Cerebral approach...

Many things have happened since the last time I blogged. Tomorrow will either make me or break me. I find out if I my loan got approved. For some reasons I'm not worried. It feels like deep inside I don't want it to happen. Sounds crazy as I re-read what I just typed...but its true. I've been wanting this for my entire life. But somehow I feel hesitant. I find out tomorrow. I don't want to write more about it. Somethings we don't talk about, better do without and just hold a smile (the fray btw)
I have no idea what I'll do if medical school doesn't work out this time round. But it'll mean one thing for sure and that is I have officially exhausted all options...which does put my mind at ease a bit. Problem is I don't know what to do if it doesn't work out. I was talking to my mother the other day and I told her about how I'm interested in religion and how I'm thinking about perusing a masters degree in religions if med. school doesn't work out and I get this serious "how-dare-you" face. She's right. Five fudging years of neuroscience and then I switch to religion...But that's the only thing I'm actually interested in. But what do holders of religion MA do for a living?
Ughhh ya Allah! I don't want to think about it. I'm so lost. So stressed. One thing I learned about myself when I'm stressed is that I tend to want to cook. And that's what I've been doing recently.

This is a chinese wok. It looks dirty but its not. I got it at a garage sale. It's very handy! And I think I mentioned this before but I'm a HUGE fan of Asian food. This is my attempt at making fried noodles with vegetables and tofu <3 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy9S2ot_1Hutw7KwQQqdACr-rLWJE3mBPn2zv8_gYBqP10dCHvNYhEdJTRSCNptA1jvxVXgZJUYd1uEEALBGmdgTx_pjKwC_F8RafsbwKMjQY0ewyTdz3527lUBspNlD60tPL1HF7qMGI/s1600/IMG_1664.JPG">1) Boil your spaghetti noodles and then drain them.
2) Get your vegetables ready: I have green peas, onions, mushrooms, carrots and tofu.

3) This is how an Asian wok looks like, add the vegetables first with a little bit of olive oil.
4) Add the noodles and some soy sauce (1 table spoon)

5) GOODNESS! this would have actually tasted a lot better if I had added an egg to the mixture but we were all out of eggs lol.

NEXT: I made sambusa and I just keep forgetting the recipe for the dough. It's actually a pretty easy one:
3/4 cup of milk
1/4 cup of oil
Boil them and add to
2 cups of flour
1/4 turmeric powder
1/4 salt
Stuff it with whatever you like

This is how the dough looks like. It's very easy to work with
And that's the end result. It sort of looked like fried chicken because I used whole wheat flour. I stuffed it with potatoes and parsley.

NEXT: Pizza! Well, this is a combined effort so I can't take all the credit. Pizza is very easy to make.
And that sums up the past few days.

Till next time,

4 way stop

They say a picture is worth a thousand words and I say I couldn't agree more. This picture captures my life in a nutshell. It's a 4 way street and no one knows whose turn it is. Its like we all paused for a minute and when we came back alive, we couldn't remember who stopped first.

I thought about this today...I was in the car with my mother...we were supposed to pick up something from a french neighborhood nearby, got lost and had to head back home. So it was a total fail and my mom was pissed off and didn't talk the whole way. It wasn't my fault...the GPS was just messed up! anyway, so I guess I had a lot of time to think about my life on our way back...Didn't come up with any new thoughts. Still trying to figure out what to do next. I can't just sit at home and do nothing...I feel like I'm slowly forgetting what I learned in Neuroscience. Yesterday, I came across an article about Codeine...how it might soon be banned in Canada as it may cause intoxication for those with fast metabolism...anyway, the article was very light, it was one of those articles MSN pops up when you sign out. The topic of drugs and metabolism has always been of great interest to me so I decided to look it up on U of T's library website, to find the journal article that published the study. Anyway, obviously the journal article wasn't as light as the news article lol...they got into the biochemistry, microbiology of metabolism and the chemistry of the drug and that's when I lost it. It's sad because I actually studied this stuff last year and I did really well in my drugs and the brain courses...I was so frustrated.

I have a job interview tomorrow...its with Statistics Canada. I'm kinda scared...It's not a very fancy job but they told to bring a calculator to the interview as there will be a test. They also gave me a website to prepare for the test. Kinda skimped through the sample questions and they weren't that easy. or maybe I'm slowly loosing my math/statistics knowledge (okay now I'm actually laughing at myself. I said "knowledge"....as if such thing existed in the first place!). I was never good at math. Anyway, enough negativity for the day...It is BEAUTIFUL outside! I'm actually typing this while enjoying the gorgeous sunshine outside! It's simply heavenly. But I heard it might start snowing next week...which is a bummer! BIG TIME! Why? Well, winter=snow=storms=slow season=no biking=staying at home a lot! You can tell that I'm not looking forward to it.

On a more somewhat "positive" note, I'm starting to take religion studies more seriously.

I just want to be happy again.

Till next time,

Nobody said it was easy...

As I write this blog I can her my mother yelling through the phone....not only because she's talking to someone in Iraq (that's pretty normal), but because she was talking to the people who have taken over our house in Iraq...our brand new house. I've never lived there but my mother talks about the furniture, the curtains, the front yard all the time...My parents built the house before we left, we never got to live in it. But after what happened in Iraq (sectarianism, civil war etc) some people just decided to invade other people's properties...simply because the property happens to be in a Sunni neighborhood or a Shia neighborhood and therefore, by default, the property should be owned by Sunnis or Shias.

Very sad but that's our reality. My mother cannot get over it. I don't blame her.

On a different note, I've been doing absolutely nothing these days. Not even helping around the house...just sleeping. I think I'm depressed. It just feels like I'm never gonna get used to this place. I feel like a stranger here...Like a foreigner. It's like a whole new culture that I have to adapt to. I miss my friends, I miss my people :( People here are friendly but they don't wanna get too close...we scare them I think. I know that being the new kid on the block is not easy and it requires effort on my part, but the environment is just not welcoming. People here think that we're all here for a short period of time...they're accommodating, but not accepting. And if I'm ever gonna be able to make friends and be part of this society, I need to feel accepted first. They seem to think that all "colored people" are here to study...that we're all international students or something. Here for school or training purposes and that at one point or another, we will leave this country so they don't feel the NEED to involve us or be overly welcoming....which is really not what I'm asking for. I just want friends. I had a rough summer and I want someone to debrief with. I haven't digested everything yet and it's not just moving or not being able to go to med school. It's other things too. It's all inside and it needs to come out...

I think it has a lot to do with my loss of independence. I had a job in Toronto, I was in school...I knew my way around and didn't have to hold a freakin' map. I knew exactly what used to be in front of the long building across the street, near the giant tiger and was very excited about the new Tim Hortons being built there...I knew my neighborhood.

I'll get through it. Nobody said it was easy