A very interesting walk…

Snapshots of an interesting walk

It was a beautiful day in early March… a dear friend of mine and I had just finished our labs at Uni around 5 in the afternoon, and took a walk from the University right to Al-Youbeel roundabout…

Right outside the back gate of the University, we tried to find a trash bin to throw the little snack wraps… it took a while before we spotted that small bin some 30m across the street! (Yuppeeee) I was feeling good about my sense of citizenship ;p

That mess of a bin actually said “clean citizen, clean environment”, nice contrast, wouldn’t you say? and that was not the only irony, we were in for a little surprise…

It was bottomless!!!!! The only trash bin in that busy street behind the University of Jordan was Bottomless!!! we just kept the stuff in out hands and walked on…

We got to the turn right next to the South gate and the Cancer hospital… and there we spotted this interesting sight of the pavement… I’m just curious how they elevated it but never got to replacing the street sign!!

The weather was gorgeous, and inspite of the traffic and the noise and the risk factors… we were tremendously enjoying our walk… we came next to this construction sight, can you make out what’s scribbled on the plates?? See the close shot afterwards… I’m not sure if the translation is exact, but it says “the idiot”, and it’s written on every single one of those plates!!

At one point we were in desperate need of a tissue, and I thought I saw a mini market (with stacks of chips outside), when we got there it turned out to be a liquor store… and two completely drunk men were stepping outside!! Man you should’ve seen their eyes!! Completely stoned… walking right there in that busy street… they got in a taxi, but seconds later he threw them out!! Right there in that photo, they looked in our direction, then they waved and said something… and I panicked!!! Thankfully they got in another taxi who obviously didn’t mind and went on their way!!

And well… the last pic is of a construction truck that was blowing out black fumes every few seconds!! Not a pleasant thing to be close to, believe me…

The sun had set, and we had reached the roundabout where my friend and I parted ways and each one of us took a cab back home… earlier that day I was feeling very stressed out, but that walk with every detail of it completely changed my mood and cleared up my mind I know I wanna do it again and again, and keep my eyes open for bizzare little details that make up this unique place called Amman

Sweet springtime… kicking back!

My perfect seasons are Spring and Autumn, which we have very little of in Jordan… so I’m just trying to enjoy this favorite time of the year with the absolutely gorgeous fresh weather before the dusty wind from the south starts blowing and aggravates my allergy

During my first year at University, I started taking the bus back home (the one known as the yellow bus ), it would take me 15 minutes to walk home from where it stops, and I used to take that walk regardless of the weather, how tired I was, or what I was carrying. But then in my second year, I started taking a taxi back home with a friend who lives nearby… it was around that time that I became always rushed and I stopped using the bus because I no longer had the patience to stand and wait and then take a walk!! You know when this urgency addiction takes over, I was getting involved in lots of things, always running from one place to the other, no longer spending my breaks just sitting with friends… eventually “3aj2a” became a characteristic of mine, and I guess switching to taxis was just one of the symptoms, or results!!

But since the beginning of this semester, I started feeling different about a lot of things, I guess it was all coming with the realization that I have one year left to graduate… for starters, I’m much more laid back, and I’m taking a lot of time to just think and write! I want to be a sanfoura (college freshman) in spirit again, and one point I’ve become aware of is that taking the bus is one of the things that I’m not likely to do except as a university student it doesn’t matter if it takes much longer to get home, why the big hurry??

Just the other day I was walking back home from the bus stop at 5:30 in the afternoon, and I was singing to myself enjoying the amazing spring weather, and it just felt so peaceful!!

Today I spent my two-hour break sitting with my friends in the ‘garden’ of our faculty… and for the first time in four years I realized how beautiful the place is, with the yellow spring flowers (the picture doesn’t quite do it justice, I’m not much of a photographer!!)

Spring time in the court yard of our Engineering Faculty building

And this evening I did something I hadn’t done in quite a long time; I sat outside on our kitchen balcony with my sister sipping my favorite black coffee and talking for around two hours…

I guess what I’m trying to say is that it’s so great to take a step back from the hectic pace of life, and embrace the little things that we overlook sometimes… so here’s a new resolution:
Until I graduate, I will take the bus home from university everyday and walk the remaining distance…
I will spend more time with my friends talking about nothing and everything
I will have more ‘me-time’ and enjoy the beauty of spring and summer J

Blog Blag Bloggen ;p

I probably started writing personal stuff at the age of seven or eight, they weren’t exactly journals, I used to call them “Secret Notebooks”… I had so many of them, and I loved nothing more than to sit and write ideas, resolutions, plans, fantasies… things like that! Then I started keeping a regular diary at the age of 11, and it’s still going Now here I am venturing into the blogosphere experience… this is not my first blog, I wrote one last month (February 18th, my birthday) on TIG! Ever since then I’ve been exploring blogs, mostly just reading, and it’s getting me hooked…

I don’t remember the first time I had an article published… no hold on, perhaps I do, apart from the school magazine, there was an Egyptian youth magazine called “Samir”, and I sent them applying for the “young journalist’s card”… it was at that time that I decided I want to be a journalist, at fifth grade. I was so excited when I got the card, and even more excited when they published the piece I sent them… I still have it clipped in my first diary book even though it was more like an elementary school essay, about Jordan’s Petra!!

The journalism passion stayed with me, even when I got other ideas about my future and had flings and swings about what I want to do! When you watch the Academy Awards every year, don’t you just stand in front of the mirror and think of the speech you’d give when you win your Oscar? Or was it just me? well, I remember the Oscars when Brave Heart won, it was then that I started rehearsing my speech, and my Oscar would be for Original Screen Play… and possibly direction!

I’m currently in my fourth year at the University of Jordan studying Electrical Engineering!!! Nshalla I will graduate in January 2006 (less than a year to go), and I already feel I’m standing at a cross-road… I’m not at all sure what I will do when I graduate, I have lots of ideas, and I’m spending a lot of time thinking and exploring… and writing!!

I’ve been working with a local youth magazine called “On Campus” for almost a year and a half now… I tried the University Student newspaper before that for like a year, but I couldn’t take the censorship and the official control over it from the deanship of student affairs… now that’s another story that I might tell you about later!!

So here I am This was sort of an attempt at an intro to this blog of mine… which I plan to update regularly, I’m one of those talkative people who always have something to say, and who always want to give the world a piece of their mind 