What happened and is happening?

Friday, March 09, 2007
Remember, remember
The 5th of November
The gunpowder treason and plot..

I know of no reason
why the gunpowder treason
should ever be forgot..

I watched V for Vendetta, a movie my cousin's been encouraging me to watch for weeks now, and only recently gave me the DVD for. There's so much to comprehend, I really need to see it again.

We're being fooled by the government.. We know it, and we do nothing about it.

A young woman is raped, the government does what? Give those who's raped her some medals their feeling might have been hurt because of the accusation you know!
Criminals not only go unpunished, but also praised and honored. Hooray for the government.

I'm fine, and so is college. I'm less motivated to study, but as soon as I start, it's easy to go on. I also feel like there's not enough time to study all I've got to study, especially after our schedule had been changed. I talked to the head of the department about this problem, our schedule is very badly organised, but he said there was nothing he could do about it.

Our class went on a picnic last Thursday, only I and one girl went, and about 23 of the guys! Well, to be honest, three other girls and one boy came, the Christians in our class, but to our surprise, they did not sit with us. This has never happened in front of me before, I can't figure out why they did this.
They only sat with us for about 15 minutes during which some of the boys started to discuss racism and the others trying very hard to change the subject and shut these ones up.

At the beginning, we decided not to go at all, since we were just two who considered the idea of going, and that was a very small number relatively. But on Thursday morning, the boys came to us and almost begged us to come, and so we did.

We walked to a place full of palaces of Saddam and beautiful views, it's very close to our college, while one of the boys took his car and 4 other boys to buy food and drinks and find a good spot to picnic in. It really was a good place that they chose but as always, there SHOULD be a fight on where to picnic, it's a must! We walked and searched for half an hour and almost chose another place (the reason why they picked that one is because there were girls we knew so we wouldn't feel awkward with only boys around) but we went back to the initial place after all to please the i-don't-want-to-sit-in-the-sun party (Such a long adjective!!).

The important thing is that we had fun, boys are so different from girls, they know so much poetry, of so many different kinds. I didn't understand most of the Iraqi kind but I enjoyed how fluently they said it.
I wanted to walk a bit with my friend and leave the boys to enjoy their time as they wish, the boys had put their mobile phones and cameras in our purses because they were moving around and playing football so we decided they'd give us a ring on one of them when lunch is ready. We walked for a bit, I found my cousin, his friend and about 15 girls sitting somewhere!! We're so different, and yet so alike! But they rang us after we've only been walking for about half an hour.
We went back to some more poetry, political jokes, and long long chants for Saddam (said by my favourite classmate, previously mentioned D!) until all the boys came to lunch and eating started. We had Kebab.. it was very nice. As expected however, and since most of the students think of me as different, they asked me if I was vegetarian before they bought the Kebab!

After finishing, we gathered the Pepsi cans and disposable dishes and took them to trash, and the remaining bread to the poor. That's one thing I really liked about those boys, they didn't even complain about doing that.

We took many photos, whether by mobile cameras, digital cameras or photograph cameras.. And every time we find a nice place for a photo, D would run shouting like a 5-year-old and find the best place to stand, while a more responsible classmate searches for the cameraman.

They acted the roles of the some of the lecturers, including our Programming lecturer, who obviously so frequently praises me "Excellent Najma, excellent excellent Najma".. Some of the lecturers have very funny habits I've never noticed and only notice after they talk about it. I concentrate on the lecture so much I rarely find something to laugh at, while the boys can hardly stop themselves from laughing.

Labels: ,

 
posted by Najma at 12:22 PM, |

18 Comments:

  At 3/09/2007 01:26:00 PM Anonymous Anonymous said:
who said boys are mean?
Not me ;)
Great snapshot here of you and your peers. I hope you can find time for more of the same.
Hi najma.

You sound soooooooo much like a university student now. Mixed picnic. Interesting and fun conversations. Protective boys....I like the fact that they didn't want you to feel uncomfortable. Sounds like lots of fun.

I enjoyed this post so I'd like to say:
"Excellent Najma, excellent excellent Najma" :)
  At 3/10/2007 06:15:00 AM Anonymous Anonymous said:
Do you know the phrase "a teacher's pet" ??
  At 3/10/2007 07:49:00 AM Anonymous Anonymous said:
The world famous Massachusettes
Institute of Technology (MIT)
has now posted many complete
courses online for free Download
(Read the terms and conditions first)

you and your friends may find it interesting over the summer
to compare some of your courses
with the ones available.

There is one titled
"Computer Systems Engineering"

Just go to ../mit.edu website
and follow links of Online Education lots of good stuff
available
I am afraid Amazon blew it again.
me=surprised that you guys have vegetarians.
i guess you learn something new every day.
This is a battle of wills between me and Amazon's screwups
  At 3/12/2007 02:25:00 AM Anonymous Through Grace Peace said:
تبرىء الكلمات في القلوب

ثم همس الرب في قلوبنا...
الكلمات تصل حيث لا يقدر السلاح

سألنا حكيم قريتنا، كيف ينزل الدفء
على النفوس والشيطان
قد ألقى بسمومه المفضلة
خوفاً ويأساً وكراهية
على القلوب البريئة
كما الرماد من محرقة السعادة

كيف تنام عيون الايمان
وسرير الأمل
تفترشه ملاءة القنوط الشاحب
وعيون الحنث الفاسدة
تنتهك حرمة الكلمات المقدسة
وتسعد باغتيال هدايا السماء

وسألنا :كيف يبتسم الخير
ويصفع الكره الفضيلة من وجه الخجل
و أتباعه يشوهون ويحرفون فى نفوس ضحاياهم
حتى يصل الاعتقاد
بأن الإثم فضيلة والقتل عدالة والكره هو الحب

تحدث الحكيم
بصوته الخفيض وقال
أن للشيطان أتباع
يغتسلون في أنهار النبيذ في حادي*
وبعشق السخرية الفارغ
يحصدون نفوساً مغشوشة جنيت بمنجل الانتحار

مستحيل أن يكون الطريق إلى الفردوس مرصوفاً
بجثث الأبرياء - عبر نهرٍ من الدم
اعتنقوا مد الحق وجزره الرائع في قلوبكم
تقبّلوا الشك والعار أينما كانوا
لكي تدركوا أن النفس تسعد بالعطف وليس بالانتقام

سطع صوته كالضوء وقال:
ابحثوا بشجاعة في أعماق قلوبكم
بلا نفاق ولا خداع ولا إجحاف
وحين تلمسوا الايمان هناك
ستنزل الكلمات الالهيه دواءً للقلوب
مثل مطر أبدي يجذبه البحر دائماً
حتى يرتفع ليملأ حرم النفوس
بودٍ عميق هادىء ويغدو سلاماً
على شواطىء العزم الالهي.


[أرض الموتى في الأساطير الاغريقية*
هذا المسيحي ما تعب لك والله مطلتنا...
Unbelieveable just what I want to read today. I think this is an excellent reason for people (like you and me) to stop fearing the big stacks... and to stop bullying the small stacks. It was quite useful reading, found some interesting viewpoints in here, - Thanks!
You find my Website Here
I didn't quite follow the separation of the other 15 girls, they left on their own from the beginning? Are they in the same class?

So how did you become a bridge between the boys and the girls? Was it always this way?
How nice! I am glad to hear that you get the chance to have a break from all the tension. College picnics are the best. All of my college photos were before the war. We used to go to Habbaniyah mostly.

Hope all is well.
I am glad you had so much fun Najma! :) However, it is a bit sad to hear that the Christian students didn't feel comfortable enough to sit with the rest of you. May I suggest that you could make an effort to make them more comfortable? Maybe you could talk to your friends about this too? The seeds of peace can be planted by small gestures that individuals make toward one another.

I didn't know that Iraqi boys studied poetry! I think they do this only to inpress the girls. ;) Maybe American boys could learn something from this example!

Congratulations on being so excellent! :D
  At 3/23/2007 01:34:00 PM Anonymous hitechluddite said:
It's been a long time najima! I've been too depressed with the mess we have made of things to keep up with them. My boy is talking all the time and always asking questions, I'm sure Aya is doing the same! Good to hear you are having some fun. Stay safe,
  At 3/31/2007 09:38:00 PM Anonymous Anonymous said:
Read the book if you can find it. It is much better than that ham fisted Wochowski movie.
  At 8/02/2007 02:48:00 PM Anonymous <a href="http://shoponlinemeds.com">drShop</a> said:
WooW =)