Hello Korea Event - 한국 안녕

 한국 안녕 ~!


Sunday 13th of May 2012, UAE University Korean club "Arrirang" celebrated a day for korean culture named " Hello Korea"

As being a student of the basic korean class our task was to attend and do the following assignments :
1- Test your language and talk to Korean people
2- Try Korean food and write a paragraph about it
3- Take pictures !

Cultural customs and accessories:

 loved the light red shoes !

cute dolls

Korean calligraphy section by my Korean teacher



hehehe~!

YES I tried wearing the Hanbok!! - traditional Korean dress -
 so elegant although it wasn't on my size ( so short n tight lol ) 
the prices for one Hanbok differs according to the material used and the number of layers folded in the skirt, it can be a light Hanbok like the one we tried or more formal and expensive one to be worn in weddings and important events

As for the price it is approximately between 500-1000 DHS for the light Hanbok  :)

 = = = = = =

The food was the most exciting experience! we finally got to try what we saw in Dramas n learned about in books and I'm glad to know that I found most of the food edible and filling which is a good sign for losing weight and surviving for going to Korea :p

The beautifully arranged Korean dishes

the sushi-like rolls in the back is "Kimbap", it was kinda tasteless but the weed is much better than the japanese sushi !!! the stuffing was okay as well ( cucumber, egg, carrot, radish ..etc)

in worst case scenario, I can live on the delicious egg rolls in Korea :P
I want to learn how to make neat rolls like theirs !

The red pickled vegetables is the most famous side dish of Korea, " Kimchi " ! it has a strong garlic smell with vinegar. The kimchi we tried is much lighter than the real one but my advice, don't eat it as a main dish ! its better to have it with rice or meat x__x

can't wait to try the real thing in Korea ! 

Japchae is like Chinese noodles in sesame oil, didn't like its oily taste but it was fine

Yubuchobap is bread stuffed with rice, sweet almost like desert.

  

Dukbokki is rice cake cooked red hot pepper sauce, it is supposed to be so hot but the cook reduced the spices for students to handle it. I love spicy food so it wasn't spicy for me at all xD

The day was 대박 (awesome) !!
Although I couldn't express my true feelings about it in Korean I'm sure our teacher felt the joy in our faces :)

I still find it unbelievable that I'll be traveling to Korea alone in less than two months and for 10 days, I'll have to study harder to make this opportunity unforgettable :)

but as for now Amna needs to sleep people

안녕히 주무십시요 Have a Good Night

 :3

Till love do us right ♥

You said :

"i swear i never loved anyone as much as i loved u, and my love wont change no matter wat happens age or else "

At many times when we think we made the right choice of choosing that person out of billions

we got took by surprise cuz 

Life brings us bitterness wrapped with joy when we least expect it

I got loved, loved back & fell harder

they say be strong and cut the rotten arm but its never easy when you are the one in this depressing love ride

its your love, your comfort, your "seemed to be perfect" mate & ur security that your sacrificing with few deadly words that may come from your mouth,

you are never sure ..

and you become so stubborn to admit its now the time to call it "past experience" and move on

..

for the sake of your right to live the benefits of tomorrow..

have faith, let go & enjoy living 

till love do you right

Yours,

Amna ♥

Trip to Mecca - KSA

I wanted to write about one of the most amazing trips I had in my life last month but I couldn't find the time nor mood to write recently..

So from 27th to 31st of March 2012 was the planned trip by my uncle to do Umrah (Wikipedia: a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, performed by Muslims that can be undertaken at any time of the year.)

since it was my first Umrah and they didn't expect me to ask to join my fathers family in this trip; they were so proud of me and sort of made it into a celebration and blessing giving event ! :P

The only problem tho is that I told my uncle about my will to go late ! and they couldn't find me a seat until my other uncle checked with his friend in the travel agency and THANK GOD he said one seat is available reserve it online NOW ! so I did reserve my first ticket online xD n ppl I'm telling you its so easy u just need a VISA card :P

I'm not gonna lie if I said I wasn't worried about traveling with my aunts for the first time and on above of that I was gonna visit the holy city Mecca .. I was worried about what to wear and what to do, how to act and what religious steps to take .. everything was new and you have to figure it out by your own so you make sure you fulfilled your religious duties correctly

so on Tuesday 27th I started packing and I bought all loose & light  long dresses (what we here call "jalabiat") xD cuz March is really hot and while walking around Al Kaaba or running to catch the prayers will be irritating with heavy or tight clothes under abaya

my mom still don't like my habit of packing within last minutes

Al Etihad is my fav airways ( not like I tried other airways lol ) we got on board with huge groups of Indonesian ppl D: !!  but it was weird that all emirati ppl were sitting together with us lol 

too bad I was left to stay alone next to a couple in the middle and emirati ppl all around ! I couldn't sleep without feeling like I'm being watched or watch anything properly ... wt a flight !

thats my uncle having the most comfortable two empty seats lol

Jeddah we reached there around dawn and as they say in commercials "Jeddah 3'eer" ( Jeddah is different ) it seems like a nice city but couldn't see much of it and we headed straight to Mecca and took a small nap on the way ..

Hotel --> Mövenpick hotel One of the best 4stars luxurious hotels around the world, but in Mecca its the worst ! Our reservation was cancelled and we had to stay in the lobby for few more hours until we decided to start doing Umra instead of waiting and so we did =__=

 and then the moment came where I saw Al Kaaba with confused emotions while searching for what I really wish to ask from god ( first look at the Kaaba is believed to bring any muslim's wish to be true )

a spiritual experience that will never be forgotten.. to be this close from something so holy left me with teary eyes ..

Al haram is where the Kaaba is, Saudi Arabia rulers did a wonderful appreciated effort in keeping it clean and accessible by the huge number of people from different nationalities :)

I've seen a lot of girlfriends I know back home and I talked with many as well, such a warm gatherings :)

I'll leave you with the photos :

Al haram from outside: beautiful white tiles that shines during daytime

The mall was exactly facing the haram and we tried chai karak and our UAE indian karak is the best QUALITY & PRICE !! xD

One of the towers facing the haram

 These are 500 Riyal papers, weird is they don't have coins for 1 riyal only papers that my wallet got so heavy ! 

Night view from first floor, getting crowded cuz of the cool weather ..

Lunch at Naif, lol heavy yummy one !

 cutest lil Tabasco I've ever seeeeeeeeen wanted to steal it from my room neighboors xD

 shopping for praying mats

 Part of the mall

Almost fell asleep while waiting for al fajr prayers milk chai what kept me awake xD

The new section of Al Haram very beautiful details

Thousand copies of Quran around each and every corner :)

Starbucks Saudi style :P

Zamzam the blessed water ( never get enough of it )

Jeddah Airport around 5 am ( our flight was delayed for half more hour.. Jeddah 3'eeeeeer :P)

Back to Jeddah airport on Saturday

the trip back was so damn tiring with me sitting between my uncle & aunt ( who were following with my indian movie in my screen) leaning on me from both sides and bearing with the heat coming from sitting at the back part of the plane n facing air bumps =___= I was screwed !

Despite the physical tiredness, I came back from Umrah as new person with more peace of mind

our world is developing so fast that we forgot to live for the sake of simply living

I miss waking up and walking all the way to do something for the sake of my god and myself not other vanishing life businesses. 

I will definitely visit that place again one day ~ ♥
Amna. 

Mother's Day, Seafood experiance & Rotana Zest Buffet

Yesterday night I cancelled all my "beginning of the vacation" schedule and felt like its time to give my mommy something special !

Thanks to one of my closest friends who recommended Rotana hotel's Buffet "Zest". I went there earlier that day to reserve a table and planned the surprise so well. Of course convincing my mom to go out on Thursday night without knowing why and where to was the hardest but I managed to surprise her enough to leave her smiling the whole evening :)

so

Happy Mothers Day :) xoxo

Now to the food review :

The buffet was well arranged and had variety of options including seafood (something I never dared to try or like!) so I said why not try few dishes as a start especially when you pay a lot on fancy places like Zest!? Also, a person who wants to visit east Asia soon should at least try to love that sort of food in order to get along well there.

so my first pick was the Japanese sushi !!! to be honest I've always wanted to try sushi not for the filling but for the seaweed wrap ! so I picked the one that had only veg fillings like those :

and unfortunately my first sushi had a tiny unseen piece of strong tasted fish that made me sick and seaweed wasn't good after all !! :/ will I try it again ? maybe but not soon !

My second challenging dish was the smoked salmon, I've never had salmon before ! its funny I know! but I've always hate all sorts of fish except canned tuna (by americana lol ) and I remember seeing my uncle enjoy each and every bite of it and describing it as the most delicious dish ever!

and guess what ?

It was delicious !!! the common untrusted phrase of " it tastes like chicken" actually appeared in my mind n I said: " well mom you know what ? it doesn't taste like chicken but it does taste like TURKEY with the smell of smoke !!" lol

my experience in line : Seafood isn't that bad after all but it depends on the cooking style and the ingredients mixed however, I can't live on only seafood during my stay in Korea its almost like being vegetarian !! D:

after dinner we moved to the desert table ~! I love the decor and their date cake !

Arabian style with the coffee pot ( Dalah ) and the other different types of sweets :3

And by that our sweet evening ended and I received a sweeter gift .. a good prayers from mom :)

Be kind to your mother and treat her as a queen whenever you can. Life is nothing without this incredible lady !

Nighty <3 nbsp="nbsp" p="p">

Genie the wild child - more towards linguistics

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While studying Bioinformatics, I took few minutes to search about children with abnormal linguistics cases that my friend in the collage of humanities sciences  told me about earlier. Although it wasn’t what I was looking for I came to find a very interesting story of a wild child called “Genie”. 

She was isolated for nearly 13 years because her father thought she was retarded and she was abused for talking or being talked to until one day a social worker found her and the father shot himself shortly after.

A human being without a mother language was what made Genie’s case so different and will there be any hope for her to be normal again is what kept the scientists motivated at that time ..!

This is truly a sad yet inspiring story that makes someone think about the blessings he/she owns and bring us to be aware of how fragile a human being can be if messed up at an early stage in his life ..

Our minds can be so complicated and full of surprises so always excuse others behavior and never judge a person capabilities without knowing the life he lived or the problems he faced ..

I strongly recommend watching the videos on youtube especially for those who are interested in linguistics !!

PART 1:

Nowadays Genie is 54 and staying at adult care home somewhere in LA.

Book Review : The Secret - Rhyonda Byrne

Just finished reading the Secret book by Rhonda Byrne !

This book explains the hidden secret followed by great people from old days till nowadays which is called the law of attraction. It is stated that negative thoughts bring negative things to your life and so you have to train yourself to think about positive things and focus your efforts on stating what you really want from the universe not what you don't want !

The book may seem too plain for some people as all things written are already known and based on common sense but what I think is that this book will do its magic only when you are in need for spiritual support! its good to keep it within reach but keep in mind it is a training book not a knowledge source.

The book consists of many sections related to different issues, for example : the secret to Money, Relationships, Health, the World, You and Life. I loved the health more as it was more related to weight loss strategies and it was so encouraging during this depressing process that I could see the changes in my mental reaction toward weight :)

I really enjoyed it and it provided me with really useful techniques for focusing on what I want in life and I recommend it for anyone who has problems with defining his/her goals, confidence or facing depression.

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Nao visit - review

Good Evening !

I've been holding myself back from blogging since I had loads of work to focus on finishing before the course ends.. yet I picked today ( Smart Computer Graphics Final night ) to post a new one :D !!

so Nao visited our collage weeks ago to let students get the chance to meet this expensive lil robot and understand how he functions. I tried to play with him and I would like to post a little review about my experience and opinion ..

apparently the cuteness side was well taken care off ! LOL

the cute robot is about half meter long and as written on the web weighs 4.3 kg .

he is a little bit heavy compared to his tiny body and that was demonstrated when I handed him to a visiting teacher and he almost dropped him surprisingly because of his unexpected weight !

I think it is rational to have such a heavy weight when you think of all the possible motors and metalic parts inside; However, Nao can't stand to support his weight for long periods of time and always takes a similar pose to the one shown in the picture to relax his motors !

The funny thing tho is that once his heat started to raisen he clearly says it " MOTOR IS HOT.. MOTOR IS HOT" and when we didn't pay attention to that he simply fainted to the ground haha !!

As for the software used, a drag and drop based software comes with the purchase of Nao called Choregraphe

all you have to do is plan the moves you want him to do and connect the network of movements logically ! a demo is also provided on the side of the program

I think he is a good example to introduce young students to robotics. His applications are compatible with windows and are user friendly and the connectivity options provided are wireless or Ethernet which both are supported and used widely. Nao along many other simple robots allow users to be creative in my point of view, because you always get excited to watch his adorable reactions and he pushes you to do more in order to get a unique performance against other Nao users !

As for more advanced IT specialists I don't think he's that interesting because I honestly got bored soon after playing along with his limited functionality ! :/ but it all depends on setting a good purpose instead of using him aimlessly.

Here's more of what he can do :

Nao:" I want to come with you" -- holds your hand and follows your pull direction :D isn't he cute ? 

standing pose before the ball play where he recognizes the color of the ball and walks after it

and many other options like changing the eyes and ears color, waving, dancing, saying given words by the programmer, yawning ..etc

we really had fun exploring this lil guy and we hope the collage considers buying one for the future :) hope ASIMO visits next lol

Now offfff to study ~! wish me luck .