Sunday, July 26, 2009

What's been happening...

I have not been keeping up with the blog for a while now. Not that I'm busy, rather just taking it easy and not inflicting any pressure on myself, be it blogging or other commitments. I finally joined Facebook; I resisted it for a while though. At first, it seemed full of dawsha and very chaotic, but now that I got the hang of it, I like it. I connected with long lost friends, going back to school days in Libya.

I have finished my treatment in end of April and it took a long time for the side effects of the chemo to subside. I still have the nausea though and I'm getting really tired of it. Today, I weighed myself and I'm 5 pounds less. My weight stabilized for the last couple of months, but it seems to be going down again. I don't have clothes that fit me anymore, and I don't want to buy yet. I have been buying clothes and after couple of weeks, they become loose on me. I had a CT-Scan in June, and a mammogram recently. Thankfully, both were clean. My next CT-Scan is in September. My hair is still falling out a lot, I hope it stops!

My li'l brother, Ayman, is in Germany preparing for his PhD. It is nice to have him, Amal, and the kids closer. His son, Abdelrahim, was born on May 20 in Dussledorf. He is so cute, can't wait to hold him!

My niece, Shatha, passed the high school national exam (in libya) with a 90%! I'm so proud of you Shosho. I tried, and was hoping, that she would come and spend the summer with us, but it ain't gonna happen this summer. She's going to Germany instead.

On July 4th, we went to Chicago and spent a lovely time with Magda and Tawfik.

My friend, Nadia, has her sister and 4 kids visiting her from overseas. I'm so happy for them, but envy them at the same time.

I still have not decide on the Tibra Awards this year. I feel I'm not up to the pressure yet, but at the same time it hurts to see Tibra idle. Gotta make up my mind soon. Actually, gotta pick up my life where I left it last September. Nothing feels the same anymore. Sometimes I feel good about how far I've come and the outcome of the treatment and the prognosis, but other times I feel down knowing how vulnerable I am, and fearing the unknown of what's to come with every test. I need to get over it soon and enjoy things more. I need to snap out of it.
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Friday, July 17, 2009

Misrata Gets Lioness' Share of Top-10 Honors, Again!

The results of Libyan national exams are out for this year. For some background on the subject, and some analysis, check my post from last year on the subject.

For this year, the Libyan education ministry published the top-10 lists for "middle schools" (9th grade) and for high schools (12th grade). This year's high school data set is smaller because, so far, they only published the overall "top-10" list, i.e., the top student in each specialty, unlike last year's data which included the top-10 students for each of nine specialties. In fact this year's list is strictly a top-7 list because they just left out two specialties (Media Arts and Fine Arts) which had pretty dismal numbers last year. I wonder if they were left out because no one passed in those specialties?

The numbers this year are not much different from last year. The girls dominate the scene by a huge margin, and on the geographic distribution Misrata shines like a lighthouse. Again, you can read my post from last year for more detailed thoughts and evaluations... But now, and without further ado, here are the numbers for 2009.






Congratulations and best wishes to all these promising young people.

To the Libyan education authorities: When will you start recognizing and spreading the success of Misrata to other places?

To the Misrati stars in particular: I notice you with pride. You go girls!