Yesterday was a very special day It was my friend Racha's birthday So I thought I'd make her stop the moan By sending her a message on the phone: 'Habbeh berdeh* ya 7abibteh! Chou kberna seneh? Ya delleh sorteh bel 3echrin! Wa ana 3al tari2! Yalla khatyarna...' That message was written in Arabic, not Swedish I think it sounds very kiddish So just to convince you it's not rubbish I'll translate it litteraly to english: Cold breeze dear! What we grew one year? ......** you became in the twenties! And I'm on the road! Come on, we're getting old... This translation didn't make my point clear I was congratulating her for growing one year I also said I was following her pace Which seems to me a bit more like a disgrace. I actually still feel like a child An eight-year old kid, whimsical but mild, Or like a twenty-four-hour clown Unable to act serious, and unable to frown. Let's get back to Racha and not drift. I, then, offered to get her a gift: 'I was thinking chou a7la cadeau Ma32oul jeblik yeh, bala bekhel, W faj2atan EUREKA WAJADTOUHA! (But I didn't go running naked in the street Metel akhouna Einstein) Ra7 a3mol 3annik fa7s el botanic! ' which is a funny thought, in betweens, And, in english, litteraly means: 'I was thinking what's the best gift I could get you, without thrift, And suddenly EUREKA I FOUND IT (But I didn't go running naked in the street Like our brother Einsten) I will do The botanics test for you! ' Very thoughtful consideration and considerate thought, right? Well if you know what i mean, excuse me, if you might, I need to explain to the rest why doing the botanics test Is a heavy burden on every pharmacy student's chest. We got around 237 plant names to memorize A topic worth all the screams and cries, Not to mention every plant's specifications Useless informations, worthless notions: Which plant has which roots What type are every plant's fruits And what's the sort of their flowers, Unlimited data, if compiled, they'd make towers! So now you know why we hate botanic And why its test makes us panic, So you understand that offering to make the test For her, is a nice gift to suggest. Later, she called me, thanked me and said That it wasn't Einstein who ran naked, but Archimed. * in arabic, it sounds like happy birthday ** no litteral translation found for the 'ya delleh', the actual meaning seems a lot similar to the 'oh my god! ' interjection.

zahida