Sunday, February 10, 2008
Saturday, February 9, 2008
School Starts, and some other stuff. =)
I've been bugged to put up an entry, haha, so here it is. By the way people, my room's Internet connection has been really bad, so if you see me online then I suddenly disappear, or if you hardly see me at all, understand understood lah ah.
First week of school was ok, though the subjects are a bit heavy. You see, in UvA (Universiteit Van Amsterdam), for my faculty at least, each semester comprises of 2 blocks, each block of 7 school weeks. You take different modules for each block. So basically, what we learn in NUS for 13 weeks they try to do it in 7. Haha. Oh well. I guess I have to study much harder than I did in NUS.
I met a Malaysian guy (thank God!) at school, who's doing 1 module with me. He's a masters student here. I never imagined I would actually speak Malay to anyone in Amsterdam, but hey, I sure am not complaining.=) Been hanging out with him, a couple of times noow, and will continue to do so. Safe to say, he'll be my best friend for the next 5 months.
And oh, just wanted to mention about the friday prayers here. The guys would relate better to this. Here, the sermon/khutbah is very different. Haha. The imam is very fiery, spirited; I assure you, nobody, I mean nobody, sleeps during the khutbah. I think imams in Singapore should be more lke this; but you can't really blame them too when the khutbahs are about "masyarakat majmuk" every other week. Haha.
And here, there is no problem of getting people to 'rapatkan saf'. It's shoulder to shoulder, feet to feet, something that sadly, I hardly encounter in Singapore. Another good practice here is that for the sloat jenazah after the friday prayers, no one leaves the mosque, everybody participates in the solat jenazah. The safs for the solat jenazah are also in order, people do not move in front to cover the spaces that are used for rukuk and sujud in our normal prayers. Acttually, I'm not sure why we do that in Singapore, it only leads to distorted safs. Perhaps Rizhan would like to enlighten us whether that's just a cultural practice or it really has Islamic roots.
But what I am most impressed by in the mosques here, is that everytime The Prophet's name is mentioned, during or outside of the khutbah, the whole mosque will go 'sallallahu alaihi wasalam'. It really is a good practice, which we all should try to incorporate in our conversations.
Anyway I've gotten a bicycle, which makes life much easier. Now I'm on the way to feeling like I'm an Amsterdammer. Haha.
Just a note, thanks to Mas'uud and Shaza; you know for what. It is impossible that Allah will not repay kindness with kindness, so just await for some (more) good things in your lives.
First week of school was ok, though the subjects are a bit heavy. You see, in UvA (Universiteit Van Amsterdam), for my faculty at least, each semester comprises of 2 blocks, each block of 7 school weeks. You take different modules for each block. So basically, what we learn in NUS for 13 weeks they try to do it in 7. Haha. Oh well. I guess I have to study much harder than I did in NUS.
I met a Malaysian guy (thank God!) at school, who's doing 1 module with me. He's a masters student here. I never imagined I would actually speak Malay to anyone in Amsterdam, but hey, I sure am not complaining.=) Been hanging out with him, a couple of times noow, and will continue to do so. Safe to say, he'll be my best friend for the next 5 months.
And oh, just wanted to mention about the friday prayers here. The guys would relate better to this. Here, the sermon/khutbah is very different. Haha. The imam is very fiery, spirited; I assure you, nobody, I mean nobody, sleeps during the khutbah. I think imams in Singapore should be more lke this; but you can't really blame them too when the khutbahs are about "masyarakat majmuk" every other week. Haha.
And here, there is no problem of getting people to 'rapatkan saf'. It's shoulder to shoulder, feet to feet, something that sadly, I hardly encounter in Singapore. Another good practice here is that for the sloat jenazah after the friday prayers, no one leaves the mosque, everybody participates in the solat jenazah. The safs for the solat jenazah are also in order, people do not move in front to cover the spaces that are used for rukuk and sujud in our normal prayers. Acttually, I'm not sure why we do that in Singapore, it only leads to distorted safs. Perhaps Rizhan would like to enlighten us whether that's just a cultural practice or it really has Islamic roots.
But what I am most impressed by in the mosques here, is that everytime The Prophet's name is mentioned, during or outside of the khutbah, the whole mosque will go 'sallallahu alaihi wasalam'. It really is a good practice, which we all should try to incorporate in our conversations.
Anyway I've gotten a bicycle, which makes life much easier. Now I'm on the way to feeling like I'm an Amsterdammer. Haha.
Just a note, thanks to Mas'uud and Shaza; you know for what. It is impossible that Allah will not repay kindness with kindness, so just await for some (more) good things in your lives.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
50 euros only.
I've not written an entry about Amsterdam, because a person doesn't really know Amsterdam until he or she has been to the red light district, so now I can say I know Amsterdam.=)
Amsterdam is a very peaceful, serene place (well if you come from Singapore everywhere else is serene), and is also a very beautiful place. The BUILDINGS are very nice, and there are canals everywhere, it really pleases the eye. The people here seem nice enough, but since I've hardly had any real interaction with the Amsterdammers, I'll reserve my judgment for future entries.
Everybody cycles here, there are specific lanes allocated on the roads for cyclists. It seems to me as though there are more bicycles than vehicles. When I asked the Arab guy whether he had a bicycle, he said, "Dude, this is Amsterdam."
Liberal. A word highly correlated with Holland as a whole, and Amsterdam in particular. Drugs here, are not legal as widely believed, but marijuana and hash use is 'tolerated'9terms people come up with too justify their actions), which means you can buy up till 5 grams of these drugs at the coffeeshops. Coffeshops are the places selling drugs, while cafes just sell coffee (and other stuff except drugs!).
Prostitution is also legal. Yesterday night, I asked my room-mate to take me to the red light are. Wait, before you people get worried (especially Kak Siti and Shaza), it was just to see, get acquainted with the city, nothing more. Haha. My room-mate took his bicycle, while I took the tram. On the tram, an American guy sat in front of me and started talking to me, asking me where I was from. He told me he just arrived there earlier that day, and he straightaway asked me," Have you been to the red light area? You should go man, it's only 50 Euros." Bear in mind, he just arrived in Amsterdam a few hours before.
Anyway, the red light area itself was quite an eye-opener. Each of of the prostitutes were in their respective "compartments", fish tank-like, most of them dancing in their bikinis. The catch is, most of them were women who definitely survive on social welfare because there is no chance even the most desperate of guys would pay 5, never mind 50, Euros for them. Maybe it was on a Sunday night, thus the hot chicks had been taken, which explains why curtains covered a lot of the "compartments", which is what is done when they have customers.
Anyway, I've started cooking myself. Haha. Pretty tasteless food, but at least I'm no longer hungry. School starts tomorrow, so I might not be online as often anymore, though I'll definitely try. And the following people, please come online more often coz I havent seen you guys on MSN at all since I got here.
Kak Nana, Akmal, Ashraf, Mohsin, Nor, Jend, Bella, Yati, Hakeem, Haida, Yasmine, Suli, Abu and whoever else that I've left out. Don't play punk ah you all.
Amsterdam is a very peaceful, serene place (well if you come from Singapore everywhere else is serene), and is also a very beautiful place. The BUILDINGS are very nice, and there are canals everywhere, it really pleases the eye. The people here seem nice enough, but since I've hardly had any real interaction with the Amsterdammers, I'll reserve my judgment for future entries.
Everybody cycles here, there are specific lanes allocated on the roads for cyclists. It seems to me as though there are more bicycles than vehicles. When I asked the Arab guy whether he had a bicycle, he said, "Dude, this is Amsterdam."
Liberal. A word highly correlated with Holland as a whole, and Amsterdam in particular. Drugs here, are not legal as widely believed, but marijuana and hash use is 'tolerated'9terms people come up with too justify their actions), which means you can buy up till 5 grams of these drugs at the coffeeshops. Coffeshops are the places selling drugs, while cafes just sell coffee (and other stuff except drugs!).
Prostitution is also legal. Yesterday night, I asked my room-mate to take me to the red light are. Wait, before you people get worried (especially Kak Siti and Shaza), it was just to see, get acquainted with the city, nothing more. Haha. My room-mate took his bicycle, while I took the tram. On the tram, an American guy sat in front of me and started talking to me, asking me where I was from. He told me he just arrived there earlier that day, and he straightaway asked me," Have you been to the red light area? You should go man, it's only 50 Euros." Bear in mind, he just arrived in Amsterdam a few hours before.
Anyway, the red light area itself was quite an eye-opener. Each of of the prostitutes were in their respective "compartments", fish tank-like, most of them dancing in their bikinis. The catch is, most of them were women who definitely survive on social welfare because there is no chance even the most desperate of guys would pay 5, never mind 50, Euros for them. Maybe it was on a Sunday night, thus the hot chicks had been taken, which explains why curtains covered a lot of the "compartments", which is what is done when they have customers.
Anyway, I've started cooking myself. Haha. Pretty tasteless food, but at least I'm no longer hungry. School starts tomorrow, so I might not be online as often anymore, though I'll definitely try. And the following people, please come online more often coz I havent seen you guys on MSN at all since I got here.
Kak Nana, Akmal, Ashraf, Mohsin, Nor, Jend, Bella, Yati, Hakeem, Haida, Yasmine, Suli, Abu and whoever else that I've left out. Don't play punk ah you all.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Anything for a Brother
Hmm, one of my concerns before coming here was whether I would find a mosque. Oh well. This entry answers that.
I was looking for a mosque, and the only way I could do so is to ask around. Problem is, I wouldn't know whether a person is Muslim or not, unless she wears a tudung of course. So I approached the tudung ladies at Amsterdam Central (the equivalent of Orcahrd Road), but somehow, none of them paid any attention to me. 1 of them even turned and gave me a cold hard stare, indicating to me to back off.
Wow. So I had no choice but to take a gamble, and approached some guy whom I believed was Muslim. And the gamble couldn't have turned out better. The guy offered to take me to the mosque himself, even though it was way before zuhur. And when I said thanks, he said, "No problem, anything for a brother."
Now, if one of my 3 brothers said that I would understand, but a total stranger? Now that was cool.
And not only did he bring me to the mosque, he also showed the area where Muslims live, where I can find Halal food rather easily.
So 1 problem solved. Its getting better.=)
I was looking for a mosque, and the only way I could do so is to ask around. Problem is, I wouldn't know whether a person is Muslim or not, unless she wears a tudung of course. So I approached the tudung ladies at Amsterdam Central (the equivalent of Orcahrd Road), but somehow, none of them paid any attention to me. 1 of them even turned and gave me a cold hard stare, indicating to me to back off.
Wow. So I had no choice but to take a gamble, and approached some guy whom I believed was Muslim. And the gamble couldn't have turned out better. The guy offered to take me to the mosque himself, even though it was way before zuhur. And when I said thanks, he said, "No problem, anything for a brother."
Now, if one of my 3 brothers said that I would understand, but a total stranger? Now that was cool.
And not only did he bring me to the mosque, he also showed the area where Muslims live, where I can find Halal food rather easily.
So 1 problem solved. Its getting better.=)
Friday, February 1, 2008
Walid.... in Amsterdam
So here it is. After a 14 hour flight I'm here in Amsterdam. So let's narrate the happenings a little.
I arrived and received a message from Steph, a fellow student from NUS doing her exchange here, that she and the other students will not be fetching me from the airport, instead they would wait for me at Amterdam Central. I took a train there, and waited for about 1 and a half hours before they finally reached. We were to go collect our hostel keys tgether, but we got really lost and walked non-stop for quite some time, with me carrying about 40kilos of stuff. Getting lost, as I found out, was to be a feature of the day. And oh, one of the first things Steph said to me was, "I hope you are not a staunch Muslim, coz It'll be hard to find food here." Haha.
My hostel is pretty far from the other 3 Singaporeans, so it's safe to say I won't see them much this semester. Anyway I got to my room, not before getting lost, and settled down and stuff before leaving for orientation. Looking for the place, again losing my way, was a bitch. I don't understand why they can't have the bloody uni in 1 place. The concept is pretty much like SMU, only difference is it's much worse and the buildings are much more scattered. Oh, the other difference is at SMU, I have my bike! And even still I get lost!
I arrived pretty late for the orientation, and after a series of boring talks, they brought us to a club. Yup, a club. Everybody was drinking and was getting ready to party. After 10 minutes insideI kindly excused myself and went off. I'm really not into these things (anymore) so I wouldn't have enjoyed it anyway. And looking at the orientation schedule of events, looks like I'm not joining it anymore, I'd rather learn my way around Amsterdam.
Which reminds me, on the way back from the club, I spent about 3 hours taking buses and trams all around Asmterdam, before I finally got back. Even the locals didn't seem to know where Funenpark, the place where I stay, is. I desperately wanted to avoid taking a cab because from what I've heard, it's too damn expensive.
Anyway it's going to be a difficult few months for me. Loneliness, food, finding my way (literally), away from my loved ones, it's really gonna be difficult. But that was what I came here, to go out of my comfort zone, and challenge myself. Of course at the same time, I need some encouragement from you guys, dropping the occasional (or regular!) email or so, which I'm sure I'll get. =) When I arrived itself my sis and Mas'uud had emailed me to give me some motivational words, knowing fully that I need them.
The good thing about a bad start is, it can only get better from here. =)
I arrived and received a message from Steph, a fellow student from NUS doing her exchange here, that she and the other students will not be fetching me from the airport, instead they would wait for me at Amterdam Central. I took a train there, and waited for about 1 and a half hours before they finally reached. We were to go collect our hostel keys tgether, but we got really lost and walked non-stop for quite some time, with me carrying about 40kilos of stuff. Getting lost, as I found out, was to be a feature of the day. And oh, one of the first things Steph said to me was, "I hope you are not a staunch Muslim, coz It'll be hard to find food here." Haha.
My hostel is pretty far from the other 3 Singaporeans, so it's safe to say I won't see them much this semester. Anyway I got to my room, not before getting lost, and settled down and stuff before leaving for orientation. Looking for the place, again losing my way, was a bitch. I don't understand why they can't have the bloody uni in 1 place. The concept is pretty much like SMU, only difference is it's much worse and the buildings are much more scattered. Oh, the other difference is at SMU, I have my bike! And even still I get lost!
I arrived pretty late for the orientation, and after a series of boring talks, they brought us to a club. Yup, a club. Everybody was drinking and was getting ready to party. After 10 minutes insideI kindly excused myself and went off. I'm really not into these things (anymore) so I wouldn't have enjoyed it anyway. And looking at the orientation schedule of events, looks like I'm not joining it anymore, I'd rather learn my way around Amsterdam.
Which reminds me, on the way back from the club, I spent about 3 hours taking buses and trams all around Asmterdam, before I finally got back. Even the locals didn't seem to know where Funenpark, the place where I stay, is. I desperately wanted to avoid taking a cab because from what I've heard, it's too damn expensive.
Anyway it's going to be a difficult few months for me. Loneliness, food, finding my way (literally), away from my loved ones, it's really gonna be difficult. But that was what I came here, to go out of my comfort zone, and challenge myself. Of course at the same time, I need some encouragement from you guys, dropping the occasional (or regular!) email or so, which I'm sure I'll get. =) When I arrived itself my sis and Mas'uud had emailed me to give me some motivational words, knowing fully that I need them.
The good thing about a bad start is, it can only get better from here. =)
Final Goodbye....for now.
It was pretty amazing at the airport, to see so many people coming. I'm sorry I couldn't talk to all of you, but I will email everyone that was there soon, bt you have to wait a bit, since I'm settling in and stuff.
As expected, the scenes were pretty ugly, not for the faint-hearted. And, as expected also though to a lesser extent, Amirah was the first person to cry, which sort of created a chain reaction. Haha.
Thanks to everyone that was there.And to those that called or messaged me before I went. And to those who keep me in their prayers. I know that when I return, the people I love will be there. These people. You people.
As expected, the scenes were pretty ugly, not for the faint-hearted. And, as expected also though to a lesser extent, Amirah was the first person to cry, which sort of created a chain reaction. Haha.
Thanks to everyone that was there.And to those that called or messaged me before I went. And to those who keep me in their prayers. I know that when I return, the people I love will be there. These people. You people.
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