Team Lubelley

My first two friends at this University were also, by chance, named Katherine. To avoid confusion I quickly became referred to by my last name: Kelley.

My friends Katherine introduced me to Lubna midway through freshman year. Lubna and I had briefly met before at an International Relations Club meeting, a club I had dropped out of due to the time commitment required by my sorority (I told you I was a white girl, didn’t I?).

But, as we became fast friends, Lubna convinced me to return to the club as a sophomore. A year later, she and I became President and Vice-President, respectively, of that club. Essentially, we formed Team Lubelley.

This is us. I bet you can't guess who is who.

Lubna and I are like Forrest and Jenny: Two peas in pod. We have the same laugh, the same over-commitment to this club and to our school work, and the same bad luck with boys. Today I made her a promise to stop dating boys in said club. Not because it was bad for me, but because it was bad for the club. As you can see, our priorities are RIGHT where they should be.

I have a favorite memory with Lubna that I’d like to share if you are, in fact, still reading this. This happened during an International Relations Club meeting. Lubna was presenting to the club about Saudi Arabian politics and traditions. Naturally the subject of camels came up. And as I used to do pageants (seriously could I get ANY whiter?), Lubna thought it would be great to say, “This is something that reminded me of Kelley… PAGEANT CAMELS!”

This is real life.

We all learned two things that day in IRC. 1-There is such a thing as a camel pageant. 2-It’s easy to tell the difference between a racing camel and a pageant camel: If the camel looks like Kelley, it’s destined for pageants.

Essentially, Lubna and I are just two college girls who sometimes like to make weird faces and take luau-themed road trips to Alabama Away Football Games.

Wait, you mean people DON'T actually do this all the time?

Is any of this knowledge relevant to anything? Probably not. But at least if I have a really excited picture from a camel pageant… you’ll know why.



I'm Going WHERE?!?

Let's face it: I'm a stereotypical white girl. Natalie Portman is my idol and my list of guilty pleasures includes pumpkin spice lattes and watching the Bachelorette. But at some point in my stereotypical white girl life, I decided to become obsessed with the Middle East.

I usually blame it on the art class I took in high school (Middle Eastern art is cool as shiz, btw), but sometimes I think that it goes back way further than that. I remember hearing a lecture on Islam at my church as a middle schooler and since then I can't shake the feeling that there is a huge divide between Americans and the peoples of the Middle East.

Regardless of its origins, my obsession led me to major in International Relations and study Arabic at the University of Alabama, where I was blessed with meeting one of my best friends, Lubna. Lubna is from Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia. And one year ago she asked if I would like to come home with her this Christmas. Naturally my answer was "HOLY CRAP YES I WOULD LIKE TO! HELLOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!"

So I stand before you today with the announcement that my visa has been approved and in a little over a month, I will board a plane headed East. My parents are terrified, but I couldn't be more excited. I can't help but feel like, in a way, my entire life so far has led up to this moment. Not many people ever get the opportunity to do something like this. But God, or Fate, or what-have-you, brought a best friend into my life, and now she will bring me into hers.

I hope this blog is entertaining, enlightening, and completely ridiculous at times. I hope you all will learn and struggle with me as a try to pack everything I own into one suitcase, deal with hellacious jet lag, and face a culture that couldn't be more different from my own. Here's to an interesting next two months! Roll Tide and Ma'a Salama!