Wednesday, May 24, 2006

A Rant, a Rebirth, and a Goodbye.

My favorite song back when I was 13.
Until mom stole the CD and hid it. Little
did she know that the worst was to come ;)

~*~ First of all, Halleluiah!

Of course, like everything else in our esteemed kingdom, just because it's a law doesn't mean anyone gives a rat's ass (take traffic lights for example... purely aesthetic).
All I want is a day when I am no longer harassed for absolutely no reason than that I am a woman. I actually do cover my hair (you face-veilers are rolling your eyes at me now aren't you?) and it's my own personal choice.

For the longest time Hay'a was nothing to me but a nuisance, given it is a heart-dropping, pride-scratching nuisance.. but it was like a squeaky door, you got used to it. Until last summer that is, when a close relative of mine, a fully grown woman, went into starbucks to meet a fellow female colleague for a cup of coffee before work. A couple of those midgets followed her in and dragged her to an unmarked van. She didn't even know whether it really was the commission or her worst nightmare. They wouldn't let her call home, and locked her at the station until 2am. We stayed up that night with her kids not knowing where she was.

Just remembering it pisses the shit out of me. If I go to hell because my face is uncovered, You'll be right there next to me, rotting for being a soulless, mercenary, savage.


~*~ Well now that I got That off my chest..

I was watching Jay Leno.. what a hilarious man.
The president of Mexico came to the U.S for a visit. Leno exclaims "Alright, they're all here now.. turn the damn lights off, close the door.."

They passed a Law declaring English to be the official language of the U.S.
"I tell ya I'd like to see English become the official language of 7-eleven.. that'd be a feat!"-- Leno.
"Well that's the goodest thing to ever happen to this here country folks."--Leno on Bush.


Gabriel (Eva Languria on Desperate Housewives) wants to find out if her maid is still a virgin (long story..), she sneaks over to the doctor before he goes in to do a check up on the maid, "Hey doc, while you're in there can you tell me if she's still a virgin... oh don't looks so horrified, just give me a thumbs-up if you see hymen".
-- Doesn't that sound like something you'd hear in good ol' arabia?


~*~ Took this the other night with my phone, the blur's because I was running heh. I love the city at night...

~*~ It's the Rebirth. "Leeno" has gotten to be annoying, and it never suited me anyway.
Enter Trevelyana.

Trevelyan was a traveler back in Victorian England. He was robbed of his dukedom by the dowager duchess (confused?) who gave it to her younger son. Trevelyan ended up traveling the world (at the time, india) penniless-- A wonderful witty, arrogant, all-knowing man with the kindest heart.


~*~ aaaand I'm out in a couple of days! Please refer to my initial dramatic (albeit failed) exit.

I could blog about my experiences in the beloved kingdom after a couple of weeks, if you guys wanna hear my take on it.. otherwise, I'll enjoy some real food, great company, and tagging around behind my lovely mother for the next months.

I can't believe how long it's been.

| 17 CoMmEnTs| -- Posted by [[ On My Own ]]--|Permanent Link|

Sunday, May 21, 2006

They say that..

.. If you stand in Times Square for long enough, you'd have met someone from every country in the world.

Went to New York.

In little India. "Taj Mahal" which advertises as a place for electronics and Jewelry.
Oh and it's both wholesale and retail. Indians will be indians ay?

A synagogue that turned into a buddhist temple with a new wave of
immigration, and finally with another wave it turned into a ... club.

Take a look at the man in black. Like the style?



I had a great time, giggling, pointing, and hop-dodging the crowds as I explored the winding streets and pondered endless maps.

Child-like excitement and anticipation-- nothing quite like it. Or maybe it's just italian wine... whatever, it's a close enough second.

| 10 CoMmEnTs| -- Posted by [[ On My Own ]]--|Permanent Link|





I avoid..

.. mirrors.


I hate looking at a mirror and seeing that I look tired and messy following a long and tedious year.

After having to postpone my return, I had some time. To relax. God, you wouldn't believe how hard it is to just fucking relax.

A friend and I decide to go see Mission Impossible III. Just when Ethan got captured by his agency, I decided I'd visit the ladies room to freshen up.

So there I was at this deserted, borderline garishly lit restroom with perhaps no less than 14 mirrors-- quite ridiculous. I adjusted my belt and on an impulse took a closer look.

How scary, I thought.

I look old.

Not bad old. But not teenager young.

Features were subtly different. How unfamiliar.. I thought.

What an odd place to find out... I smiled and thought of how peculiar it is to have grown old away from one's self.

.. and to have all my momentous epiphanies materialize in restrooms.

| 4 CoMmEnTs| -- Posted by [[ On My Own ]]--|Permanent Link|

Saturday, May 13, 2006

About me..

My flight had to be delayed.

So much for my dramatic exit below ay?




My medical school committee interview is in a few days. One of the requirements is to write a personal essay about your motivation for medicine. I, of course, was at a loss. It was due and finally I typed up something a few hours before (thanks to meesh for the final paragraph). Nothing fancy.. simply a chronicle of how I ended up here trying my hand at cutting people up.

A few days ago a savvy young feller added me on messenger. He complimented my little blog and asked why I never write about saudi culture and issues. It got me to thinking.

I'm going through this phase where I'm almost unconsciously rejecting the saudi part of me. It started when I was writing that essay and recounted being discriminated against as I was applying to university. Mind you, as you've heard, KSU is no gem. But it's the concept.
My father is a foreigner, something I'm completely at ease with (though I refrain from detailing anything too personal in this blog for privacy purposes) however the fact that I spent all of my childhood with my mom in Riyadh has gotten me in quite the.. pickle.. years later. I have very little belonging to my father's side, and with Saudi being a less than diversity-embracing society I find myself in an odd middle zone. Limbo.

Anyhow, for those of you clueless about this little factoid, having a Saudi mother allows you citizenship if you're a male. If you're a female, however, .. well there's no outright law that says you don't.. but you simply don't. Without citizenship you're denied certain majors in college (Medicine, dentistry..etc) as well as equal treatment in the job market.
Citizenship amounts to little else besides that for me. Perhaps to some it is a matter of identity, I don't see mine being validated by their little green booklet and with or without it you wont find me claiming "saudiness".
Then of course there's the "why'd your mother marry a foreigner in the first place?" to which I am forced to roll my eyes .. validating that blatant intrusion on people's lives, and a biased one at that, with a reply is something I'm adamently against. I believe the ignorant should be left to speak to the walls and the likes of them. Let them fester and grow moldy within one another.

Point is.. as I was writing that essay I realized that I no longer have a home in Saudi. Not back when I wanted to attend school there to stay close to my mother, and not years later if I ever consider working there to be with her in old age. As I'm travelling "home" every year lugging my crap back and forth, I wonder, where is "Lamm il Shaml" when it comes to simple matters like this? .. oh the hypocrisy of it all.
It's odd, I thought.. these upcoming years I need to find myself a new home. How insane.

.. So that, Mr.Savvy Feller, is the reason I don't bother to write about Saudi issues or culture. It doesn't pertain to me, its petty issues (think along the lines of "whyyy must we cover, whyyy are we locked up, and whyyy can't we watch movies in theatres" ... etc) bore me when the most basic issues are left dangling and disregarded. But perhaps most of all, it's because of the blatant disregard to basic humanity and rights. I see no compassion... and as far as outright cruelty when most refer to a minority, even on a small scale here in blog-land, and it makes my skin crawl.

| 16 CoMmEnTs| -- Posted by [[ On My Own ]]--|Permanent Link|

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Unrelated. But I saw them in concert and loved it.

My bags are packed and destined for home...
My meticulously plastered boxes will gather dust at my new apartment throughout the summer. But there they shall remain.. my treasured placeholders.

By god.. It's a new era!

You can't come along dear blog, perhaps I'll be back in a couple of months. Thank you for keeping me sane and introducing me to some wonderful people.



.. and a Happy lonesome Birthday to me-- A whole two-tenths of a century old at the stroke of midnight .."oh how positively chaarming". This year I'll learn to be young.

10...9... 8... 7... 6...

Adios ya'll.

| 0 CoMmEnTs| -- Posted by [[ On My Own ]]--|Permanent Link|

Monday, May 01, 2006

This is one of the most amazing videos I've ever seen.


Update: For those of you who had trouble with the link ( I can't imagine why):

| 12 CoMmEnTs| -- Posted by [[ On My Own ]]--|Permanent Link|