On The Elections

So as most of you know, the last 2 days were the presidential elections. Now this is the first time most of us voted in the last 30 years! I'm going to be 22 this July and my whole life (literally) has been in Mubarak's era. After last year's revolution on the 25th of January, we Egyptians were proud that we could topple the regime and for the first time in decades, we felt that we can actually make a difference.

Yes, people lost their lives during that struggle for freedom, people younger than me even but we kept fighting, thinking that none of these lives would go to waste and their blood would not be soaked up into the earth and forgotten. 

Dipping your finger signifies that you have already given your vote.

But alas, most of us couldn't get through this weekend without getting depressed. The unofficial results were published today and people are not happy. People will say: Didn't you want democracy? Isn't this what the people chose? You should respect the people's choice, why are you upset? Just to be clear, I'm not into politics, I don't talk about it and I'm not going to start now but what I'm going to say is merely how I think WITHOUT me having to go in-depth about politics and pretending I know what I'm talking about.

Okay, so the democracy thing, I say yes and no to that and I'll explain why. Yes because this time around, things were done differently, our votes actually counted and we could vote for anyone we want without feeling someone's breathing down our necks. No because considering the percentage of people who are uneducated and those who can't even read or write, you can't really consider their votes as "valid" if you know what I mean. 

Let me tell you a story that happened to me the day I went to vote, just to put things into a better perspective. My mother and I went to the public school late afternoon and surprisingly found no lines, so we went straight in. With us was a less fortunate women of a lower class, who seemed to be in her late 50's or early 60's. Very nicely she asked us while giving us a little piece of crumpled paper: is this a good man? As my mom and I looked at the paper we found written Hamadeen Sabbahy. We smiled and told her yes he is, we're voting for him too. She smiled and said that her son was the one who wrote that piece of paper for her and warned not to vote for the man who had posters plastered all over the bus stop as he'll mess up the country (our guess was it was either Mohamed Morsi or Ahmed Shafik). As it was her turn, the woman obviously could not read and so required the assistance of someone to tell her which name matches the one she has. She voted as did we and we all left with hope in our hearts and the feeling of a brighter tomorrow.

The point of this story is to show that this is the majority of Egyptians, sad but true. Not necessarily illiterate but what I meant by uneducated was, they don't even have the minimum amount of information on any of the candidates and so they end up voting for someone because either everyone else is or because they were told to. "Going with the flow" isn't the mentality to have when it comes to a serious matter like selecting our next president. 

In my opinion, this war our main problem.

We have been living in the dark too long, too long for us to do it to ourselves again! I'm not going to get into a debate about who should and shouldn't have won (that's a whole other story) but you start questioning things when at the last minute, one of the people who was basically shot-down during the revolution, kicked out of the office and the only candidate to have shoes thrown at (yes it happened) gets into second place  and actually has a shot at winning this election! I really can't fathom the people who convincingly and sanely voted for this man, what are they thinking and what do they think he could possibly do for this country? I do realize however, that some people voted for one person in fear of the other and not because they were convinced that this is the right person they should vote for.

I keep thinking did this revolution fail? Did all these kids, young and old men die for nothing? Did people lose their eyesight in vain? Did women get harassed and raped just for them to go through it all over again?! 

To be honest, I don't know what will happen if either Morsi or Shafik won. I'm trying not be pessimistic but one thing is obvious: we don't need a new president, we need new people as well. 

On Complaining and Depression

Judging by the title you might think "Oh no not another rant post" or that this is going to be a post about how I hate everything right now and that everything basically sucks. On the contrary, I'm really happy with what's happening in my life at the moment. Sure, it's hectic and there's a lot of things I wish I could do but I'm satisfied nonetheless. 

The reason I'm writing this post is because I'm sick. Not physically but I'm just tired of seeing the same old scenarios being replayed in front of me. How many times have we encountered that one person who is always complaining about his/her ex? How many times have we heard someone go on and on about how everything in his/her life is wrong? 

I know the phrase "Life is too short" is used repeatedly and in any situation, but I believe it to be true. One keeps pondering on insignificant things that in a "few" years he'll look back and think: what have I been doing with my life? The thing is, I believe one can make himself happy or depressed. I'm not saying if something bad happens don't get upset and be all insensitive about it but give it its time and then move on. That's the thing, life goes on, it doesn't wait for you to go get that special someone or that dream job you've always wanted. Instead of feeling degraded you can get up and do something about it. 

Sometimes people need an outsider to lend them a hand and that's alright, there's no shame in that. No one can go through his life without aid. When I read stories about other people's hardships in life and how they made it it makes me think "Wow!" These people had no homes or jobs or families and yet they made it, and we, on the other hand, complain about our exes, jobs, parents, etc. Makes you feel insignificant, doesn't it?

Español!

I have to say that Spain is absolutely one of my favorite places to go to in Europe! I've been to Barcelona twice and it gets harder each time when I have to fly back home. People over there are super friendly and the restaurants and cafes are just cozy that you fit right in. 

I just LOVE food and one thing I make sure I do when I travel is of course indulge myself in local cuisine. As many of you know, Spain's most known dish is the paella (it's not really their national dish though); it's mainly rice with lots of different sea food tossed in like shrimps and mussels, sometimes beef and vegetables too. It may not look all that enticing to some of you but it tastes A LOT better than it looks so you have to give it a try if you ever get the chance. 

Also, they're very known for tapas, which basically are appetizers. They put a lot of thought into their tapas and some bars even serve them with your drink, and there are restaurants just for tapas. One of my absolute favorites was patates bravas (Spanish for fierce potatoes); it's basically boiled potatoes covered in spicy tomato sauce. And I've been craving them ever since! So I found this little recipe that can help me (and you) to have patates bravas anytime! This definitely trumps fries and ketchup!

I love this restaurant! It was really warm and cozy and we felt right at home. 

Patatas Bravas ingredients:

(for approximately 6 tapas portions)

1½kg of peeled potatoes
Olive oil to fry the potatoes in

Bravas sauce:

1 onion finely chopped
1 clove of garlic also finely chopped
6 ripe tomatoes chopped - about 600g
1 teaspoon of sugar (optional)
3 dried chillis
1 or 2 teaspoon of hot paprika - depends on how spicy you like your food
1 level soup spoon of plain flour
approx. 200ml of water
1 teaspoon of sherry vinegar or wine vinegar
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Preparation:

Peel the potatoes, chop them into smallish chunks and boil them for about 5-10 minutes in salt water.  Then leave them to cool.

For the bravas sauce fry the onion, garlic and the dried chillis gently in some olive oil until the onions turn transparent - this should take about 10 minutes.  Then remove from the heat, add the paprika and stir this in.  Add the chopped tomatoes and the sugar, return the mix to the heat and simmer gently for about 5 minutes.  The sugar is added to take any bitterness out of the tomatoes - this is optional as you may find it too sweet with the sugar.

Mix the flour with some water and then stir this into the sauce, add the 200 ml of water and leave to simmer for about 15 minutes to reduce the sauce.

Now you should blend the mix either in a food blender or using a hand held blender.  Once you've done this pass the mix through a sieve to remove the tomato skin and seeds.  You should then end up with a nice thick bravas sauce.

Enjoy!