Queen Noor: News Thread, Part 1

[Alexandria]

A fresh new thread for Queen Noor. Post the latest news on Queen Noor here.

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[maryshawn]

From Washingtonian:

Queen Noor has sold the house at 10221 River Road, Potomac, MD, to Redskins owner Daniel Snyder. Details on his new house are reported by the Washingtoninan Magazine:
Cost: 10 million
Acreage: 14
Total space: 30,000 square feet
Master bedroom suite: 3,000 square feet
Former owner: Queen Noor
Number of car bays: 12
Number of seats in movie theater: 18 (plus popcorn stand)
Size of "fun room" - 1,000 square feet
Clothes storage area - 600 square feet
Number of closets: 17 including 120 square foot cedar closet
Seats at bar: 14
Number of TVs in bar area: one 65 inch and 4 41 inch


Since sale, Mr. Snyder has been in trouble with village of Potomac for cutting down a vast number of trees on the property. The village sent in environmental officials and Mr. Snyder has had to pay fines and commit to a tree planting project in an effort to restore some of the lost vegetation.

But the house sure sounds nice!!!!! Mary Shawn

[Balqis]

Thanks for the info, Mary Shawn. I wonder how many times a year they stayed in this house while KH was alive. Where is QN relocating to now?

[maryshawn]

Crest Lane has traditionally been McLean’s most prestigious street in large part because Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis grew up in the same Chain Bridge Road neighborhood at Merrywood, the house where JFK wrote Profiles in Courage. But what makes 1159 Crest Lane so special that the seller is asking $11.5 million? Granted the unique elliptical house set on 2.4 acres commands beautiful views of the river from every room. And the fact that it is rumored to have been rented by Jordan’s Queen Noor also accounts for some of the property ’s perceived value. Built in 1999, the multi-million dollar home is described as having “understated elegance,” not unlike Noor herself. The seller, listed as Margaret Skallrup, Trustee, originally placed the home on the market with an asking price of $15 million. Consequently, interested buyers may hold out some hope that the price will fall yet again.

It is Noor's for now but, unless she buys it, she will be moving once the seller receives her asking price. I suspect--given the fact Washington DC, Virginia and Maryland are home to her mother and sister, as well as a convenient hub from where to do business with the causes she is associated with--her next home will likely be in same area. She obviously likes living on the Potomac River but just finished reading an article where she says she is downsizing as she no longer has the need for many servants or rooms for entertaining state visit guests. Will try to post as it is quite good and revealing. Mary Shawn

[maryshawn]

Redskins’ owner, Daniel Snyder, has reportedly spent $10 million for yet another major purchase in the Washington metropolitan area. This time he bought the much-publicized Potomac waterfront estate which Jordan’s Queen Noor and the late King Hussein had owned. The twelve-acre property, which was listed with W. C. & A. N. Miller, contains two large homes, one of which the royal couple used to house their staff of servants and aides when visiting the Washington area, where Noor (the former Lisa Halaby) was raised. Reportedly, Snyder had been scouting properties in Potomac, for the better part of two years and considered “Chateau Peyrenne de Moras” at 9121 River Road with a pool, five-car garage, and on a little less than five acres before deeming the neighborhood too noisy. With his recent choice, he should have more solitude, and, given that the property boasts an electric fence and pop-up barricades, plenty of security as well. (Couldn't remember his name....but there are plenty who are fighting--albeit a little too late his taking so many lovely trees down).

More information on the River House.

[Balqis]

Thanks Mary Shawn :)

Now this maybe a rather strange question. I am trying to imagine the area where this house on the Potomac River may be situated. As I've never been to the area I am, I guess getting a helping hand from the movies that I've seen where this location may have been used. The recent remake of The Manchurian Candidate with Meryl Streep and Denzel Washington had a scene showing the backyard of Meryl Streep's character (she plays the wife of a Senator and her son is the running candidate for Vice President). The outside scene has a river at the end. It looks really beautiful and I presume it was shot in a prestigious area. It's a long shot I know but could this be the same area???

[maryshawn]

This is an excellent article, written shortly after King Hussein's death. Because of its size, I've had to split it up but it addresses issues many of us have had questions on: finances, family solidarity and what did happen in the end??? I think the way she describes it: A man was dying, worried about country and family, decided to name his eldest son King and died is likely the most accurate explanation as it is human and we can all relate to that. I hope you enjoy it! Mary Shawn

Queen Noor, Standing Alone
Just Months After King Hussein's Death, His Widow Ponders The Formless Future Her Hands Will Shape


By Howard Schneider
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, June 19, 1999; Page C01

AMMAN, Jordan—The thoughts tumble freely, a stream moving in a general direction but improvising a course.

The speaker is Queen Noor, widow of King Hussein, still shy of 50 and now trying to redefine her life inside the Arab kingdom where she has been a centerpiece for 20 years, a "resource and a sounding board" for the man whose decisions helped shape the Middle East.

The topic is her religion, and specifically whether, raised by Christian parents in an open-minded 1960s fashion, she converted to Islam primarily as a matter of convenience, to make possible her marriage to a man who was not just a Muslim monarch, but also a Hashemite, a descendant of the founding prophet, Muhammad, with all the weight of history and piety that entails.

The short answer is yes, but that alone sounds rudely shallow. So her thoughts spin deeper, and in spinning deeper run to a point where honesty, tact, the demands of her adopted culture and reverence for a departed husband collide, to a point that illustrates the constraints even queens face in defining themselves.

"How do I say this? Maybe because the world is constantly changing and therefore people, we are all constantly having to respond to changing circumstances. Islam provided a framework, a very clear, very enlightened . . . concrete framework . . . for understanding one's responsibilities and obligations in life, that, of course, depending on interpretation, has created, as you find in other religions, a variety of different perspectives. . . . I saw my husband--for me, I would not liken him to the prophet or any of the messengers that are part of the three Abrahamic religions, but I see him as someone who carried the message and made it real in this day and age.

"And it is really important that you not express that as badly as I did."

This then is the riddle: No longer Lisa Najeeb Halaby, an American-raised urban planner, and no longer the consort of a world-renowned leader, who is Noor? Full-time matriarch? Advocate, without portfolio, for world peace and a clean environment? Widowed queen of a land whose people don't look, talk or think like she does? "It is different," she says of this new phase. "It is going to be very different. And it is going to take time to figure it out."

[maryshawn]

IN TRANSITION

She is a queen still but not the queen, an honor that belongs now to Rania, wife of King Abdullah II.

Nor is she, as some mistakenly have said, the Queen Mother: Abdullah is the child of Hussein's English-born second wife, Muna, a somewhat reclusive figure.

But Noor is the mother of the popular crown prince, 19-year-old Hamzeh, a position that gives her a kind of derivative standing, particularly if Hamzeh emerges, as many expect he will, as a strong understudy for Abdullah. She has three younger children as well: Hashem, who graduated from the Maret School in Washington this spring, and daughters Iman and Raiyah, who were enrolled there but are likely to move closer to home to finish high school.

She also has shown an ability to stand on her own in Jordan, where she intends to stay. Viewed disparagingly by some here as an outsider, her bearing impressed Jordanians throughout the king's final days, especially during a public mourning period in which she seemed to be consoling the country as much as the country her.

She has pushed at cultural borders without offending, attending her husband's funeral, for example, even though it went against tradition. Likewise, she has been working quietly to ensure that "honor killings"--the murder of wives, daughters and sisters who have had affairs--are punished like any other crime.

After 20 years at Hussein's side, it may be, as she says, that her relations with Abdullah and Rania are good, that her relations with Jordan's political and social elites are good, and that she will simply operate as usual, giving moral support inside the family, offering advice if asked and sustaining a handful of outside projects.

She will, for example, be organizing a foundation in her late husband's honor. She may pick up a cause here and there that needs a face and a voice, as she did with Princess Diana's efforts to promote a global ban on anti-personnel land mines. And she is tying up the loose ends of her husband's life by honoring invitations he had accepted, including one to speak at Brown University's commencement recently.

But professionally, publicly, Noor is scaling back, telling some organizations she patronized over the past two decades that it is "time to disengage."

She also says she is economizing, laying off household staff and adjusting because her home is no longer a hub for the hundreds of dignitaries and staff passing through for business meetings or banquets or lunches or cups of tea.

She says she may be freer now to speak her mind but, concerned about upstaging the new king, she then has her staff ask a journalist not to publish anything about her during Abdullah's recent visit to Washington.

She utters an aw-shucks, I'm-the-same-as-I've-always-been reply to one question, then speaks of the job of being royalty as potentially "soul-destroying."

Again the thoughts tumble:

"The people of the country and the king have made it clear to me from the beginning, and it has been constant, and this is not by comparison to anyone else, and has little to do with the title, that they want me to continue, that they need me, and at the same time also now there will be more of a role played by the new queen, but there is no reason why that should be in any way anything but a very positive development and hopefully one that will bring us all closer together."



THE MODEST MONARCHY

The odd impression is that, despite a life amid regal trappings, despite the fact that she has given up her U.S. passport, the former Lisa Halaby has lived a very American success story. She just happens to have done it as queen of an Arab country.

Smart, attractive, idealistic, she graduated from Princeton University and pursued a career in urban planning and design. Her father, an aviation official in the Kennedy administration and later an airline executive, was Syrian, and she was drawn to the Middle East. In the 1970s, she began working with Royal Jordanian Airlines.

Lightning struck. In the small social world of a small country with a notoriously sociable king, she eventually met His Majesty, a widower since his third wife, Alia, died in a helicopter crash. He was smitten. She brushed up on the Koran. They were married in 1978.

One might imagine that this was the start of a life of privilege, but to hear her tell the tale it is much more complicated.

It is mid-May, slightly more than three months since her husband succumbed to lymphoma, and she is sitting in a parlor in the palace known as Bab al Salam, "the Door of Peace," the home she shared with Hussein. It is a modest building, as all of Jordan's palaces are, made of the same glittering limestone that characterizes much of the rest of the country's architecture. There are more ostentatious places in Montgomery County.

The lawn outside is golf-course green, the rooms full of memorabilia: the flag that was draped on Hussein's casket, Bedouin weaponry, portraits of the country's three previous kings.

She is wearing black slacks, and a black-and-white striped pullover, though she has forgone the locket with Hussein's picture she had worn during an earlier meeting. She looks more Swedish than Arabian, after her mother's side; talks the lingo more of America than the Middle East. She is gregarious, welcoming, self-assured. She is that rare item, a monarch who eschews the importance of her title.

"What is important about me is independent of all that. What is important of everybody in life is independent of all that. And what was important about my husband was also independent of that," she says.

Indeed, what was important about Hussein, she says, is also what made life as a Hashemite queen more of a job than a sinecure.

In his 47-year reign, he survived palace intrigue, assassination attempts, wars, civil strife and ostracism by other Arab leaders, particularly after signing a peace agreement with Israel. Other monarchies, regimes, ideologies came and went in the Middle East. Colonialism. Nasserism. Arab unity. Secularism. Political Islam. Hussein weathered them all to become a mainstay of pro-Western politics in the region, a stance that won him lots of U.S. aid and lots of good press in the West, but left him regarded as something of a poseur by other Arab leaders, a king whose country was invented by the British as a consolation prize when his forefathers were kicked out of Saudi Arabia early in the century.

Compared with Egypt, Jordan is a country without a past. To Saudi Arabia, whose leaders took their territory by conquest, it is a country with no logical historical or military reason to exist. To Saddam Hussein, Jordan's monarchy is of the same family line as the one his Ba'ath Party evicted from Baghdad. He once called King Hussein a "throne dwarf," in reference to his diminutive stature.

In surroundings like that, to survive is to succeed, and it is that context, Noor says, that made life in the Royal Court of Amman less a fairy tale than a daily struggle for balance.

Keeping the family together, keeping the country together, upholding what he felt was a moral mission as part of the prophet's line constantly threatened to consume Hussein and those around him, she says. "He never fully let go."

[maryshawn]

Hussein felt he had a country resting on his shoulders, as well as a spiritual history spanning 1,400 years. It was demanding emotionally and financially. Oddly enough, though the idea of monarchy conjures images of commanding wealth, in a resource-poor country like Jordan, Noor says, her husband was perpetually overspending and forced to seek aid from the oil-rich monarchies in the Persian Gulf.

Renowned in Jordan for paying hospital bills, college tuition and other expenses for those who sought his assistance, Hussein "overextended himself financially on a regular basis, and the challenge was always to try to pay the accumulation of debts that would mount because of all these needs that he was addressing," she says.

Though she is rumored to have inherited hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars, she laughs at the idea, saying that their budget was so stretched that Hussein delayed for years building the new, more secure, palace that his guards had pestered him to construct.

"I would not call him a spendthrift. This is part of our tradition--an Arab and Muslim tradition--you look after those in need. . . . My husband was the last resource for people who had no other options in a country of limited resources. So he tried never to turn anyone away and that is not always a sustainable position," Noor says.



A REDEFINED ROLE

The final days of King Hussein's life were writ large around the world, and the facts did make a compelling narrative, from his dramatic appearance, bald and frail from chemotherapy, at the conclusion of the Wye River peace talks last fall, to the tumultuous winter days in which he returned to Jordan from his cancer treatment, stripped his brother of his title as crown prince and successor, then flew back to Minnesota's Mayo Clinic with his disease in full rage.

The drama produced such a welter of sidewalk innuendo in Amman that it seemed almost certain that Jordan would disintegrate. The only question was whom to hold responsible--the CIA, the Israelis, some group of other Arab countries or some murky, Machiavellian in-house gang.

No matter how open and Westernizing Jordan may present itself to be, no matter how much Noor and others insist that the family dynamics are healthy and the transition of power seamless and untroubled, this country remains a knotty, tribal monarchy, a place where changing alliances and jealousies, blood ties and wasta--connections--are often more important than merit.

Noor was alternatively:



* The mastermind of a plot whose ultimate design, to have her son Hamzeh on the throne, is still unfolding.



* The mastermind of a plot whose ultimate design, to have her son Hamzeh on the throne, backfired.



* The unwitting dupe of a cabal of U.S. security officials who have co-opted Abdullah.



* The unwitting dupe of a cabal of Jordanian security officials who felt the king's brother, Hassan, would interfere with their perks.

After all, something deeper must have been at work. People don't just die, do they?

While gossip accompanies crisis in any political town, "it can be taken to extremes here," she says. Jordan "is very small and intense. The whole region can be that way."

From Hussein's bedside, from inside the family, however, what happened was a much more intimate and human event, she says. A man was worried about his family, worried about his country, decided after months of thought that his eldest son should replace him, and died.

There was little sense in those final days, in the hours the family spent praying and comforting each other, that they were in the middle of anything epic or more largely human than the simple fact of mortality.

"I tend not to stand outside of myself when I am in the middle of something that fundamental," she says. Despite the biting language Hussein used in dismissing his brother, despite the gossip that the royal family was split into camps, she says "there was a unity of love. A loving spirit that everyone was trying to share with one another for him, as an expression of him."

The days after the funeral were among the family's busiest. Abdullah opened one palace for the men to pay condolences, while Noor received women at another.

Day after day, the lines extended from Zaharan Palace, outside the gate and along the sidewalk of one of Amman's busiest roads.

It was then that she so impressed the people of her country, as if for the first time she was fully accepted as part of a society that at its root remains a touch superstitious and very traditional. The fact that this tall, blond American was their queen had always rankled some, particularly among those families who felt such an honor should have been reserved for one of the locals.

If the public mourning was her duty, it was in a sense her curtain call, too. If she had won full and final acceptance as Hussein's "light"--the Arabic meaning of her adopted name--it came as a bittersweet blessing, at a time when attention inevitably shifts to the new king and queen, the causes they promote and the people they favor.

The stream keeps flowing:

"It is more through my personal effort and involvement or accomplishments or projects--that is my pulpit. It did not come from the title. Now my ability to draw people together to get things going was in large part because of my role and my position. But the actual issues and the ways that we have gone about trying to effect development had to do with our own efforts and work, not with the Royal Court. That is not explaining it well.

"I first of all will be supporting the king and the queen in their work in the country. I see my continuing efforts in the areas that I have been involved in as very-- I see them as complementary."

If, as Noor says, titles don't matter, she has the prime of her life to prove it, on her own.






© Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company

[maryshawn]

This may give you some idea, courtesy of Yahoo. A is where River Road is and B is Crest Lane area. My understanding is that while KH was alive, they used the River Road house about 3-4 mos. total per year; now Noor is based largely at Crest Lane. Both are highly prestigious neighborhoods so it is likely the movie was shot in the River Road area right on the Potomac.

[maryshawn]

Queen Noor tries to find a proper role for herself
By Roxanne Roberts
The Washington Post
March 7, 2004

WASHINGTON -- The house in suburban McLean, Va., is modern, tasteful and spacious, the river view lovely. Queen Noor strides into the kitchen wearing blue jeans and a sweater. She's sophisticated but informal, very Town & Country.

She sips ginger tea at the kitchen table. At 52, she is striking: blond, slender and tall. She talks thoughtfully of being a widow and a single mother, of shepherding her kids through college, of her work, of trying to live a "normal" life.

Nothing here screams "royalty" -- no tiaras, no bowing servants -- except for the family pictures in the kitchen. For 21 years, Noor was King Hussein's wife and Jordan's unofficial ambassador to the world. It's been five years since he died, leaving her with a title but no throne, a regal past but an uncertain future.

The public Noor is a world-famous advocate for Palestinian rights, women's and environmental issues, and peace in the Middle East. Her autobiography, "Leap of Faith," is an international best seller. She commands $60,000 per speech on the lecture circuit. She dines with Nelson Mandela, consults with Kofi Annan, is serenaded by Sting.

She jets around the world, followed by cameras and gossip. Her homes, her four children, her dates are discussed in newspapers in Washington, New York, London and Amman. She is admired, envied and dissected in two different cultures.

Based in Washington, her hometown, she's carefully crafting a complicated new life.

"I have been trying, and I admit very awkwardly, to try to strike a balance where I can live a normal, natural life here, where I don't do anything here or in Jordan that I would not be comfortable with in either place," she says.

This is the inherent paradox of Noor: She's between a crown and a hard place.

A credible voice

Noor became a media sensation the day she got married in 1978 at 26. Twenty-six years later, so much has changed -- and so little. Noor has implemented ambitious plans to improve the economic, educational and cultural lives of Jordanians. Her Web site lists reams of charitable interests around the world: Refugees International, Landmine Survivors Network, Conservation International, the World Wildlife Fund. She makes 70 to 100 speeches and appearances annually. But she is also a queen, a title that overshadows everything else about her. (Jordan actually has two queens: Noor and Queen Rania, wife of King Abdullah.)

"I'm always going to be instinctively a private person and also motivated to be a public servant," she says. "So I'm always going to be trying to reconcile these two essential parts of me. Obviously, it works well sometimes, and it can be somewhat awkward on other occasions. I'm learning my way slowly through all this."

"She's extraordinarily effective," says friend, James Kimsey. "First of all, she's got an enormous amount of charm. But in addition, her intellect is very precise and is able to cover points in detail. I got much more accomplished as a result of having her in these meetings than I would had I been by myself."

"She's smart, she's eloquent, she's gracious, and very direct and sincere," says James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute. "Over the years, she developed a gravitas. When she spoke, she spoke like a leader."

The former Lisa Halaby was the eldest child of Najeeb Halaby, a Navy pilot of Syrian descent who had the top job at Pan Am and wealthy, influential friends all over the world -- including King Hussein.

Noor grew up in privilege: elite private schools, ski trips to Austria and Switzerland. In her book, Noor describes herself as a loner, bookish, happiest in serious conversations. By the time she entered Princeton University, where she graduated in 1974, classmates had labeled her snobbish and haughty.

But her reserved bearing was a natural fit for a queen, and she embraced her new life and her new name (as a wedding gift, Hussein renamed his fourth wife Noor al Hussein, or Light of Hussein).

She originally intended to stay in Jordan after Hussein's death but has ended up spending most of her time here. Her children -- Crown Prince Hamzah, 23, Prince Hashim, 22, Princess Iman, 20, and Princess Raiyah, 18 -- attended schools in the United States and England. Noor's ailing father and her sister lived here, and a family trust owned River House, Hussein's 10-acre estate on the Potomac. (The property was sold in 2001 to Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder.)

Her first public appearance in Washington after the mourning period was at Hashim's 1999 prep school graduation. She later was seen around the city, usually with Kimsey at A-list events: the National Symphony Ball, the Corcoran Ball, opening night of the Washington Opera.

Washington was star-struck, curious and eager to welcome Noor back home. But the woman who is so skilled in her public roles has proved surprisingly awkward. Guests seated near her at formal dinners describe her as serious but not engaged, rarely sharing personal information or observations.

She is seen as bright, gracious and glamorous but uncomfortable in large groups and impatient with small talk.

Esther Coopersmith, a longtime friend of Jordan's royal family, says: "Perhaps some people think she's cold. She's not. She's shy and reserved."

At parties, Noor says, she simply tries to spend time with friends, support the organizations and "disappear into the wallpaper." She says she's always been socially awkward. "I'm not good at chitchat. Not because I look down on it -- because it's a very important way of connecting in our world -- it's just that I've never been good at it."

There's been speculation about a romance with Kimsey, the America Online co-founder and multimillionaire whom she met in 2001. Both deny it, and Noor says she has no plans to remarry.

"He's like a big brother," says Noor.

[maryshawn]

I had heard Noor was shy and her first speeches were "pure terror" because she felt she carried the "weight of the whole presentation of the region on (her) shoulders." She has been noted for speaking her mind but also, in a 1991 Vanity Fair article was described as "humorless; very serious." This was attributed to the Gulf crisis and the bleakness of the refugee situation. In "Town and Country" 1988, Noor says her mother found her shy "to the extreme" and "considered counseling." But she has clearly overcome this to the extent her speeches are excellent yet she still likes to "blend into the wallpaper" except with close friends. An interesting woman--complex blend of introverted yet courageous enough to take on a very public role. It cannot have been easy. Queen Rania, on the other hand, strikes me in all that has been written, as a far more extroverted personality plus carries an ease which perhaps stems from being from the ME. Both women have been praised for their excellent, well prepared and delivered speeches and persuasive tactics with people of influence and power throughout the world. Two fine assets for Jordan!

[salma]

News of Queen Noor:



http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=127944





http://new.in-forum.com/ap/index.cfm?page=view&id=D8891G7G0

[maryshawn]

Balqis, You have a keen eye; yes, that movie had parts shot right around River Road where KH and QN's first house--the description I posted first on this thread--in Potomac! So that is the correct area! Wow. Gives me better idea of how it looks now and why they loved it at first sight. How pretty.....


Thanks for bringing this one up!

Mary Shawn

[Balqis]

Originally Posted by maryshawn

Balqis, You have a keen eye; yes, that movie had parts shot right around River Road where KH and QN's first house--the description I posted first on this thread--in Potomac! So that is the correct area! Wow. Gives me better idea of how it looks now and why they loved it at first sight. How pretty.....


Thanks for bringing this one up!

Mary Shawn

That's GREAT! Thanks for getting back to me about this. While watching the movie, and that particular scene, I was struck how beautiful the area is. It has a real old world feeling to it. Glad to know now it is what I thought it might have been :)

[Bubbette]

Originally Posted by maryshawn

I had heard Noor was shy and her first speeches were "pure terror" because she felt she carried the "weight of the whole presentation of the region on (her) shoulders." She has been noted for speaking her mind but also, in a 1991 Vanity Fair article was described as "humorless; very serious." This was attributed to the Gulf crisis and the bleakness of the refugee situation. In "Town and Country" 1988, Noor says her mother found her shy "to the extreme" and "considered counseling." But she has clearly overcome this to the extent her speeches are excellent yet she still likes to "blend into the wallpaper" except with close friends. An interesting woman--complex blend of introverted yet courageous enough to take on a very public role. It cannot have been easy. Queen Rania, on the other hand, strikes me in all that has been written, as a far more extroverted personality plus carries an ease which perhaps stems from being from the ME. Both women have been praised for their excellent, well prepared and delivered speeches and persuasive tactics with people of influence and power throughout the world. Two fine assets for Jordan!

She was a cheerleader in college, so I'm not sure how she could be shy!

[maryshawn]

Good point! And she wore pants instead of a skirt to make a statement--which drew even more attention. OK. Hadn't thought about that and it makes sense. Do "pathologically shy" (her words) women try out to be Ivy League cheerleaders? Well, put it this way: it's how she describes herself.

Originally Posted by Bubbette

She was a cheerleader in college, so I'm not sure how she could be shy!

[Reina]

I am shy and I tried (emphasis on tried) for cheerleading. SHy ppl like us aren't afraid to go out and do what we are good at. It is what we are not good at like convo.'s with ppl we don't know that well and other stuff. I think some ppl have complete misconceptions about shy ppl. And I am not afraid to make a statement when I relaly believe in something.

[closesttoheaven]

Originally Posted by Bubbette

She was a cheerleader in college, so I'm not sure how she could be shy!

it isnt strange to becoming shy with such a childhood like hers - but now shes many years queen and learned to change something.
she has to do such things as queen - and she has special views - like wearing trousers and beeing cheerleader - but nobody can look behind her face - and there maybe you will find a shy person?!
when you listen to her speeches - you hear the first time always a nervous voice!

[abir]

Originally Posted by closesttoheaven

it isnt strange to becoming shy with such a childhood like hers - but now shes many years queen and learned to change something.
she has to do such things as queen - and she has special views - like wearing trousers and