Lost in Istanbul?

I think not.

You see, when I landed, I immediately started talking with the Lebanese guy who sat one seat away from me. And as it is with Lebanese people, they immediately ask where you´re from and if it´s a familiar location, they start to ask you about people you may know from there. More often than not, you´re clueless about the names thrown at you.

But in that case, I was not clueless. In fact, Joseph, the guy I met on the plane, turned out to be from my grandmother´s village. More so, in fact, he was a distant member of her family. And apparently, he was on good terms with her brother. Where does Joseph live? Sao Paolo, Brazil.

Apart from yours truly being impressed by that at first, Joseph then asked me if I knew a girl from a neighboring village. I replied positively. She was a person I befriended during the many common biology courses we took together as we both finished our Biology degree. Why was Joseph asking? He was her sister´s boyfriend – for two years now. Yes, he made me guess and I did.

So naturally, being the chit-chatty person that I am, I kept on walking with Joseph and we sat in a Turkish cafe in Istanbul and ordered Turkish tea.
For the record, Turkish tea is like your regular tea. But Turkish. Get it?

So for an hour, I sat with Joseph. Then a very random tweetup with Samer, who happened to be in Istanbul airport at the time, was set up on twitter. So Samer joined us and we discussed politics, life, Lebanon, Algeria, Brazil, peace, violence… and then it was time for me to board.

I got to my terminal and behold… the whole group was shouting at me that I got lost. They thought I decided the exit the Istanbul aiport since we don´t need a visa. I know it was the first time I traveled but come on, I´m not that stupid. Try to tell that to a priest though.

Was being reprimanded worth “getting lost”? I think so.

My First Airplane Ride

As I made it clear earlier, yours truly had never been on a airplane. Yes, I know it´s hard to believe for many of you but I was an airplane virgin up until very recently.  Last week to be exact.

I packed my oversized bag, put it in the bus that took us to Beirut International Airport (which in my head will forever be its true name). We got searched a little by General Security and then we went on board.
My first airline was Turkish Airline. And my first impression was: this is much smaller than I expected. The plane was quite compact.
I´m not sure if it was the airbus make but the thing was definitely much, much less impressive than I thought it would be inside.

And so I sat on an aisle seat. Yeah, not the best seat but that´s my luck. Next to me sat a non-Lebanese looking woman who basically remained silent throughout the whole flight.

Then it was time to take off. And the Lebanese guy sitting next to that woman started to Cross himself frantically. I followed suit. Not as frantically but I did Cross myself. After all, it never hurts, no?
And the plane started to lift off. The feeling was weird. It was like your stomach was rising inside your abdomen and then my ears started ringing. I felt naucious but I wasn´t afraid. It was more like excitement. But I really wanted that window seat and so I kept looking out at the window, trying to see the Beirut skyline as it faded. I´m half sure the woman thought I was staring or attempting to flirt. But no, she was quite older.

For the remainder of the flight, and even though I hadn´t slept the night before, I just couldn´t fall asleep, no matter how hard I tried. I looked around and the people I was traveling with were all snoring. Then breakfast was served. Not very impressive but you can´t go wrong with butter and jam and bread. The service was quite hospitable and warm, though.

And soon enough, it was time to land. After all, my layover in Istanbul cut the flight short. And if I ever felt nausea in my whole life, that was it. To say that my ears rang during lift off, I have to say my head was pounding as the plane descended. More like, my ears were beating and ringing like an 808 drum. But the plane landed… and then my group thought I got lost in Istanbul.

But that´s another story…

When Companies Swap Logos

After all the seriousness of my previous few posts, which I’m sure bored a lot of you, it’s time to post something fun. And I recently ran across this and found it to be quite interesting.

Have you ever thought about how it would be if Pepsi and Coca-Cola swapped logos? Or if any of the world’s rival companies did so?

Well, no need to imagine that anymore. Here are pictures that will show you.

Pepsi and Coca-Cola:

McDonald’s and Burger king:

Ferrari and Ford:

Fedex and UPS:

Google and Yahoo:

Audi and BMW:

Visa and Mastercard:

Skype and Google Talk:

iPhone and Android:

Nike and Puma:

Twitter and Facebook:

The Holy Orb (Short Story) – Part 7

Continued from Part 6.

“Indeed, I am Veronica…”
“So you know where the cloth is!”
She smiled.
“Let us continue the story… the Church got hold of my cloth around the eighth century. I wasn’t dead as people thought. I was merely in hiding. So I gave up the cloth, though they did not notice that its upper left corner was missing. That corner had blood from Christ’s forehead. And I kept it with me all along. It’s the reason I remained alive for such a long period of time.
“David, listen carefully. The reason Eric is searching for the orb has something to do with that piece of the cloth. I placed it in the orb and wrote the riddle, constructed the mechanism of the sequence and created this enchanted and protected place just to make sure the only person with the necklace you are wearing can actually get to it. You are the only one, besides me, who can see the pedestal, who can read the riddle and who can construct the sequence that makes the code. You see, David, they used you to crack my protections because they couldn’t.
“The necklace around your neck has a rather intriguing story itself… it is called the Scroll of Life. It‟s what will allow you to swim to the orb and get it”
“So that orb contains a cloth that‟s covered with Christ‟s blood?” he asked, just to be sure he was hearing correctly.
“Indeed…”
“And why do they want it? Why does – err – Eric need it?”
The woman smiled.
“Eric is not the head of the Dark Order… he is second. The man who is first died a few months ago”
“Oh, you mean Thomas Conundrum?”
She nodded.

“Thomas Conundrum was killed a few months ago, leaving his followers in a hectic pursuit of a way to bring him back. The only way they thought of was a rather bloody and murderous trail. I‟m sure you noticed how many people have been killed in the last few months in ways that were unexplainable…”

David nodded.
“Those fourteen people, to be exact, were killed by an artifact called the Scroll that was manufactured by an Alchemist whose name is Alessandro Del Ialuna. The Scroll kills people and traps their soul inside it. Seven souls are enough to bring someone back from the dead!”
“But they killed fourteen! Were they just having fun?” said David, outraged.
The woman shook her head.
“Think about it David, if two souls were centered in one body, what would that make of the person?”
“Immortal… the Dicruxol effect!” he breathed.
“Exactly, having two souls in one body produced immortality. And that‟s precisely what those followers were attempting…”
“And the Scroll, David, gave rise to your own necklace. Just as your necklace protects your life, its predecessor takes it away. Just as a tyrant is bound to face opposition right from the people he is oppressing, the Scroll gave rise to the Scroll of Life. Death gave rise to Life…”
David nodded.
“So why do they need the cloth?” he asked, not knowing how the cloth fit into all this.
“The cloth, David, and the blood have been made part of a bold experiment by the Alchemist of Esquiline to extract the Divine entities inside them. It‟s only enough to make one draught, and the drinker would become nearly a god… you see, immortality just didn’t cut it to them. They also wanted to give him powers beyond imagination. And it‟s up to you not to let them succeed in their quest!”
David sighed.
He closed his eyes for a second, only to open them and find himself alone, again.

He knelt besides Elodie‟s body and wept.
And then the water-level of the lake began to rise.
It slowly reached David and surprisingly, as he sat there, the water did not feel like water. It was far less dense, more transparent, far lighter.
Elodie‟s body shone with a bright yellow light…
David looked at her in amazement.
And then her body disappeared.
He looked ahead.
There was the orb in front of him, and even though the water was now well beyond his nose, he could still breathe easily.
He swam towards the red-glowing sphere. He got to it and touched it with the tips of his hand, and warmth spread all over him.
Then, from the orb, a bubble erupted, moving water away from itself and David.
He smiled, knowing what to do next.
He opened the sphere, took the cloth with his hands and placed it inside the Scroll of Life. Then, he took out his wand and cut a piece of his shirt. Then, he neared it to his face and let it get soaked with blood from his cut.
He placed it inside the sphere, closed it and went back to the shore.
The Scroll of Life shone intently…

A few seconds later, he was inside his house, sitting on his favorite couch, his face neat and woundless, his soul whole, divine.

The Holy Orb (Short Story) – Part 6

Continued from Part 5.

“David… the man that took you to Our Lady of the Spirits is Durance in disguise. Durance is the main follower of the snake man. He is the person you shouldn‟t have trusted on your journey to the orb!
“Elodie, on the other hand, did not trust him. And she decided, when you left that she should follow you and that‟s what she did!”
David felt something choking him in his throat. It’s because of me, he thought, that Elodie is now on

the grass, lifeless.

“Elodie’s death was just meant to be! Don‟t dwell on it. Don‟t ever dwell on things that are fated. You cannot control, nor will you ever be able to control, fate…”

He nodded.
“What‟s your name?” he asked timidly.
The woman smiled.
“You will know in a few… I‟m just curious though. Did someone tell you what‟s in that orb?” David shook his head.
“I thought so,” she whispered. “The importance of this orb, David, is what rests inside it. Let me take you back to the origin of it all… let me take you back!”
She moved her hands again in the air and David was standing in a rather busy tight street.
He looked around and noticed the place was not medieval. It was far earlier than that. There was a huge rush of excited people. He thought they were having some sort of parade. He was mistaken. He saw Roman soldiers leading a crowd of people, at the beginning of which a Man was holding an enormous piece of wood.
He was walking weakly as the soldiers hit Him on His back. He did not, however, express pain. He just moved onwards.
And then He fell to the ground. And He was hit even harder to get up.
The march continued.
They were now going up a hill.
David looked in amazement at the single event in history everyone would die to see: Via Dolorosa. And then as He gasped for air, a woman appeared out of nowhere, with a cloth in her hands.
She wiped His face, shaking, fearing for His life.
David noticed as some thorns, from the bunch He had on His head, caught hold of the cloth. And then he was back besides the lake, the orb shining brighter than ever.
“You were there?” asked David amazed… “You – you are that woman, Saint Veronica!”
The woman smiled.