Dubai

Hot. Busy. Tiring. Expensive.

Love my room. Love my bed. Love room service.

I'll post properly tomorrow from the airport (coz its free and this is costing an arm and a leg) - that's if my wireless works on my laptop... It's having issues.

Salam all.

Last Day

Today is my last morning in Jordan. Everything's packed and I'm ready to go at 8:30 insha'allah. Just need to make some calls.

Didn't sleep much last night.

Looking forward to home.

Please make du'a for me for a safe trip insha'allah without incident.

Love for all.

Ma'a salama

Goodbyes begin early

One of my flatties left for paki-land yesterday. She’s off to visit her parents and in-laws. I missed her within three hours of her leaving (there was no one to empty the grotty water from the bucket I used to mop the floor on the vacant lot next door. It’s got scummy stuff floating on the top and it smells soo bad I gag when I walk by it. So it remains in the doorway to the kitchen). Anyway, a couple of the girls visited to say good bye to me in the evening, which was nice. We mucked around for a bit, ate junkfood and sang old Disney songs (gotta love the Lion King) until we were exhausted.

So now it’s just me and one flattie. We both suffer from extreme irrational fears so we’re sleeping with all the lights on in the apartment tonight – let’s see how it works out.

Anyway, early morning tomorrow. Finished most of the packing three days ago, just need to add a couple more things and I’m done.

I don’t miss Jordan. I miss my sisters.

Ma’a salama – be seeing y’all sooner than you know it insha’allah.

Love.

Waiting to come home...

There is something about Australia that draws you to it. Curled up deep within your heart, calling you.

Today I had a conversation with an American sister who was asking me about Australia – the good the bad and the ugly. And I had a sudden realization that I am really deeply patriotic. I love my country. Not in the wave-the-flag-chant-slogans-and-run-with-an-unruly-mob -drinking-liquor type of patriotism. But the quiet patriotism bred of deep love for something very very special. Maybe it is simply the love of “home”, but I think it is more than that. It is the laid-back façade that smoothes over the hectic rush of city life, the easy-going attitude to everything and the sour taste that is left when one tries “too hard”. Its being trapped in peak-hour traffic on an arterial road and swearing at the miserable state of it all while re-electing the same party to power that got it the way it is – simply out of dislike for the “elite”.

It’s the memories of the beach that raised me. Running along the storm water drain only to scuttle back in an attempt not to be swamped by what I once believed to be a rather large wave. It’s the clambering over rocks at low tide discovering sucky-bottomed snails and sticking fingers into urchins waiting with a mixture of excitement and fear as they closed around them, all the while munching on buttermenthols and licorice. It’s the jumping off the wharf heart-in-throat suspended indefinitely above the water waiting for the stinging slap of impact.

The same beach that I grew up on. Sunbaking bikini-clad when the one-piece was no longer cool. Spending afternoons swimming when the parents thought I was at a friends doing homework. Smoking my first cigarette, have my first unwatched and under-aged drink, kissing my first boy (I think I was two). My place of escape when things got hard. My place to contemplate life and my place in it. Religion. The place that led me to change.

I think my love stems from the beauty that is Australia. The knowledge that Allah swt created that beauty and led me to Him through it. There is something in watching the waves roll in at night or in the early light of fajr that gives peace. Proof.

That’s why I love my country.

Biking...

Went biking again yesterday - this time through Irbid up to Umm Qais (25km).
The ride was completely made up of hills, up a big one then down a little bit, then up another big one then down just a little bit and so on (we were going up a mountain side apparently).
Anyway, when we got to Umm Qais we walked though the ruins up to a beautiful restaurant which had a fantastic view of the Dead Sea (were were meant to cycle down to the sea from Umm Qais, but the Jordanian army wouldn't let us on the last stretch of road for some reason). So anyway, the lunch was absolutely fantastic! There was a huge mezze for entre, and for the main I had the most delicious Thai chicken with roasted veges... mmmm. Best food I've had in Jordan so far, and subhan'allah not more expensive than Amman!

Anyway, today I'm incredibly sore and feeling sorry for myself. The girls didn't bother to go to the market yesterday so I have been eating junk all day (the supermarket here doesn't sell anything remotely healthy) and feel sick.

Presentation tomorrow. Must memorise.

Ma'a salama

Exam time again...

Salam all,

It's exam time again. I've got a presentation assessment on Sunday, my sciences exam on Tuesday and my skills exam the Saturday after that... There is just not enough time in the day to get through everything. Subhan'allah. Please make du'a for me insha'allah.

12 days till I leave... 13 till I see Sydney again... Insha'allah.

Missing home.

Love for all.

Ma'a salama