It is Eid Al Fitr

Hi again ! :-)... It's been rather a long time since I last wrote on this blog eh ?! Tomorrow is the start of the Eid Al Fitr holiday in Iraq, which will last until Sunday the 5th of October Inshallah... Eid Al Fitr holiday comes straight after the end of Holy Ramadan, the fasting month for practicing Muslims...
Yesterday I went with my older sister to my college... I asked her to take a one-day leave from her work place and come with me because I didn't feel comfortable going out alone, and because my sister is one of the best sisters you can ever have, she agreed immediately to do what I asked from her to do, so we went to my college together, me and her, along with our faithful driver Abu Layal... I am going to tell you guys of what we saw during our exciting journey :
The streets were extremely crowded with cars and people... Iraqi and American security forces filled the streets... There were so many military check points down there where almost every civilian car passing through is being checked out carefully for any possible security threat (like sticker bombs and stuff alike... Sticker bombs are a new trend in ''THEIR'' war against innocent Iraqi civilians, and they're being imported from Iraq's neighbouring countries)... The vast majority of the main streets in Baghdad are being blocked by the Iraqi and American security forces, only very few main streets are open for the movement of civilian cars, and that's caused an extremely intolerable traffic jam that's really annoying...
Now here comes the crucial question : Why did we go to my college yesterday ?! And the answer is : Inorder to buy us new clothes for the Eid and my new academic year ! Yeah, that's true, although I am totally aware how strange it seem, but let me try to explain myself a little bit more :
I live in Al Karradah neighbourhood in Baghdad, which is considered to be one of the classiest and most beautiful districts in the whole Iraqi capital... There're many super-markets and classy shops in Al Karradah which offer you almost everything you can think of... So if you want to go shopping in Baghdad, then surely Al Karradah is the perfect place to go... But Al Karradah has been always unsafe, and has been regularly targeted by terrorist attacks of different scales since the US led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and till yesterday... Also the security situation on the ground in Baghdad and especially in Al Karradah is extremely tense these days in the time period preceding the Eid Al Fitr holiday, so to go out to Al Karradah and buy us new clothes from there is obviously an unwise thing to do... My college (College of Medicine-Baghdad University) lies in Bab Al Muadham district, which has been relatively much safer than Al Karradah during the past few months... A number of small shops lie so close to my college, and I do know their owners very well for four years now, so we took our chances and decided that to buy new clothes for the Eid and my new academic year from those shops is the only safe option available for the moment... We actually bought lots and lots of beautiful and classy stuff, and we eventually paid what's equal to 250 US dollars for all what we bought... Our exciting journey lasted from 7 AM till 2 PM, much of that time has been consumed in the traffic jams... A few hours after we got back home safely, and despite the very tight security measures imposed by the Iraqi and American security forces almost everywhere in the Iraqi capital, unfortunately this happened :
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7640782.stm
So it looks like me and my sis were right this time after all, weren't we ?!
May Allah bless all of our martyrs... And Happy Eid Al Fitr to Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Somalia, Darfur, and to all Muslims everywhere around the world....
With my love... Yours forever, Lubna...

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