"Let me take you down cuz I'm going to.. Strawberry fields.. Nothing is real, and nothing to get hung about.. Strawberry fields forever! Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.. Its getting hard to be someone but it all works out, it doesn't matter much to me.."
-Strawberry Fields Forever, The Beatles.

I wanna go to Strawberry Fields. Forever.
Really. Seems like a very cool place. And I can take my mind off of the current situation I'm in. And everything. Forever. Yay :)
Care to join?

That was lame. I know. I'll have a proper update up soon enough. Its just that everything is very hectic with uni starting and stuff so I need to get my mind -and everything else- organized first..

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"Ida Scott Taylor once wrote: Do not look back and grieve over the past, for it is gone; and do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come. Live in the present, and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering."

-Lucas Scott, One Tree Hill

Just thought I'd share this quote because its so beautiful and real at the same time. I mean, if we forget the past and stop worrying about the future, if we could just realize how irrelevant everything but the present is, wouldn't life be that much nicer?
Unfortunately, I tend to dwell way too much on the past, and think too actively about the future to the extent that I sometimes feel paralyzed from moving on and evolving. I wish I could let go.. I'll try doing so from now on!

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Something I've Recently Become to Lack..

Social etiquette skills.

I think I am by far one of the biggest losers ever -at least today proved so. At the mosque after prayer, I saw my friend and started chatting with her and stuff. In front of me, I saw a lady on a chair, late 40's perhaps.. She smiled to me and even though I looked at her straight in the eye, I shifted my sight away and acted like I hadn't seen her and continued speaking to my friend. To my amazement, the lady came up to us and said: "sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to say hello because I'm in a hurry nd I need to leave."

She shook my hand and asked me about myself, my family, my university, and like, everything that has anything to do with me in a minute. She knew I was doing medicine. She knew I was in Bahrain. She knew I was second year now. All my head could say was WHO IS THIS LADY? She knows a lot about me why don't I know her? Unfortunately, a weird habit of mine is not really speaking all.. Fluently (?) with people I don't recognize. I don't act even a tad bit welcoming. Its upsetting as I've been trying to let this go for quite some time but as I've come to realize, this was never an issue to me :/ I mean, I think I've only become this way during last year. I really was never this way. Heck, my friend would always call me the "social butterfly" of my year in high school! I guess losing a close friend for a long period of time (a whole year without her as opposed to seeing her on a daily basis) turns you into some sort of introvert?

Oh, and I never ever ask the person I don't recognize about who they might be. Ever. I just hope really really hard that they don't ask me if I know who they are, because I dread saying 'no' to them. Does this all make sense or am I being irrational? I'm almost 19 and at an average two times the size of the person I'm speaking to at any given time. Why can't I develop just a LITTLE more social etiquette skills? I mean, I don't have any issues with meeting new people.. Its just that I get all awkward around the ones who already know me when I have no clue who they are :S Also, its not like I intend to go all cold like that around them, it just happens. I just get so upset afterwards because I don't like giving people a wrong impression about myself.

Oh well.. I will discuss this in my head forever more.. Till I reach a more convincing state.

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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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