November 2009 – Sharing thoughts

Why Would You Judge Me? Know Me First!!

November 21, 2009 mostafa815 Comments 14 comments

It’s about time that people stop judging each other. It’s about time that we learn to deal with each other on the right basis. One major wide of the mark practice that we normally do is judging each other.

We tend to judge the actions of the others very quickly. A small action done by someone and that’s all we need to give him/her a label or categorize him/her. Everyone makes mistakes and we all know that, yet we throw judgments here and there without even thinking of the consequences.

Why would you base your judgment on someone’s nationality? Race? Color? Language? or looks? Can’t you wait until you talk to them, discuss their views, deal with them, and discover who they really are?

Judging people could have different forms. One form is judging your friends. Yes, your friends. By saying friends, we might mistakenly think that we know everything about them and that’s very dangerous. If you believe that you know your friend enough (while you don’t), then that will lead you to judge him/her improperly. Don’t rush you judgment, talk to your friend, tell him/her your concerns, ask them why they did what they did, and then you can make your judgment.

Let’s learn to give each other a chance to clarify ourselves. Let’s put the good intentions in front. And even when others do mistakes, let’s try to talk about it and find a way to forgive. Sometimes forgiveness is not easy but at least find a way to move on. If I do a big mistake from your perspective and if I break the rules that made you my friend, talk to me first and ask me why. It’s ok if you don’t like me as a friend anymore, but let’s talk about it first.

Stop judging people fast and easily. It’s not a candy to eat or a tea to drink. In case you judged someone, don’t spread your wise conclusion around. Keep it to yourself and let people have their own views.

Days in UK ep.2

November 16, 2009 mostafa815 Comments 5 comments

After the exciting arrival that I had (check the previous ep here) I decided to explore the new city. One funny thing happened is that I rushed and bought the beddings from the housing office and later on I found out that it was 20 GP cheaper outside. Don’t always trust the housing offices. Speaking of which, here’s a picture of where I lived.

Anyway, the first thing you normally do in a new city is trying to find the most important places such as restaurants, pharmacies, grocery stores, mosques, etc. I was not very lucky at first because when I got out I took the wrong direction which led me to a “nothing-there” area. I walked for 20 minutes and I didn’t see a single store. You can imagine all sort of things came to my head, “omg, is this how I’m going to live for the coming 5 months”, “oh no, is this Manchester? Or I’m in the wrong city?”, “are you kidding me?”. During these scary comments, hooray I found a grocery store. It was actually just 3 minutes away if I took the opposite direction. So I went there to buy some basics e.g. water, tissues, but unfortunately it was closed. Now for a guy coming from the Middle East where stores close at 11 pm or even 12, I found that strange because it was just 8 pm. Did I mention that it was freezing cold? And did I mention that I love cold weather? I guess not.

I came back after an epic fail of not eating or buying anything. I threw myself on the bed and thinking is this really it? Or I just didn’t manage to search in the right direction?

On a side note, there were 3 other students from KAUST who are staying with me in the same house. When I say the same house I mean the same building because our house was a dorm system where each student has his own room. Each room has a bed, desk, closet, sink, and a chair.

Luckily, after talking to these students, I found another way to go and find stores. It was completely the opposite. When you go out of the house, just take left and keep walking for about 7 minutes and there’s a street called “curry mile”. This street has three main advantages; great food, stores open till late, and most of the food is Halal.

I walked the whole street, and then I decided to eat. Believe it or not, the Kebab I had there was THE best Kebab I’ve ever had. The restaurant is called “Abdul’s”. I will not bother you with what I bought that day, but I bought a lot.

After getting familiar with the areas around me and where I can get my stuff, it’s time to get ready for the real thing. First day of university.

–to be continued

وطني ؟ وماهو الوطن؟

November 12, 2009 mostafa815 Comments 6 comments

وطني ؟ وماهو الوطن؟

دخلت المكتبات بحثا في القواميس

بحثت عن التعريف في كل الكتب

اين الجواب؟ اين الدليل؟

بحثت في الشبكة العنكبوتية

مواقع تلو مواقع

قرأت .. فهمت .. تصفحت

لم ارى نورا لسؤالي العليل

أيا وطنا سمعت فيك الاناشيد والالحان

لماذا لم استطع الجواب

اين الوطن؟ اين المقر؟

هل انت وطني؟ ام انا بلا وطن؟

البعض قالوا وطنك من بعطيك الجواز

والبعض قالوا هو وطن الميلاد

واخرون مذبذبون

منهم يقول اين كان القلب كان الوطن

وغيرهم يشرح لي انه حيث تعيش

تركت الجميع .. لملمت اوارقي .. وسلكت طريقي الطويل

قضيتي غريبة غرابة الذئب في القطيع

ألي وطن؟ أم عدة أوطان؟ أم لا وطن؟

سؤال لم اجد له ما يشفي الغليل

If there’s a DOWN, there’s an UP

November 12, 2009 mostafa815 Comments 2 comments

People normally chase happiness and joy. Life is tricky in the sense that it never stays the same. If you are sad and hurt now, few days, months, or even years later you will be happy and healed. The opposite also applies. Yes there are cases where people actually have more happiness than sadness in their lives, or more sadness than happiness but the major fact remains that no one has a perfect one pace lifestyle.

In my opinion, it’s part of being humans. We face these changes and challenges because we FEEL. Can you imagine your life is always perfect where you never ever need anything? How would you taste the joy of resting after a long day of work? How would you feel the happiness of being healthy after a difficult sickness? And how would you enjoy your food if you were not starving?

We all don’t like living in bad conditions and we, again as humans, look for a better lifestyle all the time. There’s nothing wrong with this, developing your life to the better is always a good thing. The only problem comes when we can’t actually meet our expectations. Life is very mean sometimes and some might lose hope and stop dreaming. I don’t believe that this is a correct way of handling challenges. Our lives are full of downs with different types. We could face problems with education, financials, health, family, friends, social activities, etc. It’s our right granted by our humanity to feel sad and disappointed. Whoever tells you to kill your sad feelings is wrong because it’s part of your nature to feel sad.

Feel, get sad, get upset BUT learn to let go. Learn the golden truth that life goes on. It’s only a matter of time before you realize how unwise it was to waste time crying about what you lost rather than planning what to gain in the future. A small example could illustrate what I mean. Let’s say you lost a friendship of a close friend. Of course you will get sad and ask yourself several times why that happened. Now you have two options, either you stay sad and frown all day long or you can think about the future and how to get this friend back or to move on and make new friends. The first option will not get your friend back for SURE whereas the other option will have a better result anyway.

All what I am saying is: don’t let sad moments affect your life for a long time. Share them with your closest friends so they will make you feel better (I said CLOSEST friends). Think about positive implications of what you are facing, if none, think how you can use this challenge in making better decisions next time. Determine to never do the same mistake again. Finally, I advise all of us to MOVE ON whatever happened because life simply goes on.

TakingITGlobal (TIG) … A Personal Experience

November 8, 2009 mostafa815 Comments 0 Comment

Hello everyone.

Voluntary work is a very essential aspect of civilized nations. Through voluntary work societies will develop and more objectives will be achieved. I started my article with these sentences because the organization I am talking about today is all about Volunteering.

One day, I was making a small research on Nabulsi family and trying to find useful information. To be honest I can’t exactly remember how I ended up looking at Nabulsi members in this website http://www.tigweb.org/. I read about it and then my story with TakingITGlobal started.

TakingITGlobal has an interesting vision that made me considering working with them. In simple words, they try to make education accessible by everyone especially young people. The very first basic idea, as the name suggests, they were trying to take the IT globally to the whole world no matter how poor or far you are. The vision then expanded to take all different knowledge fields under its wing. It is a non-profitable organization and anyone can join and work with them. The work goes beyond just being online. TIG has a lot of volunteers all over the world who are working very hard and patiently to achieve the peaceful goal of TIG. There are teachers, programmers, designers, translators, trainers, and many other types of professionals.

My work with TIG so far is only concerned with Arabic-English and English-Arabic translation. I signed up with them after I read about the vision and achievements in the website. They have a well organized structure that’s meant to only make things work in the right way not to complicate life. I read that if you like to join, you are to send an email to the volunteer coordinator assigned for your area. Mine at that time was Mrs. Tala Nabulsi (Interesting that we have the same last name), so I sent her an email expressing my intentions to be a volunteer with TIG. She was very kind and welcoming and redirected me to the regional coordinator Mr. Maged Hassan. We had a nice chat over Skype that he explained to me translators’ roles and tasks and what they are expected to do. Maged, and all TIG members in general, was very nice and friendly and he let me choose what I prefer to do after explaining what TIG needs at that moment. I had a great honor working wish such an educated open minded friend. Following that online meeting, work was well organized with emails every month including the tasks and expected contribution to the organization. I have been translating for 3 years now more or less. I am still working with TIG, and my translated articles vary between IT, health, public awareness, cultures, and many other topics.

I advise every passionate educated person to participate and take an action for the greater good. We all want to make the world in general and our communities in specific a better place. One easy and efficient step is to join and work with TIG. As I said, what attracted me to TIG was the potential behind the main goal.

Save few minutes of your day, check http://www.tigweb.org/ and who knows, maybe you will like it and join our volunteering friendly committee. They have many interesting projects and events, not only translation. It’s a pool of great chances for us to do something good. TIG brought hope to many people around the globe. Join now and help in changing someone’s life.

For more information about the mission, vision, why to join, and other details:

http://www.tigweb.org/about/

Thanks.

Days in UK ep.1

November 2, 2009 mostafa815 Comments 5 comments

Few years back, this kid was looking through the window of a restaurant in Al Madina Al Monawarah and wondering: Am I going to make it to Jordan? How does that country look? And how is it to live there? Yes Jordan was the first country I ever lived in besides Saudi. Days went by, years have gone and this same kid is now a grown up man and waiting his flight to go to London then Manchester. The first BS semester I had in Jordan taught me a lot of things and I thought I will not learn more but it turned out to be very wrong. With every single station I pass by I learn new things. After spending 4 and half years in KFUPM, I was given a chance to go to UK for a study abroad program managed and sponsored by KAUST.

Almost time to take off, saying goodbyes to the family, shaking hands and hugging, kissing and before you know it I am in the plane. It was a nice flight, not very tiring. We got to London and a KAUST advisor, Victoria Hayes, was waiting there patiently to show me how to get to Manchester. I took the train which took 3.5 hours to get to Manchester. Oh, on a side note, I had the hugest suitcase you can ever imagine.

Once I got to Manchester Piccadilly station, I took a taxi to where I am supposed to stay for the next 5 months or so. That first step in UK, taking a taxi, was confusing because many people told me to give a tip and some others told me not to. Anyway, I gave the taxi my building number and suddenly we are in the middle of many look-alike buildings. I got off the car, dragged my huge suitcase and waited in the rain for few minutes. Looking here and there, I saw bunch of students (they looked like students) and they opened a door of one of the buildings. I got inside hoping that this is my building (buildings were not numbered). FAILED. I got out, tried to call Victoria and ops, I don’t have a British sim card to call. I sent her a text hoping that she will get it, and in the middle of that desperation moment, a guy shouted my name (later known as the wooden) and welcomed me to the apartment.

It was a nice small room and it has everything a student would need. Please note that up to this moment, I could not observe any of the British traditions or any cultural differences because I was dead tired and just wanted to sleep. I prepared my bed, and ZZZzzzZZ.

It’s a mix of excitement, worry, anxiety, and adventure what I felt after I woke up. I wanted to explore the new city yet worried how to deal with these people. I wanted to go out and keep walking with no guide, but what if I’m short of money. As it’s not the first city I go to by myself, and as I said Jordan taught me how to discover a totally new city, I decided to get dressed and let’s start WALKING.

— to be continued

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Month: November 2009