What's up?
Greetings Jana's friends!
What's new with you? I hope you're all well!
A few videos ago, I told you a funny story from my childhood in Jeddah
Now, I wanna tell you some stories from my childhood in London
My childhood was a bit weird, I have to admit
I'm the youngest of 4 siblings
So I was the youngest when we arrived in London 20 years ago
So of course, I needed some time to get used to life in London
Tell me in the comments how many siblings you've got
And whether you're older, younger or a middle child
The youngest is always the best of course
When we were still in Jeddah, both my parents worked
So the 4 years I lived in Jeddah I was always with my maid Maymona
She was with me every day when I was little
When we came to London she couldn't come with us
And I was of course really devastated
Maymona, if you're watching, I miss you!
Because I was so nervous, I even began to stutter
At the start I was in an Arabic school
The teachers that taught me were really evil, to be honest
I was a child, and I always got told off
I didn't have a lot of friends
But I had one best friend called Ibtisam
Hi Ibtisam!
We were really good friends, we played together every day
One day, it was lunch time and we were playing
She was playing with some other girls
So I was obviously jealous
We were maybe 6 or 7 years old
I came up to her to talk
She was all excited and playing with the other girls and running around
So I don't know why, I think I was watching a lot of American movies at the time
In my head I thought...
I have to slap her
It was so bad! I wasn't trying to hurt her or anything
She just wasn't focusing on what I was saying
You know what you watch American movies?
And there's one person going a bit crazy so other person slaps them in the face
To tell him 'hey listen to me man!'
Of course, she was really upset and started crying
I don't know why I was surprised by this
The teacher who always told me off about my spelling came over
And finally told me off for something I deserved to be told off about
And you know when there's a disturbance during break time?
All of the girls were gathering with the teacher
And the teacher came up to me and was like what did you do that? apologise to her
And she yelled at me
My sister Jude is only a year older than me so thankfully she was with me at school
And because I got told off I was crying of course
And my sister Jude was with me calming me down
My story was that she was moving around a lot and I was trying to hold her still
And that I accidentally hit her face
But to be honest, the truth is that I did slap her
But I didn't mean to hurt her or fight with her or anything!
I just wanted her to talk to me
That was my mind when I was younger
That was my brain when I was a child
My sister Jude was normal and had friends
And didn't deal with this stuff
Because she was a normal human
Thankfully, kids forget quickly. So Ibtisam forgave me
We were friends until I left that school
Ibtisam, I'm sorry, from the heart, please forgive me
Okay, let me tell you another story that proves I was an insane child
I don't know if I had an issue, or the curriculum was really hard
But at the time, I wasn't the smartest girl in school
Remember when the teacher would give out stickers?
To the girls who were good at school?
For example, when the teacher would mark the homework
If you got 10/10 she'd give you a gold star
A sticker on your notebook
Like I explained to you, I wasn't very bright
I didn't get 10/10
But I wanted the stickers
Also that was in primary school, so don't judge me!
The teacher had like a thousand stickers in a container on her desk
One day, when the teacher was not paying attention
I stole it
Oh, she even had stamps
That said 'excellent' and 'very good'
I stole those too
Of course, I was a child so I would play with my notebook at home
And give myself the stickers and stamps
I would stamp 'excellent' on my notebook because I wouldn't get it at school
Okay, let me justify this situation
I was only a child, but it is really really bad that I stole from my teacher
But in the end, I think I was scarred from how much I got told off at school
About my reading, writing, spelling and everything
In my head I felt I was a failure
And that I'd never be able to achieve that
So I stole them all
It's a bit sad isn't it?
And to make you feel ever more sorry for me
When I was 4 years old...
Okay first let me say, I'm the only person with curly hair in my family
All of my siblings have got dead straight hair
My parents are the same, I don't know how i got this frizzy hair
So because my parents weren't used to this hair
They didn't know how to deal with it
So when I was 4 my mum told my dad
Take Jana to get her hair cut
My dad was like, alright
and he took me...
To the barber's
When I was 4 years old my dad took me to a barber and shaved my head
It's so sad right?
When he shaved it for me it was like up to here
Like you see this bit here, that was all my hair
Then when we got home
My mum was shocked, she was like what did you do to my daughter?
It's a good thing the kids in school didn't make fun of me
But I looked really crazy
Okay, now that you feel sorry for me, let's get back to theft
I never got caught for stealing the stickers until I was like 13 or 14
When I admitted it to my mum, I was like remember those stickers I had?
I stole them
I would love to tell you that this was the last time I stole from anyone
It wasn't
I have a brother called Hassan
Let me start from the beginning
When we were little, in London
My parents bought a house with 4 bedrooms
My parent's room, me and my sister's room
My brother Hassan's room
And my brother Yazeed's room
You have to know that me and my sister's room was for little children
I don't know if 'bzoora' is a word from Makkah
Let me know in the comments where that word comes from
It was good for us when we were 5 and 6 years old
But when we got a bit older, like 8 and 9 years old
We sort of felt like it was for babies
The walls were all yellow
The wardrobes were all green
We had one bed between us
There were drawings of animals everywhere
Colourful animals
And my brother Hassan who's older than me by 5 years
To me, was the coolest guy in the world
He had his own room
Not like Jude and I, and it was blue
This was my mind at 8 years old
I always felt that Hassan had really cool stuff and cool toys
His room was cool
I thought that if I was going to be cool like Hassan
I have to have cool stuff like his
So when he was gone, I'd go into his room
And steal his stuff
I remember going into his room
I would look through the drawers
And take something that I really liked
And hide it in my backpack or my room
I don't know why I never expected him to find out
But of course he caught me straight away
This time, I got told off big time
And my brother wrote on his door 'no Jana allowed'
Meaning Jana, don't come into my room ever
of course, I was really embarrassed
And after that, I never stole again
I promise
My childhood in London was really simple
My brothers were a bit older than me and Jude
So her and I would always play together
My mum would always take us to the park
I remember the first time my parents got us bikes
And taught us how to ride them
And of course, the sweet shop which was the best place in the world to us
My sister and I loved Kinder eggs and the little toys you get inside of them
There was that bouncy ball machine that you put a coin in
And you turn it to get a little colourful bouncy ball
I remember once my sister and I saved up lots of coins
And we took them the shop and tried to buy a million sweets
I cried a lot, to be honest, I always cried when I was little
In Britain there's a store called 'Argos'
When we first came here we thought it was called 'argos' [dance in arabic]
This place sells everything in the world
But it's a catalogue store
So the place itself hasn't got any of the goods out
They just give you a catalogue and you write the number down
And you go and say what number item you want
And they give you the item
These places were cheaper because they didn't need huge store space
To display all the goods
When we were kids we thought it was the coolest place in the world
Because when you were at home you could look at the catalogue
And we used to look through it every day
And choose which toys we wanted
And when your birthday comes around or Eid
You'd go to the place, put the number in the machine and buy your toy
It printed a piece of paper for you
And you had to wait until your number was called to go collect your items
All the kids in Britain will tell you the same thing
That this was really really fun when we were kids
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the stories
If you enjoyed the video, don't forget to give it a like
If you have an embarrassing story from your childhood
Please tell me in the comments so I'm not embarrassed on my own in this video
Let me know in the comments if you want me to tell you more stories
Maybe about high school or college
Or the first time I started working in London
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And I'll see you soon
Bye
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