My own cultural shock

Its amazing how two years away from kuwait can do so much like making me have a cultural shock around my own people

I didnt have to land in kuwait to feel that shock, i felt it while waiting for the plane in Istanbul!!

I noticed myself looking at Kuwaitis like an outsider! Everything about them stood out and suddenly it was not the norm anymore.. 

Dont get me wrong, i dont mean it in a bad way at all. Im just starting to see things differently i guess.

I never realized how much make up people put on until today. Omg omg! Its the usual , you know foundation, blusher, shadow, lipsticks!! But u know it seemed too much now.. definitely not natural anymore lol!! I noticed how shocked i was looking at the girls. They do look as if they were going to a party indeed :/

Full make up and fully dresses up for the flight! Made me wonder if looking good mattered more than being comfortable ? Definitely ive taken the latest approach in canada! 

Ive always been told that arabs were loud! OMG WE ARE!!! We are just TOO loud!! If you are in a cafe in north america, ull notice how quiet people are even when they talk and if theres a khaliji in the house, trust me, you will know!! And you will also know the whole conversation!!!! 

Ha ha its funny because ive always been told that im loud and it scares me to know that i could be THAT loud!! 

I dont know if its the sense of entitlement or if its disrespect but there is no respect to ques or lines! They dont even do it slowly as in slowly squeezing themselves in the que, they just walk infront of you!!! ASHKARA!!! Which is really annoying coz in north america even elderly  or people with disability wait for their turn! Maybe i should actually stop and ask some one who cuts in, im curious to know what their response will be!!

They called for boarding per groups but everyone just rushed in regardless of their group! Wow..

It didnt end there. There were CHOAS on board! The plane was delayed almost 45min because of the choas that was made by some families where they took over other people seats and actually REFUSED to move!!! They were asked to go to their seats but refused! Plus ppl got alot of gifts but and filled the overhead bins to the fact that ppl had no place for their bags and were pissed off!! And they had to put em under the seats of other passengers!!! Other ppl decided that it wont be a full flight thus sat in other ppls places and then had to be asked to move when the designated passenger arrived such in my case where a guy was in my place n then asked to move. Its crazy i swear!

You know whats sad? Its not the first time that i see such CHOAS! In almost every flight back home, ive witnessed something similar and even when i went on vacations! Flights leaving KUwait where most passengers were kuwaiti had similar stuff happening on them!

The stares, the gossips, the whole kuwaiti package!! Omg

Im surprised that im actually shocked!! Its amazing how much you can change in 2yrs.. 

Muslims and Mosques

i dont know if ive written about this before, if i did, ill do it again to show you how much this thing bugs me !!!

why wont people respect mosques ?

Maybe i am becoming a bit sensitive after living in canada. Being away from mosques and athan makes you really appreciate it !! you have no idea how badly i miss hearing the athan.. omg that little thing that we had 5 days a week that we take from granted. I swear to god, it hits you hard when you are not in an islamic country !! and then everytime i step into a real mosque ( not a meditation/prayer room), you get this peaceful feeling upon you ..

anyway, i am in Istanbul airport waiting for my flight to go back home and i went to the mosque to pray and then i saw the usual mosque scene .. people using it as a sleeping room or people sitting there talking outloud, kids playing around and mobiles ringing everywhere .. it makes it so hard for you to pray eb 5sho3 or even concentrate while you pray and what hit me is realizing that ive only seen this in muslims prayers rooms !! ive been to churches, synagogues and temples .. ive never seen such a shameful behaviour ! People are praying quietly, respectful to their religion and to others! Ive never seen people sleeping there or kids running around ! Ive never heard a mobile rings there so why do these things happen in mosques only ?

Whats surprising is that people pray 5 times a day and you'd assume muslims are a bit religious and do take their religion seriously.. i bet they fear or love god and thats why they pray 5 times .. well .. if thats the case then why are you disrespecting the mosque ? Why do you turn this holy place where you get to talk and connect with god to a dowania or a sleeping place? If you know that 5osho3 is part of the prayer, why dont you respect others when they pray ?

I was so angry today !! SO SO angry !! but again, its not only in turkey, ive seen this in every mosque .. even in Mecca !! its sad .. its very sad ..

Canadian winter : NWT, yellowknife. Last night..

Just like i predicted.. Auroras were not visible tonight! That concludes my trip and adventure up north! I dont want to be negative but this place is known for its high chance of seeing auroras! Theres 95% chance of seeing it! Guess our luck/7oba/3ain made us fall in the 5% of bad luck. Sigh...

Al7amdallah 3ala kol 7al! Maybe im meant to see it some other time! Maybe im meant to see it with some one special! 

Maybe..

One day, We shall meet ..

positive shift

Positive shift !

Never underestimate mindfulness. Its amazing and mind blowing when you are able to catch yourself dwelling in negativity and then be able to switch it to a more positive attitude by being mindful. Its an exhilarating feeling as if now you are dealing with a completely new situation.

Ive traveled all the way to Yellowknife to see the auroras. I couldn't used this vacation to do other things that are guaranteed to make me have fun but i chose to gamble and pay all this money to come here hoping that id see the real beauty of northern lights ..

ive spent 3 nights here with no luck and tonight is my last night and it doesn't look promising at all. The weather is bit, its snowing and pretty cloudy add to that that the auroras are not so active tonight so ive made peace with the fact that i may return to Toronto without seeing it ..

i was feeling really sad this morning, cursing my luck and just i was really feeling down.

But i kinda managed to take a step back and revisit the whole trip and i realized that :

although i havent seen the auroras but :

1. ive spent my long weekend outside Toronto which is always a good thing.
   2. i made so many friends from different countries in yellow knife
   3. ive been to a new province and a new city that most Canadians havent even visited
2. now i know how the true Canadian winter feels. Ive felt how -40 feels like .
   4. i know the pain of having a frostbite
   5. i was introduced to MAPLE BUTTER !! omg !!! these Canadians add maple syrup to everything and boy oh boy maple butter is something else ! I could eat it with a spoon lol its such a treat
   6. ive tried real winter things: dog sledding, ice fishing
   7. IVE BEEN IN A REAL IGLOO !! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT !! A REAL IGLOO !!!! checks it out of my bucket list
   8. ive been to a new airport ( calgary )
   9. i learnt how to gear up for winter ( the hard way lol )
   
   it is true that i havent fulfilled the whole purpose of this trip and it is true that ive spent alot of money on that and i guess its easy to feel disappointed and to consider the whole thing as a failure but there is always a positive side to everything. there’s always a gain when there’s a loss. Theres always something good happening despite the chaos around us.
   Yes i havent seen the auroras, yes im financially compromised, yes my trip partner is a disaster , yes i was not able to give myself the auroras as a valentine gift but ive done something now, ive challenged myself and made a progress. And by typing this, i guess im getting more flexible mentally and hopefully with more positive attitude.
   I guess the positive side of not seeing the auroras this time is that now i have an excuse to go to Iceland or Norway for another auroras hunt :P

We come to life with our expectations and our own agendas but no one can tame life and no one can control the outcomes of our decisions. And this can easily feel like a failure and you can easily be disappointed when things dont go your way but remember, YOUR way is NOT the only way and it doesnt matter where you end up in as long as you made it somewhere .

Being positive feels differently and definitely doesnt feel like myself but the truth is, it feels GOOD !! exactly my point, if its not my way ( myself ), it doesnt mean that its bad.

Let go and let life steer you around and you’ll be surprised about how exciting it is.

Canadian winter adventure: NWT, aurora hunt: 3rd night

When the bus picked us up! We could see some auroras on the aurora liveview so we were racing against time to reach to the camp before they are gone since their timing and length are very unpredictable. 

Another extended stay, another 6hrs in the cold weather but no luck! Ppl actually managed to take photos of a very faint line but then it turned out that it was the auroras through their camera but nothing impressive with your naked eyes *pouts*

I got one more night... Ya rab... Ill really be heart broken if i dont see the auroras tomorrow! I paid 2000 dollars for this and i want my moneys worth :(

Canadian winter adventure: NW territories: day 3

We decided to try ice fishing today we booked a 120-dollar-3hrs-ice fishing trip. They picked us up around 10 am, we were at the lake by 1020. They broke the ice, threw the net inside and pulled it out in 10min. Ppl were taking photos of the fish and we were back in the bus by 1040!!!!!!!

This is NOT ice fishing and i didnt pay 120 dollars to take photos with fish!!!! *mumbles* this is a rip off and humiliation to fishing!!!!

The frozen lake #nofilter

Then the second part was to eat our own fish according to the advertisement. The net only caught 3 fish and the bus had more than 20ppl so definitely thats not going to feed us all unless they are planning to make sushi with it!! Which will work perfect since me n my friend were the only non asian on the bus lol. But seriously fish at 11am!!!!

Next on the list was DOG SLEDDING!! I guess igloo building and dog sledding was the most north-polish activities anyone can do!! It started fun but then i started to feel sorry for the dogs! 3 dogs pulling 2 big girls!!! I felt really guilty :( 

It was extremely cold though! After 15min, i was not able to feel my face, fingers or toes though i was wearing double socks n a really fat mitt!!!! So at the end of the ride, i was guilty and cold lol!! I was really cold that i freaked out about having frostbite!!! It was painfully numb!!!!

Seriously!!! This kind of cold is pretty dangerous!!!! 

Kittens overload!!!

Our two domestic cats ran out of the house once and came back. Months later, we discover that both pregnant!!!

My mom hates them and when she knew that both are about to to give birth for more cats, she went nuts!! Lol demanding to kick them out of the house!!!

So my dad was trying to get rid of them

Lol anyway, he is serious about getting rid of them and has made an agreement to hand the two pregnant cats to my aunt in a couple of days.

However,

The first one gave birth to 6 beautiful kittens yesterday and that made my dad even more mad lol

And

The other one gave birth this morning!! I think my dad will have a stroke now lol!! 

So we got a total of 11 newly born kittens lol! I have no idea how the hell we are going to hide thess from mum anddad but lol the situation is HILARIOUS!!! Anyone looking to adopt kittens?? We got plenty lol 

My sister is thinking about taking the. To paws but im not sure that they will accept 11 newly born kittens lol !! Thats just insane

Sorry i had to post that coz i thought her " 5al traye7 " comment was halorious lol