{"id":3257,"date":"2022-03-27T08:40:45","date_gmt":"2022-03-27T04:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/?p=3257"},"modified":"2022-04-09T12:56:50","modified_gmt":"2022-04-09T08:56:50","slug":"upon-al-salt-hills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/2022\/03\/27\/upon-al-salt-hills\/","title":{"rendered":"Upon Al-Salt Hills"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Alanoud AlBukhari<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The weather is hot, scorching even. It\u2019s mid-July after all. As the rays of the bright, glowing sun strike the dashboard of my mother\u2019s car, I find myself staring at the prism lying on it, wondering about the last time I sat in the backseat. My mom drives, and next to her is my brother, a little too enthusiastic for his age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeen so<\/em> long since we came here,\u201d says my other brother as he sits next to me, sharing the same stoic expression that we\u2019ve inherited from our father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know, right?\u201d says the one in the passenger\u2019s seat, looking through the rear-view mirror. \u201cI missed great aunt\u2019s cooking!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven though you get to eat the food I make every day?\u201d says my mother, joining their rather uninteresting conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI suggest we leave him here forever since he likes it so much,\u201d suggests the other one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust say that you want the room all to yourself, will you?\u201d I decided to put my two cents in, as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOops, I got caught,\u201d he jokes, mimicking my dialect. I just snort before turning to the side glass and the views of the city beyond it, which are frankly, a lot more interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city hasn\u2019t changed much, compared to when I last visited two years back. I have been meaning to but the travel bans amid the COVID pandemic didn\u2019t allow me to. The houses are still the same, even if some have a new layer of paint on them. The shops and stores are still the same too, although some may have closed down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My eyes catch sight of this one particular dukaan <\/em>that I\u2019ve been fond of since childhood. I can still picture all the times my cousins and I would come running here, buy candies and drinks, and then run off to the fields close by to play basketball, pretending to be on the Olympics with our fatally foul plays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This place has never once failed to make me feel at home. Al-salt, <\/em>my unofficial homeland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, upon the hills, we reach our mother\u2019s aunt\u2019s house. It\u2019s among the many beautiful ones situated atop. Aunt Wafaa\u2019s daughter receives us at the door with welcoming arms and after her, I find aunt Wafaa seated in the living room. Upon the expected sight, she comes up to me and embraces me. \u201cYou\u2019ve grown so much, sweetheart,\u201d she whispers, although I stop to wonder how exactly since I\u2019ve looked exactly the same for at least half a decade now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
My aunt’s famous pickled olives<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve missed you,\u201d I tell her. She\u2019s one of my favourite people on Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her extraordinary mansion, despite its enormity, is cramped with all our relatives. It\u2019s a traditional meet-up she started years ago, and despite her age, still continues to host. Something that never fails to impress me, considering how seldom things do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of us gather around the table after the never-ending sessions of greetings end. Amid our chattering, my gaze falls upon the glistening, green, pickled olives that my aunt prepares and I\u2019m painfully fond of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m especially happy that you\u2019ve made them this year too,\u201d I say, holding one with a fork and devouring its luscious texture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy, you flatter me!\u201d She says, smiling widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese are my favorite thing in the whole world\u2014 actually, do you think you could teach me how to make them?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSure, why not? I\u2019ve been meaning to teach my own kids, only that they are never interested,\u201d she chuckles. \u201cI got this recipe from my mother and she got it from hers. It\u2019s almost like a tradition in our family!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I smile, wondering how this place and these people put me at ease. And mind you, not many things do. Sometimes, not even my home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When evening arrives, we find ourselves on the vast terrace, lighting up some fireworks. I watch the gold of the flickers contrasting against the changing blues of the sky, slowly drifting into the world of wonder. It\u2019s almost like a dream to finally be here after the past difficult years, watching the beautiful view before me. The old beautiful houses, the many shades of the sky, and the happy faces of my brethren.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alanoud AlBukhari The weather is hot, scorching even. It\u2019s mid-July after all. As the rays of the bright, glowing sun strike the dashboard of my mother\u2019s car, I find myself staring at the prism lying on it, wondering about the last time I sat in the backseat. My mom drives, and next to her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3258,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,43],"tags":[17,27,45,53],"class_list":{"0":"post-3257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-features","8":"category-magazines","9":"tag-community","10":"tag-international","11":"tag-leisure","12":"tag-women"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}