Rejab, Sya’aban, n then, insyaAllah, Ramadhan. 3 blessed months for us to make full use of, biidznillah :)


It’s summertime, which means it gets very hot in the afternoon. Makes u feel like staying at home all day. But of course, life has to go on. Esp when u have such a packed daily schedule. like… me! (heh)


Summer, as it turned out to be, can be even more tiring than the school term. Various classes at various places n jami’s, invitations by fellow sisters to their homes, bidding farewell to those who are flying off for vacation, or returning to their homeland forever (tsk. like my dear sis Tahmina n family who just flew to Bangladesh n then to Britain few days back), n tuition.

Lovely sis Tahmina n her lively family (from left):

little Fatima, her zauj, tiny Ubadah 'Uthman with huge eyes,

(too bad the camera didn't catch his attention),

n the heroes: Hamzah, Mus'ab n 'Umar.

Sidrah & Muqim. they look innocent, don't they? padahal... (hehe)

guess what guess what?? our home, which we named Bait Hannan (House of Love), has been crowned The Sweetest Home for the month of June. it's a new competition organised by the Welfare Unit of DMASYQ in the hope of encouraging us to, obviously, maintain the cleanliness of our home. it was very unexcpected laa, bcos our home is a bit too cluttered (with 12 ppl living there, what can u expect kan?). nevertheless, hamdan lillah. weE~ go Bait Hannan!

....

The trip to Umm Tuyur was a very memorable one. had a great time with my sisters. one experience I will never forget was when the four of us - Hafi, Juwai, Kak Aisyah Solih n me - went to the beach at about 6am. (here, during summertime, Subuh is around 3:30am, n Syuru’ is ard 5:30am). Enjoyed the cool morning breeze along the shore while watching the sun risng bit by bit. Cantik nah~ furthermore, most ppl were still asleep at that time, so there were only us n very few Syrians out there. Made friends with some Makcik Arab! hehe.. (dorang yang approach kitorang~)

Before 7am, we were already in the water, splashing around. Then came the makcik, bringing us breakfast! N so we had our first 100% Arab-style breakfast by the beach, consisting of Arab bread (the wide, circular typle, around 4 times the size of my face), handmade cheese, za’tar powder (dunno how to describe this, but it’s a kind of healthy powder, almost sesame-seed like, only that, fortunately, it tastes better than sesame seeds. kte tak minat bijan! >_<), a plate of olive oil with some olives, cucumber n tea.


There was one time when the makcik was away taking the cucumber, when suddenly came this unexpected big wave which splashed some bits of saltwater n grains of sand into the plate of olive oil n the powder. then, in the effort of trying to move the plate a little further up the shore, I (accidentally, of course) spilled some oil into the teacups. By then, we were all laughing. Kak Aisyah sampai dah tak boleh nak bebual. cuma boleh bagi hand signals je. Lol.

By the time the makcik returned, everything seemed back to normal. Nak jaga hati makcik punye pasal, n pasal tak nak membazir rezeki, I did manage to push down my oesophagus some salty cheese (fyi, Arabs love salty food) n bread dipped in olive oil n za’tar powder before finishing off with the oily tea. Alhamdulillah, masih hidup sampai hari ni. Hihi. Yg klakar tu, there was one part when Hafizah was telling the makcik that there’re some grains of sand in the oil. N the makcik casually replied: oh nevermind. Even in our stomachs there are worms! Lol. The makcik was so lovely n amiable! Baarakallahu feek ya ukhti~

Would also cherish the moments we all rode the Viking (coincidentally, there happened to be something like a mini pasar malam near the beach when we arrived), n then rented the bicycles n cycled for around 2 hours. All 15 of us. It had been a long, long time since I last cycled (too long ago I can’t seem to remember when was the last time I rode one. erk!). but alhamdulillah, I think I cycled considerably well, since I don’t remember myself bumping into anyone or a tree or something (phew~ kalau tak, mane nak letak muke wei :S). Best nah~

The following nite, shortly after the bbq dinner, the 15 of us went start-gazing while listening to songs about night, about hari Qiamat, about death (such as the song “Menanti di Barzakh”)….

Lalu berbunyi..

sangkakala membelah langit..

gegak gempita, masing2 melindung diri..

ibu kehilangan anak di kandungan..

bintang yang di langit pun berguguran..

kala itu taubatmu tidak berguna lagi..

just relaxing while filling our stomachs with muhammarah

we were in the bus when we came across this unexpected scene,

Last but not least, here’s a picture of 3 of my Arab classmates who came by to our place for a visit on the last day of exam. They enjoyed the visit, alhamdulillah, n Wardah n me truly enjoyed hosting them :)

from left: Saafiyah, Safa' and Yumna. miss u guys soo much! hope we'll meet in year 2, biidznillah!