About 15 minutes later, dad's friend arrived and everything went smoothly since he is friend with everyone at the center.

We went back to the hospital, sat a bit to rest, and then left home.
All the roads to the house were closed, it seems that the explosion was so big, and closer to the house than the hospital, people heard it everywhere in Mosul.

We went to a little restaurant, I was unexpectedly full and couldn't eat anything. Dad ordered half a chicken and he and my sister ate.

All the way I was laughing, I had so much fun yesterday! Whenever we pass by a closed road I'd laugh.. We were going up and down the ruined roads of Mosul. The reason I was so happy (I think) is that for 11 hours, I always had something to do, I had not one minute to spare, unlike how I am now: A lot of time to spare, so much to be done, yet I'm so numb to do anything.

We then went to my uncle's house nearby where we prayed and talked for about two hours. We then went to the clinic, that was about 4 o'clock.

My sister had her teeth checked at the dentist next door to dad's, and had her tooth extracted too.. I called my friend and my grandma from the clinic because our phone has been out of work since 2005.

When my sister had her tooth extracted, our bad luck came to an end I think, we went to some shops and shopped a bit more. At 7 o'clock, we went back home.

Dad went to the hospital today, the bridges were blocked soon afterwards and he was stuck.. He and some of his friends walked to the bridge and crossed it walking. And then a friend drove him home.

I am supposed to be going to look for a new mobile tomorrow, but God only knows if I will go, or return, for nothing is for sure anywhere and especially in Iraq.

PS: I did buy the new mobile, a Nokia N72, just great!

Due to my enormous ability to waste time in the break, and in order to get more things done, I decided to watch only 5 hours of TV every week.. it is working so far.
I am working on my laptop in the living room right now, I have put the headphones in order not to hear the TV which the whole family is watching. So far so good.

I am depressed these days, seeing how Iraqi bloggers are having fun and meeting in Jordan, feeling sorry for the good Iraqis left in Iraq. I am feeling jealous of every person in the world having fun..

The price of gazoline has arisen to 1.5$/liter which is 40 times the price before the war. Dad is spending his whole salary on gasoline. The neighborhood generator's keepers are barely turning them on at all.

I am reading The Fellowship of The Ring, I have stopped for about 2 weeks but returned to it few days ago. I read the Hobbit without looking into the dictionary at all, although there were MANY words that I didn't know. I decided to use a dictionary with the FOTR and it took me a long time.. Now I take my laptop upstairs and use it to look up for words, and it's saving me lots of time. With time, I start to memorize frequently used words.

I am certain that the quality of my writing for the blog is getting lower by time.. Let's hope that watching less TV and reading more gives me some new ideas. Although I am sure being stuck in the house most of the time, and not watching news is one of reasons behind my lack of ideas of the blog.

I get some questions through the comments but I barely have time to answer any.. So I dedicated this post to answering some questions that I remember. And for a follow-up on some of the events.

The curfew ended yesterday, it lasted for 48 hours. My brother-in-law's family came to visit the same day..

Aya had a huge fight with her cousin, she's not a good host, her cousin is not a good visitor either.

Aya's jealousy from Ayman has no justification.. She is still the most beloved person in the family, we're all afraid to pay too much attention to Ayman unless she's asleep so she wouldn't be jealous. And when she beats him or something, we deal with it rationally so she'd understand that we love her, and that she did something bad.

About the university.. I'm still undecided. I noticed some of you didn't know what is Computer engineering; it deals with the making of a computer and such stuff, they study the following subjects:

FIRST YEAR

·Mathematics

·Electric Networks

·Physical Electronics

·Fundamentals of Digital Design

·Computer Programming

·Computer Science

·Engineering Drawing

·Laboratory

·National Education

SECOND YEAR

·Engineering Analysis

·Signals and Systems

·Microprocessor Systems

·Data Structure and Algorithms

·Digital Systems Design

·Communication Principles

·Electronic Circuits

·Laboratory

THIRD YEAR

·Computer Architecture

·Microprocessors and Microcomputer

·Operating Systems

·Digital Image Processing

·Data Communications

·Digital Integrated Circuits

·Internet Programming

FORTH YEAR

·Advanced Computer Architecture

·Artificial Intelligence

·Computer Networks

·Real Time System

·Software Engineering

·Information System

·Project

About the book project, we have received two books through mail (Sent from the readers of the blog), both really good, and are being borrowed and benefited from. There's one book that hasn't arrived however, I don't know why.

I have been getting packages by mail for a long time now, nothing had been lost but this one book so I'm guessing it just got lost in the way or something.

I am not sure when to start buying the books and how. Maybe when I start going to university myself.

It's a little bit messy in Mosul these two days, dangerous in some parts as well.

We've been in a curfew for more than 24 hours now, we're not sure why..

Some people didn't know about the curfew till after they were far from their homes. My brother-in-law's family for example (His mom, brother's family, sister's family and uncle) went for breakfast in a casino early in the morning yesterday.

As soon as she knew about the curfew, my sister called and told them about it, it was supposed to end at 1PM yesterday, then at 4PM yesterday, then at 1PM today (When they heard the last timing, they rented an appartment to sleep in).. Now they say that the curfew will only end in the eastern part of Mosul only, it'll stay in the western (Our part) till an unplanned time.. THEY'RE STUCK.

I'm guessing the best thing they can do is to walk home, a LOOOOONG way. They have 3 babies with them.. This is going to be hard.

Many other people are stuck, some have come from outside Mosul and are stuck at the borders.

We had invited my brother-in-law's family to our house for today since long ago.. I guess that won't happen.

It's impossible to plan anything right in Iraq.. A picnic, a wedding, a visit, anything. It might be a curfew, death, kidnapping, an explosion, electricity, just anything that will prevent you from making your plans.

My aunt's family came to Mosul because they couldnn't stand life in Baghdad anymore.

My aunt, her 10-year-old daughter and her 14-year-old son are staying at our house, while her husband and her older son are sleeping at my uncle's sister's house, until either things get better in Baghdad, or they find a place to live in in Mosul.

I bought a new laptop few days ago. It is ASUS too (I named it Azizi after Azizi Azuz from the old Alif Ba'a Iraqi magazine), it seems really good so far, the best in Mosul as the shop keeper claims. Next step would be a new mobile, hopefully sometime soon.

I think I am settling on Computer engineering. I talked to too many people. It seems that the computer engineering depatment in the 1st university of Mosul is the best, it has the best students and the best teachers (Not the best building though). I can always take my higher degree in communication.

Aya is growing, she can now speak long understandable sentences. She's growing more jealous of Ayman by time, inspite of out trials to prevent this. She even bit him the other day.

Iraq Blog Count has been hacked somehow yesterday. We'll try to get it back soon.