Bread Buns With Holes?

Guess what they are yet?
Bagels. They're not bread buns exactly, but whatever.

I made bagels. I woke up at 12 and made bagels. Being the fasting person I am at the moment, I am really craving those bagels. My problem with my bagels is though (besides their ridiculous calorie number) is that unfortunately, they look sorta ugly :/ although this batch looks considerably better than the last batch I made a week and a half ago, they're still lacking the beauty of those gorgeous New York bagels with the perfectly smooth round exterior. Mine are.. Grumpy looking. They taste amazing, as amazing as any New York bagel, I won't deny that. They just don't look amazing. They don't look so bad either, just.. Lackluster.

I need to find out the secret to the perfect looking bagel soon enough. Even though I personally don't mind eating them however they look like, some people have been asking me for bagels since forever, and I keep on blowing them off repeatedly :D because I refuse to serve anything short of perfect. I also can't bake bagels in Bahrain for the minor reason of me not owning an oven, but that's a whole other subject..

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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.

Okay, soo...

Hellooooo from sunny Californiaaaaaa! I take that last post back :D Entirely. Lol. HAHA.

The whole thing is that on the day my parents left to New York, I got an email saying that everything was resolved and that I could go. Now, on that day, after numerous calls from the parents (from the plane!!), I finally got their approval for me to come with my brother. Right after that, I rushed like a maniac to pack whatever I could (it was 8 PM and it was a total fail. After I'd actually got to New York, I'd realized that I'd forgotten half of the stuff I needed!!! GRRRR :@) and book tickets for the next flight at 5 AM!! That was a fail as well :) and I had to have my uncle go to the agents office to get us some tickets. Anyhow, after all of that was over and I had my tickets, I was off to the airport. Keep in mind that all previous events occurred in about 12 hours or so.. And well, 16 hours later I was in JFK international airport! New York was AMAZING. I cannot stress that enough. Everything about it was extraordinary. The streets, the cabs, the hotels, the lights.. Aah, beautiful! We stayed in a hotel in the middle of Times Square so the area was always always busy with people!

The huge Forever21 screen.. FIND ME ;p

I only had two full days there before we left to California.. First day was random sightseeing, Museum of Modern Art, walking through 42nd street, Avenue of the Americas, etc and by the time it was 7:30 PM, we went back to the hotel to get ready for Wicked the musical!

It was a comedic musical with a pretty story <3

Second day, I was on Good Morning America amongst the waving crowds :D Hahahaha :p

Their studio.

Sam Champion.

Yet again ;p

I don't know how to get the full episode of that day, but if you're interested, it was on July 15th. The rest of the was spent on 5th Avenue (FUN!!!) and again, at 8, we were going to Phantom of the Opera..

Now that was SPECTACULAR! Beyond amazing, beyond beautiful, it was basically indescribable! Everything about it was just too good. This is one musical I'm definitely going to again! The music was magnificent (cheers to the supercallafragalisticexpialadocious orchestra!!!!), the effects were incredible.. JKDHHJKSHKFJ! Lol.. I'm pretty sure you get the idea by now ;p

With those two swift days gone, we headed to Los Angeles, California!!!!!!!!!! YAY!

Flight from New York to California was good, and as an added bonus, Cindy Crawford boarded the same flight before us ;p So we had her on the plane with us :D How cool? She looked stunning!

In Los Angeles, the first few days there were spent in Downtown LA where I attended a fashion show and picked dresses for the store & stuff. We also saw Inception (best. summer. movie.) and basically just walked around the city.. The weather helps. It was very very cool in the middle of summer -emphasize: middle of July- to the extent that you may need to get a jacket on at night <3>

Next day, we went to Universal Studios!!! WOOT!

That was loads of fun. Very very exhausting day. I'm not going to go through it because this post would be a gazillion times longer and you'd kill me..

Finally, I'll end this post with:

Because nothing says more than that <3

P.s: Please disregard my grammar mistakes (if any) and my excess use of the word 'amazing' :p I'm in a rush we're going to Rodeo Drive :D

My Delightful Summer

I'm currently writing (typing, actually) from Biella, an Italian cafe/pizzeria situated right across Virgin on the first floor of City Center in Bahrain. Today, I fear, has been a very very disturbing day for me.

8 hours and 53 minutes ago, I found out my fate for the summer.

I'd been planning to go the States ever since last November, marking each day off my -mental- calendar. As the academic year came to an end, I grew more and more excited. CALIFORNIA BABY! I haven't been there in forever and I desperately needed a booster shot. Planned take off day: July 11th. My god I have been waiting for this day since the 29th of December to be exact :D Anyway, back to the initial story.. My fate for the summer: spending it in good old Khobar. No States (for overpowering reasons we have no control over.) I've been maintaining my mental & psychological state fairly well since that had been announced. For the past 9 hours, I'd been acting pretty damn good. Sure I was sorta gloomy -and who wouldn't be after finding out something like that? But nonetheless, I'd been semi-normal.

My parents decided to go to Bahrain and tagged me along. We saw Toy Story 3 which didn't help in making me feel better contrary to what I believed its effect would be, because it just reminded me of Disney Land and Universal Studios, both in California. Where I'm not going. I'd become idle. And amazingly, not hungry :S I'd gotten a popcorn and a Coke for the movie, and didn't touch either until my mom asked: "are you fasting today Reem :S?" After that I forcibly had almost the entire bucket & chugged down my Coke. I think I thought that nothing was worth anything anymore. After the movie we went around shopping for stuff (with me being utterly uninterested in everything) and eventually we came here to have dinner. Being the gloomy uninterested apetiteless person I am, I barely spoke a word while deciding on what to eat. After a little chatting we ordered -I was obliged to order something or else my parents would've gotten extremely pissed at me. I got spinach and ricotta ravioli.

As we waited for the food, my parents started talking about their trip and travel plans. I just held the menu (yes, I did keep it even though it was far past ordering time. But in case I wanted a drink, since I opted not to get one) and read it. Again and again and again. I'd practically memorized it. Just so that I wouldn't have to take part in their conversation, to block them out. Their discussion was upsetting me and I couldn't -and wouldn't- tolerate it. 42 times of reading the menu later, cover to cover, I can now work as a certified Biella waiter :D

The food arrived, and I have to say, it was very good. Delicious. After 2 tempura prawns, one pizza slice, and 2 ravioli's though, I couldn't have anymore. And that's very alarming for a person like me :) minimal eating at a restaurant -or anytime, for that matter- has got to be a warning sign for something gone wrong. But I couldn't. I just couldn't. I tried forgetting about it and enjoying my time, but it just wouldn't happen. Aaannnddd, as I resumed writing this post in the car, my mom started complaining about my bad attitude and constant bbm use today -the latter being not true, I had my phone shut off the whole time we were in Bahrain. Most likely she meant my use of it in morning and afternoon..

Anyhow, I just wanna go to sleep and wake up realizing that this was all just a dream. Or a false reality. Or a hallucination of some sort. Unfortunately, waking up tomorrow will only make matters worse, as that means my summer days are ending and I'm not going anywhere. After all my planning, my hopes, my expectations, my everything for a half a month in Los Angeles and half a month in New York, it's all over. And its irreversible. It really is over. I have to suck it up till this summer ends, uni starts, JC 1 and 2 are over, and 11 months later, my summer starts again and I MAY or MAY NOT travel anywhere. Again. No London, no States, no Japan, no Lebanon, and no Turkey. Yay. I know I should remain positive and crap etc etc, that this isn't the end of the world.. But you're not in a position to judge me -.- so I'll exert all the negativity I want for the next year until summer '11 is here! Boo ya! Therefore, I'm sorry wall in Saks Fifth Avenue advising me to "think about smiling at everyone I pass on the street today because I wont believe how contagious it is." I just can't find it in me to do that today (or this month). Though I'd usually love doing so, my optimism has officially depleted.

10 hours after I'd found out my fate for the summer, the frustration and disappointment inside me are playing it up and are finally inducing me with a migraine.

As if I need one right now.

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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.

Change?

Okay, so, quick post since I've been very busy lately.. As you can all see, my blog is called Reemo's Tall World. I made this blog back when I was in 9th, 10th grade maybe.. At that time, the name was amusing and pretty applicable to my daily life. It still is now, except that I feel like I want to change it into something more.. Old? Lol.. Not sure. I was thinking Confessions of a Med Student, that's more suitable right now.. Yet I don't want to change it because I like the fuzzy nostalgia the original name gives me.. Change is always good though, isn't it? Ah, the indecisiveness of the Libra. So irritating. And always on minor things. Any suggestions would be appreciated :D

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Well, it's official. Summer is finally here.
Yes, as amazing as it seems, the year is over. I mean, it's been what, 9 moths since we started the academic year? NINE MONTHS HAVE PASSED SINCE I STARTED IN RCSI! I'm done with my first year in uni. Wow. That's pretty cool to think about. First year of med school: check :)
Haha, sorry I'm just repeating myself, but I'm really intrigued by this.
That means only 5 more years enshallah :D
About today, we ended our exam at 2 PM promptly, after which I rode with Noura in her car. Instantly, she hooked her iTrip and by 2:05 we were ready to celebrate! She announced this song to be pretty appropriate for our situation.. After which I declared it to be my official summer song (in my head or aloud, not sure :x)



I love it! So happy and upbeat. Haha, totally complemented the moment!!

We reached City Center by 2:15 and started our movie by 2:30. Let me tell you, Prince of Persia was very very nice. I loved every bit. I wont talk about it here so I wont ruin it for anyone who wants to watch it but it's definitely worth watching..
Aaaannnddd, after that, I was on my way to my beloved home.. Finally, a weekend with no uni on Sunday, or Monday, or any day after that for that matter :")
Anyhow, here's to a great year with the oh so fabulous Nouraba7.. We'll kick ass in JC enshallah! Oo 3ugbal 9aef our 6th year!

Moving on to my summer plans:

• Bake cupcakes.
  
• Bake big cakes.
  
• Bake cookies.
  
• Bake pies.
  
• Bake some more.
  
• Cook.
• Bake.
  

(I'll stop this now)

• Get a license.. Something I urgently need to do.
  
• Lose 15 kg's. (This has been a summer plan {and a new year resolution} for the past 5 years now :D)
• Get my room prettified.
  
• Sleep. Gotta catch up on sleep.
  
• CATCH UP ON SHOWS!!!!!!!!! I have way too many.
• Read a few books.
  

Most are pretty pointless. Lol.. Buttt.. I have a right to be pointless. For the next three months at least.. So, not a very interesting post to you guys, but to me, it's pretty intense ;)
Till next time.. x