there's a whole lot of grey in the world...

.. so why does it bother people so much to be in the grey..
Some kick-ass girl is apparently involved with a non-Muslim guy and wants to marry him, but is afraid to tell her parents.
Typical story,,,happens a lot here.
Now marrying a non-Muslim to me doesn't seem like a bad idea, the less Muslim you are the less prone you are to growing a beard and wearing galabeya trois quarts. No matter what kind of Muslim you are, someone can come in and meddle in your brain and convince you that this superficial expression of personal beliefs is actually what Islam is all about. Now if you are not a Muslim then you have natural anti-bodies towards that disease-ridden way of thinking.
So YAY!
Marrying a non-Muslim guarantees also that your kids will accept and embrace both religions since they belong to both, this makes them less appealing to the ever growing anti-non-Muslims predators. So you might actually have a pretty decent kid!
Marrying a non-Muslim double's your feasts and presents! Which means on top of the Muslim eids (2), new year, prophet birthday you get Christmas, Easter, and new year or you get Hanukah (which apparently is only big on TV and not in real life) rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, etc.

Now say you are involved with a non-Egyptian or Arab then his family probably doesn’t give a rats ass what his ID says – hell his ID probably doesn’t say his religious affiliation. And even if they do care, they would be disappointed but won’t disown him (only our Egyptian parents think disowning is a logical course of action, bless their pretty little brains)
Now said individual can just convert on paper and you can avoid all the social scrutiny. And come judgment day you can make your case to god and see what happens.

If said individual is in fact Egyptian, then you move aboard – tell his parents that the girl has converted, tell her parents that the boy converted – and avoid putting both parents in the same room discussing this. Or you can just wait till you’re forty by then your parents will be happy you not marrying an ape – anyone would do!
But to be honest in that case – you are basically screwed – you gotta make a choice or move on.

The solution is all grey! Nothing is black and nothing is white – just a whole lotta grey, and it’s ok – grey’s in fashion this year – check Instyle magazine (it's in my bathroom library)

The ultimate Scrabble challenge

Since Cluedo (Clue) is no longer a challenge - i always win no matter what - i have embraced playing scrabble!
While kait and nora didn't prove to be much of a challenge, roomie nisrin was a little harder to beat.
So that's 3 native speakers down!
My next challenger is Mr. Kent Babbin - fellow blogger and AIESEC Alum - who for some reason i think will be very good at scrabble.
In a couple of weeks - once i am done with this months round of globe trotting - Kent and his dictionary are invited over to my place where i will try to kick his ass and the gloat about it for the rest of his life...and mine :)

Kent, I am officially chanllenging you to a game of scrabble

P.S. spectators are allowed at a minimal fee - haha

My Cairo Champion

Following on Kent's cairo champions i chose my Cairo champion for the month.

Purveya el Hindeya has managed to beat kenny (el masri) at autobees comblee (scategories) in BOTH english AND Arabic..
This is why she's my cairo champion this week - you go girl!

sooo creepy

parents somehow think that their kids listen when they start a sentence with "when i die you should.....". Usually this is my queue to tell them to shut up.
Except yesterday when my dad started his sentence he made me listen - and then he went off to tell a really creepy story..
Apparently some actor a while ago died and 6 months after they buried him they opened the room where he was put to bury another relative and found him dead on the strairs leading to the door. Apparently he got up, realized what had happened to him and either starved to death, or died for some medical reason.
He told me another story about a woman also buried but still alive, and someone heard her screams from nearby and got her out.
Even more troubling is the fact that that actor probably had the best doctors in egypt, but apparently even the best doctors in egypt cannot tell whether somone is alive or dead!

I am trying to investigate and see if that's just an urban legend - but if it isn't, it's really creepy! Imagine waking up in your tomb. it sucks - non-muslims would wake up in a coffin, and muslims will wake up to a small room full of rottening dead relatives!
i wonder which is worse..

SNOW!

So sweden decided to give me another good reason to love it - SNOW...
Yes i have whitnessed snow for the first time,,, and it was totally worth the delay in my flight! totally, i mean comon, when am i ever in a hurry to go to germany... (sorry i like to bitch about it)

Now since i was with work, all the people were old and boring (as usual) so i couldn't really have a good time..but still.. S N O W!!

I hope i never get old and boring....

winter sportin'

Well i finally know what i will do, if i end up spending a winter in Sweden (or marrying that swedish prince)

SKATING!!

Ok so this is my first glimpse of R E A L ice! It wasn't snowing (damn you global warming) but they had an ice ring - not wax like we got back home.

Then i played this game on ice - cold cold room!

needless to say i sucked, but i had fun

And this is me acting really cool about falling, ass on ice!

I also got a chance to see all the pretty girls dance on an ice ring, and damn they were good! it was only some girls having a good time, and they were sooooo good.
Then when they were done, the boys started playing ice hockey in full gear..

Tomorrow i should be spending my night in Germany - i hope i can survive this large concentration of ..well.. germans...

my corner

you know staying in a hotel for a week,, you gotta give it a touch of you...
That's my corner in the comfort jazz hotel!

I am walking on air...

yup that's what it feels like waering this

It's pink , it's glittery and it's mine!

In your face cold cairo winter!

what's up with the villages?!

I am in the airport looking for somewhere to have breakfast (at 1 pm haha) and i find out that the round food court in the airport is called "Food Village"
I happen to work in a place called "Smart Village"
and to see lions here you have to go to a park called "Lion Village"

what's up with egypt's fascination with villages!

i recon there are more villages out there that i do not know about...

contrary to common belief

i HATE studying!
Being a nerd doesn't mean you like it, it means you just do it......

:(

2007 - the year of Luli

It's is 2.5 hours past new years - it's officially 2007!
2007 will be the year i turn 24. As a wise man once said (Dody): 25 is when it all starts to go downhill, this means that 2007 will be my last year going uphill!
So i'd better make my new year's resolutions good ones, so here goes

1) During 2007 i want to have my last coke/pepsi drink. Just drink a can and then say it's the last coke/pepsi can i will ever drink.
I should also start the soda-pop anonymous (my name is luli and i am a sodapopoholic) and then later on write my book " a million little fizzy soda bubbles" (sorry james frey)


2) 2007 will be the year of low carbs! Right now i am pretty sure i will eat myself to death by the age of 30 - so i got 7 years (almost 6 now) to make sure that doesn't happen, coz well you can't rule the world when you're like......dead

3) Go visit America!!! Yes, the MET, Elis Island, the Sex and the City tour, national archives, the white house and a game (baseball or football or basketball,, still don't know)

Good things come in threes :)

Citystars vs Airport

The Cairo International Airport does not have dogs sniffing your bags - no dogs for security - none i have seen anyway.

Citystars - a large shopping mall - and nile city - a cinema theatre and office building - and the Semiramis Intercontinental have dogs searching you when you get it.

I hate going home!

I officially hate it. I go home every time and it all fits in prefectly!
My dad nagging me to come see him all the time, my mom being very affectionate and sweet as always, my grandma bitter as ever and still smoking like a chimney, my sister bitching and bossing all the time, and my bro who is so chilled and spaced out in his own little world of computer downloads and playstation 2 and my other brother with his 5 lunches, 4 dinners and 3 showers per day as an attempt to evade studying.
I normally like cairo, like my house, don't mind the 6 flights of stairs (lately), have fun here.
I stay in cairo for a while and then i don't want to go to Alex, the minute i go to alex i end up not wanting to leave.
So now i am back in Cairo and all i wana do is go back to Alex,,talk about withdrawal syndrome

My Bowling break through!

2 nights ago i rellied up the troops and ventured out on a night of bowling.
My first game i got a lame 55 - ranking last - nothing out of the ordinary!
So my second game i paired out with small-town-american Nirsin who is known to be good at bowling.
And while Nisrin brought out the best in me - 3 strikes and a spare - i brought out the worst in her - the only game with not even one spare!
This is why the Khattab house - May and her american cousin - beat us by a 9 point difference.
That does not by any chance undermine my achievement.
For the FIRST time ever i do not rank last, and i get a score of 107!! Wohoow! an 8 point difference from the top score of the game!

O plumber, where art thou!

3 days, 10 calls and 5 different appointments and still no plumber... and the situation is getting worse by each minute,, well by each "usage" is more accurate.
While in the civilized places the phrase goes "the customer is always right" in Egypt we have the not-so-equivalent " the customer is wrong,,fucking wrong".

You call Mr Plumber and be abso-friggin-lutly friendly and ask him to go through the immense trouble of visiting you in your house to do his job and get paid for it. ahh and what a thing to ask, it's like asking him to donate his kidney without any anesthesia.
So he gives you the proverbial, i will pass by when i finish my work,,,uhm isn't going to people's houses and fixing their plumbing your job aslan?!! so why is it that my request for his plumbing services not considered as "work"?!
Result - Day number 3: toilet is leaking all sorts of things and Mr. plumber still has work!
3 days of no plans, no gym, no going out, of staying home, baking a pie and making the most delicious pasta sauce ever (which sounds so insultingly housewifie) and watching "married with children" "The nanny" and "Paris and Nikky's E! true Hollywood story" (2 hours of the Hiltons is just too much!) and still NO FRIGGIN PLUMBER!

While i am hopeful that day 3 will be the promised day - i am also thankful for limewire and grey's anatomy which should be entertaining my day 4 god forbid

Jackie?!

On thursday i went to the National Bank of Egypt to get my credit card (they don't send it for you) - i picked up the envelope, and forgot to get the PIN number (apparently they don't send that one either)
The envelope was addressed to Jacklin Abd El Salaam Mohamed.
Needless to say, that's not exactly my name :)

exhausted!

I haven't had a day off in ages, and it's finally catching up to me...last weekend i spent my only day off - friday - sick of "Chili's of Death" and cleaning my own puke. I guess i really need to give a big shout out to thank nisrin for the hand in that cleaning - I hope i never have to do it for you (for your sake, and mine), but i will do it anywayz!

My new year's plans are crap! I am honestly too scared to go to dahab - so i think i will not go....and bayfest is fucking expensive. Maybe I should opt for a quiet new year's?

I am making my new years resolutions and i have a brand new entry:
Go to America!
Yes i want to go on holiday for 10 days to New York - that's it! I am doing it! So i am saving up - and i will stop my mad shopping spree that's been going on for 3 months! (damn you sweden for your good shopping)

One day left for my long weekend.........yawn

LinkdotNet is the worst internet service provider (ISP) in Egypt

Yes! it's official, Not only is their internet really slow, their fees too overpriced for the shit they provide, they also have the worst cusotmer service in the world!
If i ever see the general manager of Linkdotnet i will spit on his face for doing such a lame-ass job!
Die Mother-F***er Die!!

Any idea how i can make this post be the first search item found on google?!
I really want to screw their asses right now!

you live you learn

my work colleague with me in sweden keeps going on about how much he misses his 4-month old daughter, and how it's the first time he's been away from her and how he really wants to go back to see her and how he dreamed of her last night and how he's waited so long to have a daughter and he doesn't want to leave her.
It's really cute...

It's funny, i never really thought fathers miss their kids. I mean sure it's nice to have 'em around, when they're being nice and cute and not annoying, but to go as far as miss them?

He's no Roger Moore

but the new james bond sure is good.

and in light of that i am planning a poker night......