Bolton Abbey/ Leeds... Sunday April 5th

Wow..it was a great day! I never thought I'd get the opertunity to see such places. I was amazingly reminded of 'Sense and Sensibility'...you know, Jane Austen? lol jk
Well, here are some of the spectacular views I got with 'me' cam ;P
















I hope you liked them...sorry they're too many of em... I still got more AARRGGHH lol

Till next time :)

Beautiful Day...at last!

Today I woke up with the sun in my face...well, not literally. Today we changed our time here in the UK to an hour ahead. Anyway, I went out walking and got some pics. And the greatest thing was that I discovered that there was a river right close to my apartment!! neato :) Here are some of the pics.








These guys sure gave a bounce to our steps downtown :)


Oh dear... this is my first time to post pics around here...I don't think it came out the way I wanted it lol... ah well...enjoy :)

Long Ago...

Back!

Yuck! I hate it when I'm away for some time and have been through a lot, and the moment I wanna share stuff...I don't know where to start?!

Ok, here's how it goes. Seeing that I'm gonna be part of the creative writing realm, then I'll start it out as a free writing piece (to actually start writing whatever comes to mind without stopping for proof-read) so help me God lol.

(consulting the calendar)...

Right... March 9th, was a Monday.

Days before that, I had made up my mind to join a creative writing group in town. Did my search and came across one that appealed to me in terms of time and place (Borders Bookshop). It said on the website that the meeting was to be held at 6:30 pm at the basement. I got there, like, 5 minutes before, hoping to be punctual and stuff. I asked where the group met and headed towards their corner. Gulp!. As I approached the table, I found about 10 people were already there and they were discussing something. Ok so they came a bit early I figured. I squeezed in and was gladly welcomed with smiles all around and one of them shifted sideways to allow me space to sit. Thank you very much.

I was there just to listen and hadn't brought anything to read out. Yes, they read out their writings while the others listened and followed from copies. I was taking mental notes all along. 1. They read out loud (and fast! in Yorkshire accent! AARGH) lol 2. They brought their own copies and handouts, 3. You can simply a listener if you choose or give you critique about a writing, and 4. The meeting started at 6:00 pm lol ...the website, not me :S

When it was over, we parted on the prospect of meeting same place same "time" in two weeks. Surely I was determined to come back, along with one of my prescious masterpieces (hehe) don't mind me, creative, remember?

Next meeting, March 23rd (Yesterday)

So,after school, I didn't go home and had dinner out (I finish school at 4pm so I can't go and come back in two hours' time)Ok. 5:50 pm and I was at the table with a couple of others awaiting the noble knights of the round table (there it is again).

Two read before me. I was really taking my time, not wanting to be the first so as to not give a sloppy start for the evening lol had my writing not been good enough (smirk--jk)

'The time has come, my pungent friend, to read out your piece,' said a voice at the back of my head. I sat up, glad that I didn't jump, and distributed my copies around the table ("The Table" is more like it ;;) ) And I read.

To my surprise, when I finished reading and looked around, they all burst out talking at the same time! lol You can't imagine how glad I was about that. So, as they organised themselves as to who would speak first, almost all of them expressed how impressive my story was, let alone the way I presented it (If you guys are interested, perhaps you'd like me to post it for you?)One lady said that she loved my accent! I had to swallow my tongue and not mention the incident--the one I wrote about in one of my previous posts here (Can you be an American in the UK? in other words, can Americans be Americans?)--and accepted the compliment.

To be frank, I sensed that there was some kind of prejudice going at first when I pointed out that I had something to present. It was there in their eyes...I dunno, probably they were thinking, 'Ok, does she know what she's doing?'and 'Could she have anything worthwhile?'. Maybe it was just in my head, and that I had jumped to conclusions to how receptive they would be of me in the group.

Well, in the end, I was pretty pleased with myself. Having done what I had done. And proud to have, seeing that there's been this kinda "stigma" about muslim women (in addition to my being wearing Hijjab)and how they don't have a mind of their own (was that well put?). It probably is (was and will be) a personal crusade I'm willing to maintain to change that misconception...so help me God :)


Till next time,

Agua Dulce, Agua Sala

(This is a Spanish song, which you'll find on my mixpod, I first heard it back in 1997 when it was first released and never heard it again till last week! Amazing huh? I had to ask a Spanish colleague about the name of the song to download it... so, here it is, enjoy! :) )


Julio Iglesias

Ay, ay, ay, ay

Con el pasar de los años
he aprendido en la vida
que se vive intensamente
porque si no se termina

Con el pasar de los años
el cariño es mas bueno
se aprecias lo que se tiene
y se respeta lo ajeno

Agua dulce, agua sala
por agua viene, por agua se va
Agua dulce, Agua sala
bendita le vida, te quita y te da

Agua que caes del cielo
sobre las olas del mar
yo te quiero beber dulce
y tu te pones sala

Agua dulce, agua sala
agua dulce, agua sala

ay, ay, ay, ay

Con el pasar de los años
hay que dar bien los pasos
tomar el mejor camino
aunque se te haga el mas largo

Con el pasar de los años
de las penas se aprende
el corazon se hace duro
y el sentimiento mas fuerte

Agua dulce, agua sala
agua dulce, agua sala

V Day

Dear V Day,

How nice of you to drop by. How I'm doing? Pretty well thank you very much ;)Given it's the weekend, I went downtown to enjoy a day at café nero. Not with a significant other, no, lol. I say this light-heartedly, and I'm truly glad that people don't celebrate it here as excessively as those in Switzerland do: the color red everywhere, balloons, banners, chocolate, teddybears! I am sooo relieved to be honest. Of course a part of me would be wanting someone there, not just this day, but everyday! But, what can I say? Beggars can't be choosers? lol

Right next to where I live, there's this kinda leisure complex, with a cinema, bowling, gym, McDonalds, Pizza Hut and so on. They have this Valentine's Fun Fair going on till the 22nd. How cute. So, instead of sitting in a quiet corner at a dim-lit restaurant with your loved one, you get to scream and screech on a rollercoaster! lol omg that's so hysterical! but fun, nevertheless :)

I got a text message from L , my best friend, who's in Switzerland now, wishing me a happy V. I was in the café when I received it, and I started laughing :P I dunno, maybe because it came out of the blue. I'd been talking to someone else, when the message yelled out in the absurd tone I set it on, and everyone turned around...rofl

Ok, so much for the perfect V Day, eh? But it's all good, and I'm content. I got nothing on my mind now, nobody behind my back, a goal ahead of me...and I'm content :)

I'm not saying you're harsh on single people, no, I'm only stating how some of us S people find you quite amusing, and probably enjoy you more than couples do...if that makes any sense. ;)


Till next time/ year...

Can you be an American in the UK? in other words, can Americans be Americans?

Right, so here I am in the UK for almost over a month getting along with my studies. As my MA starts next September, I thought I'd take an Academic English course so as to boost up my confidence in mastering my English language, especially where writing is concerned, and actually speaking with English native speakers.

About two years ago, I took an IELTS course in Libya and of course I was taught by English teachers, a male and female. For some reason or the other, the male teacher whom I'll refer to as (I)- cos that's the first letter of his name :P, didn't seem to find me appealing - not in terms of beauty! no not that lol- just that I had the American accent. Yeah, just that. He would constantly drop comments about how Americans were silly and stupid... like I was American in the first place!? HELLO! I don't know how I actually put up with him for the whole of the ten weeks' course. Glad that was over, yet, it resulted in my bad performance in my IELTS test regardless of how amazing I was in English.

And now I'm in England.

Ever since Monday, one of my teachers here, Angela, has been absent cos of a severe flu, so we were assigned another teacher... teacher? right. From the moment she entered our class of about 12 international students, she stated that she'd never taught an advanced class, and had no idea what she was doing. Till today and we had to tolerate that. Earlier, I discussed the matter with most of my colleagues that it was a terrible waste of our time, let alone of our money! I'm thinking of sending Angela an email later just to see if she's coming tomorrow or not, otherwise I won't attend with that silly substitute. Today, I left after 45 mins of the start of class, cos not only had she jabbered on about not knowing what or how to conduct the class, she even stated that American English disgusts her. And that was the last straw for me. She had noted that before, but I let it slide. This time, it was terribly personal. I felt insulted to the extremes. Like I had the choice to which accent I wanted to aquire as a child?!! I have no problem with the British English accent and never heard an American actually comment about it!

Grrr

I haven't come across Americans here yet, but when I do, I'll make sure I'll ask them if they've had to deal with that too...

I mean, what am I supposed to do? change my accent to British? yeah right!

Hope this passes soon.

So, till next time