A Graduate of UAEU !

ahhh~ May was such a busy month..

I barely had time to focus on writing and instead worked on more important matters like our game launching and preparing for our graduation party

However, I started finding that quality is more awarding than quantity and its what my blog stats shows ( thanks to everyone who took the time to read my posts I'm really touched)

and working on that belief I'm now writing a long post about Graduation 

I must say it was a long journey in college that lasted 5 years for me and even more for others 

last year I attended my friends graduation and now I'm exactly at their place!

we were blessed with amazing 43 graduates, unlike some graduations we were all one team and on the same page. no one complained nor troubled us

Although we were a bit disappointed that we had to plan everything on our own instead of having a decent already planned ceremony but we made it and it was worth shedding the sweat!

it was almost like planning a wedding from reserving the hall, tailoring the gowns, filming the videos, designing the invitations, ordering the buffet, contacting sponsors, printing certificates ... etc.

xD

Funny situations on Graduation Day:

 Amna leaves almost everything to the last minute, I got my gown first day of the week on Sunday and I was lucky to have the gown fitting perfectly on me so I didn't ask for modifications

but what was troubling me is the graduation dress! I decided there is no need for a new dress when I have a closet full of new dresses that were worn few times only but that stupid idea made me recklessly confident to the extent that I didn't check my dresses until a night before !

there was not a single dress that matched my blue greenish sash without making me look like a fashion disaster! I started freaking out especially that I had no time the following day, meeting early in the morning then a rehearsal at 11am I was screwed but I took the challenge to go head to head with time!

Next day I woke up got my flat shoes on and ran as fast as I could to meet my professor then rushed to meet the rest of graduates in the graduation hall.. I was one of the first group to arrive =__= *phewww*

 as soon as I knew all the details of the walk, the awarding, the speech I got excused and drove back home
My mom wanted to go last minute shopping with me but she couldn't got excused earlier than 2pm so I took our crazy maid along to Bawadi Mall

The poor woman I gave her a good run from one shop to another that it became a must to treat her to lunch afterwards lol

I went to Mango and the saleswoman came around to help, I took my sash out and with worried tone I said: "excuse me, I need help. I want a matching skirt or a dress for my graduation party!" My eyes fell on a very beautiful light blue sheer pleated skirt and it was the one I got later. she said my size was already sold out but then came running back as I browsed the store saying: "Maaaam ! you are lucky we have one piece left in store!"

"its the best choice" I thought after looking around all possible stores. In fitting room I got scolded for buying my dress at last minute, the lady was more worried than I am. haha I will never forget her help and worry over my graduation party :p

Later came the shoes picking, my friend would make me laugh most of the time as our taste rarely matches! noting that she came from Ethiopia she loved live bright colors and designs while I like calm and light ones

when it came to shoes we both were speechless! It was a white shoes against a golden glittery one.. and thats when the handsome salesman came offering his help. At that race I had no time and thus no shame too lol seriously its a relative relationship "less time less shame".
I threw the shy girl image in a valley behind and turned to him holding my blue skirt and said: "WHICH ONE?" *stretching my legs too* LOL
he said: "el abyad "The white one"" in lebanese accent *dies*
and the white one I got thanks to his direct stable opinion ~


I couldn't believe I finished shopping in around an hour I broke the record which gave me another hour to eat a large grilled sandwich like a cow at home (I didn't have a decent breakfast)

later I flew to the salon and unlike that hour everyday this time it was crowded by little girls getting ready for a wedding and staring at my hair and makeup


I got on my nerves when it came 5pm and I was still doing my hair.. I need to be in university around that time to take my photos
I got dressed and went to university and oh how lucky I was..
 the sun was almost gone
GREAT!
but the wind is giving us a refreshing blow dry!
OH CRAB!

I was struggling with new high heels and flying abaya with irritating contact lenses and dirt coming in my eyes!
HELP DESERTIFICATION !!

I was late but everyone else was too, shared guilt. nothing can be better.
and there stood all the beautiful graduates of 2013 having small talks and taking photos of themselves
I was rolling in joy but melting from heat formed by too many people in one place lol

we made it to hall and the night went peaceful onward


Speech moment:

I dreamt about this moment since I joined university and planned for it 6 months ago when I was in Korea I wrote my speech while imagining the moment and for that I worked so hard to bring this dream true

I'm really grateful to my friends who took the time to review my speech and encouraged me to go for it
it was as I wanted it to be

POWERFUL
INSPIRING
BEAUTIFUL 

Its weird cuz when I got on stage I didn't feel like I was there or was the one giving the speech I remember my legs shaking.
I didn't know why the audience were so quiet I had those fears of losing people's attention but it rapidly faded away when I asked for a stand in respect to all the mothers. They all responded fast which meant people were actually listening to what I was saying

those who stood so fast to even rise my head and look, that guy in front row who whipped his tears and my mom placing her hands over her chest in disbelief.. that image will forever be engraved in my memory.
 
it was a glorious moment. My legs were about to fail me from the mighty presence of the standing crowd I remember saying to myself: "Amna Al Dhaheri what did you just do?"


After Graduation Ceremony:

I drove back with my mom talking all the way about how happy and proud she is and me laughing cuz she is more touched than her graduated daughter

we stopped by a grocery store and asked for vanilla ice cream covered with chocolate and nuts on a stick and the shop keeper came back saying "only one is left!" We laughed so hard and mom said "its yours! its fate!" The guy laughed along terrified of what the hell are those two women laughing about hehe

I watched "Friends" till late hour and had a peaceful night throwing all the worries behind and blinding myself from the fact that I'm not officially a graduate yet until I submit those freaky projects and get those tough finals off my shoulders

Peace,
Amna

Our First Mobile Game!

I can't believe we actually made it this far, we managed to publish our first mobile game this week xD

we have been working on this game for almost a year as a senior graduation project !

when our interest shifted from robotics to gaming our dreams had a major shift too and we dreamed day and night of making the awesomest game in the history of the college !

and we came up with "Cooking Time" game !

main screen

now I know it may seem expected from girls to lean toward makeup and cooking games, me myself didn't think I would develop something like that when I'm 22 years old lol but when its fun and from the range of your interest pushing yourself forward gets easier 

we developed it to be the first Arabic game in Emirati accent so young users would love to explore something so close to what they know or see 

4 main Emirati dishes

Although we barely had the basic knowledge about gaming and almost zero skill with the massive resources on the Internet all excuses fade away 

and so we were so excited to check how well we did on the gaming field standards. Last week we participated in Mobile Application Contest (MAC) in Khalifa university-Abu Dhabi, and got 3rd prize with 10,000 AED and priceless positive feedback from users who loved the game ! ahhh so proud.

the marketing and documentation of our performance is what is left from the project and all our work will be paid afterwards !

I'm not gonna write much about the game so here is the game website where you can download the game and get more info:

http://cookingtimegame.weebly.com

it will soon be available in different app stores (as soon as we receive the approval)
and we have plans of offering different languages including English soon 

please support us, leave us your comments and enjoy our game! :)
Amna

Book Review: Married to A Bedouin by Marguerite van Geldermalsen

Over there on the shelf lays a book that caught my attention couple of times while passing by the supermarket

OMG ! a foreigner marring a Bedouin even I as an Arab wouldn't dare to do it !

she must be looking for adventure or seriously not aware of what she brought herself into !

these were my initial thoughts and my motivation to read this book

my mom rolled her eyes asking me to stop reading about women who had unusual marriages in their lives but that was exactly the beauty of it and the reason to make me excited about my own marriage!

was it bad?

was it good?

was it worth it ?!

"Married to A Bedouin"

 by Marguerite van Geldermalsen

Marguerite is a New Zealander tourist who was traveling down the Middle East with her girlfriend when they came to stop by Jordan down in Petra around the late 1970s !

Another proof that love can happen regardless of your background and language

She met Mohammed (her husband) who was good in English and ambitious bedouin she had the urge to extend her stay in Petra and fate played its magic on getting them two together despite the huge difference between their worlds

Through the book only two thought were on my mind

when she's gonna quit?; stating that she didn't speak Arabic

and how she maintained her health eating bread and sweet tea and little milk diary only?

but she lived through it all, learned the language, became a Bedouin, raise her 3 kids and lived the true adventure to retell it in her book

How a Bedouins society function is simply like this; people act based on their nature and without any formalities! seems too simple but its way simple for a complex person coming from a modern society

that what you will be living with Marguerite description about the people who lived there and I guess the childhood spirit and the curiosity helped her a lot  

The author included phrases written in Jordanian Bedouin accent which I had to read the line twice to get, but was a pleasant addition to her stories beside the personal pictures from Petra in the middle of the book !

All in all, I can't ruin this simple book anymore; she put it all beautifully and ended it beautifully too !

Peace,

Amna

Yo! Sushi in Festival City Center - Dubai

A two days weekend plan out of nowhere to go to Dubai !!

would never be faced by a No despite the tough midterms coming in the way
I took my books, laptop and packed my bags and drove all the way to Dubai to get out of the sick routine and try a new thing or two

While first day went nice between shopping, indian food and italians I wanted to try something extraordinary something as unusual as the Japanese food and so I asked my little sister who's more open to new options when encouraged

"How about SUSHI ?!"

sis: "ummm I'm not sure, I like shrimp and fish but when its raw .. I'm afraid we won't like it.."

me: "ya me too I mean I tried raw fish before but hey japanese restaurants has cooked options too and I mean come on have a look at the food rail !! and ... I miss eating with chopsticks lol !"

and so we went for it.

YOOOOO SUSHI !



the atmosphere was really great I loved the purple lightings and the japanese dolls

the eating policy was as simple as pick a dish moving on the rail and based on the colour you pay the allocated price
the prices ranged from 13AED for vegetables sushi rolls to 23AED for a combination of raw fish sushi

we were like "ok so we will pick the most good looking dishes and consider the pricing !"

Making the discussion for the first try took us more time than estimated for a regular lunch and there was no much time left to catch up the movie lol !

on each table you would see the most famous spice of japan ! WASABI !
I learned how to mix the wasabi with soy sauce in small plates back in Korea so I had something to amaze my sis with ;p



if you go to yo sushi make sure you take a slow eater who enjoys each and every bite !
the plates are really small and has around 3-4 pieces filled with different flavours which I wouldn't dare to take my other sister to altho she likes Japanese culture a lot!

Crab Onigiri my fav !

and there is this thing about asian food in general; is that few bites are enough to make you as full as someone who just ate a whole chicken !
I still hasn't figures out why yet but maybe its the secret for eating less and looking slim in asia hahaha~

if you've been to any asian restaurants nearby feel free to share the experience
I look forward to go for Korean and A REAL Chinese one in Dubai next time !

Peace,
Amna 

Book Review: Memoirs of an Arabian Princess

On mother's day I passed by the bookstore for a new book

and there it was on the shelf the book I longed to read ever since I heard the story of the first arabian princess to run away to Europe 

Princess Salme bint Saeed a.k.a Emily Ruete of Zanzibar 

her book titled "Memoirs of an Arabian Princess"

مذكرات أميرة عربية ترجمة الدكتورة سالمة صالح

I read the translated version

Zanzibar was a familiar place in my childhood, there were songs and jokes about Zanzibar but I was so ignorant about anything more beyond the name of Zanzibar. I later knew it was ruled by Oman in the past but now is under Tanzania's

In her book she gave us a golden chance of going back in time to know the extremely detailed picture of how life looked like not only as a Zanzibar citizen but as a part of a royal extended family

specifically speaking around the time of 1880's 

Salme stated that she never wanted to publish her memoirs before but instead wanted them to be a cultural reference to her kids who never knew anything about the Arabic environment she came from, and because her physical and psychological condition were in bad shape that she never thought she would live to tell her story.
This book is an interesting addition to my entertainment list, at some part of the book I could relate to the lifestyle and understood the luxuries they experience as a ruling family and at another I was reading new stuff. Every time I read a part I would rush to my mom and told her about Salme and ask her opinion or if she remembers similar stuff were done the same way by our ancestors. 

Through the book you can sense how bright salme was. She knew how to speak Arabic and Swahili then bravely learned how to write when all women were not allowed to learn more than how to read! Not to mention that the book was published in german language at first which means that Salme mastered it later in her life.

The most beautiful thing is that this lady never talked bad about both worlds she lived in; however, she did serve a great comparison of the beauty in both sides. She became a german citizen and changed her religion to christianity but never talked little about islam teachings nor arab traditions. She was literally a sophisticated woman. On the other hand, she described the wonderful friendship she made in Germany, the difference in lifestyles, weather and education that amazed her in Europe at that time. I enjoyed swinging back and forth with my imagination trying to see Germany and Oman back in time.

My mom was so happy my talk about Salme finally came to an end haha but I was so sad she didn't write much more details about her personal life in Germany, I bet it was so exciting and scary at the same time to be on your own in a foreign country and far away from your family after losing a husband.. 

A bow to every mother who shined in the dark sky and fought back the hardships for her children

R.I.P Princess Salme, you were a true legend

Peace,
Amna

Cooking: Smoked Salmon Creme Pasta

As a big fan of pasta I've been trying different types of pasta everywhere I go, few months back I discovered my love for smoked salmon and it was never perfect until I tried it with my favourite white sauce pasta !

Recently I've been watching an old drama (not so old from 2010 :P) with my little sister called "Pasta" I've already had a history with food cravings whenever I watch a korean drama and this one was the worst as my weakness is Pasta itself

to fulfil my craving I had it planned to have smoked salmon pasta for dinner and head to carrefour to pick up the ingredients !

so here is my simple recipe made for four servings:

Ingredients:

- 50g butter
- 1/2 onion chopped
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 230ml or 1 cup of skim milk
- 2 tablespoons of Philadelphia cream cheese
- 1/2 cup of frozen green peas
- 1/4 cup of mushrooms
- 150g of smoked salmon diced

- 250g Linguine 

- a pinch of Parsley

- 1/4 red or yellow bell pepper

- Salt & Black Pepper to taste  

Steps:

1- First we should cook the Linguine in a salted boiling water for 8-12mins, add one spoon of olive oil to avoid pasta sticking to itself.

2- In a skillet melt the butter then toss the onions and stir till tender

3- Add flour & garlic powder to the skillet and mix. Gradually add the milk and stir. Leave the mixture to boil then its time to add the cream cheese and mix until the sauce gets thick and smooth.

4- Now its time to add the veges ! add the peas, mushrooms, parsley & bell pepper and cook for few more minutes on a low heat. you can add salt & black pepper as much as you like here !

5- Add the smoked salmon and cook for 2mins or until the salmon turns light pink.

6- Divide your pasta in plates then serve the sauce on top and have it warm :)

*hearts hearts*

I hope you like it as much as my family did :)

peace,

Amna

Tofu and Skin Care

Yesterday I spent couple of hours surfing the internet fulfilling my curiosity about skin care remedies 

moving from one page to another not being convinced enough to try home treatments I thought to myself who is a role model of silky fair skin? 

If you seek google help all you will get is a bunch of lost answers and others depressing and giving it back to something we don't YET have control over "Genetics" 

I'm not a beauty expert but I can tell when something is not good for the skin and so this is what I noticed :

■ The genetics of korean people plays a huge role in making their skin the way it is however, it doesn't mean they have better skin than other people either. if you don't take care about your skin you will have a bad one whether you are a Korean or not

■ Food differs a lot from what we eat here. Most of the time the skin is a mirror what you digest.

I really adore the Korean diet, sometimes without noticing you eat more than 5 different kind of vegetables in one meal! 

Not just vegetables even relying on seafood that provides the skin with fatty acids plays a big deal.

and of course you know how koreans are soooo into

■ relaxing in Jjimjilbang(찜질방) public bathrooms with multiple rooms from heated to ice cold ones all help the skin remove its toxics ! :D

■ and theres also water consumption, most important tip I usually forget about :/

anyways on one meal a beauty secret was revealed from a male colleague - yup shame on me as a girl lol -

Its asia's most famous vegetarian dish

Tofu 두부!

I did know what tofu is before going to Korea but never cared enough to look for it nor try it at home
Tofu is bean curd; all natural from beans to beans
a very rich source of protein that has many health benefits including reducing ageing and giving elasticity to the skin, low calories and fats ! seems interesting huh ?

I remember going to a Korean village and watching the long process of making Tofu and participating a little which made me appreciate this food more! :D

I was determined to eat tofu again and thus I went out looking for one in my small city of Al Ain
and luckily I found three packets only in carrefour from which two were in bad storing conditions :/

hahaha ignoring the rest, here is the tofu from the imported food section !

for people used to rich spices Tofu might be weird and dull so you don't have to eat raw tofu you can simply add it to different recipes or simply season it with spices like the Koreans

so ya thats basically it for now I will be having spoons of tofu daily for a while and see how it goes :D

Have a good day !
Amna