This was a collection from the blog before the database went totally burned. The posts have the dates below them.
Mar 22
Home and after … the return!
A month ago, we came back to Finland and change came after our trip of 10 month, we have been going thru dramatical times trying to reintegrate in one society and living the end of the harsh winter and the start of the great spring.
Well the cold is not over, we still have 2 to 3 C temperatures daily and it’s getting a bit sunnier day after day now.
Marika has been looking for a job back here, but the economic crisis which GW Bush has left us as heritage has reached even the northern part of the Globe and its affecting Finland. No job! same applies for me.
Thanks to my last boss i got my job back there though everything feels like a drama sometimes, every business in suffering directly and indirectly and it doesn’t show as there is a way out because simply nobody knows how to deal with it.
A sneak peak at Finland after a year, shows that not much have changed, life is still super organized to extremes sometimes and it sounds like the society still suffers from loneliness.
As for me, I am integrated for sure and proud of being part of this country since things just work here, everyday there is something new for me and there is something i compare to Lebanon and see the good and the bads.
I hear a lot a lot about the news from home and think of it often, Lebanon is a beautiful place specially my home town where my dad garden keeps coming to my internal vision. I was not a nature guy, but when you live in a place where everything is frozen for 6 month and the only thing you eat is fruits and veggies coming from Spain or Italy, you start to remember places like Rechmaya where everything grows, from peach trees to onions and mint. You remember how my mom, used to pick the mints and the tomatoes straight from the garden to the salad dish. That’s the beauty of Lebanon, it’s nature but unfortunately we do not preserve it, we do not recycle there, we do not care.
Finland and the Arabs is my next Blog title and i will be writing a small overview about Scandinavian way of thinking v/s Arab and Middle Eastern way of thinking and many of the integration issues that faces us daily here in Finland. What makes us the land of the chaos and the land of the misery and what makes them so advanced.
Keep tuned!
Sasi from the flee market with the Power Girls.
Feb 19
Back to home …
It has been 10 month since we have first hit the road to our unknown destination and now we are back!
Back, did not mean any peacfull time for us since i have started working and Maiku is on the search to her path also. It’s really cold here, been now -7 to -11 all the last 10 days.
I have missed Finland so much, it is peacfull quiet and easy place though life tend to be hard to make your income and it’s not an easy task.
I wish i will be able to post more and soon we will post more pics from our trip and blog posts and maybe a lovely ending post on maikusasi.com before we turn it into our routine daily life blog. or maybe next trip soon ?! nobody knows …
Jan 2
Happy Holiday’s!
To all of you!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2009 from Bali in Indonesia.
Wishing that all of you will enjoy their holiday’s and maybe you will see more postings from in the coming year 2009!
Kisses and Hugs.
Dec 7
In the Land of Smiles 🙂
After the amazing trip in ancient Egypt, I decided to go to Beirut for a week to visit my beloved parents and get some visas issued for SE Asia.
We arrived to Thailand around 3 weeks ago, it has been nothing less then an amazing experience. We love it! I fell in love with the nice people, the laughing faces and the giggling girls.
Everything burst with life here, the outstanding beaches to the white sand to the jungle.
We will be for Christmas and New year’s celebrations in Bali it seems so more beach, more fun 
Keep updated to http://www.maikusasi.com for more news of our trip!
Nov 8
In Egypt … Desert, heat and fun!
Seems that our trip gets much better with time.
We are now in Egypt and it has been 6 month on the road for us. We have decided to head to south east asia after touring 3 countries in the middle east and getting a bit fed up from the hassle and my beloved Maiku’s eagerness to head to thainland ASAP.
So i will head to Beirut to fix some hanging things and spend few days with parents then will follow Maiku to Bangkok.
Egypt, can’t be less fun then it is well it si a bit of all. Museums, Egyptian god’s and the rest.
Time to go Maiku wants her facebook
Oct 18
In heaven …
It is a new experience me, sleeping otudoor has never been done in my life. And here we go again with Maiku traveling in the Middle east, we are now in Jordan in Aqaba and it’s been a few days since we are relaxing in this small Bedouin Village Camp a very easy going place.
Here, you can sit and relax and enjoy your time around the camp from swiming to snorkling to diving to just relaxing and using their free wifi, it seems to many like a paradise. well, more or less it is for the people that are for example living in Finland now in the +5C (not trying to tease anyone). Oh here comes my dive! she was diving all ove the red sea and enjoying watching old tanks.
you can know more about our current location in this small heaven by checking on the website of http://www.bedouin-hotels.com and on http://www.diveaqaba.com
I know these are short posts but my energy is going mostly to http://www.maikusasi.com!
Sep 25
Tripping the Middle East again …
We are back on the road!
After a long stay in Beirut, we decided that it was time to continue our trip and discover new world’s, be nomads and discover new cultures and destinations.
So bags are packed and trip goes on!
Read more about our trip details and follow our route while we cross thru the crusader’s lands to Salaheldine fortress to Petra and to the Pyramids.
Find more about our trip in Syria, Jordan, Egypt on www.maikusasi.com
Aug 29
Mad at today’s Lebanon!
Lebanon can really show you the differences of society classes, the cigars, the fake boobs, the huge lips and full make-up girls of downtown Beirut that have linked their lifestyle with freedom and democracy of the west.
A bunch even claimed that if you wear a Prada or a Gucci that means you are linked to the west and support a certain political party! Yellow just wear trash as it seems to some people’s mind, maybe they do not know that they real Gucci’s are also made in fake in the Yellow people’s land:)
But still I believe it isn’t all in vain, things will change in the future. People will go back to their sense and evolve. I came to a conclusion that people did not really want it to turn like this, they just wanted the same like Georgia’s freedom and democracy example. Wonder who’s helping Georgia’s now?! Where is the west, If they can’t save Georgia, will they save Lebanon from it’s bigger neighbors.
I write this article just to let you have some hope and give a bit of motivation to come to Lebanon, that truth is that regardless of how this community turned into, there is good. What is the good being done?! Where is the good?!
I do not know, neither see myself but it exist. Maybe the good old tradition, maybe the good food but there must be something that still makes Lebanon special.
After all, why would you blame a young generation that was raised having an extreme rich lifestyle based on the support from immigrants that plunged yearly thousands millions of Dollars and Euros from African diamond business, to telecom business, to war and gun raising in certain places on the planet to their relatives and family that just care about SHOW OFF, about CLASS, about SNOB, about taking everything first world countries have and living it to the EXTREME. They do not take human rights and environment care, they just take the nice cars concept and etc… In 2006, before i left to Finland i had applied for a job in Abu Dhabi just to go and make more money like most of the expats but today i praise myself for making the wisest decision in my life by going to a country like Finland instead and living with my Maiku. Tell you why?!
With Maiku, i have learned that humans are more valuable then money, i have learned that we are all equal and that we do not need to have big cars and huge bank accounts to be happy. That, maybe just reading a book in the park equals a huge party in Sky Bar And to top it all, i have learned, the real meaning of freedom and lived it, to do what I want really without caring about the say of my friends or the opinions of others. I have learned that history, education, books, reading, writing, being honest are keys to make a better future for the generations to come.
Now after 2 years, I came to a conclusion that I do love my homeland for the history it has, for the sweethearts of the old ladies that make Kibbe and excellent Tabboule, but i do not want to live ever again in it. I will be leaving out of here soon and will try my best never to come back here. It has been to stressful to live and adapt again to the system here, a system based on connection and classes of humans and rich and poor to a sick extreme.
Damn it! The Lebanese do it always to the extreme.
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Jul 15
Lebanon: What is looming on the edge ?!
After our trip in Europe and living in Finland for the last 2 years, I came to the conclusion that nowhere on earth is like Lebanon, of course, am talking carrier wise and hospitality sector.
I wanted to write this article to introduce the “a la libanaise” way of doing things. In Lebanon, you have 2 kinds of sectors, private and public sector and the gap between both is huge. The public sector, is a corrupted, non-organized, chaotic sector and the most hypocrite side of it is that they claim (the newly or old elected government) claims that they are on the path to reforms.
Funding for reforms from EU and US and other GC has reached its peak but where are these funds that have pledged to the Lebanese government? As a Lebanese, see no progress in any sector. Electricity cuts still go on in on daily basis, some areas even do not get electricity for more than 6 hours daily. And the business of owning a generator to cover a few blocks might get you rich. There are even a few persons ( and I do not mean companies ) that run cable tv service, internet service, generator service in the same blocks and these people do not belong to any company and do not pay taxes neither there is any control over them .
The system goes by the fact that if you have money, you can be a king! The Lebanese situation is frustrating for many people living here; the locals are suffering from the rise of prices. The expensive lifestyle and the demand of a society that claims to be modern and take as it’s idol the west, but shame that people take everything in a contradiction, if you were D&G it is not for the sake of buying quality labels but for the sake of showing off to your friends and surrounding that you are something or you are better than the rest of the people.
The frustration and despair of the local middle class (that is basically non-existent) or that have immigrant is shocking, People are dreaming to go abroad, the dreams of becoming a citizen of a first world country or going to the GC where job opportunities are higher is everyday’s talk. One of my friends when I came back goes and tell me “Jad, there is no more guys in Lebanon” I cannot find a descent boyfriend.
And since I work in the hospitality industry, I can see on daily basis Lebanese immigrants or non-Lebanese men visiting to get engaged or to get to know more their future wife from Lebanon to say.
I went too far maybe with explaining the conditions of life here, but since I am back here temporary or maybe permanently, I figured that it is nice to put a small overview on life in Beirut. Now coming back to our private sector, the private sector suffers deeply from the old systems and the non-advanced way of adapting to its progress by the Public sector. The progress shown by the company that are Lebanese owned is amazing, Lebanese companies specially in fields of F&B, hospitality, industries, architectures are all now based in UAE, KSA, KW and Qatar. These companies from Lebanese origins are now a core in the fast progress of the gulf. Lebanese, have invaded these countries to say. Lebanese banks have opened branches all over the Arab world in a plan to attract investors and rich Arabs.
Lebanon benefits highly from Dubai, Doha and other countries and fortunately this is what keeps it stable financially regardless of the unstable political situation that it has been suffering. The shame and I say shame is that Lebanese people living here do not benefit from these steps. The law of the jungle still rules in Lebanon, regardless of all the promises of reforms and promises of a better life for Lebanese citizens that have the biggest asset for their country, the successful immigrants abroad.
In my opinion, Lebanese didn’t change much after 15 years from the civil war, there is huge reconstruction, huge investments and loads of money being plunged here but unfortunately it is not distributed equally and it supports the massive corruption run by the Media and politicians. I will remain in Lebanon, for the few coming month and will keep u updated how will the tourism industry will do and how will this promised summer after the Doha accord will benefit or take Lebanon into stability and prosperity.
Thank you for reading and my apologies to my readers for not posting more frequently.
JaD
Write soon!
