Nightmarish remembrences

that's a picture of my school, or part of it at least.

I would lay on the lower bunk, my small feet high in the air barely touching the bars of the bed above. The amount of bars my feet would reach would be the amount of years i'de live in the US i told myself. I had just moved back from living in Virginia to living in Egypt and the culture shock, the school system, plus everything else was just too overwhelming for me. On my first day of school the teacher bust a ruler on my hand because my Arabic writing wasn't good enough, if that was just the first day how were the rest of my days going to be like. It would only be later that i would prefect being rebellious and refusing to open my hands to receive the stick but maintain an angelic face as well. It was a world of eat or be eaten. Elementary school drama that ruined your school career, and not to mention the connections you had to have in order to survive. Our neighbor, Mr. Ahmad worked in my school as a teacher and i can't say how much i took advantage of that. He became known as my uncle in the school and he never objected. whenever it was that any of my friends or I were going to get in trouble for being late to class, skipping class or any other thing involving getting into trouble, i would smile at them confidently and we would head to the teachers lounge for one of "3amo Ahmad's" notes.

2nd Year here i come

I just started my classes today and i can't really believe that it's my second year in university. It only dawned on me the other day that i was growing older and into adulthood (or close to it at least) when i met some of my old friends way back when i used to live in EGypt when i was in Elementary school. when i saw their pictures I was like Ya Allah! they looked well, like adults and one was engaged and they're going to their 3rd year of university already ( I'm one yr behind). It feels just like yesterday that i was a freshman in high school and looking in awe at the seniors at my school. they were so old, smart, and mature( OK maybe not mature) but that's what i thought at least. now when i look back and see seniors in high school they look nothing more than teenagers who really are just kids transforming into adult bodies. look at me, i sound like this middle aged women looking back at her years of youth when I'm only like a year or two older than them. ahh

it's just that i can't help it, time really flies by so fast that before you realise you're in the present you've already reached that future. if that makes any sense.

10 Things i have learned in my first year of university

1- Eye twitching is totally normal, in fact if it doesn't happen probably means your not have enough all nighters.

2- Having All nighters is totally normal, and is most encouraged

3- The people who are at the table next to you in the library totally become your best friends when you need someone to watch your stuff

4- One develops an immunity to caffeine, one has to find new means to stay awake...by any means necessary

5- Right when exam times role around Facebook, YouTube, and every means of distraction all of a sudden becomes really interesting

6- Cubicles are the latest fad

7-sneaking skills to the nines, while food is not allowed in the library one need not to worry, just sneak it around through the elevator, or in someones purse

8- Ice Cap's are an addiction and Tim Hurton's( Canadian version of Starbucks) is like a daily need for one to function

9- When i say i'm going to a "club meeting" by that i don't mean i'm actually going to a club

10- That High School was a joke!

Efta7y edek إفتحي إيدك ...Open ur hands

I remember my first day in an Egyptian school. I had just come back from the USA, and i barely knew any Arabic much the less writing it. It was a whole new experience and not necessarily a pleasant one. It was many firsts for me. First time wearing a uniform, first time in an Egyptian school, first time to get hit on my hand, and by a teacher. I still remember being scared shitless, i think i almost wet my pants( dress) whatever! i was accustomed to being the teacher's pet, and i didn't really understand why the teacher would get so mad that my Arabic handwriting wasn't on the line that it'd make her break a ruler on my hand.

When my parents heard about this they were of course not happy, so the next day i proceeded to go to school with my parents who gave the teacher ( Ms. Mofeeda) a piece of their mind. Her excuse " well, you should have told me she came from America" Wat!!! so i only get speciel treatment cause i lived in the US! not to mention that hitting in schools is against the law, but what do teachers care about that, only time those long sticks disappear is when the hear that someone is coming to check on the school, and subhanallah just like that flowers are placed at every corner, carpets are rolled out, and sticks disappear.

Its probably different now, i remember a couple of years later standing up to a teacher and refusing to open my hands since i didn't do anything to be punished for and i blankly told him it was against the law, my punishment was standing in front of the classroom for the whole day. We had a teacher one time who cursed a student by his father's name " ybn el..." bad move, the kid picked up the teacher from the front of his shirt and dangled him over the side of the three story building. What a sight!! as entertaining as that was, it's kind of sad to see teachers have little to no respect in Egypt, but then again who's fault is it really?