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vanilla107 · 6 years

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Get Well Soon (One-Shot)

Hey everyone! So I'm super duper excited about the new Hey Arnold: Into the Jungle movie coming out in a few days that I just HAD to write some fanfiction about one of my favourite couples! I can't wait to see the movie and I hope you all like this! This lovely prompt was given to me by @heyarnoldlovexoxo!

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Helga G Pataki let out a frustrated groan.

This was all football head's fault.

That wasn't entirely true but hell, she needed someone to blame. At the thought of this she turned her head to look at Arnold Shortman, her beloved, who was sitting a few seats away from her.

They were both in detention.

She could see how annoyed he was with being in detention and she sighed. He just had to play hero didn't he?

It was all because she had been having a bad day.

Her sister, Olga I-am-so-great-at-everything Pataki, had come home from Atlanta last night and tried to do some ‘sisterly bonding’ which obviously hadn't worked. Olga then had the amazing idea to wake her up at the crack of dawn to make breakfast for her parents. So by the time she had gotten to school, she was in a foul mood and her day hadn’t gotten any better.

She had forgotten her English homework at home and seeing the disappointment on Mr. Simmons face was enough to make her feel awful. She didn’t like majority of the teachers but he was an exception. He always encouraged her and she would be lying if it didn’t motivate her to do better. By the time recess started, she just wanted to go home and sleep. Her best friend, Phoebe had already sensed that she wasn’t in the best of moods and thankfully refrained from asking questions.

The peace didn’t last long.

Harold had started to tease her to a point where she was about to sucker punch the guy when Arnold just had to jump in and try to stop her.

She would never hurt her beloved but hell, why did he have to test her? A teacher had stopped them and had seen the screaming match between her and Arnold and had given both of them detention.

Helga sighed her attention turning back to the page in front of her. Their punishment was to write an essay on ‘Why violence isn't the answer’ but she'd much rather write an essay on how the light caught her darling beloved’s golden hair or his gorgeous blue eyes.

The teacher in charge of watching them was Mr. Simmons who was marking math tests when he announced, “ Arnold, Helga, I’m just going to the photocopy room to get something. I won’t be long.”

Without another word he walked out the room and closed the door behind him and immediately Helga started talking to Arnold.

“I seriously can’t believe you Football head!”

At these words, Arnold turned his head and sighed at the bully. Helga noticed that Arnold was already done with his essay and wanted to scream.

Why was he so perfect at everything?

“Believe what, Helga?”

“That you’d decide to play hero! Now you’re stuck in detention too!”

She crossed he arms and glared at him.

“Helga, are you saying that I shouldn’t of stopped you?”

“Well yes! Now you’re stuck here and doing a boring essay all because you just had to stop me! Crimany! Can’t you just let me pummel a guy when I feel like it?”

Helga let out a huff of annoyance and to her surprise she saw a small smile on Arnold’s face.

“Well, violence isn’t always the answer Helga.”

“Are you just directly quoting from the essay or is that actual advice, football head?”

“Maybe, but I know that it’s unusual for you to just lash out at someone. Normally it’s an insult or witty comment but you never lash out. Are you okay?”

Helga froze. Was she really that transparent that Arnold could see how she was feeling? Did that mean he knew how she felt about him?

“Of course I’m okay! I-uh- just had a bad sleep and I ended up waking up really early!” she said confidently.

Arnold raised an eyebrow at her and shrugged his shoulders.

“Whatever you say Helga-”

Arnold’s eyes widened and he clutched his side. Helga looked at him with a confused expression.

“Football head? Are you-?”

Arnold fell to the floor and Helga screamed.

“Arnold!”

She ran to his side and broke out into a sweat. “What’s wrong with you? I don’t know what to do! Help! Somebody!”

Mr Simmons burst through the door and stared at the two ten-year olds.

“Helga, we need to take Arnold to the hospital. This doesn’t look like something the nurse can deal with. Let’s go to my car.”

********************************************

Helga gripped the cup of juice so tightly that Mr. Simmon’s was afraid that it would break. They were waiting outside Arnold’s hospital room waiting to see Arnold. She stared at the wooden door and took a sip of her juice and covered her face with her hands.

According to the doctors, Arnold had appendicitis and he had gotten severe cramps while he was in detention. The doctors had immediately taken him in for surgery and Helga nearly fainted on the spot.

“He’s not gonna die is he?” Helga had screamed as they had taken her beloved to the operating room with Mr. Simmon’s restraining her. Mr. Simmons assured her that since they had gotten him to the hospital and that his appendix was going to be removed, he would be fine.

Arnold was currently asleep and the nurse said that once he woke up, she could visit him. Helga had been waiting for an half an hour and she was getting antsy. Suddenly two figures ran down the corridor and stopped in front of Helga and Mr. Simmons.

Helga recognized them as Arnold’s grandparents, Grandpa Phil and that crazy wife of his, and she felt a little bit relieved that some of Arnold’s family was there.

“Is Arnold okay? We raced over immediately after you phoned us,” panted Grandpa Phil.

“He’s alright Mr. Shortman, Arnold had appendicitis and collapsed in detention. The doctors have already operated on him and he is currently asleep. You can visit him once he’s awake.”

“Oh thank heavens! You hear that, Pookie? Arnold is going to be right as rain!”

Grandpa Phil hugged Pookie and noticed Helga sitting silently in her chair, looking at the floor.

“Oh, this is Helga. She was with Arnold when he collapsed and called for help. She’s in a bit of a shock but was very brave. She helped me carry him to the car and was calm the entire way through,” said Mr. Simmons with a smile.

Helga didn’t feel brave. She had been shaking furiously when she carried Arnold to the car and had been on the verge of a meltdown in the car. It was a miracle that she hadn’t fainted at all.

“Well then! I thank you, Helga! That must’ve been quite a traumatic experience for you but you saved our boy!” grinned Grandpa Phil and Pookie gave Helga a bone-crushing hug.

“Can’t...breathe..!” Helga gasped and Pookie let go and giggled.

Helga gave the old couple a smile and a nurse walked out of Arnold’s room.

“Arnold is awake. You may see him now,” the nurse said with a smile and Helga ran into the room. She saw him sitting up in his bed, still looking sleepy and his hair looked ridiculous. She ran to his bed and threw her arms around him. Arnold was surprised at the sudden gesture of affection but slowly put his arms around her.

“Don’t ever do that again, football head,” she whispered and felt the tears drip from her cheeks.

“Well I only had one appendix, so I promise it won’t happen again, Helga,” he said.

Arnold couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Was Helga Pataki crying because she was worried about him?

Helga let go of him and stood up from his bed. He looked so small in his hospital gown and he had an IV drip attached to his arm.

“I think I need to sleep for a thousand years because I’m exhausted,” murmured Helga and Grandpa Phil put a hand on her shoulder.

“Thank you for caring about our boy, Helga. It’s late and I think you should be getting home. Do you want us to drop you off at home?”

“It’s okay. You spend time with football- I mean- Arnold. Mr. Simmons can take me home.”

Mr. Simmons nodded and they said their goodbyes.

**************************************************

The school was a buzz of news the next day because of Arnold being in the hospital.

Helga had found out from Phoebe that Arnold had to stay at the hospital overnight to recover and naturally, if people didn’t know the full story of events….they tended to get a little twisted. She had heard many different stories about Arnold. The one that he had been attacked by an intruder after school and had to be rushed to hospital was currently the most ridiculous one and Helga chuckled to herself. She was planning to visit him after school to just check how he was doing.

“Class, there’s a math test tomorrow, so please study hard!” said Mr. Simmons as he handed out revision worksheets. There was wave of disappointed groans.

“Darn it, I was planning to visit Arnold after school but I have to study for this test. I can’t fail math,” groaned Gerald.

Helga sat up and felt a little sorry for Gerald. He just wanted to visit his friend but now he couldn’t because of the test. She sighed and nudged Phoebe.

“Hey, hair boy!” she whispered to Gerald. He groaned and turned to face her.

“What do you want?” he asked. Helga rolled her eyes.

“Listen up, I’m planning to visit football- Arnold after school so if you want...you can make him a card and I’ll give it to him.”

Gerald’s eyes widened and he looked at her as if she’d grown a second head.

“What? Why would you visit him?”

“Ugh, I was with him when he collapsed okay? He had appendicitis and I helped. Can you blame me for want to see if he’s okay since I literally had no idea what was wrong with him and thought he was dying?” Helga said in a whole breath.

“Wait..you were there?!” Gerald exclaimed.

Helga ran her hand down her face and took a deep breath.

“Are you going to make him a card or not, hair boy?”

Gerald nodded slowly and Helga grinned.

“Oh and I’m sure Phoebe can help you study for the test tomorrow, right Pheebs?” Helga nudged her small friend who had gone a brilliant red.

“Y-yeah, s-sure!”

Gerald grinned and Helga noticed the blush on his cheeks.

“Have that card ready by the end of today, otherwise no card for Arnold.”

****************************************************

Arnold’s jaw dropped when he saw Helga stroll into his hospital room with her arms full of cards and flowers. He also noticed the ‘GET WELL SOON’ balloon tied around her wrist and the how out of breath she was.

“Helga- what is this?”

Helga dumped the cards on his bed and put the flowers on the desk next to his bed.

“I swear you have way too many friends,” she groaned as she untied the balloon and tied it to the bed and looked at him.

Gerald had told their whole class that a ‘messenger’ was going to take get well soon cards to Arnold after school since they all had to study math and the whole class had immediately started working on their cards. Helga was happy that he didn’t mention her. The last thing she needed was the class teasing her about caring. When Gerald handed Helga more than thirty cards all from students and teachers as well as flowers and a balloon she thought the delivery would be impossible. Thankfully she had managed.

“So? Read them!” she huffed and sat down at the end of the bed.

Arnold looked at all the cards and picked up the first one he saw. It was from Gerald. And the next one was from Lila then Eugene then Rhonda then Phoebe and- he had received cards from almost everyone he knew. He read each one, his smile growing bigger and bigger. Once he had finished the last one he looked at Helga.

“Helga this is….thank you.”

“Well you should thank your friends. We have a math test tomorrow so most of them couldn’t visit you so I told them to make cards instead.”

Arnold was silent.

“But...why would you visit me? I thought you hated me?”

Helga froze and she mentally slapped herself.

“I-I was worried okay? I went through a really traumatising experience yesterday football head and I had no idea what appendicitis was until the doctors said so! I thought you were dying! Can you blame me for being worried? I mean who would I call football head if you died, right? Hahah,” she laughed nervously.

Arnold stared at her before smiling.

“But...you just said that there’s a math test tomorrow...don’t you need to study?”

Helga glared at Arnold, the faintest blush on her cheeks.

“Arnold can you just leave the situation alone and read all your cards otherwise I’ll hit you so hard you’ll need another surgery.”

“Okay, Helga,” he said with a smile.

The nurse came in with a bowl of soup and Helga ushered her out.

Helga watched as Arnold started to eat but she noticed he was having difficulty.

“Jeez, if you want help just ask football head.”

She scooted closer to him and took the bowl and spoon in her hands. She scooped up a small amount of soup and blew on it before stopping the soup in front of his mouth. He opened his mouth and closed it around the spoon and ate the soup. Helga repeated the process until the soup was all eaten and she put the bowl on the side.

Arnold noticed a pink card on his bed that he hadn’t read yet and picked it up.

“I missed one...it’s really pretty,” he murmured as he opened it and Helga nearly fell off the bed.

“Arnold no-! Don’t read it-!”

Arnold had already opened the card and his eyes widened as he began to read out loud.

Arnold.

I can’t believe you have so many people that care about you. It’s actually sickening.

Anyway, I’m happy you’re feeling better. It was scary going through that experience with you yesterday and I guess I’m happy you’ll be back at school in no time. It’s really boring without you. I suppose I do care about you...a little. I mean I decided to not study for math to visit you instead but you’ll probably never read this, since I’ll burn it after I visit you.

Good to see you again, Arnold.

Love Helga

Arnold looked at Helga who was dying internally.

“That...fell out of my p-pocket and y-you were n-never supposed t-to read i-it.”

Arnold was silent and Helga wanted him to say something, anything.

“I knew you cared….deep down. Thank you for all of this Helga.”

He gently crawled to the end of the bed and hugged her.

“Thank you,” he repeated and Helga slowly put her arms around him. The hug lasted a good two minutes and the sun was just starting to set, bathing the hospital in golden warmth.

After the hug, Helga cleared her throat.

“Well Arnold if any of this- and I mean any of this- gets back to the gang at school...you’ll wish you had appendicitis all over again,” she threatened but she knew that she was blushing.

Arnold grinned.

“Whatever you say Helga, whatever you say.”

#hey arnold #helga and arnold #shortaki #helga x arnold #i love this ship with all my heart #vanilla107 writes #jojo writes

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sgtbossman · 7 years

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How do you feel about Rogue One's tower archive?

Oh, this has been on my mind (no joke) since the movie came out. Mind you, I’ve only watched the movie and haven’t read the book so there may be details in there that aren’t here. I’m planning to listen to the audiobook soon.

I love the concept of it. I love how utilitarian it is for its purpose of having secret, controversial plans and documents from the Empire. There’s a giant vertical structure containing what amount to hard drives (but are actually tape drives! more on that later) in an assumedly well-categorized system as we saw in the movie.

Now, mind you, I love how it worked out. It just did. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have questions or find faults in this.

Taking a cue from BSG and having nothing networked?

We can assume that the drives are not accessible to computers within the control area (or throughout the rest of the base). If they were (and, you know, power were still available), I have little doubt that Jyn and Cassian would have had K-2 transfer the plans to a separate disk (or perhaps internal memory) and gone from there. Instead, they had to physically locate the drive, remove it, and take it with them on their trip to the dish.

I can see how this would be beneficial. A member of the Empire who had sudden sympathies for the Rebellion wouldn’t be able to access any plans from a simple workstation. Droids could not be reprogrammed to look for the plans from a remote socket (as we’ve seen in Rebels with Chopper being reprogrammed and remote controlled).

But I also feel like this would lead to a slightly less-than-efficient workplace. Think about it. If you needed to check on a detail, you’d have to go to the archive, get the plans manually (and you probably had to have sought out someone who has the correct permissions), load it into a console, and go from there. Then reverse the process.

Doesn’t that seem just a bit inefficient to you? No? Just me? Oh.

Encryption? Is that a thing?

No, really. This baffles me.

We see in the movie that Jyn grabs the drive, takes it up to the dish, has a bit of a struggle with Krennic, and then jams the drive in to a receptacle and calls it a day. The plans begin to transmit immediately without so much as a confirmation or request of access.

UH. UH. UHHHHHHH.

HOW DID THIS SYSTEM GET DESIGNED AND APPROVED

I have encryption on my drive and I don’t store nearly as sensitive files as the plans to a superweapon. But after obtaining the drive, there’s no concern about needed a special code or a keycard that would decrypt the drive during that session. Did the Empire really assume that just since they’re on Scarif, they can trust all their systems no matter how they’re accessed? Then why weren’t the drives networked?

I honestly don’t have an answer or solution for this. I just wonder how this could be.

Why were these drives physically so freaking huge?

The easiest reasoning would be that, as with actual real-world technology that is military-grade, there’s a lot of protection on these devices from shock, sand/dust/dirt, water, radiation, and so on. We can easily come to the conclusion that the size of the drive is not the way it is because of the storage requirements of the plans.

(And guess what, my assumptions were right! I hadn’t cracked open the Rogue One Visual Guide until having written this and the following paragraph.)

The Death Star plans are more than likely the most complex set of plans that the Empire had stored in the Citadel Tower. Think about it. You have a 120 kilometer wide space station and plans that detail every room, every floor, every section and subsection. They detail everything from weaponry placements to power couplings to water and sewage pipes. And it’s not just the final plans. The Visual Guide says the data tape has the earliest “exploration” plans (more than likely as seen in Episode II) to the final schematics. We can also assume that any communication about it is stored in there as well.

Sidenote: also in the Visual Guide, it says that the data tape had a capacity of 512 million exanodes. What are exanodes? Who the hell knows! Other than a billion billion nodes if the Star Wars universe uses the same numerical prefixing system that we do, we don’t know what a single node can store. A node could be the equivalent of a single bit (meaning on or off), a single byte (storing a single character), or something more because I would assume Star Wars is beyond traditional computing and is definitely using something equivalent or better than quantum computing.

But what confounds me is why they used such a physically large (and potentially volatile) tape drive inside the enclosures. At the end of Rogue One when Vader is storming through the Rebel Cruisers, the plans are transferred to a super slim data card from the ship’s computer that then carries us into Episode IV. How did the Rebellion get all the data from this giant drive onto this tiny card? We can assume that the Rebellion’s technology limits are not nearly as high as the Empire due to lack of resources so that’s not the answer.

Perhaps the answer as to how the plans moved from a large tape drive to a slim card is as easy as Jyn only transferred the final plans to the Rebellion and didn’t bother with the conversations or earlier plans. And this is probably the answer as further along in the timeline, there are no mentions of other valuable data used from the transfer such as security codes, planet locations, and so on.

How fast is the data transfer?

NOTE: Lots of hypothetical talk here, as everything is. And I can’t really make assumptions so this is mostly me wondering out loud.

Let’s hop back to Scarif’s surface for a moment. The plans couldn’t be transferred through the planetary shield normally. This is why the Rebellion used a Hammerhead corvette to send two Star Destroyers into the shield. The shield wasn’t taken down completely but the amount of energy and force it had to deflect from the impact of those ships made it attenuate enough where the signal from the dish on the planet could breach the shield enough and make a successful transfer to the ships in orbit.

As mentioned above, we’ll assume that only the final plans were transferred. In this scene, it took 33 seconds to transfer completely. We can assume this is in real time because while the scene plays between the surface and the ship, dialog continues at a normal pace. If you were transferring a completely full data tape, the bandwidth would be 15 million exanodes per second. That’s huge. But as mentioned above, I don’t believe that the entire of the tape being transferred.

We don’t know how much space each version of the plan took on the drive as well. Did the engineers have something similar to a git repository system where with each revision, only the parts that changed are uploaded? Or did a full set of plans get uploaded with each revision? With a project as complex as the Death Star, I’d go with the former. That means there could be hundreds of thousands of revisions stored.

So, really, I’ve got nothing on how fast the data transfer from that satellite is. This is just me rambling. Hope you enjoyed it.

A single archive? Really?

No, this is something that annoys me. And I could be completely overthinking this because it’s not mentioned in the movie. But here I go.

Everybody knows you should have a backup of your data and then a backup of your backup. For something as critical the plans to your superweapon battle station, I hope to the maker that you didn’t just have those plans in that one location.

The Empire has essentially unlimited resources. Practically unlimited planets they could create data facilities on. Why they seemingly had the archives limited to just one planet is beyond my comprehension. They destroyed their own data facility that contained thousands of projects without so much as batting an eye. Tarkin gave the order and done. No blowback, no concerns, nothing. So perhaps there is a secondary data facility somewhere in the galaxy and I’m just ranting for no reason.

But I also wouldn’t put it past the Empire to have a single place for their data. After all, Tarkin didn’t give a damn about that small flaw that couldn’t possibly ruin his moment of triumph.

Above ground?

I get that you’re on an ocean planet and basically built on top of the majority of the land mass in that specific area. But you chose to build your facility above ground. The data tower is more than likely in the middle of that spire. That doesn’t worry you? Stop the ignorance of “nothing can get through this shield.”

Wouldn’t you rather take the precaution of building underground and making sure that water couldn’t possibly find its way in than have the risk of some ship crashing into the spire and destroying the entire archive? It wouldn’t even have to be an enemy. It could very well be a freighter that loses control on the approach to land.

I’m not going to attribute these as faults to the writers (though they probably are) but more to the stupidity of the Empire when it comes to making sure that they are secure. They are so large, it hurts and is practically their downfall. When you get large enough, you overlook these sorts of things. They probably have their justifications but for an Empire with practically unlimited resources, well…

You fucked up.

#sw #r1 #star wars #rogue one #star wars technology #this was fun!!! and i hope you enjoyed it #and i hope it made sense #asks #inuruk #meta #star wars meta

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nrlrbhh · 5 years

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Umrah and Ziarah; Allah is the best planner

Man, by only typing the title, i already feel like crying.

it was surreal. everything was like a dream. alhamdulillah, thummalhamdulillah, thummalhamdulillah. to be given chance, to be invited by Him, to be able to remember everything that happened throughout the journey, i feel blessed.

since i was small, to be veyr honest, when my friends were about to go for umrah, i didnt feel anything. maybe i didnt know what it feels like to travel overseas bc ive never done one. or maybe, i was too small to even understand things. it was all started after me being a travel-person, loving to travel to other countries and appreciating the cultures and everyhting. since 2012, it was like an annual thing for us to travel once a year to anywhere. one day, mama asked us to pray that we can go and perform umrah as soon as possible, and be determined of it. that day when everything hits me. when suddenly i felt the longing to perform umrah eventho ive never done even once in my life. i set a goal in my mind and in my heart, plus saving money all i could because i said to myself, i need to pay this umrah for myself, at least half of the price bc i am big enough. things happened, our plan was postponed bc of the election. the plan started in 2017, but only being confirmed after May 2018. everyhting happened so quickly. the confirmation, the documentations, the flu shots and everything happened so quickly.

until few days before the day. i didnt start packing yet up to two days prior. just then i start to talk to myself again lol. it is happening now. your dream is coming sooooo close.

bam! we arrived in madinah. first of all, the excitement was crazy. the feelings was jist too beautiful. to be able to step on the same ground rasulullah has stepped on thousand of years before. to be able to experience the surrounding the companions lived in thousand of years before. along the way from jeddah to madinah, our mutawwif selawat with all of us. i cried for a moment. i know this is the environment that i miss. i know this is what my soul has been wanting before. since we arrived at midnight, we didnt go to masjidil nabawi right after eventho it was just 50 m away from our hotel. we went up and rest, ready for tmr’s journey, started with qiyamullail. hamdulillah, first step inside masjidil nabawi, i felt so calm despite the crowds. ive never felt that calm in my entire life. mama lead our way inside the masjid and we sat together and perform our first prayer inside. big thanks to mama that already been there thrice, she lead us well and ensure that we experienced every beautiful moments.

days passed by so smoothly. it was our routine to ‘tawaf’ around the masjid after asr or isya so that we can remember every bits of the environment forever. since in madinah we had no umrah or other activities beside ziarah to other places by bus, we had quite plenty time to spend everyday. days passed by comfortably not too quickly. after two days, we felt so comfortable that it felt like already a week. everything feels so familiar to us already.

i remembered the last day we were in madinah, specifically in masjidil nabawi. we went to perform ziarah wida’ that afternoon. we stopped right infront of makam rasulullah saw and bid our last salaam to him and the companions, i read the du’a right there. it was so so sad that i cried while reading it. the du’a says something about dont make this ziarah the last for us, and if the death meets us first, Allah has witnessed our faith. it was so sad as if you were about to bid farewell to your beloved friend that you’ll never knew when to meet them again in the future, but this is rasulullah, the one that sacrificed everything, that sacrificed his own life so that islam came to us. thank you, ya rasulullah saw.

went inside the bus, we were about to depart for mekkah this time. at this moment, i feel like everyhting was changing. if in madinah, we keep selawat-ing everyday, now, we started to read talbiah together along the journey from the miqat to masjidil haram. it took us around 6 to 7 hours to arrive so most of us rest in the bus but not for me haha. i didnt sleep at all eventho i felt tired. maybe the excitement this time to go to the second of the haramain. i clearly registered in my mind the fact that as soon as we arrived, we’ll be performing our first umrah there, but still, i didnt get any sleep inside the bus. alhamdulillah, i dint feel too tired bc madinah was a very calm place for me, i took too much rest there yeap.

we finally arrived, thummalhamdulillah, our hotel was very very comfortable compared to madinah. i’d say 3x more comfortable. we took a 30 mins rest or time to prepare ourself before performing our first umrah that night. it was definitely a whole new experience. everything feels new to me. from tawaf, to saie, to tahallul. i will definitely remember this moment forever. seeing kaabah right in front of my eyes, when all this while ive been staring the picture only through monitors. subhanallah, at that time, i really feel invited, feel welcomed to be there eventho i was full of sins, eventho im a sinner.

our first umrah ended at 2 in the morning i guess. umrah can be a lot faster than that but since it was our first umrah with this trip, the whole trip wanted to follow our mutawwif instead of going alone or with families. so the waiting after each tawaf and saie makes it draggy a lil bit but we enjoyed every moment together. since masjidil haram was going through major constructions, most of us chose to follow mutawwif bc we afraid that the route might have changed a iil so we let the mutawwif showed us the way first.

there was four umrah sessions prepared for us all together. one down, three more to be done for those who wanted to do it. alhamdulillah i managed to do it thrice and voluntarily chose not to do the fourth one (with my own reason hewhew). every umrah journey was different. my first, second and third were different between each of them and that definitely teach me thousand of lessons.

every places we went for ziarah, mekkah and madinah, reminds us to every specific seerah. alhamdulillah, our mutawwif is very very excellent in telling every stories that happened in the most exciting way, so we could enjoy without feeling bored. from jabal uhud, to tsaqifah bani saidah, to manasik haji, to taif, and more, every places contain it own seerah. alhamdulillah ive learned most of them in school and usrah, so i could revise every stories while the mutawwif tell them to us.

i have lots more to write, but i think i should continue once im ready with photos included for my own future reference ahaks. thummalhamdulillah, the whole journey was very beautiful. the fact that we went to the best cities in the world, and to be accompanied by a great mutawwif, and a great whole trip itself that really feel like family, i am very grateful for having to experience the best first umrah in my life. i am targeting for hajj next, for sure, insya allah. but if there is any opportunities for me to come back for umrah every year, or any years, i’d love to do it. umrah gave me new spirit and motivation to continue life in 2019 onwards, and definitely lift up some of my worries and make me see the world differently. alhamdulillah.

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todaynewsstories · 6 years

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Greece hopes for better times as it exits EU bailout program | In Depth | DW

It’s been a peculiar summer, says Polyxeni Koutsantoni, the owner of a beach bar in Marathon, on Greece’s east coast. “In June we had heavy rains, at the end of July our coastal region was plagued by devastating wildfires, and nonetheless I have the impression that there are more holidaymakers around and that they’re even spending a bit more money,” she tells DW. The change is not a dramatic one, of course, and the carefree holiday atmosphere of before the debt crisis still hasn’t returned. “But you do notice that people have been feeling a bit more relaxed of late,” she says.

The energetic Koutsantoni and her husband have run the beach bar for 25 years. Most of their customers are Greek, but lately a lot of Russian and French tourists have been coming to Marathon as well. When things get hectic, her three daughters have to help out. There’s no question of employing extra staff. “You’ve got to keep costs down, especially in times of crisis,” she warns, and laughs: “Reduce costs and be patient — that’s my motto.”

Polyxeni Koutsantoni says tourism is picking up along Greece’s east coast

It’s a motto that could just as well apply to the whole of Greece. The country exits the eurozone bailout plan on Monday. Politicians in Athens and Brussels have all declared the debt crisis over. But this small business owner doesn’t believe her country’s economic problems have really been solved. The best example is tourism, which is also regarded as the most important pillar of the Greek economy. The sector provides a quarter of the country’s income, and that figure is increasing. Taxes and other duties are high, though: “VAT on services alone is 24 percent. No one can stick that long-term,” Koutsantoni complains.

Read more: A timeline of Greece’s long road to recovery