A Local Encounter that Changed my Perspective - Such a sweetheart

anteeka — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 05:21:06 GMT

“@#^$*&^#%@&!!!!”
I did not understand a word, but I was shocked and trembling for a while when the Royal guard of the Amalienborg palace yelled at me. His cold blue eyes were haunting me fiercely. His machine gun seemed ready to shoot my head, though it was still there standing up straight in the left shoulder of their folded arms. The excitement of my Copenhagen exploration was suddenly crumbled by one sentence of rough Danish accent.
The royal guards reminded me of the British army guard whom was made fun by Mr.Bean. The image of the silly guard in his busby made me think to sneak out behind him when he was walking to the other side of the gate. There were these cute red sentry boxes standing between each gate where they hanged their red coat up on the hook inside it. My husband wanted me to run to one of them, as he wanted to take a picture of me and the cute box.
My mood was ruined, I hated Denmark already. Shortly we just walked away from the palace. The freezing December snow made my bladder’s mood bad as well. After walking a couple of blocks through Amaliegade street, I needed to go for a pee so badly. Unfortunately, we could not find any public toilet. So, we kept walking down the road and turned left onto Esplanade street. On that street, we only had one option, Kafferiet cafe. The very small cafe looked like a typical old style of Danish building painted in light green. After the traumatic guard yelling incident, I was a bit reluctant to go inside the cafe just to ask if I could use their bathroom without buying anything. But I went in anyway.
The smell of espresso was dancing and clinging in the tip of my nose. I heard several people talking in a strong Danish accent as I walked closer to the coffee bar. There was only this young girl working in the cafe. She was pretty sweaty, yet wearing this sweet brown sweater. Her hands skillfully touched the coffee machine and made the coffee orders.
I told her my intention hesitantly. She looked at me and smiled friendly.
“oh sweety, dont worry about it, please use the bathroom as much as you need it”.
I went back from the bathroom, and thanked her. But, I changed my mind. I told my husband that I decided to have a cup of hot chocolate in Kafferiet. While she was making my order, we asked direction to the Little Mermaid. When we were ready to leave, she said,
“you can come here again, if you need a bathroom after your Mermaid tour”.
Behind their rough accent, Danish people are such a sweetheart.

My Scholarship entry - Seeing the world through other eyes

anteeka — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 11:16:00 GMT

Many friends of mine got an arranged marriage in their 14. yet, I was so into studying, especially in English class. My English teacher said that the language would be very important in the future. I could work or apply for an overseas scholarship for a better life. My parents were in poverty, and did not even have electricity; nevertheless, I made it through university to study English literature, in which I was supported by a religious muslim community that unwittingly dragged me deep into their teaching.

Shortly, I was completely integrated in it, and took every teaching for granted. I blindly became religious and kind-hearted to people from the same religion, particularly from the same community. But, discrediting other beliefs/religious communities, especially the Jews, was a part of the propaganda. Everything seemed right.

In February 2007, I got my first chance to participate in a youth program, in the UK, where I met youths from the UK, the US, Palestine and Israel. It was a golden moment where I could meet my ‘siblings’ from Palestine. I was surrounded by a massive excitement in London Heathrow, though I lost my luggage. The airport officer said that it would be sent to my contact address in London. It did not make me less excited, but it really did when I found out that Noa was my roommate in the program guesthouse.

She was in the Israeli army. I was completely not communicative, not interactive with her either. However, losing my luggage really mattered. I had no adequate jackets, no socks, not even a sachet of shampoo; at least until the program provided them. She then started unloading her luggage, and stopped for a moment to say:
‘Hey, I have spare scarf and socks for you. And feel free to use my shampoo too’. We ended up exchanging stories about our life, our being as religious believers and citizens. It left me an intrusive feeling that reevaluated my life, my belief.

This world is not only round. It could be like a box, or a triangle.

The World is not 'Round'

A Local Encounter that Changed my Perspective - Such a sweetheart

My Scholarship entry - Seeing the world through other eyes