Good news and Bad news and Worse News

RUN!!!!

I like how Maine divides her posts into days and I'm afraid that with all the days that have passed by, I'll have to do the same to update it all. I know I left saying that I was going to Chitral and I guess you guys are waiting for a super amazing travel post but unfortunately, that's not going to happen for reasons I will start giving below as I tell you what I've been up to >.>

9th August 2014: SATURDAY

[Excerpt from journal]

I passed the AKU exam! So now I have this permanent grin plastered on my face since yesterday. But that's not important.

The important thing is that today we set out for Chitral. We were supposed to leave at 5 pm but we got a little late. Anyway the drive itself was rather pleasant except for the fact that Islamabad's to-be-condition was making a negative impact on the trip.

There's supposed to be a long march and some other random stuff going on that would cause possible damage to the capital so that's why the city has apparently been scheduled to shut down. Possible bad-case scenarios also put the ER Department on high alert (presumably) so with my dad on a road trip, people were calling and going like "What're we going to do?!"

Well that issue got resolved after a few hours.

We stopped at an army mess in Nowshera after passing signboards saying stuff like Kamra, Mulan Mansoor and Hassan Abdal. The army mess was really well-kept and beautiful place- too bad it was already dark. There was a large lawn which was really well cared for bound by a small fence. On approaching th fence, I realized that there was a vast river-which- in the dark and the distance- appeared like a large, vast plain. The River Kabul.

We had dinner and walked around. There were jasmine bushes with some (few) blooming flowers- it looked like someone had already picked them off. There was s sort of open air cafe (which looked really stylish) and a wall with embedded squares and a light in their center so from far away they looked like lanterns.

^the lantern-wall^

Hania started complaining that her headache was getting worse and worse and that started creating more complications because the next stage of the trip involved driving to Chitral throughout the night- and my father didn't want to have Hania spend solid hours in the car with her headache.

^Outdoor cafe thing^

For a long moment it seemed as though the trip was over and we'd be back in Islamabad just in time for bed-but then we realized that my taya (uncle) lives about fifteen minutes from where we were right then- so that was part of the new plan; split off from the main Chitral caravan and spend the night at Risalpur and see how it fares in the morning.

10th August 2014: SUNDAY

Stayed in Risalpur till almost 1pm and that's when we head out back for Islamabad. The drive itself was- once again- rather pleasant although uneventful but when we entered the city we saw that a lot of the roads had containers set beside them- ready to have the roads closed and the city blockaded.

^container outside the city's toll entrance, ready to block the road^

^containers blocking half of the road already^

We spent most of the day at home, planning on what to do next. My brother wanted to watch Dawn of the Planet of the Apes but the seats were booked for today so we reserved some for Monday. In the evening, there was supposed to be a Palestine Rally at Khyber Chawk and we decided to go attend it.

First of all, no one knew what Khyber Chawk was exactly and this event wasn't publicized on Facebook (the positive bit about doing so is that Facebook provides you a map, making it easier to attend) and we spent a good half hour looking for the rally in places it wasn't going to be. However, we finally got there after finding out that Khyber Chawk was near the Zero Point Exchange.

^car found at rally^

^rally from the bystander's view^

11th August 2014: MONDAY

Today wasn't such a good day because I really didn't want to go to academy and give the mock exams (I thought we'd be in Chitral and that I was free of these tests D:) but my mother was like "Go .__." and so I had to go. I'd only planned to go for the exam and come home right afterwards but that plan backfired sort of.

I was trying to leave the campus when the guard was saying something to me which I couldn't understand (I think he was mixing up pashto in it so I really didn't understand) and kept trying to leave but he wouldn't let me leave so I was like what the heck and he kept motioning to the office. So I was forced to stand in the office listen to some other girl say to all the office managers (who were all male) that she wanted to go home and could they let her leave already? But obviously they said no >__> I hate those people, honestly.

Anyway so they were like "Why do you want to go home?"

Me: *totally clammed up and already freaked out with too much adrenaline on being cornered in an office, having my right to leave the campus denied and all of these by men who in that moment looked extremely heartless, barbaric and cruel* I just wanna go home.

Them: Don't you have a reason?

Me: I wanna go home.

Them: Okay, we're gonna call your parents then. Here, call your mom.

Me: *calls mom, find sister, gets told mom is busy*

Them: Okay, we're gonna call your dad then.

Me: *silently swears at them to hurry the heck up cause I wanna go home*

Them: Hello, we're the academy dudes who are totally evil and trying to stop your daughter from leaving the campus two hours early.... Uhuh.... Okay *hands phone to me*

Me: *self-consciously takes phone* *whispers* Hullo?

Baba: What's wrong, you want to go home early?

Me: I wanna go home. *whispers*

Baba: Why, what's wrong?

Me: I just wanna go home.

Baba: ....

Me: ....

Baba: Okay, give the phone back.

Them: *takes phone* Okay, sure, thanks. *hangs up* You can leave, just enter your details in this form.

Me: *writes down name, class date etc and gives reason for leaving early as "none"

And then I left and I was still feeling really shaken because I don't like being interrogated or forced to explain myself to an audience that is 100% male. I hate it. I freaking hate that office now >:| 

Anyway, when my dad came home he's like "Are you okay" and I'm like "Yeah" and he said "You sounded like something was really wrong on the phone" and I said "No I was just stressed out" while I'm silently thinking *no girl should have to go what I went through*.

After that, we went to Centaurus Cineplex to watch the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes which was surprisingly a pretty good movie. I liked it- cliches and all.

^Centaurus decked for 14th August^

12th August 2014: TUESDAY

I got my CIE result today- AAABC which isn't so bad considering the C is in Psychology which was an extra subject I took and shouldn't really affect my grade because the pre-med subjects should be what actually count and that's where I got the As in (Biology, Chemistry and Physics).

Bought mithai and went to grandmother's + aunt's place.

13th August 2014: WEDNESDAY

I went to my old school and got a reference letter from the Principal for the AKU Part 2 admission procedure. Oh- and guess what, while I was in the academy I accidentally dropped my phone and wrecked the screen.

I'm sorry, I'm just being really emotional about my phone right now so I'm just gonna spam pictures of it.

And in case you were wondering how it looked before crashing.

I know I wanted an android, but I don't want to let go of my phone just yet :( I know its an outdated Windows 7.5 (heck, it doesn't update to the latest Windows 7.8 no matter how many times you try) and it has a lame battery (barely lasts five hours if you're texting/using continuously) and most of the apps are faulty, but it's still an amazing phone because

1. Less battery means more charging and less using and less playing and more studying.

2. It has FOURTEEN GB inside it, man! How much more could you ask for? I don't have to face problems about storing in phone or on SD card because there is no SD card slot AND the phone itself has LOTS of memory to spare.

3. It's got pretty neat in-built stuff, like the texting system can be directly connected to facebook- so if I want to message someone from my phone, I get to pick if I want to message via text, Facebook or Windows Live which is super cool and wowed me when I found out about it.

4. It has NEVER hanged on me. Ever. The system is fluid and doesn't lag at all despite having an update available.

I hope I can get the screen fixed. The phone is fully functional, everything is in great working order- it's just the cracks on the screen. I can feel the cracks when I touch or swipe and the lines are too close together so it does obscure a lot of things that I have to tilt the phone around to see.

This phone has been with me for a little more than two years and I don't wanna let it go just yet ;n; quick- say a prayer for the Catalina- that she may be restored to her former glory and continue serving Kanra ;n;

Butchering the English Language

I can't seem to study properly. I've been flipping through my notebooks, ticking things off in my head, referring back to the syllabus to find several portions I've never even heard of. I flip back to my latop and attempt to decipher these topics from the MCAT book I've got downloaded, but then I get tired of reading and I can't make up my mind on what exactly to study. Turn your head to the image at the right to get a clear idea of the situation I am trying to portray *failed Snape voice*.

I've tried alot of things. I tried playing Dragons Blade on and off but its just making me more stressed and down in the dumps, so I've put that away and decided to blog >__>. Well, let's start by a simple rant on my MCAT classes. First of all, I have English. And let me tell you, when I sit in that English class, I feel like I am an illiterate savage who butchers the English language every time I open my mouth. I mean, even though the teacher talks in Urdu like 90% of the time, he writes sentences on the board and I'm like, "nothing wrong there, man, 'sall good" and then he proceeds to take out lots of errors and gives them all sorts of fancy names I've never heard like... like I can't even remember right now. But I'll give you an example.

W: What is the time on your watch?
C: What is the time by your watch?
W: He is more stronger than any man living.
C: He is more stronger than any other man living.
W: The sun rises from the east.
C: The sun rises in the east.

I honestly can't ever completely agree with him. And that's starting to scare me a bit because I need a good grade on this test >.> and if my barbaric English is the cause of my failure than I am super lame. I'm going to have to find a solution to this problem. It's no good if I keep thinking that my English is good just because I can speak it fluently (like, omg what if I actually AM butchering the English language every time I open my mouth?! o.o).

Next is Chemisty which isn't so bad. After that is Physics which isn't so bad while it's happening (because everything apparently makes sense while the teacher is talking) but as son as you decide to turn your brain on and try it out for yourself thinking "omg lol physiks sho easy lef me twai" and then then... *deflated balloon sound*. After that is a test period.

Basically, you get these booklets and you're supposed to bubble in your answers (bubbling fun o3o) and then you get a test sheet which you do not get to keep >.> anyway, tests aren't that bad. I like bubbling. There's negative marking though, like if you get an answer right, it's 5 points and if you leave an answer its 0 points and if you get an answer wrong, its -1 points. I did my first test ever completely (no blanks) and I ended up with like 44/60 (which doesn't look so bad, but if you figure out your actual score with the scheme I outlined above, it's not good o.o) so then I decided to skip the questions I didn't know instead of randomly guessing it out. No significant improvement has been seen yet e.e

Sometimes, I have these random moments of teenage angstyness (is that a word? or am I at my butchering again >.> this spell check suggests the latter) where I'm like "omg I'm totally alone.. so alone.." and then I'm like "Nah, whateves man, its cool"
<<OMG LOOK AT THE CUTE KITTY ISN'T HE ADORABLE OMG I WANT TO SQUISH IT BUT I KNOW I PROBABLY WONT HAVE THE GUTS TO EVER DO THAT TO AN ACTUAL KITTY

Well, I think that's enough rant for today. I'm going to try sleeping early for once >.> enough studying and obsessing over things I don't know till 12am.

Personal Highlights of May

I personally felt that this month was pretty eventful for me so I decided to sort of memorialize it. 

My birthday cake- which was extremely yummy and it didn't have any pineapples in it and it was creamy and delicious!

Went out with Lilly and Lalie with Lilly driving her car :D We went to Tutti Fruity and had ice cream!

Super awesome weather in Islamabad! It was REALLY windy!

Saw Godzilla in the Centaurus Cinepax.

Saw Godzilla outside in the clouds

I'm going to have to make another post for May though. It'll be on soon. :D

Diary Post; That One Long Day

This post is going to be quite long (or maybe it just sounded long in my head). I had two exams today, one in AM (Physics P5) and one in PM (Mathematics P6).

Because my brother had an exam around the same time as me, I was to be dropped off at the exam hall and then walk to the hospital where my father works so I could go home with him while the driver went back to pick my brother up. So I stepped into school to find like, thirty police officers (I'm not gonna call them cops, honestly cops are like. Awesome. But policemen in Pakistan just give off a somewhat pathetic aura, no offense) all strolling around in the courtyard. I went up to the stairs of a building to shove my bag somewhere with the other bags and asked some random girl "What's going on?" and she's like "Nothing" and I'm like "Ahan, that doesn't look like nothing" and turned away. A few feet away, there was this girl who was literally yelling in her phone "It's alright! It's just a rumor! I'm fine!"

I was perplexed but not exactly alarmed and walked into the exam hall and took my seat (which was at the back, between a gang of boys who couldn't stop talking and later on, couldn't stop cheating). I was in the hall half an hour before the exam was due to start (ie it was 1:30PM) and it hadn't even been ten minutes when suddenly one of the invigilator is like "You guys, up and out the emergency exit please and leave ALL of your things behind".
Me: Whuuut is going on

So we all had to stand outside in the sun for about 45 minutes and most of this standing involved getting in a straight line and then ruining it and then fixing it again and then being moved off to another area and then making a line again. During this period there were little rumors circulating about the paper being cancelled, about the reason being that the paper got leaked and a couple of other suggestions the most prominent being that the institution had received a bomb threat.

After that, we got to go back to the hall and sit in our seats and wait about another forty five minutes for the paper to start. During these forty five minutes, the invigilators were like FLIP EVERYTHING ON YOUR DESK ONTO ITS BLANK SIDE and for a second I was like maybe they're trying to check if all of us are obedient humans and not mechanical cyborgs (I had been reading Scarlet, the second book of The Lunar Chronicles earlier that day) but then I dismissed the thought after some careful observation.

The exam started and ended and I was glad it was finally over when I went to get my bag AND IT WASN'T THERE *starts panicking but doesn't show it*. Meanwhile, one of my friends is like
Mossi: Hey how'd your paper go
Me: It was okay not so bad. I had my bag here, do you know where it went?
Mossi: Oh, I had my bag here. I don't know where it went. Were you the one with the bomb?
Me: *blanched* Ah. Yes, it was me. Of course it was me.

I went to a security guard and asked him where my bag might be and he pointed to a table where all the student bags were placed. I found my bag and called my father since I had walked out of the hall about 1.5 hours late.

I was to stick to the plan on walking to the hospital. It's about a fifteen minute walk on the side of the main road and as I walked, several taxis passed by, slowing down as they approached and then moving off. I think it was the "don't you even try" face that I had put on.

I reached the hospital and got into my father's office and started reading Scarlet on my phone again when a two or three different people came and said stuff to me randomly like "Hey how are you how're your exams going why don't you study medical here" and then my father came back and two other people came in and my dad is like "this is my daughter" and the uncle I didn't know at all was like "oh hi how're you, what class are you in oh that's nice" and when he was leaving, he turns around and he's like "You need to smile more, you know even if you don't have a reason" and my father was like "she's just assessing what kind of person you are" and then he just randomly said some joke I didn't understand *laughs politely*.

I DONT THINK YOU UNDERSTAND MY PAIN THOUGH. I had just stood for about 45 minutes under the burning sun, and I sweat ALOT. And then I had walked like twenty minutes. And then I was sitting in a spacious, clean hospital office, can you just imagine my horror and embarrassment as random people kept coming in to say something to my dad and then have ten minute long conversations while I try to blend in and hope I don't stink.

And then we finally went home. I left my phone on my bed and came back like twenty minutes later to find two missed calls from Lilly and Lalie and then I called them back to see what the problem was, turns out they were just randomly pranking me.

The End.

Aftermath

So now that my birthday is over and gone, I just wanted to compile some of the gems that I got that made me go like-

~Bro, where's my hug Q.Q ~

~ Here's kashaf xD I like how she's like "You're supposed to say thank you! Eighteen years and no manners!" ~

~Got this eaaaarrrlyyyy in the morning *you can see it says 2:11a* and she also put in a photograph/status thing up on facebook :) ~

~ and here's Lalie xD ~

~ tumblr buddy danganronpanda! AKA chocolate-darkrai :D ~

There's lots of other people who wished too but its just that I haven't gotten the hang of taking screen shots of computer screens *Google wished me as well O.O but I don't have evidence! D:*

Anyway-

FOR EVERYONE xD

Pieces of Life

THIS WEEK IN SOME RANDOM PICTURES

(these pictures, in no way, sum up my entire week though, just saying)

~I got this lovely suit from my aunt :D she got it from Khaadi~

~My cousin made me this adorable bracelet, that I'm not about to take off any time soon :D~

~Got this adorable screen shot :3~

~Got the Aga Khan admission form printed today and am probably going to be reading it over and over until I somehow manage to memorize it~

~Finished "The End of Time"  episode and NOOOOO~

~This is how I study~

~this is how my friends tell me what to study xD~

Journal Writing

So I thought I should finally sit down and start a little journal writing. There's something about writing down on paper that beats blogging on a computer any day. I think it's because paper and pen makes things so much more personal than a blog ever can (we are discussing personal, not beautiful, because I know my blog is very beautiful, okay).
Here is the notebook I bought especially for writing on. I got it from SIST earlier this year off a stall selling lots of cute stuff, but I just saw this and I'm like. Perfect. I've started writing on it already. I think I'll post some of my entries every now and then because I don't want to keep this completely separate from blogging.


Anyway, PERSONAL UPDATE. I'm feeling sick D: I've got a runny nose and a sore throat but no fever but sometimes my head hurts and I had a biology exam and I skipped one part I think because I didn't have time and I did the rest lazily like ooh I like this question, let's do this first and stuff and I forgot some stuff like how a pregnancy kit works like wth do I need to know that for I mean seriously. Oh and there was this funny sea horse questions and a funny mammoth question the mammoth question reminded me of Ice Age though I like Ice Age Ice Age is nice. <== this is literally how I answered essay questions in biology. Repeating same facts in different ways.
Oh and as if this wasn't enough, the biology teacher is like "regular classes wednesday onwards lel" and NO I DONT WANNA GO I mean I wanna sit at home and properly study you lot didn't give me enough time to study for the mocks, shove off my final exam timetable ;n; but nooo >_> well I guess I'm going to have to go, even though I don't want to.
We also have a Monal trip coming up, but it's just gonna be a bus ride to Monal, eat, come back and that sounds kind of boring no offense, Lilly wants me to come though. I might go, I'm not sure.
Anyway, I'm going to get back to studying psychology! It's the last mock exam left and then there's just the final CIEs left. I'm planning to join an academy for FSc on the last day of my science papers. That way, I can at least give the NUST Entry Test as well as have a head start for the Medical College Admission Test.