~*bean*~

[ Monday, April 14, 2003 ]

Yes, I'm Alive!!!!
Salaams you all!

Aren't you excited???? Oh yeah, I totally expect you to be jumping up and down, nodding your head in excitement b/c I'm posting after two weeks! Yup-po, I decided to get off my lazy butt and actually spend a few minutes and post something today.

This week is International Week at my school. I've been stressing and stressing over it, and it's finally here. It's basically a chance for the school to experience music, food, and traditional clothing of other countries. I've been trying to get everything all organized--which you probably already now is very, very difficult--man, you feel all frazzeled by the time the event comes around. It involves making a check-off list, designing a schedule, ok-ing the schedule w/ the admin, posting flyers around, putting together music, etc. I am also doing henna on Friday, which was very popular at last year's Arts Alive! At least I don't have worry about the ethnic food sales which is always a pain. I'm going to participate in the traditional fashion show though! Hey, I wear Pakistani clothes and hijab to school everyday anyway, so I better participate! Ritu said that she'll wear her langa and jewelry, so I won't be the only one to get all dressed up.

Our first day of International Week wasn't a success. It started lightly sprinkling during 4th period and as a result Mr. Riley told us we couldn't use the school sound system. Also, the admin isn't too happy about the whole rap music deal for tomorrow (each day, we're playing international music of a different genre). Theyr'e so dumb...the rap isn't offensive or explicit, and even if it did have swear words, they're in a foreign language. Ha! One of the rap songs is about not discriminating. Anyway, apparently the admin isn't happy about International Week anyway; they're worried about the "current world situation" (war). They're trying to find excuses not to have International Week--like the fact that it might also sprinkle the rest of the week. It's so dumb; they act like eating ethnic food, listening to international music, and wearing traditional clothing will somehow influence our opinions on the war. Well, the only way it can influence us is in a positive way! Such drama. Well, we're still getting ready for tomorrow. We're determined to have International Week, rain or shine! I dropped a note off in Mr. Riley's (the Leadership Advisor) box telling him that I was very disappointed that we weren't able to have the activities today, that we've worked very hard on putting it together, and that I hope that we'll be able to continue our activities tomorrow.

On Friday, Darya, Finella, and I took BART to Orinda, where we met up w/ other students and parents in our area for another antiwar protest. A couple of Juniors from our school also participated. We were well prepared this time w/ walky-talkies, an antiwar mural (I took a pic of it), picket signs, posters, and flags. We wore white armbands. We marched to a bike trail by the highway 24 freeway. It was right at traffic time, so people got a good look at our demonstration as they were driving home. We got lots of honking, thumbs up, and waving. Of course, we also got some "Go homes!", thumbs-down, and we all got flipped off too--but that's the way things go. We stuck all the picket signs in the fence between the freeway and the bike trail. We also held signs and made peace signs. The Channel 2 news crew was also there and they filmed us. The protests gave us an opportunity share our outrage at what is going on and to support one another. Going to rallies and demonstrations gives me such hope, you know? After a couple of hours, the police on the freeway stopped by and told us that the fence is state property and we can't stick our picket signs in them. So we untaped them and stuck them on the opposite fence, which is public property. At sundown we took everything down and headed back to BART. It was so cool--One of the girls from another school came dressed in a sari; heh heh-looked really cool w/ her nose-ring. When we were cleaning up, she said something like, "I don't know how you'll take this; you might think I'm weird..." I was like, "No, it's ok, what is it?" thinking she was probably going to ask me about my hijab. She was like, "You are really beautiful." Awwww! It made me feel all special and I thanked her, but then I got all self-conscious. Anywayz, Channel 2 still didn't show us on the news, but that's ok; while media coverage is necessary to get our message far, we're not doing it to be on tv. Check out Finella's first Apr. 12th post for more info on the protest.

On Saturday, Apaji, Daddy,and I went in the pouring rain to CalDay at Berkeley. We didn't even think to bring umbrellas. First, we went to the Letters & Sciences hour session. After that, we went out to lunch at Naan & Curry (Seher: you were right; alhamdulillah, they have very yummy food!) and had dessert (hehehe, yup we have desserts even after lunch!) at C'est Cafe (I think that was the name). We literally ran after the trolley and got a tour around the campus. After that we just checked out some clubs (Woohoo! I saw Farah at the CalMSA table) and then we went to the hour pre-med session. Scary stuff.

Anyhoo, that's it for now! : )

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~bean~

[ Monday, April 14, 2003 ]

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