Let's go to Malawi?

This young man makes me want to visit his village in Malawi just to see how he built a windmill to power his family compound jut by reading about one in a book. Such inspiration.

La Vie En Rose

Hold me close and hold me fast
The magic spell you cast
This is la vie en rose

When you kiss me heaven sighs
And tho I close my eyes
I see la vie en rose

When you press me to your heart
I'm in a world apart
A world where roses bloom

And when you speak...angels sing from above
Everyday words seem...to turn into love songs

Give your heart and soul to me
And life will always be
La vie en rose


Such simple words, such beautiful meanings, such a good song. Soundtrack of another favorite movie, Jeux D'enfants (English title: Love me if you dare).

Let's call the whole thing off...

Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Can you really go wrong?
Yes it has nothing to do with traveling, but it does have something to do with miscommunication... which happens a lot.
Plus I just really like this song :) And it reminds me of one of my favorite movies, When Harry Met Sally.

Day of Anger

January 25, 2011.
The Day of Anger, as it was called.

If you've been paying attention to global news, you might have realized what's happening in the Middle East. The people have had enough. Enough corruption, enough unemployment, enough poverty, enough is enough. And this is how Egypt has responded. This is a picture of Tahrir (which means Liberation) Square in downtown Cairo on the night of Jan 25th. Over 30,000 protesters gathered here, with tens of thousands more in different cities across the country. A day that might change Egypt forever. We can only wait and see.

The Middle East, my beloved Middle East, has had enough, and things will never be the same again - I hope.

(Note: I didn't take this picture, but I sure am proud of it.)

Today I Learned...

Family > travel plans.
Sometimes a change to the itinerary can be a good thing.

Today I Learned...

That the power of imagination is unrivaled by anything in this world.

Qatar: Top moments

Qatar really grew on me.


Moment 1:
The perfect skyline of downtown Doha, the capital city, that you can see from loads of places. I love the contrast of the old dhow boat against the all the modern buildings. Another meshing of old and new that I love so much.


Moment 2:
Sunset at Souq Waqif, the old bazaar area, in Doha. Enjoyed this day with new friends and old friends. My favorite place in Qatar hands down. Interesting fact: what is today known as Souq Waqif is actually a recent reconstruction of the entire place. This same place used to have the main bazaar of the city, which was taken down to make room for the new city. However, in an effort to restore places of important heritage, Qatar has rebuilt the Souq once more. So it's old... but new.


Moment 3:
(It's blurry, I know, but it was night time so the shutter was open for ages cuz I hate using flash and the only source of light were those little spotlights that you cant see but can only see the light emanating from them in the top of the picture. Point is: I still love it :)
Exploring new places with new friends that I feel like I've known forever! This was at the beach at the new Cultural Village, an area full of art centers, open air theaters, restaurants, coffee houses, music festivals, photography and art galleries, AND a beach. Yup.

Bahrain: Top moments

Moment 1:
Visiting the breathtaking Al-Fatih Mosque in Manama. Such serenity. A beautiful portal to an information center on Islam.


Moment 2:
Iqra'. Read. The first word to be revealed to the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) from God. Bahrain has an amazing way of capturing real culture, arts, history, and tradition. I wish other countries would take a hint on how to preserve greatness.


Moment 3:
Me + sunset + the gulf = love.

Kuwait: Top moments

Moment 1:
Great food + great company = great night! Having chocolate fondue at Chocolate Bar while catching up with friends I've known since elementary school. Eating out in Kuwait is an intensely amazing culture, and I took full advantage of it!


Moment 2:
Shopping at Souq Mubarkia, the old trade area in Kuwait. Probably my favorite place in Kuwait. Also the best place to have chai haleeb (milky steeped red tea with herbs) and qeymar (cream) - honey fatayer (large round layers and layers of soft puff dough, oven baked), which tastes as heavenly as it sounds.

Andddd I'm back

Just got back to Egypt from my trip through the Gulf region. I did Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar for about a week each. In the next couple of days I'll be posting up the top moments from each country, as well as my take on each one.

Stay tuned! :)

BB

Today I Learned...

That, for me, being in a place more familiar is usually more stressful than being somewhere new. I guess you can call traveling my personal therapy.

Qatari proverb

Well...I'm not sure if it's a proverb or not. But apparently calling someone a bee is a good thing.

It is said that someone is a bee when that someone is optimistic and sees the good in everything. Even when a flower is covered in insects and all sorts of nasty things, a bee still manages to see the sweet honey at the heart of the flower. Like a bee, this person sees the good at the heart of all matters.

Be like a bee :)

Island Girl

Sunset of my last day in Bahrain, Jan 2nd 2011. What a great way to end a great trip. Can't ever forget this day.

Bahrain...

...where you feel like you really are on an island, where you can see the water from almost anywhere, and where you can smell the ocean every time the breeze wooshes by.

Top 5 Moments in Kuwait

There were many, but these ones top the list, in no particular order:

- spending time with childhood friends I haven't seen in over 10 years
- attending my first Kuwaiti wedding
- dipping my toes in the beautiful Gulf
- having too much chai haleeb, Kuwaiti milky tea in the very old Souq Mubarkia
- going to a horse riding competition

Kuwait, I will be back.

Today I Learned...

That just because you haven't talked to someone (minus facebook) in over 10 years, doesn't mean your friendship had died.

Fun in Kuwait!

Alright, hello there Kuwait :)
So as I mentioned before, I was born and raised in Kuwait for the first 11 years of my life. Despite all of those years, I'm back in Kuwait after 10 years... and I don't remember a thing! I thought maybe my memory will be jogged by the things around me, but things just look so different and... smaller? I think I was just much smaller so things seemed so big when I was a kid.

The things I do remember: my school (Kuwait English School), the big (not-so-big) supermarket, the building where I used to live (but I have no idea how to get to).... okay so maybe I don't actually remember that much.

However, I'm meeting up with friends I haven't seen in 10 years. This is by far the best thing about re-visiting Kuwait.

I'll post about the best of Kuwait soon :) I'm too busy taking it all in for the moment.

Living vs Visiting

There are two tell-tale signs that you are now living in a country vs just being here for a visit:
1. You can go grocery shopping alone
2. You bake

So yesterday, I did both of those things! I was out and realized we're missing a few things and that I was close to the store where we usually buy our groceries, so I just popped in and bought a few things. Alone. It felt kind of weird and great :)

Naturally, I also bought some ingredients that I normally wouldn't buy if I was on the road: cinnamon, brown sugar, a big block of chocolate, walnuts... It just felt like a great day to bake something. One of the blogs I love is Joy the Baker's cooking/life blog. Makes my day that much sweeter. The reason you normally wouldn't bake while on the road is the simple fact that baking requires utensils and ingredients that aren't everyday, for example, whisks, flour, brown sugar, etc.

I made some delicious apple crisp last night. And I feel closer to living in Egypt than just being here for a visit.

Op.

The TSA 'gropefest' - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

The TSA 'gropefest' - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

I just wonder how far this ridiculousness will go.

JOA

http://joamuslimah.blogspot.com/

...because we are all on our own journeys, together :)

Dr Tariq Ramadan 1

One of the professors who make my brain tick and who's ideas I like to read up on.

I'm looking at some of his articles and came across this one that really spoke to me today. Enjoy!

Planning

Planning my next trip which should start verrrryyyyy soon :D
This should give you a good hint: http://www.google.com.eg/imgres?imgurl=http://thegulfregion.com/images/the_gulf_region.png&imgrefurl=http://thegulfregion.com/&h=599&w=623&sz=87&tbnid=k6kqNe6Afc0r0M:&tbnh=131&tbnw=136&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgulf%2Bregion&zoom=1&q=gulf+region&usg=__g5qPh45jOZ6kALwbUASa9QgKng0=&sa=X&ei=S2oDTZTcKIyWOv-nzaYB&ved=0CEAQ9QEwBQ

Definitely can't wait to get back on the road!

Today I Learned...

That Arabic is a very difficult language to learn in terms of grammar and composition. (And I'm a native speaker.)

Go Forth

I found a really great website the other day called Abraham's Path that I think is quite interesting. I first heard about it through a TED video by William Ury titled "The walk from No to Yes".
I think it's a great idea and it's definitely something I would love to go on one day.

It also reminds me of The Way of St James, a religious pilgrimage that takes place in Northern Spain, the route of which has been adopted by people of all sorts of religious and spiritual backgrounds.

There seems to be something about walking along a certain path that connects you with history and takes you on your very own quest for meaning.

Cover up

Henna. My beautiful Mauritanian henna. That no one in Egypt really thought was beautiful at all. I loved it. I loved the fact that it was new and interesting and different. It reminded me of a beautiful time spent in a country that was not like anything I've ever experienced. Then I went back to Egypt. Beauty is only defined in terms of what is familiar and known. Anything different is deemed bizarre and receives looks of wonder mixed with... disgust? I can't quite place it.


Four weeks later and all that remains is the nail henna. It only disappears as your nails grow, so this will be with me for a while. And yet the comments keep on rolling about how I really shouldn't have done "this". I loved my Mauritanian henna. But the pressure to cover up what remains of it is strong. Sigh.

Just another reassurance that the concept of "beauty" is a completely undefined and subjective one.