I Spy with my Little Eye

Almost a year ago the guys at 4th Ring blog wrote that SNOG will be opening in Kuwait.

I was at Muhallab yesterday and saw that it will be opening on the same level as Fuddruckers and the cienma.

Honestly, I don’t really taste the difference between the Froyos! They all taste the same to me.

Dandermas “DATHRA Book” Book Signing – DONT MISS IT!

I am a HUGE fan of the Dathra posts and also a huge fan of Danderma and her blog!  When I heard that she had made Dathra into a book I was so happy and proud of our dear Danderma.

So everyone show your support and come to 52 Degrees today for the book signing! It will be from 7-10! See you all there insha’Allah!

I stole the invite that Jacquie made  for Danderma and posting it here.  I hope they don’t mind!

Just Married + Best Surprise EVER

I’m Married!! And so happy to be married el7imdilla!

The below pics were taken from my american friends camera, the pics do not do my koosha justice. :p

I got engaged at the end of august, milacht in december and my wedding was in february.

eb9ara7a it didn’t really hit me until the day before my milcha, which was in December.  I had the day off from work, I went to the salon got my hair done, and as I was driving home I started to cry.  Seriously I just couldnt stop crying and I dunno why! I got home, ma kalamt a7ad, just walked straight to my room and bawled my eyes out.  “A” called me and started to freak out at why I was crying, he tried to calm me down, I wouldn’t listen.

Later that night I went to family friends house and when they saw me, they knew I was crying.  My eyes were puffy and my face was yellow.  They have known me long enough to notice that I am not doing that great. They asked me whats wrong and I told them that I was scared of getting married.  The mom tried to calm me down and told me that its not something to be scared of, its a new but good experience and that A is a great guy el7imdilla and I shouldnt be scared.  Then the father starts to talk … “eee al7een mako roo7at oo yayat with ur friends 3ala kaifich, mako shalaih, mako safraat meta ma 6aaag eb baalich” seriously was he trying to make me feel worse?? :p So i left and went home.

The next day was my milcha.  I went to the salon AGAIN, but before that I went to the avenues alone and just walked around aimlessly, I dunno why! I just needed to walk around, and I wanted to shop but at the same time my brain was racing a thousand thoughts a minute I couldnt concentrate on ANYTHING!  So I left and spent the rest of the time in the salon.

But seriously, from the minute ely malacht feeha I didn’t feel that feeling of weirdness that I felt earlier el7imdilla.

I had a BLAST in my wedding with my friends and family el7imdilla.  I can’t sum it up in words!

The person that did my koosha was Qasem Dashti, such a wonderful man to work with.  Honestly I barely did anything, I didn’t see my koosha until the day of the wedding when they were setting it up.  My mom did almost everything.

My  main concern was that it had to be a seated dinner and that dinner wasn’t served at 1 AM.  And it was a seated dinner, I think it was a 4 course meal, I didn’t choose that either , mom and her friends did.  Allah e3afi oo ekhali umi for all her hard work.

Another thing I wanted was that the cake was made into smaller cakes that people were able to take with them home, so that the cake wouldn’t be wasted.

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Anyways SO! For THE BEST SURPRISE EVER!!!!! One of my friends 7anat 3alay to go to dinner at Edo me her and another friend.  She would msg me everyday to remind me about dinner, like literally “Dont forget dinner on Saturday!! Don’t be late” etc etc.  I seriously was thinking what is wrong with her!! She is so not like that!

So saturday comes along, and I head over to Edo, at 8, just like she said.  And I wait, and wait and wait, and THEY ARE BOTH LATE! Well one of them, Roo, thought I was picking her up, and as I parked infront of Edo she msged me.  I could have gone to pick her up but her Bday cake was in my car and I didn’t want her to see it, I was surprising her.

Anywhoo! Almost 35 minutes later, the door opens and they greet someone, I turned to look and it was my friend.  I was JUST about to yell at her for being late when I see a blond person behind her.  I look at the blond girl and back to my friend, wela its my friend/roommate Courtney from Minnesota.  Seriously I thought I was seeing things! I was in SHOCK!!! My reaction was nothing compared to Roo’s, hers was hilarious.  I was still shocked days later.  Its like we were back in minnesota, minus the snow and subzero weather.

That was the best surprise ever!! I love Kinder and Court for this wonderful surprise!!!!!

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Yeah, so.

Thats it for now, from the lovely, yet weird life of chirp.

I will dedicate a complete other post about the HORRORS of apartment shopping in Kuwait.  Seriously, its one of the hardest things to do, especially if you are looking for something reasonably priced and nice enough to live in.  Is that too much to ask for?! Well I guess it is!! I’ll let you know in my next post!!

Mudeer elta2zeeeem!

It has been almost six months and I have been in a constant state of battling with my manager.  Suddenly, he became threatened by something, not only by me, but by our whole department, oo beda ekhanbig bil shighel oo bil ta3amul.  He became the manager from hell, he seriously needed super nanny to teach him how to act with other people.

The thing is, I like to think that I am a pretty nice person, I get along with almost anyone (ma gelt EVERYONE cuz I know its impossible).  Yes I do have an attitude problem sometimes and I can be rude, but at least I am admitting it.  At work though I am very very nice and polite, unless a7ad edoosni 3ala 6araf.

It all started when he took away the team that was supposed to help me do my job.  I work in Quality Assurance, in an organization of almost 700 people.  For the majority of the year I worked ALONE.  I am not questioning my ability to work or to comprehend my job or anything, but come on! How do you expect to create a quality environment when you only have one employee working on it.  I am not superman, batman or even wonder woman.  He gave me such menial jobs that I refused to do them, I wasn’t his secretary and I did not study and better my self to do a job that is not mine.

I used to complain to people about my job by they all told me that its fine, it work, everyone has some bad experiences.  So whatever I just ignored him and did what I wanted to do.  He was SO RUDE eb ta3amula weyay, he would talk to me in a way that made me seem like I am an idiot.  That got me really pissed off, but I still stayed quiet.  I started to hate going to work, and the icing on the cake was when the auditors came and he threw me into the ocean without teaching me how to swim.

I managed the auditors as well as I could, but when the audit report came I thought it was compelete and utter BULLSHIT, and I fought it, and tried to get it changed, but of course he didn’t believe me.  He set up a meeting with me, him and the auditor to discuss it, and in the meeting he would stand against me and make me seem like I am the one thats doing everything wrong, oo ana eli ma afham.  Seriously, does he really wanna get on my bad side *SNAP* *SNAP*.   I was FUUUUMMING.

Then he goes to tell some one else in our team that I do not know how to work.  Ana asfa bas hatha min his lack of management skills. He would give me a small task, and set up 73026183082736 meetings to discuss it til the point eli ana azoo3 el task.  We had quality auditors to audit us in May, and we discussed the report after they mailed it to us.  3 months later we are still discussing the report.

One day in irmuthan he sent me a meeting request for 1 1/2 hours to discuss the report that we have discussed to the point where I dreamt about it.  We talked about it so much, that if I took a test, I would probably ace it.  All the items that were stated were closed from my side, but anything pending was from his side.

So I walked into the meeting and I told him that I will not spend an hour and a half discussing this meeting, I won’t even spend five minutes, I don’t want to sit in this meeting.

He tells me he is my manager oo I have to follow his orders .  Oooooooh hni 3ad zadat 3a9abeeti.  Kaan ermuthan, 7aar mooot oo 9ayma.  Oo foog kil hatha metnasya eb umin yabat mudeeri.  Chan agoola No i don’t have to do anything.  We talked about the report so many times, there is NOTHING PENDING from my side.  Kil shay ana sawaita, UR jobs are pending, Ur the one delaying the work.

Chan agi6 el report eb wayha, oo getla yal zift oo 6ala3t min el maktab.  I know that wasn’t the best reaction, but I have had it all.  I lost all class that I have, I lowered my self to something lower than ever.  Bas agoolikum shay, 6ala3t eli eb galbi.

6ab3an from then til now sababli akthar min azma nafsiya, magdar at3amal ma3ah.  I ignore him completly, oo etha abi ay shay mina a6arish a7ad ekalma.  Re7t H.R oo getlihum eni I can’t deal with him, oo kent baqadim estiqalti, but I ended up staying cuz I actually like the rest of the team (especially u Hanadnad :p)

Fa since hal ayam nuwab el ta2zeem wayed bil news, qarat eni asami mudeerna “mudeer el ta2zeem” liana emda7erna oo emsabib a2zma eb 7ayat el qisim kila.  

Maaaaaaaa77777iiiiii oo Sallaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal oo 6a3oooooooon esheeeloooona ooo eridoona deeeeerta!!!!

Slay7uuuuu6 akher el ziman, hal ashkal e6afeshna kilina.

Laa, wel mushkila yet’thamar etha kaan qisim kila Kuwaityeen, egool e7na man3arif neshtighel.  

Zaaaaaqooooooooooooooom eb ba6naaaaaaaaaaaa.

سليمه تصكَه زييييين!!!!!!

السوْال يطرح نفسه

Shino aw mino elslaima?? oo bet9eka eb shino!?

The one where .. We got robbed .. Kind of

A while ago Danderma wrote a post asking people if they have ever got robbed, and she reminded me of an incident that makes me laugh so hard (now, not at the time it happened).

It was the summer of 2001, the summer right before my senior year of high school.  My friends and I decided to go to summer school at the American University of Paris to “learn french”.  That whole summer was filled with the funniest stories and adventures ever.  We were 7 Kuwaiti girls surrounded by rich americans, many of them were JAPS (jewish american princesses) and the rest were a random mix of richie rich americans.  oo YES fy ba3ath’hum kanaw J3oo9, e7asboona 3ala el franc el wa7ed.

Anways, one of the days we decided to go to a movie, oo the only movie playing at that time that was English and not min alf oo setemya oo e76uba was “Original Sin” maal Antonio Banderas and Angelina Jolie.  I was the first one to reach the cinema, so I bought all the tickets for the girls 3ala ma yo9loon and pay me back.

Dashaina el movie oo temadadna oo endimajna akher endimaj.  El cienma was empty, except for a couple that couldn’t keep their hands off each other behind us, they barely stayed 20 minutes into the movie and left (YES i remember that because they were just too damn graphic, and seriously needed a room), and two old ladies infront of us.  I was too into the movie to notice the movement of the two old ladies infront of us.  But by the time the movie was done some of my friends backpacks were not even close to where they were sitting.  At that point we didnt think any thing of it and left the cienma, and it was raining cats and dogs outside.

So we ran from the cinema all the way to the metro station, trying to hide under strangers umbrellas as to not get as wet, didnt really work out.  Anyways some of the girls wanted to buy umbrellas so they stopped at one of the random stores that were in the metro station, I was already half way down the stairs when I heard “OOOOOH MY GOD, MY MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!” it was the voice of one of my friends, and I ran up the stairs wela ashoof the girls eb 7alat estinfaar, kel wa7da e6ali3 boook’ha etchayek if her money is there.  I think 4 of the girls got their money stolen out of their wallets, and the thing is those old ladies just took the cash, they left the cards in the wallets, bas ya3ni shino kanaw el cards, we all had “alazraq” back then, so it wouldn’t have been of any use to them.

But seriously, we got OWNED by two old ladies… I wasn’t robbed (el7imdilla), I used my bag as a foot rest.  But after that incident, zain ma we didn’t superglue our wallets in our pockets.  Funny, but also a slap in the face.

Embarak 3alaikum El Shahar

Mubarak 3alaikum eli buga min el shahar :p Madri laish ana dayman met2akhra :p Kilish mu 3adti .. Anyways I hope awal sboo3 eb hal shahar ma kaan 9a3ib.

To be honest with you, it wasn’t bas at all, ya3ni el7imdilla I didn’t really feel really tired or thirsty or nezal thaq6i :p

And to everyone who is complaining about ramadan being in summer and its hot and humid, I want you to look around you, look at your family and the food you have on the table.  To the walls that hold up your house, and the car that takes you to and from work. To the AC that cools your days, and the clean bottled water your drink before you sleep, and I want you to Thank God for everything he has given you.  Yes it might be hot, humid, sticky and disgusting, but we have our family, our house, good food and clean water.  There are people who are living in refuge camps, people who don’t have clean water or clean food.  So instead of complaining, 7imdaw rabkum 3ala el ni3ma eli e7na feeha, hot or not :p

Excuse my lecture bas ena el7imdilla 3ala kil 7aal 🙂

And btw I am addicted to zwarat elkhamees.  Its the only musalsal I am watching.

Anyways I will leave you with this video …

Kuwaiti Invasion Memory

One day late to write about my memories of August 2nd 1990, but I wouldn’t be Chirp if I didn’t procrasinate.

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I was almost 6 years old, and I was in Cairo with my mother, brother and my aunt, we were supposed to return to Kuwait sometime in the beginning of August, but my dad called us and told us to stay in Egypt and he will be coming in a couple of days. 

 It was VERY early in the morning on August 2nd, and the phone rang in the apartment, my mother got up to answer the phone, and I got up after her and followed her into the living room.  All of a sudden I hear her scream and start to cry, I had no idea what was going on, but I started to cry as well. 

We spent about 3 months in Egypt, and at that time my uncles and my aunt who were in Spain came to Egypt, and it was like a mini reunion.  My mother put my brother and I in a school, I was entering 1st grade while my brother was in KG 1.  I remember not wanting to say the National Anthem of Egypt so my brother and I would close our ears and scream out the Kuwaiti National Anthem during the line in the morning.  My brother would run away from class and hide under my desk. 

I think it was October or November when my mother decided that she wanted to go back to Kuwait, my father was still in Kuwait and also my grandmother (my moms mother) and my youngest Aunt were still in Kuwait.  I still don’t understand the thought process that went through my mother at that point, I was 6 and my brother was 4.  We flew from Cairo to Amman, and spent a night, and we found a driver that drove us from Amman, through Iraq and to the borders of Kuwait.  It was my mother, my aunt (3amiti), and two other ladies who I do not know.  3amiti was going back because her son was still in Kuwait, and her Husband was in the Army, so their house was probably a target. 

I still remember incidents like they were yesterday, my brother was 4 bas ilsana kaan a6wal mina, and he just started speaking :p While driving through Iraq, it was pitch black and I was laying down all the way in the back (we were in a Suburban to fit us all), and I remember my mother telling the driver that if he needed to sleep we should stop at any available hotel.  We stopped at a hotel, I remember going into the room and opening the bathroom door and finding tiny cockroaches everywhere, it was the scariest experience ever.  We only stayed for a couple of hours so the driver could rest.

When we reached the Kuwaiti border the Iraqi soldiers told us that we weren’t allowed to enter Kuwait in that car, because it was an Iraqi license plate, and we needed a Kuwait-Iraq license plate, and ofcourse my brother was screaming out the Kuwaiti national anthem.  When the soldier came to our window he asked my brother “who do you like more, baba jaber (allah yer7uma) or Saddam?” and my brother replies “Akeed baba jaber ana Kuwaiti, saddam ana ma7iba”.

Anyways it was just our luck that a small car with two Kuwaiti men drove up to the border, I have no idea what they were doing there, bas el7imdila ena they took us back to the city.  My mom, my aunt and the two other women were in the back seat, and my brother and I were sitting in the front with the passenger, all i remember was how cramped it was. 

When we got home, I ran inside to see my father and he was just very confused, he had no idea that we were coming back to Kuwait, and couldn’t believe his eyes.  I remember hearing a mans voice and being very confused, and when I ran up the stairs I realized that the english news was on and that was the voice I was hearing. 

There was just so much memories that happened during the remaining months, too much to write in one blog post.  I am actually surprised at the amount of memories I have from the Gulf War, specially since I was only 6 years old.  Days that I do not want repeated, especially since I am older now, and would understand much more.  Allah ekhali liq8 oo allah e7afeth’ha.

The Baby Shower

At the end of May, we (my friends and I) threw a baby shower for our friend K.  I offered to have it at my house because I love planning parties and playing host, as much stress as it causes me, I just LOVE IT.  I stayed for a couple of days thinking of a theme for the baby shower, and finally it came to me, HAWAIIAN THEME!  Okay I don’t want to say her wedding was “hawaiian” themed, but her flowers were colorful and the koosha was different than the typical white flower or pink flower ones, so I kind of made my baby shower to match in a way.

It was only close friends and family, and seriously I had a blast having everyone over.

Everyone who entered wrote a little note, and it was hung up like little baby clothes, you could either write a note for the baby or for the mother 🙂

Also everyone who came in got a hawaiian lei to wear around their necks, by the end of the party most of us had it around our heads :p

This is when you first entered, before anyone wrote a note, well actually there is one note written and it was from me ;p

The cake, which was so adorable was from Little Treats.

Ofcourse it wasn’t all just sitting talking and eating, we played games to make it more fun.  There were two games that I made them play.  The first game, people had to get into pairs, one person is the mother while the other is the baby, and the “mother” had to put diapers on the baby, and the baby had to crawl til the end of the hallway and back and the first person to do that got a prize (a massage voucher from Spa Time).  When we were shopping for stuff for the baby shower, Mirim and I found adult diapers in the Diaso store in Soog El Salmiya.  the next game was also the same “mother” and “child” and the Mother had to feed the child from the bottle :p  The first baby to finish the bottle was the winner and they also received a voucher from spa time.  Then for those who didn’t win, there was a raffle (everyone who entered wrote their names down) and we made my little cousin pick a name out and the winner got the third massage voucher.

Kuwait-Sharm-Kuwait

I just came back from a wonderful trip 2 sharm el sheikh with a hilarious group of my friends.

A blog post with the good, the bad and the ugly with pictures will be coming soon.

Egyptians are probably the funniest people in the world.

Waka Waka Not

As much as I am in love with Shakiras Waka Waka song, and it really makes me wanna just get up and dance, I still love this song

I just thought I’d give all of you a blast from the past.

And seriously Portugal, 7-0!!! WOW, I root for Brasil and we are playing them in a couple of days and allah yaster especially since Kaka got a red card 😦 My friend Nwair roots for Portugal, so if we watch the game together akhaf e9eer 6aag :p

I would also like you all to meet my world cup crush, Mr. Carlos Manuel Bocanegra captain of the USA team, he is one fine man.