Hari Raya

It's amazing how fast time flies by. It felt like it was only a few days ago that I first woke up with my campus roommates for sahur after cramming for the exams the night before. And now it's only a few days away until Raya. This means for that my family and I will have to make that 5 hour trip to our hometown in Kelantan, Tanah Merah. In fact people are already making the journey back to their hometown. I guess Sheena is probably safe and sound in Penang right now.

Anyways I love Kelantan but I hate the journey back. 5 hours in a car is excruciating and added to the fact that we have to puasa then it just becomes unbearable. But still I thank god that the road conditions nowadays are way better than the time when I was a kid. In those days the trip was an 8 hour journey. 8 hours of winding and twisting road with nothing much to look at but trees, trees and more trees. Oh and the fact that my sister used to get carsick did not make things any better either.

Mom is a little worried about the journey back since it has been raining for quite a bit. Rain has its pros and cons. The pros of rain is that it makes the weather bearable so that we wont be all hot and sweaty despite the air conditioning but the cons of rain is that it'll make the road slippery, our vision becomes limited and there's always that scary possibility of landslide. I just hope that when we head back nothing bad happens. I'm glad that mom is such an overly careful driver:P

If I were to worry about the bad things that could happen along the way, the possibilities is endless so I'm just gonna concentrate on the stuff that I'm looking forward too. I can't wait to see all my cousins again. It's too bad that we only meet up once in a while during Raya and such. But I guess those rare meetings make them even sweeter. I just love it when all the cousins gather up during the night and chat away until either the sun comes up or until all the food is gone. Usually it's the latter. Now our number is steadily dwindling. Some are married and some are working or studying somewhere so it's not really the same anymore. Oh well, as time goes on people are bound to change so it’s better to hold on to whatever we have left.

Raya has always been an occasion that everyone looks forward to but as you grow older usually the excitement is not the same as we were younger. I guess it's partly because as you grow older you know that you won't get as much 'duit raya' as you used too. Ika was just commenting to me last night that this year the feel of Raya is just not in the air. In a way I have to agree with her. I mean even the TV ads this year are not that hyped up concerning Raya or Deepavali. But still I think everyone is definitely looking forward to meeting up with family and just eating good food after a month of fasting. A whole month of fasting gone down the rain after 2 days of Raya :P

As for me Raya would mark the near end of our Month long holiday. Although I'm not looking forward to attending classes (especially Arabic) and assignments but I am looking forward to doing something with my time (opposed to sleep, sleep and more sleep), meeting up with friends and of course seeing Matt again. I can't wait to see him again but most of all I miss talking to him. I've never before met a guy that I'm totally at ease when I'm talking. But other than that I'm curious on what Raya program that'll be in store when we get back. I hope the Raya bash will be on. Last year's bash was fun so I hope this year will be better. I'm also planning on having BENL's first annual alumni dinner. I have to talk to Dr. Nuraihan on how to make that happen.

Anyways, going back to Kelantan would mean that I'll be without internet and a computer for a full week so I definitely won't be blogging. So if I don't log on before I go back I just wanna wish everyone a Very Happy Deepavali as well as A Joyous Raya for everyone. Have fun everyone!