Life Update #2 | My Unrequited Love For Aziz Ansari | Lots of Critiquing

Hey! 



|    LIFE UPDATE    |

It's Jante obviously, but I have a new blog post up thanks to an uplifting of spirits and I am just feeling much happier now. I was really feeling quite awful for the past couple of months and I was feeling unmotivated and uninspired and basically every single un-prefix + positive attribute that you can think of. 

Well the basics of everything are:

 - I'm currently volunteering at a local mosque and I subbed for a class one day. I'm also in an Arabic class so I'm learning Arabic again and it's honestly such an interesting language. Maybe one day I can learn it as soon as I know Spanish and Swahili fluently. I want to aim for an age where I can be fluent in both languages so maybe 28? Yeah, 28 is a good age. And I don't think this is a hard task for me to fulfill, I've always been relatively good at languages and I know waaaaay too many bilingual, tri-lingual and multilingual people for me to only know English as a language.

- I also am finally getting a job...hopefully...that's still a work in progress.

- I got accepted into the nursing program and I finished all of my application procedures needed. I'm just waiting for my orientation meeting which will be in December. 

|  MY UNREQUITED LOVE FOR AZIZ ANSARI  |

This is mainly just me trying to live my fantasy that one day Aziz Ansari will somehow stumble across this blog post, read it, fall madly in love with me (in a totally platonic way cause Muslims before whatever-the-hell-he-is) and we become the best of friends. 

I just read (okay listened) to Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari and Eric Klinenberg narrated by him and it was just a beautiful six hours of pure joy and undiluted rapture as I listened to his nasally voice read to me his book (and also make fun of me for listening to his book). BUT IT'S OKAY cause I BOUGHT THE HARD COVER...you hear that Aziz! I BOUGHT IT SO GTFO. 

The amazing thing about this was that Aziz, managed to be quite hilarious but also provide great data, experiments and enlightening commentary in regards to social media and the pros and cons that it has on contemporary romance. In the end, I will most definitely be rereading the book again. 

|     LOTS OF CRITIQUING     |

Given the fact that I have had too much time on my hands, I have been watching way more television and films and with that I guess I kinda came across this YouTube channel called TheReelRejects and D4Darious and I guess I have just been looking at films and television shows in a different light?

I wouldn't necessarily say that I've been the most observant and greatest critic of all time but I think I have gained this ability to critically analyse and note whatever I am watching by paying more attention to how a director may set the scene, figuring out why they may shoot a scene in that way, how the set is designed and acting methodology and so on so forth. 

I have also been doing a lot of reading about the movie business and how it works and it has been really interesting. I wouldn't necessarily call this a hobby of mine nor am I interested in participating in it but rather it is something to occupy my time while I await for the next chapter of my life to pop up.

Welp, that's it and I guess I'll talk to you later. 

Sincerely,

Jante

Life Update #1 | Atlanta Review | Thank You Letter

Hey,

I have been honestly trying to make a blog post for the past few weeks I promise but I have either lost interest in the topic I wanted to discuss or lack the knowledge to do an in-depth analysis of it without leaving anything behind.

I guess I could do what I usually do in my journals and do like little bullet points to help flesh out how I’ve been doing the past couple of months. Let’s do this.

·        Contrary to popular belief, I don’t think that taking this time off from school has helped me at all. In fact, this has been an incredibly unhappy part of my life.

·        I also haven’t been working so in accordance to not going to school I’m also not working and I’m stuck at home.

·        Now with all of these three things combined, I kinda lost my feeling of self-worth which crossed into dangerous territory for me leading me to be very depressed for a period of time.

Basically, this amount of alone time for myself have not been helpful at all. I realize I like working and I like not being broke all the time.

But enough about me, I kinda want to touch a couple of things before I go.

To anyone who follows me on my other social media platform KNOWS that I love love LOVE Atlanta. I may be biased because I like Donald Glover as a person in general aka comedian, actor, rapper and now producer of my favorite fall show.

Now what I love about Atlanta is that it touches on social issues like Black-ish, HOWEVER, he lets it get weird. For instance, it touches on sensitive topics but it covers it humorously, light-heartedly and slightly off kilter which is a joy to watch.

Courtesy of FX Networks

From left to right characters Darius. (he looks really hot here I don't care...damn) Earn, and his cousin Paper Boi.

For instance in episode 5 called “Nobody Beats the Biebs”, they actually cast the character Justin Bieber as a black man which I think first off was brilliant. It made fun of Justin and continued to mock him throughout the show as a vain and arrogant adult with his shenanigans such as peeing on the wall and getting in a fight with Paper Boi. Also, the writer of this episode who is actually Donald Glover’s brother Stephen mocks the media when it comes to the nonstop coverage of this caricature who is basically the human form of an asswipe.

But they let the show get weird with other stuff such as the dialogue in between the characters, blurring the mouth of a child cussing EVEN THOUGH they have a TV-MA rating and having an entire satirical episode that portrayed itself as a talk show with its own paradoxical commercials that Donald both directed and wrote.

I would also love to give praise to Hiro Murai who directed many of the episodes here. I love how everything is directed especially this one scene where Darius and Earn go into the woods in episode 4 because everything was shot so beautifully. He also directed many of Donald aka Childish Gambino’s music videos such as “Sober”, “3005”, “Telegraph Ave”, and “Sweatpants” and the short film “Clapping For The Wrong Reasons”.

All in all, I have been unhappy for the past couple of months but I know, that Atlanta has made such a huge impact on me when I watch it, I don’t feel so unhappy anymore. Thanks, Donald.

Sincerely

Jante

Thoughts : Dubai

Hey!

As some of you may know, I am in Dubai. Well, currently visiting Dubai.

I am from the states and I came to Mombasa for my brother's wedding. It was wonderful and now I'm here with family and I went to the souq to get items for my mother. Most of the time when I go to the souq, I go to the parts where the locals would go not realizing that there is actually a souq - rightfully titled "The Grand Souq" -  where the tourists would go.

ANECDOTE        |1|

I am obviously, not from here, so I was excited to see this part. I am technically a tourist so why not explore the area. I don't live here and I'm only in Dubai for a couple of weeks at a time. I haven't left the house a lot since I've been here so off I went. I was taking pictures and than I notice that the Europeans (most of the tourists are from Europe) were looking and staring at me. Mind you, I didn't look like a native. A local woman is fairly easy to notice because they have a black abayah and a black scarf. I didn't. I had a blue dress on with a black hijab and a maroon cardigan, I didn't shower and I just woke up. However I had the hijab on so obviously I am not like "them" you know, I could only imagine their assumption and how it occurred: "Oh look a hijabi, I wonder how long she has been here.". However to any of the shop owners as soon as I open my mouth and my slightly Southern American tongue speaks, they know to raise the prices by 10 to 20 dirhams. (Which is why I came up with the tactic to speak to them in Arabic first than switch to English, that usually confuses them enough and they can't pinpoint where I'm from. THEN, if I speak Swahili to my relatives they are even MORE confused).

I just it find it so interesting to have tourists see me as a local when in all actuality I'm as much of a tourist as them. But to be honest I'm always in an in-between state.

I always see multiple facets of myself and my characteristics even if they are paradoxical for the two to even exist. Like when I was diagnosed with depression, it wasn't apparent because I am a fairly happy easy-going person. I am patient but have a short-temper whenever I am dealing with technology. 

Also Dubai is an unique country with 80% of the population being primarily immigrants. 80% of the total population is not even originally from Dubai. Is that not crazy at all (I find it a little crazy). So to my family who live here (they are technically immigrants) are they considered locals? Because even the definition of local depends on who you talk to. I ask my aunt the question "Who is a local?", she'll respond with the natives or the people whose family has lived here for generations and generations. The people of the U.A.E. 

Life is weird man with so many factors to take into account. Perspectives are weird and honestly I could keep rambling on and on. But mostly, I want to show you pictures. So, here you go. Thanks for the rant and short story. 

Sincerely,

Jante

instagram | _abatty_

Am I Swahili Enough?

Hey!

Okay, I've been absent for awhile and mostly because I haven't been making this a priority. Long story short, I am going to make an effort to put more effort into this, like when I first started. No excuses, I'm going to do it.

Another thing, worth discussing is my association with Swahili culture and as you can tell from the title what actually makes me Swahili.

To start from the beginning, I was born in Dallas, Texas to my mom and father. My mom is termed as the OG regular Swahili gal straight from the coast of Mombasa with some of the family originally from Oman and apparently even from Iraq according to the last name "Shirazy". My father on the other hand is Tanzanian and his mother is part Indian. What exactly does that make me? Well, that's even a more complicated answer.

According to family and a little bit of the Internet, there is the Swahili language which is a mixture of Bantu and Arabic and then, there are the Swahili people who live on the Eastern coastal part of Africa and cover many areas like Tanzania, Mombasa, Zanzibar, and Madagascar. With hundreds of years of trading between the Arabs and the Africans of the area, many goods were exchanged alongside religion and language and intermarriages occurred. Many Arabs lived to settle on the Eastern coast of Africa and marry the locals which eventually created an entire group of people called Swahili people. 

Now, I condensed this information a lot and it is actually way more intricate and complicated but for now, this shall do. 

Back to me. 

I was more displaced than anything and I definitely think that I wouldn't have been who I am today if I wasn't born in America and raised here as an American. Growing up I didn't learn Swahili therefore, I didn't speak Swahili. My parents spoke Swahili to each other but I never learned the language. I am trying now but obviously, it is harder to try to learn a language when you are already an adult. Nonetheless, I am trying.

Being born in the States and going to public school and ALSO being in the Army I didn't visit a lot of Swahili people growing up and I could count on one hand that amount of times I went to a wedding of some sort. I was two when I went back to Kenya but than seventeen years had passed before I went back again.

This means I spent a lot of my formative years here in the states and I think of myself as an American. If I were to be technical I would actually be first generation African-American. I guess the next question before I reached my answer is: Can I be American and Swahili? I identify myself as American. I was raised as an American. But can I add this new identity to myself? 

I think so. I mean I want to. I have always believed in the ability to be dualistic and have multiple layers to a person sooooooo I think I can. Albeit, when I do know Swahili fluently I will never sound like a local and I will not know the nuances that only a Swahili person can know from growing up in the area. My behaviors and actions will always be typical American to them. But this culture is a part of me. My parents never forgot to tell me where I came from and how they were raised. I was aware of this part of my origin and I have always been proud of where I come from.

So my final answer is: Yes. I am Swahili. But I'm also so many other identities that coexist and I identify with just as strongly. And in the end, that's what makes me, me. Not only the Swahili part of me but all of my other identities. 

Sincerely,

Jante

instagram | _abatty_