belfast tourist info

sumo wrestler and fruit salad in our hotel, ten square.

clean belfast. separate bin collection has arrived! belfast is now officially more modern than london.
cool belfast. the lord mayor's parade. no rain, but guys with long legs and wigs. then to mc-d's everyone!

zz top? cool bike though.

student paradise: the brand new student union building. compare that to the soas shack.

in my belfast days, the *bot* was THE place to see and be seen. now just a dive. everyone smokes obediently in the designated area. outside. good lads... other areas, like the botanic avenue, had not changed at all. *the other place*, a restaurant, even had the same menu as 10 years ago.

stylish belfast: the bridgehouse, a dive and a meat market with cheap booze. the new bot? i was there for one vodka orange and felt like an alien. like an old alien.

things i don't ever want to see in the *news* again

-- maddy
-- diana
-- anorexia in models
-- separate waste collection
-- scientific proof: women are different from men
-- new research suggests: men are different from women
-- house prices
-- mortgages
-- general terror warnings

i wish!

belfast

i'm in belfast for the bank holiday weekend.
(thieves! my flat is vacated, but closely supervised.)
my brief period as a resident, from 1996 to 97, does not count amongst the most happy or most exciting (no bombs ever!) or even most educational periods of my life. it was quite boring really, full of frustration and lonely.
so it is probably understandable that i have not wasted a thought on this place for 10 years.
and now i'm back.
it's raining and windy, just like i remember leaving it.
here until tuesday. i hope the place has changed and there is some excitement of the positive kind.
i'll keep you posted!

shisha

i live on top of the edgware road.
the edgware road is the centre of middle eastern life in london.
little arabia. hummus and kebab. halal butchers, *sindbad* supermarket, church street bazar.
and *the old english gentleman*, traditional english ales and stout, right in the middle of it.
it's a thriving community. not a rich one, but a thriving one.
up and down the edgware road, you can find lots of shisha cafes, left and right. people smoke a shisha, gossip, relax, and some play backgammon (at an excruciating speed).
i sometimes go to andalo's and have a shisha. double apple is my favourite. they also have amazing fruit juices (ask for a fruit cocktail).
last week i ended up going to andalo's 4 times in a row, with different friends every time. my hair still reeks of the smoke.
but it's all going to be over on the 1st july. when the smoking ban is introduced in the uk it's shisha out everywhere. i asked andalo (who is kurdish and from northern iraq, god knows if his name is andalo, but that's what i call him) i asked him what he'll do from july.
a restaurant.
aha.
so presumably, up and down the edgware road, shisha cafes will be turned into restaurants.
all with hummus, vine leaves, kebab...
well, i'll go for the juices.

victory!

exams are over!
i sat my last exam for this year, *near and middle eastern culture and society* (hmmm). that's it. until the end of september.
now relieved. feeling a bit sad and annoyed because the exam last friday was written while my brain was still at home. today went smoothly. my arguments cut through the issues like a knife through warm butter. thanks to thematic overlaps, i repeated one of the friday essays almost verbatim. is that plagiarism, when you copy from yourself? who cares, it's done, and now i can think about what to do for the next 3, no 4 months.
summer school at lse? boring (macroeconomics), difficult (exam!) and expensive (o my o my).
a conference on *islam in europe* on an island near athens? mmmmmmh...
work? ouch!

my exam questions from today, feel free to send me your answer essays:
-- explore the relation between nationalist conflict and sexuality.
-- how have ethnographers framed the complexities of urban life in the middle east?
-- orientalism as discussed by edward said is a thing of the past. discuss. (i got on my soapbox for this one)

and for those who'd like to get an idea of last friday's questions on international politics (the ones i tried to answer):
-- is globalisation a useful category to understand international politics of the middle east?
-- how, if at all, do gendered icons (*heroic men*, *martyrs' widows/mothers*) facilitate nationalist violence?
-- how did great power rivalry influence conflicts in the middle east?

please answer in handwritten essays, 1,000 words max per essay.
enjoy!

panic and indifference

today is exam day.
3 hours for 3 essays in politics.
of the middle east.
everything from ayatollah to zionism.
i'll be happy when it's over.
have been trying for 2 weeks to see myself in an exam situation, just like 11 years ago, when i was last at a uni. it hasn't worked. the thought is just too surreal. so i guess i'll have to wait for the actual situation to happen.
also, what sort of an essay can you write in ONE HOUR? quality? no way. quantity? 3 pages max. it's an ill-conceived concept.
but who is asking me?
fingers crossed x

europe has voted

o how wonderful it must feel to be serbian today!

flying the flag

at home with r. (from le royaume-uni) watching the eurovision.
i prepared little eurovision nibbles, cheese-grape sticks, crackers, etc. so r. will be bribed into voting for germany.
we are enjoying terry-*isn't that a sweet little song*-wogan's rants. (when will he ever stop??)
if we want to sing along, the bbc have provided a teletext page with all the lyrics. god help us.
london is deserted tonight. not a single polish, russian, ukrainian in the streets. they must all be glued to the telly at their own grand prix parties.
i'm confused. most entries are in fact from eastern europe, brit pop has definitely NOT arrived there yet, but cirque du soleil costumes have.
the slovenian song is like the sound track to the great russian revolution.
the greek guy is just YUMMY... he'll definitely get my vote.
it's amazing how much those balkan entries sound like turkish belly dancing songs.
except the turkish entry, which has british dancers.
r. loves the ukrainian song. what is that all about? a guy with breasts in a shiny suit?! elton john????
ireland is horrible. i appreciate they never ever want to host the eurovision again, but then why don't they just stay at home?
then it's the german entry's turn. i hadn't heard roger cocero before, but i'm pleasantly surprised. no ralf siegel or alf igel, no nicole. thank god! r., however, is not impressed.
the brits are singing about paris, tallinn, helsinki. is that where the expat property market is booming at the moment? brits - the true europeans: a house in every country!
here are the votes of the flat number 80a jury:

me:
0 - the presenter's green dress
1 - slovenia
2 - serbia
3 - uk
4 - ukraine
5 - latvia
6 - sweden
7 - france
8 - germany
10 - hungary
12 - greece

r.:
0 - ireland
1 - germany
2 - lithuania
3 - russia
4 - hungary
5 - sweden
6 - spain
7 - bulgaria
8 - romania
10 - france
12 - ukraine

now vote europe, vote.

famous anthropologist colleagues

gary larson
the mother of dora the explorer
tracy chapman
prince charles
kurt vonnegut...

clearly i'm in good company.
i wonder how they would have scored in a 3 hour exam with 3 essays to write.
ufff!

grand prix

who's going to win the eurovision song contest this year?
the campest, denmark? (says my friend l.)
the most boring, germany?
the most mainstream, le royaume-uni?
what do you think, o televoter??

as you make your bed...

i found just another example of service-oriented london with this warning sign that sleeping on steps is bad for your back and neck and therefore not recommended.
or maybe it means to say that this spot is too noisy to sleep on?
too hard?
hmm...

film tip

film of the day: leave her to heaven
drown in technicolor and in the cold eyes of gene tierney.

and a little reminder for all of us:

empty

2 weeks and 2 days to go till my exams in middle eastern studies. and my head is totally empty. it gets worse the more i read. should i just try and wing it? i need a plan!

joke of the day:
*hijacking a plane is easier than teaching. when i was a teacher, no-one stopped talking when i told them to. when i was a highjacker, everyone stopped when i told them to stop talking immediately.* - leila khaled