On my way to Toronto, right before the Canadian border, I stopped in a rest area to grab a bite. This was on Saturday earlier this week. The minute I got off the car, I noticed something jumping in the grass and I instinctively caught it. It was a tiny frog that I now call Prince Charming:

As a child, I always caught fat frogs in our family farm in Jordan. I remember that one day, in the garden around our Karaki house, I caught a really fat frog and I think I might have squeezed him too much and he peed on me. That was hilarious!

This little fellow though was quite friendly…

Expect more posts about my Canadian trip very soon. I have time on my hands now and I can write. In the meantime, how have you been?

Contrary to popular belief, I am still alive and having a great time in Canada. Just too busy seeing things and doing things right now so I can’t get myself to sit around and write something valuable and/or coherent. And oh, I only saw one moose so far and it was made of plastic.

Sorry folks, will blog when humanly possible…

You heard me right. I am leaving to Toronto - Canada first thing tomorrow morning. I’m super excited because I will get to see my Canadian uncles and cousins and it’s been so long since I last saw them. And you know, it’s twisted in a way but I click with them better than I click with my Jordanian uncles and cousins. Go figure, huh?

So as you might have guessed already, this means I had to pack again. This time though I did it in a more structured way and my “fictitious yet possible scenarios” were much better than, say, when I packed for Michigan in 2005 and slightly better than when I packed for New York.

I do not have any plans or expectations on where to go and what to see in Toronto. But that’s perfectly OK because I believe I will have a great time with my uncles and that they will take care of all my sightseeing needs. I bet my uncle will still beat me at cards, too!

At the risk of repeating myself and coming across as a complete numskull; I’m still going to say I’m super excited to go to Canada! If you’re there and want to meet up, drop me a line and we’ll see what we can cook. No promises.

I wonder what it is with girls and ponies… I’ve always wanted a black horse.

So a couple of hours ago I went to an Arabic food store called Ya Hala, you know, to buy some food supplies meshan el tabeekh. Mosh ino ana ba3raf atbokh ya3ni…

The minute I stepped into the store I discovered that speaking Arabic and getting away with some nasty remarks just doesn’t work in this store. Everyone, and I mean everyone, spoke Arabic. Even the Mexican guy by the deli section!!!

The place is owned by a Palestinian man and it had everything to make me feel at home in el balad, downtown Amman. Arageel, samnet el ghazal, roz masri, freekeh, borghol, jebneh, labaneh… and almost everything was made in Lebanon. So I concluded that Lebanese people are either really smart or their stuff is just very cheap.

The visit to the store was like a brief trip home. So refreshing, but you don’t want to stay there for long.

I just woke up from a nice nap, regretting that I spent the day at home instead of going to Manhattan. Just when I was about to start counting my stupid points, I saw that some news on TV were talking about an explosion in NYC.

A steam pipe obviously exploded very close to Grand Central, which is the station I would have used to arrive to NYC and to head home.

Imagine that! If I were there today, I would have possibly been hurt by the explosion or simply stuck as the police closed the streets and the people ran around. Horrible!

This reminds me of the Amman bombings and how close I was to getting hurt back then. This is freaky…

I seem to always pick the most attitudesque and verbal T-shirts to wear. Today I had a red “Too hot to handle” T-shirt on complete with a drawing of dynamite and everything.

I went to Madison Avenue today and its being a Sunday, the street was closed and stands were all over the place selling everything from shawls to accessories to metal toys to Chinese antiques to shish kabob to smoothies to portraits to bras. It was amazing and an Egyptian young man gave me free coke because we’re, um, Arabs. It was really sweet of him. I always love it when someone says salam and says I’m their sister when they see me in the street. It gives me a nice feeling of friendliness and having something in common with otherwise perfect strangers in a strange city.

One of the most fascinating and creative things I have ever seen I found at a Metal Park stand. The people behind this company are really brilliant, look at what they make out of scrap and motorcycle parts:

I bought so many useless, but very pretty, things today. One of them was a Metal Park figure, others were copper monkeys and small marble animals, bags and rings and other cool things. Hey, that rhymed!

After shopping I bought grilled corn from that Egyptian young man, and got my free coke, and I even bought a skewer of very fresh chocolate-coated strawberries. I love eating and shopping in the open air, it’s so refreshing.

So then I went to pier 85 and hopped on a cruise boat for a three hour cruise around Manhattan. I had such a great time and I saw everything there is to see from the rivers surrounding this marvelous city, including the Statue of Liberty:

I give today a full mark, no other day has ever earned this rating. It was perfect; the weather, the shopping, the setting, the people, the sightseeing, tutto! Ahhh… long live Sundays like this one!

Bronx Zoo