Noodles guy

So a break from my travel posts and let me talk about what's happening at uni lately.

Nothing exciting really. It's my last semester of my 4 year Bachelors degree and I can't wait till it's over. I think this could be the toughest semester out of all the semesters that passed and I say that because I'm doing 4 papers where one of them is a full semester project. I'm trying to keep my spirits high, stay positive and not let the pressure and stress get to me. So inshallah 5air. Having said all those stuff, I'm quite enjoying my papers (except for one =P) and I don't know, but there's a certain, different feel to this semester.

So today in my Game studies lecture, I witnessed what one would call an outrageous...scene (?!). Everyone is seated and the lecturer is talking away about today's topic when one guy enters and heads straight to the front of the lecture room, right in front of the wide lecturers desk, carrying a small transparent container that had white stuff in it. He sat down and I turned my attention back to the lecture.

The lecturer walked back and forth, so I followed him where he went till he got to the place the guy sitting in front was. He caught my attention again because I saw something...unusual. lol. The guy has opened his container and separated the lid from the container, where the noodles...YES! Indemo noodles, rested on the lid. He was adding the sauces/flavors/mix to the container. Mixed the mix with a fork then, in an unbelievable way, added the noodles, that were on the lid, to the container. Then he mixed the noodles with the sauce mix, and slurped away the content of the container in...probably under a minute.

I was utterly shocked! The person I truly felt sorry for though was the lecturer. He actually turned red with anger and was totally distracted, maybe disturbed, by this guy. The worst thing he probably dreaded is walking over to the computer to click the mouse so that he can go to the next slide of the PowerPoint. The computer he used was directly opposite of noodle guy, so he can see him even if he didn't want to.

After noodle guy finished eating the noodles, he put his fork down and used his index finger to wipe the container clean of the left over sauce. At this point I was completely disgusted! Damn, where are the manners and respect gone?! After all of this, he took out his laptop and started surfing the net.........

It's a 2 hour lecture, so when the first one ended and we were given a 10 minute break, noodle guy got up and moved to what seems like the last row of the lecture room. Yeah! Now he moves to the back, where no one could've seen him eat his noodles.

He got made fun off. 2 Kiwi guys sitting behind me described him as an "ass" and "what the hell is he doing cooking and eating noodles in class, that's so retarded...wahwahwahwah"...serves him right!

So much for freedom when it's being abused in such a way.

Though as much as I found it disgusting and totally a stupid and disrespectful thing to do...I also found it funny =P

G'Night ^_^

[Travel] Jordan!!

Tuesday 30 June
Time - 6:15am (Why am I up this early?! O.O)
Location - Arajan, Jordan

I swear to God I've had enough of airplanes *cries* I'm so tired! But!! Here we are...finally all together...in Jordan!! After 7 long years of not seeing the relatives, yet here we are only a few minutes away from their houses (kinda =P). It feels good to be around relatives. It really does! Like at the moment everything is surreal...nothing has sunk in! *cries*

We took the Omani Airlines to Jordan. The good things about this airlines is that it was nice and clean, and at the moment it beats Emirates Airlines with the food!! If there was any meal on a flight that I greatly enjoyed it'd be the meal on the Omani Airlines for sure. It was really really good. I had the fish and I just loved it! The bad things however are; the plane was small, tight (everything is squished) and, how to say this, aah...un-technologized (?)!

Old fashioned Oman Air - look at the TV's lol

The plane had old-style TV's. You know, the ones that come down from the roofs O.O What's even worse is that we're all forced to watch one movie...an Arabic movie *Deh deeeh* Although we didn't care much about the movie (=P) since we had our books. Brother was reading "Area 7 by Mathew Riley" and I'm still (xD) reading "Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice". Dad had his news newspaper *typical*.

Got it off Dad's newspaper...did me proud ='(

Though most of the time, we talked and ate.
Then came the descending....
It was scary. Very scary! The pilot kept turning so hard >.< (Yes I'm a chicken!! -___-) Oh! And not just turning, but turning and descending at the same time. It was painful *cries*

But the landing was absolutely smooth. It was the second best landing of this trip so far. So yay for that!
Everything after that went smoothly el 7amdulellah. Though the doctor that was checking the computer for people with a high temperature (swine flu check) freaked me out. First, he looked at the computer, then lift his head up quickly to look at me. Then again he looked back at the computer and then back at me O.O and yet nothing was said to me. I was a bit sick...but I didn't have a fever. I wonder what he saw!! *freaky* Maybe electricity was my blood =D lol. We got our baggage and went to see my favorite uncle (Dad's brother) waiting for us in the arrivals area. My uncle came straight at me and gave me a huge hug and I started tearing up! It was amazing to see him again after such a long time. Then we headed for my uncles car.

We got taken straight to our grandparents (Dad's parents) house where almost everyone was waiting for us. This is where more hugging/kissing and the "OMG look at you, you're so grown up and beautiful" happened, so on lol. I was smiling so hard that my mouth muscles started hurting xD It was all unbelievable! <3 Not all my relatives were there so I can't wait to see everyone else!!

Now Jordan as a whole, looks great and the weather here is beautiful! It's not hot at all, which I thought it would be, but thankfully it isn't. Best of all...there's no humidity! =D
Right now, I'm in my room of the furnished house that we rented for the whole time we're staying in Jordan. I have an amazing view from my window and it's even more amazing at night when all the lights are on. The area we're living in is called Arajan (3arajan)...and it's a very nice area. I like it a lot!

Okay! So don't know what's the plan for today but all I know is that I need to get up and freshen myself. You know how I was sick in Oman...well I got slightly worse at the moment but inshallah khair. I'm not going to let it get in my way! *Positive Gchan here =P*

[Travel] Major heat wave

Monday 29th June
Time - 9:00am
Location - Oman

So I'm sick. Yay for me -___- I have a minor cold and my nose is so runny. Bleh! I'm hating it! I talk from my nose also so I sound funny lol.

Anyways, here we are finally in Oman, at our lovely new home <3 It's good to be here, but what's not good is the heat!! Sheesh, what's up with this weather eh?! lol. When we landed in Muscat, from the utterly the worst flying experience in the history of flying, and came out of the craft this major heat wave just slapped us in the face. I let out a shocked sound while my brother shouted out loudly "HOOOOOLY SHIIIIIIT" Estaghferallah xD that idiot. An Indian man was right infront of us. He just turned to look at my brother and started laughing.

Inside the actual airport was not a pleasant experience either. For some unknown reason, everyone there kept staring at us like we were aliens or something. It was freakishly...weird! We hated it even. Also, I think more than one plane has landed so it got really crowded at the entrance counters...they only had 2 counters open with THAT number of people. I found that really sad...where's the staff?!! Even worse is those guys at the counter worked slowly and sometimes they'd pause to talk to each other while we're waiting =\ *shakes head with disappointment*

The past 2 days we ended up going to Al khuwair (which is a big mistake...the place is SUPER crowded and the driving there is suicidal) and Qurum CC. It's amazing how so many things have changed. It was confusing to me, with all those new bridges and stuff. But I think it's great! Helps with the jams. The roads are pretty amazing...oh! and really clean *impressed*

But today, today is the day we travel to Jordan =O Nice! Wonder how it's going to be (?). We're taking off at 3:00pm inshallah, so we got quite a bit of time.

I finally bought a camera; Samsung PL65 and I just love it! 12.2 MP's, 5 times optical zoom, face detection and a high resolution, etc. Been snapping away with it but I still need to learn about it's many options. I didn't buy a phone sadly. The phone I wanted was a bit out of my budget (since the camera was pricey) and I am being indecisive with the other options out there =( We've been to so many mobile shops yet I can't choose anything...nothing is grabbing my attention. Anywho, will see what happens when I get back from Jordan...maybe there'll be a chance for me to find a good phone inshallah!

As for the moment I'm in major need of coffee (specifically a mocha lol) and a lie down. It's been almost 2 days yet I'm still feeling as if I'm on an airplane. The floor under me is moving up and down and when I'm sitting, the room tilts slow left or right xD It's very freaky and not nice.

Laters at Jordan!! ^_^

Yum! Mocha flake at Muscat International Airport

And we're flying =O

[Travel] Altitude 37,892ft

Saturday 27th June
Local time at current position - 3:11am
Location - Emirates Airlines seat #40F
Altitude - 37,892 ft
Ground speed - 585mph

So on our way to Dubai. We've got 3 hours and 36 minutes to go. A lot has passed and only a bit is left *yay* so sick of the airplane, and damn is my throat dry.

Surprisingly I manged to sleep, I think, 2-3 hours of the total time...so am happy about that lol. Food was just okay! Don't know...didn't like it much but the salads were great and they gave out these beef wraps as a "midnight snack", which were really good.

I forgot the number of movies I've watched so far. Umm...from NZ to Aussie I watched *crap don't remember*...OH! The Pink Panther 2. It sucked big time. Was so bored with it that I didn't focus on it much =\ The first part was so good I don't know what the hell happened in this one (?). I played a trivia game with my bro and it turned out he was cheating...well I kept loosing so there's something suspicious about that =P

I also browsed through their music library. Wow! They've got some pretty hardcore but ancient stuff on there. I found Metallica's self titled album and found the song that I was in the mood/wanted to listening to..."Nothing Else Matters". Love that song! Put it on repeat and watched the info channel that tells us where we currently are and so on.

Oh! We got delayed pretty badly at AUX airport =\ We were stuck in the plane for at least an hour...on the runway. The reason to why that happened is cos Aussie has closed all of it's air strips and is not allowing anyone in. Even the planes that are meant to land at that moment are just circling above the airports >_< (would've hated it if I was on one of those planes). Why? We never got told the reason O.O *suspicious* We freaked out even more when the Pilot told us "if we don't get clearance to move, we'll take you back to the airport. So sorry about this delay but please stay seated and enjoy our services". That just did it for us lol. But el 7amdulellah we ended up going...we're already out of Aussie now and what it looks like flying over India (??) That area anyways!

Back to movies lol...I also watched Paul Blart: Mall Cop...which was just OK but had a few laughs here and there. Haha at the part where he was running through the airport =P What else?! I watched Bolt...majorly disappointed =( Was actually excited for it. Someone *can't remember who* told me it wasn't great...should've listened to them lol. But aaaw at the friggin' hamster. He was so cute and awesome lol!


I also watched Bride Wars...it was alright as well (don't know I'm being really strict with these movies). Then I wanted to watch Yes Man! but my eyelids started giving up on me so I think I snoozed for a while to wake up to a bit of turbulence O_o

Through out this whole time, I've slept, eaten and watched movies...Damn! That is so unhealthy lol. Argh! I can't wait to get off this plane!

The plane is totally different! Seats are comfier and more spacious, wider screens, remote is bigger aaaaaand there's a usb port where you can connect any portable USB device!! At the moment, since I'm awake and don't feel like watching movies, I'm writing here and listening to my mp3 player. Current song is "Egypt Central - You make me sick (Acoustic Live)". Such a good song! While bro is sitting next to me playing chess. From what it looks like, he's getting his butt kicked lol

My poor poor legs...they're so sore =( Anywho, I'm going to umm...play a game or something. I think I've said everything I wanted to say...Oh yeah!! I don't know why but I keep on bumping into people...accidentally! What's up with that?!

[Travel] We're out of here

Friday 26th June
Time - 3:00pm
Location - AUX Airport gate 16

Okay! So here we are...sitting in front of our gate and oh man we are feeling the butterflies! The weather is pure crap (so Allah Yustur), gray, foggy and rainy. What's up with that eh?! Just our luck =(

We're boarding the plane in less than an hour. I can't wait to get over and done with with the take off lol...it's the worst part for me. Not many people are sitting at our gate so I hope that just means not many will be on the flight =D

The plane is a double-deck and looks short and fat xD Sadly our seats have been decided for us (-___-) so we're hoping it's beside the window instead of the middle where we'd have to sit next to some stranger.

We decided to eat Ramen *yay* finally got to try it. It was damn good! Oh! It's Japanese noodles with seafood (crab, squid, and shrimps), a yummy soup and spring onion - which I don't like but it actually tasted good!

When we came to order and pay, the Japanese dude at the counter was totally on something or maybe math is not his thing lol. He said that the total is $26. At first I gave him a $20 note and 2 $5 notes. Then I remembered I had a dollar so I said to him "here's a $1 and you can return the $5". I don't think he heard me. He put in $41 in the register as the total, checked how much he needs to return to me, put the money I gave him in the cash holders (everything O.O), then he checked again how much to return to me (which is $5), and THEN he returned to me the same $5 note that I gave to him that he was supposed to give me from the beginning. My bro and I exchanged looks and started laughing. That's mean I know but we couldn't help it lol.

Anyways, we're still waiting to get on the plane to head to Sydney (Aussie) where our true trip to Dubai starts inshallah >_<

Taken in Aussie Airport =P

I'm not much of a flying person

So am back in NZ *sad* (I want to be back in Jordan with my cousins) I've had enough of airports...seriously. I'm so jet lagged at the moment since I'm sitting on a chair, which reminds me of sitting in an airplane lol *nightmare*. It was a really really rough flight from Oman to NZ to the point that I became so pale that I got called a ghost *cries remembering the flight*. It's not that it was scary and like "oh we're gonna die" kind of flight, but it was just really tiring, uncomfortable, unbelievable turbulence, bad "driving" (talking about the pilots here), bleh I don't know...it was just all messed up really. OH!! I'm never touching airplane food again...EVER!!

Despite all of this...this trip is by far the most amazing trip EVER!! El 7amdulellah it was wonderful and we were surprised by how wrong we were about Jordan lol.

*Stay tuned for posts from my diary of this trip + the pictures =D *

Dubai Airport
waiting in front of our gate .

This bag has become my traveling bag and
this is my new favorite key chain.

Our stupid plane (Emirates) at Aussie (Melbourne Airport)
Loved the sky.

Anyways I'm glad that I'm home on the ground...safe xD I'm not much of a flying person (it seems) lol. What I'm loving about NZ at the moment is the cold weather! I think we came back when the coldness hits harder. Also, the thought of seeing Sarz and having sushi for lunch at uni.

I've missed a week of uni...will be getting back to it tomorrow. Aaargh! The thought of that seems tiring lol. Taking 4 papers this semester SMST319 (Game Studies), COMP436 (Advanced Graphics and Computer Games), COMP437 (User Interfaces for Information Retrieval), COMP477 (Report of an Investigation). I'm quite excited actually cos they seem like fun papers. I read what the first project for the "Game Studies" paper and what we have to do is play a horror game (=D), analyze it, talk about it and compare horror games with horror films. It's a 2000-2500 words essay so gotta do some major research also. I have no idea which game to play but I'm thinking of Resident Evil 4. I've played it before and gave up on it cos it freaked me out =\ lol. The "Report of an Investigation" is a full semester project *freaky* where I'll be supervised by one professor (cos it's his topic). I chose "Hierarchical Menus" and it's going to be web based (perfect!) where I have to come up with ways of making menus better and user friendly. That's as much as I know anyways...so hope it's going to be good!

Anywho, this is what I've got to say so far...will start writing about my trip (I kept a diary like I promised =P) and posting more pics inshallah.