ただいま!

Assalamualaikum.

It's been almost 10 months I've been posting from Egypt and this the first post from Malaysia in 2012! Huhuhu... I've arrived at KLIA on July 9th at 2.40 pm. I'm so happy to see my parents, Kak Shida and Mak Cik Ani (ex housemaid). At first, I thought my father didn't fetch me as I messaged him few days before asking about it, he said that my mother and sister will fetch me. But then, while queuing in front of the immigration counter I saw my father there! Hehehe. I'm happy to see my mum which I think look younger than before, the skeleton-like sister and exaggerated mak cik Ani, as always. I also met Hamizah, my ex-classmates at the Garden food court.

Enough with that so here, I want to share something.. in Japanese, whenever someone comes back home, he will say, "tadaima". And the person who is in the house will answer, "okaerinasai". It's like giving salam once you entering your home. You can see this conversation in Japanese dramas. It's fun to see them since you know the words little bit.

 tadaima (i'm home)

I wished to write on one of my sweetest memories in Egypt (other than getting good results, eating good food n etc). I guess. hehe.

So two days before we depart, (since we are quartet now ; me, Hanie, Shafira & Aisyah), we organized our things as we moved in our new house. At night, we went to Carrefour. We then separated into couples. Shafira and Aisyah and me with Hanie. Hanie said she wants to buy a blouse so I appointed Femina boutique and yes, she bought one there and we went to Mo'men. Thanks Hanie for treating me chicken pane and we ate outside as the food court was pack with people. After that, we went to Al Mouwafak booth to buy Strawberry badamli (my mum also love this) as souvenir to bring back to Malaysia. Then we drank Ice cappuccino at Costa Coffee and nah, I slept there shamelessly. Hanie played something on her phone and whenever I woke up, I asked her " Shaf and Aisyah didn't call yet?", " Can we just go back first? I'm so sleepy", "I feel I waited so long".. and some other nagging I told in dreams. I couldn't remember at what time we went home that morning.. Yes, it's in the morning and I couldn't ask Aisyah and Shafira what did they buy since my eyelids were heavy.

Next morning, I woke up and get ready to go to Mansyiah to buy Egyptian cotton with Hanie and before we go, we shook hand and hugged with Aisyah and Shaf as we shall not meet again since their departure a day earlier than us. Then we went to Mara Hostel and walked to Mansyiah to search for the cloth shops. It's a relieved we found the shops as we went there for the first time. I bought one there. Hihihi.. one meter for 25 genih. On the way back to Mara Hostel we went to Believe boutique as Hanie bought a shirt there.

Our next destination was Umi's house. Hanie wished to have copy of korean dramas and tv series - running man. We waited there for an hour and we went home to perform Dhuhr prayer and waited for Asr prayer. After that, we went to bahr (sea) as we wanted to go to El Asafrah to meet Hanie's father's cousin, Afnan and bought some abaya there. So we chose tramco as our transport. Hahaha.. this was the main problem! We had to use certain hand sign and this was confusing. You can read about the signs here.

Luckily, there was an Egyptian guy around 40 y/o asked us since he noticed we were laughing after trying both hand signs, he asked us, "entu rah fiin?"(where are you going?). I replied El Asafrah but he didn't know and then I said Mayami, he knew the place and we got in the same tramco together.

In the tramco, I asked for help from a lady sitting behind me about the place we are going to go. She also didn't know the place and she asked a girl beside her. Alhamdulillah, the girl knew the place and told me that she'll notice us when we reached that place.

So we reached that place and I asked that girl where is Souq El Asafrah (market which sells abaya), she said she will show me the direction and there I asked her name, Fatma, such a good name, she said she lives in El Asafrah. Hanie then got a phone call from Afnan. He'll wait at Mabrah Hospital. I asked Fatma about the direction and she said she'll bring us there. Along the way, we had some conversations since I'm not so fluent in speaking Arabic. Reaching the hospital, she showed us the direction to the market and we thanked her. I still remember a sentence I spoke back then, "ana mabsut lishuftik. shukran." (I'm happy to meet you, thank you) and I didn't know whether she understood my pronunciation or not.. hahaha. But then she replied, "you're welcome." (oh man, I thought she doesn't know English!  =.=").

There, we met Afnan and his friend, we sat a little while at his friend's house and continued our journey to go to the market. We walked across the railway to go to the souq and there, the second problem started. We didn't know where the exact place that sells abaya.

So I had to ask a man who his wife wore an abaya and niqab, I asked him where the place but his wife told us the direction, well, as a woman I think she should know where the place right? Yes, thanks to her, we found the place and shopped till I had to restrain myself from buying any. Pity for Hanie as her hands were hurt from bringing heavy plastics so I helped her a little bit. Not to forget, I met Melly, Auni, Humaira, Afiqah Alias, Wanie there. they also bought large size abaya like us. Hehehe. Hanie and me stopped at the mosque nearby to perform Maghrib prayer and planned to go home after that.

We went back to the hospital which we had to cross the bridge and there I pleaded Hanie to ask a pregnant woman whether that was the right place to wait for the tramco to Mansyiah. She said it was the place and we waited there but later on, she said it was in front a little bit and we walked behind her and her husband.

We waited there and Alhamdulillah, there was a tramco heading to Mansyiah but unluckily we have to rush in quickly as Egyptian people love to 'struggle' to get in any transport. Yes, we didn't manage to get in and the pregnant woman pulled a man to give us some space to get in. I got in but Hanie couldn't so I get out from the tramco and tried to wait for another tramco.. Later on a woman at the back said something and few guys got out the tramco as they realized that they got in the wrong tramco! The pregnant woman asked us to get in quickly (I smiled while typing this.. as I'm happy of it). We started our journey few minutes later and in the tramco, I sat in between two Egyptian woman. Yes, they were indeed nice person! On my right side helped me to hold my plastic bags while on my left side, there was a woman with a 5 months old baby. She was kind as she let me to let her baby sat on my lap. She said that her baby girl likes me very much.

So the woman and her baby reached their destination and after a while, we reached nafa' Camp Caesar which is our place. I thanked the girl beside me and had our goodbyes then.

Yes, it was the best moments I had for this year, I met a good house owner, great housemates, nice professors, and kind Egyptian people. Alhamdulillah~

P.s.
Somehow I remembered my joke on Carrot song as Hanie left something 'precious' in the fridge. Lol.