I am a 24/7er are you?

I have just received the final version of the call to action for the 24/7 Campaign, which is a campaign to demand better working conditions for migrant domestic workers in Lebanon. I leave you the pleasure of reading the details in the call to action itself.

You can already see that I added the 24/7 badge to my blog, so I am a 24/7er, Yalla join us! ;)

Twenty-four-7.org

Good hair or safe ride... that is the question

I was peacefully sipping my coffee, smoking my ciggy, and struggling to remember the old days as good ones, when on the road in front of me I see a bike passing, no, there was nothing unusual, or unlebanese about the bike. It was one of those expensive mopeds that you see everyday in Lebanon. The driver was a Lebanese dude on the verge of the hairloss journey, with gel coagulating his hair in a way that clearly shows the head skin craving to shine brighter in a few years. And of course, I could see all these details because he was not wearing a helmet, which makes him one of those Lebanese men that you see everyday in Lebanon.

Now hollywood stars will run to adopt /buy Haiti children

I so fuckingly knew it! In fact, I was just waiting for some article to confirm it to me. I mean who hasn't read at least one article about Katherine Zeta Jones buying adopting a "poor child" from somewhere that is not white enough to treat children right (over and over again)?And what about Madonna (etc. etc.)?

The latest child abduction adoption news I read was about Queen Latifa saying she's ready to be a parent (via DNA India) and... please lemme quote her words:

I am OK

Given the latest problems in my beloved home, and to comfort you all about my situation in Lebanon I just wanted you all to know that I am safe and everything.
I don’t know if I should talk about what has been happening in Lebanon or not. It is really not clear. What is clear however is that Hezbollah has won yet another war. But on the other hand it finally made the mistake of flagrantly using its arsenal against the Lebanese people.
We’ll wait and see in the next few days how it evolves…
As for me, I was in Jordan from Thursday till Sunday. I can’t talk about the details of my trip for security concerns. But I can tell you that was one of the most stressful situations I had ever been through. Though I wasn’t worried about my parents, I couldn’t stay insensitive to my friends’ tears, and a lot were shed. The way back to Lebanon was full of setbacks and difficulties and took us 13 fucking hours! But we made it.
Now the situation seems a bit better… it’s improving by the day. I don’t really want to talk about the implications of what has happened because I am simply clueless, I have more than one theory about it, maybe hen I will know better I will let you all know…

See you all on happier occasions

Stage4

It’s kind of odd how people with seemingly nothing in common may share such intimate details. It’s even weirder how you see the same pattern of ignorance and shame repeated around the world, I always thought it was my religious environment that caused this but as I grow older I come in contact, one way or the other, with people that had the same experience, take this postcard (from the postsecret blog):




I lived almost the same experience as an adolescent. I thought the changes on my body and its mutilation was God’s punishment for masturbation. But I was also raised to believe that God never I punishes… I was fucked up!
And what was more fucked up is that I kept believing I was bringing the mutilation to myself and trying to fix it for a very long time, until I was 19. I am not sure why I lived this phase for so long. Even after the suicidal phase of my life ended at 14 the shame was always there, I always believed I’d never get married since my husband would be repulsed and disgusted by my looks. And I still feel terribly ugly! I am bitterly relieved to see people talk about the things that bothered me also. I often think of how many people still live in that hell, it’s unimaginable. How can a healthy child turn into such a crippled teenager? Simply by using the weapon of ignorance and adding the typical religious guilt. I grew up thinking I was the only human being with such extremely ugly genitalia! I thought everyone else had ones that looked like babies… Just as I lived my whole life thinking I was the only one who tried to herself in the world. This is why, whenever I am talking to someone, I do say that I tried to kill myself, hopefully I would contributing to breaking down that wall of silence that suffocates us all.
Some people feel that my bitterness towards religions and the Church is irrational and doesn’t really make sense, inno I exaggerate. But I don’t! I suffered the same oppression, hurt and psychological mutilation as almost everyone around me. I was more vulnerable because I took it more seriously and religions, if they are true, should be taken seriously, so I suffered irrational suffering because I did the right thing, I believed them!
Now I don’t believe them anymore and there are no half solutions, it’s either these religions are true or they are not! And they are NOT… So yes, when my brother comes to me telling me about what he learn in class today about GOD, I freak out! If my brother goes through what I went through because of those religious bastards I don’t know what I could do, all I can do is to hope he doesn’t. I just hope he survives it long enough to write about it as I write about it now, I’m sure he’d be a very happy adult if he does.

Rorschach this!

While studying the other day, my brother was asked to compose an ending for a story about a nice sorceress that performs magic through music. Check out what my brother wrote:

Elle se servait de sa guitare pour attirer les loups, les serpents et les souris. Ils sont gentils. Les enfants qui viennent jouer s’enfuient parce qu’ils ont peur d’elle. Ils racontent à leurs parents et leurs parents décident de détruire la sorcière. Elle s’enfuie et les parents mettent le feu à la forêt. Tous les animaux s’enfuient.

In English :

She used her guitar to attract wolves, serpents and mice. They are nice. Children that used to go there to play ran away because they were scared of her. They told their parents and their parents decided to destroy the sorceress. She escapes and the parents burn the whole forest. All the animals run away.

I was wondering what should I understand from his creativity? They gave him a very peaceful, fluffy, plane subject that he turned into an epic melodrama about the destructive force of ignorance and kids. In fact, if you look closer, his story seems to be an alternative version of the genesis myth. Afterall, the big bad animals were living in perfect harmony till the kids and their parents destroyed everything out of ignorance and not out of bad intention. What’s funny is that no one in his story is evil but yet everything goes wrong! And above all I am intrigued by his conclusion: Ignorance prevails and goodness ran way?!

P.S.: Though I did fix numerous spelling and grammatical mistakes (and fixed fixed sentences all together), I did NOT contribute in any way to the elaboration of the whole idea. He did it all by himself and I only corrected mistakes when he was done.

Please everyone, welcome the super busy ultra successful Pazuzuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

I’m a bad bad blogger I know, but in the last couple of weeks I actually had a social life… do you people believe that?! I, Pazuzu, have a social life. I know you people are probably pissed off with my long absence but let me give you a quick view of the last few weeks and how I spent them. I am not sure if that will amuse you or make you hate me even more.

So on the 4th of July I had my biotechnology exam, the last of my exams and I did reasonably well. The same day I went out with some friends to Macdonald’s (yeah a bunch of adults enjoying our Macflurry) we stayed there from 7 till 10 or something.

The next day a friend of mine (A) invited me to go out with him and his boyfriend (C), being euphoric and super duper happy about my results I accepted and went out with them, it was very sweet and I had great fun, we had dinner at roadster and then ice cream and a couple of beers in a gay-friendly place. That was a Thursday, right?

Friday, I was supposed to go out with some friends but it didn’t work out, again (A) invited me to go out with him and his boyfriend, being thrilled about going out with this couple I accepted, but later on I was informed by (A) himself that he intended to break-up with (C)… All of a sudden I was no longer thrilled about it :-/… I really loved that couple they’re both awesome! Why did they have to break up, so I stayed at home that night (did I mention that I had left for my uncles’ place on Friday.

Saturday, I went out for a pseudo-pyjama night (we didn’t sleep there but we stayed up late and some of us slept there) with some girlfriends’. Again I had great fun.

Sunday, went out with (C) and (M) (she had organized the Saturday night out) and some other friends. We had lunch and laughed very hard.

Monday, I was too busy preparing for the defense of my thesis. I was scared and stressed and scared and worried and stressed and freaking out, but it went on great and I even scored 85/100! Do you believe that?! I, Pazuzu the #1 college failure, I scored 85 on my memoire! I was impressed! The highest grade I believe is 90, in the case of a memoire of course!

On the same day I met Jos at 2:30 am and we kept talking for 2 or 3 hours, then I left home, at 7 am (A) calls me inviting me to watch a movie and grab something to eat from crepaway in Ashrafieh (yes the very same place where an explosion took place a while back killing an elderly woman). I accepted and again it was very very nice, we watched shrek the third, it was very very funny. That night I slept in Beirut to avoid coming home at 12:30 am.

Wednesday, I came home, arrived home just in time to take G from his gym class and then I took him to macdonald’s for lunch, then when I came home I was TIIIIIIIRED. I’ve been suffering a headache and feeling so sleepy…. I wonder why?

Updating (N.B.: this was supposed to be posted on friday but my connection is not cooperating)

So it has been more than a week since my last update, I think it’s because of the exams, studying didn’t exactly take all that much of my time, but the stress was lethal, I think I have been able to really study for the first time! Like REALLY study. Well at least for the physiology exam I had on the 27th, and to make a long story short there were a few points that really made the difference:

1. I was convinced of my ability to do well on this exam, confident with my knowledge in this field


2. I was aware and convinced that I needed to study for this in order to show the best out of my knowledge, because knowing a whole process and forgetting the names of the different components is useless


3. The Teacher is by all means: excellent!. With her you feel that you understand and you feel motivated to show how much you know, because you know that extra effort is noticed and rewarded, she knows most of us by name (at least she knows my name). I felt that I wanted to do well to impress her… Hope I did!


4. I had no real distractions, I was no longer trying to seek his attention, my brother’s school ended early and without exams so I had all the time to prepare for my exams, the internet addiction was surprisingly as bad as I had thought, I mean I always knew that my addictive personality was the real problem not the internet itself, but I had never assumed that – given the right circumstances and motives – I would prefer studying on chatting/blogging/reading


5. I was selfish, I thought selfishly, I acted selfishly, at least toward my extended circle of friends, during the last 3 to 4 weeks I have called none of my friends and didn’t even justify that absence to them when they called. Not that I am punishing them, it wasn’t even intentional! But you see, a few weeks ago I came to the conclusion that I am still not satisfied with my circle of close friends (except for very few who have proven to be great friends that I am proud of). I don’t feel that the attention I give to my friends is reciprocated, I do feel loved, but not really appreciated, I know it sounds silly or like something a teenager would say but think of it this way: I called them, they rarely called back, if they do they call to say “hey I have no units in my cell phone can you please call me”; I took the extra effort to detect every sign showing a bad mood, when they didn’t seem fine I’d try to talk to them about it and stuff, it’s not always that simple because if I am mistaking and they are feeling fine I’d risk looking ridiculous, but then again when someone needs your help you should provide it. However that effort was never done with me, most of my friends would just tell me I am being silly if I ever confide to them with my problems… SO why should I keep on making that extra effort? Some of them are now blaming me for changing!

So as a conclusion I ended up doing well on my exams, I am optimistic. Then two days later we had another exam and I had to work on my memoire none went that well… but I don’t feel like talking about those and finally I have my final exam on Wednesday, then the defense on my memoire on the 10th, after that I celebrate the end of the academic year with my old friends on the 12th (that’s the date of their defense) … And then I study for the exams I had failed (5 in total) then when I do finish all that…euh… nothing, that’s as far as my actual plans go, after that I have a myriad of plans that none seems achievable unfortunately. Let’s just focus on today, can we?

Bil Gymnastiiiique....

Ok this story is a little old but I have to share it with you. It was last Saturday and it’s about my little brother (he’s 7). Now as most of you already know, my parents work almost all the time and my elder brother also works and doesn’t even live with us, he comes on weekends only; which leaves me with my little brother most of the time, especially now that his school is over.

Now on the last day of school my brother had, instead of the regular sports class, a gymnastique class. And he literally LOVED it. He’d go on and on about how super cool it was, how his teacher Mr. Fouad (yes like our prime minister) was super cool, how he could stand on his hands and WALK O_o!! The kid was hypnotized I say, Gymnastique was all he could think of… All day long, and out of no where he would start:

Bil Gymnastiiiique, there is a trampoline, I climbed over it and I jumped.
Bil Gymnastiiiique, I can grow my muscles.
Bil Gymnastiiiique, we can learn how to do all sort of stuff.
Bil Gymnastiiiique, Mr Fouad can stand on his hands and he can WALK on his hands!!
Bil Gymnastiiiique, Mr Fouad said that we can come every Saturday from 10 to 12 and train.
Bil Gymnastiiiique, Mr Fouad said he’d be waiting for us.
Bil Gymnastiiiique, Mr Fouad said that we will only have to pay 5000L.L. (that’s around 3$ 60 cents, in fact my mom asked in the gym and they said the 5000LL was for one week session if he wants to register for a whole month it’d be 20 000LL or 13$ 60cents)and this time only to register!
I want to go this Saturday and every Saturday for EVER!


Now personally I was 100% with the idea, the kid has poor social skills and he spends way too much time watching TV without moving a muscle, our bad financial situation is an obstacle to most outdoor activities. This gymnastic class will certainly help him move his muscle, release all his energy and hopefully socialize better. Now in her extremely prudent manor, my mom answered him by saying: “We’ll see”. Now this “We’ll see” is a family tradition. It means…. Well it means: “We’ll see”. I didn’t think she’d refuse but on Friday evening my brother was starting with his : Bil Gymnastique… poem and my mom’s answer was:

NO

Shit! What the hell?! Why did she do that? Personally I didn’t argue or make a scene on one hand I suspected my parents didn’t even have the goddamn 13$ and besides I trusted the little kid’s persistence to get what he wanted. He pledged he cried he even yelled nothing worked. On Saturday, my mom went to work and I was all alone with him at 8 am he turned off the TV, took off his pajamas and put on his sports outfit, he dug out a towel (I am not sure where he got it from since the towels are put at the top of the closet he can’t reach them), he unfolded it then refolded it so that it wouldn’t take much space (it looked like a big sushi!). He got his bottle of water, emptied it and refilled it, placed it on the table next to the towel. He even opened his wallet pulled out a 50 000 LL bill and asked me: Is this a 5000LL, when he was informed he was mistaking he put it back to its place and pulled out the right 5000LL bill. Then he brushed his teeth, washed his face and sat down calmly. Amused of his independent attitude, I asked:

And where are you going?

3al Gymnastique

He was not asking permission he was not waiting for my answer, he was just stating a fact! Well since I had nothing to say about this I just asked him to change his outfit (it was a winter outfit!) and to change his socks, I also let him know that it’s too early to go, but he didn’t mind he patiently waited. Now of course I didn’t use his 5000LL to pay for his registration, I took money from my elder brother and paid with it (and in fact it was 30 000LL and not 20 000LL but anyway).

At noon I took him back home he was SOOOOO happy and sweaty, he accepted to take a shower (something unusual for him!) and he didn’t nag for the whole weekend! He even ate like a hungry beast! Above all I was pleased with his attitude… My brother has a character! I never had that, I was such an inhibited, sheltered unconfident child, I just love to see him like this, it makes me worry a little less about him.

It’s time for some personal gossip!

Well I am sure all of you people have been wondering where have I been all this time and why haven’t updated in ages… Well I don’t really feel like sharing much details but I will tell that effectively what was consuming most of my time was my activity in a Lebanese public forum: One Lebanon. It was a wonderful experience, especially that it had put me in contact with a lot of interesting Lebanese people that I didn’t know existed in the Middle East, I even managed to become a Moderator there in a very short period, but it’s time I move on with something else.

Another important twist in my life was the fact that my mom went to the hospital recently, she gave me one of those terrors! The worst thing ever is that, the hospital being very close to my home, I arrived first to the hospital and there were no one else from the family with me. None of the staff told me anything about my mom and I spend a frightening hour in total ignorance, now a friend was there with me but I needed to know what was wrong with my mother and no one would tell me, I was certain that my mom was dead and no one wanted to tell me. What made things worse was the fat that when my dad arrived (along with my uncle) a doctor talked to them! Like what the fuck?! I am a 22 years old person I can handle anything they could have said, and there were nothing to say anyway! Why didn’t she talk to me, leaving me for a whole hour mentally preparing myself to my mother’s funeral! Now of course the main thing is that my mom turned out to be fine, probably a minor intoxication (my mom does have a history of extra fragile digestive system) but she had to spend 24h in the Intensive Care Unit. When I first went in to see her she was so volatile, aggressive and disturbed, she seemed like someone had given her some sort of drug or something. But after all she lost her consciousness for more than an hour! I can imagine that the hormones and substances that her body released to save her are more than enough to make her very very stressed. She was blabbering about how the nurses were mean, doctors were neglectful (actually I did agree on these two points), she insisted she wanted to leave immediately insisting only she knows what best for her (yes she wasn’t making sense) then she almost burst in tears as she complained on how much 24h in the Intensive Care Unit would cost (actually it cost us nothing cause she had insurance and everything and even if it cost a fortune we couldn’t care less) she even tried to remove the oxygen tube from her nose, she begged me to help her get dressed and leave… My God! I have never seen my mom like this, in the evening when we went back to visit her she was much more “normal”. She was fine and went to work in a couple of days.

What else can I tell you about my life? Oh did I mention that in the previous semester I failed 3 out of 3 exams I had? Which raised the number of exams I had for the summer to 5 exams… So no summer work for me! Fuck it I don’t care (yeah RIGHT!)

Ok Ok enough bad news want to hear awesome news? Well do you people remember the depressive phase I talked so much about? Well almost a month a ago I snapped out of it! I just woke up one day and felt happy! It’s over. I am no longer depressed and now more than ever I can say: it was not my fault, it was my chemistry, I just couldn’t feel happy no matter what I do and no matter what happens, though things have been worse than before (more stress more drama…) I feel…

HAPPY

5 things about me

I was trying real hard to figure out what I can say about myself that none of my blog followers know, since I have such a big diversity of people that follow my blog, each group being in contact with a certain aspect of my life. Anyway I’ll try:

5 negative things about me

1. Since the middle of autumn or something like that I have been struggling with an agonizing state of depression, though I do have ups and downs but I can’t look positively to my life anymore, I can’t imagine what might make me happy in the future, as a result my concentration ability is even more reduced and I can’t get myself to do anything. I have been trying to get myself above this and to hold myself together but I feel like I’m sinking and I’m tired of struggling against the current… And though so many people are around me and would help me anyway possible, none of them can do anything for me.
2. I’m scared to lose my dad, not that he has any particular health problem but he’s sort of melting down, or maybe “losing his essence” the thought of my baby brother not growing up and experiencing my dad as an adult is almost intolerable
3. I was born in a poor family, all of my family is poor, from both my mom and my dad’s side. They were all born in poverty and will probably die in poverty too, in spite of all the effort my dad has put to provide a decent life we still live in poverty, and I fear I would be doomed to end up in poverty for all my life too
4. In my dark days I used to mash paper, I don’t know why but it made me calm down. I guess it was the physical effort that distracted me and appeased my agony
5. Over time I have often been called beautiful and smart but also ugly… But never was I called stupid. However I still feel stupid no matter what. My failures affect me far more than my successes, that’s why I am doomed to constant low self-esteem, I can never enjoy a compliment as I perceive it as biased or aiming to make me feel better. But insults, I take them very seriously, I consider them to be very honest and true, even if I know that the one saying them is just trying to hurt me for some reason.

5 neutral things about me

1. As a child I used to suck my lower lip, then they told me to stop, so I did. Instead I started biting my nails and fingers. When my teeth started to hurt I stopped biting my fingers and nails and now I bite my lips. The bad thing about it is that I can’t stand strong flavors, sour is no problem since I already hate it, but eating spicy food is kind of annoying especially that I love it so much. The positive thing about it is that no one tells me to stop since few people notice it and I like the taste of blood in my mouth when I get stressed (since I bite my lips more when I am under stress)
2. I have this obsession with making sense out of senselessness. I have a favorite fork, and a fork for each type of food, one type for mashing bananas and potatoes, another for eating fried potatoes, another for mesmerizing the food that I am ingesting (I like to call the my “favorite” fork ever). I have a favorite mug for milk, another for coffee, another for tea and yet another for eating cheese pita with tea. I have different panties for different clothing… etc etc etc… All this classifying comes from strict standards and I feel weird breaking these rules when I have to. No one really knows about these classifications but I am very fund of them. If I would put all this “matching effort” into choosing the cloth I wear I would have looked very very stylish! But sometimes matching cloth seems stupid while matching other stuff seems crucial
3. The only song that I have considered to be my favorite is: Fear of the Dark – Cradle of Filth.
   I don’t like to tell anyone about my love for this song because I don’t feel anyone would understand it. So far very few people tolerated that music. In fact the only one who liked it was the person who introduced me to it: my brother. Though I don’t listen to it 24/7 I have kept this song in my “favorite songs” since the day I heard it for the first time. If I tell people about it, they think I’m wither trying to sound cool, or that I have a terrible taste in music!
4. I keep around me very weird old stuff, small empty pens, small scraps of paper. I am a collectionist by nature. Useless collections make me feel safe
5. My big toe is TOOOOOO big for the other. As a child my cousin and I used to laugh about it so hard. I miss that cousin, we don’t get to hang out together as much as we used to when we were children.

5 positive things about me

1. I am a devoted friend. In spite of all my insecurity I do know this for a fact. And this is why I refuse to be “socially smart” because then I would stop trusting my friends and to expect them to treat me well before treating them well. While I just give everything to my friends when I like them. And it’s not because of my own effort that I am this devoted, it’s because I was raised with very devoted parents… We never understood how could people be NOT devoted.
2. I am tolerant. Though that doesn’t help me blend into any society, I don’t like classifying people and hating them. That means that I don’t belong anywhere, as each group must be built on the hatred of another group
3. Both my parents had a very difficult past, with life threatening situations. But they survived and I am proud of them for being so perfect in a way. I have my problems with my parents, but for as long as they are ok I don’t think anything in the world can ever break me
4. My philosophy teacher in high school, when she read a literary small article I had written in a newspaper (it was the only time I do so), she told me I have grains of genius… she made my day! No actually she made my year!!!! In college, all the professors that knew me well say that I am a wasted talent, one teacher even said that he has “never encountered a better student” than me in terms of researching and compiling information… The fact that I am a wasted talent is so good to me because I feel like I’m a talent that was lost… at least I am talent!
5. My secret dream is to become a scientific journalist! But shhh… don’t tell anyone!

and since everyone else is tagged (and I am not sure if those who aren't tagged are still following my blog) I tag Jos :D Yalla you have to do this!

My dad's immortality

As a kid, one of the most vivid memories I had of my dad was the strong metallic smell, whenever he would hold me (yes I can still remember the time when I was so tiny that my dad could actually hold me). In fact, even now my dad still smells like metal coins, that's due to the nature of his work.

What's funny is that I remember my dad every time I use a key or a coin. And as my little brother put it when he was sleeping in my dad's bed: "I like sleeping here, it's like having part of my dad with me". And that's how I feel sometimes, I feel as if I have bits of my dad scattered everywhere... My dad's immortality written everywhere.

You might feel tempted to inform me that, in fact, it's not "my dad's smell spread all over the world" but the smell of the 33 years of hard labor in metals... Well, you're wrong. It is my dad's smell and, if our sensory system was more efficient, you could have distinguished my dad's smell out of the other billions. Since, according to this article in S&V # 1071 and this article in the ScienceDaily, metals have no smell unless they enter in contact with the human skin. Only then do they react with lipids of the skin and they produce substances, such as 1-octen-3-one.

which has a mushroom-metallic smell and very low odor threshold, meaning that humans can smell it in extremely minute concentrations

And in fact there's absolutely no metal element in these substances, so maybe the metals play a catalyst's role in all this.

Now, what’s shocking when you think about it (if you think about it in the first place) is the fact that the smell is so strong and penetrating to the point where one can’t really stand it. Such sensitivity to a certain stimulus is a direct indication that this smell was important, as simple as that. So what is so important in smelling {skin+metal}?

Very simple, the same reactions would take place if a sample

because the same 'metallic' odor is produced if you rub blood on skin

Which means that prehistoric individuals might have used their strong sensitivity for such smells might have had a better chance in tracking wounded prays, friends or enemies.

So my dad’s smell isn’t so shallow after all, and he’s as immortal as the human kind... Evolution rocks!

Hamra?!

OK, this is funny, I love my Mom but sometimes she just becomes excessively protective. These conversations took place on Wednesday the day before I went to the helem headquarter:


part I

Mom: So, do you have any plans for tomorrow? I need to go to your brother’s school, maybe you can take care of him for an hour.

Becca: Sure, I am only busy in the afternoon

Mom: Really? Where?

Becca: In Hamra

Mom: *Laughs* [to be honest, you can’t blame her for laughing I never go out of home, and usually that’s either with my cousin or just for a walk, so it didn’t sound right]

Becca: You think I’m joking?

Mom: You’re serious?!

Becca: Uhh…. Yes!

Mom: Hamra?! What’s in Hamra?!

Becca: I’m just meeting some friends that I used to be in contact with through internet [Oh come on! You didn’t think I’ll just tell her I’m going to meet a group of homosexuals that I consider as friends?!]

Mom: Nshallah you’re not going to meet some Gays and Lesbians? [I suppose a mother’s heart always knows!]

Becca * Laughs *

Mom: And why in Hamra? Do you know where that is? That’s in the Gharbiyyeh [That’s Lebanese for West Beirut]?!

Becca: Relax mama, I know these people

Mom: When?

Becca:Around 6 pm

Mom: Shu?! Why so late?!

Becca: I don’t know, Mom, probably work and stuff

Mom: Boy or girl

Becca: A GROUP of people

Mom: Why in Hamra?! Why can’t they come here?!

Becca * Ignores the question *

At this point a long conversation takes place, in which she expresses her concerns about me going to West Beirut, ALONE to meet people that my Mom never met. I mainly nodded, laughed and giggled (especially when she repeated: In Hamra?!)

---

Part II: In the evening, 5 minutes after my dad came home

Mom: You know? You’re daughter’s going out tomorrow… In HAMRA, she’s meeting people she had met on the Internet

Dad: Really? [Then he looks at me] DO you know how to get there?

Becca: Well, I won’t get lost, I will ask the bus drivers

Dad: Well go to Nahr L-Mott then take bus #2

Becca: Ok, thanks

Mom: Hamra?!

Silence for a while… Almost 15 minutes, then my Mom addresses me again

Mom: You know if you marry a Hezbollah I’ll lose my mind

Ok I can understand her concerns, really, I do, but when did Hezbollah get into the picture?! Hezbollah doesn’t even spread in the heart of West Beirut, and when did I ever appear as a big fan of Hezbollah? And where did all the “I trust your judgment” bullshit go? I couldn’t help laughing real hard.

Becca: You know mama, I am going to tell them this is what you think!

Mom: Don’t do that!… It would be impolite

Starting from this point I’m constantly laughing

Becca: Ok, just a question… What about a Jew? Can I marry a Jew?

Mom: Oh a Jew is no problem, I wouldn’t mind you marrying a Jewish person Then she turns to my dad to get a conformation What do you think? If a Jewish man and a Hezbollah both want to take your daughter, wouldn’t you prefer a Jew?

Becca: Now mama! When did I ever turn into a tomato that you and my Dad choose who to sell to?

Mom: Yes, go ahead, be mean to me. It’s my fault that I care

Becca: Ok, ok… What about a Muslim Lebanese?

Mom: Well, I wouldn’t stop you… But you know what I think about it

Becca:Ok, what about a Muslim Arab ?

Mom: So that’s what’s on your mind!!! You want to marry an Egyptian Muslim guy!! I knew it!

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Moms are so cute! I just feel sorry for putting her through all this.

Oh, and if you are wondering where did the Egyptian Muslim came from?… Well I have no idea. Why Egyptian, I thought she’d fear a Syrian Muslim as a priority but an Egyptian?

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Update

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Due to some problems I failed to meet the witch I was supposed to meet which disappointed me badly, but my doesn't know it, so she's still nagging me about HAMRA?! so SHHH! Don't tell her