One Pie of Experience and Two Pies of Ecstasy

Day 1

Day 1

Dear Journal,

Yes, as animated as I was of popping by America - "a casual vacationer's attraction"- the day before, I realize now that it isn't much of a singular country or not so as I expected! I know I have not yet seen much but surely a bit disenchanted from the not-so-different-from-KSA views of the concrete thoroughfare, billboards and the vehicles. The only, solely amazing panorama however is that of the stone graveyards on the lawn. A shuttle bus carries us (me and a group of six other people) to Sheraton Pentagon Hotel from the airport. Soon we are guided in by the forthcoming program coordinator into the store room for luggage keeping because we have arrived a little early.

Well, we then take another bus from there to the mall for lunch. I buy myself a T-mobile SIM to get in touch with my parents and from a food stall: French Fries, Pasta, Fried Rice and a Soda Can to wash it all down. The food or most of it, I'm ashamed to say, goes to the bin because I find myself jet-fucking-lagged and dizzy with an appetite completely vanished. Why buy food at all if you're not going to eat it, you ask? Well, I guess I am an asshole. Won't ever happen again, I promise.

By 2 O' Clock in the afternoon, we are back to the hotel and it is already time for registration and early check-in which is followed up by me dragging my bags to the farthest end of the corridor to my room '202'. I swipe my card, enter, dump my bags in a pile near the door and take a look around. A spacious room with two large beds to the left and a large TV sitting on a stand to the right side of the doorway. On immediately turning left after coming in to the room, are a modest wardrobe with sliding wooden doors (very pretty) and the bathroom. At my exact opposite is a large window with a view of shrubberies and flowers. I fucking love my window. The hints and touches of light brown and beige and elegant colors as such all around me feels like the room is giving off a coffee flavor. Hmmmm. I think I am going to enjoy this trip after all. I choose a bed that I like (closest to the door) and sort through my things a little to personalize the place since my room-mate, whoever it is, hasn't shown up yet.

It is agonizingly annoying that I have to keep wondering what kind of a roomie I will end up with and how friendly she really is. Have you heard? Samira (a girl in my group) has already met her room-mate! - And they got along right away like a house on fire. And here I am, a Katniss Everdeen, who is always nervous or reluctant about meeting new people. I am the kind of girl who will only look for Peeta in the training room to make allies (because despite the fact that we were never really friends, he is the only person I know of) or I don't know, some Max or Wiress and Beetee, who don't make me feel intimidated. So, I exit my room after washing my face and head to the common room where we are being called and apparently all who have arrived so far for the pre-program orientation are trying to socialize. I peep in and sigh. All sorts of pleasantries are being furiously exchanged in every table. Hello. May I join you? Sure, of course. Oh, I like your outfit. Thank You. I like YOUR outfit. Where are you from? Yeah, what a classy place I've heard. I would like to go there someday. Oh yeah, I'm sure you're totally in love with how interesting a person I am. I should probably compliment you on how good you are at this pretence. I hate small talk. That is the end of that.

I walk straight to the table where boys from my school (group) are sitting, exchange brief "hellos and hi-s," dump my ass on a chair and get my cell phone out, start texting. What an introverted self-obsessed bitch I am. But no. I don't hate people or anything. Getting to know another person can get as interesting as reading a story. In fact I LOVE people as long as they are not trying to intrude my personal space, which I so very much need. But I'm a nightmare at introducing myself. Very very awkward. I do better socially when people recommend themselves to me.

A while later I think maybe I'm being rude and Heck! Let's just give it a shot anyway. I walk to this table and have a nice little chit-chat with Oh-Miss-High-School-Prom-Queen. Thankfully, an instructor comes to the rescue and addresses all the gathered. He then asks us all to introduce ourselves to the room. We do that and then he assures us that we are all going to be great friends here, life-long friends actually. I sure do hope so. We are dismissed but my group members and I are called to finish this personality-quiz sort of survey which we didn't complete online. Then, I head back to my room to freshen up and I see bags lying around the other bed; roomie must've finally arrived. Anyway, this is what I expect I will do today:-

1. Take shower and change into something more comfortable

2. Have dinner at 6 (according to the schedule pamphlet)

3. Come back right after and have a sound sleeeeeeeeeeeeepppppppppp!

To my horror and dismay, right after dinner we are called for group meetings that will last about until 10 O' Clock! Whaaaaaaaaatttt!?? I am sorted into Valencia (one of the four orange groups) and Mr. Francis, our faculty advisor, rants on about what we can expect to achieve from this program. A nice guy he is though- really nice. Before we leave for the day, he hands us all the results of our personality assessment. According to Global Youth Leadership Conference (GYLC), there are four dimensions or style of human behavior (especially in corporate environment): Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Conscientiousness. These results are supposed to tell you what kind of a leader or a team member you will one day most probably be. Getting through the statistics of how much percent of each I am, the bottom line is: I am mainly "dominant". Typical, Huda.

At the end of the day, I find myself in a very different scene in my room. Roommates- there are two of them. One from somewhere inside USA and the other from Slovakia. A movable bed has been placed near the window so as to accommodate all three of us. We ask each other "What's your name?" and "where you from?" in turns. Yeah, that's about it.

Finally it is 10:30 and we just had room check. I am going to thrash in bed right now, just right after I talk over the phone with my mom. I miss her already. I am going to enjoy sleeping tonight. For the first time in my life, I have got a large bed all to myself and four pillows to surround me on all sides.

Love Always

Huda