old (really old) schoo laundry day !!

Today i ran out of clean clothes ! i HAD to do laundry ,this new place where i live doesn't have those washers and driers with the coins n all ,and there isn't a laundry mat nearby ,but i decided i'm taking this bike of mine n not coming back till i find one ! after cruising little miserable allies with all the dogs and locals watching the "Falang = foreigner" wandering around i found this small shop , the lady didn't speak ANY English ,and my little Thai didn't help either, after long miming session i came to understand i have two options , either pay 15 Baht per piece ,or 50 Baht per full basket ! of course it didn't make sense !so i knew we didn't exactly "understand" each other .and was left with one option ,old school laundry session ! I bought the soap, and fabric softener(and this will prove to be the smartest thing I've done).

I sat down on this little bench in the yard ,brought this big plastic bucket !! filled it with water ,n started rubbing n scrubbing piece by piece .it wasn't 10 minutes before i got really frustrated with the process ,my arms are stone stiff and my forehead is sweating! and i haven't even started with the bed sheet and pillow cases !! so i thought to myself : how does the washer work ? easy,it spins ,there is no rubbing or scrubbing ,its just spinning . i poured all the soap i have in the bucket ,with the big sheet and pillow cases ,and started just playing with the water spinning clock wise,stop .."teshhhhh" anti clockwise ...stop ..teshhh... but i wasn't happy with the process either ! there is no foaming ,there is no nice smell ! so i figured lets pour some softener ! JACK POTTTTTT ... foam everywhere ,smell is heavenly ,and you know if its foamy then its clean,and if it smells nice then its clean ! and so my laundry is now clean and clean and smells nice . and don't you dare judge me .
I wonder how our moms did it back in the days !(yea I remember that,long long ago)

Dry Thai New year and boring squirrels

Last year i participated in my 1st Songkran festival (images) in Thailand ,which marks the Thai new year ,if you're a foreigner and you couldn't memories "Songkran" you might hear someone calling it "the water festival" .People go out in the streets with big water guns and everybody splashes everybody ,if you're not in one of those big crowded areas and you stayed home,you go outside your house and play with your family ,neighbors ,and anyone who passes by , last year was a blast,except for the part where i got back home by train,and the train is AC-ed ,and i was shivering :/ but i went again on the 3rd day well prepared with a towel ,dry extra clothes and lots of sacks to keep everything dry in my bag .

Yesterday i went out to the market near by,and I found out it was Songkran!I didn't even know its now,I couldn't imagine its been a year already ,but thats fine, the sucky part is that I don't feel like going out and "playing" ,passing by each group of people preparing to splash me I'd tell them not to,wearing my Jordanian-Kashra face of course ,so they didn't,I've been going out and coming back for two days with no single drop of water on me . why is that bad ? because Songkran isn't the only thing that i lost appetite for !

I don't enjoy taking the motorcycle taxi anymore ,I'm not enjoying the wind in my face or the speed or whatever feeling that made me always prefer motorcycle taxis over the many other options i had to wander around the city .

I don't enjoy watching a squirrel looking for food anymore ,as a matter of fact, when i see a squirrel in the balcony looking for food,jumping around on the wires and furniture ,my only thought is "don't get in here cuz then i'll have to chase you out!" ,I used to wake up early to watch squirrels :/

Yesterday i woke up n found one of those long beautiful worms in my room ,usually I'd sit next to it and watch it and enjoy how fascinating these little things can be , maybe take couple of pictures too, didn't do any of that,just picked it up n threw it out .

I just realized today how i enjoy very few things these days !! I'm not sure when this phase started but its not fun.

Two dances from Bangkok

The best thing about Bangkok,even thought its a busy busy city,that there is always something to look at around the corner , these two dances were one little street apart ! and Thai ppl just love to have fun and laugh ! you'll notice that somewhere in the middle of the second video :D and there are always groups of people dancing or doing Aerobics in a park or even in the mall's parking space ! happy city is it !

Things I Thought I'd Never Do

Movie Moments : Things I Thought I'd Never Do

Some of the things I find myself doing in Bangkok never occurred to me ,I sometimes snap of whatever I'm doing and look around and make sure its real lol, i call them "movie noments",things when you do feels like in a movie , such as :

* Reading a book on a train
Simply because there are no trains in Jordan (well except for for one i think? that's been there forever?) ,and because you don't read a book unless you have to ! now this one is so unreal because the train is full of Asians ! Who by the way look as if they just got out of a comic book,which by the way they'd be probably reading too !they dig comics these ppl !

* Using a map to wander around
Amman is one long main street,with 8 circles along the way,and then you go "right,left,the next left no skip it,the next one yea take it,right,straight ahead, opposite to the little *Dokkaneh,you should see a balcony with some pottery on it,yea we're in the above floor " .Bangkok isn't that cozy ,if you don't have a map you'll be probably lost, so holding a map arms wide opened figuring out where is "North" and where am i and where I'm going is fun to watch .I'm not sure we have a map of Amman anyway ! (related : check this Jabal Amman map i made).
[*Dokkaneh is a mini-market,or actually a bit smaller)

* Taking off my shoes before going into an OFFICE !
Yup ! they do that here ,not all offices though, but if you're going to your lawyer's office or any kind of office that's not really public expect to take of your shoes before going in !! Of course houses and homes too.

* Having rice for breakfast !
So one day,when Naser was still new to Bangkok,after 10 days or so,he wanted to have eggs for breakfast ! so to make it as close to what it would be at home as possible,he woke up at 6:30 AM, made a big cup of tea (they don't serve tea at the restaurants..i know!!!) and went downstairs to the supermarket,got a pack of toast bread (its still bread heh!) and went to the nearby restaurant with his cup of tea and bread ,took out his "Thai For Travelers" dictionary and found "Omelet" and pointed at it to the waitress . he was craving it so much he started to drool and day dream about how it'd taste with Taboon bread ,only to be woken up by the waitress bringing him what he ordered....or did she ?
Plain eggs or Omelet here means : rice,with eggs ,if you're lucky,the eggs won't be scrambled with the rice and will be in one piece topping the rice ,if you're unlucky like me,and the people at the restaurant nearby aren't that good with English,you're gonna have rice with scrambled eggs scrambled all together for breakfast .
PS : i now have rice with anything for breakfast ,its in your head only ,its no big deal :D

* Riding the bicycle as a main transportation mean !
Imagine that a guy or a grown man or even better a woman ,is riding a bicycle to go to the mall or her work place ...in Jordan ! I don't know why is it so laughable,actually after trying it,its pretty neat, good exercise,you don't get stuck in traffic ... but i think there is a good reason why it shouldn't be implemented in Jordan,see drivers here DO actually give a way for a bicycle on an intersection ! they don't try to push away or run you over ,if you're taking the far right side of the road no bus,car or motorcycle even would come near you ,and if the road is too narrow,they'd let you have the whole space for yourself and they'd drive after you ! CRAZY huh ?


* Feeding a Dog !
Dogs scare the hell out of me ! they freak me out period . But if you're gonna live in Bangkok you better get used to them ,they all over the place,dogs in Bangkok are like cats in Amman ! and they're nice and quiet most of the time , and these days I'm living in a building where we have a big black dog , which to my surprise (after watching a lot of "The Dog Whisperer") now listens to me and don't bark when he see me coming :D in return,I started to give him his food ,and i actually do pet him, and this i would have sworn to you before that i'll never ever do !
here is a picture of him ,his name is Ku Lo.



SO whats your movie moments ? I want to tag some people ! I'm thinking Momma Bean , Kinzi will have lots of funny movie moments since they're kinda new to Jordan :D so you're tagged . Andddd... Hareega ,I'm sure a lot goes on in the ER ,Diana the new mom , Mab3oos because his default state of mind is Angry,Iman for the same reason as well,and Rawia ! Tag yourself if you wish,and make it funny !

Arabic Breakfast : how to make yogurt from milk and turn it into Labaneh

Labaneh is one of the most delicious Arabic light-breakfast dishes , its basically yogurt minus the water in it ! its creamy,a bit salty,a bit sour just the right amount ,and its eaten usually in the morning ,with pita bread (or toast) ,slices of tomato and cucumber ,and of course the cherry on the top of cake : olive oil.

To make Labaneh (for one person) ,you're gonna need one liter of whole (full fat) milk (to turn the milk into yogurt 1st) and two or 3 table spoons of yogurt . here is how its done :
Boil the milk in a pot on the stove and keep stirring at all times,or else the fat will be burned and stick on the bottom of the pot you're using,add third cup of water to it, after it boiled ,turn off the stove and leave it to cool off a bit,just until its warm (not cold) take some of the milk in a small bowel, add to it the two or 3 spoons of yogurt, mix it together well ,and then add the mixture to the rest of the milk in the pot and mix it well . cover the pot,and then wrap the whole thing in a blanket or couple of towels,leave it outside (in room temperature) for 6-7 hours ,and DON'T open it before 6 hours has passed (at least).when its time ,you open the pot and you have yogurt . taraaaaa.

Now you get a piece of cotton cloth ,a pillow case would be fine,or like in my case when i didn't find a cotton white (white so the colors won't dissolve) pillow case,i got a white t-shirt and tied the sleeves ..be creative !so add the yogurt in the pillow case,and make sure you have a bowl underneath to collect the drained water .tie it up,and hang it with a string or something,you can do this outside,inside,or even in the fridge , for one liter it should take like 10 hours and you have all the water out and your Labaneh is ready, if you're making more than that,then leave it for 24 hrs or something, you can keep checking on it .

take it out,add some salt,some thyme if you wish,and indulge ! here is a pic of what came out with me (1st time!)

Olives don't grow on trees ,people !

One of my favorite things about being abroad is meeting new people from different places and getting to know them and where they come from and their culture and such,also introducing them to my home (Jordan,and Palestine) ,which proved to be a constant correction of wrong ideas and stereotypes ,but its not always serious and political , like what happened the other day when we were having dinner at a friend's place .

we were talking about food ,so my Italian friend asks me about what we'd have for breakfast,and I said Labaneh, Hummus ,and she says oh Israeli food ,and then you have to tell the story and fuck everyone's brain with politics again lol! but thats not where olives came under the spot light,after i explained what is Labaneh and how its done,i told them that it goes perfectly well with olives,olive oil and a cup of tea ,so this Finnish friend of our's jumps off the ground : "Olives?!you have olives in your country ?i love Olives !i wanna go there" with all the excitment in the world ,now when i told her that it stays green the whole year she became super ecstatic and said "ahhh i wish i can just go there ,pick fresh olives from the tree n eat them right away " with her voice goin soft and her eyes turning dreamy ...i had to wake her up from that happy place : "Wait a second,you think olives grows on the trees as you buy it from the market?" ...

Do you know that scene in almost every Christmas movie where somebody tells the kid that Santa isn't real ?and then the kid goes :BLANK: ? yea thats nothing!i saw the real thing !!i honestly can't understand the passion she has for olives, i felt so guilty !she just didn't say a word gazing at me,for quite a while :D ! But after i explained how olives (from the tree) becomes olives (in the market) she said she appreciates it even more .so no harm done.How crazy is that :DD !! oh human kind how much i love you! always manage to surprise me !

Note : the picture up there is Ismael Shammout's painting (The Olive Tree)

Shower-gels are so gay !

Today is the 1st time i take a bath in a year,....not! but it was the 1st time i spend much time in that uncomfortable ally at the supermarket, the one filled with all kind of woman's stuff,which also comes with good number of girls around you, but it doesn't feel quite right standing there checking items with them for long time :s .but today i just figured I'm gonna read what’s written on the shower-gel pack, since i always just grab this one i recognize by the color in a second ,and i have to say ,guys we're screwed !!what is this ! here is some of what’s actually written on them :

White Glamour / For fair and admired skin

because fair and lovely isn't a shower gel!

Magic Spell / For Soft and Fragranced Skin

because rough hands are so yesterday! and you stink

Soft Kiss / For Soft and Kissable Skin

because people who still use soap bar don't believe in foreplay !

Be Nice / Firming Skin

because we're too bored to write anymore !

Imperial Leather /Nourishing

because we're not convinced that you're human!

Sokubtsu / 99% Cleansing ingredient from plants

because we understand the lasting effect of "99%" in the Arab world

======================

Finally ,after i almost decided to toss a coin to choose from this awesome list,i see something made me feel like at home, a name that brought back all the bad memories of diarrhea as a kid ... DETTOL ,and what did it say on it ? [ FRESH ] . thats it,i want to be fresh ,i held it up high like that scene in The Lion King, and NIDO's commercial started to play in the back of my head ,and we showered happily once after.

And so now i know... DETTOL Fresh means smelling like a hospital facility! fresh alrightt!!

Finally, note to self : Yer7am jeddak!!!Shower-gel ?!

صباحات ذي الأصفر

طلع الصبح .. غاب الصبح ، جاء الليل .. طلع الصبح ،،، الليل هو هو ،وليلي هو هو ، وهم في الخارج هم هم ، في الموعد اليومي ، أوّلهم أسود ذي منقار أصفر وصوت مزعج لكنّ له صوتا على عكس رفيقي الأسود، لولا منقاره لما عرفته يوما من حلكة الليل ! يوقظ باقي الرفاق فيبدأون بالغناء كلهم..السّر الذي اكتشفته من معاشرتي لهم أنّهم ليسوا دائما يغنّون كما علّمونا في المدارس . أوّل التغريد توبيخ لرفيقي ذي المنقار الأصفر ،و من ثم قتال على الماء المتسرّب من أجهزة التبريد ..ماذا لو أصلحت أجهزة التبريد ؟

ثم بعد أن يشق الضوْء الأحمر الضوء الأسود، تأتي اليمامة تلك ،كاللتي تسكن حاراتنا ،الرماديّة المتثاقلة المشية ،صديقتي العربيّة !..حتّى حمامنا متثاقل ومموّه اللّون ،البارحة فقط ،خيّل إلي أن حمامنا دائم الحبَل ،لهذا هو دائما كبير البطن متثاقل المشية. إلاّ أن باقي خصائصه تميّزه عن غيره بلا شك ، يمامتنا يا سادة يا كرام ، آخر من يشرب دائما ! ولا تظنّ أنّي أسترسل في خيالي هنا ! فأنا أنتظر طقوسهم ليلة بليلة ،فهي أفضل ما تأتي به ليلة أرقة .. مخلوقات الصباح ،حتّى ذاك القط الأسود في سعيه اليومي خلف القطّة البيضاء على سطح قرميد البناية المقابلة ممتع المشاهدة ، أحلى ما في الأمر أنّ القط ينسى أمر الحمام واليمام والعصافير وكلّ شئ جاريا خلفه حبيبته البيضاء ! عجيب هذا العضو المُهرمَن في الذكور !

ومن ثم بعد الماء والغسيل والتوبيخ و تلاشي صوت ذي الأصفر تدريجيا ،لأنّه ينتقل لمكان أبعد قليلا ،ولكن بعد أن يتأكّد من سير الأمور على ما يرام أولا، بعد ذلك كلّه تبدأ التدريبات الصباحية ،يتجمّع الكلّ على سطح البيت التقليدي المقابل أولا ،ما سر البيوت القديمة والحمام على أيّة حال يختارها استراحة من دون البيوت؟ يبدأون بالطيران لمسافات قصيرة فرادى ،ثم زوجين زوجين ،ومن ثمّ رحلات أطول جماعية، ودائما يرجعون للبيت القديم ... إلاّ أحدهم، يبقى هناك في البعيد ولا يعود ،دائما أحدهم لا يرجع للبيت ، وأنا أقلق و أنتظر عودته ،ولا يعود !و أنشغل عنه برفاقه بعد أن أملّ انتظاره ، ومن ثمّ أنسى أمره .. حتى اللحظة !

والآن طلعت الشمس وصارت مزعجة ،كما طلعت معها مخلوقات النهار المزعجة ،أبناء آدم وحوّاء ،خير ما يتقنه هؤلاء هو إزعاج المكان و سكّانه ! فجأة يختفون ..يرحلون مرّة واحدة ،يذهبون لمكان آخر ! إن كانوا يغادرون بسبب الآدميّين فلا بد أنهم ذاهبون لمكان يخلوا من الآنف ذكرهم..آه كم أتمنّى لو أنّ لي أجنحة الآن ،،،أنا لم أكن يوما من الأطفال الذين يودّون جنحانا يطيرون بها ..لو أنّني تأمّلت طيرا قبلا لربّما اندهشت حينها كما أندهش الآن وتمنّيت الجناحان قبلا..لكن ماذا تراني كنت سأتمنّى الآن لو فكّرت في أمر الجناحان منذ زمن...من الجيّد أنّي لم أفكّر في الجناحان قبلا !

وثم تأتي فيروز.و أنا أسكت.و أسكن.ششششـ

The Downside of having a roommate & The Curse of Bab El Hara

Before i start ; I'm sorry everyone i haven't been reading nor i'll be abel to read your blogs any time soon,I'm still not settled n i don't have connection at home,but i promise once i do i'll spam your blogs like the good old days! :D.

So I've been living with a roommate to the 1st time ever,
exciting at 1st, you know the phase where each of you shows his best attitude ? yea that doesn't last long...humm..i wonder if this is the case with newly married ppl :D ? is it ?

Now after you're more friends than before and got to know each other quite (shout out to mab3oos =link to quiet) well,each starts to show his annoying habits, which i have loads of ,like not waking up under any circumstances until its "the time" to wake up,like him being locked out very late at night for two hours, or him calling his cell phone which he forgot at home 30 times panicking thinking it was stolen before he decides to come back home to tell me about it and finding me sleeping with his cell phone 5 meters away from me ! or my hideous habit of smoking anywhere at given anytime,finding cigarette ashes in the bathroom next to the tub (he didn't know that taking a bath,smoking,reading and drinking a beverage at a time in the tub is doable! not my fault!) add to that my controlling-freakingy-syndrome;what i call "the command center" =ie : TV remote control ,AC remote control, & the computer keyboard, must be at my reach at all time.no one can change the channel (for his bad luck I'm fond of politics so the channel =< BBC world news..did i mention his English isn't that good too? he loves TV with me yea :/) . enough about me I'm notorious enough by now .

My friend,the Chef,didn't cook for us once until now,which makes still functioning due to unknown number of Chicken Burgers from 7-11,sticky rice from the street food thingi,and pine apple (its really cheap here :D ,talk about poverty crisis! aka ๅฬํไ ๆ ๆฺ ศำแษ สํไ ) LOL. he doesn't like talking politics :S ! we have a very different taste of music ,which makes me obliged to play him his Um-Kulthoom CD he brought with him from back home! (yea i said it,i don't like Um Kulthoom sue me :( ) and listen to him mumbling with the songs at times...which could be really ammusing given his natural ability to break out of any tune no matter how simple it was :D . he likes goin out to a particular place which i don't enjoy much !everytime,there is no way talking him out of it so . and ,he is freakin addicted to one episode of Bab El 7ara !!!!!!!!! the moment he enters the apptmt he simply CLOSES ALL the applications or documents I'm working on -very boldly :D- and goes to Bab el Hara folder and plays episode 19 ;the one that starts with Mo3taz talking to his mom abt how much he loves her,and then we fast 4wd to where Abo Sh-hab kicks those 3 guys' asses after they t7arkash-ing his wife,and then we repeat the part where Abo Ghaleb curses the Hara and the Hara's sister's bcuz no one gets in and manage to get out without his ass getting kicked anddddd then we'll focus really hard to figure out what proverb abo Ghleb says (something like : ศวัๆฯ วๅัศๆ..อใวั ศวแๅๆว ิสแๆ ฟ )is that correct ?please someone verify it you'll do me a great deal of favor i promise that when you have to laugh at something you don't find funny anymore over n over again i'll throw you a rope in retern :"""""( and then we'll 4wd to where Abo Hatem talks to his nephew about his dad and then he'll tell me that the boy isn't mrabba (well-mannered) and if he were Abo Hatem he'd slap the boy n then i'll explain my rasing-childiology vision and then we'll 4wd to Em Hatem crying in her bed while her daughter is being married and Abo Hatem's speech and then his fav part where Mo3taz and Riyad kicks her fiance's ass ,that would be repeated like 5-10 times.depending on when i lose my mind n start cursing and threat him to delete the bloody folder .phew...feels good to let it out.i freakin memorized the whole effin episode.
Finding out that the shaving machine's battery is dead when u thought there is enough too late,bcuz he never recharges it is obnoxious too !

But the most disastrous of all disastrous ... having a person who clutters stuff more than you do ! and i do a pretty good job in cluttering trust me !! BIG O-WOW! is that how my sister felt during all those years ?geeez...I'm such a horrible person !!! SORRY SIS !!!!!!! it is amazing.. now i understand where the anger came from after entering my room back home :/ poor sis... speaking of which ; my brother tells me what he misses the most about me is my Saga3a !!! and sister misses my 3afshakeh ! :D funny isn't it ? :D.

some people like my randomness some people hate it really ! see I'm helping you here,instead of commenting on the trillion things i mentioned you could pretend that u were taken by the last sentence and say yes i like it,no i don't you're too random for me.and thats it. :D

Adios :D.

How confident is too confident ?

Following my formal-wear shopping spree and 1st day as a 24 year old dude, I I had my 1st "typical" job interview . I've worked since i was...16 i guess, but I never thought about the interview and prepared to it as much as i did for this one ! A good piece of advice i had from an older friend was : "Remember, Interviews aren't about being creative, they're about confidence" ! sweet ! confidence..I've got plenty of that ,which is good ,until now maybe..two days posterior to the interview and they didn't call back yet !

That interview was the last in a chain of mini interviews in which i impressed my interviewers wearing my casual clothes and even wearing a cap once! but for this last one i was told to dress formal n stuff. There was this big shot director guy and my hopefully future direct supervisor too ,whom i totally overshadowed during the interview ,of course i didn't notice that when i was there, but thinking about it now,i think i made a mistake by giving all the attention to the director and ignoring the man who -if i was hired- would be my boss! good grief i even asked him couple of questions during the interview,asked him as in wanting to see how knowledgeable he was !!!not asking about work!! But what can i bloody do ??? thats how i am!I've been running my own show for the past year ,add to that I'm not the most modest guy about his "achievements" and self determination bla bla bla ,and I'm not intimidated by other's success ..should I anyway??

It started to get to me ! I'm anxious now ! A friend of mine told me to curb my enthusiasm and to have a subordinated attitude .I had to use my acting skills to the fullest when asked "are you better a follower or a leader ?" and "can you be a good follower?" honestly ? It felt like he spat on my face when he asked that, holy freakin smokes !"follower"?? wtf can't they find a less humiliating word ???????? follower my ass !

pffft....I really have no idea how that went ,I was super comfortable ,I didn't hesitate to ask questions back ,as if they were my friends, I even asked them about things they didn't know about and i explained to them !!!!!!!! geez I could be so stupid at times ! Looks like i blew it . I'm not sure though ..I'll give it till Monday . but either way.. from your experience people, did i do wrong ? or is that a good thing ? just to clarify ,In my previous work i was in charge of older people ,and for a year now I've been my own boss,thats where his irritating "follower" questions came from. so,shoot me ,where do you think i stand now ?

Formally Shopped,Formally Dressed ,Formally Retard !

I seem not to recognize my image anymore ! i can't recognize my head's shadow due to the new haircut ,and soon I won't recognize myself if i passed against a mirror ! The day had come where i have to wear formal clothes ! long sleeves shirt,a tie,those 2mash formal pants ,tucked in shirt,and a formal shoes AKA Kondara !
I thought I'll never have to deal with this issue,ever,i made my best not to ! I just can't see myself wearing formal !i look like a joker !well i look like a joker without having to wear pants that draws ur ass with tucked in shirt and a shoes which make you feel like you're tap-dancing when you're only walking !

So i went to formally-shop ! My friend Chanpen came with me,i thought a girl's opinion would do me big favor ! Long story short, I'm a matching-colors absolute retard ! I wanted the pants to be loose a bit,i could feel my feet suffocating with this tight end of those pants!!the waist oh the waist !holy smokes!!!!!!!its a leash !!!its almost at the neck !I don't wear my jeans on my knees with my boxers in the street,but i certainly felt unease wearing the pants that high!!

Now for the fun part of it ,I went to this big ass mall,it had a trizigillion shops ,small ones, with no fitting rooms..ahaaaa...so what to do ?they hand you a peace of cloth to tie it around your waist,and then you do your thing and change your pants somehow without showing your goods and very-odd-to-Thai hairy legs to the rest of the world .. 1) I felt like I'm suddenly in Oman ,2) I felt like Abo Ghaleb from Bab el Hara when he is at the bathing Hammam with this apron and the confusion and clulessness that came with it! i peacefully tried the 1st pants ,and bought it right away ,it was black,and it fit ! I really wondered what criteria do guys depend on when buying pair of those !!?? -someone answer me for real please- . and then came the shirt..due to a miscommunication, i thought it was Okay to just take off the shirt I'm wearing and put on the new one - the one second process that came to mind : Thailand -> Tourists -> Beaches -> topless -> its okay no big deal - ,just when I was done with the last button i figured i shouldn't be doing that !I mean the old woman waving and talking gibberish gotta mean something !so with all the confusion and embarrassment,I rapidly wore the shirt over the shirt I'm already wearing,and as rapidly took it off "its good,I'm taking it" . The tie : according to the old angry woman : " All ties goes with any shirt ! " sweet ! I was morally down 10-null and i had to make it up somehow !i took the 1st tie she gave me .

I'm so satisfied with the decision i took ages ago that I'm only going to wear running and basketball shoes ..after trying to stuff my feet inside those shoes today..holy molly ! i remember wearing my friend's shoes once but it wasn't as hard ! with lots of pushing,cursing and sweating ,i managed to push my feet inside,it was comfortable and i took it ! looks wise they all looked the same to me !i mean half of it is covered already,so .

Anyway ,guys I'd appreciate it if you left a comment of 3 color combinations, pants (lets focus on black or dark colors in general) ,shirt and a tie please I'll really appreciate it .

Never cut your hair where they don't speak you language !!

After one year of not cutting my hair here in Thailand,I thought its time to do it ! and wish i didn't ! No I didn't keep it long because I was afraid of going to the barbershops here,i kept my hair long for years,but one important reason for keeping it long here is not trusting Thai barbershops ! i know its silly and stupid :p

So I called a friend who has been living here for quite long time now,I asked him where does he cut his hair,he said come to my place tomorrow ,there is a nearby place !So i went today morning , too excited & too early ! :d he was still sleeping,so he just gave me the directions and i went on my own. Most of the shops were closed ! to realize ,ITS SUNDAY ! :/ - i have a Friday,Saturday,Sunday "weekend" problem ! :d - but there were two opened places i could see. so i thought okay,lets try one of them.

I entered the 1st place,there was no one ,but a dog :/ who came running toward me,I hate and scared of dogs :D - off topic fact : there are dogs in Bangkok ten times the number of cats in Amman - ,so i closed the door fast and went to the other place thinking "what a happy day !!!"

I opened the door of the second place and once i walked in,the owner -a woman- freaked out and put her angry face on and started waving me to get out and kept repeating "no ,no,may mee may mee " :/ i stepped outside and i was shocked!wut da hell did i do wrong !so i tried miming from behind the glass that i wanna cut my hair :/ and she wouldn't let me in !!!!!! wut da hell I'm really curious why were she that angry :D.

ANYWAY,I found another one ,the girl on the reception saluted me in English -good good- ,i sat down on the chair,and the barber came holding his scissors and inspecting my face ,before he asked i said "Jordan,I'm from Jordan".he didn't respond ! i thought he was just another angry person ,with the angry dog and angry woman it only makes sense to complete the set ! but NO,the man didn't speak English !

I tried explaining to him what i want,and how long i want the hair to be,he nodded ,i felt comfortable "Okay! Miming works!" ,basically ,he started with from the TOP of my head,which isn't how its done in Jordan ! but i thought : to each their own ! maybe thats how its done here !when my hair went too short from the top,i knew its not gonna be a happy cut !

In short,it took two hours,and i got angry,and cursed and cursed in Arabic - its been a while - , i pulled my hair ,I called my friend who didn't pick up!all i wanted is to get the barber to just make it the same length on every side ! but the man was scared,and wutever i tried to explain ,he'd just nod ,nod,nod ,come to execution?he didn't get a thing !

It was miserable,miserable day ,i don't care about how i look right now,I'm happy that i walked out with little hair still on my head . and i will NEVER cut my hair except in Amman ! :/

photo update

Before/after/before

[Pictures removed due to LAMENESS violation ]
MY HEAD FEELS SO LIGHT !

How i got lost today and ended up listening to Amr Diab in Bangkok!

August 27th ,2008
Yesterday I went over a friend's house to sleep over , i live somewhere around the red triangle on the upper part of the map ( right click -> open in new tab! i just love drawing maps ?:d) my friend's place is where the big red start * at the bottom,between "Ekamai" and "Thong Lo" Sky-Train stations (the sky train route is in green,the underground train -metro- is is blue) . and i never been to that area before,its just too far away from me and i have no business going there . today morning ,around 11 am when i headed home ,my friend gave me the directions to the two near-by Sky Train stations (the short red line on the map) it was something like : right,left,right,straight,right ,keep straight ! easy !! it was supposed to be 10 minutes walk maximum !after walking nearly 20 minutes ,i figured,something must be wrong !where da hell are the stations ?!!! luckily ,i saw a tourist coming my way ,finally,someone who speaks English !!well from his accent i think he is from Spain or wherever ,he didn't speak English, we just mimed and i made the train sound "choo choo " and for some reason i made the arm move that goes with "choo choo" (circular motion on the side !!! LOL ,Kinder garden stuff sticks in your mind after all !!!!!) he got what i was talking about and somehow i understood i should take the next left and keep straight all the way ! it was a bloody hot day today ,i walked for 40 minutes ,and eventually i saw the sign of the UNDERGROUND train !!! i couldn't believe my eyes ,the nearest underground train is "Sukumvit"! i thought WOW,i walked some good distance !! for my surprise ,it wasn't even Sukumvit !! it was the NEXT station !! "patchaburi" ( marked with red rectangle on the map) apparently ,instead of taking the short red line,i took a wrong turn and walked the blue line ! it felt funny to get lost anyway,wasn't that bad !

so to reward myself on this awfully long walk ,i thought I'd take a snack, or a drink in a nearby big ass Mega Mall ,so i went in, i enjoy the big malls here very much ! for one thing, i let myself visualize what kind of big store i want to have - I'm planning my life in advance - ,and they're really really big there is everything you could think of in these places ,Mecca Mall in Jordan is a joke comparing to them !one thing that gets my attention in the malls here generally ,is that Thai people LOVE to play computer games,and they enjoy much the kind of games i find very boring , which is those picture-matching games,you know when you click the two similar pictures ?and there is like 200 little pictures on the screen ? those are in every mall in Thailand -nearly- and you'd find two adults playing together,a mom and daughter,two friends,bf gf, a little boy and his dad ... and they seem really excited and enjoying their time :d its delightful to watch - ezzZzZzZzZ this is a cultural shock - ,so i eventually found a nice big restaurant ,i walked around and found something I could eat,the restaurant was international ,all kinds of food ,i sat down waiting for my order ,there were a group of foreigners next to me,Thai people on the other side, everyone is shattering ,and i drifted somewhere in my head ,you know when the world is moving in every direction all around you and you just go somewhere in your head ? i kinda "woke up" when i found myself mumbling a song for Amr Diab !!! weird ! i hate his guts !to realize,that the song is being played in the restaurant !!!!!! it was "Habibi wala 3ala bali" or "wala 3ala balo" I'm not sure,that one with the fast beat n all ! and holly molly did i love Amr Diab today !! it was a blast !i was so happy ,an Arabic song!! n i looked aorund and everyone was busy doing wutever they were doing and talking and I'm thinking "HE3 HE3 HE3 HE3 I can understand that :D"
i enjoyed every bit of the song,i didn't touch my food until it was done and the next track started ,its a mixed CD or something there was no more Arabic songs in there,i had my lunch and allll the tiredness of the walk was gone.it just made my day .I'll allow myself to like Amr Diab to the rest of the day ,starting tomorrow I'm back to hating his guts :/.

The Hooker From Kazakhstan

My friend came visiting recently ,i took him pretty much everywhere, one night we went to this nightclub with friends, the thing about Bangkok's nightclubs and bars that they close pretty early ,just like any place in Bangkok,except for couple of "underground" ones that stays open all night,i don't know why are they still referred to as "under ground" since everyone knows about them ! anyway, the other distinguished thing about nightclubs in BKK that no matter how classy the place is ,there will be free lancer hookers waiting to fish some drunken horny foreigner , couple of visits and you'll be able to spot them right on by the way they dress,dance,and act ,they're often dancing on the polls up high to show the goods and tease to please, i often find time to set back and watch,just watch, the people, the locals,the foreigners,both males and females,how the foreign girl look up (down) at the hookers,how the hookers try to fish with their eyes,i sometimes draw an imaginary line from their eyes where they initiate contact with (you),and how they pull (you) closely,nice and smoothly with the biggest smile on their faces, sometimes the thread is real shaky and vibrate,in that case it doesn't come out from the eyes,depending on your soberness and the music,the fishing thread would come out from different places ,and its really amazing,the fishing process i mean,its exactly like fishing, 1st the bate,now you're hooked,whether by eyes or other round body parts,and then the pulling begins ,(you) find yourself magically moving slowly to the poll,or wherever she is dancing at the floor,but (you)'re not often the only prey ,turned out ,the fisher throws a whole net all over,covering 360 degrees from where she is !now that you're there,and pulling is successfully completed :

• " take me out from the water" ,you say ,"I'm here already" .

and so she hears the unspoken words, gives you a hand,a hip,a back,a hug,a kiss,a lap dance, whatever you want ,she'll try them all at 1st,see what gets you to hang on to her waste tighter,once she knew what is it you like the most,she'll focus on that,once she makes sure that you're a good fish,and you're not trying to escape to another fisher ,she'll release the other still-on-the-way fishes, and the conversation starts :

• where you from ?
• bla bla
• whats your name ?
• bla bla

and the dancing continues. 15 minutes later, they'll be dancing like two people joint at birth, no separation what so ever, making out is constant ,touching and laughing as well, another 15 minutes,and they're either out of there heading to where they'll be spending the night ,or she is up there trying with another one ,the guy was apparently just a tease !it was a waste of time !

For me hookers where exciting one time only,the 1st time,i was a tease fish,i really can't get involved with one,or pay for sex, the more i watch them,the more i get mixed feelings about them ! some times they disgust me ! and sometimes i feel pity for them ! Prostitution is wrong and it demeans women,i even feel its demeaning when pretty girls show up in sexy dresses in the auto mobile exhibitions or so,the idea of me looking at something because there is a pretty woman next to it,or even looking at the woman displaying herself is repulsive to me .it feels uncomfortable and wrong.

Whenever i get out i like to get to know new people,foreigners or Thai ,but not the Thai hookers,the rest of the nice and neat Thai people,so that night,there was this non Thai woman,dressed nicely ,blond,a bit taller than average Thai gurls,wide eyes,you could easily tell she wasn't a Thai, but she was by herself,and foreigners usually go out in groups,you'd rarely find one girl by herself clubbing after 2 am !and she wasn't dancing or anything either !she was just setting there !in the middle of the club,she looked like she had lost someone in the crowd and trying to locate him or something, after a while she was gone ,and so did my friend !i lost him !so i waited by our table ,and then decided its time to have a look around ,i looked everywhere and couldn't find him so i got out looking for him near the entrance,i didn't find him there either,on the way back in,i saw the blond lady setting by herself near the entrance,so i approached her :

• Hey, have you seen a guy a bit taller than me with tied curly hair?
• No, your friend in white shirt no ?
• Yes!
• No i haven't seen him
• are you looking for someone as well ? I saw you setting there looking around
• No i didn't lose anyone ,i came by my self
• oh okay, how long have you been in Thailand?
• 6 months
• oh really!what do you do here?
• I work
• What do you do exactly ? I work here too
• "you know" she said,and gave me this smile and a wink !
• I was surprised! i haven't seen non-Thai hookers around before! and i laughed
• "entertainer ha? "
• yea
• so why aren't you dancing ?
• i danced a lot in the night club i was at before this one
• ahaaa, and where are you from ?

she said something like Kazakhstan or something,i couldn't really understand the word with the loud music, "and what about you ?" she added .

• "Jordan" i said ,do you know where Jordan is ?
• yea yea i know,I'm not stupid,Israel Dubai Bahrain !

i said smiling/laughing,and how are you gonna work if you're too tired to dance even?
she burst into laughing : No no,just show me money,when i see money,i get energized no problem.

• And what if i have money but I'm really ugly ?
• "If you have money I will fuck you even if you look like *********"

(she said the name of one of the Arab presidents!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) i couldn't help but laugh my lungs out !! how the hell does she know his name,and how da hell does she know he is ugly !it only shows the strong bond between her and a certain group of Arabs who apparently have something for blonds ! and then there was those 30 seconds where i really felt bad for her,30 seconds of silence,looking at me,kind of waiting for me to say whether I have money and want her or not !it was humiliating! i felt it was humiliating i don't know about her !so i said "good luck then" she said "good luck to you too finding your friend,if i see him i will tell him" .
and she went back to set where she was setting before this conversation started,i headed back to our table n found my friend waiting with the rest of our friends ,couple of hours later when we went back home nearly at 5 or 6 am, she was still there where i left her,with a Arab guy hanging to her nick ,i waved her good bye laughing , she winked at me with the biggest smile !

It was one of those times where i really didn't know how or what to feel !

My "wow" factor

i have a "wow" factor now! whenever i tell someone I'm Palestinians,lived in Jordan,and now in Thailand,the 1st thing to be read is "WOW" !
if they just know :)
ironic.

the bathroom light

for some reason,since i came to Thailand,i just don't shut the bathroom's light when i get out.
its been 40 days and the problem still.no reason what so ever!
.

am/pm

I woke up today at 6:30 at night,it was dark and only the annoying dog out there barking, i went to the restaurant to have my daily meal,Beef,Rice and vegetables ,for some unknown reason it was closed!its not supposed to be closed today! i went to the supermarket to get some bread,i thought okay i'll have Nutella sandwich for lunch and dinner today, and there was no bread at the supermarket too,she said wait until tomorrow morning,i found that very senseless to tell. i got some milk and serials and had my lunch.and it pissed me off so much,just fucked up my mood big time,so i came to write it down here,only to notice that time is 10:00,and its still not dark outside!
yea,then i realized just now what you just realized, i woke up at 6:30 AM !

numbers

i have recently encountered some weird situations with "numbers"
i was flipping the channels,i flipped on a football match that i didn't watch,i just looked at the corner on the game's clock and it was 13:13 .that night i was reading at like 5 am 3al balcony,and without any any intention i looked at the page number it was 123the next day,totally without anything in mind,while reading i looked,and it was 213 !