Alina Kanaan

Chapter 2

Those who believe and do good deeds — the Gracious God will create love in their hearts.  (Quran 19:97)

January 2014

I’m glad that we got to go on a plane to Los Angeles. Driving there takes eight hours from Santa Rosa.

“Excuse me for this interruption, but please fasten your seatbelts. We will be landing shortly.” One of the flight attendants says through the microphone. I quickly put on my seatbelt. I remembered from the last time I took a plane that I always hated taking off and landing. The last time I was on a plane was coming to San Francisco from Abu Dhabi. I was a new immigrant then.

                “Are you nervous?” my sister, Khadijah, asks me. She’s sitting next to me. My brother, Nassif, is sitting next to her. I was lucky enough to get the window seat.

                “I’m excited and nervous. Part of me thinks I’m in a dream!” I exclaim.

                “You’re not!” Nassif says.

                “It’s so unreal!” I add. I silently thank Allah for bringing me on this journey, keeping us safe, and for having American Idol generously pay for our trip here. I can only imagine how expensive it was since I have a huge family. Plus, Francisco, Ashley, and Rosa got to come along.

                I have seven siblings. The oldest sibling is Hussein who is twenty-seven. Yousef is turning twenty-five. Khadijah is turning twenty-three. Aisha is turning twenty-two. Nassif is turning twenty. Ahmed is turning twelve and Mina is seven. I’m the sixth sibling turning eighteen in April. It’s funny how Hassan’s and Mina’s birthdays were near each other this month and that they’re the oldest and youngest out of the siblings.

                My mother was eighteen when she had Hussein and my father was twenty. They became married a year earlier. They were living in Egypt, but shortly moved to Palestine after Hussein’s birth.

                We land and then exit the plane. I feel like I’m still dreaming. Is this real?

                After all of us get our luggage, we see people holding out signs. We spot a chauffeur holding a sign that says “Alina Kanaan + Family and Friends”. We walk up to him and tell him who we are. He greets us and then tells us to follow him. We’re then greeted to a huge, black limousine for all of us to fit into.

                We cruise through LA. I’ve never been here, only seeing it in movies before.

                It seems like a humongous place. It’s ten times as crowded as San Francisco. I bet traffic is horrible.

                We get on the freeway to Hollywood and soon approach the Hollywood sign. All of us, except for Mina, take out our phones to take pictures of it.

                The limousine stops at a mansion near the sign. It’s a spacious, white house that looks like it has three stories. There must be many rooms to house all of us.

                The limo driver stops and opens the door for us. After we get our luggage out, we thank him and he drives away.

                I find out that there are four roommates to a room. I go to my assigned room which is on the third story. I’m the first one in it, so I decide to claim the bed next to the window.

                There are four twin beds in the room with some space for a table and a lamp between each one. There is one bathroom which is near my bed. The walls are painted white with flower wallpaper. There’s one window on the wall between the middle two beds and one big one to the right of my bed.