Thanks Giving Anyone?

While other families discuss things in my family we always end up agreeing to disagree, don't feel sorry for me it's not a sad thing I really enjoy it, you think of it as the kind of thing that spices up life! Yesterday was thanks giving so happy Thanks Giving to everyone celebrating and I hope you guys didn't get food indigestion! Any how, yesterday my dad and I got into one of our so called discussions and the topic was Thanks Giving, I was expressing my admiration for the day and wondering why we didn't have a day like that, my dad the ever anti-american mumbled "we're not Christians, that's why" and the discussion began, he insisted on it being a Christian holiday and I insisted on it being not, the argument went on and on and at the end of the meal we agreed to disagree and moved on to arguing about something else, The Passion of the Christ incase you're wondering!

Although I was pretty sure that it was a secular holiday, I looked it up just to be sure. It first started as a harvest festival and gradually became Turkey day, many countries besides the United States observe this holiday but on different dates. Now back to my question, why don't we have a similar day, a day when we can express our gratefulness to the people we love, and share a big meal together? Wouldn't that be nice?

If there was an Iraqi thanks giving and we were to celebrate this day, I would be thankful for having so many people in my life that love me, for having a roof on my head and all the little things we take for granted, but most importantly having the ability to choose the path I want in life and having a husband that supports my choices no matter what and will always have my back.

So there you have it, that's what I'm thankful for. What are you thankful for?

Have a wonderful weekend,
T.

11.11.11

Two years ago I was working as an admin assistant for a university here in Erbil, one day my manager and I were having a discussion about hopes and dreams and how life in Iraq almost always does not turn the way you planned it. I remember telling him how much I want to go to New York one day, he told me that it was funny that i should say that because New Yorkers are pretty much like Baghdadies when it comes to loving their cities. Baghdad has been through so much but it always rises back and I thought it will for a very long time until recently I lost hope, I can't remember the occasion but I know i sat one day and thought to myself this is it, this is not a temporary situation anymore and Erbil, as much as i hate to admit, is pretty much home from now on. It's sad and devastating but we are human beings after all and we are forced to follow our survival instinct.

Last week Ali and I went to Baghdad for Eid holiday and as skeptical as I was about this trip it turned out completely different from what I envisioned. I will tell you about one day only, the day that changed my entire perspective on the future of Iraq. You might find this silly but the reason behind this change is a football match.

Friday night, 11.11.11 I was looking at my Facbook home page which was filled with status messages about making wishes on 11:11 since this won't happen again and Although I found it a bit silly but secretly I made a wish, sipped some tea, got up, got dressed and went to visit my friend. After that Ali and I went for a walk in one of the busiest streets in Baghdad and while we were near the car we heard what sounded like an explosion, we turned around to see fire works everywhere, Iraq has won a football match against China and all of a sudden the street was filled with cars honking, people singing and dancing and flags, tons and tons of flags we even bought one and put it on our car. It was an amazing view and I felt my eyes tearing for a second! So in the spirit of patriotism we went for ice cream hehehe, no seriously the view from a higher place was really moving and i found myself secretly wishing if we could ever move back to Baghdad. This thing about Iraqi people, you just can't find that elsewhere, no matter how horrible things get we always have a reason to celebrate regardless how silly the reason is.
One of the Baghdady groups on Facebook announced that the winning goal was actually made at 11:11 EST or something like that, so there you have it 11.11.11 was indeed a lucky day. Here are some seriously bad quality pictures I tried to take that night:

Those guys jumped on top of the moving Lorry and started dancing :)

I had a wonderful 11.11.11, I hope you did too.

T.