that driving lesson was inane. the lady instructor was so. what's the word? manly? she-he? shows up and starts an argument with my mamii. i wasn't too happy about that but i went along with it. the car we drove was one of those old suckool toyotas. the doors didn't open from the outside. and when i tried to close the door, she's like pull the window. ok so now that i'm in, i start adjusting stuff. like pulling up the seat so my feet can reach the clutch and the she's like that doesn't move, just use this pillow as she hands me this ratty old pillow infested with God knows what mass. so i check how much gas is in the car out of habit and the gasometer reads zero. so i'm like do we need to go to the gas station and she's like no, it's that way. so i'm ok, that's no problem, let's begin. it's clearly a definition of a lemon at this moment but i'm not going to worry about it. next i start up the engine and am moving along nicely after listening to her clear and concise [nice work on the briefness, fortunately i had already driven a couple of times with my cousins and junks] instructions and following them as precisely as possible and i realize that the speedometer didn't work. now if you've ever driven a stick you realize how important it is to have general knowledge of your speed. i don't have that basic information available to me and i'm supposed to drive in pakistan. the circumstances are a bit unusual but inshAllah i'll make the most of it. it's just that her bad attitude doesn't help either. a couple of times i messed up. i admit it. instead of shifting into 3rd i down shifted into 1st from 2nd. she's like YAAR KYA KAR RE HO??? i didn't say a thing. so after a little bit of silence she's like do you think you can learn in 5 lessons? at this point i wasn't too happy so i just said you're the instructor, you tell me. she shut up after that and didn't say too much either. i wish i hadn't retorted. khair. my mood will pick up once the mehndi starts up tonight. oh balay balay!

starting my driving lessons tomorrow. should be a blast. har har.

lately i've been consuming way too many carbohydrates. that can't be good. like the other day i had naan, biryani, and aloo. you say tomato, i say tamatar. you say potato, i say patatar. i don't think i'll ever stop laughing at that one.

i feel blah today. i ache all over. even my right pinky toe is hurting. earlier i tripped over a poof and kinda landed on it. poof. that's not like poof be gone that's like don't trip over that poof. it's a footrest. i refuse to call it an ottoman because of obvious reasons. sure i'm not really sure if that's a word accepted by the masses but i'm secure enough to use it as i will. i sound vain. nap time.

ugh. our flight was delayed 7 hours. what's up with that? oh yeah, pia. the highlight of the trip was the guy sitting next to us. after much analysis i concluded he was a local celebrity. my sister derived he was an athlete because only guys came up to him and asked him things and the flight attendants started asking him about what he would prefer to eat and offered him chinese food. we never got that. not only that, he was making a lot of calls after he ate so much. and he read. boy, did he read? he read 2 different english newspapers, cover to cover, and an urdu newspaper. still pretty suspicious.

i don't believe this. the pilot said there was some kind of vibration in the engine and had to turn it off. so we returned to karachi with 3 engines. no need for panic. i just wanted to be home. remember that nice warm bed? yeah i do.

on my way back to islamabad after my whirlwind tour. need a nice warm bed is all.

we got a camel with a 'tude. he kept yawning like he had better things to do than spend a day at the beach. honestly, what's with animals with bad attitude these days?

so earlier tonight we were at this concert at karachi gym khana. abrar ul haq really gets the crowd moving. and who doesn't like a dose of bhangra now and then? opening for him was this band called fusion. what describes the evening best is what my sister said earlier: how are you gonna rock the stage wearing a sports jacket?

we have 3 birthdays today. happy birthday all y'alls.

cousin's shadi today. the word is karachi weddings start late. are the rules the same for the military beobles?

on my way to karachi for my cousin's wedding. i'm blogging from the islamabad airport. pretty sweet, eh?

so my taya is in the recycling bidness. he collects garbage from the streets and makes it into furniture. we need more stuff like that. everyone talks but nobody acts. or tries to make furniture out of garbage for that matter.

there's a shadi we'll be attending. now this family friend of ours is a perpetual bachelor. he's like 50 something now and finally took the plunge. i commend him for it.

shadi season's like hunting season. duck season. rabbit season. duck season! rabbit season! rabbit season!!! duck season!!! bang!

girls here spend too much time and money on clothes. they dress well, no doubt. but everyone's got this crazed look about them when it comes to talking about shopping for clothes. it's unsettling really.

i was gup shupping with my abu ji on the phone the other day and he's like acha do you want to talk to mummy and i'm like yeah ask her if she even remembers me, you know, her first born. and he said something to the effect of you're her fiercest born. i'll take that as a compliment. they'll be arriving here with my sibs and mamoo and mamii in a few hours inshAllah.

hit up two dholkis tonight. these girls are pretty boisterous when they move in packs. i'm slightly exhausted. hold the slightly.

we went by daewoo to get some cloth to make shalwar kurtas and what not. this daewoo thing is still safe and it's nice to have a little independence. anyway, haggling. that's such a major part of surviving here. oh, and don't speak in english. they always give you the foreigner price which is usually a 300% mark up. if you speak fast and loudly [confidence goes a long way] then you can get them to come down from the first price they say. the best part is when they say they can't bring the price down anymore and they have to ask the bossman. shoo. as if. sometimes you catch them exchanging looks. on our way back i thought it would be so cool to go in a rikshaw. it was exactly not that. but definitely an experience. 4 girls packed in the back. that thing was loud. that thing was filthy. that thing was hot. it's good to be home.

oh yeah and what's everyone's complex with using the word complex?

why aren't our people on these billboards? it's brainwashing. it's embracing the colonial mentality instead of burying it.
note to self: try not to use the word "mentality" more than the locals do.

on the road i saw:
1 woman
2nd woman
1 man
1 child
the sky's the limit

had the best homemade chinese food on the planet. as i'm finishing up i see a long hair at the edge of my plate. i couldn't even pass it off as my own because it was too thin and too short. it was still the best chinese food on the planet pre hair sighting.

going to lahore to visit my phupo et al for a week now. y'all want anything?

i am officially a medical student at fumc [foundation university medical college] yesyesyesyesyesyesyes! alhumdulillah.

rain. yummy. it's been raining the past few days and all i've heard is grumbling from everyone about the rain. i, on the other hand, am loving it. i love water so naturally i love rain. i like that breeze and the smell right before it rains. i like how everything looks fresh and clean after it rains. i like how people avoid it like it's hydrochloric acid [sorry, couldn't resist] instead of water while it rains. it's always the little things. always.

i've diagnosed these spots on my neck as tinea corporis. i would post pics but i don't want to risk attempting to charge the digi cam and frying it.

jummah mubarak. we be jummin' i KNOW y'all found that funny. admit it nah.

woo hoo! one of my cousins got my cell phone to work here. i can finally be part of the text messaging circle. i'm finally one of them!

this morning my mission was to wake up 3 kids at 7a. have them dressed by 7:31a and out of the door by 7:47a and at school by 7:59a. it was close to impossible. fulfilling yet unnverving. makes me re think my plans of getting married and starting my own tribe. a lot.

i need a gimmick. i need to market myself as someone who has the potential to be anything i want to be. i need to convince myself and others of everything i can be. i need resolutions. i need discipline. need. a need to not be me.

it's a manic monday. wish it was a sunday. wait. that wasn't my fun day. ok i need to find out as much as i can about foundation and shifa so i can decide between the two. let me know if you know people who have opinions about either school and what are the advantages of going to either one instead of the other?

took the exam this morning. 3 long hours. it was good, alhumdulillah. just that. i was rather annoyed by the interview though. they started out asking me whether i wear the clothing i was wearing there in the u.s. i'm paraphrasing but i told them no and they are like why did you wear what you are wearing now so i was mentally thinking what the hell and i told them because in pakistan i wear shalwar kameez. now i had no idea that this was a substantial part of the interview. moving on. they asked me about aborting a child and what i thought about it. after squirming with that for a few minutes they go on to mercy killings. as far as interviews go i was disappointed. i mean really. please tell me that those are absurd things to ask at a medical college entrance interview. please make me feel good about myself.

pulling all-nighters. it's just not me. what have a i become??? not old, i hope.

ok i know that people besides the people who comment on my blog have been viewing it so i would ask them to kindly comment without hesitation. no need to be shy, we're all pretty much idiots here. comments? direct them HERE.

we used to have pansies growing out in the garden. now we have them living in the house. ok, enough snide remarks. if it's the truth, i'm standing by it. why should i cover up for something i believe is okay to do. if it wasn't, i wouldn't be doing it. so there. let's see how my philosophy flies with the family. will update on this later gators.

listen up action movie aficionados. there's something to say about bad guys. namely dougray scott. he was nothing in ever after. in mission impossible ii, now that's a different script. specifically the fight scene. where he's axe kicking tommy. on the beach. near water, mind you.

sore throaaa*cough*aaa*cough*aaat. self pity is setting in. i need my amiii. bwaaah.

i'm a little tense about the exam right now. i tried running to vent and now i feel sick. lactic acid building up is the suck.

every other action is confronted with "kyoun?" ima beat somebody.

abez and aniraz stopped by. we chilled. i was so unthoughtful and didn't force food down their throat. i'm in need of much practice for my slow yet tedious transition into auntyness.

my worlds are mixing. i'm clearly no longer the pilot.

today is my parents' 26th wedding anniversary. this goes out to hafsa and ismael: do something special. listen to them. do something.

my cousins didn't understand me when i said i needed an eraser. and then one of them is like "oh! you mean a [bleep]" this other english thing has already lost the cuteness factor.

today i helped shop and studied at the same time. i was so sportin' the nerd look while my cousin hit up pretty much all of the silk shops in islamabad. all both of them. oh. i just said shops instead of stores. so it begins.