August.. Back to the Sandbox

August has arrived, and I just got back from New York a day ago, actually (:

I have lots of mixed feelings about being back in the "sandbox" as my friend would always call it :p After California, I insisted on my parents that we pass by New York again before we go back to Saudi. I won. Lol.. So instead of going back to Saudi on the 27th, we went to New York again and stayed there till the 31st. So, my issue is that wherever I go, EACH YEAR, is how attached I get to the place I travel to. Very attached. Like, I wanna live & study here and spend my whole life here and have kids here and have neighbors and meet people here attached. New York and California were two amazingly different places, yet I enjoyed each one so so much. People would ask me which one is nicer? Which did you have more fun in? My answer: your question is non applicable, sorry :p
so they'd get all pissed and give up in trying to make small talk with me. Unfortunately, I can't make up my mind and I can't give a more reasonable answer. I JUST LIKE BOTH. They're really different. So I can't compare. It's like asking me if I like steaks or oranges better :/ Anyways, yeah, after a pleasant dinner in Benihana of Tokyo on La Cienega Blvd, Beverly Hills, we went for a drive through the city.. Nighttime in Los Angeles was truly something else. The cool chilly weather, the ambience of the streets, the whole setting of the city.. It isn't something you could forget! Especially that on that night, we drove through the UCLA campus, student apartments, and the fraternity and sorority houses with the huge Greek letters.. I gazed admirably at everything around me and tried helplessly to keep each bit in my photographic memory.. I wanted to study there! I really did with all my heart. Knowing that that's not going to happen anytime soon (hopefully for my residency though!!!), melancholy set in, and I started feeling bittersweet about the whole thing :( We got back to the hotel after a much enjoyable stroll around town, and somehow, my dad detected my unnerve-ness and asked what was wrong? I didn't say anything much.. Just a sigh and a hmph,, but what amazed me is what he said next. He put his arm around my shoulder and said while smiling: "Don't fall in love with California, Reem.. I'm telling you. Don't fall in love with L.A. It's a lost battle!" to which I replied.. HMPH! *DEEP UPSET SIGH* I was dumbstruck with what he said that I remained speechless :| To be frank though, that coming from a person who has studied in USC and Cal State and has practically lived in California for the whole duration of his late teens up to his mid-twenties, I think that's pretty unfair *talktohand* He got to fall in love, why can't I? :''''(
Aaah. So, yeah, New York on the way back was uber fun too.. 5th Avenue was a shoppers haven, and Macy's on 34th Street downright CONFUSING! LOL! It was HUGE! I hope I get to visit each year :D A med student needs a break every nine months now, doesn't she?

Moving on to Saudi news, Saudi has been hot, humid, and toasty :D Coming from weather that ranged from 22 to 32 (max) degrees celsius in the afternoon, I am now confronted with a forecast that has 45 degrees as a daily average :D YAY! So that's something I need to get used to.. Ramadan starts in approximately 9 days or so, and I'm looking forward to it! More Saudi news.. Umm.. I got to meet my new cousin Lulu! and I am now reunited with baby Saif, the cutest cousin anyone could ever have. Also, my close friend is leaving to Michigan to study human resources in 12 days. Only 12 days left and my friend leaves forever for the next 5 years (minus Christmas breaks, maybe.) and I can't get myself to come to peace with her leaving. I'm trying to be all happy about it and stuff but I'm just not feeling it :/ Mind you, this is the friend who I had planned my entire future with and the one who was supposed to follow our shared dream of medicine with me at the same university. I guess life likes to take abrupt turns and ruin all your prior plans fo evaaa :D I wish her future luck and all the best, even though things didn't turn out quite the way I wanted them to be.

June Highlights!

Okay, here are a few things that happened during June.. Right from the start :D This was supposed to be posted earlier (and not as a highlight post, either) but I'm to blame because I lost the wire that downloads pics from my camera, and therefore, you are now getting a quick highlight post AND crappy Blackberry pictures :D Anyways,

Beginning of June: SUMMER STARTED :D

June 8: Nouraba7's 19th birthdaaaay! I wanted to do special cupcakes to celebrate this extravagant event, and I kept on thinking and thinking about what to do. After much searching (through final days as well!) I had nothing. I mean, I found nice ideas, but nothing amazingly special or different I wanted to do. Until June 7, at 10 PM, my head said Tetris :| Why don't I create something out of Tetris? I love Tetris, and she loves Tetris as well ever since I'd infected her with the Tetris illness (I really mean illness. At first we only used to play during breaks between lectures, but with time, we started playing through lectures of professors we don't like, then during lectures we thought boring, then all day basically -.- Even during final season, our breaks were comprised of Tetris. I hope you now appreciate my use of the word illness :D) at the beginning of second semester maybe? Anyways, we're both Tetris junkies and I thought that this was amazingly suitable. It'll be fun for me to do, and such a shocker for her I guess ;p With that, my Tetris (Oreo) cupcakes were born :')

Okay so they weren't perfect, but I only had a few hours to do the whole thing!

Then, I decided to get in touch with my artsy roots that have been dead for the past two years and use my time more effectively, that resulted in this:

Made with soft chalk pastels <3

A few days after, I had a ROAD TRIP! We went to Riyadh.. 4 hours via car. Loads of fun. NOT!

The trip was exhausting and I was only sitting! I pity my poor dad who was driving.

Ugly pic, pretty red sands :)

But while there I really enjoyed myself that I didn't wanna leave :S I enjoyed the streets, the nightlife, the hotelllll. Faisaliyah Hotel, best destination in Riyadh ever <3>so much fun that I couldn't handle myself and ate rape fish :D

Lol.. Just kidding. I don't do fish. Except very very scarcely. This was advertised in Riyadh Gallery near the food court and I thought it was very amusing. Rape fish ftw! ;p

Also, I bough World Cup memorabilia. Me and Zizo got matching shirts :D

He was uber exhausted after the Germany vs. Australia game.. 4 - 0 EPIC game!

Aaaannnd, at the morning of the day we were leaving, I got too excited and burned my abaya :( I don't know how it happened. The iron was on low. I know how to iron delicate items. I think I should've sued the hotel for their schizophrenic irons -_-

It was huge. Thank god we were leaving!

Then, a few days after we were back from Riyadh, I got baking again and perfected my very first New York style cheesecake..

T'was really yummy, except I disliked the lemon zest I put in it. Disregarding that, it was perfectooo <3>

June 28: My cousin had a pool party. My aunt -who happens to be in her last trimester of pregnancy- was supposed to make the cake, but on that exact day, she went to the hospital with Braxton Hicks contractions (Medic in me speaking. In plain English: fake labor :D) so my cousins mom was confused on what to do and stuff cuz she was busy with other things. Lucky for her, I happened to be there and made her the frosting and frosted the cake and decorated it & stuff. So this is the final product!

I decorated the cake while my previously spoken about aunt did the figures beforehand!

TODAY! June 30: I got back a while ago from Julia Stile's sisters graduation party.. Which was really fun, except that I made a huge fool of myself during truth or dare. Okay she wasn't Julia Stiles. She just looks like her. But she's prettier :D So yeh Meena, I'm declaring that you're way way prettier than Julia Stiles publicly in my blog. I hope you like this :D

For the party I made spider web cupcakes, just cuz she demanded that we wear black, for no reason whatsoever ;p

With that, June has reached its end, and tomorrow is the first of July, which means that I (hopefully) get to leave in 11 days :D That's all that happened during June though I think..

And I thought I wasted a whole month doing nothing.. ;p

P.S:

Even though I'd intended not to do this type of post again, I like it :/ Lol.. It took more time than I'd planned and it isn't so swift at all :D I think I'll be doing this again.