Ardi” exhibition an example of unity

 

 

By Farah Hashim 

 

In couple of days I went to  (Ardi) exhibition in mojamah  Sayed Al Shohada in Dahye Janobeye which was  an  exhibition for local products from south ,north and mount  lebanon  such as Labneh, ,Zaatr ,Cheese,  Bread and  all kind of plants. The exhibition community   also presented hand made soaps, Clothes, decoration, souvenirs, and books.

 

It was  a big exhibition , I could not stop buying till  I got home with a 5or 6 bags filled with local products and nice soaps made in south of Lebanon . 

 

While I was walking there  I could not but notice the combination of cultures, the mixed  traditions, the veiled woman Zaianb who was  helping miss Mary to sell me some bread, and Anthony who was  selling dresses next to Ali the book seller .

 

It’s fascinating when you see such unity in Lebanon despite the problems between politicians. 

 

But when I got inside the  exhibition  I  forgot  all  what has been said on TV and I   opened my bag to buy all the things   that I liked.

 

When I was walking in the exhibition I saw every body helping the other, and what made me feel happy was seeing the holy cross next to the Q ‘uran , also Patricia ,Fatima and Mohamed were  sitting together drinking tea after a long day of hard work in their section  made me realize that unity existed between us. 

 

 

If the politicians were accusing us and saying  that Lebanon is  on stake and we are in danger I will tell them no its not.

 

 Lebanon that we are looking for was inside that exhibition it was the home that we all wanted,

Seeing all Lebanese products on one table and people  were  united  to succeed made me happy and will  make  every one happy.

 

I invite every one to go there and enjoy the lovely united atmosphere that is  filled with love and care. The exhibition lasts till November 7 from 10 am to 10 pm. Please be there.

8 and 1/2

Farah hashim 

200500163

critique of 8 and half by Federico Fellini

 

the story is about a director who is  trying to come up with an idea for his film but he is blocked and can not find or come up with an idea for his film. Everyone  who is around him wants him, urge him to work for the film. No film is organized, no script is written nothing is ready, every one is waiting for the director to  start his film and open the door for casting. During the search for an idea for the film the director sinks in his thoughts and dreams and fanaticism about women in his life, about the catholic church and how it affected his childhood, he tries to come up with a story but without any result.

 

The movie in general was not realistic concerning the transitions and storyline. It was kind of fiction and idealistic. it was also symbolic trying to proof  or show how the director sometimes have a writer’s block or directors block and cant work properly.

 

 

 The movie 8 and half was an interesting new experience, hence the shooting and the camera movement was creative. despite  the fact that it was shot 30 years ago the method used in shooting was  quite revolutionary comparing to the 60’s cinema. The  clime x scene which I think it was the scene where the director gitoo was having a fight with all the women of his life, his mother, his mistress, his show girl fan, his friend and other. He showed us how he was running away from his thoughts and his bitter reality.

 

He is lost, he is dismissed from reality and it shows from the transitional way that every scene never follows the other and, reality is assorted with dreams.

 

The lighting  in dream scenes was different form realistic scenes, and it shows how The light in the dream scene  is  more angelic and over exposed ;too much light and less features  are appealing to the audience, silence and too much space, idealistic movements of characters and not convincing transition. Also the scene lacks convincing ending and logical ending or logical continuity. 

 

The acting was theatrical and  melodramatic. hence some of the scene or the shot were symmetry   and its lights were out doors from the sun, but other lighting were indoors. 

 

the music

 concerning motif there was a Romba song played in some chapters of the film to present an idea; when saragina the fat woman dancing for kids. when the lady in white dancing for the director in the spa between all of his women.

 

Some methods of lighting were used like  profile, frontal especially in close ups and medium shots, also the method where all the shot is black and only one side or one place is lightened up in the car scene where he is talking to a woman . also another light method used when he is in the car with her he is black lighted and he is the one the light forced on her.

 

 

The hero guito is running, it shows from the music how the melody is fast and disturbing, the moving camera that never stopped moves with the director and follow his steps during the whole movie in the set, the casting place, the production house, between the actors between the producer and crew. Its shows how every body is following him asking him for  answer and as a result he is not responding he want to run away,  hence the shooting the camera movements the scenes translate his anxiety and his fear. 

 

 

the placement of the camera was very interesting some of the shot were mainly showing a side of the place or half  the face of half the place it represent the in perfect of the situation which the directors  suffer from. 

The music of the film was Shown literally; people who were playing instruments. The ending was inspirational but it was not real. Andi don’t think it could happen in real life.

 

Makeup, dancing, costumes  completed the cinematic view of fellini and showed time and space of 1960’s. the hair styles, dresses, cars, makeup, the way of talking, but the shooting was always indoors and mostly in one place. 

 

I think the film was a interesting experience for me and a new style of making movies, even though I don’t see much of it in Hollywood but its sticks in your head.

the graduate

 

 

 

 

Farah Hashim

200500163

  Rewrite of 

sequence analysis of the graduate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When  we graduate whether from high school or university, our parents always expect us to study more and reach the impossible. With more degrees come more responsibilities, and with more responsibilities come more demands. So it causes early maturity and continuous struggle. 

 

In the graduate movie (1967) directed by mike Nicolas, the character Ben, played by Dustan Hoffman, clearly shows these features and the struggle which that comes after graduation, whether with family or in life.

 

The director without a doubt used methods of editing and cinematography appropriately in order to transmit to us Ben’s state of mind and his concerns over a graduate school or marriage. Also the sinful relationship with Mrs. Robinson, that imprisoned his soul and made him a prisoner of his own actions. The director used continuous editing, over lapping, specific lighting techniques to differentiate between daydreaming scenes and other reality scenes in order to give us a clue about  Ben’s life and his state of mind.

For example in the first scene when Ben arrived home, his parents strangled him with questions and requests. Not only his parents did that but also his relatives  drowned  him with difficult question like, “what next”? Or “when are you getting married”, and thousands of issues that irritated ben’s state of mind.

Also after three weeks from continuous relation with Mrs. Robinson. His father asked him “what next, you, sitting in that pool with no goals at all”. His father clearly was pushing him to make a difference and change his current situation and start looking for a work. In addition to that, when his mother questioned his mysterious night outs with Mrs. Robinson. She obviously  tried to push him to do a hobby or meet a girl or at least sit and have a nice dinner with family.

Another example that clearly shows the complexity of Ben’s state of mind and how depressed and sad he was. When his parents gather around him while he was lying on his mattress in the pool, and continually urging him to meet Mrs. Robinson daughter and take her on a date. 

All these issues  presented in the film visibly present the state of mind, the plot, and the director point of view in trying to reach the audience that life is hard and Ben was clearly  having difficulty living it. 

His mind is  always day dreaming trying to escape reality, that consists of  Mrs. Robinson’s  affair. 

The director knew exactly what do to concerning this movie, and picked several ideas from every method used in making film, whether  in lighting or editing or photography. He picked his methods perfectly. 

To elaborate  more on that, I truly loved how the sequence started with Ben laying on the pool’s mattress sipping his bear, day dreaming, relaxing trying to avoid responsibilities, and the  his parent’s nagging over graduate school and marriage. Suddenly the sequence shifts to another dimension where we find him over Mrs.  Robinson laying there (making love ). This clearly states  the main   point of the sequence, which tells us that Ben’s whole  life style was trapped or cut down to this short sequence. He is   repeating his actions for the past three weeks or more. 

 (him swimming in the pool then sleeping in the arms of Mrs. Robinson then.)

 

The continuous editing was strongly used in the  sequance. For example Ben started  in one place and ended in another. The director deleted all signs  of time and space and narrowed it to a short sequence that carried all means of the film. 

 

As we said before, the space was short between the pool, his room, the hotel room, and  to the pool again.

 

This shows how his life became useless, how he was living in a routine, can get out of it. Even though a part of his body is enjoying this (sexual  relation) but the other parts in his party are disgusted by how his life turned to be(mind). Despite the shortness of the sequance we  were able to understand the problem presented in the film, for example, during the sequence when Ben enter  the hotel room, his facial expressions never changes, he lies on the bed and takes off his shirt like a robot, programmed to perform a certain operation. this unmistakably shows how depressed he is. Also in the scene whether  he is in the pool or on the bed even though Mrs. Robinson was touching his chest. this evidently did not change his facial expressions nor his emotions, and I felt that  for ben this thing  used to be fun and then gradually  it bacema a job  that must be done every night  or every after noon. He gave up to her and did not complain, he was hostage between her hands.

Concerning the space, I mentioned above that it was short and  less time consuming, and that was clear from the beginning when we saw Ben in a swimming pool then the moment he passed through the door  the place shifts to the hotel room.

This clearly gave a great meaning to how his life became, just a werid twisted relation behind that door. 

The director used a brilliant cinematography effects in the scene whether in lighting or set design, or color schemes of the scene it self, the photography of the scene was quite useful for the audience to understand Ben’s  state of mind. The kind of action taking place in those rooms and the nature of the scene whether it’s a sex scene or reality scene or even a day dreaming scene was vividly translated through light, set and color.

Nicolas view of point made a huge effect on our interpretation  of this film as a whole he really used lighting techniques for his sake, like showing shadows of bars to give an idea of Ben trapped in a prison ( when he is in his room), or the shadows in his faces sometimes its dark other times  its lighter. This was made to give us the unclarity of the situation and that Ben is so un confident of what he is doing and trying to avoid it or hide him self from. For example 

The scene of Ben in his room, its dark he is looking outside the door, his parents are safely eating their dinner meal, here clearly shows the different patterns of light. He is so dark and under exposed, only the reflection of the curtain is shown upon his face and the walls and they were in the shape of bars.

In the same scene the difference patterns of light over the parents side where every thing is light and clear, this gicves two different dimension  that are separated though ben;s door room and gives an idea of how simple and clear their life is, opposite from Ben’s life. 

Concerning color schemes that we previously talked about, when he is in the hotel room with Mrs. Robison it’s a bit dark, the light shift to reddish in her side and this vividly shows the nature of the scene.

There were no talking in the sequence no dialogue what so ever, only a song that was considered a motif in the film. It was  very influential to our understanding. sound of silence that was the name of the song, the director knew how to choose a perfect theme for this film, especially in the sequence, how Ben is silent  and not talking. He is only going with the flow, living the life he found. He did not even question  it until a long time.  Also His innocent thoughts about life grew with time, and made him realize how ignorant he was. 

The director wanted to tell us, that even this strange silence of Ben had a sound of its own, he was suffering, and suffocating,  in spite of his lonely times on the pool he went back to Mrs. Robinson arms trying to avoid reality and truth. 

 

Not even did mike Nicolas used shadows to express his view about Ben’s identity In the story, but also he used special contrast methods, high and low to give a primary effect on  the audience, and let them decide who is  the main character and whose the secondary one, who is trying to run away from reality and life and who is enjoying this act as if its work or part of life. 

Mrs. Robinson clearly did not have trouble doing thing every day she was very sure of what she was  doing and strong about it too, but   Ben was weak and secondary toward her and  a kind of forced to this obligation. The strong contrast between these two characters  gave several meaning  to both of them,  like huge difference in age, life style and personality, also the huge contrast could also  be translated to a huge opposition in everything they do or think about. 

The director used lighting methods in a great manner and, brilliant implantation whether  on their faces or the scene as a whole. 

We clearly differentiated  between day dreaming scenes that were mostly over exposed and, under exposed reddish scenes that was representing a sex scene. 

The light had its  strong effect in telling the story and a background of the characters. Also in many scenes in the sequence the light was strong on Mrs. Robinson and low on Ben or vice versa this clearly states the following: he doesn’t want sex but she does, he was not sure about this but she was , he was afraid and worried but she was confident and strong about it. 

ALL these feelings and thought can be shown directly  through lighting and acting. 

 

The acting was simply out standing in my opinion, not only because I’m a big fan of Dustin Hoffman but also this actor knows how  to get in character and live it. the director knew what he was doing. 

 

In addition to acting, the facial expressions were a great addition to the movements of the body. 

Ben’s  clueless depressed face while he was walking, or swimming or even laying on the mattress, no matter what he did, his face expressions never changed and this give us a great closure to the meaning of his life and thus it was   full of routine and continuity. 

The director knew how  to  use these facial expressions in every scene and made us, the audience really interact with Ben and understand his fear and lifestyle very well. 

 

In conclusion the graduate film was a very interesting experience and watching it over and over again, really gave me  an idea how great filmmaking is and what are the points that we as journalists or filmmakers should  focus on  while watching a film or even making one.

mon uncle a great film

“what is  it about Mr. and Mrs. Arpel have really everything they want. 

They have achieved every success, and everything is new in their house. The garden is new, the house is new, the books are new, and I think they need to be warned. Somebody should definitely say to Mr. Arpel be careful  you should enjoy time with your son.

People think its is a message but its not one should be free to say to a man who is building a house  be careful it might be too well built .”            

                                                                                                         (Jacques Tati  )   

 “Les lignes géometriques ne rendent pas les gens aimables” (“modern architecture does not produce amiable inhabitants.” 

                                                                                                         (Jacques Tati)

 

====================================================================

Tati found success as a HYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mime_artist”mime artist in French music halls. In the late 1930s Tati recorded some of his early supporting cameos on film with some success and thus began his career as a filmmaker. His experience as a mime artist made him depend mostly on the body language and rarely you could find a clear audible dialogue in Tati’s films. 

Tati was able to distinguish between two different worlds. In other words he was able to differentiate between old Paris and new modern Paris. By designing the whole set of Arpel’s villa , that is considered to be a hell of a representation of the    American-  life style.

Tati designed the set in the movie Mon uncle for the Arpel family, and he was able to translate his idea by positioning old Paris in a different dimension from the modern Paris, and giving these two worlds a gigantic space between them, adding of course to the way characters eat, drink, talk, walk and even smile, hence, the movements of characters, their attitude toward etiquette, how they say hello or goodbye, how they walk between the lines and never cross it. 

The great difference lies under the geometry and design of each neighborhood between old Paris and new Paris, where it consists of the old market, people shouting without organization, children running back and forth, playing with mud, broken windows, noisy neighbors and many more effects of the old real natural life of Paris. 

This brought us to the brilliantly of texture that Tati used in designing  the modern Paris where it was affected by the struggle with postwar France’s mindless obsession with modernity and American-style consumerism. 

 

Mon uncle it can be considered a representation of our society and not only the French society. Mon Uncle, a film set along the dividing line between Paris’ past and its future. Its also a representation of our inner desires. How many can be materialistic and obsessed   with matter and shallowness. How a new car or a new chair can change his or her view in life and make him or her act differently. Or how a  water fountain  can control people’s minds under the name of modernism and etiquette. I will be discussing the differences sets of old Paris and new Paris, the body language, facial expressions and the character of Mr.Hulot, through out the film but mostly in the kitchen scene and the scene of the chair where he replaces one chair with another.

 

As the film starts we realize that M.Halut has a different outlook and presentation from the Arpel family. M.Hulot is the dreamy ,not practical and loved uncle of young Gerard who is 9 years old and lives with his materialistic parents in an “mega modern geometric house”(Wikipedia) and garden (villa Arpel) in a new suburb of Paris situated just beyond  the crumbling stone building of the old neighborhood  of the city. 

Gerard parents are strongly enchanted in a machine like existence of work, fixed gender roles and the achievement of status through possessions and eye-catching show.  Each element of the villa addressed an issue related to the life style of Arpel family. Fish-shaped fountain at the center of the Arpels’ garden, that Mrs Arpel turns on only for important visitors. Each element of Villa Arpel is representational rather than functional, an environment completely hostile to the comfort of its occupants. In choosing modern architecture to punctuate his satire, Tati was able to tell us how modernism is not comfortable how people choose to be hip and modern than to be comfortable and natural. 

Everything was new, the technology was high but the comfort zone was small in that villa and neither young Gerard nor Mr.Hulot were able to play freely or express them selves. 

Every part of the villa Arpel emphasizes the supremacy of shallow aesthetics and electrical gadgets over the reality of daily living. Despite the facial beauty of its modern design the ser was so admired by one film fan that a real life version of the house was constructed near Paris 

The Arpel home is entirely impersonal as are the Arpel’s them selves.Also Arpel family have subordinated their individuality to maintain their social position and their shiny new possessions . Tati concentrate his themes surroundings the Arpel life styles  with monochromatic shades very cloudy days vivid colors and bright light coincide only with the arrival of visitor and especially  Mr.Hulot.  Even though Tati released  this movies as one of his first color movie he was able to manipulate and translate the sense of every life style through color, light, costumes and acting. 

 

Despite the acting that will talk about it later, the lighting consisted of one single color and its levels. Especially when lighting and coloring the scenes and shots of Arpel family and their villa, the colors were practically pale (dead) all is mechanic and not alive. 

“The house seems designed specifically to frustrate Mr.Hulot, who unwittingly disrupts its operations at every opportunity.” (All movie guide by Keith Phipps). 

In contrast to the description of Arpel’s villa, the outer look of old Paris was strongly demonstrated in colorful lighting and high contrast when it comes out door scenes.

In contrast, Mr.Hulot, lives in a small old corner of the city. He is unemployed, and gets around town either on foot or on a rather tired bicycle. Though he is obviously without possessions, he does not seem to notice; color, light, and frivolity inhabit Mr.Hulot’s world. Young Gérard, utterly bored by the unfruitfulness and repetitiveness of his life with his parents, fastens himself to Mr.Hulot at every opportunity. Mr.Hulot, (Gerard’s uncle ) little more than a child himself at times, is completely at home with Gérard, but also completely ineffectual at controlling his horseplay with his school friends, who take delight in tormenting adults with practical jokes. ( when they whisle every time a person passes by inorder for him to get attracted and pumped in a lighting pole. the Arpels soon scheme to saddle Mr.Hulot  with the twin yokes of family and business responsibilities.

 

The facial expressions of Mr.Hulot was strongly  shown in every scene though out the film. The way he smiles to the girl next door when she gives him candy, when he walks in a funny Charley Chaplen way, the moment he enters Arpel ‘s villa. And walks only on the stone breaks not the actual yard.

Several actions made by Mr.Hulot can make you smile and laugh. His comic sense was strongly presented in his reaction to the technology in Arpel ‘s villa.

The kitchen scene is consider in my opinion a strong scene in the movie in relation to the themes presented in Mon uncle. The contradiction between two different life styles finally met in the kitchen scene when Mr. Holut tries to get for himself a glass of orange juice and here when his journey begins for searching for the bowl of juice. 

The way he moves his hands, his head, then he scratches his head with his finger, to reinforce the idea of ignorance  (concerning this machine) . He strongly looks into the kitchen tools, touches them as if they are objects from outer space or unusual matter. The way he moves back and forth trying to find the on switch of this weird unusual machine. Then he touches the whole door of the gadgets in order to know where the switch bottom is. He follows the noise coming out the machine. He ties to find its source and finally he get suppressed when the door of the gadgets opens in front of him throwing a bowl of the juice on his face. He looks up side down to ever objects and treat it like a scary alien trying to avoid any human touch with it. 

 

The sound effects and music were strongly used in Mon uncle more than an actual dialogue. The sound of steps, Ring bell, Movements of the husband and the wife withier they are running or just walking all were vividly heard.  Despite of its humor side The sound effects gave a strong base to our understanding of the differences being presented in the film. Facial expressions of the wife interpreted her class and gave us an idea of how she thinks and where she comes from as in matter of a class. 

For example she is different from an old lady selling vegetables on her wagon in old Paris, the look of her eyes, the lift of the eyebrows, the trapped smile(she smiles but does not show all her teeth ) all translate the character of a first class lady or a poor one. 

The way she sits on table and uses her forks and spoons. The movements of her body around the house her head is always up and her hair is always neat.

The music drift from one scene to another and the continuity is over the top, I loved how the music,  and the set direct out attention in a way that made me think that the movie was shot by one camera continusly   non stop.

The music in  Arpel villa scene were mainly related to sound effects of their steps, the sound of the door bell ring, the fountain, and other gadgets in the kitchen but when the film take us to the old side of Paris we hear a lovely music (non diegtic sound)   taking us to the world of colors, traditional lovely Paris that is full of spontaneously and nature. 

 

In addition to the kitchen scene there is also the scene before it where he simply without any word tells us that he is not comfortable sitting on that rounded chair and it must be changed. 

The way he sits on it his legs are wide open his hands are holding the chair his face tells that he is strongly not comfortable and surprised with this style of chair when he holds it and looks it at  more than once. 

This clearly states the brilliantly of Jacques  Tati when he used the body language to express what on his mind and, this required a great efforts in order for us to get the message of the film in general and the scene in specific. 

There are many scenes that give us an idea about the contradiction between two life styles and thinking. When Mr.Hulet cuts down the tree to make it look similar in a symmetrical way to the other. Or when he fights literally with the fountain trying to stop it or fix it. these comic caricaturist acts are humorous and strongly sets the ideal truth about the background and character of Mr.Hulot and the Arpel family. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography 

 

All movie guide by Keith Phipps).

Quouation by jaques tati

HYPERLINK “http://www.tativille.com/uk/index.php?page=starter&anim=mo_mononcle&width=800&height=600&titre=mon%20oncle”Mon Oncle at Tativille the unofficial Jacques Tati site

Weinberg, Larry, Mon Oncle, InteriorDesign.net, 23 October 2008 HYPERLINK “http://www.interiordesign.net/blog/1850000585/post/1790035379.html”Article

Wekipedia the enyclpedia 

Beauty tips from Lebanon

 

 By Farah Hashim 

 

From the first moment your eyes fall on this headline you will think am going to write tips about makeup ,hair ,body care or this kind of stuff, but what am about to write is extremely different.

 

I want to deliver to you one important tip from Lebanon, one tip that I have memorized and learned during my residence in Beirut. 

 

Always LOOK GOOD no matter what is happening. Maybe if you think of it that way you might say to your self what about death in the family, wars, bad times ?

 

How can I look good and someone is suffering or how can I care about makeup when some one is dying? Or war is TAKING PLACE 

 

Well, your right but, in Lebanon being beautiful is what made the woman so strong like a rock, despite all the wars that Lebanon went through from  the beginning  till last war with Israel in 2006 the Lebanese people are still fighting and living their day as if its their last day.

 

The Lebanese women is different from any other woman in the whole world not of her beauty or language  but in her traditions and habits. She is always holding a mirror and a base cream, to cover any mark that is left from (wars , problems or any political dilemmas ).

 

Be strong over come any problem and fight to live your life are the main headlines  in Lebanese woman daily life 

 

. There’s is a very special advertisement that is spread across Lebanon cities and areas called (ILOVELIFE) came after many political problems in order to support the Lebanese’s feelings and lives  

 

Lebanese people got more attached to life after experiencing death last summer in July 2006, their hope in life did not die , they lost their houses their careers their families but they did not lose their identities.

 

If you go to Beirut right now you will see beautiful Lebanese women every where you go. The tendency to live  is increasing minute after the other in Lebanese ‘s hearts .  

 

 

Souna

my tears are mixed up with smiles, and small portions of laughter, i could not imagine that this day would ever  come, the day i fell in love, the day my dreams  came true. i know i sound like a chic in a romantic hollywood movie but i m  deeply, drowned in what in hollywood  writers call it.  LOVE. 

I   never thought that an application through facebook would lead me to a partner in life, to my  love  Souna ,It was a mid summer ‘s night when i was stuck with my best friend  in her dorm room trying to get in touch with  the real world by sumbiting out information of our perosnal life,  in order for us to get a partner or a mate.

Every  time i click  my finger on the mouse , a new picture pops out with details and information about a man who loves long walks on the beach, and other desperate man seeking love through the intenret.(looks whose talking).

We simply felt sorry for those men who use intenrt for love but subconsiouly  Rana  and i  were depsrete  enough to be the same as those men. We were lonely, and never felt brave to admit it. we  hid behind the office work and college classes and never got the chance to sit and talk it through untill summer.

 the impressive part about this applciation was that we could see as many males as our eyes captured , and choose till boredom kicks us in the head,  so we kept nudging and messaging those profiles  with  the name of a bighunk and prince-213 and other hilarous names that made me and Rana stay till 4 am every night  cracking up  from laughter.

packs of malborow red and redbull,  were  the things that  amused us till dawn while  adding  the applications. 

taking a long puff, puting the cigarte on the top of the empty redbull tank, writing on the laptop, then puffing it again.

this scnario was repated  more than once, till the heat of the laptop reached to its max and hit our thighs that soon became warm. 

no one felt what was going on, until that day when Reham decided to pay us a visit. we were alone in that dorm room , Reham is a friend of Rana and she stayed with Rana in  the beginning  of the summer, but when Reham hurt her hand, she had to leave back to beirut and stays at  her mother’s house until she gets better. meanwhile Rana and I  stayed at the dorm room.  It was a bit quite without the company of Reham conisdering the fact that she was the noisy one among us.  A bra here and a bikini swim suit there, bits and pices of chocoalte and ships all over the sofa and an open cd of “friends” lying near the tv  WAITING for Rana to retrun it to   LAU  library that soon made her pay fees for over due. 

Nothing was under control, nothing was tidy, not even our love life, all was greatly messed up, i was single just got out from a boreing relation that made me dump the man and then cry over it. i was in deep sadness BUT he continuiouse partying IN THAT Summer made me forget it  FOR A WHILE but not get over it. 

Rana was on the same train but different destination, she was on  a break with her boyfriend whom she  spent with 4 years of her life. she did not know what went wrong, she cried several nights over and over in her bed, i  was either asleep or listening to her shivering under the cover and choking  in her own sadness, sometimes i used to go there and hug here and other times i was afraid to even to say a word, what should i say to the one i consider a sister? 

hey sis move on .. or you deserve a better guy??!1 i had to say more .

i kept there beside her. im never good when it comes to expressing feelings i always express it in my own different way, i took her to parties, we danced with strangers in parties, shouted as loud as we can get in the car on our favorite song, we exchanged clothes and went to the beach even though we had no money in our pocket, some times we had our own argument other times we laughed till our eyes burst into tears. we had our good and bad moments but even now when we think of it, it was a hell of a summer that will never pass quickly in our heads. 

i remember that day it was sunny, i was broke but i had my tanning cream, rana was in  abed’s dorm room. her boyfrend’s room who left her because he needed some time to think  !! 

i was wearing a a long brown dress, she was wearing a red top and a mini skirt we were happy that Reham IS back so we decided to go to the beach but it was 12 o’clock but Rana in that time met a guy online whom she spent hours and hours talking to him, she told me she is happy and wants to meet with him, so i was astonisehd of how fast she can be when it comes to falling for someone but i  was happy for her and told her we can double date as soon as i  can get one for my own, but i could not find the one  i like, so i picked any one my eyes can see and added him in less than one hour i arranged a meeting for  us in the beach, in a place called “bahsa” its a public beach for everyone that does not have enough money  to get into the fansy resrots in other words its a palce for crazy young girls to have blind dates with weird scary men online. (well its not but we made it this way) //D

i was scared so i got Rana and Reham to come with me. i sat on the chair, took off my dress, wore my red bikini and lied there waiting for Rana to  announce for me the arrival of that  man whom im watting for.

Rana “SOMETIMES” can be abitch so  she took advantage of my weak heart and started to tease me. she started to scare me off by every man she sees and shouts “farah hayda howi” (farah this is the one)”

so i jumped like a crazy women who had  just saw a spider on her leg , where where i say . 

then i noticed  Rana’s big mouth is wide to the extent that I was able to  see hear upper teeth. she is laughing at my desperate self. i dont blame her i would TOTALY laugh at me. 

time passes by and i met this gentleman  all i have to say is that spending words and lines  describing him is noting but a stupid thing to do. it was a totaly unpleasnt  hour that rana and reham had to run away and leave me alone stuck with him, i dont even remember that i  added a gay guy in the application but who knows ?what happens online must always stays online. 

that day passed by with no intention bringing it into discuusion again .it was a hell of a day to remember for my stupidty. Rana kept bragging about her taste in men and how she met a gorgouse man online , i saw his pics but  I did not like him, she was like a young teen girl who had a crush on singer or a football player, she was happy, frech and excited for the first time since the day of the break up. 

Ramadan came, so my duty toward family made me fly to kuwait to spend ramadan with mom and brothers, as far as i remember  that ramadan was the best Ramadan of my life full of healthy food and loads of reruns of asmahan show that made me and my mom  watch it over and over and over again with no boredom and no regrets. 

i loved my staying in kuwait  but i loved the sup rice i get every time i see Rana’s  persoanl meessage stating how she loves life and music and that she is rising up over the rain bow so high, i still remeber that persoanl meesage i really felt happy for my CLOSE friend. 

how are you, i say 

i feel the warmth of his chest in my face, i feel happy farah, im smiling again, my mouth is killing me from continous smiling, she says

i wish you the best but how when and where? i say

no questions you know who is the guy and i will tell you the rest as soon as you get on the first plane to beirut. 

i did not belive the words that were written on the messenger’s wall, i smiled and let it go. she must be happy 

oh its too fast ,she just met him, oh it cant be it  What about  abed, he is her boyfriend for 4 damn years, this cant be it? too many  ideas crossed over my head and non of them made sense. i was over the top when i heard that Ranroon is head over heels and she is back on track again.

clocked ticking quicly and days have passed without any control. with no time i found my self in beirut back in the arms of that lovely city, i saw Rana again and never talked about that cheesy guy in the beach, we had our laugh but when i saw her i never thought i would ask her but she told me im back with abed. 

what ? i said, 

yes im back with him and the guy i dated him on line remember well it was a fling and he left the coutry, 

i was in state of shock, all i thought of was, ok rana the importaant thing that you are  happy, 

she nodded and smiled and thats she all had to say about her return to abed

Summer passed by and by that i mean all our hours spent infornt of the laptop on profiles and applications,timless make up sessions by Rana infornt of the miror or the thousands and thousands of  used redbull tanks and malborow packs thrown on the bed  were sadly  over.

the parties were over, we used all the wardrobe and wore every single dress and i literly showd off my boobs in all occasions(not the nipple part :)) i drank and i drank water (my vodka in parties is usually water its delicious and energetic)  till i dropped, we  hit the g spot in partying and fun. 

until the second week of fall when i got back to univeristy,i was busy preparing for classes and all.

my QUALITY  time with internet was a bit over the top back in summer but in fall it was only for research work or university requirement s but this one time i came home late tired from work, i take off my shoes near the door,throw my bag on the nearest sofa and lay down on the carpet to relax and call it a day.i opened up my msn account to check few emails or talk to my mom in kuwait. suddenly  a strange email adds me, i ignore it but then he appears online, he talks to me , so i reply back but later when i talk he never replies so i got pissd and blocked him,  later that week he emailed me over and over but i did not reply back, he told me he loved the times we talked, he loved the way i think, even though he does  not  have a clue how i look like. i tried searching for his name on facebook appearntly i added him over the ” are u interested” application that me and Rana used over the past three months during summer. but sadly i had not had the chance to use it again after the tragdy i faced in” bahsa” beach with that gay creepy guy. 

days passed me talking with that guy whos nick name was a name of a weird rock song, he rarly  stays online and always  is  work or away, when i tried talking to him once  or twice we rarely  agreed  on any thing. and the  time spent on his mostly was filled with clashes in opnions wthier over politics or relegion or even sex! 

i hated him till the max thats why  i decided to block him again , i did not have time  to joke with him or mess with his head , i was in uni and busy with classes and all ! 

my close   friend Aziz told me once to provoke him and make him suffer by not giving him my whole number. he even told me to give the loser my first 4 digts number in the first week and the next three or 4 days i give him the rest. and thats what i did. 

i used every  possible WAY  to make this guy suffer and beg for mercy either he likes me or he is just having fun but apperntly this guy really has a thing for me. 

  i never belived that a man would actually  come from jbeil to beirut for a girl he never met and wait for her in a cafe messaging her every 10 min trying to persue her not to be late even though he did not see her face. that turn the creeps out of me and made me worry is that a crazy man or what. ? 

first day came and i ditched him, i promised him to go but i did not i even forgot that i made plans with him, iwas busy with univeristy and office work second time also happend without me attending the date, third time was horrible i made him wait for me  an 1 hour and half in a cafe alone. i felt so bad when i knew later that he used to look at every girl that pasees through the cafe door wishing that she could be me  or trying to ask any one if a girl came and direclty left. 

 iam a bitch sometimes i admit i can be but i did not mean to do this to  any man  and i did not think that in this life time i would  find a gentlman like that. 

all what have happend after  kind of dissolve. all i could remember  that im in his arms right now, iam  deeply strongly exccevly madly in love with souna, in some way or another he changed my life weither in times  he spent it with me or the jokes he told me about. he made my way into his arms under a lovely  path full of roses,he made my day when he expressed all the sweetness of his actions in a chocoalate cake and huged till midnight all says one thing that  souna is in love with me. 

all i can say that i wish i will always give him what i feel and kiss HIM  till threre is not tomorow. 

i know my words sounds cheezy and clishi but who do i dare to acuse, but cupid, who shot my heart with one of his arrows.

my story has just began and my other chapters in life ( which will be introduced brifey later )WERE  just an introduction to this one and the rest is yet to come

to be continued