Author Archives: Farrah Berrou

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10 Things That Instantly Make You Feel Like a 7 Year Old…And You Like It.

Mott’s Applesauce

1. Laughing so hard that coke/milk/ice cream (yes, it can happen) comes out of your nose. You feel quite attractive and the tickling sensation in your nostrils reminds you that you shouldn’t be out in public except on national holidays.

2. Ring pops, candy necklaces, tootsie rolls and applesauce. Nothing like good ole sugary jewelry and Mott’s to do the trick. That and you’re on a sugar rush for about 30 minutes.

3. When mom says she made your favorite tabkha, or home-cooked meal, and your other siblings complain that you’re the favorite. Part of you believes it too. Maniacal laugh, maniacal laugh, maniacal laugh.

4. The smell of crayons.

5. When white glue dries on your hands and you peel it off like your a molting snake. Okay, maybe that one’s just me.

6. McDonald’s Happy Meals. And the toys. Why can’t they make one with a Big Mac?

7. Presents. Basically anything wrapped in paper or in a giftbag. As long as it’s not undies from your grandma or a giftcard. Come on people, if you’re going to do that, just fork over cash. At least then I’m not forced to spend your money in the not-for-sale section of ABC, therefore causing me to pay the difference for my present.

8. People singing “Happy Birthday” to you…in 3 languages because we’re arrogant trilinguals. I actually don’t enjoy this prolonged moment of attention while you watch candle wax get all over the frosting on your cake and all you’re thinking is “wow, they spelled my name wrong again.”

9. CANNONBALL!

10. Stepping on crispy fallen leaves. The loud crunch under your feet makes you feel like you just squashed a village with your powerful godly step. “Beware village to the north, I shall crush thee.”

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Brisk & Pret

I have mentioned this previously in the Hamra Coffee Shops post but I wanted to dedicate an entire post to the comparison of these two establishments:
Brisk and Pret.

Brisk is an organic healthy pitstop in Hamra equipped with coffee from Canadian Gloria Jean’s. Pret is an organic healthy pitstop all over London equipped with coffee from…Pret. As far as I can tell, Brisk was modeled after Pret because of many similar factors:

1) The packaged-food shelves
2) The recycling project
3) The whole general mission of the place as a business (organic, fresh everyday, go green)

Just look at them here:

Brisk Packaged-Food Shelves
Pret Packaged-Food Shelves
Brisk Recycling Station
Pret Recycling Station
Brisk’s Mission
Pret’s Mission

Seems pretty similar, no?

UPDATE AS OF MARCH 2013:
Brisk now donates its daily leftovers to Foodblessed, a local NGO that gives surplus meals to the needy – another similarity with Pret

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The 3 Ps of London

London…

(or as I call it LANDAN – I refer to it as such due to a lovely scene from Forgetting Sarah Marshall and for those of you who do not use movie quotes as a form of communication, the clip is below):

1. PRIMARK

This place is the bomb dot com. Yes, I just said that. It’s scary how much you don’t need practically everything you will buy from this place but you will buy it anyway because it’s so damn cheap. The quality isn’t amazing but it’s good enough to last you a year or so – however, the tights, leggings and pjs have a pretty good lifespan. Most sets go from 4 to 8 pounds which is awesomesauce when you see how expensive everything else is in the UK. I recommend packing one outfit and then just loading your suitcase with Primark stuff because you can literally buy a whole wardrobe for under 200 pounds.  Although you will be wondering how on earth it is possible to do this – part of me is afraid to find out – you will also find it thrilling especially after being in a country that sells plain shirts for over $400. Lebanon, I’m talking about you.
Tip: If you can, go in the morning when they first open (8:30 am). There’s less people and you might actually bother to go into the fitting rooms. Or you’ll just buy it anyway because it’s barely $5.

People Primarking

I primarked my heart out.

I don’t know if you noticed but I made it a verb.

2. PRET

This place is virtually everywhere and that is not a complaint. It’s got coffee and good food – and when I say good I mean it’s got 3 of the best qualities wrapped into environmentally friendly packaging: fresh, cheap and healthy. AND IT TASTES GOOD. All food is made the same day and whatever is left over is donated to charities. They’ve got croissants, sandwiches, yogurt cups, juices, sushi, chips, gingerbread men…a smorgasbord of yum. If you want something like it that’s closer to home, Brisk in Hamra is modeled after the same sort of format; more info here.

Sandwiches, Sushi, Salads

My favorite breakfast

3. PUBLIC TRANSPORT

The metro, or “tube”, along with buses, cabs and trains make up what is the massive network of public transportation. Although there is a tendency to have lines closed due to maintenance issues, being able to get across town in a few minutes is really convenient. Plus you see some interesting characters along the way – just like service taxi drivers here give you some good stories to tell your friends, public transport in London will give you the occasional show. For example, a little toddler singing Spiderman songs that eventually morphed into “I needa wee wee, wee wee, wee wee”. It was stuck in my head all afternoon. It’s organized and really easy to follow – if only we could get a genie to make one for us here.

Mind the gap between the train and the platform

Oxford Circus

Piccadilly

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10 Good Things LAU Has That Its Students Keep a Secret


1. Kaak at Upper Gate. A small little food cart near the entrance to Malik’s Bookshop serves up the traditional Lebanese kaak squished in an antique George Forman grill so it’s toasty and pancaked. It’s sliced in two pieces so you can conveniently eat it in between classes. It’s got kiri cheese spread, tomatoes and angel tears. And you can add harr, or chili pepper, for zing.


2. Nescafe. A van parked outside Upper Gate pumps out more caffeine than all 4 Starbucks located within the 5 mile radius of the campus. It’s good and cheap like Manara’s Uncle Deek.


3. There is no Upper Gate and Lower Gate. This is just to differentiate two entrances but there is hardly enough incline between them to differentiate them based on elevation like AUB’s two gates. But there are stairs between them. Just not the kind that will make your kidneys cry.


4. The library. It’s huge and loaded with tons of books that are virtually unopened because they’re so new. It’s got spinning reclining chairs and you’re allowed to eat snacks inside.


5. The lack of Bliss Street right outside. The strip of food franchises does not exist which saves your ass from becoming a bigger one.


6. Much like Avis Rent-a-car’s old campaign, the fact that LAU is second best in Lebanon (in general reputation at least) makes them try harder. They’re always trying to be better.


7. Around the big holidays, they go the extra mile with decorations and figurines. The number of poinsettias during the Christmas season is enough to make it seem like the reproduced December-inspired scene from Wizard of Oz where Dorothy is in a sea of flowers on her way to the Emerald City…or Nicol Hall in this case.


8. Socrate Catering in the cafeteria. And for basically any other social event held on campus. Who doesn’t love bite-size everythings?


9. Free printing. The library and certain department labs allow for free printing up to a specific amount (in the hundreds, and thousands for paper-loving majors).


10. Financial Aid and Honor Scholarships for high cGPAs. Although most people think of LAU as being the snobby-rich-kid university that has valet parking (that’s actually not for the university), it helps out a lot of the students financially if they deserve it. 

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Let’s Just Act Like That Never Happened…

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If you had the power to wipe out a memory and replace it with a new one, what would you do with that power? Would you use it on those around you or just on yourself? Both?


Perhaps it can be argued that it is not up to you to decide which memories others should be robbed of. However, when it comes to yourself, maybe there are certain events you’d like to shove out of your mind. We all know the arguments of making mistakes and having no regrets. You learn from them, they shape you, it’s a fact of life, cliche, cliche, bumper sticker, bumper sticker. 


So if you could really act like “that” never happened, what would your “that” (or thats) be? 


Here are a few I thought of:

  • Heartbreak: erasing the memory of literal heartburn so that the good memories of love don’t sting. This would be like when Dr. Dolittle removed that little white piece from the tiger’s brain and he had no pain. 
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  • Financial decisions: erasing the memory of you deciding not to buy 500 shares of Apple when they were only $30 a piece. 
    • Source



But if you erased such things, what part of you would change and what guarantee is there that it would be for the better? What if that event was the butterfly effect for other positive things in your life? Does erasing heartbreak erase how you feel towards the one who did it? How you feel towards one who still could in the future? What would being a millionaire have changed? (Stop thinking about the Maserati)

Even small events that still poke you like a stepped-on lego on the floor may have some significance. Maybe there is an alternate version of our realities where those events went another way and, thus, our lives went another way.  Or maybe, just maybe, life is exactly what it’s supposed to be and we just have to have faith.

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    8 Pet Peeves that Occur Within the Confines of Your Own Room

    1. The laptop charger keeps falling out of the socket every time you place your buttocks far enough that you have to get up to go back and plug it in.


    2. You get settled in under the covers with just the right arrangement of pillows fluffed around your head and you found that cool spot that you put one foot on, while the other one just barely pokes out of the blanket. You’re about to sleep and then you realize…your light is still on.


    3. You slam the door shut only to hear that magic “click” that means that stupid little part of the lock that’s supposed to keep the door shut (the bolt?) has gone rogue and kamikazed itself against the doorframe…and your door nonchalantly swings back open. If it could sing, it would be doing a wonderful rendition of that annoying taunt classmates used to do when you’d play tag and they’d make it to “safe” before you got them.


    4. Your closet door has learned from his rogue relative. As you rummage through drawers and various items of clothing, the closet door insists on stealthily creaking open every time you try to close it. If you’re lucky, it’ll hit you in the bum when you’re not looking. Repeatedly.


    5. The window is open because it’s sunny and there’s a breeze instead of the thick humidity monster typical of those impending sticky summer months of doom. The air is nice until it decides to send your papers flying across the room. It’s never as whimsical as it seems in the movies.


    6. LeBron James ain’t got nothing on you. That ball of a failed masterpiece is going to make it into the trashcan without you even trying. Hell, you wish it could swish for you. Why did it just bounce off the rim? I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU JUST COSTED US GAME 7. Kobe gets MVP. AGAIN.


    7. The drapes have gone all Angelina-at-the-Golden-Globes, allowing that beautiful sunlight to splash on your head…wonderful rays of happiness. Only problem is it’s still 6:30 am and those slits in the drapery could very well be the slits in your wrists since you’ve got another hour before that alarm goes off like a steamboat is coming straight for your face. 


    8. The alarm goes off like a steamboat is coming straight for your face. 

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    10 Excuses To Be Unproductive That Only Make Sense in Your Head

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    1.) You just ate lunch and you need to digest before you can do anything that requires a lot of brainpower. Because your brain didn’t absorb all the power of the falafel sandwich yet.

    2.) It’s 4:48pm, you might as well wait until it’s 5:00 on the dot to start working because the 12 minutes won’t really make a difference and you don’t like working at weird time intervals that are not multiples of 5…or 30.

    3.) You didn’t have your coffee yet and, therefore, you are about as useful as a chewed-on unsharpened pencil without an eraser.

    4.) You paid a lot of money for that playstation/xbox/wii. It’d all be in vain if you didn’t use it. There are children dying in Africa.  You should appreciate what you have.

    5.) The task at hand was only a suggestion. You don’t HAVE to do it today. Or ever.

    6.) It’s Thursday. That’s practically the weekend. It IS the weekend in Saudi Arabia.

    7.) You’re just resting your eyes.

    8.) You’re always told to seize the moment, don’t waste your time doing mundane tasks that no one will remember in 6 months. Carpe diem and stuff. You’re not going to flunk that class or get fired just because you decided to live…off of food stamps.

    9.) You need to tweet some interesting links because social media is the new way to market yourself and stay up-to-date and connected. Everyone knows the latest way to a quick hire is tweeting about trending topics and #mileypregnant.

    10.) You need to download new music so you can have a soundtrack for when you start working.

    Thanks for reading this and being really productive.