Written on 31st October

I can’t believe that I’m finally here! It’s just amazing to see the way God has led me here in the last year when I look back. So far, there has been a lot to take in. I was really wiped out when I arrived – I could hardly sleep on my 15 hour journey here. I think I only slept 3 hours in all so by the time I got to bed last night at 10.30pm local time (4.30am Malaysian time), I was really wiped out! I woke up only about 11am today.

My friends here are really awesome and nice ppl – especially my big brother and big sister here. Perhaps it’s because of my Asian face, they told me that they’ve been really comfortable with me and treated me as family. I really appreciate that.
I had spaghetti for lunch but managed to eat some local ‘fuul’(local dish that is made of beans) with ai’iish (bread) for dinner last night. I really enjoyed lunch too – ai’iish with melted cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers and onions. Mum would be glad that I’m eating really healthily. Hehehe.

I’m staying in a flat. I really love this place- it’s oldish but I like the space. I have a very nice housemate who’s willing to accommodate me for the next two months. I’m very appreciative of the fact as I know how difficult it is for her – she’s shared with me that her past experiences with her previous housemates have been hard for her and she is not really obligated to take me in. She’s also much older than me. I’ll also be doing different things from her – this means that I’ll get the occasional solitude time. I’m glad though – it gives me time to pray and reflect which I’m really grateful for.

A few things that I’ll need to get used to in my time here:

1. The sun setting at 5pm. It’s just a bit weird considering that the sun sets only at 7pm back home every single day.

2. Prayers blaring at 5-ish in the morning. I was informed about this but it was a bit of a shock being woken up early in the morning everyday. :p One of the phrase they used in the morning prayers is that ‘it’s better to pray than to sleep’.

3. They drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road here – the left side. *cheeky grin. When I got in the car of my host yesterday, the first thing I noted was that the driver’s seat was on the left side. It made for an interesting experience – it was the first time in my life to be on the other side of the road. Am still getting used to it.

4. Everyone around me speaking Arabic. One of the things I find rather daunting is to moving around because I’m not able to speak the language. I’m looking forward to my Arabic class – though not the traveling. I have to allocate around 1 hour to get to town. I’m NOT looking forward to flagging the taxi and telling him to drop me at the metro/train station. :p I’m ok with taking the metro because the first two carriage are allocated for girls. My big brother has told me not to take the minibus because the men there sometimes harass women who are alone – especially foreigners. :p

5. It’s better to walk alone than to walk with a guy. This is one rather weird thing for me. I’m so used to having my guy friends around but here, it’s not good for a guy and a girl to be alone – even to walk her home. It’s apparently shameful for the girl and better for the girl to walk alone in the dark. :p (will write more on this another day) However, this does not mean that it's easy for girls to walk alone.. Apparently they are harassed(especially by school kids - one of my friends was telling me that they even threw a big stone at her when she was walking alone) because they are viewed as 'loose'. *sigh* I'm not looking forward to this - cos I'm going to have to be walking about alone a lot..