Excellent Eid (part 2)

It has been a really crazy week, I had many many exams, I did ok in most of them ..
Today I woke up feeling scared, I had a nightmare that a camp was attacked and I was in the middle, I didn’t care about the nightmare and I got ready to go to school in such cold weather with no electricity just like everyday, I was waiting for the driver in the hall when HEAVY shooting started, the driver came with 3 girls, grandma didn’t allow me to go out , when shooting almost calmed down, I ran to the car, and the driver drove fast , we drove among so many tanks, the national guards didn’t allow any car to pass the bridge except ours because they saw we were students and we wouldn’t attack them , so we drove among the Iraqi tanks, and national guards slowly, as soon as I reached school (at exactly 7:37 pm) a loud explosion happened followed by another few minutes later!! What a great way to start school .. the situation is not good, and many car bombs entered Mosul today, they didn’t explode yet and I hope they won’t, so please don’t forget to pray for us, 2 weeks ago a car exploded at 10 pm, many Iraqis died, poor people they were in their houses, asleep, or having showers, maybe studying, or having dinner, and for no reason an idiot put a car there, killed and injured tens of citizens..
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Ok , now I’ll continue talking about my diary in Eid .
In the fourth day, we had another family meeting in my mom aunts’ house, and what a great time we had, at about 12:30 pm an old neighbor brought salad (with Amba it is a sour spicy sauce ) , she lives alone and spend her time cooking and making sweets and dishes for the neighbors and herself, she also went to nearby shop and bought candies for the kids in the neighborhood, everyone loves her, that’s how we (the Iraqis) care about each other, the neighbors for us are more than a Family ..
The lunch was awesome, but I had to wash SOOOO many dishes ..
After that we drank delicious Iraqi tea, made by aunt .. We talked a lot, laughed, and joked, at 5 pm , we came home, I changed my clothes quickly and at 6 pm we received guests, our Christian friends.
I spent the most pleasant afternoon, there were grandfathers, children , and grandchildren also! Tiea was the youngest member, she’s only 3 months old, very cute baby, with red cheeks and lovely ears looks like Jerry’s hahah, as soon as I carried her she slept on my shoulder, I love kids in her age ..
I like to talk to old men more than women nor teenagers, so I got aleng well with my grandpa’s friend !
Uncle S is a wise, educated and very respectful man, who wrote two books, sometimes I feel he knows everything! I like to ask for his advice and he also like to talk to me ..
I spent the time also chatting with Uncle S’s nephews, Dr. Safaa and Tias’ father , as well as my neighbor M who’s 7 years older than me, most of the talking was about internet, and my blog (they are fans of me :D), and we also talked about the situation a little bit ..
I took a look at everyone in the room, the eldest women were busy talking about Eid, food, & their kids abroad , the men were making serious conversation talking about economy and policy (very interesting), my mom participated in all the conversations ! the kids were playing and I wished that this minute can last forever, someone is talking , the other is laughing, another one explaining his point of view, very lovely view.. At 8:30 they left the house , and again I had to wash many dishes ( oh yea, not my favorite part, but I was thinking about the whole day) ..
On Sunday, we visited some friends house, I had a good time I didn’t see them for more than 2 years, their sons work abroad and they came to spend the holiday with them .. at 6:30 pm we came home, and at 7:00 pm my mom’s cousin came with her family, and my mom’s uncle also came with his wife, so grandma prepared dinner (and again I washed the dishes)..
At 9:30 they left the house , after we organized the guest room and living room, we watched a hilarious movie and I spent the whole night laughing, and each time Mariam would say “I want to get some sleep” , Shush” “ you are crazy, you know what?”
On Monday , we had a family meeting in my mom cousins’ house, I went with my relatives because our car doesn’t fit for all of us, in our way we passed through “Badir’s organization” I kept looking closely with astonishment, there were many flags, Black, green, red oranges, & yellow with strange sentences I said “uncle, I feel like I am in Iran , not in Baghdad” that hurts me a lot..
Anyway, we reached after an hour and half , it was the first time I see my relative’s house, it was really grandiose, so many antiques, chandeliers and fountain in the garden, but I don’t like such kind of houses, we had really yummy lunch, after we drank hot Iraqi tea we returned home .. We wanted to congratulate our Shiites neighbors, but they were in Najaf.
It doesn’t matter if they do things we consider wrong or if we disagree with them, what’s important is, those neighbors were with us in the greatest times and the hardest once, and we also shared them their celebrations and never left them in their hard times alone .
On Tuesday , my grandma and I made desserts, and cakes for our Christian friends, and we also prepared lunch for our neighbors, because their son came with his family to spend Christmas with them..
In the afternoon we visited our friends, and shared them their celebration in Christmas, they know how much I love Christmas tree so they invited me to sit on a sofa near the tree, of course I spent the time playing with Baby Tiea, and talking with Grandpa’s friend and everyone else .. it was a lovely afternoon, at about 8:30 pm we returned home..
On Wednesday, we visited our relatives to say good bye, as we’d leave in the next day, and we also visited our Christian neighbors, at 9:15 pm we returned home ..
On Thursday we arrived mosul, we left Baghdad at7:00 am and arrived Mosul at 2:00 pm .. we spent 7 hours in the road, that means 3 hours of delay, not bad comparing with our way to Baghdad!
I still have a lot to talk about so keep waiting ..
Sunshine