Becoming me

It’s been ages since I last wrote any post. I owe this to Amman, it’s very boring and nothing interesting ever happens.


What I have noticed about myself this year is that I’m more confrontational, I’m not slightly worried of my beliefs and I’m not afraid of consequences.
I don’t know whether this is due to me turning 27 or whether this is part of the natural cycle of life where you say “Stop” and “No” and “Let’s go for it”.

The wonderful lesson I learnt a few years back is to “choose my battles” (not that I’m perfect at it) and this has impacted my life so much that I don’t feel trapped or obliged to behave a in certain way. I keep preaching this concept to my friends and hopefully one day it’ll make sense. I hope I don’t discover that it’s wrong.

Incidents and random thoughts

I was at band practice last week and the conductor was saying something about how she and the school band are performing in villages across the kingdom and that all of us would probably not know where these places are…… in between parenthesis, we’re in our luxury bubble and do not know anything around us. She then pointed to a player and said: “oh maybe you know these places because your field of work gets you involved in these things.”


Ok, I’m going to say this once and for all, people who work close to death or close to the poor or in charity work or in any kind of “I’m too good for the world” kind of job does not make them any better than others.


Why are you judging me? Just because I work in a corporate where we have kitchenettes and AC and a parking spot does not make me any less worthy of those in USAID projects!

I might not know Al- Jafer or use recycled paper and go volunteer to pick up tomatoes with the farmers but I do know corporate politics, I know about managing what you have to generate revenue, I know about perception and how to deliver an idea and how to be social smart around idiots!


This is a misconception in Jordan, people who work under limited funds, NGOs or are journalists think they are doing the world a favor and are better people than those who seek profit and choose to work in offices.



Did I confront the conductor? No, I choose my battles  It would’ve been a lost case where I would bite my fingers in regret.




Colleagues at the office: I’m not your happy-go-lucky girl! If you’re in a bad mood don’t give me attitude! Your father does not own the company and no I will not be nice when I need a favor and you bet I will not tolerate bull! Anything you say that might disturb me I’ll make it clear to you.

I’m done with the peer pressure phase in my life, if you don’t like me I really don’t care.


I have a coaster at my desk that says:

“The important thing is not what they think of me but what I think of them” Queen Victoria

I know I’m no queen bas bardo 7ilu to live in such powerful denial :)

Sometimes people are placed in your life where they are unavoidable and make you bring out the worst in you. I honestly thank these people who gave me the courage to be articulate and rude.

I think we keep living our lives fearing that someone might think we’re not nice. We avoid any confrontation that might disrupt our image in front of people; “no I won’t tell the waiter that the food is cold”, “I won’t tell my parents how much I don’t want to go there”, “I’ll go out with this group of friends whom I really don’t like”, “I’ll give her a call to check up on her even though she doesn’t bother to check up on me”.

In conclusion, il dinia 7zooz as my colleague always says but the important thing is not to blame everything on luck.

The other side of hit music

I found nice covers and instrumental of somehow popular music.

This guy is very good check out all his music DAVID SIDES

Better than the original ?

Metallica

Not  very stupid now is it?


VIVA LA VIDA meets LOVE STORY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXtVBJDPs6k

Reality Check

This is one of those posts that you end up questioning your own job!

I passed by a boutique in the shopping complex next to Crown Plaza Hotel (3amra Hotel sabiqan) and went in.Very nice shop, shoes and bags:) every girl’s dream.

Il muhim, the sales lady, the owner welcomed us and offered to show us some boots. Very nice designs I must admit. I remembered that lady, she was with me in university! She was stupid, she once answered the accounting professor with a “Ma tis2alni ana ma ba3raf ishi !” when he asked her to solve the problem. He kicked her out. I felt good back then not because I was a good student, because she was rude.


Look who’s feeling good now! She designs the boots and bags, sends her designs to Italy to be made with genuine leather and a brand name. Ironic huh? She’s selling a pair of shoes for around one fifth on my salary!

Ya3ni I’m sure her parents are proud of her now, what good was that B+ in that accounting course? I’m sure she was drawing another design and deciding on her career that day when she was kicked out. Good for her.

Yeah I know, life is not fair :) Why oh why am I an employee ?

Petra Rocks

After hearing and reading opposite reviews all week long regarding this musical I was anxious to go experience a Jordanian musical in an out-of-the-ordinary- theater in Applied University (yet very neat and cozy).

The seating was on first-come-first-served basis although audience purchased their tickets based on seat numbers. This ticked off some of the crowd who seemed restless especially while waiting 20 extra minutes for play to start.

The set-up, lighting, and costume design exceeded my expectations as props were promptly shifted without the notice of the audience eye, the sound effects were interestingly added to some scenes and lighting was rarely out of place. The music, though, was a disappointment; I expected better music arrangements and compositions from our Jordanian musicians. In addition to the unattended sound check when some actors were speaking and the audience couldn’t tell what was going on.


The play started off by dancers who filled the stage with not so uncommon choreography, but with an interesting flavor of tempo and choice of clothes. However, as the play went on it seemed to be a long dancing performance with some acting and storyline.


The story of Petra Rocks is profound in basis but appeared to be weak on stage, needing more transitional scenes and enrichment of the plot. The ending in specific was rather abrupt, not knowing for sure whether the ending was a happy ending or a sad one as one of my friends commented.


Dima Bawwab was, as always, professional in performance, articulate and expressive in all songs. With her soft yet powerful voice that was sensational and consistent she portrayed experience and character. What was interesting for me to see was the acting and classical Arabic speaking by Dima. Again, she surprised the audience with her convincing role of Princess Hana’ah, like a butterfly coloring the stage with her feminine look and expressive phrases.


Nonetheless, Roz Al Werr was, as expected, remarkable in singing but not as good in acting. The role of the queen might have been too restricting for such an actress and singer.


Amer Al Khuffash who played Saleh, the water engineer of big dreams and a brave heart did a great job winning the heart of the princess and most of the audience. Other male artists were, unfortunately, not up to the standard of the female artists in terms of singing and overall performance.


Adeeb Derhalli captured the audience’s attention in his Prince Kong Ai Dan role, luring the Princess with his fortunes and rare assets in his funny Chinese outfit and dialect. He is obviously more experienced than other actors in the play, moving lightly across the stage, with a clear voice and confident existence under the spotlight. The ‘suitors’ scene, as the audience probably agrees, was the most entertaining and the most profound in terms of script writing and acting with Adeeb enriching it.


Lara Sawalha did a wonderful job as well bringing some groove and boldness to the dances and the acting. She proved her enjoyment and passion of theater with her role, Jamilah the poetess, making the best out of a minor character in the story.


As a person in the audience I can’t but appreciate the hard work spent on the making of this musical from directing to advertising, performance and overall look & feel. There are, on the other hand, many areas for improvement in storyline, choice of character names, music, etc. But I’m glad we have such opportunities for our artists and I’m definite that this is only the beginning of good Jordanian theater for the years to come.

One Life Stand!

This post is dedicated to my friend T :)

Meeting up with friends last week, having hot chocolate, complaining about the weather...... (ok only I was complaining about the weather since I hate winter and wish it would be summer everyday of the year), we were talking about thee most talked about topic in Amman between youth ages 22-42 : Hooking up / Marriage/ Finding The One.

Tab3an as usual everyone pretends inno mabsoot haik o 3adi I'm not looking for anyone at the moment, I need to enjoy life, fa we were exchanging stories of people who got to know each other over a period of 2 or 3 months and then got married (traditional marriage).

Fareeda said her famous sentence :"i don't understand why are people in such a hurry to get married?"

T then moved on to the idea of a 1 night stand and how the west thinks of this and that.

All that came to my mind, ironically, was that there's no difference between an Arab girl who knows a guy for 2 months and then marries him, giving her body and soul to him and a western girl who gets to know a guy for the same period and then giving herself to him, being a 1 night stand, then breaking up and finding another.

Aren't these 2 girls from across the world the same? Isn't marrying someone within 2 months of knowing him a kind of prostitution? What's the difference, really? It is as T called it "One life stand".

A man or a woman cannot surely know during only 2 months that this person is THE ONE thus what attracts them to each other is sex. Purely sex.

After sometime the naive western woman moves on, leaves him for a reason or another, finds another man who offers her a subconcious one night stand approach, while the Arab women accepts the one life stand, stays for a reason or another,swallows her pride and moves on to being a mother.

A mother who in return marries her daughters traditionally. After an Arab girl has her ethics and honour which are saved until marriage, until the one life stand.

Drama @band practice

I just noticed that I have never written anything related to band or my interest in music since I'm saxogirl. Well to spare you of the boring stuff and to make it short, I play the Alto Saxophone since I was 11 and still am, one of my passions in life.

BUT the interesting part is the drama that happened today during band pratice. Never in my life have I imagined that things would take this shape with our conductor, let's call her, Miss Rumba for the sake of argument.

Band background:

• Conductor: Miss Rumba is the conductor I've known to love and repect for years and years. She was the cool American music teacher who had the exciting activities and trips during school years. She's spent her entire life teaching students music with, I must admit, little appreciation. As you grow up you discover that those idols you used to have are not that perfect, unfortunately, they are just like anybody else.


• Music: symphonic, classical, a little jazz, serious- not appealing to the common Jordanian


• Players: since it's a voluntary community band now, very few are attending practices. Currently we're 17

Tamer, my sax mate, started off by explaining to Miss Rumba why previous players are not attending: " I will say this and I hope it doesn't come out the wrong way...... the music needs to be more fun....... "

She was furious, she said that this has been the endless battle with us, that we don't like the music "well if you haven't notice we don't have band music like the ones you hear on the radio, I've always made sure that there would be something that people would recognize and enjoy but there's no winning with you........etc.........Lara has been saying this since ever"....... ehhh ana?

ok I did like 3 years back at a gathering at her house. I said all that needs to be said coz i'm not the kind that sweet talks people, what I believe in I say so help me God. It was a total fiasco tonight as it was 3 years back where all my fellow musicians said nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was bad, no support, no understanding, nothing.

The discussion went on further "I have other things to do than conduct this band if you guys don't want to play...........you can support the band by buying some new music...........what you're saying here is that all this music is trash......"

Has she not been with us during performances? Where very few people attend? Where players come and go and only il khozzat illi zayyi stay?

Why are people so protective? She asks for suggestions and then she refuses them. Is it because this band has been her baby for the past 20 years? Why does she take it personal? Doesn't she want this band to succeed? Is it becuase she's past 50 years of age? Mid-life crisis? Does she want to play the victim?

Insanity: Doing the Same Thing Over and Over,
Expecting Different Results

It's funny how to us, the members of the band, it's very obvious what has to be done to make this band something but to her it's not acceptable, it's mean and it's unfair.

Now I understand how bad it seems for others to try to change a person. This person thinks he's got it all figured out and that no one understands but have to trust him. Others think ' if you could only work on that part you'd have it all'.

I think deep inside she knows there's something wrong with this band and how it's being managed but being stubborn beats everything else.

This band breaks my heart, jad, it could be way better.

“Stubborn
and ardent clinging to one's opinion is the best proof of
stupidity” Michel de Montaigne

أحمر وشقي لاذع ولذيذ ؟؟ what the heck!?

We were staying late at the office the other day and G+Ginseng girls came in and distributed promotional drinks with brochures.

I thought that was cool since I like the bitter lemon they have.

Taking a short break we looked at the brochure and couldn't believe the logo, the names of the drinks and the vibes that the brand carries!

Check them out for yourselves (please click on pic to enlarge and note the details)

putshshshshsh


A whip and handcuffs? for real?

In my opinion this brand is targeting hormones and sexuality. The brand identity girl is wearing a tight outfit with all the gadgets, ma32ool? I don't want to sound like my grandma bas ya3ni a whip??!! Come on

I got more curious and checked their website, unbelievable. Check it and look at what your cursor becomes! Now it all makes sense, my pharmasist friend told me once not to drink it, "it's like Viagra!". I guess we all know what g stands for now.

Welcome to the g spot

What is g? It's a premium multi-flavor carbonated beverage, that contains
ginseng extract- a revitalizing substance known for its healthy medicinal
effects, anti aging benefits, as well as sexually
enhancing properties which forms the basis of g's
advertising approach

http://www.g-gofigure.com/

check the radio ads, banned ads, and motto........ horrible

again..... what the heck?!

Jordan TV

Ma32ool Jordan Television?!!!

It's like it's in a time warp where it got alienated in space with no reference and no benchmarks.

I've got 4 questions for you Jordan TV:

1. Why do you still host guests and insist on speaking classical Arabic?

(if you say so that the Arab world countries would understand us think again. LBC and Future speak lebanese and they're one of the most viewed channels.)

2. Why are the studio furniture and decor incoherent ?

3. Why are the hosts un natural?

4. Why don't you have interesting shows and series?

Mango and Cairo

Going on a trip with 3 of my school friends to Cairo seemed like a great idea.
We spend hours planning for it and deciding on the dates, fighting over the dates and finally agreeing on the dates :)

If you think this post is about my friends, it's not, it's about beautiful Cairo.

"Please tell me you hated it" a friend of mine said after I came back, "I didn't it's really cool".

Cairo is ana amazing city full of life. People stay awake 24 / 7 literally! It’s not for partying only, it’s for going out for coffee or whatever. Here if you stay up it’s because you’re cool, in Cairo it’s for spending some good time in good weather. “sometimes we go out and then go directly to class” Lamya said, a cousin of our friend who is studying in AUC. “It’s very normal to sleep 4 hours a day here”.
As she way saying this I was looking for dark circles on her eyes to see the effect of sleep deprivation but unfortunately I found none. How could they do that? How dare they? I was so jealous of the lifestyle: )

It's interesting to say that Cairo is romantic! Yes though it's super dirty and chaotic, with those poor police men trying to be respected by people, traffic and hot weather killing you by the minute, it is nonetheless romantic. If you walk by the Nile you can see couples standing at the bars looking at the river with hopeful eyes, holding hands, having arms around each other, PDA. Each empty slot formed by the bars has a couple and what's interesting is that these couples are boyfriend and girlfriend. Very few are engaged or married (if the ring is an indicator).

What I loved about this fact is that love is not forbidden in Cairo.Inspired by
the book "Eat, Pray, Love" I now know that Cairo speaks 'Lust' in the air.
Everybody is in a state of love, it's in the eyes of people at Khan il Khalili,
streets, restaurants, everywhere.
Definitely a city worth living in!

Sanitary standards are different than ours, once we were at TGI Friday and asked the waiter to clean the table “7alan ya fandim” he said and then took a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the table. He must’ve been kidding but he wasn’t, good thing we had Hi-gene!

Fresh juices are something else over there; we were always ordering mango juice. Nivene had 10 in 4 days. Everytime the mango juice surprises you of how good it tastes. Ahwet il Fishawi in Khan il Khalili know this I’m sure coz the prices of a mango juice there are the same as here!

notice the civilizations above (from pyramids to sky scrapers)

Ok I lied this post is also about my friends. Let me give you a bit of background :
These 3 friends have been my close friends since school. We’ve managed to stay close throughout university and work life. Firyal, Nivene and Nuha.

The trip was smooth as expected with a bit of spices here and there. Nuha, a perfectionist, wanted to photograph everything! And she did :) When she found out that “Hussam Habeeb” the singer (whoever that guy is) was in our hotel, she and Nivene crashed a wedding while he was singing the solo romantic song to the bride and groom! Needless to say after all the embarrassment she took a picture with him :) Nuha was a great travel mate especially at the airport when 2 gulfi guys tried to hook up with us “Oskot o liff wijhak balash ma takullak kaff!” Bravo Nuha :)

Nivene, the fast and the furious, was as always a the easy go-er, she planned the activities of the trip and was crazy enough to take a dare from one of the girls to go up to a bride and tell her “we’re from Jordan and we’d like to take a picture with you”. Needless to say inha intafsat coz the groom objected “aslo il 3areez lazeez bassi multazim” the sister in law justified.
Firyal, the soft hearted, was the angel sent from heaven to all those beggars, taxi drivers, sellers, street bums. She bought from them, tipped them, and sympathized with them. “Firyal please don’t believe them they’re ripping you off” we would beg “shul 10 pounds bil nisbeh ili? Dinar o nos ? Bas addaish bi2asru b 7ayathom?” Our eyes would roll, her eyes would roll trying to explain to each other over and over our ideologies. Firyal will be Firyal and she will not change.

We wanted to go see Adel Imam play Body Guard or as Firyal inquired “AL body guard”, she wanted to Arabize it so that the guy on the phone would understand! We were laughing non stop. “Mar7aba bidna ni7gez la bukra masra7iyyet Al body guard”.

Firyal was the star of the trip especially when she slashed Nuha’s 7inna tattoo of 20 seconds of age by mistake : ) she kept apologizing which was hilarious for Nivene and I to see as Nuha got more and more angry “Nuha sorry 3an jad ba3millek wa7ad b 3amman” “Okay Firyal Khalas 3adi”Nuha would angrily insist : )

The trip was nice, definitely to be repeated but in a cooler weather, when I don’t have the flu and when it is agreed that political stuff are not to be discussed :)

Michael Jackson the controversial artist

Being a girl in the Middle East, Michael Jackson was a legend to me growing up. Nothing topped him. O tab3an I don't know if you moms zay immi bas till yesterday she couldn't understand the reactions, appreciation and drama. To her Elvis o BAS :)

I don't want to go on and on about Michael the great talent, you've heard it all. I just want to share the phrases that moved me and gave me goose-bumps during the memorial speeches yesterday.

Berry Gordy:

"He raised the bar, and then broke the bar"

Brooke Shields: (to his kids)

"Your father was not strange, what he had to deal with was strange".

Martin Luther King III:

" My father said that in life one must discover what his calling is. Once
they do they must do their job so well that the living, the dead
and the unborn could do them no better"

I remember growing up in the 90s, we watched "Black or White" over and over and over with awe, I video taped his Pepsi (or Coca Cola was it?) commercial with Michael Jordan and watched with friends not believing how cool he is. We immitated his voice, we dressed like him in Halloween parties and tried to, as everyone, do the moonwalk.

It'll take a long time before another legend takes his place in people's hearts.