I don't know

We are still under the curfew. The military operation are still going on here in Mosul. Our neighbourhood was searched for hidden guns and some people ,their names were in a list, by the iraqi army three days ago, at 5AM. However, we have been told that the big operation have not yet taken place.!!!..and we may be searched again.

I don't know how long time it will take and what the hell they are going to do. Well, they temporarily suspended the curfew yesterday so that people could get some rations, so it sounds that the curfew will not be lifted SOON.

I went to college and got my poor salary. I had determined to return back as soon as I get it to say good bye to my mother, the group of hajjes left Mosul yesterday BTW. However, I was sidetracked by my friends and reached too late. But I said good bye on the phone :)

Well, unsurprisingly we have found ourselves to be at the mercy of my sister. She has become responsible for cooking and we have to eat what she chooses and obey all her orders. She told us that we are allowed to eat only specific meals at specific times. She is a dictator. :)

Update:

There is no curfew in Mosul Today. I did not know till I went out and I realised that I was the only one in the family who didn't know about it.. Sorry, I was wrong :D

now, here is a photo I took yesterday

curfew until further notice

well, I had a plan with a friend to go to the markets to buy new clothes this morning. My mother convinced me to do that and she was very happy because I rarely buy my own clothes by myself, she or one of my brothers usually do that. (Yes,I am such a lazy person ) :D
She told me that she would stop washing my clothes till I buy some new ones this week. However, we heard that there would be a curfew in Mosul lately yesterday, so of course we cancelled our going. :)
Now, My mother is very sad NOT because I am not going to buy anything but because she may not be able to catch her plane. It is supposed that the group of hajjes leave on Monday. She has been watching TV since morning to see when this curfew will be ended.
I do not know but I think my father has something to do with this curfew. LOL

You know what, when a country has a strike or a curfew, they may lose a tons of money but do not worry....I assure you that we are not losing anything. we do not produce anything. we just using foreign products. So they, other countries, also lose when we have a curfew. :)

I do not know how we are going to spend the time. My brother N, the doctor, cleaned his car, watched two DVD movies and has not stopped complaining about the situation since yesterday. I have not felt any difference yet but I am a bit disappointed because I may not go to college this week and I really have to fight to use the internet now.

Well, still there are two of us feel very happy. Ayesha and her brother have got very excited time today. BTW I have not spoken about my nephew. Well, he is 13 months old. He start walking when he was only 7-month old. He is a monster-like kid. He always punches his sister and any kid he see. Actually he hits anybody he face by a stick my father had given it to him.
Have not you noticed that I have not posted any photo for Ayesha recently. You know why? Because her face is full of scars caused by him. :)
Umm here is his photo.

He seem a calm kid, doesn't he?

Yesterday he came to our house as usual, then he went out to the garden and started trying to pick some fruit ( I do not know what its name in english) but it was too high to be reached by him. He brought a long stick and started hiting the tree.Fialing in his first go, he brought a chair and use it to reach the fruit and got what he wanted. :)

Umrah

My mother is going to mecca to do umrah, non-compulsory hajj made by Muslims to Mecca, next week. She and my father went for hajj four years ago and they promised themselves to return to mecca as they get the chance to do that. Few months ago, my brother told them that his friend would be in charge of transporting a group of hajjis to visit mecca and asked them if they were willing to go to register their names in the list. This way his friend would be responsible for my parents in their care.

My father wasn't able to enrol his name at that time because he did not have a passport. The plan was that my mother enrolled her name and my father would enroll his as soon as he gets the passport. Unfortunately, he has not got a passport yet, so we were in front of three choices.

1- paying bribe to some people to get a passport but my father will never accept to do such stuffs. especially to go to the holiest ever place in the world.

2-they cancel their pilgrimage for now and wait for a next chance.

3-My mother goes alone now and my father waits for a next chance alone. :)

We have unanimously determined the third choice. My father does not want her to cancel her name, so do we. He has been pushing her to go and do not worry about him. He acts as he does not care but I am sure he deeply wants to go with her. :) I feel pity for him.

My mother, in the other hand, acts as she does not want to go but I know she is very excited. So she is getting ready for the journey. She bought a new hejaab and other stuffs, she really looks like 20-year-old girl now. :)

I am very happy for her and Inshallah my father also will be able to go soon.

Rambling ;)

Most of the time I write posts, but after finishing and re-reading them I feel what I have written is too silly so I simply delete them. This is why I write too little. However, this one has survived this time so do not blame me if you did not like it. :)

The students in our college are having their examinations these days. It was started last week. To tell the truth, I really feel very comfortable because they stop coming to the laboratory. I spend all the time eating and surfing the net. :)
I had to supervise students on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. On Sunday, some students submitted a complaint to the examinations administration committee accusing us that we had obligated them to hand their answer papers before the appointed time. well, It was a lie and the committee have not even asked us to give clarification. :)

Our college had a symposium in the next day. It was about the effect of mobile radio frequencies on human. The lecturer who I am giving tutorial with him was in charge of running that symposium. It took place in the scientific and literary forum at Mosul University. All the lecturers and demonstrators of my department attended it. It was started at 9AM and ended at 1PM. There was some satellite TVs televise the lectures. The chancellor of the university came and gave a short opening speech. He said that he supports modern technology. well, I have been surprised !!. We took many many photos with our Profs. However, while we were returning back, some demonstrators were joking saying that it was very boring and the most interesting part of it was the lunch. LOL
However, I do enjoyed it especially what my prof. was talking about. He is very educated and from my point of view he, Dr.Youns and Dr. Mosub are the best profs in the whole college. I am glad that I am working with him. I hated it much when I was in charge of preparing communications principles tutorial sheets last year. I am not implying that I did not like the Communications' lecturer. on the contrary, He is very nice lecturer but I hated the material itself. To be more exact, I do not hate this material but it is too easy and I think it do not need tutorial sheets to be understood. Well, I am rambling here. Sorry, let us go back to the main subject. (I do not think there is a main subject though)
I enjoyed the symposium so much. It was a refreshment broke the daily routine.
By the way, do not worry too much about the effect of the mobile radio frequencies. ;)

Also in the last week, A friend of me, Z, phoned me. He was my close friend in high school. He has been forced to leave Mosul since a long time (3-4 years ago). It was hard to find good friend in high school. Z was a headstrong guy, always getting himself into troubles.
In our school, all the students had to become baathist to be able to continue his study just like all other schools all over the country. Baathist was a dictator party. wasn't it?. Someday when we were in the 5th grade, a fat and foul baathist entered our class and rudely asked us all to enter the party. I did not like to join it but I did, unwillingly. However, I dared Z if he could refuse and he did. He had a long argument with that stupid baathist. Well, the argument was finished when the baathist told Z that he suspected him of having joined another party !!!. (It was considered a crime punishable with death penalty BTW).

This very friend, Z , gave me a very interesting and useful trick someday. He used to show me how effective it is by many particular examples. I will try to explain it briefly in an example. Imagine you are lying in your bed reading some book, magazine or whatever and suddenly you felt you want to sleep. You would put what you are reading aside and go to turn off the light and then return back to your bed to sleep. Okay, what if you were very tired (or too lazy) and did not want to do all that work.
Yes, of course if you were an engineer you would think in some way to change the switch and use a remote control instead and thoughts would be burned in your head…etc. But you would spent much energy too and in a short time you would get headache and sleep without even turning off the light.
You would want to call one of the family member but you are afraid he would be annoyed to see your laziness.
By using the trick I talk about it, you would yell and call your brother or sister telling them that your mobile, camera or whatever are not working because they had used it before. You lost all your data. you are not angry at all and telling them that you would fix the problem tomorrow and they should not be worried.
However, after all, you would politely ask them to turn off the light and close the door behind them. you got what you want and everyone is happy and they would be very grateful to you. (T_T)
Again, I'm rambling here, aren't I?

On Wednesday, T, A friend I have mentioned him before, came to our college. He has also been appointed in the college. But no sooner we had been appointed than he took a year unpaid leave and left Mosul because of the situation. He has been changed much during this year. He has a 1970s-style haircut and look like Alfes Bresly. :D
However, he applied for another unpaid year leave and left on Thursday.

I want to tell you one more thing. There is something I hate it too much here in Mosul. When someone buys a new mobile, he take off its original cover and use a bad-cheap one instead for fear that it won't look new when he want to sale the phone!!!. The new buyers will do the same, eventually no one use the original cover. it is very STUPID, isn't it? So let us see if I would be able to persuade my sister.

Some photos from the symposium.

I Shouldn't Be Alive

Of course, you have heard or seen some episodes of " I shouldn't be alive"
Yes, It is a television programme shown on many satellite channels. It is all about experiences of normal people who had been lost in wilderness areas or in the middle of the sea or ...or.. such stuffs...and they all had to face life-threatening conditions.
It is all based on truth stories. Some of them were about to die of hunger when they were lost in the Amazon for days. Some because of a threatening of a wandering wolf or bear or ..or.
Some others were about to die because of insects like bugs.!

Its episodes shock a lot of people, doesn't it?

Well, this have pushed me to write my own experience (or experiences to be exactly). My experiences were not in a wilderness but HERE in my city, at the markets, at the college, on the way to my neighbourhood and everywhere else. As you know, since the occupation the whole country has been in state of total chaos. Now, my country (especially my city) is the most dangerous spot in the world. Ten of innocent people are killed every single day (may Allah bless their souls). You definitely know what is being happened here. So let us just go through the story and here's how it went.

it was started when I was a student in the 2nd grade four years ago. I and two other friends used to share a taxi to go and come back from college. This way each one of us had to pay for a taxi one time every three days. One of those days we were waiting for a taxi in front of the university's door. There was a police station in front of the door too. While one of them was bragging that he got the highest mark in some exam, I saw a gunman coming near to the police. Within few seconds, he shot and killed a police man not far away from us, just few meters away from where we were standing. It was a horrible scene and I really can not describe it. I saw smoke exiting from his body because of the hot bullets. Well, I had seen many of such scenes but they all were in the movies. :)
However, the most important thing that the policemen then started shooting him too and we were in the middle of all that. We lay down on the wet and dirty ground. I thought we would not survive because we were very close and the bullets were flying all around us.The heavy shooting stopped after some minutes, the gunman was killed by the police and at least five of the people I saw lying on the ground were seriously injured. One of those people who was near us was badly injured in the head (I was not sure if he was not dead).

we were in a state of total shock for days after that event.

After few months, I was in the summer break. A neighbour friend phoned and asked me if I would like to accompany him to the markets and I accepted. We went to the old bazaar in the other bank of the city. We parked our car in some place and we did some shopping then we returned. While we were walking back to the car we saw many Americans vehicles wandering in the streets. Then we saw tens of gunmen spreading not afar from the Americans asking people to leave this spot quickly. No sooner had we got in our car than we heard very heavy explosions followed by heavy shooting. The American soldiers blocked all the bridges so we with so many people got stuck in that spot for about two hours. we did not know where the bullets were coming from. we entered some street and a missile , mistaking an American striker, hit a shop at the other side. Again a heavy shooting started. we opened the car's door and lay down on the ground. It was a real war in there.
we reached a place called Al-seachen. as soon as we reached there another fighting started and this time we were very close. we got out from the car and ran. we hid ourselves in shops and houses. After about two hours we were able to get out from that battle field. well, it is abnormal... I know. But after passing the bridge, we went to Al-zohor region and my friend bought a new mobile (and he bought us ice cream!!!!!).
Then we returned back as if nothing had happened.

Another day, when I was a student in the third grade. I asked a friend to accompany me to Al-naby bazaar. He is one of those two friends I have mentioned above. Let us called him T (because his name is Tahseen :) ). He refused and said he didn't want to be late for Al-3seer prayer. I kept on begging him so he accepted after promising him that we would do our prayer at Al-naby Younis mosque. we set off the road to our destination. At the middle of the road we saw military vehicles coming from the other side of the street. As they reached us, a side road bomb exploded just cross the street from us. It was a huge explosion. the car we were in rose from the ground. The dust prevented us from seeing anything but we heard bullets shooting and we knew that we had to leave as soon as possible. we were about just 40-50 m from the explosion place. YES,of course, I survived and this time I couldn't avoid not laughing because T was laughing too. We were shut up when an old man scolded us. At the night of the same day, I watched the explosion's place on the TV and knew that four students were killed.

Someday, a friend phoned and told me that Ali's father had been killed. Ali Emad was a student in the computer engineering department. He was the first one on his class. He was smart, hardworking and helpful person. He was my friend. the next day I decided to go to the funeral. My mother begged me not to do because his house was in Al-wahda neighbourhood, the most ever dangerous spot in the city. Anyway,I did, I went with three other friends (T was one of them by the way). We saw a truck being burned at the entrance of the neighbourhood. However, we reached the funeral. We didn't know what to say. His father had been kidnapped and tortured then killed. We just offered a few words of consolation. As we were leaving the place, two bomb cars exploded targeting some American armored vehicles. I returned back feeling sorry for my friend and his family. At night I received an SMS from the same friend who called a day before telling me that Ali was killed. I was totally shocked. I did not believe it (more exactly, I did not want to believe). After the explosions American snipers spred over the high buildings and killed eight people. Ali was one of those innocent people. the next day, I went to his house again and I saw almost all my friends there. His family were in a heart-aching condition. At the afternoon, I and some friends decided to go back before the neighbourhood got surrounded by American troops. While some friends were warning us not to take Saddam's Hospital Street, a series of heavy explosions took place. Yes, of course, they were followed by fighting throughout the neighbourhood. His mother, Ali's mother, begged us to enter the house. We were about 40 people inside one room.

Well, I know you have GOT bored but I was this close to die many times and I have NOT mentioned all what I went through.

So, After all, Should I be alive?!!!
I don't know but I am very glad and grateful that I am. I do not know if I am enjoying my life or not but still think that there are many things worth to live for. PS: I have promised myself not to write or discuss such matters but I was not able to avoid it this time.

regarding college
first of all, I bought a laptop few weeks ago. We have wireless internet in the laboratory so I just open it to login the net. It is nice, is not it?well, the last week,the chancellor of our university ordered the staff that they may not bring their own computers to the compus. This did not surprise me. He is used to make such decisions. I have a great concern that he would someday declare that nobody are allowed to bring even his own books.


There is one more interesting thing I want to talk about. I know it has become long post but I just don't want to stop. :D
I have insomnia these days and I hate it too much. However, yesterday I was able to sleep well. But while I was having a nice dream, hard knocking on my room's door woke me up. I thought that American soldiers had been entered the house for checking or something like this. ( I don't think they will do that, Knocking the door, if they entered for check someday by the way). I rose in a hurry to see what was that.
Well, I opened the door and saw my mother.
" are you awake?" she asked"
well, it is..it is " I looked at the clock and replied " It is 4AM, So I suppose I should be awake, yes!!!"
"okay, you have to take a bath"
"What!!, but why now, it is only 4:01 AM and what the bath for?!!!!!"
" You are going to the college after three hours and with this smell, I am sure you would kill some students"
"Really?!!!"
"NO, but you have to take a bath and be used to wake for the morning prayer"
"okay I am going to bring my clothes"
Well, I am not sure if all that happened or not. Maybe it was just dream. LOL

Old photos of Mosul

A friend of mine has collected thses old photos of Mosul.

Other photos are on the way ;)

I'm not sure

Do you remember when I once wrote about my wishes...Okay I think they were just rubbish. None of which is going to came true. The situation in my city is moving from very bad to worse day by day. I really can't convince myself anymore that an end may be put to this abnormal situation. Even if that happened someday ,in the far future, I'm not sure that I'd be alive to witness this chaos being ended.
However, this post isn't about my wishes...it's about..okay, I'm not sure..so you have to read the whole post.

Previously in lost..oh sorry, previously in this blog, I wrote about my acceptance and that I wasn't able to get the visa ..etc. (the boring story)
six days ago, I received a document from the German university which says that I didn't need a german language knowledge to be used for the visa requirements. Unfortunately, it was too late.

anyway, from that day till yesterday, I was receiving various attacks from all my family members (except my father) for not wanting to try again. I've been called coward by my mother, crazy by my brothers,...and good son by my dear father. :)
anyway, that was my decision, and I'm not sure what's next. I think I will apply for both Australian and German universities the next year.
the most important thing, you now know why I was hiding this matter from my friends. I hid that in order not to be looked at as a man of words not of action, as well as to my friend's reason.

As for college, what has happened in the last two weeks is worth to write about.

in the first week we had to exam the students..And because I was in charge of two experiments out of 6. I tested about 30% of the students. Although the questions weren't that hard, only three students have passed the exam. One of the students objected to the evaluation I had given it to her saying that it was unfair for her to get such a low mark!!!. After showing her why she had got such poor grade, she started crying and telling me that it was my fault!!!.
So I started crying too..(just kidding) LOL
Yeah I'm so kind-hearted person, but I have been used to such matters. :D

Also in the first week, I went to the head of my department asking him to move me from Lab.4 electronic (6hrs/week) to Lab.3 Communication (also 6hrs/week) but he didn't agree. He also refused to move this six hours to any another laboratory. He told me that I and my friend A are good engineers and he do need us to stay completely in lab.4.
BTW, I work 20 hurs a week
12 hrs at lab.4 Communication
6 hrs al lab 4 Electronic
2 hrs tutorial
I'm not sure that I will leave this laboratory someday.

Also in those two weeks, some new lecturers have been appointed in our college. One of them has joined us in the laboratory. he has a master degree in electrical engineering. He is very polite and calm...And seems very educated person.that's good for our college because some lecturers are going to leave the college to study abroad. the decision-maker of out department is going to study his doctorate in London. I'm very happy for him. I used to spend a good time with him talking about and looking at photos. He is very helpful person and I've learned a lot from him.

Also in the college, a friend of mine told me that he had been in charge to start an offical website for our college. He asked me for help and I immediately agrreed.

Away from the college, I've determined to gain some weight. I'm eating too much these days but threr isn't any slight increase in my weight. I've asked my brother what I suppose to do. He answered me that I should stop studying, reading and even thinking!!!!. So I've been thinking of what I should think about when I stop thinking!!!. :)
I think I wil spend energy than I was doing before.
I'm NOT sure that I will gain ANYTHING. :)