Viva La Revolucion

I Occupied Wall Street yesterday. wow. that all I can say. It was a truly moving and powerful experience I was most shocked by :
- the amount of cops ! I was surrounded! literally if they wanted to round us all up and shoot us they could and we would have no way of escaping
- how organized everything was! there was a kitchen with yummy hot food, a sleeping area, a performance space, a computer hub, a library and organized events ranging from mediation to reading time.
- how nice everyone was !
- how many pictures people took of me ! I was AMBUSHED by photographers wanting pictures of my sign, my name , and why I was there. Apparently Ill be in a Bolivian news paper, *shrugs , thats nice I guess.

Update

So much to write about... so mach to say, well...

- I've been given the opportunity to study in India for the winter pretty much completely free ( just air fair) and dear daddy said he would help me out with that. But I'm still on the fence, I wonder if I'll be able to take the polarized race relations and remnants of the caste system that I've heard so much about. Also its been a while since I've spent the holidays in the US, I dont know. Ive also been considering leaving Rutgers and moving to Boston with my father . I'm just SO tired from the "jersey shore stereotypes" and frat boys, a general lack of civility on campus, and TERRIBLE professors ! ugh! So I was looking to leave next spring, Here's the prgram description:

For this course, students will spend 3 weeks in the medieval Indian holy town of Vrindavan near Delhi, one of the holiest sites in India, sacred to the deity Krishna. The academic component of the course will primarily consists of an historical study of the philosophical and religious Traditions of India, with a particular focus on the devotional traditions that typify Hinduism. Additional features will include guided tours to the temples and holy places of the region, instruction in the religious art, iconography, song, dance, and other cultural and aesthetic expressions of Hinduism typical of the area, as well as exposure to temple worship, pilgrimage, and the myriad other forms of devotional practice.The course includes excellent living facilities in the Jiva Institute, vegetarian meals, and a consultation with a traditionally trained doctor of Ayurveda, the classical Indian system of health and healing. Trips to the Taj Mahal in the nearby cultural city of Agra will be arranged.

I know sounds amazing right

Sudan

Sudan was cancelled. With uncertainty about how the country would react to the referendum, the program directer though that it wouldn't be too safe for us interns.

SUDAN: My Next Adventure

So Ill be in Sudan this summer, Ill keep everyone posted :)

The US

So Im back in the states and its nice to see everyone, to sleep in my own bed, and marvel at hows beautiful the snow looks falling gracefully from the clouds but I miss the Middle East. Not in the same painful manner that I missed Egypt but I miss it, respectfully? with a loving nostalgia? not quite sure of the words but I miss it and I often find myself reflecting on all of the things that I learned there:
1: Look at the sky everyday single day. I will never forget the beautiful skies of Jordan they always remind me of just how close all of us living things are. I talk about the sky every time someone says some ignorant comment about Arabs being terrorists or something " We are all under the same sky, moving at its whim and will, in awe at its paintings we could never recreate"

2:There is goodness and evil in all things, people, places, ect. weigh out the two and see if "whatever" is worth your time.

3: Love people and tell them. I met so many amazing people in Jordan, the Safir family, Lara , the women in the office, my JF friends, and I told them frequently how much I care about them, a couple kind words can brighten up someones day.

4: Eat! Eat! Eat! I now appreciate good food and a nice glass of something sweet! The little pleasures in life make everything a little easier. Also now I stuff any house guests that come over ( a little bit of the Arab culture that stuck)

5: Network. Call people, email, keep in touch. I wouldn't have done half of the things that I was able to do if I didn't: Ex: Model, go to Palestine and stay with a family, go to a private beach on the Dead Sea if I hadn't put my self out there

6: Get lost, Wander, Talk to Strangers and be BOLD , everything your mother tells you not to do lol.

7: and most importantly Don't Judge Anyone/ Anything at Face Value, (but sometimes do because you're right lol ie: (the program director)

Whats next ? College (Blah), shows, I've already booked a feature in NYC (Score!), Apollo Theatre in March (crosses fingers), Next adventure I'm thinking Japan or Brazil, Ill keep everyone posted

Egypt Revisited Part 1

The moment I left the airport I felt as if someone had pressed play, almost like my time in Egypt had been paused and I was picking up right where I left off. Everything was the same, well except the brisk chilly weather that surprised me and made the sands feel like a beach in the morning and not the desert. I decided to stay with a friend, well mostly because I would have my own room and I really did not want the awkwardness of sharing a room with my little sister again but now, sitting here alone in this cold cold room, in this extravagant house with maids and chaffers rushing around, with everyone in there respective sections of the house sleeping, I really wouldn't mind going through that awkwardness, just so that I could feel like I'm apart of a family and that I am loved.
Yesterday, I went to an Egyptian school. I am told that it is one of the most expensive schools in all of Egypt known for being full of "brats" (the words of people who I'd spoken to) . When I got there I was so excited. Thinking this is going to be so fun, meeting new students, being bombarded with a million questions about America or whatever, but NO no no no a thousand times no. I had to sit in an office for TWO hours waiting for this phantom of a principal to show up so that I could get this non existent visitors pass. Finally, I'm allowed out and I think "oh okay this is alright, I'll meet my friends friends and everything will be fine" But no, as we walked into the courtyard I was like my friend just had idk a huge spot of ink on his shirt or something, and everyone was asking him about the spot not knowing that the spot had ears and could speak. "Who is this girl? What is her name ?" they would ask my friend, " HELLOO I shouted I can speak!" but i was ignored . What made it worse was as I was sitting on a bench waiting for what seemed like an eternity for some type of academic class to start, a boiling hot cup of ramen noodled is thrown from a balcony above and WHAP hits me right in the middle of my shoulder blades. you can imagine my face -_- Im done.
To wrap things up; class did start around 1 pm ( school ends at 3)- I was appalled by the lack of structure in the classes and the students complete disregard for learning- I appreciated the awkward Christian boy for sitting beside me and striking up a conversation- I had never been so grateful for the three o'clock bell.
Night: I meet up with a friend from AFS. Omar, truth be told we weren't that close during the summer, and I was nervous that I'd have another night full of awkwardness. After an annoying taxi ride with an flirtatious taxi driver, I finally met up with him and his friends and alas he was a perfect host and a really good friend. The things that I didn't understand he translated for me and really made sure that I was happy and felt like I was apart of the group. He threw me an unforgettable party for me on the nile... thats all I can say about that

The Man with the Green Eyes

This deserves a re-post. It was one of my first posts before I left for Egypt and reading it now is so refreshing.
UPDATE: I still mentally consult Uncle Green Eyed Man, wondering what he'd do in certain situations and think about what I'd say to him if I ran into him again in New York. I also remembered that his name was Malik.

Update Update: I'm going back to Egypt this week.

" My eyes I green cus I eat a lot of vegetables. It don't have nothing to do with your new friend" - Erykah Badu

"I must admit this entire process; preparing to go overseas, doing hours and hours or repetitive Arabic a day, felling the anxiousness of living with people I have never met, has made me feel rather apprehensive to go to Egypt. Nervous, but not in a good way. But yesterday, I met a green eyed man from Harlem who told me of his experiences in Egypt. He reminded me of one of the crazy cool protagonists I'd read in a funny novel about coming of age or something. Once I got passed how BEAUTIFUL he was and picked my mouth up off the ground and began to listen to what he was saying I was spellbound captivated enchanted and for the first time in a while excited once again. He told me of the time he stumbled into the modern day city of the dead, his encounters with con- artists, the power of the pyramids, the mid-town manhattan business of Cairo, and raved about tomatoes, lol. Honestly, I had the urge to act like an excited kid during story time, you know, sit Indian style plop my face in my hands and just listen. Perhaps it was because with each story he told, it was complete with sound effects, accents, broad hand gestures, and when he would get to the good part or when he would imitate someone his eyes would get SO big you'd think they would fall right out of his head lol. Just imagine these big huge clover green eyes staring right into your soul, intense but not in a bad way, it was more like hitting your funny bone, you know it hurts but you still have the urge to laugh ( Ha! perhaps this metaphor makes no sense, i guess you had to be there lol) As the minuets passed, I suddenly felt strangely comfortable with this man, like I'd known him for years and at one point I had the urge to say " Uncle Green Eyed Man its so great to see you again!". The epitome of the phrase "Familiar Stranger" I guess....
Maybe I'll right a poem about this encounter, maybe a short story, maybe I'll continue this blog post but for now, thank you green eyed man, who I had the urge to call Uncle Green Eyed man, for answering all of my silly questions, for the dope discount on all of those books that I bought, and for making me excited once again for this adventure in Egypt."

This Blog

Dear anyone who ever reads this blog,

You may be wondering why my posts have become less frequent, why the quality of my wiring as continued to disintegrate, and why I'm not writing about anything with SUBSTANCE ! To be frank I feel that no one reads this blog, truly this is NOT my dairy ( I have one of those), and feeling like I'm writing to thin air is no fun. So dear mysterious ticks on my blog counter, if you have any questions ASK, if you like a post SAY SO ( if you don't say that too), INTERACT or else as we say in Jordan "7alas" this blog will continue to fade into nothingness.

Best Regards

Nia

Palestine, My Love

During the Eid break I took a trip to Palestine. Silly me I didnt blog every day while I was there :( so I'm just going to blog about a few stories.


Jerusalem ( Occupied Palestine)


Jerusalem ( Occupied Palestine)
I was shot ( with a BB gun but still! lol), frisked, bumped with an M 16,and interrogated. The whole time I was there I just kept getting this queasy feeling in my stomach. It was like I was in the Twilight Zone, with all of these people walking about like everything was fine, the Israeli’s walking around like they'd had this land for ages, like the spirits of those they'd killed to be there did not exist, but I felt them and the haunting sound of injustice whistled through the streets. I was angry. I did not want to be there, did not want to spend any money, and longed to spit on the ground that the Israeli soldiers walked on, but alas my sweet tooth screamed louder than my silent boycott and I bounced into a chique little frozen yogurt store. While paying I dropped a coin and before I could bend down to pick it up a six foot, grim looking, Israeli soldier, with a giant gun hanging by his side quickly swooped down and handed it to me with a smile. That little act of kindness instantly caused a " Crisis of Conscience", added a huge glob of grey into the "black and white" mindset that I'd created for the whole Palestinian conflict, suddenly the green suited gun tooting monsters suddenly seemed... human. Now, you may be wondering why I felt so strongly against the Israelis. I was staying with a Palestinian family who told me stories of their personal horror's they'd seen and encountered with Israelis. The Uncle even went as far to show me the bullet scar that he has in his forehead that he got one day just walking to church and my friend began to tear when recalling a time when she was hit with a gas bomb... so yea call me biased.

Nov 12 Eid

Today, was quite the eventful day. To begin with I was cast in a music video! Funny thing, it was all in Arabic so I don't remember the singers name and don't remember the name of the song but I was a blast. We all had to dress up in World Cup jerseys and they shot it on this huge soccer field at a school. This was the first gig from the modeling agency I'm doing some work with. I managed to befriend this college student from the University of Jordan who became my translator for the day and who later on drove me to my friends house, he was a life saver. But yea, so I sit down and they call the eight of us from the modeling agency and tell us that they want each of us to sing a part of the song by ourselves with the camera straight on! I start to panic ! The song's all in Arabic !! AAAHHH!! What am I going to do? ! I mean I know Arabic well enough to carry a conversation but this!! So I think back to an episode of America's Next Top Model where the girls have to do a whole commercial in another language and think to myself " If those ditzy twigs can do it, then so can I!" and believe it or not when I sat down at the camera everyone said that I did the best job out of all the other models, lol.

So when thats over my new friend an I trek over to my friend Saba's house where I am greeted with by smiles, hugs, food, and a bed to nap in. Now who is Saba, you may be wondering ? She's one of the kindest people that I've met in Jordan. She's a 27 year old lawyer who is like a big sister to me and I wonder what my time would be like here if i hadn't met her .

Beautiful Jordan

So I realized that this blog can get a little negative and perhaps its even morfing into my venting site, so Ive decided to dedicate this post to the many good things about Jordan.
1. Falfel: Jordan has some of the best and cheapest falafel. Its amazing!

2:The beautiful skies: You've never seen a beatiful sky until you've visited Jordan.



3: The people/ the students: some of the sweetest students Ive ever had. One tradition the King decided to bring over from Deerfield ( the school this one was modeled after ) are sit down lunches. Basically they are formal lunches with random groups of students that rotate every 3 weeks. So far Ive had great tables but my last one was by far my favorite. I had a group of roudy boys and one freshman girl. Our lunches were far from formal but instead were filled with laugher, jokes, and crude Arabic lessons. Now everytime I see them in the halls I always get a hello or a hug, I love those boys. The picture below is depicting a small pot given to me by my friend in the ceramics department, another example of how nice people are here.


4: My Office: We may have had out issues in the begining but the women here are truly amazing.

Zambia

One of the things that keeps me going throughout the day is my trip to Zambia. When I feel like drawing myself in the endless piles and piles of papers that need filing I think about December, about me sitting on that plane, and knowing that when I get off Ill be in Africa! I am ECSTATIC! For the past few weeks it has been back and forth yes no yes no, do i really want to do this? I could just go home? I'm nervous. What if the kids don't like me? I kept asking for some type of sign praying that something would help me decide. And everyday something happened that told me that I HAVE to do this. For example a woman who works with me actually used to live there. I told her about my "iffiness" about my trip and she raved about her time there ! and even invited me over next week to show me pictures and tell me stories. Little things like that have been happening everyday, someone knows someone whose been there or something like that....

I will continue this post later, maybe with updates on what my parents think about this. Ive got to run!

Sept 27

Today I heard the receptionist whispering about my less than perfect performance. She compared me to the new intern who's impeccable filing seems to blow her away. While standing in the adjacent office listening to this woman whisper feverishly about the two articles that I mis-filed and about how she doesn't understand my color coordinated system blah blah blah, my face flushed lava red with fury and frustration, burning up, steaming pools rushed to my eyes and I wanted more than ever to erupt in her face. Then suddenly like a pure breeze blowing through the toxic gases of a volcano, I had a thought that made me laugh. A giggle the turned into a full on holler. The thought was something like, thank god Im not good at filing because unlike her I wont be doing this for the rest of my life. Thinking back maybe that thought was a bit cruel... but it did something for me. I don't know really how to explain it, but it made me realize how much I DONT CARE about files, about AP and SAT scores, about top schools. Right now the work that Im doing is like forcing an artist to major in math, or like asking Ronald Dahl to stop writing and start studying biology, Im just not wired to to this type of work, and no matter how much the receptionist doesn't like it, lord knows im doing the BEST that I can... so she can just get over it :)

Broke

My face when I went up to the cash register ready to pay for my little 20 JD worth of necessary items, handed the guy my debit card, and BBBBEEEEEEPPPPPPPP DECLINED.... Ugh my life.

Work

Im pretty sure I've never been this exhausted in my life, this even tops working for the US Senate. I think its the stress of 50 million people pulling me in a million different ways, telling me about this mandatory meeting and that one, contradicting what my boss says others contradicting what my other boss says, thats hard ! Today I literally fell asleep in the middle of a meeting ran back to my job then was slightly reprimanded for attending that mandatory meeting then they continued to work me overtime. I keep trying to figure out how this is going to help me in the future, maybe then I'd have somewhat of a push to keep me going, But right now... ugh I don't know how to make it.