Not healthy

My girlfriends from college are all intelligent, successful fascinating women. One just completed her masters at London School of Economics, and is doing consulting at a high end firm in Paris, the other just finished a kick ass political program at Harvard and is working for the UN in Africa, and another one spent a year backpacking in Asia and is now going to Stanford Med school.

When we were in college, whenever we met up we would always have the most stimulating intellectual discussions about everything; literature, philosophy, current events, history, each of our countrys' political situation, US politics etc. We were all very curious and inquisitive students, and we enjoyed contemplating the philosophical depths and psychological implications of whatever it was we were discussing, even if it was Jennifer Lopez's very big butt (it was a huge topic in the american media for 4 years) .

So after more than 5 years of not seeing each other, we all met up at a trendy bar in new york, where for 4 hours, all we talked and obssessed about was men. After all these years, with so much to catch up with, the only topic we actually indulged in was our non existant love lives and men! We never ever ever did that when we were 19 years old, we certainly didn't do that when were 22 years old, but now when each one of us is approaching 30 (ack!OMG!!) instead of sounding like confident sophisticated mature women representative of our age, we were having conversations like 16 year old hormonal girls ready for prom!!
It seems that all my friends are that way now and its annoying, everytime I meet up with a friend the only thing that is discussed is marriage, men, kuwaiti men, italian men, ex-fiances, lebanese men, admirers, potential catches, creepy losers that want us, and terrific men that are inaccessible. Men at the gym, men at work, men on the plane, male distant cousins, men who are rich, men who are gold diggers, men with colorful dating histories, men who are spotted going towards the prayer room at the gym, men who play squash at x hour at x gym, men who are married and flirt with us, men who party on the down low, men who pretend to be 'open-minded', men who are seen holding a glass highly suggestive of alcohol in dubai, men who are seen with russian girls in dubai, men from the internet (stay away from those as they are predators), men that summer in mykonos, men that are dramatic, men that wear pink, men that have jacked up teeth....

This is not healthy and I think i need to be away from single women to get my head back :p

moral dilemma

Is it acceptable to accept expensive gifts from men?

Where does one draw the line between showing a man that you appreciate being spoiled and pampered while still retaining your personal prestige / self-respect?

small world (too small)

As soon as I entered the meeting room at work, I cast my eyes on my foreign guests, expecting the regular round of middle aged suited men with protruding bellies and botoxed foreheads. This time, my eyes caught sight of a face so striking it made my insides quiver like a Myanmar hurricane. Its hard to describe a uniquely genuine good looking man; words like "beautiful", "handsome", "attractive" will not do him justice. His skin was a golden honeyed caramel, and his butterfly eyes were sharply rimmed by a ring of jet black eyelashes. I looked into his eyes and found myself lost in a sea of brilliant green. His gaze, though friendly, was very penetrating. For a split second, I turned into a hormonal teenager and believed I was madly in love with this stranger, that in another life, I knew him, danced with him, had a magical 'story' with him.


Until he opened his mouth and informed me that we did in fact meet before… a few years ago, on a plane!!

I could not even concentrate at the meeting, not after remembering the way I had recklessly flirted with him on that damn plane ride.

cultural reform in qatar

I was rushing to the airport in Qatar on a sunny afternoon, and to heighten my state of panic, every single street was blocked by police. Traffic was insane, and the taxi didn't know which street to take!

"Good grief, what is going on in Qatar" I asked the cab driver.
"George Bush is in town" he muttered.
" No he was here last week. And they didn't shut down any streets." I pedantically told him.
"Well it must be someone really important then" he replied
"Who could be more important than George Bush. I don't think so".

My curiousity was piqued. I asked every single person in the airport what was going on in Doha, why were all the streets blocked.
Well, ladies and Gentelman, it turns out that the day I was leaving Qatar was the "national bicycles day"
Yep, thats right. Everyone was out riding their bicycles including the amazing Shiekha Moza and her daughters.

I think I want to live in Qatar now.

Understanding cultures through literature

So...how do Iraqies sing about love????

"ya 7aya yum rassain, 6ubi ib jederhum
Simmay ahal il bait, bas khali waladhum"

translation: Oh snake of two heads, plunge into their cooking pots
poison the entire household, except for my lover

They say that through music and poetry, you get a glimpse of the underlying character of the society.

Despite its malicious nature and violent language, I really love this song (from darb il zalag) !!

malaria drugs

deta prime
doxicycline
maleron
mefloqueen

These are the names of the various pills or drugs I am recommended to take everyday for two weeks before going to Africa. I am told that mefloqueen makes you halucinate, and that maleron is not effective in preventing malaria.

How would you know which drug to take if each doctor recommends something different?
Can't I just take one anti-malaria vaccine and get it over with?
What other vaccines am I supposed to take?
There should be a clear and complete list of things I should do / take before travelling there but its not clear and I'm so confused.

gentleman caller

I'm not a phone person. I hate talking on the phone for more than 15 minutes, even if its with a love interest. My phone is not always with me; I leave it in my room when I'm hanging around the house, in the gym locker when I'm working out and definitely in my car when I'm out shopping. I end up missing a lot of calls and I usually never call back. This of course drives all of my friends mad but they are sort of used to it.

So lately I've missing a lot of calls from Egypt. I don't have any Egyptian friends, I don't know anyone in Egypt and I didn't post my resume for any positions in Egypt. I kept squeezing my brain on who the heck it could be calling me from there. I was clueless.

After about two months of missing the calls from Egypt, once again my mysterious caller called me yesterday twice while I was at a funeral, so I decided it was time to call back and find out the deal.

Well Ladies and Gentlemen,
My caller from Egypt for the past two months turns out to be a young Egyptian chap named Mamdoo7, who happens to be really interested in getting to know me in an honorable way, and is madly mesmerized by my voice, and will be thinking about me all night, and would kindly appreciate it if I would credit his phone or send him a money order so that he can afford to facilitate our profound romance.