Egypt... I Miss You!

So you know, no matter how much you complain when you're back home about how you'd love a new  experience and how much you need the change, like that would be the solution to all your problems. Let me tell you that is not always the case.

No matter how happy you are wherever you are and no matter how impressed you are by which ever city you land upon; even if it's supposedly one of the best in the world... you will still be homesick.

And regardless of the many problems and complexities that come along with the baggage of being home; you'd be surprised that when you're home with your family, the people you love and the streets you know best (despite their insanity) you are in your comfort zone. You don't have "major" issues to worry about it. Being away from home and alone makes you worry. Makes you fear things you never thought about and makes you realize what is really important for you.You don't realize how easy your life actually is when you are worry free. And yes, regardless of the never ending mess Egypt is going through, it is EASY!!!

It's home... you can't ask why or how or be surprised, but you just love it to the bones.
In the end there is no place like home.

I'm homesick. 
Being away from you sucks; and having to watch you on the news sucks even more.
I miss my family, my friends, my home, my room, my bed, my car, my old job, Egyptian people, our streets, our smiles, our music in the streets, our problems, our food, our traffic, our spirit, our humor... I miss my comfort zone!

I miss Egypt! I miss home!

Dubai: The Arab Land of Dreams!

So I've been in Dubai for a little over 10 days now and I'm still discovering what this city is all about, however there are a few things that I have started to figure out!

First of all let me say... Dubai is definitively a great city to live in, no question asked. Yet... you know when you have such high expectations in a place after all the stuff you hear and then you come here and you're like okay... I was expecting a lot more. It is a nice, clean, organized, good quality of life city but there is nothing really special about it. Its a typical city! - what we call in Arabic... "3ady!"

Maybe my lack of "impressiveness" comes back to the fact that i was born and raised in KSA, so things are pretty much similar all over the gulf if you give people their liberty! So it's nice but I wasn't heart stopping-ly amused. And if you tell me, "oh shopping here is crazy," we kinnda have all these shops in Egypt, and the prices aren't all that different!! - in my humble opinion :) 

Of course the construction here is beyond impressive, however it's all artificially and financially made! So ya, they have the tallest building in the world, the biggest fountain, the largest aquarium and probably a bunch of other Genius World Records...but there is nothing really natural about the place! And after a while it hurts the eye to see 40 skyscrapers, each in it's own design lined up next to one another without any synchronization as if competing for the weirdest design award! - again, I'm just saying!  

So, me being Egyptian and just moving here from home, let me tell you what I miss and don't miss about home!

What I miss about Egypt::

• Mama... obviously and every lastingly! Baba... all the time! Mondy... my awesome sis! And Monmon... for some reason, I miss him more since I got here! LOL - psychology is an insane game!
• My car... taxi's here are expensive and it's not a small city. It would cost a lot if you decide to cab your way through life! 
• Friends! This place needs lots of company so you can go out and have fun... I mean you're never going to go out at night alone.. it doesn't make lots of sense!
• Missing out on events :( - Like missing my best friend's first baby coming to the world; and what seems like missing Christmas and New Year with the family... and who knows what else will happen while I'm here!
• Knowing my way around! I have "zero" sense of direction and I used to get lost in Cairo, so you must imagine what it's like to be here. 
• Food... here the food is tasteless. I had the worst sushi and the worst burger in my life over here! And the rest is just.. bleh! Tasteless!
• "Ya Anesa," - I miss that word! Ever since I came here it's all about "Madame!" Tab I'm not a madame! Seriously!
• Mobinil - I miss you! The network here is annoying. It never works, the normal network stinks; and 3G stinks even more! And I hate all those rules against free calling apps on the phone, they're blocked! They kind of killed the idea behind iPhones! Seriously!! No wonder Blackbery's are a lot more common here!
• The cheapness of cabs - seriously I never realized how much that was a blessing!
• The Culture - I miss the place having a character... here it's all man made, financially enhanced buildings... the locals are almost none existent, and it's people from all walks of life... not every interactive with one another, so it's just a disconnected community.
• The sound of the Egyptian accent and the faces of Egyptian people. Ya, we have a lot of crap happening in our country and it's not the number one destination to live at, however if you think when you get out of there you won't miss it, you're crazy! You will enjoy life wherever you are, but you will miss it, a lot and you will smile every time you hear an Egyptian and you will get excited when someone asks about your country and you will be very proud to be Egyptian :)

What I don't miss about Egypt:

• Traffic and pollution - seriously here the streets are relaxing! I definitively don't miss cars beeping all the time.
• I don't miss the 127, 128 and the Shaheens - the cars here are the most beautiful thing to watch! Never knew it's pleasurable to watch cars! They sell Ferrari's and Harley's in malls:)  
• Public transport - you see it's a mixed feeling! I miss how things were cheap back home; however I rode a metro here, and man it was pleasant!! It was an un-stressful experience. And the prices are very reasonable!
• The freedom- here everyone is free to do and dress up the way they want. No one can really object; and everyone is respected. That could be the most outstanding thing about this place.
• The seriousness for work - people here really take their jobs seriously, and they work hard and a lot. During the week, its a busy bee cycle. Of course it's hectic but it's brilliant!
• The arrogance of sellers - here they're all so friendly. If they stop calling me Madame! LOL!
• Walking in the street carefree - if anyone knows me they would know I hate walking in the streets! I would take my car rather than walk for three minutes; not because I'm lazy but because it was sort of humiliating to walk in the streets of Egypt, with the trash, the terrible traffic and the hormone driven men! Here, I voluntarily walk in the street; where traffic rules are clear, I cross the road without the need to run, people are very respectful, there is a clean pavement for me to walk on and men are "trained" or obliged to co-exist with women without the need to harass them... it's brilliant! 

So that's all so far! I guess the key factor here is cleanliness, freedom, organization, huge buildings, the kick ass BIG malls and whatever crazy stuff they can do with their money, like building an aquarium with sharks in the middle of a mall; but other than that, nothing heart stopping. Lesser than than expected, at least for me. And for the record the airport is not all that crazy! It's just an airport, blown outta proportion! - you can call me picky! or over expecting! - I'll live with that!

So yeah... Dubai is the Arab Land of Dreams, or so I like to call it, its the center of the region, the place where everyone aspire to live for someday, even me! And despite all mentioned above, I'm enjoying it and enjoying the decent quality of life here... but I miss home too... and I always will!

I was just trying to draw a realistic picture for the sake of expectations adjustment!

It Is Near...

We often hear about these sad stories: like someone dying in a car crash, a young person having cancer, a person getting mugged, a fire happening in someone's home, someone loosing a parent, kid, husband, wife or a friend, living with a disability or the aftermath of a terrible accident  ... or for all that matters anything scary and dramatic of that sort.

And for some reason we assume that these things would never happen to us or even to people we know or are close to us... But when they start to happen to your family, cousins, friends or neighbors it hits you... that death or whatever harm out there is near!

And I don't mean to be dramatic, pessimistic or depressing... but it makes you think that may be you need to be more prepared, aware and alert that like everyone else it might happen to me or you. But I guess, yes... it is depressing and hard to deal with and accept.

So it is near, that is the fact. And I hope God gives people the strength to endure these experiences, I hope it stays away from me and my beloved ones and I really hope its stays far... at least for as long as possible!

- God Bless!