Mediterranean vs. Middle Eastern

Most recently, I had become incredibly annoyed by the incorrect use of Mediterranean that was used in place of Middle Eastern. Today I realized that I can't be too annoyed when these terms are misused. "Mediterranean" scares Americans less than "Middle Eastern" so restaurants that are, in reality, Middle Eastern use the term Mediterranean because it's less intimidating and more friendly.

 

It's why The Dallas Observer wrote about an Iranian guy and said he was from Persia. Persia is not a place right now, but Iran gives people a BAD taste in their mouths due to recent news, that they risked it and put Persia instead. If you go to a few Iranian restaurants in Dallas, they actually use the wording "Persian/Mediterranean", as if those terms are interchangeable. I even went to an Afghani restaurant that used the word Mediterranean! Do you know how FAR AWAY Afghanistan is from the Mediterranean Sea?! Far as hell! These restaurants are intentionally mislabeling their restaurant to sound more inviting. It's sad, but understandable.

 

To give you an idea, here's a map of the Mediterranean Sea and the surrounding countries:

Mediterranean countries include Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey. Also SPAIN, GREECE, ITALY!  

(My apologies, I don't have the website I copied this from, but if you Google search "map of North Africa, this is the first image)

 

 

Here's the rest of the middle east:

Middle east contries include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkemnistan, notably MORE countries by far.

Also, all of the North African countries that are Arab are included in the middle east term, but obviously not all middle east countries are included in the Mediterranean term.

Also, the middle east isn't a country or a continent. It's a region, and not even an "official" region. It's just a vague description of countries in relation to the Western contries.

I Finally Watched Argo

It wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. I mean, honestly, the movie is not about the revolution. It is only about the way they created a fake movie to smuggle the Americans out.

What I did notice was that they did acknowledge the U.S. stupid move of the coup in 1953 that put in power the shah everyone hated and that it was, in fact, a stupid move. It was mentioned more than once, but in passing each time. But, again, this movie wasn't about the revolution. The reason it's important to me, though, that the whole story is told is because every time Iran or Iranians are portrayed, it's negative. And - oh look, yet another movie coming out making Iran a demon.

Also, how Seth-MacFarlane of Ben Affleck to star in his own movie.

Ya know, overall, I liked the movie; it was entertaining. I will say this, it was incredibly overrated. Best Picture? That doesn't make sense to me. It was good, but definitely, definitely not Best Picture. I don't see the reason it got such prestigious awards. Did I miss something about it?

Persian Word of the Day: Kale (head)

Persian Word of the Day: Heart (del)

Persian Word of the Day!

Aging

I feel like such a jerk. I've been getting depressed about my birthday because it's coming up. I feel like I'm getting older and basically hating it. I want to avoid my birthday altogether. I saw this picture on Pinterest just now.

How dare I take advantage of growing a year older. Young people, my age and younger, die from wars, fights, disease, etc, and here I am, being depressed I'm turning 25. I should be ashamed of myself. 

There are multiple things that will really put you in check: the Make A Wish Foundation website has stories of wishes of terminally ill young people. Here is one that is particularly heart-breaking: The First Wish. This boy died at age 7. 

I refuse to complain about my age anymore. I'm embarrassed that I ever was in the first place. Sometimes, a little perspective is what is necessary.

Day 13 - 15 - My 1st Day After Rebooting

Another blog entry is unnecessary for days 13 - 15 of the Reboot. They were great and normal. Though, my first day after the reboot is worth blogging about.

I get hungry MUCH less often now, I've noticed and I am very aware of my body's hunger needs when I actually am hungry. So yesterday, I decided I was going to eat sushi with my friend for dinner for my official first meal off the reboot. I didn't eat anything until dinner simply because I wasn't hungry for anything until then. We went to eat and I noticed everything tasted especially salty. I was eating my sushi with soy sauce at first, and after a minute, I couldn't do the soy sauce anymore. That was just way too much for me. I ate a good amount of sushi (which was delicious) and had some iced tea with it (oh how I missed you so!). Didn't feel gross that night.

BUT, I woke up this morning and had what I can only describe as a "food hangover." I felt. . . not sick, but. . . weighed down and - honestly, I don't know how to describe it. I didn't feel good. I didn't feel like I've been feeling for the past 15 days: fresh, light, energetic, all good things. The reason I choose sushi to break my Reboot was because it has a lot of fresh raw veggies in it, so I thought it would be a good transition meal. The cooked part was the tempura shrimp, salmon, and the crawfish (I only got one roll that was raw, which was spicy salmon), and of course the rice in the sushi. I can only imagine the suffering I would have gone through with something like a big veggie burger or some popcorn shrimp or something horrible like that! Night. Mare.

The only thing I could think about after my meal about eating the next day was some apples and carrots. LOL! I couldn't get my mind off of fresh raw fruits/veggies. I realize how much my taste buds have changed and how my body WANTS this raw, fresh food. It's not that I was CRAVING them, it was that it was naturally what my body wanted to sustain it. So I just came back from Target, got a bundle of apples, some grapes, and some dried fruit, pistachios and some oatmeal.

I am so happy I did this reboot. I also went to the doctor today and she took my blood pressure. Before the Reboot, it was 130/90-something. Today, it was 110/?? (I don't remember the second number). When she took my blood pressure, she said, "Wow!" LOL! So that was a nice reaction. Also, they took my blood to do blood work so I'm excited to see if anything has changed.

I HIGHLY recommend doing this Reboot. You don't have to do 15 days like me. You could do like a week or something. It was absolutely wonderful and I have NO DOUBT whatsoever that after Ramadan I will do another Reboot.