For a change this is part of another book I'm trying to write, titled 'The world from my point of view' :

I think people don’t trust any judgment by a person when it comes to something he does, or something he has. For example, a person’s look or voice, and that is because of very reasonable reasons. That is a person always looks at himself through a mirror, which reflects the right side on the left and vice versa, so if he judges his look it would be unreal, because people see him in a different way. About the voice judging, it would be wrong too because a person can hear his voice through his ears, like other people, and through an unseen canals between his mouth and ears from the inside. And from that people lost their trust in the judgment of a person to anything he has or does, like his writing, singing…

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It’s so amazing how different guys and girls are, for example, in school’s classrooms the most popular person in a guy’s class would be the meanest, toughest, laziest, the most irresponsible guy of the whole class and he has to be a big troublemaker otherwise he won’t qualify. On the other hand, in a girl’s classroom, the qualifications that would make the most popular girl are being beautiful, smart and funny. So you see how things contrast between guys and girls.

So what do you think.

Ok, here is, as promised, Chapter four. I'm much better now, thank god, thanks for all your good words. Hope you like this chapter, though it's short.

Chapter Four

Getting Acquainted


Sager woke up, with a weird sense of verve that usually did not come in the morning. For a few seconds he thought it was all just a dream, was he really in Paris? Of course he was, how silly of him to doubt that. He was refreshed and he was ecstatic, and those feelings doubled when he opened the veranda and the cool air caressed his face and his eyes caught the beautiful dawn with the Eiffel tower in the horizon. What a beautiful day it would be.

He was determined today to figure out how to use the Metro and further explore the magnificent city. So he got dressed in a very casual clothing, jeans, t-shirt and a sweater. He also took with him a guidebook that he bought a couple of weeks ago, and off he went.

He was not in a rush, he walked slowly and he was consulting the guidebook, reading the page that explained how to use the Metro. He learned that he could buy ten tickets for a very cheap price if he would ask for the carnet ticket. And so he did. With the tickets in his hands, he consulted the guidebook again. Where shall he go today?

Figuring out how the map worked would be a piece of cake for Sager, because he had used the underground system in London when he went there a few years ago, and luckily the Metro of Paris was no different. But, still, where to go? He was anxious to see everything all at once, but that was certainly impossible.

He felt like going to the movies, yes that was a good idea. He’d read in the guidebook that the biggest cinema theater was La Rex. After looking at the map for a few seconds, he had set his path that would lead him to the nearest station to the theater. So, his journey had begun.

He had to change the metro train once to reach his destination. The exit of the station led right to the cinema theater, but to his shock, the titles of the movies were all in French. So he went directly to the person working at the theater entrance and asked him.

‘Bonjour,’ Sager greeted.
‘Bonjour.’ The usher answered.
‘Vous parlez anglay?’ He asked the usher right away.
‘Yes, can I help you?’ He spoke in clear English, yet with the infamous French accent.
‘Are those movies in English or in French?’
‘They are all in French Sir.’
‘Oh,’ Sager said in dismay, ‘OK. Do you know where can I find a cinema theater that would show the movie in the original language?’ Sager inquired.
‘You could try the cinemas on the Champs, Sir.’ The usher answered him.
‘Thank you, Merci.’ So, he left La Rex.

He decided to walk a little bit instead of taking the Metro again, straight to the Champs. Sager walked and walked and walked, until he could walk no more. He thought, at this rate he would loose a lot of kilograms in no time. He had walked for two hours; he had seen a lot of monuments that he’d seen in the guidebook, such as, George Pompidou, and the very famous from Victor Hugo’s novel, Notre Dame church. Finally he took the metro and decided to go to the Champs. He consulted the map in the guidebook one more time, and he continued his journey.

Yes, I know that I have not been around lately. I also know how late this update is, Sorry, I had no time for anything. You know how everything in Ramadhan is different, things you used to do almost everyday, you hardly ever do them when Ramadhan is here. Weird huh?

Anyway, I'm here now, aren't I? So, where did we leave things, yes, Chapter three, it will be in the end of this post. With an addition that was not posted on Banoota's Chatbox or on e3ashig's forum. Chapter 4 inshallah will be written as soon as I have time. But it is underway.

Today I came back early from work, sick-leave. Very weird thing happening to me. I have a sour throat, I cough, my nose is running, head-ache, pimple on my neck, and other things all happening at once. In return I only got today off, weird world. I feel so fatigue and weak, and I was given a whole cabnet of medications, but I will inshallah continue my Fasting. But I better go off to bed, so here is the chapter, and await chapter four soon.

Here is Chapter Three.

Chapter Three

Première Expedition


He walked into flat number 1404. It wasn’t so bad, in fact, it was good. He thought he would get a little room, but it was more than just a room. It had a living room, a kitchen, the bedroom, and very oddly, two bathrooms. One was just a toilet, and the other one was just a shower. Why didn’t they make it just one? He was clueless.

It also had a balcony; so he opened the door of the balcony and stepped outside. What a great view. Clearly he could see the Eiffel Tower in the distant, oh and what was that on that far hill over there? Saint Mantomeret, as he’d read in some book. It is the highest point in Paris; indeed it was, where you could see the whole of the city from there.

Sager said to himself again, ‘I am in Paris.’ It still seemed like a dream to him.

He took a quick shower and he went out to explore the city. He asked the receptionist about the whereabouts of the nearest metro station, and though she spoke little English, he understood her and off he went.

He followed the directions he was given, and, eventually, he got there. The station was about seven minutes away on foot. On the way he continued to observe his surrounding environment. How lovely it all seemed. He was in love with the city already.

He reached the metro station, which was called La Défense. He discovered that this station (Gare in French) was one of the largest in Paris. It had the start of line one for the Metro System, RER A, a very big bus station and a train station as well. It was basically a key point in the transportation system of the city; in other words, he shouldn’t worry about transportation anymore.

He was told that the best way to get around in Paris was by using the Metro. The taxis were too expensive; the bus makes too many stops. Plus taxis and buses get stuck in traffic jams, which was very common in Paris. The RER was better for destinations outside of the city. The metro was fast, its network covered the whole city and it was cheap, hence, it was the best. Learning how to use the metro however was a little confusing at the beginning, but after few minutes it all started to make sense. It was as easy as pie.

Nevertheless, he did not want to start using the metro yet. Instead, he wanted to explore the neighborhood on foot. Check what interesting things were near by. So he abandoned the station and took the escalator that would take him outside. Wow, directly he was in front of that famous building: La Défense Grand Arche. It was huge, to the extinct that you could fit the whole of Notre Dame Church inside it. It was an extremely fascinating fact he had read.

He was standing in front of the building, and it faced this big pedestrians’ spot. The spot was in the center of other very tall buildings. What a great place, people were sitting on wooden benches, children playing around, tourists taking pictures and shooting with their video cameras. Sager wished he brought his own cameras. Never mind, though, surely he would come again, soon. What was that huge building on his right, was that a shopping mall? Yes it was. He directly headed to check the mall out.

It was a three-leveled mall, such a grand place. He got tired of walking really quickly; back at home he hardly ever walked anywhere. The car was always available. There was no reason to walk, and even if there was, it would be too hot to actually do it. So, he wanted to rest a little bit, but he didn’t. He wanted to make the best out of his day; he wanted to see more of the city. So he left the mall to further delve into his neighborhood.

He walked and walked and walked; yet he was nowhere near anything interesting. There were buildings and more buildings everywhere, wherever he walked. He got tired of this, not to mention how tired he got. He had been walking for two hours heading to nowhere he would want to be. He didn’t even know how to get back to the metro station.

He sat on one of the wooden benches that were there for a while, before making up his mind: The hell with the neighborhood, I want to go to the Champs-Elysées. So he stood up on the pavement and wanted to hail a taxi. Whenever he saw a taxi coming, he waved at him, but even though they were empty, the taxis did not stop. After fifteen minutes of failing to stop one he gave up.

What a great luck, getting lost on the first day in Paris. C’est la vie. Indeed, that was life. Wait a minute; there was a bus stop over there. What has he got to loose? He went to it and waited for the bus, and soon enough the bus came. He hopped in, paid the bus driver, and sat down. Where was this bus heading, he had no clue. Certainly he thought, it would end up somewhere better than where he was now. He decided to get down the moment he would see something familiar.

The bus kept stopping at every bus stop, yet Sager still had not seen any familiar sights. Few minutes later, the bus stopped, and everyone got out of the bus. The bus driver waved to him to get off, while speaking very fast in French, that Sager hardly understood anything, but he guessed that this was the last stop for this bus. Why not ask the bus driver where was the Champs-Elysées? So he did, with what little French he knew. The bus driver kept pointing in different directions that Sager was lost already, but he managed to ask him about a Taxi. The bus driver acknowledged his question and asked him to hold on. Then he went back to his driving seat and accelerated ahead.

Moments later, the bus stopped in front of a parking that had three taxi cars waiting there. Yes, a taxi station. He got off the bus, after throwing a lot of Merci’s towards the driver thanking him for such a great much-needed help.

He walked to the taxi, got in and uttered the name of the most famous street in France. The Champs-Elysées.

At last, the sights became recognizable. The taxi’s fair was unreasonably expensive compared to taxi’s back home.

A wide street, it was, with cafés more than you could count. Not to mention cinema theaters, designer stores, a few banks and a number of embassies. What a unique combination that you hardly ever see anywhere else. The infamous Champs-Elysées was amazing but the great thing didn’t come from those things that occupied that famous street, instead the things that are making the Champs what it is, are the people that are marching on both sides of it.

The place is crowded all the time, Sager found this extraordinary. The street was filled with cars and the pavements were swarmed with people, it was amazing. He walked and walked until he got tired. So, he sat down at the Hagen Dazes place. After ordering a crème and cookies two scopes ice crème. He just loved it, but he had to go back to the hotel early, after all it was his first time on the streets. He surely didn’t want to be lost in Paris at night.

He was certainly not disappointed with his first day. Tomorrow is a new day, with new potential places to visit and new monuments to be discovered and explored.

Alone in the dark, Sager was lying on the bed. His thoughts were whipping the insides of his skull. How ironic it was, to be in the city of romance, totally, alone.

I'm extremely busy, finally started work, and it's no fun at all. Still things are going great sport-wise. Roma won Real Madrid, Al Ain won Al Wahda in a great match. What more could I ask for.

Here is the next chapter of the story:


Chapter Two

Getting To Paris

On the aircraft he busied himself with reading a book he brought with him. The Summons by John Grisham. He really liked this author’s novels to the point that he’d read all of his novels. So he couldn’t wait to have the time to read this one; his latest book. Still, after one hour he closed the book, put it back in his suitcase and tried to sleep. After all he hadn’t slept a wink out of excitement and he had woken up very early.

Sager dozed off for about two hours before he woke up to the screaming sound of a little child three rows behind him, and even a louder noise coming from the angry frustrated mother trying to hush her kid. He was still exhausted, but the disturbance was too much for any chance of resting. He put the headset on and tried to follow the movie that was on; by doing so another hour had passed. When he took the head set off his ears, it was all quiet again, so he shut his eyes and went to sleep, hoping the kid and his mother would keep their peace treaty.

The hostess woke him up for breakfast, which wasn’t good but he ate it anyway out of hunger. By then the pilot announced that he had started descending to Paris. Forty-five minutes later the aircraft touched down on the runway.

He arrived in Paris via Charles de Gaulle Airport, after that exhausting seven hours flight. He was happy to be on the ground. Though his major was in the Aviation engineering field, he never liked flying. In fact, he had a small fear of flying. The funny part is, this minor phobia had only started after he started his studies about aircrafts and how they work. Knowing how everything works on the aircraft and how many things that could just go wrong during flight was frightening to him, so he was always a little jumpy while flying, specially during take offs and landings.

But come to think of it, his name: Sager, means Falcon, and his surname: Najem, means Star. So, maybe after all he was meant to be in the Aviation field, it seems like it was written all over his destiny to belong there.

But nevertheless, he was out of the aircraft, and he was walking out of the terminal towards the customs. Then after going through the customs, he followed the mass of people towards the baggage conveyor belts awaiting his luggage. At last the bags arrive and he wheeled his bags outside, looking for a sign with his name on it. There it was, ‘Sager Najem FAC’. FAC what was that, he thought. Oh yes, how stupid of him, it stood for Future Aeronautics Company. He went straight to the guy with the sign, greeted him, Bonjour, and off they went outside the airport. He felt so enchanted hearing the people conversing in French all around him.

Being used to the hot weather of the middle east, Sager felt really cold as soon as he stepped outside the airport. He was amazed to see some ladies parading around in skirts. Despite that, it was cold, the temperature was about 12 degrees Celsius and the air was very dry. Not the kind of humidity he was used to.

In a new luxurious black E240 Mercedes Benz, he was sped off to FAC’s headquarter, for a welcoming meeting, he assumed. He wanted to try some of the words he knew in French, but the driver spoke a very fluent English, so he delayed his trials for some other occasion.

From his place in the backseat of the car, Sager Najem watched attentively the country, the city, the streets, the signs, the advertisement, the people and the dogs. How beautiful everything looked, how amazing Paris appeared to be. The dream had finally become reality, he felt so blessed to be there. He observed every little detail that came within his range of sight. Life, then, couldn’t be any better, he thought.

He tried really hard to spot anything that would seem familiar. Something he had seen in a movie or a magazine, but he saw none yet. Maybe a word in an advertisement that he would know or recognize. Or a word that seemed exactly like it’s English equivalent, but also, none yet, except for Aéroport, which meant airport, but of course it was pronounced in a different way. Also the word Parc came by, which meant park as in a garden. Exact spelling of Information was seen a couple of times in the airport, which had the exact spelling, yet again a different pronunciation. Finally he knew why he hadn’t seen any familiar sights yet, it was because the headquarter of FAC was at the South of Paris.

Mr. Patrick Mingen from HR, Human Resources, met him at the headquarter. He welcomed Sager and led him to the conference room. Mr. Mingen offered him some coffee, though Sager didn’t drink coffee, he thought it will be harsh of him to say no. Coffee was brought up, and despite the fact that Sager poured two bags of sugar in the cup it was still bitter as hell. So, he kind of pretended to be sipping the coffee.

Mr. Mingen gave a little presentation about his company. It was so boring that Sager almost dozed off, but nevertheless he kept a straight and an interested look on his face during the presentation. When the presentation was over, they went to have lunch at the company’s restaurant.

The lunch was a two course fancy meal, which he liked none of them. He mainly concentrated on the French bread, because in his opinion it was the only edible thing on the table. By that, the welcoming venue had ended. He gave Mr. Patrick Mingen his ticket so the company could confirm his return flight for him. The same Mercedes had been waiting for him to take him to the place where he will be staying. Sager had no idea what kind of accommodation was awaiting him.

On the way to the hotel, some scenes became familiar, finally. And yes, at last, in the far distant on his right he could see the Eiffel Tower. So his accommodation was inside Paris, that was a relief. But the tower still seemed far away; he must be on the outskirts of Paris. Oh there is that building over there, the one that was shown in the movie ‘The Bourne Identity’. What was it called? Oh yes, La Défense Grand Arche.

Every time the car slowed down, he tried to check the buildings around; trying to guess which one was his destination. Finally, the car stopped. Pierre & Vacances Hotel.

It was Saturday, the 21st of September 2002, his first day in Paris.