Ghita Melehi

It is already week 4, and this is the last day of class. what an interesting journey!

The best and genius idea of this class was the blog creation. People tend to express themselves easily when writing and through that i have got to know my fellow classmates more and myself included. i hope I will keep this blog and improve it.    I am graduating in October and already took 3 English classes since I enrolled at Schiller International University and what I have realized is that no matter how many classes you take, you will still learn something new. In my case, I have learned how to use the database and how to present references in an academic style. That is something I wish I knew when I had to write papers for my previous classes.

The only little problem is the fact that the class is too short and many students need more practice especially for the speaking part. If the class was a bit longer, it would have been good if we had more discussions and debates.

Mrs. Carmichael, thank you for giving your best for this class, it was a pleasure to have you as an instructor 🙂

I deeply hate ads. Who doesn’t? Aren’t you pissed evreytime you’re so into your favorite show or watching a movie and all of sudden, your TV gets 10 times louder to the point that it scares you just because of advertisements. That is just annoying! It’s not even one or two; there are so many of them one after the other until the point where you’ve already forgot what you were watching in the first place. How many of you can relate to this fact?

Let’s be honest, not all ads are bad. Sometimes I enjoy some of them just because they’re genius. One of my favorite ads are the Doritos® , it is hilarious and funny and I don’t feel brainwashed.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpjaOUjUPUc%5D

If I have to name the ones that I don’t like well the list is super long:

All ads about:

– Weight loss

– Injury attorneys

– Insurance companies

– Arbey’s with the horrible “It’s Good Mood Food” slogan

… and so on…

I have to admit though that it’s an art.

Dear Teta,

Hope heaven is treating you well and you finally found peace and happiness. I miss you terribly, everyday I wish you were here see me growing up and becoming a woman.

Last June I turned 22  and I can not believe that it has been already seven years since you have been gone. What I miss the most, apart from your delicious Lebanese dishes, are your smile and your kindness. I loved how you hugged me and kissed me telling me I am the most wonderful granddaughter someone could ever have. Well, you are the best grand mother in the whole world and I regret not telling you this when you were still among us.

There are so many things I have always wanted to tell you but I was too young to realize that even people are not eternal, however my love for you is. I know how much you liked traveling; everyday I tell myself that I would’ve brought you with me to the United States because I am sure you would love Florida. We could both go for long walks at the beach, visit museums at enjoy delicious meals by the water. I would set a room for you so you can paint and write as much as you want. I would also watch you cooking and write down all the recipes so I can cook them for my children and grandchildren.

Thanks to you, mama has got better. She was very affected by you leaving us but it helped her to become a better mother to Louloua and I. Thanks to you, I have learned to forgive my parents, especially mama. I tell them everyday how much I love them and try to spend time with them as mush as I can because we never know what tomorrow holds right?

I have met someone, his name is Jack and he’s the most caring and sweetest boyfriend ever. I want you to know that he is taking a good care of me and I wish you could meet him. Actually his grandmother reminds me a lot of you, you would get along with her 🙂 do not worry about the language; I will translate for you!

I know you are shining down on me from heaven, I miss you infinitely!

Tell grandpa I said “Hi”!

I love you

Ghita

Ok, I finally decided to share with you the recipe of my famous made from scratch pasta 🙂 It’s very easy to prepare, just make sure you to put some love while cooking it, that’s the secret of its deliciousness!!

Ingredients:

– A box of spaghetti or linguine

– 3 fresh red rip tomatoes diced

– 1 medium yellow onion diced

– 1 can of tomato paste

– ½ a can of tomato sauce

– 5 clove of garlic crushed

– Salt

– Black freshly grounded pepper

– Oregano

– 2 tbsp of butter

– 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

In a large pan, bring the onions to fry with olive oil for 23 minutes then add the diced tomatoes and garlic. Meanwhile, bring water to boil for the pasta with some salt. Add, salt, pepper and oregano to your taste. Cut butter in small pieces and add it to the mix. I use butter for flavor J

Dilute tomato paste in a little bit of water and add it to the sauce with tomatoes sauce. Stir and let it cook in medium low. Add pasta to the boiling water, drain and put some butter so they don’t stick together. You can serve both pasta and tomato sauce together or separate.

If you like parmesan cheese, you can add it to the sauce it is very tasty.

Hope you will enjoy it 🙂

Graduations are celebrated differently depending on each country. I remember my high school graduation in 2007 wasn’t celebrated by throwing a party furthermore, our school doesn’t even organize ceremonies. Public high schools back in Morocco limit themselves to give you your diploma except some private schools, and still.

The most important thing for me is to get my degree and move on. If I was attending an Ivy League college, I might consider flying my whole family to the U.S because it would be a privilege for me to graduate from such a prestigious school- that would have probably had drain all my mother’s resources. Therefore, the least I could do is to attend the graduation ceremony and enjoy the feeling of throwing that little squared hat.

Since it is not the case, I will probably skip my next graduation. I am asked to write  a post about how I picture this “day” to be but I am honestly in short of ideas. I can’t even explain the feeling why I am careless, I believe there are more valuable things that could happen to me than a graduation. Everyone’s opinion differs!

St. Petersburg Times published an article on today’s edition about the re-screen of the Iraqis refugees thought to be affiliated somehow to terrorist groups in the middle east.

http://saintpetersburgtimes.fl.ussrv06.newsmemory.com/nie.php

After the war in Iraq begun in 2003, many fled to the USA as war refugees. Recently, some of these refugees were found related to terrorist groups such as Al Qaida. Leaders in Iraq and Yemen are exploiting immigrants to infiltrate “explosives” and “missiles” for use against Americans.

The FBI is investigating to the refugees that were admitted but they won’t reveal who was arrested or found guilty of any suspicious behavior.

This is getting ridiculous, I just don’t understand what is the point of being a terrorist in the first place. I believe that trying to attack America for any reason is just feeding the beast. The US went to war with Iraq to supposedly “fight terrorism” and many of us know that this is not a valid excuse neither their main purpose. However, trying to spread terror in the US or anywhere else gives a reason to the FBI and the world to support the “war against” terror and we, Arabs/ Muslims, look like we are getting what we deserve. I am trying to stay neutral as much as I can because it is a very sensitive topic.

I am just sick and tired of it.

“No one is born parent, we become parents” this is what I heard my mother saying while growing up and I couldn’t agree more.

She was thirty-five years old when she had me. I am my mother’s first child but my father’s fifth one. Almost four years later my sister Louloua was born and that was the best gift my mother could ever give me; a wonderful sister like my Loulou 🙂

All I remember from our childhood is LOVE. Hugs and kisses were a part of our everyday life, we were not ashamed to display our feelings. However, when my parents got divorced, things took another turn that made my adolescence and my relationship with my mother very tense and violent sometimes.My mother’;s depression after the divorce had a great impact on me as a teen where I found myself struggling to have a “normal life”. My shelter was music and writing, my little sister was the reason for me to remain strong so I can protect her from anything that would make her feel the way I felt back then. I was very angry at my mother because she had to be the father and the mother at the same time and see her cry everyday was a sign of weakness that made me feel insecure. Later on in my life I learned that it wasn’t easy for a woman like her to raise two daughters in an Arab country ‘polluted’ with judgmental people who disrespected her at first for being a single mom.

Time went by, I forgave her for everything because after all we are all victims of victims and the only way to stop being the victim is to break the cycle.

Today’s topic is to write about what we think is good parenting. Each on of us has their own version of what it is to be a good parent depending on what our childhood was like. Some of us want to follow their own parents’ footsteps, others would be the complete opposite by reaction. When it comes to me, I believe I belong to the ‘complete opposite’ group of people. First of all, I don’t believe in divorce, this is something I am really sick of for the simple reason that I cannot think about one person in my family that didn’t go through divorce except my grand parents. When I was younger, I just didn’t want to have kids because I didn’t even have the tiniest percentage of a maternal instinct.

Time went by and I chose to respect my parents decisions, because I am aware that it wasn’t easy on them either and I know they did their best and I am proud to be raised by two exceptional parents which thanks to them I am who I am today. The secret is LOVE once again. When there is love in a household no matter what you might be going through, it is the only feeling that gives hope and strength.

Today, my vision of becoming a parent one day changed a lot thanks to my wonderful boyfriend. We both come from different continents ( I am Moroccan/ Lebanese, he is American) and different backgrounds and above all, we grew up in two different types of families. We both think that family is very important and we can’t wait to have our own to give the best to our children and love them unconditionally. My dream is to raise my children in a way that they would be respectful to the others, cherish everyday and everything they will have because we are going to make sure that they will get all the love and support of the world 🙂 That’s what I thank my parents for.

Love will always make you a good parent ❤

Yay! Today’s assignment is to express how we feel about America. Perfect! I wasn’t done yet on my first post 🙂

Everyone has mixed feelings about the USA and the medias all over the world play a major role in that. Let’s get it clear, I might not agree with the politics of this country but that doesn’t mean that I don’t admire it and fall in love with it everyday.

While growing up in Morocco, all I knew about America is what I saw on TV and what my parents, who have been here several times, would tell me. I remember when I decided to come to the US, my mother encouraged me to do so thinking that it will be a great experience even though our means were very modest. I can never thank her enough for this beautiful gift. On the other side, my father was not very supportive, I can still recall what he told me when I first expressed the wish to cross the Atlantic: “Ghita, what do you think huh? America of the 21st century is not what you think. Unless you live in San Francisco or New York City, the rest of the country is just farmlands”. Really dad? What’s wrong with farm lands? But I am not going to blame him for that, I can see where he’s coming from, back in the 60’s through the 90’s he probably had the best time of his life in an America that was cheaper, friendlier and less judgemental towards Arabs. After 9/11 everything changed for us unfortunately.

Despite my father’s hopeless speech, I didn’t feel discouraged at all. I made my way and now he couldn’t be prouder of me and I am proud of myself too!!

It’s been a year and a half already and I know now that this is the place I belong to even though the first months were tough. I told myself that I shouldn’t even think about giving up and call my mother to bring me back home. No! I had an amazing chance to step in the USA that many would do anything for. I can’t just leave when I didn’t even visit my ultimate favorite city: New York City.

The first time I went to visit the city that never sleeps, I was just the happiest person on earth. I pinched myself several times simply because I couldn’t believe it yet. I always have this magical feeling every time I go back. My mother was almost freaking out when I called her to say that I am visiting one of my best friends in Bronx. For some reason, I’ve never felt that safe in my life. New York felt like home to me, I felt that it loved me and wanted me to have a good time. This is where I realized that stereotypes can hold you from doing things if you’re not courageous enough to face the unknown. After all, this country was built by courageous people who were not afraid to sail to the other side of the Atlantic to discover the new world in order to be free and be what they couldn’t be in their countries. And this all what America is about and that’s why I love it.

It’s a unique country that might not have a lot of history but people of all over the world and building its history everyday. So many cultures, languages, architectures, smells and flavors make the USA an incomparable country.

God Bless America 😀

Picture taken by me in Paris, France

Today’s assignment is to write about a place where we felt safe during childhood. I don’t really have a specific “safe place” however I thought  that being under my Mickey Mouse  bed cover was the safest place in the world where nothing would harm me.

When you are a kid, people tend to scare you by telling you stories about monsters and ghosts. At the end of the day you think about it in the dark, you get scared, you’re afraid to go to the restroom and you pull the comforter and hide under it. Yes, as a child my Mickey Mouse bed cover protected me from anything! The sound of thunder, the cold,  mosquitoes that always try to sneak in and bite you in the most inappropriate spot that you can’t scratch later and many other things that back then seemed to be a big threat to me.

It is not only a matter of safety, my bed knew everything that was going on in my life and it still does. It is the place where my mother will kiss me goodnight after a bedtime story, the place where I dreamt for hours and the place where I would cry until I fall asleep after being grounded.  When I was upset, I would talk to my pillow as if it were my best friend. I remember having nightmares and one day my father gave me a coin and told me to put it under the pillow and that it will protect me and will make me dream about good things.

June 6th 1989 my mother, who is Lebanese, gave birth to me on a rainy day and decided to name me Ghita (pronounced Rita) which in Arabic means the rain that comes after a long period of drought.

I am half Moroccan half Lebanese however, I consider myself as a citizen of the world. Both my parents are artists and they traveled the world before having me and my younger sister. That explains why I have a sort of gypsy gene in me, I like to travel and change places and environments. I recently just move to the United States to pursue a degree in International Business. Why International Business? Well, I just wanted to do something different from my parents and prove to myself that an artist could be a business person as well.

America was always a place I wanted to visit. Last night I was watching a documentary on HBO about immigrants that are being naturalized to become US citizens. When asked what they like most about this country comparing to theirs, their first answer is FREEDOM and I couldn’t agree more. As much as I love my country and the fact that I am an Arab, I am going to admit that I have never felt respected and treated fairly until I came to live in the US where I finally felt home away from home.

Do not think that I realized that as soon as I landed in the Orlando International Airport. Hell no! They took me to this huge ‘gray’ room where they kept me about an hour before being interviewed  and finally breathe that humid air of Florida. It might sound ridiculous to some of you but the moment the officer who stamped my passport said “Welcome to the United States of America” I knew a new life was awaiting for me along with great opportunities.

I remember being amazed by every little thing. The housing, the streets, the infinite number of churches, all this looked like “in the movies” that I grew up watching back home. The greatest feeling though was how nice people were to me. They probably didn’t know where Morocco was but at least they saw me as an exotic person that they were dreading to know. I felt special!!

Just to let you know, I am still improving my English, and this blog is a project for my English class. The thing is, I am starting to like this concept and I can see why our instructor thought it would be a good idea. Let’s see how this will go.

Getting back to you soon with more stories about my American experience.

Cheers!