Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Living abroad

I have been now abroad for a few years, and i figured out that there are some advantages and disadvantages, but it has to be mentioned that everyone has his own view about this.

Missing family and friends is one major issue with being abroad especially when you live very far away and it takes more than one plane to reach Libya. For example, when one of us needs some help, for example being sick, moving away there is always someone there to help you out.

Till now i was not able to make good friends whom i can ask for help in such cases, therefore if i need help i have to pay someone strange 10-15 dollars per hour to help me out. On the other hand if i live in Libya i will get overwhelmed with helpers and visitors in such cases as being sick or so. It is the opposite, sometimes you are looking for some rest but you have to be prepared for all kind of visitors. Again this depends on the person, some people like it to have lots of people around them.


Picture source: http://www.stepbystepimmigrationcanada.com/live-abroad.jpg

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Spring time


Finally it is spring again. 
Due to some things to do i am not really able to enjoy the spring outside and i am really feeling sorry for that. But i am happy that it is finally blue, green and brown outside, instead of white, black, grey and grey and grey outside.
This year the first snow fell back in october, which is considered to be very early and till now there is some snow on the streets and even in our backyard which didn't melt yet. Overall, we lived in winter for almost 6 months. 
Finally it is time for picnics, grilling in the backyard, playing ball in the backyard with the little one or going to the playground cross the street with him.
And it will not take long and you will find tulips everywhere, in the streets, shops and gardens. 
Moreover, the wonderful smell of grass and sun that is filling the air, i can open the windows without feeling cold to let the fresh air inside the house.
I was not able to go out this weekend but i don't have any doubt that the parks are full of people enjoying the first days of spring here. I like it how the people here appreciate the nice weather and the free time to do activities instead of staying in the houses and watching TV. They are working the whole week and not able to do anything, and hence they are using every free minute they have on the weekend.

Picture source: http://www.cns-snc.ca/CNS_Conferences/waste_05/waste2005_main.html

Sunday, March 15, 2009

The face book era!!!!

When did you come a cross facebook?

I think i first heard about it one and half years ago when i started my grad studies at the university. Some fellow students made a presentation about the new Internet. So i signed up to check it out but to be honest i didn't like it, i cancelled my account and didn't activate again.

One of the things that scared me is that they will keep my email address forever, so that if i decide to sign up for a new account and i use the same email after 6 years they will just say welcome back.

What else is facebook??
Facebook is a way to spy on your friends, what they do, who their Friends are, the more you put on your facebook account the less privacy you will have.
I admit that i am taking a look from time to time to some friend's account, this is the reason why i know somethings about it but the more i see the less i like it, all the new applications that you can add, all the information you can put to others. I liked what our professor said, now you are happy with it putting all the pictures and the information available to everyone, and in some years when you want to apply for a job your boss will check facebook and find some stuff he doesn't like and you will not get the job. He told us to be very careful with the information we upload, we have to read the privacy policies especially for such things as private pictures.

One advice, do not follow every new trend, some of them are taking more than they are giving.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Obama's airplane!!!!!

You might think now what does this mean? Obama's airplane!!!!


OK, i will start from the beginning. I am not that into politics, i don`t understand a lot of it and i am not interested in doing that. I don`t know a lot about what is going on in the news, but sometimes things come sooooo close that you are forced to face them.


Ok, Obama is the new president of the U.S., and i have to say that i don`t think that this will mean a big change to the world politics, but let`s be open and see what will come.


However, i was not infected by the so called ¨Obamamania¨ and therefore i didn't ake a big deal about Obama coming to visit Canada. In the news you were able to read that people were waiting for him in the streets in the snowy cold weather, you would read about several plans that he had here and that his trip was very short, only half a day.


We didn't plan to go out on that day, but we had to drop someone at the airport so we left about 4. We felt that the air was full of helicopters and i mentioned to my Husband that this might be because of Obama, although we thought that he had already left the country, and when we tried to reach the airport we found all streets closed. Obama was on his way to the airport. We went home and tried it again after 30 min.


When we finally reached the airport and we drove along the ramp to the departures there were some cars stopping just on the street and we almost run into them. Then we looked for the reason and we found it, sooo huge, sooo American, it was Obama's plane, we were soooo close to it, we could have stopped as well and kept on watching, but as i mentioned, we are not infected.


Why am i writing all this?? i don't know, it made me think. And it was weired at the same time.


picture source http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Photo+Gallery+Obama+Ottawa/1306028/story.html

Monday, January 19, 2009

Eating Outside

I don't know what is soo good in eating outside, is it the different taste to the usual home made food?
For a woman i would understand that she is enjoying not standing in the kitchen from time to time, some woman don't like to eat their own food. But for men?? normally the food at home should be their favourite because it is made like they want.
The question is why am i brining up this topic?? i am in libya for a visit, and in fact i am missing libyan fast food, libyan pizza, libyan shawerma and hamburger. But!!!!!!!!! I don't have any trust any more in any of the food shops. Normally they say the man know the good places, but eventhough my brother is bringing food from the so called clean places, i don't like it anymore.
Here, it became a trend to try the different restaurants. There are even real restaurants opening, nice locations, nice atmosphere, they say even nice food. But!!!! the question is not only is the food clean? Are the dishes and glasses clean? You are drinking from a glass that might be not properly cleaned, and too many deseases are spread.
I feel sorry, because we are an islamic country and being clean should be one of the main characteristics of muslims, why is there no trust??

Saturday, December 20, 2008

صغيري


أحيانا أنظر إليك وأتساءل...
ماذا ستصبح؟؟ ماذا ستعمل؟؟ كيف ستعيش؟؟
عيونك المليئة بالفضول تشير الى مستقبل مجهول..
ياترى هل سأكون جزءا منه؟؟ هل يكتب لي أن أرى فرحة نجاحك؟؟
هل أحضنك يوم زواجك؟؟ وهل العب مع احفادي كما العب معك اليوم؟؟
 كيف يتحول الحب الى الم يعصر القلب؟
اللهم اعني على حمايته ورعايته
الدنيا تلهث ونحن وراءها لتقف فجأة أمام قدميك الصغيرتين..
فلا يهمك الصباح والمساء.. ولا تعني عقارب الساعة لك شيئا
عش حبيبي وقتك اللامنتهي.. فستكبر يوما ويبدأ الزمان
كم من لحظة تمر اتمنى حفظها في ذاكرة التاريخ..
كي أرجع اليها يوما لابتسم واقول..
لقد كنت يوما اقاسمك الحياة..
وها انا ذا اجهز اجنحتك اللصغيرة لتطير يوما بعيدا عني..


 

Friday, December 19, 2008

This and That

I wanted to update the blog for a long time. But i am not finding a nice topic to write about, so i decided to write about this and that.
First of all, i am finally done with my courses, i am on vacation, and it took me only two days and 20 cm of snow to feel bored again. It is really funny how people are feeling, during the semester i was missing the times sitting in front of TV, playing with my son or going out for shopping. Now, i am free to do all of that and i am not interested. I think people are never satisfied with what they are having, they always want a change.
However, Canada is suffering from cold weather the last couple of days, first there were places with grades up to -47. Can you imagine it? -47? even my fridge is not as cold. I am soo thankful that i am not living in such a cold region. However, even places that are not so used to the cold suffered from it, snowstorms, schools closed, traffic stopped and even air traffic stopped. I am glad that the place i am at had only a couple cm of snow till now but this can change.
What else????? mmmmmmmhhhh


My son started to watch TV shows for kids, i am trying to keep a close look on what he is watching, even though he is still tooo young to understand the main things, but i have to be careful. But to be hones, i like the shows they have on their children's channel. Sesame street, barney show and lots of cure cartoons. But the main point is that all of them are half educational half fun programs, so it is not considered a waste of time if my son watches them from time to time. He already started to ask for many (Barney).


For every one living abroad, the winter sale will start now after christmas. I hope that everyone who is enjoying shopping will be able to make good deals.