Travel log 5.

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.

Can you guess where am I right now?

Yes, I am not in CFS.

No, I am not in home, neither Shah Alam nor Puchong.

No, I am not aboard, I'm still in Malaysia.

I am, at IIUM Gombak.

Precisely, I am somewhere at the cafe.

This will be the most interesting travel log so far.

I woke up this morning, not remembering my plan to IIUM Gombak. I woke up, as usual just to wake up and class. I had only one two-hour class every Friday morning. I went to my class, we learnt VSPER, which bored me to death but I didn't show it visually. I told you that I like Chemistry. But that doesn't mean it is interesting as Physics. Though Physics did make me drowsy from time to time.

Oh, never mind.

So we finished our class half an hour early, and I decided not to tag along Aini to the Digital Mall. I waited in my room, at Mahallah Khadijah, and continued Sakif Habibi another chapter. Just after I finished Zohr prayer, I got a message and I immediately got ready. Few minutes walk from Mahallah to the front gate, we - Aini, Husna and I – boarded in a bus just seconds after.

*now I am listening to the calling for food. What I mean is - “Char Kuey Teow, Nasi Goreng, Telur Dadar, makan.” That is my point. And it is cool.*

Back to the log.

Nothing fun on the bus. Oh, I take it back. There was something. When we boarded, brothers from the mosque just finished their prayers. And the view of what I saw was incredible, at least for me. I rarely go out during Friday prayer, so I haven't actually seen brothers going in and out of mosque. Just now I saw, people walking for a distance, to perform their duty as servants of Allah. And who else could do that? With their believe to Allah, every Friday every Muslim would gather at the mosque and pray together. Subhanallah.

I hope, they would do the same for every prayer, five times a day.

Next we moved on to the LRT, and Aini decided to take a stop at KLCC for the PC Fair. I fairly agreed, and we stopped at KLCC. I haven't been to KLCC since I was in standard school. I thought it would be fun, but it wasn't. We got lost, took a longer path to where we were heading and the fair wasn't that interesting. It is true that the prices are a lot more cheaper than usual though, so you might find it – fun to shop. Anyhow, I got a blue balloon while I was there.

*now my food had arrived. I'll continue later on.*

12:57p.m (laptop time-Egypt)

resume

18:04p.m (back in CFS-Egypt time still)

I just can't believe what I saw during the time I ate. I totally forgot to adjust my niqab because I saw, a niqabi (I had currently change niqabers to niqabi) took off her niqab in front of people, just to eat. I know, I am not wearing niqab all the time yet, but, I had never take off my niqab in front of so many people to eat. And with that and with people staring at me, I spilled my fried rice on the floor. A spoonful of rice was wasted.

Plus, there were people staring at my balloon. I kept keeping my eyes on it so people wouldn't take it from me. It was my balloon.

Then I remembered to adjust my niqab, so I did. I really lost in my own thoughts at that time. I kept thinking and thinking. How I was wrong of having the idea of students at Gombak would be use to niqabi. There are lots of niqabi around, aren't they?

I quickly finished the rest of my fried rice, easier this time and we went to Kuliyyah of Engineering to perform Maghrib prayer. During 'Asr we prayed at the mosque and it was, well, cool. There were lots of food for sell at a shelve. We just need to put the money inside a container, or somewhere available. Again, cool. Subhanallah.

We walked around, with a guide to help, and reached KAED. It stands for Kuliyyah of Architecture and Environmental Design. I wonder why my Kuliyyah doesn't own its own short name. Hm.

KAED was beautiful, along with the other buildings. I was excited by all the view and can't wait to grow older and finish my foundation and come running to Gombak. I won't literally run, because I'll need a bicycle. The campus is huge as in H-U-G-E.

After the tour, we decided to go back to CFS. Husna will be going home, so that leave me with Aini. We went to the bus stop and fasten our pace as we saw a bus. Unfortunately, it wasn't our bus. I made an uncivilized mistake as I rolled my eyes when the bus driver told me it wasn't heading to the LRT. It was a reflect action and the bus driver might have not seen it but I still felt wrong by doing it. It wasn't a proper thing to do.

At the LRT, there wasn't many passengers so I sat at the front (perhaps it was at the back?) of the train. Husna stopped at Taman Melawati leaving Aini and I a journey to Universiti. It was a long journey, thus I slept. It wasn't hard to fall asleep as I was soaked with rain and tired. The heavy laptop in my bag pack along with few books really worn me out. I don't know how long I slept but I managed to wake up at Bangsar. Alhamdulillah, we haven't miss our station.

At the time we walked to the bus stop, there was a bus already waiting for passengers so we boarded and safely arrived at CFS. I bought a loaf of bread at UKC and went to my room. There was suppose to be a programme at ANNEX but I was too tired. I went straight to the bed when I stepped in the room.

It was a long day, truly. There were few things that I learnt from this travel. Travelling alone by far, was fun but when I had a companion, like this time, I could actually have conversations. I would say, “look at that, isn't it beautiful?” or “shall we go the other way?” or “could you buy my ticket?” and so on. And, IIUM Gombak wasn't actually what I expected it to be. I don't know whether it was wrong for me to expect something or it was just simply unexpected.

Perhaps, it was just me.

I haven't post private entries recently. As I know, my blog is no longer private. I didn't hide most of my previous posts as it would be awkward to do so. I believe people will learn from mistakes, and I will learn from my writing, both educational or simply a diary.

Last but not least,

I was told that, by people, to wear niqab would be hard. So I respect those who wear it and my intention to wear it. Just, maybe, to take it off to eat is not worth it. Food may spill, people may stare, but niqab shall stay.

Wallahua'lam.