Letter 55

Hi Dad!
How are you? I miss you. I've been in a bad mood lately. That's why I haven't written. I'm sorry.
This week has been all study. I need to finish my summer homework before the 4th. In math Jad helped me and we finished it surprisingly quick. But french, that's the problem. I think i need to be in the total mood of study and Victor Hugo, Baudelaire, Verlaine and all of their friends. But I'm moving forward so that's good.
I just woke up 3 minutes ago. It's so weird I sleep without feeling like I slept at all. I wake up late and all sore. But these past few days I've been going to sleep at around 2 am - 3 am and sometimes even later. I don't know why. I just can't sleep earlier. I hate this! I miss my morning! But that's not a major problem.
The one thing that's actually on my mind now is the fact that i have 2 more years of school and I'm gone. I'm off. What's even worse? I have school in 2 weeks. 1ere. 11th grade. Fudge! (I've found ways to swear without actually swearing ;D). Dad in one year and 5 months I'm legal. AND driving. Isn't that a bit scary?
Later in I want to work in something that involves a lot of art. So i opted for Advertising or Graphic Design. Imagine. Comics, sketches, 3D graphics, drawing, cinema, sculpting, painting, crafting, etching, CREATING!  There are so many things i want to try out.
This year I've been expanding my creative side. I've been drawing a lot more and I've been taking on many projects like sculpture and beading and painting, dying. I have a lot of ideas for t-shirts. We have a sewing machine and mom is going to fix it for me and teach me who to use it. Imagine the possibilities! I want to do so many things and I'm so excited. It's an incredible feeling when I'm crafting. I love the scissors, glue, needle, metallic string. IT'S AMAZING!
I have to go back to my french homework.
I love you so much
I miss you more than ever and thinking about you so much
Kisses and Hugs (the one when you used to arrive from Jeddah at night and i was awake THAT hug.)
Your samsouma.

Letter 54

Hello Dad!
How are you? I'm good. I'm glad that Faraya is over.
First, there are so many people I just didn't want to see. And in the Jardin de Mza'art there is absolutely no way to avoid them.
Next, the music there is on replay so the one you kind of liked you hate them now. And the first day they played classical music. I have no problem with classical music but Opera? And Latin? Why?
Then there is the whole coming up and going back down that's a problem. I normally don't mind riding in a car but the way is about a 50 minutes drive from the house. It's tiring. Plus we never arrived early or on time. We were always 30 minutes late minimum. But the relief is that there is Dana Adada that shared the stand with mom so it was nice and crowded.
Did we sell well? No we didn't. But everyone was complaining not just us. So i think that was consoling. Dana made a doll all in mosaic. It looked amazing. L'Orient came asked her a few questions and snapped a few pictures. The next day in the news paper they printed an article with many artists appearing in there and in between there is Dana and the picture of her doll. A woman called and bought the doll for 2400$. She lives in Marseilles. Amazing no?
I'm not emotionally comfortable  in Faraya. I don't know why each time i arrived in Faraya i felt sad or tired. It's like when I'm in Paris. It's just not my element.
What's even more choking, it's how the people my age and younger look all the same. The same clothes (short t-shirts, short shorts and gladiator shoes, sandals Ben Simon or converse). The same phone.. Wait for it... *drum roll*.... BlackBerry! and yes it's very normal for a 6 yrs-old to carry one with a cover the same color as her t-shirt. Oh even better i've never seen so many channel and Louis Vuiton bags on such a young crowd... The funny thing is that those bags are initially school bags. YES! For books and pens and food! I still use my 5 yrs old East-Pack. The same glasses, the same manners... They have so many common point that in the end they all look the same even the face and voice and everything else. It's discusting because so many times i passe a group of copy-paste girls and someone gets mad at me and scream "mat salmeh" (don't say hello) as if i was snobbing them. The truth id guys you all look the SAME! How am I to pick the needle out of the hay stack?! Another funny thing is that this doesn't apply only to girls. The guys too have a dress code. You HAVE TO WEAR Ralph Lauren but only the one with the big logo! And you HAVE TO wear Yokidoki. Or else you're skewered (haha get it? skewered?)
And the worst thing is that they judge you if you're not a twin.
So all in all, you're not missing much. But i would have been nice to have you there or anyone of the family. They all ditched us before Faraya...
I Love you Dad!
I miss you so much
Kisses
xx

"The Shameless", a photography exhibition by Rasha Kahil

Letter 53

Hi Dad!
How are you? I hope you don't get too bored where ever you are. My summer's going much better. The Karams moved back home. I started a diet. I saved the world, Literally. Rasha's exposition went great! I'm back into my music. And I'm going forward in my spanish e-mail. Sorry i haven't written in a while...
Okay i'll start one by one.
So I told you about the fast that early this summer the Karams decided to open the Adma house and stay there. But they came back so it's so much better.
I started a diet and it was about time. Because I've never been this fat in my entire life. It's ugly fat. So yeah.. I need to lose a lot of weight . Yella one step at a time.
So the day before yesterday was Rasha's solo exposition. In Zico House. It's called The shameless. It's around 80 pictures she took in the past 2 years. It was amazing. People started coming at 6:30 on the opening day. And wen we left at around 10 there was still people in there. And she sold 7 prints that day. I was so glad that my friends came. Loulwa was there so was Carla and Zalfa. They're friends from school. Vladimir and Tanios came too. I met them for the first time at the expo. Vlad is Loulwa's piano teacher and Tanios is his boyfriend. Yup you heard right. But they're really fun to hang out with. They're really cool people. And today she had a live interview with Mtv (the lebanese channel) She was so beautiful and her arabic was really great. She did add in some english and french but it was a great success.
What else...?
So i mentioned about a certain email i had to write in spanish and me going forward in it. What i meant was that my mean spanish teacher gave us as homework a stack of papers containing grammar exercises, texts and questions and writing topics. But that's not all! There's a book we have to read with questions on that too! But that's not all! We have two email to send her. At the end of each month (july and august) of 8 pages in word. And size 12 font. She's mad! Crazy, Crazy! So i arrived at page 3 of my first email (obviously). I do not like that teacher at all. And the feeling's mutual. It's a long story I'll tell you about it some other time.
I love you so much pap
I miss you so bad
Kisses
xx

Letter 52

Hi Dad!
How are you? I miss you. We had lunch at Mounir's. The Karams (Karim, Jad, Kika, Marianne and Arlo) And Mum, Had and me. Everything went great. But then something hit me. I felt something was missing. You...
I miss you especially at these occasions.
Love you Daddy..

Letter 51

Hi Dad!

How are you? I'm so sorry i haven't written in a long time. I don't really know why. I think a lot has been going on that i just didn't know exactly where to start from. So I'll try not to miss any details. I'll start by: SUMMER'S HERE!

So i finished my SAT courses even though it's early for me. But what have i got to lose?

As for my grades i'll be getting them in a few days. But i'm glad i got accepted in literature. So that's about it concerning school.

Next comes family. Everyone's here. Except Karim, his wife Rita, Jad's wife Dima (it's so weird the fact that they're married) Simon, and khalo's family. So there's been a new development. The Karams are occupying Adma house. And it's one of the WORST ideas ever. We aren't seeing them as much as we should. What's worse is that they took Lyn with them. Which is the worse thing anyone can do. I miss her so much. The house is just not the same without her.

What's next? Oh Jad's "wedding" or dinner or what ever you want to call it. Everyone is excited. Cynthia is just so cute when she starts to talk about the whole family reserving the hairdressers and manicurist. And the clothes and the shoes and suits. It's the funniest thing. But there is a negative side to it. I see Arlo is exhausted. The decisions she had -and has- to make are ridiculous. stuff like. How many flowers, where, how far apart, how many centimeters, in sets of 2, 4, 8 or 12? Or at what time the guests should be seated, when to start the music, when everyone should have their glasses in their hand for the toast. Giving examples is exhausting, try having to actually have the decision to make. it's too much. So everyone's tense.

Hmmm... Lets move on. I'm really having a blast this summer. I don't know if i told you about the group of friends i've met last summer? At rancho? Well this year we went there again. But it was a massive failure. Although i had fun every second of it. We were about 26 there. Camping in tents. Walking. Heat. Sun. And football. It was cool. Why was it a failure? Because the staff changed the formula and decided that if we were to eat there that we had to pay 30$ per head and per meal. We weren't allowed to order or bring food in the ranch. So we decided to split.

I think that's about it for now. But i promice to keep you more up to date and write more often.

You cannot understand how much i miss you.

I love you so much.

Your Symz

Letter 50

Hi Dad!
How are you? I'm having mood swings so i'm sad now but don't worry i'll be laughing my butt off in a second.
So let me tell you about my day. Everything went great. I woke up at 6 thirty and went to school finished my SAT courses so that's great. Then came back home. Stayed with everyone on the balcony we sang and danced an d laughed a lot. We then went down Hadi, Marianne, Lyne, Kika and me to ABC ashrafiyeh to watch the match Netherlands/Brezil (brezil lost :( ). We had so much fun. We walked around and bought tickets to the Mashrou' Leila concert that i'm really excited. Then we came back home. Now the last like 45 minutes (an hour maybe... i'm not time oriented so i'm not sure) my period decide to ruin things for me. I get cramps and a headache. I get moody and i really needed to cry. So i ruined to end of the day for the cousins and i feel so bad for that. But i'm glad it happened now not tomorrow.
I'm going camping with a group  of approx. 18 friends to El Rancho for three days and 2 nights. We're going to sleep in tents and sleeping bags. They got their guitars so that's going to be amazing. There is the bull-riding machine (i think), paint-ball, archery, horse back riding etc... So I really can't wait. I love the group i'm going with. They're so fun. They're so much different from the people in my school and i'm great-full.
I have to go sleep i'm exhauseted so i tell you i love you
I miss you too much
And Dad you're the one thing that i miss in my life...
Your Sasouma
xxx