Letter 68

Hi Dad!

How are you? I’m not bad. So as usual, Lebanon’s without a government. I’m the worst person who could possibly try to explain it to you. I have really no clue what exactly is going on except that we’re possibly on the brim of having another war. That’s that for Lebanon’s political situation.

On to more interesting events: Nicole came yesterday for lunch with Teta and Zoya (Nicole’s new kitten). They came and we ate raclette!!!!! After 7 years of asking mum we finally found the machine and we are with Parma ham and meat. It was nice.

Rasha’s coming supposedly after tomorrow for an exhibition. It depends on the situation. So I’m pretty excited about that.

Gia is still AWOL. I’m really worried about her. And I miss her terribly.

I love you dad

I miss you so much

Many many kisses.

Syma

Letter 67

Hi Dad!
How are you? I miss you so much. I hope you're doing fine. It's 2011 and already I feel somewhat guilty. Papi I miss her so much you cannot believe how much I miss her pap. I feel so bad to have left her like I did. And for what? I'm sure she thinks I abandoned her and I don't care about her but I want her back. And I can't accept the fact that she's gone. I miss her so much. Why did I have to get so attached? It's not fair that I have to part with her like that. I could have done something other than abandon her. Now she's not here anymore. My baby isn't here anymore. No offense or anything but I really don't want her to be with you right now. I love you and all but I still need to make amends to the sucky kittenhood she had. But how could she survive outside? For 11 yrs we've fed her and gave her a warm home. But now she's left to fend for herself in the cold against things she's terrified of (mostly because of me) I really would do anything to just know at least what happened. Why isn't she down there like the last two times? Mrs. Houdini is now REALLY gone. Dad if she's out there could you keep an eye on her for me? Please? It hurts dad, so much. Why do I have to go through this again? What did I ever do to anyone?
I still miss you extremely pap
And I still love you comme ca
Your Syma that wishes you were here too...

Letter 66

Hi Dad!

How are you? And I’m so glad we’re here finally. It’s great to be with the family again. Tonight’s the big dinner as usual and for some reason I’m really excited. Apparently there are more people my age that are coming apart from the two friends I’ve already made. So it’s going to be cool.

This year Nicole and Julien came with us and Eddy joined us too. So did Maha, Rasha’s friend from London. She’s great. It’s amazing and I already I don’t want to leave. As usual the schools cut the vacation too short: From the 21^st to the 2^nd. It’s extremely annoying. But I don’t have much homework so that’s a major plus.

We already went to the beach. Pap did you know about Dr. Fish? It’s the most genius thing ever. You now the fish that stay around the hippopotamus and feeds on its dead skin? Yeah? So they have a place here called Dr. Fish where you sit and dip you feet in a aquarium and these fish eat allllllll your dead skin. I tried and put only one finger first but the fish didn’t react I tried another and whoosh they attached it. It doesn’t hurt. But it has a sort of nibble or tickling feeling. The idea of the fish actually eating me freaked me out. And I can’t wait to try it again.

As for the week before coming to Muscat, nothing much happened. I had my exams and I did well. The last day, I finished my exam at 9:30 and at 9:35, Claudia, Maylis and me were already in the taxi heading to Nahr-Ibrahim. We picked-up along the way Bettina and we went to the school. It’s extremely far from my school and it took us an hour to get there. But anyway I had my first concert there and it was fantastic the feeling on stage was great. I sung Zombie by the Cranberries first in the sound check a people responded pretty well. Then we ended up playing one son g instead of two. We played Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes. And it was nerve wracking during the whole song I was so scared to mess up but thank the good lord I didn’t and I actually had a lot of fun. The crowd was huge… Well it was a school thing. But I did feel a bit of an outsider. We were the only ones who didn’t actually go to the school so we did get a few looks here and there. But its fine, our friends were great. Later on we passed by pizza hut got a few pizzas and went to my friends house in Harisa. We stayed there till 9:30. We played piano and guitar, played music and tried to write a song. We had a blast.

Anyway, I’ll tell you all about the Christmas dinner tomorrow .

And I really wish you were here. You would make this vacation a whole lot better.

I send you a thousand kisses and many tight hugs.

Love

Your Symzette

Letter 65

Hi Dad!
How are you? I miss you. So I'm in the middle of my exam period... And I'm stressing because tomorrow I have my french exam. I'm supposed to sit for 4 hours on a chair. Even you know how hard that is for someone like me.
Anyway, so as i told you before, I'm in s band. And on the 21st I have my first concert... Well technically talent show. We're going to perform two songs at my friends school: -Zombie and Seven Nation Army. I'm so scared. But one thing I'm keeping in mind is that if i mess up at least i don't know thee people there...
I love you Dad and i wish you could be there with me. So that if i started to panic I could just search the crowd and see you. But I WILL think about you. Like i always do when I'm not sure or confident.
I miss you so much.
Xx

Letter 64

Hi Dad!
How are you? I miss you. I wish you were here the day me and mum went to Douma in Batroun to learn how they make olive oil. We made our own and apparently it's really good. I didn't taste it yet but mom did. They gave us complementary 1/2 L bottle of the olive oil we made that day.
We left home at 8:30 Am And arrived at 11:30. Yeah an extremely long ride. We were about 25 in a bus (not a pullman) But that's ok. I'm being precise because two women that were sitting behind me did not stop complaining about the "smallness" of the bus. And if they weren't complaining about the bus it was either about the long trip or the loads of work they have to do for the next week. I felt like i was going to hit someone. Plus they had a fake english accent. Yup that makes a hundred times worse.
We arrived, we walked around a bit, visited a house were Nadine Labake is going to shoot her movie and then we went to the field.
There we picked olives. (Of course, the two women stayed on the side of the road bickering). Then we ate manakish. Then saw how we make olive oil. First they separate the olives from the leafs, hen ground them with two huge rocks (it's the oldest machine in Lebanon) then a machine puts the pasty olives (skin and seed included) on a sort of plat round thingy made of straw. They stack then stack them one of top of the other. They compress them a take the liquid that come out. It looked brown. It was a mix of water, mud, oil and more... Then they separate the oil for the rest and we get extra super virgin olive oil.
I was a very cool experience. Douma was really nice. And the day was extremely interesting.
I love you dad
And i miss you so much
Many kisses
Your Symz
Xx

Mum's India trip

Letter 63

Hi Dad!
How are you? I miss you. I'm just writing to tell you that life's been good for me lately. I'm on vacation thanks to the eid el-Adha. So i have one week off. I've been going out with my friends a lot and having a lot of fun.
Mom came back from India last week and she had a blast. I think it was the perfect break for her. When she came back she looked amazing. I'll send you a picture now and you'll see.
I love you!
And i miss you so much
A hundred kisses
Your syma