i leave you with a suggestion:
http://www.reverbnation.com/pineappleliberationmovement
and with love,
peace.
find me @ http://isdoud.wordpress.com
Pictures!!
July 6, 2008 at 7:11 am (Uncategorized)
Here are the links to all the travel pictures!
Istanbul, Part One:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2012533&l=6c32e&id=67000627
Istanbul, Part Two
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2012534&l=48f39&id=67000627
Vienna:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2012531&l=3f714&id=67000627
Prague:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2012530&l=057ca&id=67000627
Enjoy!
Love.
I’m Home….well, sort of…
June 27, 2008 at 4:45 pm (coming home)
So I have another couple of hours in an airport and will be putting up pictures of all the traveling shortly, but first let me tell you about my trip home…or atleast back to the good ole US of A.
Let me start by saying that I’m in Charlotte, NC and will be for the next two hours. Let me also say that I should have been home about 18 hours ago…
The flight from Amsterdam left on time…even tho it was scheduled late…but then we sat on the runway for an extra hour, so of course, by the time I got through customs in DC, I had missed my connection to Nashville. Then I was given two options to be rerouted – one was through Charlotte supposed to arrive in Nashville at 10:30pm and the other through Knoxville arriving at 11:30pm. Thinking of my poor mother and father who were waiting in Nashville (mind you I was supposed to arrive at 5:30pm), I opted for the Charlotte flight. Mistake.
There was a storm in Charlotte, so we sat on the runway in DC until air traffic control let us takeoff. Then, we couldn’t land in Charlotte bc of the same storm and we circles around with about 7 other planes until we ran out of fuel an were diverted to Raleigh. We refueled in Raleigh and left again for Charlotte…not till about midnight though…got to Charlotte around 1:15am. Naturally, the Nashville flight was long gone…so I spent the night in Charlotte. Due to the weather and numerous flight delays, all the aiports were booked except for two – neither of which had shuttles – so by taxi I went to the Red Roof Inn…
Instead of being able to take the early flight to Nashville this morning, I had to take the 11:40am flight (arriving there at Noon central time) to coordinate with Fady’s flight time. However, my flight has been delayed AGAIN – so I am not leaving to Nahsville until 1:30pm – arriving at 2pm central time. Almost an entire day later than planned….
Oh America…what a welcome home…
(p.s. At all 5 or 6 of my security checks in the past two days, I was taken aside and patted down and my bags were selected for ‘random’ search. After 5 times in less than 36 hours….it’s not random anymore and the bags are safe, for God’s sake!!!)
(p.p.s. i miss good coffee already.)
Istanbul
June 13, 2008 at 11:52 am (the final lap)
I said my main goodbyes last weekend. We have been in Istanbul five days now and I have been going through gradual withdrawal from Amsterdam in that tıme. The problem is that I know I am going back after these travels, so really I have only saıd goodbye to the main people, but I still have to say goodbye to the city – what I thınk will be an even greater task – especially after realizıng how much harder my goodbyes with people were than I thought they would be.
Anyways, aside from that aspect of where I am mentally these days – let us address where I am physically: Istanbul! What a great city…and what a great place to start my travel adventures wıth Dad. We went to the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet) on our first day, whıch basically set our mood of awe and delight for the rest of the week. Gorgeous and inspiring.
The second day we spent our entire day at Topkapi Palace - Dad puttıng images to all his historical knowledge and learning some new information as well, and both of us bewildered at the sheer immensity of beauty, accomplishment, and most of all, ritz and glamor of the sultans. Emeralds and diamonds the size of my entire hand, paling in comparison to the crown jewels given as gifts from European monarchies, and probably worth more than the entire state of Tennessee.
The following day we went to Ayasofya (Hagia Sofia), a reminder of the historical diversity and progression of the empires that have existed in this place. The pictures will all speak and explain more than I could even begin to attempt.
The fourth day we took a break from the city and went on a day trip out to the Prınce’s islands in the Sea of Marmara (where they used to exile the princes, now inhabıted islands). A calm and beautiful boat ride through the Bosphorus to the Sea led us to these quaint, beautiful, and mountainous islands. There are no cars on the islands; the streets are narrow; the hills steep; the water a beautiful, bright blue-green; and the houses a storybook white with clay-brown-red roofs. After comıng back to Istanbul, we ate at a restaurant recommended to me by a Turkish friend from Amsterdam. A very nice kebab place wıth a gorgeous view onto the Golden Horn and the Galata bridge, connecting the European part of the city.
Yesterday, we walked and roamed mostly after going to the Turkish and Islamic art museum at the beginning of the day. We found the Suleymeniye Mosque closed for restorations unfortunately, but all was not lost – we ended up eatıng dinner in a lovely huge, outdoor restaurant where Dad and I sat for a couple of hours after dinner and had tea and coffee, watched a Sufi dancer, listened to some music, and Dad even taught me how to play tawla (backgammon in english, i believe).
Right now Dad is at Friday prayer and I am obviously catching up on emails and things of the like. After he gets out, we are headed to the Spice Market and the Taksim neighborhood and then the plan is to rıde around on the tram until we reach a part of the cıty we feel like exploring – Dad wants to end the week here with an adventure – and well, I am happy to oblige of course – who doesn’t like a good adventure?!
We leave late tonight/early tomorrow morning to Vienna and then Monday we are taking the train to Prague. I will try and write again before we return to Amsterdam the 19th; otherwıse, I will be sure to update and post lots of pictures as soon as we get back.
Miss and love you all.
Peace. Salam.
Full Circle
June 4, 2008 at 4:17 pm (academics and adventuring abroad)
So my first Tuesday here was Super Tuesday and a semester later, Obama has the nomination. It’s about time. Of course, he had to kill my joy by going and groveling to AIPAC on his first day … but I keep reminding myself they all suck in that category.
Anyways, today I turned in my last paper for the semester (except for a small one at the end of this month). It’s hard to believe this whole experience will be over soon. I mean God knows I am ready for summer, but it will be weird to leave it all behind. It’s been a hell of a semester and I wouldn’t trade it for anything … even all those missed moments at MC. But I can’t wait to be back with everyone again … it really makes you realize who the important ones are …
Dad is coming in tomorrow morning. I can’t wait to see him … It will be really nice just to have him here. His presence is surprisingly calming when you need it to be. Although, I am going to be SO exhausted when I see him. His plane (like everyone’s from home) is coming in at 7am or so and I have a goodbye party tonight that I won’t be back in from until…well, let’s just say late – so, I won’t be running on much sleep. But hey – we can both nap together – his jetlag my sleep deprivation, great combo.
I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to take my laptop with me on our travels this month, but I’ll definitely have internet access and update on here about our adventures.
The end is near and I’ll be home before I know it.
Can’t wait to see everyone.
Love.
No End in Sight
May 19, 2008 at 7:28 pm (academics and adventuring abroad)
I am drowning in papers!!! There is no relief even after finishing one, because 3 more pop up. Help!!!
Nour went to Norway
May 8, 2008 at 7:24 pm (academics and adventuring abroad)
I’m sorry, I just couldn’t help myself with the title…it’s been a longtime coming, people, let’s face it.
Anyways, so I did indeed go to Norway and it was a really nice trip. I wish I had gotten more time in Oslo; I really enjoyed the days with Amo Khaled and Khaltoo Amal and the kids, but I would have liked more time with Nour and Rima and the rest of the family in Oslo. It was so refreshing to be around family again, especially such kind members from it. But I will say Khaloo Nawaf totally broke my heart, especially on the last day and Khaltoo Hiyam just broke down crying when I left, so of course I started crying and the waterworks just spread from there. Regardless, alhamdulilah, he’s doing a lot better and alhamdulilah it could be a lot worse.
I put pics up on facebook, but for Mom, Dad, and some other non-facebookers, here’s the link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2011730&l=2b431&id=67000627
Holland is Orange Country too
May 1, 2008 at 1:29 pm (academics and adventuring abroad)
Queen’s Day was amazing! I’m still a little exhausted and think I’ll be recovering for a while, but it was worth every minute! We started celebrating Queen’s Night (the 29th) at 6pm with a BBQ at my building, then at Plantage until about 10ish. From there we headed to Drag Queen Olympics and had a dance party until about 1am before going and exploring the madness of the city until about 3am. This, mind you, is all before Queen’s Day (30th) had even begun! We were up and at brunch by 10am and out celebrating, exploring, and walking ALL of Amsterdam from 1ish in the afternoon until 7pm. Unbelievable mayhem! The biggest street party I’ve ever seen or could have imagined. A DJ/dance party on every corner with food, orange goodies, and rummage for sale everywhere! I would come back to Amsterdam just for this day every year if I could.
Take a look at some pics:
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- BBQ on the roof/deck
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- Drag Queen Olympics Stage
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- Anna-Claire and Stephen pulling us up on stage
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- Queen’s Day Orange attire
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- Emma, Me, and Annie (my orange attire shopping buddies)
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- Museumplein packed with concertgoers
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- Liam, Stephanie, and I taking a look at some rummage sales
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- One of many DJs set up (this one is near Leidseplein)
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- The biggest burger I’ve ever eaten. There are 4 meat patties in that thing, by the way.
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- Party boats on the canals
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- More orange mayhem on the canals
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- All kinds of things for sale…
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- The carnival has taken over Dam Square
Ireland Lost
April 27, 2008 at 7:14 pm (academics and adventuring abroad)
I have been busy all week since we got back from Ireland late Tuesday night. I went to International Criminal Court with one of my classes early Wednesday morning and was gone until 5pm and from Thursday until this evening I’ve been in class and working on a paper I turned in today, my last one for a few weeks, Thank God.
So I’ve been putting off sitting down and writing all about Ireland and posting pictures until I had all of that out of the way, and now that I have, it doesn’t even matter because in some bizarre twist of evil fate – ALL of my Ireland pictures have disappeared from my memory card. ALL 230 of them. I can’t believe this…I spent 4 days in one of the coolest places I’ve ever been, took fantastic pictures, and have absolutely nothing to show for it except for a few pictures Chantal took and put up on facebook. This is so ridiculously upsetting.
All of the murals, the “Peace Wall,” Giant’s Causeway, Belfast City Centre, Dublin – all of it gone.
Ireland Lost.
Some days are truly surprising …
April 17, 2008 at 6:09 pm (academics and adventuring abroad, Tahya Falasteen)
I turned in my Midterm Paper for my Anthropology of Politics on Tuesday. It was 12 pages long and focused on the role of collective memory in the case of Palestine. To put it simply – it was exhausting to write. So without any time to enjoy that I had now finished two papers in 8 days, I again came to the realization that I had a paper due Thursday (today) for my Gender and Ethnicity class. In addition to that realization, I also discovered that the prompt for the paper made absolutely no sense whatsoever. So, my friend Stephen and I spent 5 or so hours at the library yesterday afternoon just trying to make appropriate connections from our Foucalt’s History on Sexuality to apply to Modernism and Oscar Wilde’s Portrait of Dorian Gray. We managed to get enough to head in a direction for the papers before we both called it quits and went to bed – the paper would be written after class on Thursday … we had all afternoon after all.
This morning, we all went to class and as it turned out everyone else was also planning on writing the paper that afternoon. Apparently, we weren’t the only ones a little baffled and exhausted. BUT then out of nowhere, our lovely professor (who we are all seriously in love with) proceeded to make an announcement that not only is she planning to throw us all a dinner party in May because she will miss us, but she is moving the deadline for the paper until next week! Some days are truly surprising … We were all ready for an afternoon of stress and misery, and then Bam! we get handed a reprieve.
And the surprises did not end there!
When I went home, I discovered (from an old email) a link to the Amsterdam Palestine Committee website which I’ve been meaning to check for Nakba anniversary events for the spring. Not only did I discover that there is a “Palestine 1948: Remembering a Past Homeland” exhibit in a major museum, I also found out that the Symphony Arabica is performing here in Amsterdam this May!
To top it all off the museum was no other than this beautiful, huge building a block from my apartment, a building I had been curious about for two and a half months now!! Go Figure! It is the Royal Tropical Institute, a centre for international and intercultural cooperation; it consists of the: Tropenmuseum, one of the largest ethnographic museums in Europe, and the Tropentheatre, global performing arts and cinema venue.
The exhibit was fantastic, to say the least. Not a huge hall, but the quality was superb. It consisted of photos taken by Khalil Raad and Alan Gignoux and 10 or so personal interviews from the Nakba Archives. Alan Gignoux’s photos were shown in pairs – the first a portrait of a Palestinian refugee with a short summary of his experience along with the village they were from; the second a photo of either their old home or what remains of their land. There was one from Isdoud and I could not help but stand there and just cry, pair after pair of photographs, not to mention the 8 or so Nakba testimonies I watched.
For those interested…
Here’s a link about the exhibit: http://www.tropenmuseum.nl/smartsite.shtml?id=21141
And a clip from a documentary on the Nakba archives: http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=814874317042180338&hl=en-GB
I also bought tickets to the Symphony Arabica for May 15! Which, if you don’t know about, is an amazing project headed by a Dutch composer, Merlijn Twaalfhoven, leading Middle Eastern and Western musicians who play alongside children from Palestine. It’s similar to Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said’s Divan orchestra concept, but is not as exclusive to professional musicians or Western classical music and includes non-classically trained children and Arabic flute and drum players to create a very unique sound.
Here’s a clip: http://arabica.nu/arabica/en-US/news/clips.aspx
So there you have it – my unexpected, yet surprisingly happy Thursday afternoon.
Tomorrow I have class in the morning, and then laundry, cleaning, and packing before I head off to Belfast/Dublin on Saturday for the weekend. I will be sure to put pictures up and update on travel adventures when I get back!
Love.
Miss.
Peace.
