Thanks for being patient ..

after my first semester exams, I took a week off, and went to Baghdad with my family …

Oh what a great vacation, with my grandparents, relatives and neighbors ..

We arrived on Friday, and spent a great week ,visited our neighbors and relatives, went shopping 5 times, visited my favorite place " Al Roubai'e street" , went to the restaurants in Baghdad, celebrated valentine (grandpa took us to a nice restaurant) ,oh Baghdad looked wonderful that day, it was full of white and red , people dressing red, carrying roses and balloons, restaurants were filled with lovers and the decoration was special that day, I ordered  a steak and it came with a heart shape candle, such a lovely idea.. for one day I forgot all about situation and routine .. people celebrate that day with their loved ones and families, and I heard a guy talking in one channel he said " this year, people exaggerated in celebrating valentine they're walking carrying red bears, roses , balloons and cars are filled with roses , load music everywhere, and that's all happening to embitter those who threatened us not to celebrate valentine, it is an overreaction" .. well, I love any occasion that express love and care between people ..

And also, in Baghdad I had an amazing haircut in a new salon, the owner trained in Lebanon and she's very talented, although we made a reservation and had an appointment, we waited for four hours!! It was a chance to meet new people and look into new magazines, I had fun ..

we celebrated my  delayed birthday, and my sister's birthday , the best part is we went to two parites "YAAAAAY".

My neighbor who's a high school teacher got married , so we went to her laylat al hinna party and to her wedding ..

I've written about our weddings tradition few years ago..

Laylat al hinna,is the day before wedding (or two days before wedding), where the bride celebrate with her family ,relatives and friends , and it's from our traditions to put hinna in little figure for the bride and groom (the bride can wash it immediately if she doesn't like the orange color), and then the bride put hinna for everyone who wants ..

So, we had lovely time, and they hired a band of two women (one of them sings and the other play music) ..

The wedding was nice and I had fun in both parites..

When we came home from the wedding, grandma prepared delicious ice cream , and that was the end of Baghdad visit events ..

Two weeks ago, my family and I spent two days in Dhook, we stayed in a nice motel , the view was gorgeous, my brother (8 years old)kept asking are we still in Iraq?? He didn't believe so! Everything looks different, the streets, the traffics , the malls, we felt different, safe, and remembered  what is it like to walk in the street with sense of dignity, no police yelling or concrete walls everywhere, I hope every city of Iraq become like the northern cities ..

We went shopping (my favorite hobby !!), had nice lunch in a restaurant called malta, it was an elegant place, also visited Dhooks dam, and went to dream city (children's city), it was so much fun, and in the next day we went  to anishky cave, then had lunch in nice restaurant, and went to a mall.. 

 

 

then came back to Mosul  , to the same busy life and daily routine and exams  , as the 2'nd semester is close to end, I feel more stressed and exhausted...

I

Thanks for being patient ..

Sunshine