3 Weeks On

Peace.

Before continuing with the actual post, I’d like to apologise for the lack of updates since I got here. There were so many things going on that blogging seems like a distant memory. Heh.

MashaAllah, after years of prayers (you do not know how badly I wanna come back here), finally (and safely) I arrived at the land of maple syrups on 22^nd December 2009, 1510hrs (local time). It was a pretty long journey from Singapore to Toronto (about 33hrs in total) but alhamdulillah, I slept about 70% of the hehe (my body sleeps when in motion. Go figure.) I arrived an hour earlier than expected (so my BIL’s cousin wasn’t at the airport when I arrived.) It was a total bummer that the wireless at the Toronto airport was not free.-_-.  I think the temperature was about minus 2-ish and woah a HUGE drop from 29 degrees. Since the time in Ottawa and Toronto is 13hours behind Singapore’s so it seems that I’ve time travelled, gaining about half a day.

TouchDown

(Current state: I feel like chronicling every single detail that happened but I shall just highlight the ones that I think is worth highlighting… mais c’est difficile!)

So, I went to another cousins’ place where I met these wonderful kids who got rid of my fatigue by rapping and singing to me while dinner was being served. Dinner was splendid with roasted chicken and some other stuffs. (I can’t remember names of food ) I was famished coz I slept through my dinner on the plane (come one, what else can I do besides watching movies and HIMYM? I forgot to bring a book and so the next best alternative is to sleep.) although the lady next to me tried to wake me up, I continued sleeping like a log.

The next day, I went to Glen Edens Skiing centre.( It wasnt snowing in Burlington or Glen Edens so the centre makes artificial snow… and Toronto is rather warm (relatively)) The kids went snowboarding while I watched them. (I didn’t have the equipments and knowledge to snowboard/ski) Watching them makes me wanna go skiing soo badly. And guess what?! I taught them how to play Chee Ko Pak and Om Chi Chi games. They were so cute coz it sounds so ‘slang’. Haha.

My sister, BIL and my niece came on Thursday. I haven’t seen them since ’07 and mashaAllah my niece grew soooo much!!(4 yrs standing at 106 cm.) She’s so cute and pretty and all the good stuffs mashaAllah!! GAAHHH love her hair! Miss her so much!!!!

Okies anyways on Friday, 25^th December or how they would say here December 25^th, we went to Downtown Toronto for the annual Reviving the Islamic Spirit Conference at Metro Toronto Convention Centre (This conference deserves a blog post on its own. So hold on). The conference was just WOW! MASHAALLAH! It didn’t disappoint me at all alhamdulillah.

Saving the Ship of Humanity- 2009's Theme

We stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel (which is about 15 minutes walk away from the convention centre. The hotel is connected to the centre so we don’t really have to wear the winter coats. The lucky thing for us alhamdulillah is that my sis’ friend’s bro has some discount or something at the Club Intercontinental, so we had a rather luxurious treatment at the hotel with our own floor breakfast, tea and dinner (for dinner it was more of appetizers) and the room that we stayed in was HUGE. TWO DOUBLE Beds (double beds are a little bit smaller than queen size beds), plasma tv (didn’t watch any TV), really nice bath robes, free chocolates, water, etc etc.

some good things for tea.

We went back to BIL’s cousins’ place on Sunday night, stayed there for 2 more days. BIL’s other cousin from Atlanta came by for a visit.. and mashaAllah the children are so beautiful. Anyways, we only took our leave from Burlington on Tuesday. Before leaving for Ottawa, we visited my BIL’s other cousins. It was a nice experience visiting people. And to think that they haven’t met for years even though they live in the same country! (The things that you have live with when you stay in a HUGE country. Then again, even if you live in tiny Singapore, sometimes people just don’t see or visit each other.. Bila raya sahajalah ada masa untuk kunjung-mengunjung)

Reached Ottawa really early in the morning. At 1 am-ish. Didn’t do much ‘touristy’ things. Went shopping for my winter boots and touque. My BIL’s another cousin (lots of cousins! Lol!) has a shoe shop in Bayshore (the shopping centre) and OMG! THE SHOES AND BAGS ARE SOOO NICE! There was an offer (becoz of Boxing Week)buy 1 get 1 free. So I got a pair of Timberland Boots and a pair mary janes for summer wear. (They’re really pretty! Fits my style and my size PERFECTLY) The boots cost about CAD160 and the MJs about $90. And guess what he (the cousin) wanted to give them to me for FREE!! Though my sister insisted that we pay (my BIL sponsors the footwear) he said he’ll settle with my BIL. So I really don’t know if it was paid in the end.

So on Friday, the first day of year 2010… JE FAIRE DU SKI!!! (What a nice way to end/start a decade, eh?) There was a ski trip organised by the Muslim Link newspaper. I went to this trip alone tho i think it would be beyond fun if I had gone there with a group of friends. The ski hills were at Mount Cascades, Gatineau, Quebec, about an hour drive from my sis’ place. So I had a private instructor! Yay! But seriously, I never knew going downhill was as difficult as climbing uphill. I fell 99% of the time and went home with a seriously sore upper body. Alhamdulillah I’m still in one piece. I was actually quite surprised that there were some sisters who skied in abayas and jalabiyas. I think you gotta be real good for you to wear non-pants when you ski.  

my ski and i

My flight to Saint John, New Brunswick was supposed to be on Saturday but it was rescheduled to Sunday as there were too many delays on Saturday. There was a storm in Halifax, Nova Scotia (Nova Scotia is the province next to New Brunswick. Btw in Canada there are no ‘states’, only provinces). So I left Ottawa for Saint John on Sunday. So from Ottawa, I go via Toronto (which takes ½ hr) then, I had to wait for 1hr 35 minutes for my flight to Saint John. Again, the plane was delayed for about 45 minutes. The flight from Toronto to Saint John was about 3.5hours . So yeah about 6-7hrs in total.. just to go to Saint John. It just shows how BIG Canada is. And I’m not talking about going from East Canada to West Canada (where Vancouver, British Columbia is).

So Saint John is 12hrs behind Singapore time. And I reached there about 6.50pm. I was greeted by my landlady (who is so very nice) at the airport. I decided not live on campus since the residences are co-ed (my new friend told me that men and women share the same level and she heard noises from people that are unmentionable in this blog) and I definitely NOT want to join in the partying lifestyle. So ALHAMDULILLAH ALHAMDULILLAH ALHAMDULILLAH RABB AL-AMIN. ALL PRAISES TO GOD, LORD OF THE UNIVERSE ( I can never count the blessings that I have) that I got a Muslim Landlady (who was looking for a female muslim tenant. My sister helped me out. And again ALHAMDULILLAH for that!) Her house is ONLY 3 minutes drive away. And it is ONLY 2 BUSTOPS from campus and if I seriously wanna lose weight, it is about 15-20 minutes’ walk (it’s a very hilly place and it’s winter and yeah the bulk from the jacket hinders movements).

So on Monday I had Orientation and GUESS WHAT?? There was another hijabi in the room! I was so excited!! She’s from Holland and yeah I just so excited to see someone who wears similar things as I do. There were students from France and lots of students from China (yes.. kat NTU pon berlambak). And as the talk on the orientation went on there were more guys ( from Saudi) entering the room. I knew that there were lots of Saudi people in UNB but I didn’t know that they were this many! And when we had to introduce ourselves there were 3 (minumum, i lost count after that) Abdullahs in the room and soon afterwards, the Muslims were the majority in the room. And the musollah (a proper room not some staircase landing) was recognised by the school (like how it is in NTU but I’m not sure if the International Relations office inform incoming exchange students) so the student adviser openly inform to the group that there is a Muslim Prayer room available. How cool is that?! (NUS PLEASE TAKE NOTE. PLEASE GIVE THE MUSLIMS IN NUS A DECENT PRAYER ROOM. THANK YOU.)

We went touring around the school and our guide, Oke, a first year Nursing student who is from Nigeria was so kind to show where the musollah is. The scenery around campus was SubhanaAllah sooo beautiful. Since it was a really sunny day, one can see snow amidst a background of blue sky. A lake sitting so prettily with pine trees surrounding it. Words alone cannot describe the beauty of His creations.

After the school tour, Oke brought Charmaine (who’s from Australia) and I to Uptown Saint John. At the end of the trip to Uptown, Charmaine and I bought the same mobile phone. Phone is definitely cheaper in Canada (tho the plan isn’t). It was a prepaid phone and it costs us CAD 59.99 (excluding taxes). Plus there is already a $10 value in the phone (and guess what… when I showed the phone to Mounia and her friend, Florence (both from Holland) the next day, both of them wanted to get the same phone too! Haha..)

they only have it in blue. bummer. but that's okay.

Woah! I just realised that this post is LONG!!!

Okay let’s put things in point form shall we?

-          I had my first class on Tuesday. Intro to Canadian Politics

-          I have an assignment already. DUE NEXT WEEK!

-          They still use blackboards!

-          Charmaine and I share 3 classes.

-          And finally. I REALLY NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT!!!!! (haha part ni macam random.)

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