At last I could post the photo of Ali Hashim, the classmate I wrote about in the previous post. I posted this photo to remember college days.. I won't post photos of the girls cuz sure they won't like this, but it's ok with Ali :) 

A Classmate

Now you all wonder who is A.H.!

He is a classmate of mine at college, or let us say he "was" as now I am a graduate! I found this photo I made about during our graduation and decided to post it here to remember happy college days. He was surrounded by girls all the time! Although he doesn't seem to be that type of guys that girls stay around all the time... but he was extremely funny and makes jokes all the time... and about everyone in the department and outside the department as well..

I remember after the war, A. and Attawie were stuck to some phrases from that Iraqi CD "3fareet Al Montaj" .. Maybe some Iraqis remeber it by now! They were talking in the same way of that CD all the time.. A. would say " Cha ma takil flafil ?!".. till the end of the converation, and the Attawie would add " Lo 9'ala khea6a a7senli ! "

Well I think now everyone of you is asking what the hell I'm talking about, and what are those weird lines!! Sorry but I won't translate ;)


But why did I make this photo? ... A. liked to tease all the students when it came to taking photos. He would suddenly jump in front of the camera and reuin the photo. He is not a mean person, but he did it for fun.. and no one actually complained of this. Untill one day I got fed up with his jokings, especially about the girls.. and I decided to revenge on him for the girls in the department. And by the way, the girls were many more than the guys in my department.. So you can guess how a cruel revenge would it be!!

And since he liked to tease the other students with his games of jumping in front of the camera, I decided to revenge in the same way. I took some photos for him, some he knew about and others were taken behind his back.. ( what a devil I could be sometimes!! ).. And untill the graduation party I told him that I had a big surprize for him... I told him that with a devilish smile on my face! He doubted that I would d0 something but he dared me that I can't !!!


Girls can do hell !


One morning after the graduation party, I went to college as usual. I took out a big sheet of paper and hanged it on the classroom's door. ( we still have small classrooms in my college!)..
So what was that paper about?.. It contained some photos for A., arranged and edited by Photopshop. I collected some photos for him, the funny ones mainly, and put them together and wrote under it " A.H., Wanted! "

I hanged it on the door so that everyone can see it. A. was late that day.. I said this is better so he would come and sit in his chair which is located directly in front of the door... and he would see his surprize!

We were having a lecture in poetry the moment he came. He sat in his place. He noticed that everyone was looking at him and smiling! But he didn't know why. Then he raised his head and looked ahead... He saw the photo at last.... He looked at it, then turned his face........ then looked again!......... and then again not believeing that this was him in the photo!!
His face turned totally red ! I couldn't help laughing and F. was sitting beside me telling me not to laugh! but we both laughed and looked at him. He knew at that time that it was me who did it !

Till after the lecture.. he was laughing at himself in the photos and kept asking me when and where did I take those photos! I said nothing for him except " this is the revenge of every photo you reuined! " Of course I said it laughing! But he kept remembering it with resentment !! And I also kept reminding him of what I did to him whenever he was trying his games of jumping in front of the cameras or freaking out the girls ! .. He also used to sneak behind anyone and says
" Boooooo" in that person's ear which made all scream.


Now he's engaged to his girlfriend Alaa. They both applied for the M.A. studies at college, but I heard that he quit the plan cuz he didn't have time to prepare for the competative exam, and also cuz he didn't like to continue with the M.A.


Good Old Days!



Note: I am trying to post the photo but there are some errors occuring during the upload procces! I will try Hello or Picasa to upload it.. The photo might be here by midnight.

{Jokes of the day!}

Suddenly all thoughts are out of mind ! So I'm posting jokes of the day!!


+ A tornado hit a farmhouse just before dawn. It lifted the roof off, picked up the beds on which the farmer and his wife slept, and set them down gently in the next county. The wife began to cry. "Don't be scared, Susan," her husbandsaid. "We are not hurt." Susan continued to cry. "I'm not scared," she said between sobs. "I'm happy 'cause this is the first time in 15 years we've been out together.


+ A Sunday school teacher asked the children in her class, "If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the church, would I get into Heaven?" "No!" the children all answered."If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would I get into Heaven?" Again the answer was "No!""Well", she continued, "then how can I get into Heaven?"A five-year-old boy shouted out, "You gotta be dead!"


Dhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

Oh No !!

The countdown for the Fulbright results started today! Now I'm expecting it in any time. But one of my classmates who applied for the Fulbright with me got her result two days ago. She's not approved ! I didn't get my result yet, and so as one of the applicants. WHY?!

Farah (the classmate) called me today to ask if I got the Fulbright email. I said no, but I'm expecting it these days. She told me that she got it two days ago and she's not approved cuz she got less than 600 scores in the ITP test, and it was written in the email that the competition is so hard this year and there are almost 100 applicants, and they chose the ones whose scores are 600 and above!! They demanded only 550 scores for the TOEFL or the ITP at first.
But this is impossible, her scores are more than mine, and her graduation grades are also higher than mine!! Why didn't I get the email yet?

As I started to comapre, I remembered that she had the ITP test, not the Official TOEFL. I had the official one which was highly recommended. And maybe she scrwed up in the interviw! For me, I did pretty well.

I don't know, but I'm just trying to cling to this false hope. Mom said that maybe they sent emails to the disapproved applicants first, and maybe will send the approved ones later. Or maybe they are relooking at some application files before they give the final jugde!

I felt very sorry for her, she sounded very angry on the phone. But I can say that she still have another chance to go on with her M.A. as she's the first student in the department and she will start with her M.A. degree this year. The first student in every department has the right to get his Master degree without a competitive exam. While I'm the sixth in my department.

I hope the best will happen...


Good Night all

Thank You!

Hey all, I'm baaaaaack!! Back to normal ;)

I don't know what to write. But this time is because I'm laughing and feeling happy!

Thanks for those cool comments, friends. They really made me happy! Well, well, well... I think one of the reasons that made me kinda depressed last week waz staying up for long hours late at night. I stay up till 3:30 or 4 P.M. almost every night!!! Nothing to do except for trying to finish the dozens of emails I get from 007_iraq and surfing the net. I was obssesed with searching for mobile themes during the past two weeks!! And I found many! I even found the " Grendizer" theme and sent it to that group. I'm thinking of puting it here as well. I know we are all crazy about that cartoon :)

I think the name "Heeho" is spreading well these days! It's not my real nickname, but I invented it this way to be rhyming with "Micho" . It can't be "Hesho" for sure!!!


The result didn't come out yet. And the dream stopped coming as well ! Hmmm.

Now ANARKI you remined me! I want to count my email accounts :) I think I have 100 accounts.

The first one was haneen841.... I signed up for it in the end of the year 2003. And then I made the same ID on Hotmail in order to use Msn messenger.
Then there was magic_carbet_h in March or April 2004. I got fed out with the spam attack on my first ID and I hated useing the msn. I wrote "carpet" as "carbet" cuz I was too lazy to go check it in the dictionary at that time.
In July 2004, the day before the operation I had. I made mesopotamiah on hotmail. I added the "h" at the end cuz the ID was not available.
Then two months after the operation, I made millehoney. This is the official one for the current time! "mille" means "honey" in French but there is a spelling mistake in it and I just kept it as it is cuz I didn't want to add numbers to the ID as I did with my first one.
Another one, millehoney@gmail. This one is just for fun! There are some other accounts here and there on Iraq.net and Iraq4u.com

How many so far?!

Dear Kid, I bet that everyone is waiting to see your guitar's photos. Yalla, post it soon.

Hey Najma, how is school going? I also check your blog to read your new posts. God I really miss school. Not to study of course, but for fun :)

I really thank you all for leaving comments here. In fact I never expected that anyone would comment !

They say online friends do much :)


I'll go try a way to upload the theme to the blog..

Good Night my friends, God save you all.

Say Hi to My Gang!!

Say Hi to the Cool Guy!



It's been long time! I don't know why but I don't feel like posting anything here these days! I don't even have any good stuff to write about. Everything is making me feel down.. starting from the massive killings and bombings in Iraq, the endless waiting for the Fulbright result.. to everything else! I tried to write this post many times but everytime I publish it I get disconected from the internet ! Even the internet is not normal these days.

The Fulbright result should come out within these days. I don't know how to think about it. It will decide the next two years of my life and the following years as well. I don't know what I should be doing in case I don't get the scholarship. I'm so excited about it and I think that I will feel broken if the result is "NO". I think alot about it and can't stop this! I'm having so many dreams at night that I see myself moving to a new home, or going on a trip to the north of Iraq. My aunt had a dream few days ago; my Mom was preparing for a huge feast in the dream, and she invited a minister to that feast and we were moving to new home, again. The moving to a new home is one of the dreams I have every night! But in every dream I see myself getting into the new home alone, having mixed feelings of happiness and sadness. Happy cuz I'm moving to the new home which is very big and stylish, sad cuz I'm leaving my current home which I love so much. Who knows maybe this means that I'm leaving my family soon!

I'm the worst person when it comes to politics, it makes me angry to talk about all of those horrible things that are happening to us. It's unfair. It's all for no reason. People die for no reason here just because they are poor people who are meant to be in the wrong place and time.

Since I have no good materials to post tonight, I decided to put my toys' pictures here (My Gang). People, please keep coming to my blog. I swear I will write about good things within the coming days. I'm just having a run of bad mood now! That's all :)

This is my GANG, but those are not all of its members.Someare being shy!

And another pic of the Gang's main leaders!

The sweet Chicken

Peace All........

Back to school in mind.. False and true friends

Tomorrow is the first day of school. All of my little cousins are getting ready for this day. I remember that I used to wait for this impatiently. Those days are over four years ago. And so as college days now.

I remember that when I was in High School, there was a chemistry teacher in my school whom I hated alot ! She used to bother me all the time during the class, leaving all the other students and orders me to stop talking even if I wasn't talking! She wasn't an old teacher, probably that was her first or second year in teaching. One day during her class, I was sitting in the first row and the student who used to sit beside me was absent. The teacher, Miss Huda.. that was her name, was writing on the blackboard. Suddenly she said angerly "Haneen, stop talking!" The whole class was silent at that time! I told her that there is no one beside me to talk with! The girls laughed and told her that I wasn't really talking..
Well, I don't know why the hell she used to do this with me! I know that students like to talk and make noise in classes, but I wasn't that type at all. The same thing happened with my sister and Miss Huda, she was taking them in chemistry too and she said that same phrase " Stop talking Marwa!" ... ta da ! Micho was absent that day!!!!

So it's the war !

Another teacher in that same school, the Physics teacher. I guess her name was Istabraq. She was also a young teacher, not that pretty and not even lovely. She was taking the other class and I passed by the door to go somewhere I don't remember. She laughed and told the girls in class and said " Look, she's wearing Neelz's shoes!" It wasn't like Neelz's at all !! high wide heels, the color is offwhite, looks like a traning shoes. Neelz had wooden shoes!!

So it is another war !!

By the way, in case you don't remember Neelz, he's that Cartoon character with the white duck Morton and his little rat Rat. remember him now?!

I changed high schools twice as we had to move to a new home. The first one was called "Al Istiklal" and the second was "Yafa". Then I went back to Al Istiklal in my last year of school. I stayed the first year in Al Istiklal, the second, third, fourth and the first term of the fifth were in Yafa, the second term of fifth and the sixth stages were in Al Istiklal again. Those two teachers were in Yafa. Everything was not nice about that school, I didn't like that much in fact. But it was the only school near my home. We moved to Ur District in Baghdad at that time and Yafa school was the nearest one near home. My sister and I were not used to that crowded region and we refused to go to a far away school. Yafa was in the same street of my house, in fact it was directly in front of it. I could look at the school from the window!

The girls there !! Oh my God, most of them were horrible terrible miserable ! Very jealious from each other! Always making problems. It was hard for me to get real friends when I was there. I knew all of the students in school, I had friends there but they were not faithful to me unfortunately! I was an ordinary students, it wasn't my fault if I had colorful big bags or nice watches! They (my friends) thought that I was showing off by these stuff! They used to tell me that I had a nice bag or watch or whatever, and when I'm away from them they used to say to each other " Look, as if she is the only one who had those things!" I never showed off. I see that to have the things you like is a normal thing, they didn't know this! It was rather a poor neighborhood, their moms were old women who are dressed mostly in black. While my mom had a car of her own and looks young. Some of the girls mistook her to be my elder sister and they were shocked when I said "No, this is Mom" ! My friend almost saw and knew everything about how I live my life, they used to come over to my house after school somtimes. I never went to their houses cuz they were very far away and I wasn't allowed to go somewhere far in that area. According to my friends, I was the spoiled girl who gets everything!

I believed them and took them as my real friends, we were five or six, I don't remember exactly. But they cheated me, talked badly about me! I didn't do them any wrong, I just was different from them.

That area was never meant for me or my family. But we had to move in there cuz we couldn't find another home to buy at that time. It was a temporary condition untill we built the home we are living in now. Then we went back to my old neighborhood near Aadamiya. And I was back to my old school and the old friends, I decided to forget all about those false friends of Yafa.

However, I don't have friends from school days now. Everyone of us went to a different direction. The real friends I have now are the ones I met at college. They worth it to be called REAL FRIENDS. Attawie is one of them. I always mention them in my posts but not with their real names. They are F. or sometimes I call her by her real name Farah. Shabnem, Saegh, N. or sometimes the real name Niam, and Attawie. We are six, and will always stay six forever..

Girls, I really appreciate and adore this friendship of yours. I shall keep it forever in my heart. I love you all.

The don't visit the Blogger but the least thing I can do to them is to mention them here.

Peace all :)

Urgent: My Friend Needs Help!

Can anybody help?! My friend needs help with these lyrics. It's Wishmaster by Nightwish. This is the first time I hear about this singer or band.

It sounds religious, right? Please, any comments about its explanation or background will do. What or who is Shalafi ?

Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster

Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster

Elbereth
Lorien

A dreamy-eyed child staring into night
On a journey to storyteller`s mind
Whispers a wish speaks with the stars the words are silent in Him
Distant sigh from a lonely heart
"I`ll be with you soon, my Shalafi"
Grey Havens my destiny

Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster

Silvara
Starbreeze

Sla-Mori the one known only by Him
To august realms, the sorcery within
If you hear the call of arcane lore,
Your world shall rest on Earth no more
A maiden elf calling with her cunning song
"Meet me at the Inn of Last Home"
Heartborne will find the way!

Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster

Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster

Wishmaster
Crusade for Your will
A child, dreamfinder
The Apprentice becoming...

Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster

Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster

Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster


Thanks!

Beowulf #2

Beowulf Shows Hrothgar Grendel's Arm


I just found other links to the Beowulf text…

http://www.alcyone.com/max/lit/beowulf/
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/AnoBeow.html
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/beowulf.html
http://www.dhpc.adelaide.edu.au/projects/beowulf/beowulf.html
The Old English Version
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/beowulf-oe.html
http://lnstar.com/literature/beowulf/
Resources for the Study of Beowulf

http://www.library.unr.edu/subjects/guides/beowulf.html




Beowulf Gets a Grip on Grendel

Room Sweet Room!

Room Sweet Room!

Today I’m using the new feature of Blogger for Word “Blogger for Word
Now you can use Blogger from within Microsoft Word with our free Blogger for Word add-on.”



I’m back to my roooooom at last!!  I abandoned my room since last May when the weather started to be “boiling” in Baghdad. I continued changing my sleeping places between the living room and the house’s roof! It’s normal in Baghdad that you sleep on the roof during summer when there is no electricity.

But since the weather is changing to fall, it became tolerable to go back to sleep upstairs. So I start cleaning the room after lunch time and finished just short time ago. Amazingly, the electricity was on from ten in the morning until 7 P.M. for the first time in 2005!!!!! I used to miss F.R.I.E.N.D.S. everyday cuz of the stupid electricity schedule. But today I could watch it finally (

I turned the room upside down and cleaned it. I had to wash all of my childhood toys cuz they were dusty after all of those sandstorms that hit Baghdad during summer. I will take a picture of the toys and post it here after they dry. I made a new space for the new books on the books shelf along with the other books I have. I might take a picture for this too.

Shushu is here tonight; she’ll spend the night with Micho and me and go back to her home tomorrow.

Well, don’t know what to write for tonight! I just wanted to try this new feature and see if it’s good or not.


Peace All and Good Night…

Beowulf

This is the surviving manuscript of the first English poem "Beowulf". Written in the time between the seventh and the tenth century of the first mellineum of this era. This manuscript can be found in the British Museum. Beowulf is one of the books that I received from the U.S.A. in that package. I started reading this book directly. It consists of 2180 lines written in the Anglo Saxon English or what is known now as Old English. The auther of this long poem is anonymous... It's about a Scandanavian hero called Beowulf who fights the huge giant Grendal to death, and then faces Grendals mother and kills her.. Then he goes back to his homeland and dies... It is a piece of literature of the Anglo Saxon's reign about the adventures of that time. It's an epic more than a poem.

Now you wonder how can I read a book written in the Old English! Well, the book I have is translated to Modern English, and there is also the original script with it. It's totally vague and so different from the English language we speak nowadays. It's so amazing to see how language changes by time..

I found this E-text for the Beowulf, it's not the same translation I have in my book, but it's similar to it. You can read it if you are interested :) Let me know your opinion...



Good Night

Package received

Yipeeee I received the package of books today! There are exactly 25 awesome books with notes and letteres from the ladies who sent them to me. That's so nice and lovely. I'm feeling so happy today to get them all. I never thought that I would have them, it was almost impossible to me! ( though someone told me one day that there is nothing impossible in this life, you have to expect everything anytime) That person was so right, however, he didn't believe it to himself! We'll talk about this person later.

There is a book from Oprah's Book Club. A bulky novel about slavery.. I didn't memorize all of the titles, I will write them later in tonight's post. Another book was Chicken Soup for Women's Soul, it's about self-improvment. Two novels by John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men, and The Grapes of Wrath.. (SO GREAT) I've already read Of Mice and Men as it was my graduation research. I picked the theme of loneliness in the novel to talk about in that research.
There are few Children Books like A Cat in The Hat and such... Books about the history of the United States and the Civil War ( I demanded that).. The greates book ever which is "Beuwolf" The first English Poem! It was written during the Anglo-Saxons reign sometime before the ninth or the tenth century. I had to look up the exact date and write it down...


I'll keep some for later to talk about !

See ya all....Gotta go start reading one of those books..

An Exam in a Ferrnace!!

Hey all over there..

I hope that there are some people who are still reading my blog without feeling bored ! I just sometimes don't know what to write! I had this compatetive exam for M.A. Course Entrance. It was one of the most disgusting exams ever! I know that I said I don't care about it and I feel almost depressed cuz I know I won't get the M.A. here.. And I still feel indefference about it..

Now let's talk about the circumstances which the exam was held under and what made the exam so YUCKY.. ( how to spell this word anyway!)... Whatever.

I got to college at 8:45 in the morning exactly. I was supposed to be there by 8:15 but Abbas, the driver, was late as usual ! So I headed to the post office directly to check my P.O.Box... And ....... GUESS WHAT.... I received the package of books from New York at laaaaaaaaaaast ! BUT, the package was not in the college post office, there was only a small sheet of paper with my name and the Box number written on. I was told that I should go to Baghdad Post Office and receive my package from there... I'll go tomorrow maybe.

This package is from an American lady from New York whom I met in O. Group, and once I was talking to her about books as I do all the time! And one day she asked me if I can receive a package cuz she want to collect books and send them to me...



Enough for the package, back to the exam...

The exam was supposed to start at 9:30, but the time was elapsing and non of the Higher Studies professors or the Headmaster showed up! We asked the secretary about the place of the exam and she said coldly " I don't know, go ask others!"

We finally decided to have the exam at Al-Idreesy Hall.. It was dark with no windows and no electricity!! Hell of applicants were locked up in this oven!!!
We were told that there would be three questions, two general question about the language and comprehension, and a third question about the main major ( Literature or Linguistics) In my case it's for sure LITERATURE!! But the news came shocking as Pro. Al Jawadi who was in charge of the exam said that plans were changed and the exam is out of 50 instead of 30, and that the questions are so prolonged so that unelligeble students will be excluded easily!! We all screamed at that time!!!

For some moments I thought of backing off and leaving the hall for good ! I asked Farah who was sitting beside me if she wanted to go out! She said " I know this terrible weather inside the room is making you crazy, and I know that you are way desperate, but hey don't lose your mind! We are playing a game here that we are having an exam!" ....... O.K. I just found out that I wasn't the only one who was going insane in that "FERRNACE".

Three hours passed like three years! I kept writing and writing. Most of the quesions were about novels ( GOOOOOOOOD) One of the questions was " Choose one novel that you studied during your undergraduate study and write a short critical essay about it, without forgetting to mention the elements of Plot, Theme and Charecterization" ......

Peace of cake! I picked up my favourite book "Wuthering Heights" which I took in my thrisd stage and talked about it... Well' it's true that the novel professor of the third stage had left a bad impact on us cuz she wasn't good enough to be a novel professor, but this didn't stop my love for this specific novel itself. The pro. didn't explain it well to us, and she even skipped some important scenes sometimes!! What to do, that's the way of education these days! So promising,ha?!

The end of the exam: I finished writing at 12:30. Abbas was waiting since 11:30..I flew out of the room as fast as I could to breathe some fresh air. I saw the other Farah in the corridor with her father, we talked for few minutes and then I went back home.


Hot, filthy, dusty, dark, almost damp examination hall... This description is not even enough for that ferrnace! Wow, what good circumstances for an exam!..... Any volunteers?!

I kept laughing all day long at what I did today. This exerience will make me hate all the exams from now on. I know I won't be accepted cuz the sompetition is strong ( not talking about the was6at ) huh! And with the extra students who came from other universites and cities! It's going to be ironic indeed.



So much for now, I'll go watch Gangs of New York.. I know it's kinda old, but there is nothing else on..

Good Night

Nothing So Far !

It's been more than a week since last time I posted here! I was disconnected from the internet since Last Friday for sattelite updates, but then the main sattelite died! But now everything is back to normal.

Well, don't know what to write today. There is nothing new to write about except for the daily bombings and that terrible bridge disaster, and actually I don't wanna talk about it cuz it will lead to politics and I don't wanna get into that disasterous hateful subject.

My competitive exam for the M.A. application is tomorrow. In fact I'm not really interested about this one! I really feel indeferent. I don't care if I'll do well in it or not cuz all of it is a game! That's what I feel about the study in Iraq nowadays. I didn't prepare well for it, I still have till tomorrow morning to get fully ready for the exam but I don't want to! Don't know why, but this is the first time I don't care about such an important exam! Whatever.

I'm still waiting for the Fulbright result to come out. Maybe at the end of this month. I really need a good luck here, so wish me ;)
The girls were at my home for lunch last Friday. It was my turn for this month to invite them for lunch. Next month is for Saegh, the last Friday of every month. I wished if Attawie was here, we would get a reunion for our lasting-forever group.


That's for now, I should apologize that I'm not posting good stuff these days! I'm watching my traffic increases at last, I have to keep it going this way by writing some interesting things.. All is coming in the way, I promise!

By the way, try this way of sending short emails and messages to your buddies, Leave Your Mark!

I'm back, I'm alive, I'm good !!

I went to the Fulbright interview at last ! It was yesterday.

It was good, they were so friendly. But I had to wait for my turn since 9:30 in the morning till 1 afternoon! We were only fifteen applicants as we were divided into two or three groups. I was in the first group, and it turned out that the Fulbright office had called all of the applicants to make sure that they know about the date and place of the interview. And I thought that I was the only one to get that phone call !!! Usually when we want to apply for anything here in Iraq we get ignored after sometime and we get nothing! We are not used to get phone calls from an embassy to tell us Please come on the exact time!!! HUH!

Everyone was surprised to get that phone call, and no one said anything about it untill the employee mentioned it and then we all laughed. Maybe everyone of the applicants felt that he was treated in a special way thinking that he was the only one to get a call ! Actually I thought that too!

Even that girl with me from college, when I asked her if anybody called her she said no! And then the next day she said yes they called, she was scared to say yes at first !

So here it goes my story with the Fulbright:

I knew about it from an uncle last year after I had my sergury. He gave me the onld website address and said this is a scholarship program website, go check it. I was still at third stage of college at that time, so I only sent them an email asking about the scholarship. And they replied after few days giving me the new address. I stopped at that point.

Then after few months, it was winter as I remember, someone got me the email of the Fulbright office at the U.S. embassy and I emailed them directly asking about full details about the scholarship. I was a senior students by that time and I had few months to graduate. I got an auto reply at the same time saying that the program for 2005 is closed and that I should wait for the 2006 program to come out on March 2005, And they sent me a Word Document with some websites and references for study prgrams. I didn't get any benfit from it anyway.

Again, I didn't stop sending them emails. And I started to get quick replies about every question. Until January 2005 when I sent them to ask about the opening of the competition and where to find the application form. They replied me with full details this time and gave me the dates and places of the TOEFL Test Center. The only office was in Erbil at that time! So what! I went to Erbil and paid the 180$, and then went again on March to have the TOEFL Test. And I got the result after a month. I scored 557. Then I graduated on June with 81,34. I'm one of the first ten students in my department. But it took me a long time to get my certificate to the Fulbright, but I could make it before the deadline and submitted my file beofre the 20th of July. The deadline was on 31st of July.
But they sent me an email before I submit my file. They were rushing me to apply!! And so I did.

Then after that I kept waiting till they informed me if I moved to the next step. And I was chosen for the interview at last. So I went. Everything was like what I expected it to be. Friendly committee. Easy questions.



To be continued...

A Call From The Embassy

At last I got this email from the Fulbright to tell me that I had been chosen for the interview!!! Yaaaa now I'm one step forward, thanks God for this. The interview will take place at the American embassy!! freaky ha?! I might go in and never go out again! There might be some crazy suicide bomber at the Green Zone's gate!!

So this might be my last post !

The interesting thing is that I got the interview notification email three times!! And some called me from the embassy this morning to check if I got their email !!!!!!!!! WHY????

To make sure, I called one of the friends who applied for the scholarship with me to see if she is chosen for the interview or not, and if anybody called her..... She said nobody called!!

Here's what happened:

Ring Ring....Ring Ring..

Me: Hello?
U.S. embassy: Hi, is this Haneen's mobile?
Me: Yes, and I'm Haneen. Who is this?!
U.S. embassy: I'm Nada from the U.S. embassy..
Me: (BANG)!!! ......... OH ! Hi there!
U.S. embassy: Hello Haneen, you didn't check your inbox yesterday, did you?
Me: No, I checked it and I got your email, and I sent you a confirmation to tell you that I received the email, and then I got a reply from you this morning.
U.S. embassy: To whom you sent your confirmation?
Me: I sent to Alan bla bla... and I also sent it to the fulbright address.
U.S.embassy: Then maybe Alan didn't pass the email to me. Good then, we'll be waiting for you... Good bye
Me: Good bye...
!!!!!!!!!! ??????


Why they called??! Why they didn't call the other girl.? Did they call other students as well?!


They once sent me an email rushing me to submit my application file before the deadline! And they didn't send anything to my friend!



Weird, isn't it???? If there is any scholarship competition, usually nobody calls the applicants to ask them when to apply and if they got an email from the scholarship office.. But this is so weird !!!



Tell me what do you think... I'll be waiting.

SALT AND TEQUILA !!

1.There are at least two people in this world that you would die for.

2.At least 15 people in this world love you in some way.

3.The only reason anyone would ever hate you is because they want to be just like YOU.

4.A smile from you can bring happiness to anyone, even if they don't like you.

5.Every night, SOMEONE thinks about you before they go to sleep.

6.You mean the world to someone.

7.You are very special and unique.

8.Someone that you don't even know exists, loves you.

9.When you make the biggest mistake ever, something good comes of it.

10.When you think the world has turned it's back on you, take another look.

11.Think about the compliments you received, forget about the rude remarks.



So...If you are a loving friend, send this to everyone, including the one that sent it to you. If you get it back then they really do love you.



REMEMBER; When life hands you lemons...ask for Tequila and salt

The Metamorphosis

In these days I'm reading " The Metamorphosis " by The German Novelist Franz Kafka. He belongs to the literary Term " Absurd ". There are some other writes who belong to this term, and there is also the Theatre of the Absurd which was found after the WWII, it refers to existensialism. It show the man as living in an aimeless world with no hope or dreams for life whatsoever. The Metamorphosis is one example for The Absurd, other example is the modern play "Waiting For Godot" by Samuel Beckett. The play shows the life of two trumps who live alone in the world and have nothing to do but to wait for Godot who never shows up in the whole play. Godot gives them a promise to come every night but he sends a messenger to tell those two trupms that he is not coming this night but sure will come the next night, and so on till the play ends... I should dedicate a full post for this play cuz it worths to talk about..

Now I'm leaving you with The Metamorphosis full E-Text, hope that you will enjoy it as I'm enjoying it myself..

A Tribe Gathering!

A tribe members I haven't seen or heard about before came over to visit today. The purpose of the visit was to solve a problem. Here is Iraq, if you have a trouble and want a support, you either go to the police or ask for the help of your tribe. And since no one can trust the police, and the police can't also trust us, we go to the head of the tribe and ask for his help.

You may ask why the police doesn't trust us!? Let me tell you, since the situation is not good in Iraq, people are used to call the police to report a robery or a crime and such things. But cuz the policemen are an easy target, anyone can call to give them false information about a robery of a house somewhere, then the poor policemen or the I.N.G. go there and face their destiny... The house they go to is an ambush! A BOMBED HOUSE! That's what happened someday in Baghdad when the I.N.G. got a report about some terrorists hiding inside a house, and when they went nside the house to arrest them the house fell all over them! It was a false report to drag them into the house and them bomb it ! How crazy.... So that's why they don't trust those reports that much, especially if they were at night...

Back to the tribe... The whole thing happened last Friday when this neighbor next to us who lives alone, after kicking his mother out of the house, brought some friends with him to have their usual nights of drinks and laughing all night long to bother the other neighbors. We never complained of him cuz he was only hurting himself with what was he doing, and the other neighbors couldn't speak cuz they were kinda afraid of him cuz some of them were in Al Ba'ath party and didn't want any troubles especially with him when he is drunk cuz he might do or say anything! He's a bodyguard or just a guard at IRAQNA but some says that maybe he works with the Americans, a guard or somethig like that maybe.

So at that day when he brought his friends, dad was dawn the street with uncle and other men from the neighborhood. He came out of his friend's car and told dad rudely to move his car so that his friend can park his car instead ! The car was infront of our house, so it's our place..

As a result of that, a semi fight took place cuz it seemed that this guy was drunk and maybe he wanted to show off in front of his friend so he made up that fight and started to shout... The other neighbors interfered and it was ok untill the middle of the night when he came back again to knock at our door. We didn't hear him at first, but then he started to shake the main door of the house with all his power and shouting and sometimes swearing! He was all drunk and his friends were with him as well ! WE didn't let dad to go out to them cuz we thought that maybe they were having guns. ( a drunk person may do anything)..

We called the I.N.G at that moment and told them what was going on, and they said that they would come. In fact we didn't believe that they might come cuz they might suspect this this is a false report as I mentioned.

Dad called my uncle who wittnessed the fight that night, and while they were talking on the phone this neighbor was still barking at the door. Then they said the best thing to do is to call some men of the tribe and ask for their support cuz he might think of hurting us! ( this is the land of freedom where you can do anything you like even hurting ur neighbor!)

So the tribe men meeting started the next day and they went to this drunk guy and told him to prepare some men from his tribe and their head tribe.. Amazingly, he didn't know these things that the men who went to him were shocked! They asked him where do you belong? Do you know where is your family? Where do you go and what do you do if you are in trouble?! He was scared to death at that time cuz maybe he didn't thought that we would do such thing and make it a tribes issue.

Anyways, the main and the last meeting was today to settle down everything and to make him promise that he won't do what he did and that he won't bring his fellows again to drink and bother the neighbors, otherwise he has to move out somewhere else! He kept saying yes yes... and then he apologized and promised to be good from now on! We'll see!

The funny thing is that almost 20 men came wearing the traditional Arabic dress with their cars blocking the street! I haven't seen any of them before. They only come to solve such matters.

Sure women were there as well, they were my aunts and Grandma and some cousins. One of my aunts said now the neighbors will see all of those men and their cars and think them to be some relatives of a suiter who lives in the U.S.A. and he sent his tribe men to ask for my hands for marriage! What a joke! Why me? " cuz I'm the eldest in the family" Why the U.S.A. ? " cuz I have a scholarship there, ...........Dah !

I'll go to sleep now and shall continue later...

Good night

A trip to Kurdistan

Hey blog, Long time no see!!

I've been so busy lately with all the post-graduation papers, the M.A. and the Fulbright application files! I submitted two application files so far and I still have this competition exam for the Master Degree next week. I didn't study anything yet!!!

The good thing is that I could go on a vacation to the north of Iraq, or to Kurdistan as they say!! Kurdish poeple refuse to say the north of Iraq, they say there is no such place! It's called Kurdistan. Dah!! Anyway, I stayed there for five days, I had so much fun that I got sick when I came back... we were six in the trip; Mom, Micho, Aunt, Shushu, Shabnem and I.. we went with this tuorisim company, the families there were nice but we couldn't make friendships with them at once untill the last day when we had this singing fight during the way to Sulaf ! It was fun. I think we took about 500 pictures there.. we went to this mall in Duhok called Mazi, they sell everything there in Dollars. And we also went to Dream City, it was coooooool and sooooo clean! I was surprised to see such a clean place in Iraq! hehe. The last day we went to Dream City again with those three girls (don't remember their names) and their brother and cousin, and the other girls whom I didn't like that much cuz they were showing off a bit ! and also this guy the company came with us as an usher, but he was having fun with us for sure. We often called him Ragab!

We came out of Dream City at 11:30 P.M. We refused to hire a taxi and we went to the hotel on feet, it took us almost one hour to get there. The weather was nice and there was electricity for sure! We played football with Pepsi cans all through the way to the hotel ! Just like monkeys escaping from the zoo!! We even stopped the cars down the streets to play in the middile of the street and to take a picture near a fountain! I swear if we did this in Baghdad people would come down off their cars to beat us and insult us!!

Sure I wouldn't put my picture here!!