Ramadan & Eid El-Fitr 2017

When we are about to celebrate Eid El-Adha. Haha sorry for the late post. I knowww, I should've tried to find a time, now that I procrastinate like this, I literally have so many things to update.

Right. So I spent the whole Ramadan in Egypt. It wasn't my first time, but it was my last time there. It was still good as it usual did. Ramadan in Egypt was never ever disappointing. Like I used to post before about how merry they would celebrate this holy month. So alive. With decoration and so. I didn't manage to buy the fanoos to bring it back home - cause I was on a tight budget but I bought a carpet and few more Egypt-y stuffs instead. Hahaha can't wait for them to arrive to Malaysia! Since I sent them via sea shipping from Egypt - gonna take months to arrive.

Anyhow, Ramadan goals checked. Even though in the middle of my final exam (yes, gonna make a special post about that weee I can't wait). But still, I managed to juggle both and even more! In term of ibadah and all. I am so gonna miss Ramadan in Egypt guysss, like so much! Not to mention the free ifhar that we, Malaysian students got haha. Definitely one of the sweetest moments abroad.

Then Eid was quite nice. Lonely a little bit. Not my first time away from my family, but my first time as a wife but my husband was working on 1st Syawal. We're both just raya through whatsapp haha but it was okay. 

My friends and I decided to make a match kurung for this raya. We took pictures around Zagazig, and that made me realized how much I was going to miss that foreign land. Sigh. 

Raya as a foreigner is sure different. A lot. 

The foreign feeling and all. But still, that's going to be my sweetest memories. *sheds tears*

open house eid 2016

My first open house ever organized by my friends and myself. Usually in Malaysia, my mom will decide on everything. The meals especially. I am more like a kitchen helper. And I will just decorate the house and the hardest is to choose the table clothes to use hahaha.

This time was different. My friends and I made everything from scratch starting from buying the raw materials, to cooking to post-event house cleaning. Egypt is so hot and we basically walk to everywhere since we don't own any vehicle. Oh, if I could speak Arabic fluently, I would definitely just order them by phone and make them deliver the things to my house hahaha (just like we have Tesco online in Malaysia - my brother is one regular customer of it zzz).

We came out with several menu, with limited ingredients of course - but we did it! Like the previous years, we would packed our luggage with just food from Malaysia and for me, daun kesum (Vietnamese coriander)  and bunga kantan (torch ginger flower) are compulsory. Besides ginger and lemongrass. Because I really like asam pedas, so I often make it here.

We have a lot of daun kesum and bunga kantan supply this time, as well as daun kunyit. We made asam laksa as a main dish. Also, another main dish like rendang, lontong, instant ketupat palas, instant nasi impit and kuah kacang.

Phew. Hahaha.

Dessert: bubur jagung, green tea pudding, orange flavour cupcakes, chocolate cake.

Beverage: The best part. We had iced sirap rose, bandung, sarsi, green cocktail, lychee.

Phew again.

Hahaha of course the preparation wasn't that easy but we enjoyed making this. Gathered at the living room while peeling the onions whilst watching Malay movie, Isteri vs Tunang Raya and got mad at the stupid husband in the movie cause nobody ever like cowards zzz. At the same time preparing for beverages, making sure it wasn't too diabetic but still too sweet anyway haha.

We took turn to sleep cause yeah it was tiring. I slept for about 2 hours and got up at 7 am to bake the cupcakes. While of course, eating the rendang for breakfast hehe.

All set and ready. Let's make ourselves pretty, but danggg. BLACKOUT! I was about to iron my clothes. Ahh, so spoil.

We all became so bad mood, it was so hot. My neighbourhood  rarely affected by any blackout/short water supply or something but what a perfect timing, Zagazig government. You chose it that day wow hahaha.

Everybody managed to get dressed except me. I showered and just wearing a casual jeans and went to the campus to settle a few things regarding the studies (just to kill time) and came back home to see everything's came back to normal. Phew.

Catching the nemo for rendang 

Succeed.

Yes. We listed out the menus on the board, hung it in the living room where people eat. Actually I did it as a to-do-list memos at first. They were being funny when they said, "I'm eating number 4 now". "I'm at number 2 now, long way to go". "Where is number 6 on the table?". "Finished all 17 menus". "I'm eating according to the orders". "Is this buffet or we should order to you by the numbers?".

And we got more and more guest after Zuhr. We didn't invite a lot. Just coursemates and some close friends. My classmates stayed at our house till night to watch some movie and all. While I already knocked out at the corner of my bed. So tired hahaha.

But it's so fun. When it's just you and your friends, no curfew, no restrictions. Just us.

Definitely the valuable experience as a perantauan. I'm gonna shed tears to remember this one fine day. It's too sweet. Too diabetic.

eid 2016

Selamat Hari Raya. Maaf Zahir & Batin!

My first eid in Egypt, ever! So many new things happened and I learned a lot from this. And it was so so fun actually.

The night of 1st Syawal, we all gathered at the Malaysian Hall for a free iftar (simply because it's free haha), and for Eid takbir. It reminded me of home, seriously. Cause that's what I usually listen to at the night of Syawal at home, so I had to play tough here. But it wasn't bad after all.

We didn't prepare much for the 1st Syawal. Except for the new outfit, that I once told you before about this one uncle who sews so well and I am his regular customer for the three consecutive years already. For the meal, nayy. Cause we got a lot of open house invitations which was so happy of me haha.

Earlier at the morning:

We slept quite late at 3 am cause Fajr got early now that we spent the night by preparing for our outfits and just enjoying raya songs. It was quite different this time that I wasn't really busy at the night of 1st Syawal, because usually in Malaysia, my mom and I would basically just sleeping in the kitchen hahaha kidding but sort of true. I need to make sure that everyone gets their outfits neat and arranged, I clean up the whole house, rearrange few stuffs in the house and I have to do so many more chores!

It gets different this year, I was one happy free kid. Hahaha.

Since Fajr was early, our Eid prayer started at 530 am. We got ready at 5am to rush for a prayer. All set up and happy. I managed to make a video call to my family in Malaysia to maaf zahir batin everyone and of course asking for duit raya hahaha. Quite disappointed when my duit raya was being postponed till next year.

Still got ones from dad and fiance by the way (happy kid I am).

Eid here was quite fun actually, when we had to do everything by ourselves, it's totally a new experience for me.

Syawal 1st to 6th were fulfilled by open house invitations. We held one on 5th Syawal. Gonna blog about that real soon.

Anyways, Eid Mubarak everybody. May Allah accepts our good deeds. I apologize to everyone if I ever hurt you intentionally/unintentionally. Let this Eid makes us a better person than before.

Long hiatus

Wow, long break. Anyone misses me? I've just arrived in Egypt btw and my long disappearance in Malaysia for my long summer break, well, as usual, never be disappointed. Just few catching up meetings with my family, relatives, friends and boyfriend (s) - hahaha, you wish.

Celebrating Eid ul-Fitri and Eid al-Adha in my country, nothing beats the happiness from this. Extending my own holiday (cause it's Egypt ftw - you are free to create your own rules and protesting is their thing haha), it's just worth it.

Mom and I doing terawikh at home

Family members on mom's side 

And you know, what I love the most about being at home is food. All sort of foods. I'm not a big eater but my love for food is endless and eternity. Especially, seafood. My mom cooked me all sort of prawn dishes everyday which is equal to a heaven.

So I'm back here in Egypt for semester 5 of my course, I'm ready to rocking my normal routine (i.e: sleep, korean dramas, cooking, study, sleep again and counting days to go back to Malaysia), but this feels really long.

Semester 4 results? Hahaha don't ask. It was the worst results ever in my whole life. Just because of this one subject called 'General Microbiology & Immunology' which took itself 4 credit hours had ruined all my grades, and so did my CGPA. Just like a black sheep I tell you this subject. And the consequence continues this semester. So I happily registered for 'Clinical Microbiology' this time.

Okay few more updates.

Mom has been addicted to korean dramas now.

My younger brother is going to graduate real soon.

Dolls - as always. Nynaa is pregnant. Bunny is getting married next 2 or 3 months. Fifiey is doing Masters now. Shushy has to go through few semesters more to graduate.

Adik Hafizah - my youngest cousin. Haihh, getting pretty and clever this girl.

Adam and Mia (my nephew and niece) - keeps growing up and fighting against each other more often. I love it when they hadn't seen me for a long time, and when I showed up, they're just smiling and hug me shyly. They're really growing up.

Ameerul Ashraf - becoming more like Adam and Mia. Fighting and arguing with me whenever he got the chances. Hehehe.

And the best part of my holiday, was having a small reunion with my ex diploma coursemates. Ahhhh I really love this meeting. It was really really really good.

Definitely will update about them specifically later.

Such a nice summer break for me. I just can't wait to see what's waiting for me next summer break.

:)

Colours of Malaysia

I'm coming to the end of semester 4. The whole semester was a lot more relaxed than the previous one. I mean, we didn't really rushed for syllabus, less chaos and no more extra class. In fact, we even had 2 weeks of holiday. (For Egypt presidential election).

Of course, holiday is equal to happiness.

Well, not officially ended. I still have 7 final exam papers to go through. And they become tougher by semesters. So semester 4 won't never be as easy as semester 1. I dont know what semester 10 will look like then.

*biting lips*

Well, few things happened this semester. Few events involving me.

1) Pharmily Day for all Malaysian Pharmacy students. 

(as an emcee)

Since, we (Malaysians) are always being teachers' favourite (no, we are not perasan, this is a fact hahaha), so the lecturers seemed to never get enough of us. They basically wanted us more haha, so we held an event just to celebrate our presence here. With the lecturers and few invited Egyptian students.

I mean, more like a Malaysians Day or something, we introduced them our various traditional pastries (kuih-muih) and other foods. My classmates were in charge of making curry puffs, it was fun but man, I was so tired, we stayed up late to roll the dough over hahaha.

Yeah, of course, when it comes to foods, it's always fun. 

From left: Dr Hesham Ezzat (Clinical Pharmacy Coordinator), Dr Abdellah Al Shanawany (Dean of Fac of Pharmacy) and Dr Maged Abo Hashim (Foreign Student Coordinator)

** My friends call Dr Hesham as Ayah Kakqis. (Tu, ayah Kakqis datang, something like that hahaha). Because they said Dr Hesham only being good to me. I don't know but at the end of this Pharmily Day, I've got a present from Dr Hesham cause he said I was doing a good job being an emcee.

*laugh my heart out*

The presenter of Pharmily Day, it's me. And my partner, Shamira.

My housemate, Ain.

 2) Zagazig Charity Day (ZACHAD)

(as performance unit committee)

What I love the most about Malaysian students events/gathering is foods! I mean, where else on earth would you find various kinds of Malaysian food in a foreign country like this?

And ZACHAD was a day event created for charity purposes. Students were setting up their booths for selling foods and preloved items, and some of the profits were donated to the orphanage. 

I was donating a lot! (on food). Hehehe. Told ya, I was having such a blessed day. Breakfast with nasi kerabu which I hadn't had for months long. Then I bought pavlova, pasembur, nasi lemak, and a lot more I couldn't remember.

ZACHAD 2014 team.

22nd birthday

What group is 22 years old person fall into? Adult? 

Right. I'm an adult now, officially. Should behave nicely. Should know how to cook. Should know how to do households perfectly. Shouldn't jump on the the bed anymore. 

And should make more serious face in the picture. 

But we're just refused to grow up!

Iffni said, "Let's take some pictures of me feeding you your birthday cake, "tag" Tawakkal people on Facebook". Ah, so rindu mann!

But our pictures turned out annoying.

So okay, it was 6 pm in Egypt (12 am in Malaysia, so they sang me birthday song out loud by the roadside. I was like, "Come on, stop it, shut up, you guys are disgusting. Embarrassing".

Birthday song, 22 years old. Euw. And those 5 lovely people treated me a slice of chocolate cake. Thank youuuu. :)

Err, yes. Just one slice. But, really, I don't mind. But maybe with a pair of Charles&Keith shoes, by any chance, guys? Okay bye.

Eid Adha 2012

Holidays were over. Classes start back. Few midterm tests awaits. How awful that would be? But I'm okay.

I've told you about going to Cairo for the holidays and celebrated Eid Adha there. Well, not much of celebrating. The mood hadn't just came when you're away from home (true story). So let's consider the holidays as my really really short break. But still, they'd celebrated it merrily here.

I stayed in Malaysian Hall for a few days. They had this korban and gave away the meat to everyone. Well, sort of. And I've got my part from Zagazig.

Ahh, yes. Cellphone's best friend. Cause Eid Adha was on 26 Oct. And my bloody birthday fell on the same day too! (Thanks to those who wished and pray for me. Very much appreciated.)

Anak Mithali

You know what, in our closing ceremony of our orientation programme, they had this session which they would called some students and awarded them with "Anugerah Tokoh Kepimpinan Pelajar". They had selected 18 students out of 300+ of all. 

So, Iffni and I, as always was talking to each other and laughing and giggling, then suddenly I heard my name  was called. Like what? I didn't dare to ask Iffni to slap my face and got me back to reality, but I carried my ass off to the stage. Very funny, I know. 

I didn't know how they did it. 

Iffni said, "Hey, it that really you that they just called? Wow HAHAHHA"

Shushy said, "Yeah, must be based on height"

Fayyad, my senior said, "Maybe because you're really old among all. HAHA"

Wani, my new coursemate, "I was shocked when they called your name. You? Tokoh? HAHAHA"

Not funny, guys. 

I got this book. So I showed to Ameerul. He laughed. He said, "Sesuai la dengan you. Learn from that book okay?"

Seriously, these people. I'm already a good daughter, kan? :)

Orientation programme

I needed to go to Pantai Morib for an orientation programme. A week of an orientation programme. A week. 

I first thought that it was the long one. I mean, 1 week there, what we're really going to do? I knew I would faced some sleepless night, tight packed schedule, I knew no one there except Iffni and countless talk that I needed to listen to. Normal perception of orientation so far.

But seriously, this one's different. My first super cool orientation programme ever. God, I'm pathetic. I only found the cool one after 22 years. Haha. 

300+ participants. But it's really okay. Everyone's okay. The facilitators were really great. And the hotel room was really okay. Haha.

But we turned it to be this bad. Sorry, this was happened when I tried to be punctual.

One thing that they emphasized, it's about a relationship between us. They said, ukhuwah is very important, cause apparently we have nobody there. Just us students. We're like a family there. Oh God, I've found my mom, hello Iffni Suraya. :)

Truth be told, I heard a lot of people saying on how hard it is to survive in Egypt. Patient is a key.

*shed tears*

Well, this is what I choose. Everytime I ask Ameerul about my decision of going there, he'll say, believe in your heart. You are chasing your dream.

Yes, I am so all I've ever needed now is to be strong.

At least I have Iffni with me.

Iffni's funny. One time when we were listening to a talk about the daily life/routine in Egypt, they said, Egypt has this one animal called lamar. I'm not sure what lamar is. Camel maybe. Donkey maybe. So I whispered to her, "Khloe and Lamar" maybe.

-________-

We sat beside each other in almost all talks. She's so funny and always came out with crazy jokes so I couldn't help giggling then. Please, don't do this in our class soon. Hahaha.

Seriously, I need to grow up. :p

Wedding cum Raya

Wedding and hari raya. Chemistry 90%. Wedding, hari raya and public holiday, chemistry level of 100% and traffic jam will add up to 101%.

Anyhow, I'm getting older now. I received a lot of invitations to open house, weddings and all. A sign that I should start to know how it feels to appreciate those invitations and feeling the need of maintaining a good relationship.

Yes, one step further to my adult life. Hari raya with Ameerul's family and friends. God, I'm so old. Never thought hari raya will be this wide to celebrate in this 22 years old time. Hehe. 

Everything was in Seremban. I'm now memorize how much total of money that we need to pay to the tolls through PLUS and LEKAS. 

I went a lil bit annoying (and mental) when I replied some of my friends' text messages with "Selamat hari raya too. From Qissy, Ameerul and our children". My friends euw-ed me. Okay thanks. Haha.

This is Mariyah. Chemistry blended us into purple. 

Some of Ameerul's friends on Zara's Alang's wedding. Sort of Ameerul's life. He can never live without his boys. He dated me bringing all these boys, you see. And that's how I become close to them. By the way, they will have this kind of raya convoy annually and I missed it this year and for the next 5 years then. Sigh.

I love this picture. And this picture brings no message. That's all.