Eid Mubarak

Saturday, December 30, 2006
At about 6 AM, I got an SMS from the US telling me that "Saddam has just been executed", I was very sleepy, could barely think, read it once, then twice, then WHAT!!?
Why now? Why first day of Eid? Why so early? Why no notice?



I rushed downstaris, mom was praying the Morning prayer, the electricity was off, there was no way to confirm the news (except the radio, but no one thought of that)..
We were so angry, not for the fact that he was executed, but for how and when he was executed.

I managed to sleep for few hours before waking up again for breakfast, I logged online to the BBC and AlJazeera and knew the details.. You see when asked why the execution was done on the first day of Eid, a member of the court said that Eid starts on Sunday in Iraq as I read on Al-Jazeera.
This made me even angrier.. Thanks to the new freedom, Eid starts on Saturday for Sunnis, and on Sunday for some of the Shiites, Monday for the others. Sunnis are Iraqis, and Eid DOES start on Saturday in Iraq..

Anyway, at about 12 o'clock, about 100 persons were in out house, all to congratulate us on Eid. Much more than every year since grandpa (The eldest in our family) is in Mosul and is living in our house with grandma. I and HNK were very busy making coffee and serving, the youth went outside, and the others split into two rooms, barely fitting.
Some of the visitors didn't even know about the execution, and were shocked. You see, not everyone had electricity. It makes me laugh when I write about our situation.. Gosh, couldn't they respect us more?? *Sigh*

Saddam's death won't lead to anything good, as did his arrest, and trial.. As I've said before, he was a dectator, but now, to me, he was not but a leader who made things work!

Never have we had better times after the war than the worst before.. truly.

Anyway, I just wanted to blow off some steam.. Eid Mubarak to all the Muslims.
 
posted by Najma at 2:48 PM, | 32 comments

At the University III

Monday, December 25, 2006
Everyweek passes faster than the one before, but still my main thought on Thursday is: when the hell will the weekend end!! Scary, isn't it?

I spend the weekends reading books instead of the lectures the lecturers give us which I read the rest of the week. It takes so much time trying to read everything we've taken for the whole week in books, but it saves time for later.



I never liked spending the weekend studying when I was at school (God, how happy am I that I finished school), but I have a hard time leaving whatever book I'm reading now, since I like what I read.

We had an introduction party the other day at college, but it wasn't fun at all.. The boys who were in charge of organizing it, did little of what they were supposed to do.

I haven't had a zero yet, I did have 1/10 in Mechanics once :D But we all did badly and so the lecturer decided to cancel it.

The lecturers are all good. The Mechanics' and the Mathematics' lectureres are the exact opposites of each other, the first is a woman, the latter a man. The first so naive, the latter so haughty. The first gives us so much in little time, the latter gives us so little in so much time.. I like them both but I just wish they can learn from each other. Not everyone can comprehend all the Mathematics' lecturer is giving us, and not everyone needs this much time to understand such easy subjects. We're going to be engineers, we need to learn well and fast.

The ice wall between the male and female students is melting, slowly. We're going to reelect a representative for our class since we now know who can do it more than we did three weeks later. We might elect two, a male to represent the boys, and a female to represnt the girls.

The students agreed on gathering each Thursday after classes and discussing whatever we failed to understand during the lectures, which is a very good idea.

Everyone says that students of the Communication dept. are the best in our college this year, competitive, ask questions and really want to understand. I'm glad I'm part of the gorup.

One big problem is that all the students want to stop going to college to prepare for Eid, starting tomorrow! Eid is supposed to be on Saturday, and I really hate doing this against the orders of the dean and lecturers. I know I do not have to, but the students kept pressuring me and my friend that I almost felt like their next move is a threat.

Well, I'm not that easy of a student, I know most of the students hate me sometimes, but I try to be as nice as possible at other times. I just do not like skipping lectures or a day at college, which they love to do.. *sigh*
 
posted by Najma at 8:34 PM, | 14 comments

At the University II

Thursday, December 07, 2006
Hey.. Not sure how to start this. It's been long since I last wrote that I almost feel like a stranger ;)

Universities in Iraq are mixed (girls and boys, unlike secondary schools, and now primary schools) which was a bit hard to get used to. We are walking baby steps towards better communication with each other.
Some boys just want to start a conversation, which is sometimes really annoying, since they just can't say a whole sentence without making fools of themselves, and sometimes offending us. Like that one boy who asked me whether I bought the exam questions (Which happens in Iraq BTW, don't be surprised), now thinking it over, I can't believe I haven't slapped him in the face! Girls can be smarter than them, they will have to see it now.

I go to the students' center and have falafel with my friends every Thursday, and sometimes Tuesdays too, which is lots of fun. I used to get scared and uncomfortable walking and eating among a crowd, feeling like everyone is looking, everyone is waiting and anticipating me to make a mistake, now I'm much more confident and comfortable. My friends are getting used to me, my forgetting names and faces, jokes, habits and sometimes helplessness. We're a group of four girls now, much more than I thought.

Grandma and grandpa left Baghdad and moved to Mosul to live with us. We prepared a room for them and made the house as comfortable as possible. We're getting lots of visitors daily, giving me little time to study and sleep.
They spent about 9 hours on the road, 2 just on the bridge in Mosul because the situation was very tense the day in which they arrived.

I left home late today since the neighborhood was surrounded. We were having breakfast when an explosion happened and broke several windows in the house, including the dining room, but none of us was hurt. A bullet broke one of the windows yesterday too. We'll need new glass for the windows and some new curtains too. You can never anticipate what's going to happen next.

I love college, still, but I am under great pressure to prove myself, and the circumstances aren't always helping me. I want to prove myself real hard that I am losing some of the fun in learning and studying. I guess I just need a real exams and knowing who my opponents are to know where I stand and how much work I need to do.. I just do not feel like losing here.
 
posted by Najma at 6:52 PM, | 25 comments