I'm in the airport in Bogota and I have hours before getting on my flight.

This country is one that I need to come back to as soon as possible and I need to visit all the cities that the AIESEC LCs chanted about. I need to eat the mango again and be amazed by the salsa and music around me. I need to visit the different cultures and festivals that take place year round. I only enjoyed a tiny part of country that seems to be full with life.

Chairing the @Colombia NatCo was HARD. An unexpected challenge.

Meeting the @ers made every challenge worth it. Meeting people I know are so unique to this organization motivated me again to re-evaluate my life and ambition to connect with innovative leaders and to create homes around the world.

Falling in love with a new country and feeling a gentle sea made it even more worth it.

There's a lot more to say about the challenges and what I've learned. Maybe that will come tomorrow.

Right now I just want to remember the beach and the conversations and the connections and the talks till 5am.

Oh, and there's a city here named Bucaramanga :)

music to listen to: 

Christina Courtin 

Emily King 

my year is changed because of a few hours in a small music place with exposed bring and gin and tonic. 

being in that spot is the only time I can remember in these past few months where I was in the moment-- really in the moment and knowing that it was okay to be there and things are awesome and lovely and wonderful when you're living in the moment and things only matter for that time where you're there and living. My mind could not be distracted. i felt connected to the vibe and energy that was created. like i was a part of it and nothing outside those glass windows mattered and damn. 

So I'm really trying to put links to some youtube videos but I actually have no idea what I'm doing. Youtube those two. 

Hello!

Seriously, I'm missing Bahrain a lot right now and I feel it in my bones.

My bones are saying, "Lyna really enough, let's go back to sleep because I think Bahrain is hiding in our dreams."

And then I think that that would be nice to find Bahrain again but not nice if I were to find out that it were only a dream.

And then I think that maybe our whole lives are series of dreams and we slip in and out of 2 or 3 a day (that's the average person, a dreamer lives on 5-6 a day). And then I think, "goodnight."

Hello Readers.

It's been two months since my last post which was on December 1st which was before many things happened.

December:
-We held a global village to one of our schools.
-Trip to the Mexican border where I celebrated Christmas for the first time. We started at Midnight making toasts and all in spanish. I gave the grandmother who hosted us a house gift and explained how if you stick the stick in the oil your house will smell nice in spanish and thirty people had their eyes on me. We partied from midnight till six and at six drove back to Ciudad Juarez then to El Paso where I was to catch my flight to New York. The drive was incredible--the desert was deep with green and sandy colors and jetting rocky hills in the distance. At night, you couldn't see the colors but you saw black around the flatness and stars to your left and to your right and a glowing silver moon. It was beautiful. I took many mental pictures.

Stars to your left and right.

I also made friends with a cat and the cat betrayed me after I let her in the cold house to protect her from the really cold desert night. Her name is princesa and she belongs to my friend's husband. I left her in the living room at night and heard her scratching at my door till morning and I was really scared to walk into the living room the next day because I thought the cat was waiting to scratch me. She didn't scratch me though her back was arched. Instead she spilled water on the only book of matches in the house that lights up the heater and shat on their new white couch. She also ripped the makeshift curtains but those could be replaced by more newspaper.

January:
It became 2008.

Sheniqua and I went dancing.

Sleeping under a tree



So i had this image of a big tree painted on my wall that i would sleep under and write under and read under and be in this world of my own.

Finally my tree is on my wall and it makes me really happy to go home and just spend the last hours of the night relazing and escaping to my corner.

I also love going home where my roommate and I sit our small couch and joke around and talk and sometimes grab a beer.

This is exactly the type of simplicity that makes life worth it I think but it sometimes gets hard to realize that all this is simplicity.

Moving again...

Moving from NY to dc: easy, exciting
Moving from DC to Costa Rica: easy, exciting
Moving from DC back to NY: easy, exciting
Moving from NY to Bahrain: easy, exciting
Moving from Bahrain to NY: easy, sad
Moving from NY to NY: hard, exciting

what?

I don't know.

In 7 days I will be sleeping on my bed low to the ground and looking out of my bedroom window directly onto the NYC street, the tips of branches that hit my window, and the buildings garbage can cage. Tonight I will sleep on my high bed looking out of the 19 floor to outlines of buildings and sky srapers and a moon that sits right on top of it all.

Basically, this move will bring me down from the clouds.

Hello everyone,

I truly miss writing. I just bought a beautiful journal that I can't bring myself to write in because I'm afraid I'll ruin it's intricate outer beauty with flat inner junk. (Many of you might have noticed that I refrained from saying inner b.s.-- that's because I have had to watch the way I speak in my new work place and it's becoming a tiny bit harder for those phrases to flow).

I just got back from a dinner on a table under a tree along side the river in a park. We had cheese, honey, dates, melon, a baguette and a small roasted chicken (for the sake of protein).

It was lovely. New York is lovely. The cheese was lovely. And my morning coffee was lovely.

I just realized that in a few days I will be celebrating Rosh Ha Shannah with my family. Last year I was in Bahrain turning every step I took into a moment for reflection and celebration in between work meetings and time by myself in my quiet apartment where fresh dates from my friends back yard helped me welcome the sweet new year according to our traditions.

woah! 1,001

My blog profile views ha reached 1,001

This is a big day for me.

How should I celebrate?

Hello everyone who is reading my blog,

Well I don't know what to say. I'm sitting in my apartment in New York with a lot of energy and excitement to go to work tomorrow, and to begin the weekend. It's 11:14 pm, by this time tomorrow it will be the weekend, and on Saturday I will see some GREAT Bahraini members of my family.

I started a new job almost two weeks after I came back to New York and every once in a while I look around the office or have a moment where I feel like the luckiest person alive to have gone from one job that makes me settled, happy, and surrounded by people I can learn from right into another job that does the same and gives me a new place to be an active person. The organization I work for is called City Year. I heard of the position through Jen, who has helped me in more ways that I can begin to describe for the past few years.

My bedroom-- I sleep under the blanket I bought from Mexico, looking up at the quilt from Panama, near my flag of Belize, near the University of Sharjah flag, which is facing my signed Bahrain flag that's hanging on my door. There's so much of my past to come home to and it brings a certain comfort knowing that all of that did exist and is still a part of me. I wonder if there will ever be a time where my room doesn't look like a collection of random stuff-- I think I'm too sentimental to let go.

Confusing moments-- I sometimes feel stuck between two tides. What was normal a few weeks ago, no longer is normal. Some things in my mind are so different that it really confuses me thinking that I ever thought some things were normal. Little conversations with old friends or reading old notes bring me back into the random previous me's and then I feel confused. The funny part is, I never saw a change but looking back at these few years, I see a world of differences in me. It must have happened on the airplanes because wherever I landed things were always normal.

I'll post again in a bit. But who reads this stuff? Sometimes posting worries me.

This weekend:

My dad, sister and I went on a short road trip upstate New York and often felt like we were in a different country. How is that possible? Maybe it's possible because we went to see a rodeo and had to listen to, "I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free..." This was in Lake George. The rodeo host had us watch a women wearing American flag pants, and american flag jacket and holding an american flag while on a white horse during the touching song and also during the national anthem. The horse didn't appreciate any of it and while supposed to stand still in the center of the small dirt rodeo stadium, he kept moving around while the plastic lady kept her smile and wide eyes on the audience. We left somewhere between the gay joke and the strap em', wrap em', tap em' cowboy vs. baby cow showdown.

We also went to visit our state capitol, Albany, and found about 3 cafe's on the trendy street that is "full of bars and cafe's" but the 7 people in the city were good and the burgers good.

Nice surprise: on our way back we drove to Aminia, a little town in the middle of vineyards. The view and the colors were beautiful. The fields and mountains by the road sides we light green, dark green, and had hints of purple, orange, and yellow.

Moral of the story: Maybe I've been traveling outside the country so much that don't really know where I live. And maybe I should focus on getting to know my own country.

Goodbye Bahrain

I now know the meaning of having a second home: It's having tons of people around to have long talks about life, who make efforts to understand you, who will feed you and help in anything you need, and will trust you enough to open up.

Thanks so much for this experience. I love each of you. Good luck in all your work this next coming year.

This is your year to make AIESEC Bahrain shine. Take risks and put your heart into it and make it yours. I have complete faith that when I come back to visit I will be blown away by all you accomplished for yourselves and for AIESEC.

To Alex, Sahar, Jorien, Amina and James: good luck in your first months working full time for AIESEC. While it will be shaky at first, know that you have it in you to build stability and to realize a lot of success. I will be here for any type of support you need and as someone who has been there before and can understand you.

Leaving the airport

On my last day I said bye to over 20 people face to face. Leaving the airport and seeing all those faces saying one last goodbye at 1am, made what I was leaving with so clear. While yes, I was crying a lot, I felt stronger, happier with who I am, and with what I have in my life. I also had a very secure feeling that I will one day be back in Bahrain because these are not just people that would be a part of my past. You will all always be very much a part of me.

What it's like being in my NY home

It feels so natural walking around the city and seeing family and friends, but it almost feels too normal. I don't understand how I can go from one place with one life, move to another place that's completely different and feel no difference at all. I miss Bahrain, but the fact that I'm walking in different streets (that I'm walking at all:), hasn't moved me.

This summer, I plan on taking things very slow, writing about my experience in Bahrain, making sure that it stays a part of me. I think that if I move on too quickly I will lose it all. I'll also be looking for jobs that will make me happy and maybe travel around the states a bit.

Summer highlights will be when the Bahraini's on the MEPI program come to NY, movies at Bryant park, summer stage, seeing my family and sisters, going to coffee shops, Montana inshallah! Noufel moving to NY.

What I already miss

Every single AIESECer
500 fill chicken tikka
the smell of Bahrain
music in cars: This is not miami miami miami miami
my balcony
the AIESEC office filled with people
Leeeeeeeeena
Shisha
Salty water (really, it makes my hair better)
Cold stores
Iceberg ices
Seef mall
Chicken masala
Lebanese oven
6:00 shakedowns
and last but not least, Radio Ba-raaaaiiiiiiiiin!

In New York.

Best goodbye I ever recieved from @BH.

A lot of backposting to do.

Love you all

My blogging days are over


I can't publish my previous posts because of error 550. I hope this one works.


Just got back from sitting on the roof and the sky was very black and the moon very silver. Still there was a yellow haze of city light right over the buildings which acted as that annoying reminder that I'm actually in a city and will have to continue straining to have any sort of connection for anything that isn't man made.


A lot has taken place in the past few weeks. (John is playing his guitar right now which is nice). New car brought on nights of endless driving to beaches and spontaneous places. We're finally seeing the outcome of a lot of hard hard work.


Things here are so so normal and the fact that this has all become normal makes me wonder about what would happen to my brain if I spent time in all types of places around the world turning everything into normal, even those things that contradict eachother. My brain would probably even out and go back to 0.

The Charles and Ali Project!

Bridging the Other Gap

Walking around the famous street in Juffair filled with chain restaurants and cafe's, John and I were on a mission to meet as many Americans as possible, and talk to them. This ended up in great fun and awkward situations. We were unsuccessful and while sipping on our starbucks blends, reviewed our friend-sourcing strategy. Instead of going up to people and asking them to talk to us, we will now go sit with people and listen to their stories. Once happy and friendly, we will invite them out for Mendi or to a plastic table, cheap shisha cafe with Bahraini's, thus bridgin the gap between Navy Man Charles and Bahraini Man Ali.

After John ditched me to go play video games in a women-restricted area (JUST JOKING JOHN!), I returned to Starbucks with Shereen where I applied our new strategy (though without intention). I met two Americans living on the Navy base. The next step is to invite them to Mendi.

This will be great.

Thus concludes the Friday Family Day Adventure #46

MENA LDS 2007 in Morocco

will go down in my memories as a week I will never forget. It was a defining moment in my experience here in Bahrain as I learned more about the role of a MENA region in AIESEC, the role of AIESEC Bahrain in the entire AIESEC network, and I was constantly impressed by the ideas and relationships that came out of a week spent with 230 people from 20 different countries.

I was also so lucky to work on a faci team of people who are each incredible in their own way. The stories they had to share, the experiences that have all gone through and what they've accomplished make me understand that people are strong enough to make great things a reality.

I was even more lucky to also be a part of AIESEC Bahrain. I always loved everyone from AIESEC Bahrain but this conference brought out each individuals personality and strengths. They shows unity amongst eachother and integrated so well with all the other delegations. They put themselves out there, brought new ideas to the table, and lived the meaning of AIESEC! I love you guys and am so proud of who each of you are as individuals and as a team.

During this trip I: 1. spent 24 hours in Dubai International airport because of an emergency airport shutdown 2. lost my wallet 3. missed my flight from Casablanca to Bahrain and 4. lost my cell charger and after all this, I cannot find one tiny reason to complain.

Missing my flight back to Bahrain:

This was actually a blessing. I was leaving Morocco feeling very sad that I didn't get to enjoy a cafe yet I missed my flight! And so I had a day and night to spend with Stella, another faci, roaming the streets of Casablanca, eating delicious oranges, escargo, chickpease, moraccan bread, nuts, coconuts, fruit yoghurt dessert, moroccan egg sandwhiches from a street vendor, coconut and finally a nice cafe au laitte on the second floor of a cafe overlooking happy busy people and fake allegators.

...the oranges.... I didn't know such deliciousness existed in this world. Imagine an orange a bit smaller than the size of a grapefruit, fresh and with the green leaves still attached, sweeter and with more flavor than the best orange you've ever tasted, and that's what we experienced in Morocco. Stella, no worries, you're in my green book, in english too :)

Many many firsts heading my way................................




.......................................be back in less than two weeks

Desert Rose-------------------------------


Imagine a conference under a cool tent in the desert with a shephard strolling through the camp grounds in the afternoons, freedom to shout as loud as you want, and seclusion from anything distracting from ideals. (except the oil refineries in the distance).

This was our desert rose conference. My favorite part was the block of the team building activities that we finally got to run since we lacked conference wall restrictions and spent our weekend between a sky and a tent.

It was a conference where I believe AIESEC BH became a little more of AIESEC BH.









Countries I've been to in 2007 so far

1. Qatar
2. UAE next week
3. Morocco next week

my passport will soon look beautifully dense with color and stamps. Now it has bahrain, qatar and yemen.

Sunday bbq's



When I was younger and living in Brooklyn, my Sundays were marked by deep day long anxieties that came from knowing that I was one day away from starting a new school week. But there was one thing I looked forward to--our Sunday night bbq's. While they marked the end of the weekend, they also gave one last hope of enjoyment right before late night homework (the only homework i would complete) and the 7 hours of sleep that I wouldn't feel passing anyway and so didn't count as time that stood between me and Monday morning. They were last piece of happiness before freedom would be devoured by short teachers with bad breath and a lot to yell about.

While I no longer wake up to teachers who scare me and ask me for my failure homework and I love going to work, I think my mind is used to hating the last day of the weekend and keeps waiting and waiting for that Sunday bbq. So what can I do? I need something like a sunday night family bbq to make my brain feel at ease.

What will it be? Maybe shining my shoes. Or sitting under the sky. Or, um, going for shisha?

4 months left......
..........
...............
...I can't bare the thought.

Muharram Part II:

The last night was the most amazing night of ashoora (the 9th and 10th days of mourning). The streets were filled with people. Shereen, Sahar, Sarah and I sat on the side of a Mataam on these matts with a bunch of other women. The street was a side street branched off from a larger street, was short and curved into more narrow twisted streets. The echo of the men singing was powerful and everyone fell silent to hear this man singing in Farcy about feeling pain for the mother who has lost a child, and the sound of the men pounding their chest in the background.

It was a moment I remember, surrounded by nice moments I've already forgotten. I got some of it on tape, but it's no where near reality.

----
Still in the office and it's 9 PM. Hungry, tired and have no energy to finish today.

To Explain

Top left: Beautiful NY in the winter time

Top right: Jacky my roommate and sister. Bye hun, good luck in the peace corps and I hope to visit you in Bolivia before you head back north. Love you!

Bottom left: My henna hands; something women do in a big party ceremony before a wedding. This was done in a parlor; kind of like a nail salon.

Bottom right: Dad showing me his construction project; doing everything from drilling granite out of the ground, to saudering steel.

Thursday Nights


Thursday nights in Bahrain are the Friday nights of the western world; it's when the weekend begins. Just to give you an idea of how it looks for me:

The People Development team hold their meetings in the @ office at 6PM and at around 5:30 the office slowly fills with laugher and activity. There is no better way to end the week than with a group of people who bring a high energy and excitement around the work that they're doing.

Back in the apartment, John, Claude and I chilled over dinner and a dvd until we decided to go for a walk, followed by a rediculous night in Muharraq.

Tonights discovery: a shisha cafe held up by wooden sticks and tied together with rope and rooms divided by canvass and plastic sheets and benches as high as tables and doshegs as hard as rocks and shisha and smooth as um, i don't know, really smooth shisha i guess. It in all looked like a picthed tent with different sections that created a private yet energized community environment. Of course in this community I was the only female, which makes me feel lucky and a bit uncomfortable at times. This shisha place to me, was perfection.

An idea would be to package it and sell as kind of a portable chain shisha cafe. It may fit into a suitecase or a trunk maybe. I would never do that because it would ruine its beauty but I bet that I just discovered a new way to franchise.

It's 3:24 am, my bs hour now must come to a close but first I would like to say thanks to the following people:

PD Team for ending my week with laughs
John for mastering the art of BS journalism
Simi for taking part in the craziness
Claude for the can of goodness

pictures to be posted tomorrow and stay tuned for Muharram part II

Muharram in Bahrain

The past few days have been important for Shiites in Bahrain. This month is a period of mourning over the Imam Hussain who was killed in battle and was the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed.

Right now all over Bahrain, black flags hang along the outsides of mosques. The narrow streets of old Manama are filled with these flags and banners that in neon stitching say Ya Hussain something something. Stands with food and warm drinks outline the roads and cars are banned from entering this area where old homes, Mosques, Maatem's cluster and people march through the low mess of buildings in all black and in somber remembrance of Imam Hussain. Boys and men pounded their chest in unison, creating a beat that everyone followed; some groups of men used these short chains that they hit their shoulders with, again in unison and to a certain beat.

I too had been wearing all black: a black hijab and a black abaya which made me fit right in and brown cowboy boots which made me fit right out again. Us ladies watched the men from side stoops. After some time, I completely forgot that I was wearing a hijab and abaya and could have been in jeans and a t-shirt and wouldn't have felt the difference. But once I got too comfortable, my hijab would fall back and I would step on my abaya while walking or sitting and get stuck in the black cloth.

I'll be going to old Manama again for Muharram tomorrow night, the last and most intense night of the whole thing. I think that I will feel different tomorrow night, than I did the two previous nights so I might write a part II to this post.

If you want to learn more about Muharram, look it up, I'm in no way qualified enough to explain the history and terms. If you want to know more details about how I felt during the whole thing and details of how the streets look and sound, and how the people march and how the drinks they serve taste, then come to Bahrain. No no just joking, email me or I'll explain when I see you.

*thanks for bringing me to this girlies

Above: Bahraini sunset
Below: AIESECers. Starting on the right: Claude, Sarah, Shereen, Fatima, Samar, Sahar, Amr
This was about two months ago having lunch after playing soccer. (I didn't go)
Below: This picture is of me, John and an American AIESECer eating food that we got for free one hot summer Arabian night when walking through the heart of Manama. We stumbled across a festival that celebrates the birthday of an Imam. There were people, and food, and booths everywhere. People came up to us bringing fruit and sweets and corn and ice cream. We also got free shawarma which saved us 200 fills :) (about 50 cents). This is a big Shiite festival that takes place in celebration of each Imam.
Below: This is street art, Bahrain's graffiti, across from the Bahrain Fort. This is the backside of people's homes and you'll find this art in various villages.

Below is Alaa, Claude, Sahar and Aysha at International Congress in poland in August. While they were there, I was in Bahrain visiting forts and watching sunsets. Don't they look so cute!

Solidificationism

Female culture: A night in with my girlfriends back home means sweat pants, a t-shirt, ice cream, and probably conversations about guys who suck. Here, a night in with the girls is energy, exitement and feeling beautiful and rarely do guys who suck or are cool come up in conversation. (A night out is a bit different in both cases)

I've stepped into many rooms in Bahrain that are for women only: the salon, some clothing stores; weddings and a henna (the pre-wedding party for the bride) and those are the places where I was able to witness life in Bahrain. The streets here say very little. I'm very lucky to be female in this country and have many doors, literally, open to me.

Drinking: Parties back home need three things: music, people and drinks. A party missing one isn't a party at all and the alcohol is the catalyst for good times. Here it's just people and music that are needed and the good times comes naturally from energy and excitement. It makes me question my actual need for drinking.

The past four years in college have been fast and turned me into a college student. All this time to think about how who I am as me and who I am as an American in her 20s is allowing me, the me that crosses borders, to solidify.

Sweeping: the new yoga


Sand gets all over the place. We do live in a dessert after all. But no really, our office, our apartment. It's impossible to by lazy about keeping the floors clean and anything that makes it hard to be lazy, I don't like.

But it's also a good think because it forces you to stop what your doing and focus one task, focus, something I do need. But think about it. There are things you can do quickly and get them over with like taking out the trash, picking up your mail, mopping. But you can't sweep quickly or the dust and dirt will fly everywhere. So you have to take it slow.

So, thank you Bahraini dirt for making me slow down and focus on you. It gives my brain a break and is very calming.

Another nice calming thing is erasing chalk boards, but white boards have killed that activity. Just realized, swiffers are the death of brooms. Soon things will be so efficient that there will be no room for any sort of mental break.

Attached

Saying goodbye to Mada, my roommate and teammate for the passed 4 months, brought back all the hard feelings of having to leave a place you love. About two years ago, I left an AIESEC conference in Mexico, said bye to the friends who I had the chance to reunite with, as well as friends that I had met that week. It was so hard to constantly say bye to people who make me happy. I had promised myself not to grow attached to people. I was tired of leaving pieces of myself in other parts of the world.

Well, I've been in Bahrain for four months now, and I just remembered that promise I had made to myself, and why I made it. Now I'm completely attached to the people I have met....

oops.

Only Bluegrass!!!!!


Thanksgiving in Bahrain looks like this:

meetings and interviews all day
a Turkey to go (from we don't know where just yet)
maybe cranberry sauce if we can find some in a can
only bluegrass playing in the office

Members coming to the office by 8 PM to experience some US culture. No time to prepare for dinner. A Hatian and a Lebanese American running the show. No beer.

We're doing a great job.

Running just as fast as we can...

Which is also known as, slow. AIESEC Bahrain will be running a relay marathon tomorrow. I don't have sneakers and the last time I ran was for 5 minutes after an ice cream truck. No that was a joke, but wouldn't that be funny?

I believe it will be one of those team bonding because we have all been through pain together events. Should be not fun

4:44 AM (make a wish) no sleep in Bahrain

I can't sleep. Why? Because.

So it's uploading picture time.... I'll let you guess the theme of these pictures.

The winner gets brains shawarma, a delicacy i favor.

found. found.

My roommate Mada hid them under her pillow after sleep walking into my room, which she does on occasion and taking them off my dresser. She can't fully remember what her dream was about but knew that she was on a mission to take over Brooklyn. I guess she thought she would start by becoming more like me.

Not the strangest thing she's ever done.

Lost in Bahrain

Close to tears, can't think, feel desperate. Desperate to find the two things that I realized I have lost; the two most important things I have with me in this country:

Item number one: my passport. I got back into Bahrain after Yemen so I know it's somewhere on this island. But where? I have no clue. (Gwen, brings back memories)

Item number two, the more important item: my copper-brass cuff bracelet that I bought from the Kenyan vendor at the market in Kogan Plaza on a good sunny day for my sisters and myself. We each have one and have been wearing it since last March. Tonight I will retrace my steps through the male only, eating chicken on the floor, restaurant, then through the male only shisha cafe. I knew this day would come. Only tattoos from now on. Damn damn damn damn. This sucks.

Happy 15th Birthday Dans.

Back in Bahrain


Back in Bahrain from a week trip to Yemen. I'm declaring 2006 the craziest year of my life so far.

Yemen was one of those trips that made me realize that I'm not as brave as I thought I was. I met people who have jobs, and are settled fearlessly trekking around the world as if it's as easy as booking a ticket to a play. I was so nervous to go to Yemen but the tickets were booked and wouldn't it be cool to say that I've been to Yemen? There were travel warnings against American tourists in Yemen and people joked about how we should take advantage of the traditional Yemeni food (because that's what the Kidnappers will feed us).

Actually, the last thing we heard before going to the gate was laugher coming from the guard at security check after reviewing our passports and boarding pass. Our plane was delayed and during that time I prayed that it would be canceled and we would have to hop on a plane to Oman instead.

Yemen turned out to be incredible. The trip was a combination of history, tradition, hospitality, mountains, fresh air, good conversations, great food and qat. The people, the friendliest I have ever met in my life. To the point where we were invited into various homes and even a wedding. We were greeted with "Welcome to my country" and were invited to tea.

There's so much to say and I have been writing about it for a while. If you want me to send you the full story, let me know. It's pretty long. Also, what do you know of Yemen, it would be interesting to hear what people know of the country.

Conclusion: I need to take more risks and be more fearless. The news is a bad way to learn about a place, but we already know that.

So this is probably my last big trip of 2006 (actually Oman maybe in a few weeks). This year has been nuts-- new years in central America, graduation, NY, moving to Bahrain, Yemen, and who knows what else.

Sense of humor: is very different from country to country. I'm still trying to figure it out here.

Ghabga: the other night I went to this celebration this called a Ghabga. It was at the Royal University for Women and was only open to women. We all wore Jalabiyas which are traditional, colorful, beautiful gulf dresses. Google image them. The dancing is really beautiful different and is very different from the arabic dancing I know. It's more like dancing in lines, walking back and forth but with the hips some cool hair flips and hand things.

Shawarma: The shawarma guy knows the type of sandwhich I like; the indian food guy now knows my name; the supermarket guy now knows a bit about where I'm from and my name, as does the Thai bakery lady Nina. This neighborhood is becoming my neighborhood. (by the way, all these guys are Indian, not Bahraini--there's a huge Indian workforce here)


Business/ Business Casual: after 4 years in AIESEC, the right clothing is still an issue. My favorite black pants ripped; my only white button down is stained. BOA meeting tomorrow. Nothing to wear.


And then there's Yemen.

Technology is the death of me

I've wasted hours upon hours : 1) trying to work with photoshop 2) trying to set up outlook
3) creating an email in html.

Long Time


It's been a long time since my last post and I really don't know what I want to write but I do know that many things have happened and it would be cool if many people in my life knew about them.

We finally moved into our new office and I already feel it changing the way we work. We have an open foyer/reception area with four desks, another private office with two desks, a conference room, two full bathrooms, and a half kitchen. In the past few weeks we've been working out of our apartments where internet connection is slow and it's hard to seperate personal life from working life. It's amazing how proper infratructure will change productivity. The weather, slow internet connection (only in our apts), now Ramadan, had made things feel a lot slower. Infrastructure--very important.

Tonight I had another one of those, "What! I'm in the Gulf! Bahrain!" moments. My friend took me driving around the palaces and royal family homes in Bahrain. There are huge palaces whose gates go on for miles scattered and clustered around the Island. Most have big gates and trees making it hard to see, but if when you do get a glimpse, they're extremely beautiful and impressive. They are all pretty modern but are build with detail and beauty. When I finally make it inside one day I'll send you some pictures.

The other night my John Claude and I walked around our area talking to people about Ramadan in an attempt to make a documentary on how Ramadan effects restaurants. We didn't try that hard but did get two people on camera. Gina from the bakery and a Shawarma stand guy. Ramadan began on Saturday. People fast all day and eat all night. While walking through a mall Monday night, John Claude, Ali and I passed a tent with a mask-wearing falcon. The mask covered the falcon's eyes and i think his little feet were chained together. We were invited in to the tent by the tent greeter, offered Bahraini coffee (yellow, and much better than my attempt at making it), tea and dates. We sat in the malled-tent, watched the falcon, and made conversation with the tent dwellers. It was definitely a mall visit well spent and something only done during Ramadan.

The End for tonight

First Bahraini Good-Bye


Last night I said bye to my roommate and closest friend in Bahrain, Carolyn. After two months in Bahrain, she returned to gordy-land in the UK. AIESEC brings on way too many goodbye, but at the same time, I now have a friend who I will one day visit in Britain.


We already miss you. Oh an by the way, Oscars in the Shawarma!

Words By Carolyn

Tiredness, salt and dates. Is life with Lyna. Where is my water? I wear my t-shirt with pride. mm Larry David is hiding under a pink purse--typical. Mmmmm. Lost creativity. Too hot for Beirut. We have no lady friends. Mahmood will be demanding his money. Have you paid Mahmood? That's a question. Haha. Questions require answers. Hehe. Hmm. mmmmmmmm What shall we do tonight? That's my input for the day: what are we doing tonight. I feel hungry but that can't be possible. I've had too much salt. This is cool. Hhhhhhhhhh.

Alright. End of blog. What are we doing tonight? hhahaha this typing could get slightly annoying. Lyna is in one of her more annoying moods.

I tried uploading pictures but little red Xs in small boxes appeared instead. So, I'm forced to stick to words.

Last Friday I touched the beach water for the first time. I don't know what to call it since the entire beach is man-made but the water felt nice, we got to see a couple of stars and look out into the dark sea and the blue Ritz Carlton behind us.

Still have not been bored; could be due to the food (or maybe the people :) I bought different types of breads this morning that should last about a week from the bakery down stairs. I tried tika take out for dinner: the meat was wrapped in naan (i think it was naan) thrown into a brown paper bag along with onions, lemon, and more naan. It was delicious, a perfect meal. Another perfect meal, actually a HIGHLIGHT of my weekend, eating mendi which is typical saudi food: chicken cooked over rice and served with a tomato sauce. You sit on a carpeted floor and eat out of one big plate filled with rice under chicken with your right hand. It was the best meal I've had so far. And the place was really casual and not meant for tourists.

Too tired to be creative with my words. Good night.

Wednesday 00:44 (12:44 am)

Before heading back to our apartment, we drove around the tight streets of old Manama. The concrete buildings and intricate doors were fragile and in bad shape but had incredible character. Hot humid air rushed through my window and the sound of the call to prayer filled the streets. And then it hit me: I'm in Bahrain.

As the day comes to a close here in the small island of Bahrain, it is still morning time for all my people in the western hemisphere. I'm about to leave the AIESEC office and prepare for a movie night in our place and maybe catch the sunset from our roof.

Our street has a very large Thai presence. I went to the supermarket to get some arabic bread, some milk and onions and found none of the three. Instead I came back with thick sweet soy sauce, a sour mango, some weird minty lemon leaf (that you are not supposed to eat), spring onions, small tomatoes, and thin mushrooms. I cooked an ad-hoc meal for my roommie and a friend. It turned out good and was a combo of arabic meat and thai ingerdients.

I went to a mosque over the weekend: marble, wood, crystals and glass gave it detail and beauty. I went with two other girls; the three of us were given abayas and hijabs to wear before taking a tour of the praying center and hearing the call to prayer. After that we went for some coffee and mint lemon juice-- which is fresh mint, lemon juice, ice and sugar blended together and is so delicious. We then went out with our other friend to the Fort of Bahrain which is this gigantic fort built centuries ago that was one on the port of Bahrain.

We drove by fields growing spinach and carrots, spoke to a gardener for a bit and got to the fort just in time to watch the sun prepare for sunset. The old white small apartment buildings that were near the fort were painted with local art of people, crescents, the sun, and more happy things...... What impressed me most was how you can just stare at this big orange sun without a blink or strain when it was still far from setting because of the humid haze. After that we went to American suburbia-- seriously. It was an ex-pat community that looked like any other new housing development in the US except they had a nice style with spanish tiles on the roofs. The Bahraini's were really impressed by this area and loved the designs of the houses so they took us there to check it out (One of our Bahraini friends actually lives there) even though the Bahraini homes are far more impressive.

And so my second tuesday ends looking forward to many more to come.

My life here so far is the life that I have tried creating for the past three years of my life: coffee, shisha, AIESEC and good conversation. There are more cafe's around my apartment here than there are around my apartment in new york. Shisha is encorporated into most of these cafe's which means I don't have to prepare my own. AIESEC is now actually my job, and the people that I have met so far have not let me alone for a second. I was wondering what happened to culture shock and I realized that I haven't had a chance to feel it because I have been surrounded by people ready to take us to cafe's, on drives, to malls, and to the airport. The airport-- it seems to be the trend that whenever any aiesecer leaves Bahrain, all other AIESECers meet them at the airport to see them off.

The price of things: the dinar is stronger than the USD, it's about $2.60 for 1 dinar. I still haven't gotten used to that fact that 5 bd is close to $15. I somehow have spent a lot of money in the small amount of time that I have been here even though you can get amazing shawarma for 200 fills (there are 1,000 fills in each dinar) so really cheap. Where did all my money go?

Last night my roommate and I sprayed our apartment with bug spray to get rid of the tiny cockroaches that we've avoided killing because of Carolyn's theory that stepping on one will cause them to explode and spray their eggs everywhere. At 3:30 in the morning a friend insisted he take us to buy spray. We were in bed by 5:30 am as the sun was rising and the temperature tollerable. It gave me an idea to reverse my days here-- sleep in the day and stay awake through the cool mornings. Now I have to convince everyone else.

There are still many people to meet, many things to understand, and many shishas to try... but so far, things have been going at a perfect slow pace, with chill people, and a lot to eat.

Night number two....

I have generated this idea that it's not good to analyze or judge a place within the first two weeks. I think that the first two weeks should be used as weeks of observation and taking things in, so I don't really want to comment on the things I have observed so far but I will write things anyway.

My first night here was really great. The AIESECers have quite the sense of humor (you did a good job Mahmoud) and it seems like there are always people to hang out with. Our apartment is beautiful. I'm kind of in disbelief that I'm here. Things feel so normal in an odd way. I mean everything is different, but that's normal. Is it okay to feel this comfortable this fast? I mean, I still don't know my way around, don't know people that well... but still, I feel comfortable.

Today's facinating events: AIESEC office amazing view and coffee that I believe is milk warmed up in the microwave and a spoon of instant (delicious, like my grandmother makes it); cab driver helped us find a cheaper cab--how odd; vendor at Bab Al Bahrain tried selling us a singing Camel--I think I will buy one one day; lebnah and zatar sandwhich for dinner; met more AIESECers (two were just elected to be OCPs of a small project)

Bed time maybe, I hope, I have to get myself tired.

In Bahrain and wow. First night was more than perfect, the AIESECers here are awesome. Will write more later.

Countdown begins................7 day's left till Bahrain..............

Thank You Masseuse

Over three years ago I joined the amazing organization called AIESEC. It changed my life, gave me friends around the world and taught me about making things happen. I explained this organization to many people, who were all very impressed, except one person just didn't seem to get it-- my dad. Everytime I chose a conference over a free weekend, free spring, free winter vacations, my parents questioned me to death on when I'm gonna let go of this "cult". My recent decision to work with AIESEC Bahrain really threw them off and made them believe I had gone nuts. Now, after close to 4 years of arguing with my rents, trying to convince them that I'm not suffering from mania and so on, my dad decides to express his frustration while recieving a massage from a former AIESECer's roommate. While trying to massage out all the knots I have given him in the past month, the masseuse got excited at the word AIESEC and explained to him the same exact things I have been repeating from Feb 2003-Today: How it opens up doors for you in dozens of countries, expanding your social and professional network....... He came home that day approving of AIESEC. WTF.