and Iftar's aren't really iftars if you dont celebrate it with someone..

and there was also Hasmida and Masrizal. I finally got to meet HIS friends. (:

and finally..

Happy 5th Month darling (: 

The best part of the relationship has yet to start.

SHASHA

I AM ANNOYED.

n·noyed, an·noy·ing, an·noys 

(1) To cause slight irritation to (another) by troublesome, often repeated acts.

(2) Archaic To harass or disturb by repeated attacks.

on a lighter note...

I went out to buka with Azhar yesterday. It felt so good to see him, it felt like eons since we last met each other, when in fact, we had just seen each other on saturday.

Anyway, there's this really bitchy girl in school, whom apparently has no life. What i mean is that she's going round bitching about other people. I know this for a fact because i have sat with her during breaks, in between classes , and each time, she's just bitching or criticizing someone. it's like, "Don't you have better things to do?!" What more in this holy month of ramadhan, where we are encouraged to stop all these bad habits! IRONIC. 

I WONDER. She is starting to get on my nerves cause her latest so-called "victim" is my friend. And i cannot tolerate the fact that she's going round telling EVERYONE these THINGS about her! untrue things of course. and people are stupid enough to actually believe her shit. I WONDER. why do people do this to others? Is she jealous that my friend has more friends? Is she trying to protect her own self-esteem/ego that she's so scared. I learned in psychology class that this is a common trait among people with low self-esteem. Before somebody can hurt them, they hurt others first, and deflect that arrow from their low, low, low, low, low self-concept. or is it because of some other reason? 

GET A LIFE. STOP HARASSING OTHERS.

SHASHA

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Dear Darling,

please note that i have no intention of putting you in the position that i did. 

Subjecting you to immense torture the way i did.

I had no idea that i was even subjecting you to such mental pains.

Please understand that i am human too. 

Sometimes, things like this happen and i cannot control it.

You dont know the amount of pressure that i am subjected to when i am being your girlfriend.

But i appreciate your honesty.

I sincerely do.

Yours Sincerely,

SHASHA

I realised that some things are just fated to happen. And there are many ways to interpret them. Things like bumping into your mother's best friend with the girlfriend that is not supposed to be non-existent in the first place. Things like bumping into family relatives (the kind that you don't see often but still close enough to have that relationship) with your boyfriend that's supposed to be non existent. [interpretation: you relationship is meant to be known. no point hiding it anymore.] Things like the supposedly non-existent boyfriend coming to the park and surprising you there. [interpretation: your boyfriend actually has a romantic bone SOMEWHERE.]

I had a very very fun picnic with the girls today. It was fun for the whole hour we were there. Our fun time was ruined by the rain. AHH. The rain. Always the ruin-er of plans. So, we went to tanglin mall and hung out at starbucks instead. so much for trying to not do anything that we would usually do. HAHA.

I had this plan to go to Baybeats. My friends from Queenstown, Faris, John and B-rice, is performing with his band, Cardinal Avenue. And yesterday i had this plan to go with Shahril and Farhan. But because Azhar was around, i'd rather spend time with him. Cardinal Avenue can wait.

The pics will be up soon? CL brought her DSLR (OMFG!) and i was snapping away like nobody's business.

HEH. (:

SHASHA

HAPPY FOUR MONTHS AZHAR (:

I LOVE YOU <3

For 1 hour or so, we were in the library. She was watching this movie online ('cos she brought her super de-ridiculous big lappy!) and she was like trying to hold her laughter in! it was so funny...i was like giggling to myself looking at her enjoy that movie with it's happy ending. haha. then we had lunch, more like she had lunch, at the canteen. she had this craving to try the western food at school. it was like so ridiculously a lot, Anne has got an appetite! i've found a friend that eats as much as i do! WOW. yeah, then i bumped into my good friend Elson (who was so happy that his goatee could hold water. haha!) and he told me that there was a CCA fair at NTU. so we crossed that bridge, and was at School of Biological Sciences there. The CCA thingy stretched through the North Spine. Anne wanted to join wakeboarding so badly. Along the way, there were shops selling clothes, and being the girl that i am, i bought clothes! it was like $10 for 1 piece, and i was so excited i got them la... bought 3 summore. haha. clothes horse. sometimes, it's so irresistible, you just cant stand the feeling of looking at something nice and not  get it. haha.

so AAE104 lecture came after that, and then i headed to JP to have dinner with azhar. see, that's one of the perks of schooling in boon freaking lay, it's that its near to azhar and i can see him more often. ((: but it's like never enough.

so that's my very very boring entry for today.. (:

sharina majid

So i am heading off for a 3 day NTUMS camp till Sunday, and another 3 day NIE Ba/Bsc camp till wednesday. it's gonna be tiring, but i hope (and i seriously hope) that i'll have a helluva good time. i am excited like ________ (fill in an adjective here) for school because after being school-less for almost 7 months, i am happy that my brains are being put to good use, and also happy that money is FINALLY pouring into my bank account. i have ben suffering from mild shopirosa anorexia, which leterally translates to, a lack in shopping. my friend Hafizah was saying how she wont have enough clothes to last for 4 years. haha. me too hafizah!  money is draining now mainly cause i spend so much on transport. about $120 a month! and that's just for school! hmm...

i was wondering about something. i find that i cry at the most weirdest times. though the fact as to why humans cry is no secret, but the times that we do are. i mean, when i was at the funeral, i didnt shed a tear. in fact, i was laughing, with my sis, and my 2nd cousins, shamin and iffa, who are such adorable kids. i dont remember kids being this adorable when they are at such ages. such happy kids. anyway, i didnt cry at the funeral. i did feel some sort of attachment to my granduncle. we got closer to him since last year, and have been visiting him often since then. but i didnt cry at all. and i felt like i had done something so wrong. i felt like i should've have at least shed a small tear just to show that i felt some sort of sadness for it. when my grandaunt died. it felt the same. i was forcing the tears out of my eyes but nothing came. i teared only because i was yawning in class. though i did feel some sort of remorse and sadness and heavy feeling. so the fact is, it was a perfect crying moment and nothing happened. but just now, when i was doing the dishes, and my mom did something to my knee that it banged so hard on the cupboards, and i cried, like i was bitch slapped a thousand times. it just flowed right out of my eyes, like there was a switch there that got automatically turned on. i tried to force it back, i couldnt do it. i guess, that incident was like, a trigger. it kinda just made all my emotions flow, and hence the crying. those were the tears that i had held back for so long, and that painful incident was the switch that turned on. it just happened. and i finally cried.

im glad those were tears for other reasons other than nury, cause since the breakup, every time i cry, it's because of him. im glad that because now i am pmsing, i am not crying about him anymore. i still get that sad feeling, but it's lessened by so much! and i am so so so so so happy that im not crying about him. not feeling guilty. nothing. 

i am moving on. 

to azhar: im sorry i said those words to you. i had no ill intention at all, i guess, it had like a double meaning and was somehow, not interpreted the way i wanted it to be. i love you for who you are, and it doesnt matter if you're becok or cacat or sick or whatever, i will still love you okay. (:

sharina majid

A burden shared is a burden halved.

you dont have to pile it inside. and breakdown one day. you dont have to hide it, with expressions. and putting up such a bold front. let yourself be vulnerable, and let it affect you, and then you may really see the true reason why God made you go through it. it may not be easy to open up to someone, but try, and i think once you have, you simply cant stop. it feels good knowing that you're not going through it alone, that at least no matter what, you've got someone there to help you when you need it.

im here to listen to you, and if you're not ready now, i'll still be here when you're ready. open up and dig down deep and share.

Yet another finals and yet another loss. Its been a common sight in recent times to see the Indian team come to the final of a tournament and lose heavily in the same. When India won the Twenty20 world cup and the CB series in Australia all of us thought that the trend has reversed and the young Indian team has found a way to win the finals too. As seen in the last to finals it was not to be the case. The Indians after great performances in the round robin stages in both the Asia Cup and Kitply cup lost in finals to hand the trophy to  Srilanka and Pakistan respectively.

This has been a problem for the men in blue for a long time now since the days when Ganguly was in charge (Azhar had more luck in the finals). Before the Twenty20 world cup India hardly won any tournament comprising of more than 2 teams since the 1999 World Cup. The only tournament India won was the Natwest Series due to the brilliance of Yuvraj and Kaif. Even in that final we were well on the way to another defeat before the great partnership happened. If we discount the Champions Trophy (2002) and the TVS Cup (2003) which we shared with srilanka and South Africa respectively, India hardly won any finals.

Well when we dwell into the reasons of those failures we can immediately zero in on the inconsistancy of the Indian top order in crunch games. The reason India was able to win the CB series against the Australia was because of the top order performances. Sachin and Uthappa gave India bright starts and the middle order capitalised on the same to seal victory. The Indian bowling also seemed to raise to the challenge in both the finals.Twenty20 win was due to the heroics of another top order batsmen, this time it was Gambhir. The Indian bowling also seem to choke in crucial games and lack the consistancey required for a tournament final, who can forget the nervous opening over from Zaheer in 2003 worldcup finals to hand the initiative to Australia. Zaheer also had trouble in the 2000 edition of ICC Knockout trophy against the Kiwis.

India would probably figure in the top 5 for the teams played in most finals but in bottom 3 for the teams winning tournament. Its seems like we have taken over the "Chokers" tag which was famously associated with the South African team. The Indian one day captain Dhoni would want to reverse this trend as soon as possible as this might become a habit for teams.

This was several eons ago, before he had a makeover of sorts from Shiva, who gave him a gory countenance, which would make people shudder to see him.

There is an interesting anecdote behind this.

Long ago when Yama was sent to be the God of Death, he did not render his duties properly. He was flirting with the women in Devaloka and on earth. Nobody was dying on earth and the earth was unable to bear the burden anymore. So Shiva called Yama to Kailash. When he arrived Shiva asked him “Yama, I heard that nobody is scared of you on earth?”

“Yes, my Lord,” he said.

“You also seem to attract women a lot,” he added.

“No, my Lord, it is the women….”Yama said shamefacedly.

Shiva knew that Yama was attracting women due to his good looks and changed his looks with a gory countenance. Then he told Yama to look at his reflection in the pond nearby. When Yama looked in the pond he was shocked beyond belief at the face staring at him from the water. He came running back to Shiva and said “Lord there is a fiery looking character staring at me from the water. He has dark looks, big teeth and big moustache and looks very scary. Who is he?”

Shiva laughed heartily at this and said “It is your own reflection!”

Yama was saddened beyond belief. He asked Shiva “Is there a way to get back my earlier countenance,” he cried.

Shiva just smiled in answer and went back to his penance.

He looked at Shiva for a while and decided there was no point in waiting for his reply.

He went looking for Brahma in Sathyaloka. But Brahma was busy writing something in a palm leaf manuscript. Yama looked at Brahma who had himself lost one head out of his five and thought “What is the point asking him about my plight?” and he left without meeting Brahma.

He goes to meet Vishnu in Vaikunta. But Vishnu was seriously discussing something with wife Lakshmi, so Yama unwilling to disturb them, leaves without meeting Vishnu.

He returns to earth and travels south. He reaches the foothills of a mountain and is attracted by its serenity. He goes on a rigorous penance, to Vishnu. Years rolled by. Pleased by his devotion, Vishnu appears before him. Seeing Vishnu in front of him Yama falls at his feet and respectfully asks “Can you recognize me Oh Lord?”

Vishnu says “I know everything that happened Yama. But it is all of your own doing. If you had not forgotten your duties, this situation wouldn’t have risen.

“Forgive me Lord, You have to help me out of this,” he prayed.

Vishnu felt sorry for Yama’s plight. “I will make your unsightly horns go away. Instead you will have a bull which will be your vehicle from now on,” he said.

Not satisfied with his appearance, Yama said “Can’t you change the appearance of my teeth which look so scary?”

“Yama, when you went to Sathyaloka to meet Brahma, you offended him by not meeting him, so Brahma cursed you to have this gory appearance for life and I am unable to help you,” said Vishnu.

People will get scared by your appearance and it will help in your profession of bringing death.

Convinced that nothing or nobody could change his fate, Yama, accepts his fate and returns to earth. Before that, he asks Vishnu to reside near him in Azhagar Kovil for people to propitiate him. Vishnu agrees and resides there. Lakshmi arrived one day looking for Vishnu and Yama asks her also to reside by the side of Vishnu. She also agrees. This place is known as Kallazhagar temple. Since Vishnu attracts people with his good looks, he is also known as Sunderraja Perumal and the place also came to be known as Azhagar Kovil. It is believed that Yama visits this temple to this day to propitiate Vishnu.

(Azhagar Kovil is near Tiruchirappalli)

Look! the flower has this sticy sticky thing inside of it, like glue. and the ants are like stuck! poor little hardworking ants ):

It was a smelling station, but really, i couldnt smell anything! i think it was like not my fault. i mean, usually it is. (:

I love the lamps (: i betcha they look so damn nice at night!

These look so real!

haha (: seeing this pic makes me laugh so much!

This has got to be a really really gross thing that i have seen in a long time. there were flies all over it and we wouldnt have seen it if not for the GIGANTIC flies. it was amazing & so cool!

All in all, it was a great day with a great person. that night, went to Spize for dinner with the ugama ppl. Pics can be found in Fad's blog cause i didnt bring a camera. anyway, i thought it'd be weird but it turned out okay........................OH......................... WAIT........................................ apparently Yuhanis & Ustaz's son is dating now and they were really annoying during the dinner. but besides that, it was okay (:

MUCHLOVE <3

SO WHY EGYPT?

It seems to be a thriving place for the aspiring student of knowledge with many people flocking here to study.  The Visa to stay here is a gimme if you are an American and the cost of living is extremely cheap.  I think it is the best option for someone wanting to study Arabic in the Middle East.  Jordan is also fantastic, but extremely expensive.  Yemen was a lil too-third world for me, but if you can hack it, it is also a place of extreme benefit.  I would not recommend studying in Syria, especially if you are an American.  One of my friends got deported from Syria because they thought he was an American spy.

No doubt that there is a lot of hustle in Egypt, especially if you pick Cairo.  However, if you choose to be patient, insha’Allah, you will be rewarded greatly.  Or, you can try to keep up with the bustle (as I did sometimes) and enjoy the ride.

ARRIVING IN EGYPT

Alhamdulillah, I was fortunate to come to Egypt with a good friend of mine and we planned to experience everything together.  We left Florida together, have studied together at Fajr, have lived together (with another brother) and will depart together, insh’Allah.  Regardless of where you go, always try to live with someone at your destination.  It helps keep companionship and it can be good motivation in your studies as well (plus it helps to have a backup alarm for Fajr!).  If you are going to Egypt (or possibly anywhere else in the Middle East) and do not know anyone, let me know, and maybe, insh’Allah, I will be able to hook you up with someone there.

As far as arriving in Egypt goes, be prepared to stopped, held, and questioned at customs by the Egyptian-version of the FBI.  I’m pretty sure some Egyptian government officials are intimidated by a person who grows hair on their mandible (jaw) and that is why we got pulled to the side.  My advice would be to just answer their questions and brush it off.  Never give them your real address on where you are staying.  They are known to come see you if you do.  They had my phone number and called me a couple times during my stay asking me to come in to see that.  I completely blew them off and would recommend you do the same thing.  Everything here is done by paper (20^th century stuff!) and eventually they will forget about you.

As far as being in actual Egypt is concerned, just carry a copy of your passport around and everyone will treat you like royalty (yeah).  Bust out the English whenever talking with a police officer and know the USA Embassy phone, just in case (I would also recommend registering with the Dept of State while traveling abroad).

WHERE TO STUDY?

If you are coming for Arabic studies, Nasr City is the place to be.  There are numerous Arabic centers located in Nasr City including Fajr, Diwan, Sibawayh, and Al-Ibaanah.  I personally chose Fajr and absolutely loved it there while at the same time other brothers have had mediocre experiences at Fajr.  Fajr is the oldest and most established.  It has 13 total levels (each level = 75 hours) and if you finish the 13^th level, you receive a certified diploma from the Egyptian Ministry of Education that certifies you to teach Arabic (I think).  The books used at Fajr are from a series called “Arabia Bayna Yadaak” (Arabic Between Your Hands).  Diwan, from what I’ve heard, is extremely nice; however, it is more expensive.  I believe they use the Asassy books at Diwan.  Al-Ibaanah has its own books that it uses.  However, I would like to point out that Ibaanah heavily concentrates on grammar at the beginning and thus, many of its students are not very good at speaking.  Many students also branch off and do their own thing with a private tutor, which can for some people, be an excellent idea.  If you want to go to Alexandria, the place to study is definitely Qortaba.  Insha'Allah, keep reaffirming you intention to study solely for the sake of Allah (SWT).

TELL ME ABOUT NASR CITY

Nasr City (Madinat Nasr) is a mash’Allah, baller-awesome place.  It is considered middle-to-upper class in Cairo but is still relatively inexpensive.  Everything you need is pretty much located in Nasr City.  Al-Azhar University is located here as well so you can manage to run into quite a bit of its students.  Whenever you go out to eat or walk around, you will run into some foreigners who are aspiring students of knowledge.  They tend to stand out for some reason.  Talk with them, network, enjoy!  Subhana’Allah, I’ve met people from the north of Egypt (i.e. Russia, Kazakiztan), east of Egypt (i.e. Malaysia, China), south of Egypt (i.e. Nigeria, South Africa), and, of course, west of Egypt (i.e. Holland, Denmark just for extra emphasis!).  Unfortunately, Americans are seriously lacking in numbers as compared to Frenchmen and Brits.  The only desis you’ll probably find are those from Britain and the USA.

There are also some malls in Nasr City including the famous City Stars Mall, which is a reminder of shopping malls in America.  City Stars is nice, but it is also a place of fitna and thus it would be recommended to go there during the weekdays during the daytime instead of the evenings during the weekends.  Genaina Mall has an ice-skating ring in it if you are into that.

HOW WE LIVE?  WHAT ABOUT COSTS, DUDE?

If you do live in Nasr City, the streets to know are Mustafa an-Nahas, Makram-Obaid, Abbas-al-Ekaad, and Sharia Tayhran.  Nasr City is broken into Zones 6,7,8,9, and 10.  Zone 7 (Hai Saba) is probably the nicest and most expensive while Zone 10 (Hai Ashar) is the cheapest and most developing.

We lived in Hai Thamin (Zone 8 ) right next to Siraj Mall.  Alhamdulillah, we were in a prime-time location and close to everything.  I lived with two other brothers in a 2 bedroom/1 bathroom flat.  Our rent was L.E. 1800 which translates to about $330 split three ways.  We lived on the 5^th floor (note: the first floor here is not the first floor it is the ground floor as what is the real 2^nd floor is called the 1^st floor here) and there was no elevator (alhamdulillah, I lost some weight!).  If you are willing to live in Hai Ashar, you can cut your rent in half easy.

I would like to note that crossing the street in Egypt is crazy.  You will face death everyday while doing it.  Just suck it up and walk like you own the place and cars will try to avoid you, insh’Allah.

You can check out: http://www.geocities.com/learnarabicincairo for a map of Nasr City and other goodies about Cairo.

I LOVE FOOD

If food is your thing, Egypt is also a good place for that.  Koshari is huge here (tho I’m not a big fan, I prefer meat!) as are the other standard Arab dishes.  In Hai Saba (Zone 7), there are good Thai and Malay restaurants.  Assil on Mustafa an-Nahas in Hai Thamin (Zone 8 ) has some off-the-chain shawerma shami sandwiches, a must-try.

Almost all the food places deliever (even MickeyD’s and KFC!), but I would recommend going out to these places so as to at least get some exercise.  I would eat out everyday (but only one meal a day) and I would try to walk everywhere.

I, personally, watched what I would take into my stomach while in Egypt.  I didn’t drink the man –made sugar-cane juice because people are known to get sick off them.  Don’t drink the local water, your body won’t like it.  Drink bottled water and plenty of it.  Please be hygienic and smart.  Oh yeah, if you wear contacts, I would recommend bringing your entire duration’s supply (lens and solution), but glasses you can get pretty cheap here.

I tend to eat anything if it is hot (including corn cooked on a fire!) and try to stay away from stuff that is cold, including cold meat.  Fruits and veggies in Egypt are great as they are smaller but more flavorful (ballerlicious mangos).

MASAJID

Some of the big masajid in Cairo have graves in them and so I would be cautious of them.  Alhamdulillah, Nasr City is relatively new and thus does not posses any masajid with a grave (to my knowledge).  Masjid Bilal (cool name for a Masjid, IMO), located in Hai Thamin (Section 8 in Nasr City) is a popular masjid for Western students of knowledge (including Imam Suhaib Webb).  However, Masjid Bilal has heavy surveillance.

There are lots of local basement masajid everywhere in Nasr City (there are a double-digit number of masajid within a quarter-mile of our apartment building!)  I prefer the basement masjid-scene because it gives one the community feeling that is present in the masajid back in the United States.  Subhana’Allah, there are numerous knowledgeable people at these basement masajid as well.  If you live in Nasr City and are looking for an amazing and patient Quran teacher, I would recommend Shaykh Adel of Masjid Ridwan in Hai Thamin.  Email me for his contact.  Subhana’Allah, I thought he was awesome.  I remember one day he was sitting with his fellow shayook boys (they’re all like 30 years old) and they start testing each other in recitation of different ayaats of the Quran in different qiraat (this is a game for enjoyment for these scholars!).

As far as the different types of Muslims that are present in Cairo, you are going to get the whole shabang.  You have your twirling sufis (with shows every week!) and, at the same time, you have your neo-salafis.  If you ever go to Masjid Hussain, you can see some ‘unique’ characters there too (but try not to pray there!).

Oh yeah, get this, there is an Arab Tablighi Jamaat as well!  They do the whole 3 day stay in the masjid with bayaans all day and everything.  However, the weird thing is, there are Salafi Tablighis and they use Riyadh-us-Saaliheen.  I guess Fadail-Amaal hasn’t been translated into Arabic yet :P

TAXIS, PLEASE

Everyone apparently complains about taxis in Egypt.  I personally would recommend walking everywhere and when going somewhere further away, using the bus or micro-bus system.  However, in my use of taxis, alhamdulillah, it has been a pleasant experience (I got ripped-off one time, but gave the dude the money cuz he swore to Allah it was legit).  The places to work on your Arabic are at your school, at your masjid, and with taxi cab drivers!  One way to ensure a cab driver will not rip you off is to talk with him the whole time you are in the cab and have fun with the driver.  He is obviously going to know you are not local, but that doesn’t mean you cannot befriend him (I would often just say that I’m from America).  Cab drivers would offer me advice, cassettes, their phone numbers if I ever needed anything.  I would negotiate a rate when going somewhere far, but would just pay them what I thought was fair if going somewhere close.  I remember when I was coming back from the airport once; one cab driver only wanted L.E. 20 from me even though we had agreed on L.E. 25.  Subhan’Allah, there are some really good people out there.  I would recommend that you pay your cab driver after you have gotten out of the taxi at your final destination.  Have fun with the cabbies.  Smile, it goes a long way and people tend to like you more, plus you’re following the Sunnah as this is a sadaqa for your fellow Muslim brothers.

If you sit on the big bus, they have shot-gun seats in the front next to the driver.  Sit there and you can have a say in what they play on the radio as well as well as get an amazing view of the road :)

As far as talking with the locals goes, some really good advice I received by several brothers was never to talk about politics or soccer (futbol as they call it).  Talking any politics will get you thrown in jail.  Don’t even say the word ihkwaan anywhere.  Futbol is also a diehard thing here.  You will know when a soccer match is going on b/c no one cares about anything else at that time.  Don’t pick a side to cheer for either b/c if you pick the wrong side, Allahu Alim what will happen to you.

DOING THE TOURIST THING

Yes, I did the tourist thing.  Pyramids were great, but a one-time thing.  Nile is a great river to walk next to.  There are these L.E. 2 party boats that are quite amusing to see.  Al-Azhar Park is fantastic and gives you an amazing view of Cairo.  It was definitely worth the L.E. 5 entrance free.

We went to Alexandria twice.  Alex is a beautiful place.  We went by micro-bus both times (about L.E. 20 each way) though train is also an option.  The micro-bus ride is death-defying, but I recommend just sleeping through it to avoid the anxiety.  Alex can be accomplished in a day-trip.  Definitely check out the beautiful library while you are there, it is breath-taking.  Seafood in Alex is fantastic.  Recommendation:  try the herb-stuffed sea bass at Abu Ashraf Restaurant (prolly the most famous restaurant in Alex and its open 24/7!).

Pollution

This, unfortunately, is a major down-side of living in Egypt.  The air pollution is ridiculous.  Almost everyone smokes including some little kids and women (biggest turn-off ever).  Supposedly, breathing the air in Nasr City is equivalent to smoking twenty cigarettes a day.  I managed to have some allergies when I first arrived though I have never had allergies before in my life!  Furthermore, there were even a couple instances where I would get random nose bleeds in the beginning.  At the same time, the pollution can be avoided by living outside Nasr City in an area like Rehab.  I would recommend this if you travel to Egypt with a family.  You do not want to risk your child getting asthma by living in Nasr City.

Noise pollution is something else too.  Apparently, the New York Times (www.nytimes.com, yeah, like you needed their website) reported Cairo is possibly the loudest city in the world.  Everyone honks their car horn like there’s no tomorrow.  I’ve heard of people having to replace their car-horn every three months (I didn’t know this was possible!).  My advice would be to just bear it and put up with it, insh’Allah.  Sometimes a horn does save your life.

LIVING IN A MUSLIM COUNTRY

This is my first time living in a Muslim country for such an extended period of time (I have visited family in Pakistan for a couple of months several times in the past).  Subhana’Allah, I absolutely loved it.  Granted you will always see Muslims doing un-Islamic things and you need to come here expecting it or you will be sorely disappointed.  However, at the same time, many of the people I have met are amazing and fantastic people.  In Cairo, there are parts where you can go and 95% of the sisters are wearing hijab and there is a masjid on every street (literally!) while at the same time there are parts of Cairo you can go to where you would not be able to differentiate it from a European society.

I loved the Egyptian people as I would chill with the Egyptians at the masjid, in our building, and just other random places (I think some Egyptians look very desi).  Fellow bearded people have an automatic connection in Egypt.  If you walking and there is another bearded brother on the other side of the street walking in the opposite direction, expect a big-wave and try to read “Assalamu Alaikum” off of his lips (yeah, pretty cool, huh?).  I remember once a random bearded brother even picked up in his car to give me a ride where I was going.

There have been some funny experiences here in Egypt as well.  I remember one time a brother asked me if I knew “Assalamu Alaikum” when he learned I was American (I think he was kidding, maybe).  Another time, I went to play basketball with some friends at a sports club.  They wouldn’t let me in cuz I was wearing a thobe (the fobs wanted to be more American like me), so I just took it off in the middle of the street as I always had my bball clothes on underneath ready to play, alhamdulillah.  One time our landlord’s wife sent over some soup for us.  It smelled delicious and I went straight for it, but the taste was waaay off from the smell.  We later realized it was fresh home-made jam (a lot of it) and it was good too, just not be drank in the same way as soup, lol.

I have made a general observation in terms of Islam in Egypt (can be extended to the Arab world) versus Islam in Pakistan (can be extended to the non-Arab world).  The Muslims in Pakistan, mash’Allah, have a lot of zeal and they want to be practicing Muslims, following the Sunnah and everything.  However, it seems, that knowledge seems to be lacking significantly in Pakistan.  At the same time, in Egypt, the knowledge is present and people know the Quran and are well-grounded in the Sunnah.  However, the zeal and desire to follow through with that knowledge is not present.  As Muslims, we need to bring these two extremes together where we can combine knowledge and desire.  Obviously, this reflection does not include all Pakis and Egyptians and it is a simple observation and it is just a thought.

I HEART EGYPT

I’ve loved my experience here thus far, alhamdulillah.  I have significantly increased my respect for Azhari students.  Subhana’Allah, they work out ridiculously hard and are a very impressive group of students.

I have had an amazing time in Egypt thus-far, alhamdulillah.  If you actually go to Egypt, email me and I may be able to give you some more personal tips.  I can be emailed at coolguymuslim @ gmail.com.  I pray that this summary may actually be of some benefit to someone who goes to study abroad.  Insha’Allah I may do a follow-up to this piece after I return back to Florida in a month.  Please keep me and my family in your dua’s, insh’Allah.  Go Islam!

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