The contest this month is a bit more challenging, but a fun little game that everyone can play. You must read the rules very carefully and follow them so you can win a $50.00 US Amazon Gift card.

How to play the game called Change my Thoughts:

I will start the game. I will provide a very general random thought (topic). What you will try to do is continue my thought, but try and change each other’s thoughts regarding the topic to your own, and convince others of why yours is better. The game is to keep breaking other’s thoughts and convince others of your own thoughts by starting a new similar topic so everyone is interested in it, and can comment on it. The most talked about and interesting detailed topic based on the general topic that I started, will win the $50.00 US dollar Amazon Gift card.

The game will be hard, and you cannot go completely off topic. For example, if the topic is about female power in the middle east, then you cannot change the topic to space travel. However, you can change the topic to female roles in politics, or something of that nature. Be creative and interesting, but don’t write an essay. You can keep commenting back and forth, and convince others why your opinion is better then theirs.

Rules  & Other Information:

1. The contest will run on this blog till July 6th, 2009.

2. You must provide a valid email address when you comment.

3. You must be interactive and keep commenting. If you only comment once thinking you changed other’s opinions, then you will not be qualified. You have to comment on each other’s thoughts, and only while doing so, you can change the argument by providing a valid counter-thought.

4. You must keep track of your own topic, and must use convincing ideas that will interest everyone, especially the judge, which happens to be me!

5. You cannot go off topic at all, or ask me any questions regarding the rules, etc on this post. Email me your questions, or I will delete your comment. If you keep asking questions or going off topic, I will disqualify you.

6. I will jump into various topics, and I will try to convince others of my opinion as well. So watch out!

7. I will announce the winner on July 7th, 2009.

The Topic:

This generation of teenagers are very exposed and corrupted by the media and advertisments in various ways such as cable TV, internet, etc. Will they grow up to be very demanding and hard to satisfy if we don’t do anything about it now, or is there a way to limit the exposure, and teach them that life can be lived and enjoyed by simple means?

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Should I move to this city? Seriously, look at the view of the city of Kelowna from barely top of one little mountain.

Yesterday was an official holiday in Canada, and everyone had the day off. Where do you think everyone was at? You guessed it, every beach in the area!

In the afternoon, we went to another town that is 20 minutes by car called Vernon. The place is gorgeous. The highway to there is right next to a lake called Kalamalka, which in Native means different colours. Something like that. So you can see multiple colours of blue. As we were driving, I snapped a couple of pictures of the lake and the amazing shades of blue.

We arrived at a beach in Vernon, and we ate lunch there on a picnic table. We brought with us egg salad and veggie & cheese sandwiches, lots of drinks, and fruits. The sun here burns your skin within 2 minutes. I usually don’t wear sun screen much, but I had to. My hands instantly turned red and I felt a burning sensation. I couldn’t believe how strong the UV rays from the sun are over here. The sand was even hotter. I couldn’t walk on the sand at all. I had to keep my sandals on. However, no humidity and the view is amazing!

Later at night, we went to downtown and we spent around 15 minutes looking for a parking spot. The tow truck drivers, most of them are Natives, had so much fun towing cars that are parked illegally. Did I mention that people in Kelowna can’t drive? They make up their own driving rules! You have to be extra careful and alert when driving around here.

So, we went to the park area where all the hotels and tourists are at. Did I mention that almost everyone in the city was there? Even from near by cities. What amazed me about last night is that I saw mostly old people, and drunk & doped up teenagers. I don’t really care if people get drunk, but little teens drunk? They were all walking along the park screaming, “Yaay Canada! Love Canada! Wohoo Canada!”

As it got darker, which was around 10:00 pm, more boats approached the middle of the lake. That is where the fireworks blasted from, and everyone wanted a front view of the action.

Like I said, the teenagers here are weird. My sister was so surprised that people around her age are a bit “weird.” She found everyone odd here. I don’t blame her. The people here are way more open, and the city is not as conservative as London. What happens if she went to Montreal again at her age now? That city is a bit crazy too!

I guess teenagers are celebrating pot country. What I noticed is that many bikers were here yesterday as well. The teenagers however were having a kick ass time in pot country. I snapped one of the teenagers that kept going back and forth with his herbal leaf flag. I guess he was proud to be high all the time.

Before the fireworks started, some drunk and overly high girl on her bicycle came by screaming, “Americans leave! This is fucking Canada day! Go back home! This is our country!” I looked at my sister and told her, “I think she was talking to you, because you are American. I wonder how she knew that?” My sister was born in USA and she didn’t like my comment. Go figure. She hates my sarcasm.

Anyways, this girl was something else. She stripped for everyone! It seems she just came from the beach and was all wet. She had sand stuck every where on her body. She kept screaming and complaining that the sand is stuck in certain cracks in her body, and she didn’t want anyone to look at her. She kept screaming, “DON’T FUCKING LOOK AT ME! EVERYONE FUCKING DON’T LOOK AT ME!” She was a drunk teenage stripper. I didn’t care really. By that time of the night, I was semi-high from inhaling all that pot. Every other person, even adults, were smoking it. Everyone knows me, I don’t need certain supplements to enhance my craziness and talking like a drunk. Caffeine is enough, but inhaling that shit made it worse!

Obviously, all this adventure scared the hell out of my sister. She kept huddling around us and kept saying, “I want to go home. I want mommy!” After the fireworks show, everyone there who wasn’t 100% drunk, got up and started walking really fast out of the park area. Hahaha!

It took us over an hour to get out of downtown, and my brother only lives 5 minutes away. The traffic was insane and so many cops, firetrucks, ambulances, and the news this morning reported that 40 people were arrested, and a boat got stolen too while we were there in that park. It was AWESOME! My sister didn’t think so, and in the car while driving back last night, I was talking so much and so hyper, she kept screaming at me and telling me to stop. I guess I scared her even more!

When we got back home, she was so scared, she started crying and demanded to go home to London. She never seen this craziness before. I told her, “Man, you live in Canada. You were born in the Western world! You think this was weird? This is normal! Get used to it!”

That was a fun Canada Day.

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Today is Canada Day or Fête du Canada! We are celebrating Canada’s 142th birthday! Yaaaay Canada! Everyone say Happy birthday Canada! I hope all my fellow Canadians have a wonderful safe holiday, and eat lots of barbecued food and maple candy!

I am so craving maple now!

God keep our land, glorious and free!

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I am in a land where the population of Arabs is maybe 10 or 11 in this entire city. Hahaha. I had to rub that in. The quietness of this place is amazing. I am in Kelowna, British Columbia now. It’s a gorgeous place. It’s a tourist city and a place filled with celebrity homes. My brother when he first came here went on a tour, and saw Arnold Schwarzenegger’s house in this city. I want to see that, so I can Twitter Arnold (his id on there) and tell him, “hey.. I saw your pad up here man!” (Yes, I do have many celebrities on my Twitter. I love reading what they got to say. It feels so normal now that you can communicate with so many of them. The social networking world! Love it!)

Anyways, as my sister and I were flying from Calgary, Alberta to here, I saw the view of the Rocky Mountains from over 35,000 feet. Can I say, GORGEOUS PEOPLE! Seeing snow covered mountains in the summer is spectacular! The view is breath taking. No words can describe it.

I love being here. I got a free place to stay with free food. Isn’t that the perfect getaway? A lot of people are asking me how long I am staying, because I did mention on Twitter that I will be in Vancouver for a couple of days two weeks from now. Fine, I will tell you guys. I am going to be in this province for a month! My parents can get rid of us for that long, although I was talking to my dad on msn this morning, and he missed us dearly. (He loved my sister and I arguing all day. Go figure. When it is quiet, you start missing the crazy stuff!) Also, mom called us twice this morning, because she loves to talk to my sister and feels she is just a baby stuck with her brother and sister. The truth is, I wasn’t going to let my dad pay a round trip for two people for a couple of weeks. It’s not cheap! Since I got nothing else to do, and we are Arabs that believe a vacation is minimum one month, then we got to get our money’s worth!

“Mona, I want to go for a month!” my sister whined.

“Mona, book the trip for a month, she misses her brother,” my parents said.

I said, “Fine!! Fine!! Fine!! I will go for a month! It’s not like I am doing anything anyways, and I miss my little 23 months old angel of a niece!”

This trip is not going to rule out me going to Lebanon a bit after Ramadan this year. It actually ignited it, and more reason to go. (I need to book it in the next couple of months.) One trip to a city with no Arabs, to another later hopefully filled with Arabs! It’s like going from vanilla to chocolate ice cream in one cup! So, I got nothing to do, and I need to get out of my usual surroundings and vacation like crazy! And I am only going to places where I can stay for free! I think as long as I got internet anywhere in this world, then I am fine.

Anyways, the trip wasn’t bad. It was around 4.5 hours total in the plane, and a bit over an hour wait in Calgary Airport.

I woke up this morning at 4:30 am local time, which is -8GMT, and it was pure day light outside. Then my sister in-law told me that the sunrise here is 2:30 am. Umm, and sunset is around 9:30 pm? Welcome to being closer to the north poll! I thought London was bad with daylight in the summer.

So far, my brother wants to steal my SLR camera, and I want to steal the view from his apartment. Can you imagine waking up and looking outside to see the view of the mountains? It’s like a painting in front of you. I will try to share as many pics as I can while I am here on my blog. I can’t wait for tomorrow, July 1st, Canada Day! Wohoo! Festivities above Lake Okanagan. I love being in this valley!

This is the view from my brother’s apartment. Speechless!
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Dragon Boat racers stretching to get ready. This is in downtown infront of the lake. That’s a restaurant called Hanna’s in the background, that is attached to the Delta Hotel.
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The ratio of boat owners to car owners is 1:1 in this city.
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I haven’t gone over the bridge yet. It’s the other side of the city where most of the stores are. I will go over it soon!
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Practicing for the Dragon Boat race!
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A bit further on the right side of this river is where all the rich celebrity homes are. I can’t wait to go on a boat tour!

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I am traveling somewhere in Canada! I am such a sneaky little devil. I waited till I boarded the plane and ready to leave before I told you all. I wrote this post last night, but timed it to be published now. If you are following my Twitter account and Twitpic album, then you will get updated live with some messages and pictures that I am FAR AWAY FROM THIS CITY and I AM NOT LYING!

*Doing a Mona dance*

Yes, I caved in, and I’m my little sister’s only escort to the west where my brother lives. I was forced to go, and I said last Monday morning, “Fine, I will go. This could be FUN cause I am sick and tired of being here! I will book it now for next week, because the tickets are a bit cheaper!” Yes, the west of Canada! Far far far away! 2443.99 miles or 3933.22 km from London!

I am not going to be telling anyone when I will be back, but it will be a while!

Expect the unexpected and lots of pics!

Leaving on a jet plane – chantal kreviazuk

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