School is over ..

Hello friends ..
on Thursday (3/5)we had a small party in our school , it lasted for one hour and half , but we had a great time, a lot of food , music , and dancing! And what made me really glad is that "R" finally didn't wear black nor dark clothes ..
I was really busy with my monthly exams (as usual ) and I didn't get the results I was expecting , but my marks are still not bad.
I am really tired and can't wait till the summer holiday .
My final par is higher than 90% in 11 subjects which mean I won't have to attend the final exams, except for 2 subjects Arabic and chemistry ..
I felt upset because of the Arabic , because it isn't my fault , I have high marks in grammar and literature but the teacher gave me 14 out of 20 in the daily homework which made my mark lower , that was unfair, I always do my homework ,she also gave us low marks in the phrasing ,I took 20 out of 25 !!! , and when I told her , she said" shush , you are not the only one, sit down". 4 girls have 90% only ! , I have to study Arabic and chemistry hard and get high marks ,
Today ( Tuesday 15/5) I had my Arabic oral exam , the written exam will be on 24/5 , and the chemistry exam will be on 26 /5 , wish me luck.
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I have plans for my summer holiday, I want to improve my French , I bought two books and a CD. They are very useful, and I'll also teach my mom French , it was her dream to learn another language , I'll have interviews , and a friend of mine asked me to translate stories, I would love to do that , it will be FUN…
I want to make more handmade work , and of course write posts and answer my E-mails . there is a book in Arabic called " Al mustatraf fee kuli fanin mustathraf " it is a great book , I read it once in Baghdad , about 2 years a go ,grandma sent it to my mom , I'll read it again , it is the greatest book I've ever read .
I'll visit my friend "H" whenever I get the chance , I didn't see her since last summer holiday , I miss her a lot , we are not in the same school , she is one year older , she will be really busy preparing for the sixth class, and the home schooling , she is smart , she want to go to the pharmacy collage, there is various professions among her family members , 2 doctors , a dentist , a lawyer ,and two teachers .
Her brother Dr.M, was in Baghdad with his wife , she had a medical exam there, , she is taking the Diploma, her husband had to leave her alone , and come back to Mosul , because their little daughters (2 years old , and 6 months old) didn't stop crying and calling for their parents , anyway , when he reached Mosul ,terrorists start to shoot at his car, he was injured in his shoulder , he didn't tell his parents , , he told his parents that it was late and that he would go to the hospital because he had a shift in the next day.. he went directly to the hospital , his friends there took care of him and sucked the blood from his lungs……
Next morning , he called his parents and told them the truth , and asked them not to tell his wife Dr. B.
After she finished her exam , she came back to Mosul , and knew everything, Dr. M had a surgery , he is doing ok now.
Thank god for his safety, I am really happy for his two little daughters , wife , and family ..
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we celebrated my mom's birthday , and my brother's birthday , we had a nice time.. we also went to my relative' Nishan , I had fun.
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I get a lot of E-mails asking me about my life in Iraq , and telling me how the media doesn’t show our real lives, I had an interview with Melissa Walker (she is really nice) , in flip magazine , and I started to receive so many E-mails from teenagers specially from USA, who kept asking me questions about my life , friends , clothes !!! they had wrong ideas about the Iraqi teens and I am so happy they changed their opinions ..
One of my interviews was canceled , I had one with a radio , and I will have one with al- jazeear soon, I am really excited .. I love interviews..
Sunshine .
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Now , your questions time
I got this question from a reader (Mary) asking me about my faith .
How do you feel about the US presence ?
people ask me that question a lot ..
well , scared , worried, confused, I don’t trust them , because they killed our eldest uncle as I mentioned before , as well as many innocents. But there are absolutely good soldiers like those I met in the airport ,but in the first year of the invasion , I used to feel safe when they were around , but now , I try to be as far as possible . my feelings changed , because they are not the same soldiers who freed us .
I don't know what to say , once my father's cousin celebrated his birthday with them, the US soldiers spent few months in his dad's building (that was in the first few months of the invasion). My friend's brother made friendship with some soldiers, he used to bring them Iraqi dishes (they loved Dolma and Biryani ). We see each other in the markets , they used to salute us , but now , we drive as hurry as we can if we see them coming , we try to avoid them , because if a mine exploded they shoot randomly .. we don’t feel safe, neither them because of the terrorists who ruin our lives ..


I am curious to know more about your faith - the holidays you observe and what they mean. and the traditions you have around marriage. I don't know any Muslims and I feel it’s important to understand other religions in order to build respect for other people and to understand the differences and similarities of other faiths

My biggest question for you is about heaven. What is heaven to you? How does a person get there? Do you believe these good deeds earn your way into heaven? Is there a book that you would recommend to give us a true understanding of the basics of your faith?

Well , we celebrate 4 feasts , one last for 3 days it comes after the fasting month "Ramadan" , the other feast when people go to Mecca and it last for 4 days , our prophet's birthday ,as well as the Islamic new year (the memory when our prophet left Mecca to Al -madeena ).
About heaven, people go there if they do the right things , like if they don't lie , don't cheat , don't kill , don't humbug, love each other , etc .
And yes, I believe these good deeds earn the way into heaven, I would recommend the holy Quran , if you want to know more about Islam , it is like the bible , because they are from the same god.
About marriages I wrote a post about that .
Many people ask me if we have arranged marriages , NOOOOOOOOOO we don’t have arranged marriages ,it breaks my hear what people in the west think like that about us. I wrote a post about the weddings in Iraq few months ago.

For more questions E-mail me on livesstrong92@yahoo.com