User:Katiekad/sandbox

My name is Katie Afifi Bishara Kadadu and I am a first-generation American. Both my mother and father were born and raised in Nazareth, Israel. I come from a very larger, middle eastern family. My immediate family consists of seven people including myself. My mom, dad, two brothers, and two sisters. I am number four out of five in the sibling sequence. My siblings and I are very close in age. Two years or less between each of us. My oldest brother is Said, then my sister Serene, then my other sister Nadine, then comes myself, and last is my little brother John. People hear our names and they end up having many questions. For example "Your parents named your three older siblings Said, Serene, and Nadine. Exotic names. Why is your name Katie and your brother's name John?"

The answer is simple. Very simple. My dad simply liked the sound of the name Katie. Although, most people named Katie have full names of "Katherine" or "Kaitlin" or something along those lines. Not me, it's just Katie. Katie Kadadu. My brother John, his name derives from the bible. Something else that's interesting is that all of our middle names is Bishara, my father's name. All five of us have the same middle name. I also have my grandmother's name as a middle name. In all, my name is Katie Afifi Bishara Kadadu, a pleasure to meet you.. I think.

I was born in Flint, Michigan. So were my siblings and a large majority of my cousins. I have 30 first cousin's on my paternal side. Most of which make up my closest friends. I adore them, I confide in them, I travel with them, I trust in them. I have friends outside of my kin, but my cousins are my most valued and trusted friends. Geographically speaking, we're all pretty spread apart now between California, Canada, Nevada, South Carolina, New York, Missouri, and Florida. We have a WhatsApp group, snapchat group, iMessage group, and are in touch daily. Every single one of us.

My interests include but are not limited to: cooking, writing, boxing, running, socializing, creating content and content curation, dissecting film and television, traveling, journaling, reading, exploring, solitude, group activity, filling the role of a pseudo-therapist for friends and family, creating playlists for myself and those I love, speaking Arabic in public so that hopefully nobody understands me, critical thinking, altruism, dribbling a soccer ball for miles along vast spaces, my dog Lola, human connection, and making the best fireplace fires this side of the Mississippi.

After college, I plan to be a content creator within the music and entertainment industry. Ideally, a tour manager too. I also see myself in public relations.

TRAVEL PAGE

I've had this heavy infatuation with Singapore these past few months and I plan on visiting with friends, or my family such as my parents and siblings, or with some of my cousins. I've heard about how incredibly clean is, how amazing the airport is, how green the city is with all of its abundant nature, the Marina Bay Skyline, I've heard that it's warm year round, the FOOD (!!!!). Singapore intriges me for the way that it runs, the way, it looks, the strict laws that keep the city clean, the sea, and the culture.

My three day itinerary would look something like this:

FAVORITE DISH

My favorite dish of all time is called "Koosa-Warrat" and the literal translation for it is "Grape Leaves." It's a traditional Arabic dish that is very tedious to make and I grew up helping my mom, grandma, and aunts making it. Koosa-Warrat consists of ground beef or lamb, white rice, and specific seasoning all rolled into many grape leaves and it takes hours just to prep. I'm talking two hours minimum, easily. Along side warrat-diwali, comes the Koosa part. Koosa means squash. So, we gather about 15 small-meduium sized squash, carve out the insides of it which can then used for a separate dish. That same rice and meat mixed used to roll in the grapleaves is also used to stuff the hollowed out squash. Next, we grab the biggest pot we can find, we strategically stack the grape leaves in a geometric manner, put the filled squash on top of that, and then top the entire pot with cooked lamb. But now that I think about, we all out layers of lamb shank at the bottom of the pot and between the grape leafs and squash layers. It takes about an hour and a half to cook on the stove. When it ready, we squeeze mass amounts of fresh lemon over everything in the pot. Let sit and soak for a few, then it's times to eat! We eat this dish with a homemade yogurt that is called "Leban." To make this yogurt, you purchase whole milk and put it in a pot over the stove. You have to monitor it closely otherwise it'll boil over and spill all over your stove creating a massive mess that takes far too much elbow grease to clean. You let the milk simmer, and one it starts to fully boil, you take it off of the stove. Immediately after that after the pot has a chance too cool down just a bit, you wrap the warm pot in a thick blanket and let the milk convert to yogurt. You wrap the pot over night, and then the next day the consistency has changed from liquid, to a thicker yogurt texture. This same yogurt can be made into a thicket yogurt spread called "lehbaneh" and it's a delicious yogurt dip that pairs well with pita bread, olive oil. zaatar, veggies, eggs, and I eat it with just about anything that is dip-able.