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It’s really strange to be able to see things; same things, from completely different point of view without having to have multiple personality!
Being in the land of violence, death, lawless and experiencing life threats every day and hearing about some incident that could have killed innocent people, well from that point of view it’s nothing, important….but from the land of peacefulness, life, law and ability to plan a year ahead it’s a very big thing.
I heard the news and was totally shocked, flashbacks started, it brought back the dark memories that we are trying so hard to put behind, I kind of experienced it all again…after having 3 months of peace; which is the longest time I have ever experienced . After all of that, explosions are here! I just started to live normally and believe me living normally is such a huge great thing, I’m sure anyone not from Iraq will not be able to appreciate it, but it’s the best blessing a human can have. Believe me you don’t know the value of being able to go out of home and being 99% sure you’ll get back in one piece, being able to walk with pride; walking tall fearing no one, and I mean no one at all as long you are not breaking the law which is something I have never done even in a lawless country, being able to go shopping with your family without fear, leaving your wife at home knowing that nothing will happen to her, being able to rest on the couch without thinking of the fuel, gas, water or electricity, even the smallest things (please don’t laugh at that) like a correct microwave clock because the electricity never cuts off; yes it’s something to me, as I told you, you will never be able to appreciate what you have and if I want to go on I will never stop…and among that peace comes a stupid bastard who wants to destroy this dream, who wants to kill innocent people who have done nothing for him but giving him his dream!
And now someone will write a comment that I became an agent or something and sold my country! Here comes someone who will say that millions of Iraqis have been killed by Americans…would that explosion kill the ones who did that? And he would say didn’t they vote for Bush twice…yes, they did. And if you live the dream and live in this isolation from the news of Iraq or the region in general, you would understand why did they voted twice and why they are with their government, they fear for their future…after 9/11 and watching this disaster the government tells them that they are targeted and such things will continue to occur unless they go and fight it in the homeland of terrorism of course they would support the government…how could an average American know that Iraq had no terrorists before the war if his government is telling him there is? Bad soldiers are there, just like bad people because the soldiers are people they are not perfectly built machines, the call for the war was a huge mistake, no doubt … What I’m trying to say is that most of the Americans people are not the ones who are to be blamed and hated…and believe me when I say those bastard; the fanatic Islamists are hated more by the average Muslims than the rest of the world.
Now, I think I should start discussing the incident, rationally, that man is the last to expect to do such a thing, he is a very well educated man that comes from a very good family who spent many years in the states building his future, who have a very good job, a very good life, literally he is living a dream… he is married to women who isn’t covered and that means he is not fanatic..etc, why would he do such a thing? What did Taliban have on him, how could they convince him to do such a thing, as I see him he is just like any other American but why Taliban targeted him?
From my point of view, they could target many Americans, there are many criminals who wouldn’t care to kill thousands for money and sometimes just for pleasure, there are criminals from every nationality, every religion and don’t forget that the first crime in history was a brother killing his brother so why did they chose this Pakistanian Muslim, I think and I’m almost sure: to make it look like it’s for the cause! If they used a Christian American it would be something totally different and it will never give the correct impression, but when they used Shahzad it gave the image they wanted to give…he is fighting for the cause…I wish the reality of why did he accepted to do that or wanted to do it will be revealed soon, I wish this will be the last incident...When will terror ends? may you burn in life before death you stupid terrorists all over the world, you ruined so many countries already when will you have enough, god damn you.
I know this might not be the time but I finally bought a car, it’s a very clean car but with lots of mileage, I think it was for an army female officer, I bought it from an auction…it’s a Nissan Altima 2001 with 183k miles on it but as I said it’s so clean like it has only 50k on it…for me, it was a catch….I bought it for 2200$ and a very big thank you for the donations, they made a total of 370$ I used it to pay the tax and do a tune-up, thank you again for the help.
It has been about 18 days since I arrived to Houston but it felt like months; somehow now I feel I belong here, I was really terrified of the cultural shock , the reaction of people , the change of time zone, home sickness and the terrible conditions I might face. But thank god none of those happened till now.
I found that America or at least Houston has a really low percentage of Americans! Or people who speak English as it should be spoken…I can say that I speak English (with an American accent) better than 70% of people I have talked to! Where are the Americans? Is it a state of immigrants? It’s really hard to communicate with people who don’t know the language that they should speak…I found less trouble talking English in Turkey than in Houston!
I thought by living in Texas I would be living with cowboys, men wearing jeans and hats, rodeos everywhere and “eeeehaaa, folks”, but I didn’t see any cowboy or a horse or even a anyone wearing a hat…how disguising is the media!
And I was really surprised that people couldn’t direct me to a place I want to go even if it was 2 blocks away from them, people don’t know buses or their numbers or what bus should I take to get from point A to point B…A big thank you and a real gratitude for google maps whom without I wouldn’t be able to reach anywhere…few days ago I wanted to go to a very famous supermarket and I had to take two buses to reach there (The supermarket is for specialty foods and Mediterranean stuff) I wanted to buy a Hookah, Houmos, Zaatar, date molasses and some other stuff that we need…I told the bus driver to let me know when we reach point C (an intersection)…after few miles she told me that I should get down here…according to google maps I should walk for about 10 min. so we walked and walked and walked for about an hour and still we didn’t reach, we asked so many people but no one knew anything! At last I saw a big Chinese supermarket and I asked the owner and to my surprise he knew how could I get to my destination which was about 5 miles from where I am…the bus driver didn’t know the intersection! But finally we reached the supermarket (Phoenicia) and we got what we wanted.
I don’t know if I’m wrong or I’m having quick impressions but living in the states is not that different from any other place, I really didn’t suffer till now, of course every country had some fingerprint but it’s almost as living in Amman… but the difference is that you can do everything from your chair using the internet and mail, life is really easy if you have the money.
I found out that you MUST NOT believe the price written on the tag or in the ads…because there are always hidden fees.
Overall, I’m happy and relaxed till now except for one thing that is really bothering me which is work…because every dime I spend now is not being replaced by a penny…I really need to get a job…I love working, I discovered that I’m a man who can’t live without work, work is like air to me…the last days in Baghdad when I knew I’ll leave Iraq soon, I was waiting impatiently to have this rest but now I discovered that I was mistaken…I want to work anything, anything is interesting for me now…because the only job I had is a dentist so it wouldn’t hurt if I tried some other jobs.
And the thing that really made it easier for me is that we got a plan…we will work for about a year as dental assistants, I will work full time and maybe overtime and Sarah will work short time because if she worked full time too we wouldn’t be able to see Linda for more than 3 hours!! And in that case we wouldn’t be the ones who raises her, it would be the day care…after that year one of us would quit working and enter Kaplan preparation classes for the MBDE1 which is the second step in Qualification our degrees, and the one who will take the classes will tauter the other when we are in home and Linda is sleeping, then we will take part two and at that time we should have gotten our green card and we can take a loan and also one of us will enter the dental college for two years (which is a must for qualifying) and then the other one will enter the school…we took the first step, which is evaluation of our degree…we went to Houston Community college and we gave them our certified degrees and they told us it will take from one month to two months to finish processing, then we can enter the dental assistant courses.
I’d like to thank LJM for the nice welcoming gift that she sent to me…it was a DVD player with some DVDs, it was a real nice and helpful move from her. Thanx LJM
Today, early in the morning I went to search for the place where I can issue Wic for Linda, and I discovered the public library, I couldn’t believe my eyes…I only have to have a Texas ID to use the library (which needs social security number too)…there were books about anything, great interior design, so many computers with high speed internet and all for free! That’s sweet…I asked if I can get medical books (planning for qualification) and they said that even if we don’t have it we can get it for you, and I asked if I can take them home with me and they said yes!!! That’s really sweet.
Today, I went to the Galleria Mall in downtown…and there I saw people who I used to see in movies and series, it was a really nice day but most of the shops were really expensive, most of them are designers’ shops not like the Memorial mall that we visited few days ago… there were some shops with reasonable prices …people were elegant and clean, not like the people I meet in buses, damn it, can’t they wash!
Another thing that really shocked me which is the taxes! There is a tax on everything, I’m surprised that there is no tax on breathing, in Iraq there is nothing called Tax so this subject is really new to me, now I understood the phrase that I always read and hear in the media “tax payers” it really makes sense and so understandable.
I’m still waiting to find the best car I can get with my little budget, still waiting for the social security number and still waiting for the work permit.
During that time, I’m in the process of Texasination :D
