Saba Imtiaz: Everyday is a winding road..

While my brain currently feels like its going to explode spewing PDF files, Excel sheets and other must-do priorities, it isn't made easier by all the chaos in my life and in my country.

Its 3 PM, and I'm still slightly disconcerted with how my morning went.

Rushed out of the house, lugging backpack to find a cab for meeting with our grant body.
I looked behind me, only to see a huge bunch of 'protestors' nonchalantly walking up the sloping street I live on. My first Jordanian rally/protest, yay!

Though, I'm still unsure if it really was a protest..because the bunch of people were carrying banners, huge flags of Jordan, had police/army escorts and a bunch of photographers clicking away. There were..no slogans. Even the random protests at the Karachi Press Club have more noise & spirit than what I witnessed. Truly disconcerting.

Anyway, find cab - and immediately after I get in:

Talkative taxi driver#2939247: "Where are you from?"
Me: "Pakistan"
Talkative taxi driver#2939247: "aah, not America?"
Me: "No, P-A-K-I-S-T-A-N"
Talkative taxi driver#2939247: "so you don't have an American passport"
Me: "No.."
Talkative taxi driver#2939247: "ah, do you like Americans?"
Me: "Err.." made noncommittal gesture. You never know how people are going to react to your answer.
Talkative taxi driver#2939247: "Yes, too many Americans in Pakistan.."

A number of the usual and not so usual questions followed..do women have to cover their head in Pakistan, how long have I been living in Jordan..and then:

Talkative taxi driver#2939247: "why not speak Arabic?"
Me: "I can read & write it! Plus I work with foreigners.."
Talkative taxi driver#2939247: "Americans?!"
Me: "No.."

This is not a conversation you want to have when going to a meeting with an agency funded by the Americans..I'm convinced he could've been from the Intelligence, but then, I'm also convinced I saw a ghost pass outside the window of my house a couple of days ago..

P.S: Watching The Crystal Maze on YouTube is a good way to cure stress issues! 'And you've only got two crystals../To the Medieval zone!' ..love YouTube :D

Labels: jordan journal, random musings

..or Telecommunication in Transit

Alright people, you'd better watch your feet cos I'm about to drop some knowledge. Haha, I love Barney Stinson's lines! :D

Anyway, over the course of many a discussion and random caffeine inspired moment of idle thinking, I have come up with the following theory: 'Telecommunication in Transit/the Airport Call theory'. Its been born out of listening and trying to interpret the countless stories people tell me (read: my friends with 'extremely interesting / the stuff soap opera dramas are made of' love lives).

Now basically how it goes is this: you're at an airport, killing time in a departure lounge. Depending on your luck, the lounge probably has minimal forms of distraction & entertainment, but you have your cell phone. Obviously, you can pick the phone up and call a friend who will undoubtedly listen to your ranting and raving, but thats not what you do. You call or text someone who you truly care about - whether its a new crush, your boy/girlfriend, someone you're undeniably attracted to.

However, you don't do this intentionally, and this is where it gets interesting. They're the ones that currently matter to you the most, so you call/text them. You think you're doing it because hey, maybe h/she is an insomniac or you miss speaking to him/her - but the truth is, you just want to be with them. See, this is a sign of how you can tell if you really like someone - if you can talk to him/her at an ungodly hour from a different timezone, this is the person you want to end up with.

So the next time you're in transit, desperately trying to find free wifi or thanking God that your cell phone has extensive roaming (instead of window shopping at duty free or drinking at 7 AM at an airport bar), or trying to hide your phone from the flight attendant because you want to send one last message before the plane takes off - remember: this is who you (regardless of how much you convince yourself or tell your friends that its just a fling/random crush) want to be with. The Airport Call theory has spoken.

Labels: random musings, travel

..or why Sundays suck.

Despite having been in Jordan for 8.5 months (wallahi, has it been that long already?!), I still haven't got used to the Friday - Saturday weekend. It was fun when I was a kid in the Emirates and Saturdays were reserved for bubble baths and some sort of essay writing*. Anyway, I feel cheated out of a holiday regardless of whether I spent most of the weekend wrapped up in a comforter catching up on sleep. Perhaps its because most of the world that I see popping up online is enjoying a relaxing Sunday while I..well, try to get my mind to wake up and work.

Take for example this Sunday, where..

...our MC meeting began to resemble a circus show (perhaps this is due to the fact that a teammate was juggling things and jumping around today during said meeting) and intense caffeine starvation could be marked by the number of cups strewn around us.

...my schedule looks empty, and Monday looks packed. Perhaps this is an indicator that Monday really is, when my week starts off.

...I must have sounded like someone on a mood-altering drug, because during a coaching meeting I said the following things:

- Account Management is like a game of Snakes & Ladders
- AIESEC's like a big factory!
- Used an analogy of a local fast food chain selling bacteria ridden juice to explain bad quality exchange

Sundays suck. The only thing that is getting me through today is free coffee refills and the song 'The Salt Wound Routine' by Thirteen Senses. I want to be eating aloo parathas instead of looking at open documents that require my undivided attention but right now, make absolutely no sense. Snakes & ladders, anyone?




*in what now appears to be a fervent bid on my parents' part to make my sister and me writers, we had to write an essay every weekend on something - whether it was a trip to the zoo or something or letter writing (which when it was in Urdu, was usually a grueling exercise) However, I do recall also writing out long lists on Saturdays which usually involved wish lists of toys (which we'd never get)/books(which we'd always get, until our parents discovered it'd be cheaper to get us books from Pakistan since we read everything we got in hours and hence brand new shiny books would lay untouched for months afterwards). Hmm, so this list thing is a childhood habit then..

Labels: jordan journal, random musings