Weddings & Engagements of the past month

Ta da!!! These 3 girls got dressed in 15 mins; dresses, makeup, and all!


The gang at Soad's Wedding...a real trip down memory lane, with AIESEC dances and all!


Abbassi, his sister Noha, Tamer Deif, and Beeso all at Mohamed Adel's Wedding where we had a hilarious time! Had really missed you boys and your tahyees!


The old Arpu+ gang at Ash ash's engagement.


Diana, Nou, and I.

We don't call places anymore; we call people

The company I work for decided to give their senior account executives a training course for 2 days on Stress, Time, and Meeting Management. It was a very interesting and fun two days I must say; I didnt expect to enjoy it as much as I did. I think that in the past 6 months I had been going through alot of changes in my life but didn't take the time to sit with myself and think about how I was choosing to respond to them. As we call it in AIESEC, I didnt get a chance to self-reflect. I was sorta pushing everything to the back of my mind and moving on; responding every now and then to a little bit of it at a time. So having this training put a spotlight on that behaviour and made me more aware of it. I saw alot of me in what our Scottish trainer was saying; being so stressed out at the office that I'd go home and couldn't even stand having small talks with our friends and family. And yet even though we were very stressed, we didnt learn the simple art of saying NO! Not all client requests are reasonable, not all social gatherings are necessary; prioritizing and giving yourself the space to do a good job was a necessity. Saying yes to everything means you are stressing yourself, the rest of the agency, and making the clients and people around you expect the "yes" always! I will write an entry concerning what we were trained to do in the workplace but here I wanted to point out a definite stress creating phenomena that we are all living with now; cell phones. They are a huge source of interruption in our daily lives. You'd be concentrating on something and the phone rings and you MUST answer it. This need to answer creates stress BIG time. You feel you have nowhere to hide. This is, as the trainer described it, due to the ability for us now to call PEOPLE rather than PLACES. In the past, you'd call a house or an office. If the person you were looking for was in a meeting or not at his desk you just simply had to call back or leave a message but now they call YOU directly not your workplace so no matter where you are they find you. Can you imagine the amount of stress that causes? The amount of interruption while you are trying to concentrate on something! Its unbelievable! Abroad they deal with it through voicemail; if you are busy working on a document or are in a meeting, you just let the voicemail answer your calls so you can finish what you are doing, listen to the voicemail, and prepare a response before calling back. This solution gives you space to breathe and allows you to concentrate but again, I did live in canada and people abuse voicemail there; people rarely pick up their phones! They let voicemail get everything and they call you back when they feel like it which can be frustrating if you need something urgently but at the same time it shows you the severity of the situation. What I found myself doing in response is choosing NOT to answer phone calls in outings/meetings so I can be really present in them. Plus, at work, I see who's calling and try to think of what that client may want. If its urgent I pick up right away, if its something I still have no updates on, I dont answer and call back when its completed. You need to give yourself room to breathe, and space to be able to really be there in the place or event you are in. Phones even invade our rest time! You are on the pool trying to get a nap, clear your mind, enjoy the sun, then your damn phone rings and you feel that you MUST answer! Why? Just put your phone on silent and call back when you are done relaxing; pretend people called you at home or at the office and didn't find you there. We all can enjoy moments in our lives without these interruptions if we put our mind to it.

2 Days of Insanity!

Maggie managed to plan a fun-filled 2 days for the CC team without any of us knowing WHERE we were going! That in itself was a source of relief for me! I had no idea where we were going, nor with whom, nor how we were going, I was being led by someone else and that removed alot of the normal stress that is associated with travelling anywhere. So what did we do?? I was to be ready by 8am Friday morning, so I was, then Maggie picked me up and we went to have breakfast in Maadi at 8:30am. The biggest accomplishment of that part of the day alone was getting Hadia to get out of bed and come! I was incredibly amazed that she woke up and was ready in 10 mins, and even more amazed that she stayed awake and with us the whole weekend! After breakfast, we drove to Fagnoon to do some art. That part was hilarious! Imagine a bunch of 22-25 year olds sitting and concentrating on drawing and carving on this piece of wood. We had quite a number of moments in total silence and I felt we were kids again! Abdo fighting about who's carving was better, Maggie being frustrated that she scratched the wood so spoilt the design, Hadia erasing her drawing a number of times because she didnt think it was good enough. We were all very serious about it! After that we moved on to the Clay, and Sherif showed up only to make matters even funnier. He took the liberty of spreading Clay all over us and our clothes! Even onto Hadia's hair when she had been begging us all morning not to come near her hair! That quickly turned into a mud fight which was a perfect transition into the next game, paint fight! We were dripping paint down each other's shirts, mashing paint onto each other's hair, it was just hilarious! We were dripping everywhere! Then we were told that we would split into girls and boys teams; the girls will go somewhere till lunch time and the boys will go to that same place after lunch time. Where was that? A local Hamaam! That was an experience that we cannot describe...we were a mix of shocked, surprised, and intrigued. Its something that we shared as a team and would probably not talk about it with anyone again haha! We were left thinking "ok should we warn the boys?" then we decided not to, let them experience it and we can have a sharing session later haha. We met the boys at 4 for lunch in Crave and had a nice chat, then sent the boys off to the Hammam wondering if they would actually go through with it or not. To our delight they did! But their experience was different to ours; they received a more professional one! Haha. Off we were to the supermarket at that point to buy supplies for our trip to place X, then off we went in John and Sherif's cars. We were soon to discover that we were on our way to Fayoum! I was too tired to react at the point so dozed off till we arrived. Upon arrival, we found that we were staying in a small hotel that was owned by this family that had adorable little girls. The place had the bare necessities and a nice relaxation area where we sat for the rest of the night talking, drinking tea, smoking sheesha, and taking small power naps now and then. We ended up going to the pool late at night to doze off even more and one of the little girls joined us. Abdo was being a big brother to the little girl which was sweet to watch. Hadia was trying to keep her eyes open by that time so eventually we all headed to the sheesha area again and slept...one by one we got up to go to bed. The next morning we had breakfast and work began. We brainstormed on the results of the conference, how we wanted out report to be structured, and what we were proud of and not proud of. It was a nice session that we continued in the pool where we were writing on flipcharts in the water and sticking them up on the walls. We decided on a structure that was unique and took a more storytelling approach than the previous reports so we are very much looking forward to finishing our IPM experience in that way. We then packed and were off to Makani in Cairo for our final pigging out session before heading home to pass out on our beds. It was a wild 2 days that I'll never forget; I went to 3 places that I had never been to before. Thanks Maggie for all the effort you put into it; the trip rocked!

Patience by Take That

I only started liking Take That AFTER they broke up as a band. I bought their greatest hits album when they broke up just to see what the fuss was about; why were all the girls so heartbroken that they broke up?? I ended up liking quite a number of their songs which made me a bit more open to their new stuff. Their latest single, not so latest now with the release of their second single, has become a personal favourite. I can relate to the lyrics because they are so true and the tone of the song is well-matched to the lyrics.

Just have a little patience

I'm still hurting from a love I lost,
I'm feeling your frustration,
That any minute all the pain will stop,
Just hold, me close, inside your arms, tonight,
don't be too hard on my emotions,

'Cause I, need time.
My heart is numb, has no feeling.
So while I'm still healing,
Just try, and have a little patience

I really want to start over again,
I know you wanna be my salvation.
The one that I could always depend,

I'll try to be strong believe me,
I'm trying to move on,
It's complicated but understand me.

'Cause I, need time,
My heart is numb has no feeling,
So while I'm still healing,
Just try, and have a little patience,
have a little patience,

'Cause the scars run so deep,
It's been hard
But I have to believe.

Have a little patience,
Have a little patience,

Woah, Cause I, I just need time,
My heart is numb has no feeling,
So while I'm still healing,
just try, and have a little patience,
have a little patience,

My heart is numb, has no feeling,
So while I'm still healing,
just try, and have a little... Patience

Blue Blue Ocean

Again I decided to go a little crazy and travel to the North Coast for less than 48 hours, and this time after coming home from a wedding at 4am the night before! I woke up late, packed, and was off without a second's thought. And I must say it was a day and a half of being totally childish, which I hadnt done in some time, plus I got to see a sea that was a beautiful shade of blue. It amazed me to find that we had such a beach in Egypt. Hazem had every right to think that this was a spot of Heaven on Earth. Even the sand was really white and the grains themselves were so soft. I managed to get that sand all over the place, and not just because of the sea but because my lovely friend loved covering me in it every time I managed to fall asleep on the sand! It was even a really nice drive back, just like old times, with us singing at the top of our lungs to songs we knew by heart all the way back to Cairo. Overall it was a good laugh and healthy relaxation. Now its back to the office and the serious life till the next crazy trip (they are becoming addictive these random last minute trips!)

Zoom Zoomi is an Official Graduate!

Pressure time!

For the past week I have seen a huge amount of pressure being put on me at work which I was happy to have but which left me physically and sometimes even emotionally exhausted! Imagine starting in an industry that is totally new to you then having your supervisor leave less than 2 months after you joined and less than a month after the only other supervisor in the team took her maternity leave? We were a team of 5 that became a team of 3 and in that team we had a team manager and 2 account executives; the 2 supervisors were gone. So, I had the pressure of learning about the industry and how it works without having someone to turn to for step by step advice, plus had to make sure that that lack of knowledge did not slow down the normal pace of the work. I saw it as a healthy challenge and as a way to prove myself big time. The only thing I worried about was doing a good job with the things I still hadn't learnt and being able to catch up fast enough. I was happy to find that my boss and the client were both really proud of my work and the work of the other account executive in the team! That felt awesome because the account is a difficult one already as is without the additional pressure of carrying on the work of others. So far advertising is proving to be very challenging but fun enough that I do not mind the sense of total exhaustion that I feel when I hit the sack at night.

Basata! All I needed was one or two more days...

I did it! The one thing I always advise people NOT to do...go to basata over the weekend. Its too long of a drive to do it within 48 hours plus you always go and wish you could stay longer. But I did it anyway and was so glad that I did. I got to sit in the sun, swim, and talk to friends. The best thing about basata is that the sea itself has levels; you could go swim in the deep end and you could also sit in the warm shallow water to talk so you never need to leave the water! I just enjoyed it very much but it really did need an extra 2 days. My best advice to anyone when it comes to basata is to always stay in a hut and to always go with people whom you dont know very well. The fun part is sitting there with people whom you are still getting to know...their perks and unique habits show up since you are in each other's faces all day so it becomes really cute and entertaining! Plus be open to socialize with the other people in basata. This time we all played Pictionary at night with all the Egyptians in basata! It was hilarious! And this was the first time I go to basata with a full moon so over dinner the basata owners switched off all the lights in the main hut so we could watch the moon rise...it was a beautiful sight! We saw the moon rise over the mountain and the sea...I couldnt resist but go onto the beach by myself and sit close to the water and stare in the silence. There are always unique moments in basata which always makes me wanna go back!