sejukk..

Its been 11 days since my last post.
Malas? Maybe..
Nothing special passed by.
13 Oct, it was Hari Raya Aidilfitri.
The celebration here in La Rochelle is not superb but not bad at all.
Better than last year'.
Since the Oct 13 was Saturday, we the Rochelais had no class on that day.
So i was able to go to the mosque for Solat Sunat Aidilfitri.
It was quite hard because the night before i slept at 5 am.
Imagine how was it to wake up at 8 something.
But thinking of Raya, i woke up.
It is not easy to have such opportunity you know!

Why i slept at 5 the night before?
I was at my friend' apartment preparing food for our Raya celebration.
I was supposed to be in 'Team kuah kacang' for nasi impit.
But suddenly i fell into the 'Team Roti Jala'.
What a great experience it was.
We ate the roti jala which were not fulfill the quality criteria ( in term of shape ).
Dengan kata lain, roti jala yang tak berjala.
We ate them with sugar.
1 of my friend even modified the roti jala recipe without the approval of our boss.
It was not a successful try however.
Overall, is not that easy to prepare roti jala for 11 person.
I wonder how are we going to prepare it for bout 100 person as we are going to host this year's Hari Raya celebration for Malaysians in France.
Never mind about that. We will try our best.
We called our family early in the morning in France ( bout 7,8 am Malaysian time ).
That night, we made rendang, kari, nasi impit, roti jala, kuah kacang.
Sounds not too many isn't it?
But this was well planned.
Because there was 4 open houses need to be attended that day.
Ours in for 'dinner' as the others already 'reserved' for breakfast and lunch(s).
I went back to my place at 4 something.

I woke up at 8 something, just nice before the end of subuh.
I performed subuh and showered later to go to the mosque.
I cycled to the mosque with my baju melayu, sampin and songkok.
It was quite cold that morning so i wore another t-shirt inside.
Arrived at the mosque bout 915. The prayer started at 930 as told during solat jumaat before.
This morning was quite special for me.
What an opportunity to hear a 'saudari baru' said the kalimah syahadah during such meaningful morning.
She said that via a mic at the women' section of course.

After solat, we went to the mademoiselles ( Fan, Liey and Kak Asilda ) place for 'breakfast'.
I was the 1st to arrive there as i cycled and the others need to wait for the bus.
We had mi sup as main dish here. Pedas gile tapi sedap weh!
We took photos together.
Then we went to Kak Yati' place bus.
Here, it was lontong the main dish. We discussed bout our Hari Raya Gathering.
After that, it was Omar and Li Shern' place. Happy birthday Li Shern! ( 13.10 )
Nice curry, kurma and udang.
And the last but not least, Quay Duperre ( Iman, Pakly, Due and Kevin ).
As Anis, Topek and myself we live alone, so we joined them as host.
( Thats why we worked together the night before )
We had dinner and watched rugby together.
Overall, as i said before, this raya was not superb but not bad.
We exchange visit, had Malaysian food so it was just like Hari Raya in Malaysia.
Only without our family. But we are family here.
But i miss to celebrate it in Malaysia.
The last time was back in 2005 when i was still in school, preparing for SPM.
Never crossed in my mind at that time that i will celebrate the next away from Malaysia.
I just noticed that i already celebrated Aidiladha twice in United Kingdom.
1st in Sheffield back in 1999 and last year at Malaysian Hall.
So most probably this year will be my 1st one in France.
What a tiring day it was. I slept just after i arrived at my place.
As the next day was Sunday, so i can sleep as much as i want.
Anyway, what an experience it was ( this Hari raya ).
Before this, i only know how to finish the food at open house.
But this time, i was one of the person involve in the preparation.
I was very happy working together with my friends.
If i am in Malaysia, i don't think i will involve in such works.
Lots of new experience i got during my 1st year studying overseas.
This is one of them. Yes, it was not very nice to celebrate Hari Raya away from home.
But it is a very valuable experience. Setiap kejadian ada hikmahnya.
We should learn to look things at the bright, positive side.
We had brain to think.

Nothing special for the week after raya.
We had quite a number of tests to face.
Ohh, thats why i was quite 'busy' i think.
And next week we are going to have a week of holiday.
Hari Raya gathering on 29 Oct, this coming Monday.
Going to be quite busy this weekend to prepare for it.
Au revoir!
-Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf zahir batin.-