Baba's Back!!!

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but my paternal grandmother has lymphoma cancer, and well, the doctors in Bangladesh aren't exactly the best in the world (more like one of the worst). So, they did something wrong, and my grandma was very close to leaving us forever. My father had to leave in a day's notice, and here is, back, 3 weeks later.
As you can see, my mother went through a lot to make this Saturday brunch (the guy on the side is not my dad. He's more like my dad's BFF :)

AlhamduliAllah, my grandmother is much better now, so, as usual, my aunt sent us lots of goodies.

My sisters got "princess dresses" and "m n m jewelry"

My goodies and jewelry:

My brother's awesome shirt:

Also, my brother's necklace. Last time my aunt sent this for my sisters, and he loved it so much, he was the one who wore it for most of the time, until, of course, he ripped it. But, this time, my aunt sent it for him - just so he doesn't attack my sisters' necklaces again. I guess this is what you get when you have a boy after three girls :)

The note says, "Ibbin (my bother Ibrahim's nickname) your necklace"

My great grandmother's paner bata. A small box where one keeps her things for her pan, a special leaf filled with flax seeds and other things. My father was able to bring it back. It's more than 50 years old. Totally vintage and antique. It's a part of our family history.

Last but not least - CHEESE!!! This is special one-of-a-kind Bengali cheese. It's unbelievably delicious.

FuN wEek!!!!!

Hey, salaams everyone! How's everybody's life going? Mine is pretty great so far, alhamduliAllah. My uncle and grandpa are here, like I said before, and I have spring break, so, we're pretty much having a festival in our house. We're going to go strawberry picking on Saturday inshaAllah. That's also the day I try to make my special breakfasts. My uncle wanted to have pancakes, so, this is what the menu is probably going to look like:

• Pancakes (from mix, unfortunately, I don't want to experiment with scratch just now)
• Eggs (scrambled or just poached. Whatever the preference)
• Beef sausages/Turkey Bacon (which ever one I can find. Though I would prefer the turkey bacon :)
•  Fresh Fruits and Berries
• Coffee
• Smoothie (if possible. Though I doubt   anybody would want to have something so cold in the morning. Unless its warm)
• Juice
• Whipped Cream, Maple Syrup, Butter, (basically, the works)

On Sunday, my dad's going to try to take my gramps to deep sea fishing. He loves those type of things. MashaAllah, one thing I love about him, is that he's still so fit at his age. I mean, everyday, he goes outside, and walks or sits in the morning sun. Then, he comes back inside, and eats all these things, like a spoon of honey, a spoon black seeds, dates, and many other things similar to those. After that, he'll go out and stretch. After stretching, he'll go and take a shower. And then he'll eat the breakfast my mom or someone prepared for him. And he does this every single day. I mean, I can't do that. I guess, because he was left hand colonel in the Bangladesh Military, he's used to routine and sticking to it. I gotta enroll myself in something like that. I mean, I'm the most not-sticking-to-any-plan-I-make person I know :)

A Muslimah

Can't Wait

InshaAllah, on Saturday, my maternal uncle (mama, in Bengali) and grandfather (nana, in Bengali) will come all the way from Bangladesh!!! I'm so happy. It'll be there first time coming to America. They've been in a few places in Asia and everything, but not over here. They're so excited too. But I think the happiest one in our family is Ammi (Mom). I can't remember a time when my mother hadn't been wishing that her family could come over and visit. She had especially wanted my grandmother to come, but, unfortunately, she had passed away before she could visit, and so, when my uncle and grandfather got their visa, she was close to jumping up and down, but with the baby in her stomach and all, she obviously couldn't. Which reminds me, Imran (new baby brother) will be most likely coming on April 14th inshaAllah!!!!!!!!!! I really can't wait. 2 sisters, and 2 brothers, who could want more?

Well, that's all I wanted to say today. Do you have anything coming up soon?

Cool Houses

About 1.5 more weeks until we leave to BD (Bangladesh) InshaAllah. I'm so excited!!! We still haven't finished packing though. I think I know what I'm gonna wear. A red shelvar kamis with thin vertical black stripes, a white shelvar, a white hijab and a black under piece.

Actually, cross that out. That would look HORRIBLE with my bag and carry-on. I have to wear something black or white or green or pink or some other color that would look good with green and pink polka-dots. I have to wear a cotton dupatta-style hijab because, man, is it hard to keep your hijab on right in the plane. I mean, 13-15 hours straight with no breaks. Kinda uncomfortable, don't you think?

Well,  the seating for the plane is like this:

3 seats               4 seats                3 seats

We get 5 seats, so we got the middle 4 and one from the 3. I hope I get 2 sit there most of the time. And I hope the people sitting there are women.

I'll probably watch movies most of the time. I'm gonna try to get the book The Hunger Games. At least, there is a book, right? I want to read it before watching the movie.

We're looking for a bigger house to move in. We need one. With so many people, it's kind of impossible to live where we are now. I wish we could get a house like this one

with this in the back

But that's impossible.

My poor poor little brother has a cold. He's crying. Poor him. I feel bad. I just can't wait to leave though. My cousin and I decided that we're going to use one of those cheap hair colors to dye our hair for 3 days. What color do you think I should do? I love the maroon/magenta this girl has, but my hair is dark, so I'm not so sure it would work for me.

I have to do my Quran now. Surah Hud inshaAllah. 

A Muslimah

How are your days going? What books are you reading?

OMG/A

OMA I am so sorry all fellow blog readers i haven't been posting for the longest time ever. I had so much work  to do for school, and I'm actually doing my homework now also.

Well, good news:


WE FINALLY GOT OUR TICKETS FOR BANGLADESH!!!!!!

The only bad thing is that from here to Dubai we'll get front seat 1st compartment but then from Dubai to BD we'll get front seat second compartment. But, at least the majority of the trip will be in the first one inshaAllah. We'll be leaving on December 8th and we'll come back January 14th inshaAllah. I'm ssssoooo happy. We're gonna have so much fun inshaAllah.

I finished reading The Giver like, a LONG time ago but, as it is, I haven't written in my blog since a LONG time ago. But, the book is so sad but happy at the same time! When they revealed what Release was, I was on the verge of tears. It was just horrible! And when they describe Jonas's travel to Elsewhere and how they felt and looked my heart was just torn apart for the poor boy and toddler.

I do wonder what happened to The Community though. Did the plan work? And was Jonas able to find his place among the people of Elsewhere?

I want to read the next book, Gathering Blue, but, I highly doubt that it has anything to do with Jonas or The Community. But still, I'd love to read it.



My uncle came over for 5 days from BD. It was so fun. But this really weird thing happened too. My uncle had this old friend who's house he came and stayed in 10 years ago. So, of course, he had to visit again. I wore my black abaya with pink rosebuds there (the one from Dubai). The couple had one older son and one girl in 6th grade. I chatted with the girl. She seemed nice enough for a Muslim in public school and parents who barely practice Islam. At one point she asks me:


"So, umm, do you, uuh, where that all the time? Like, at school and everything?" She gestures at my abaya.

"No, actually, I wear other things too. I just wore this 'cuz I wanted to, it's my favorite, and we were in a rush and everything."

"Oh."


So, to fill in the blank spaces, I asked her when she wakes up for school. 7:00, she said. She asked me when I wake up. I answered "6:00, because I have to pray Fajr and everything."

"Oh ya, FAJER. I pray that too. I actually just learned today!!!"


I was like, cool!  but, I mean, seriously? I MUSLIM 6 grader learning how to pray?????


Then, later on, she's talking to me. This is what she says:

"It's really weird like how kindergartners like each other and, like, how high schoolers like each other. Kindergartners are like, 'He has a dog, and I have a dog, that's why I like him!' and with high schoolers, it's like, 'He's so hot! Did you see his abs?'"

By this time, I had gotten a little uncomfortable and had started fidgeting in my chair. I cleared my throat and croaked out a "ya"

She didn't seem to notice. She kept on talking about crushes and everything until she comes to this part:

"So, I told my mom about my Bengali crush (meaning, she has two crushes, one Bangladeshi and one non-Bangladeshi) and she was like, 'Oh, your crush is coming to that party! You should dress up nice!'"

I don't know what my expression was like then, but, I could NEVER imagine my own MOTHER saying that to me. So, I just kinda smiled and let out some air from my mouth, hoping that it could pass for a laugh.

And then came the inevitable:

"So, do you have a crush?"



What I said in my mind:       What do you think of me? I'm wearing abaya and a hijab, and I'm gonna have a CRUSH? Well, she doesn't know that it's not allowed, I guess, but her parents should have taught her something. And, even if I did have a crush. I barely know you for and hour!!! And I'm gonna go babbling about some boy that I like? This is so totally weird.


What I said out loud:          Umm, no, I don't.



Her reply:           Oh.



So, you can understand how relieved I felt when we left the house. My dad was relieved too. I think so was my uncle. I don't supposes that he thought his old friend would turn out to be like that.






Well, for Eid, my aunt came over. My uncle had left two days before though. So, he left the Eid money with my dad. So, altogether, on Eid, I got $60 AlhamduliAllah. Pretty good for a girl who barely ever gets eidy.







We got this pretty strong bull for Qurbany. Qurbaany. Qurbanii. Whatever. But for the slaughtering. We kept it in a nursery over night and the next morning it got mad and ran away in the nursery. And that place is like  a JUNGLE. The people called my dad and were like, "The cow got loose!!!" But, nevertheless, they caught it. But then it got loose AGAIN and ran into the street. They caught it once more (Thank Allah) and then slaughtered it.


We are gonna go to the LA ScienCenter to see the 1001 Inventions from school on Wednesday inshaAllah. We're gonna take the Amtrack!!! I'm so excited! I've never been on a train before.



Well, I have a big Quran test today, so plz pray that I pass inshaAllah.



Salaams!





A Muslimah

My Eid

So, here I am once more to talk about my Eid.

'Tis the night before Eid (I like saying that) we were all excited and everything. So, at like 10:00 or 11:00, I went to my Indian neighbor's house. Her husband and in-laws are Sudani, and her in-laws just came to visit and they brought lots of henna/mendi. So, around that time, I went to her house and she put African-style mendi on the front (the side with the nails) of my hands and a little bit of my arms. She outlined it with black and filled it in with red. It was beautiful mashaAllah. Only problem was, it kinda itched, which usually doesn't happen, and in the morning, when I tried to take off without water, it hurt BADLY because the hairs on my arms were COMING OFF WITH IT. Ouch. I still cringe when I think about it.

So, we stayed up until like 1:00 AM drying our mendi, because my sisters put it on too. Except they only did red and my mom did theirs traditional bengali style. Then when my youngest sister went to sleep my mom finished cooking this special chicken curry called murgir korma. SubhanaAllah, it just smelled so goood. So, when Ammi saw the look on our faces, she asked us if me and maryam wanted some. We just nodded with big smiles on our faces. So, she took a porota (paratha. in Bengali its porota) out of the fridge and after she cooked it, she got a plate, put some curry and gravy, got a mat and gave it to us. If you're wondering how I ate, the mendi was pretty much dry by then and it was on the TOP of my hands, so, i could eat alhamduliAllah. I don't think chicken ever tasted so good.

I slept with the mendi, as I always do, and the next day when I woke up and looked under my pillow for my Eid present, well, you know what happened if you read the post before. Well, I was officially in a bad mood then, but I couldn't show it, because, it's EID MORNING, so I went to wash my mendi off. You also know what happened then. I also had a black swirl mark on my left cheek because I guess i slept on my hand at night. That made me even madder, and I couldn't help but scowl while I washed my face with Johnsen's Baby Soap.

Then I got ready. I wore a black abaya with brown designs on the arms, a perfectly matching hijab (that my mom found in the back of her closet, thought it would go great with my abaya, and hemmed the edges so I could wear it.) And I wore new Nine West black heels (I found them at Ross : D  and a cool ring. The we walked to the masjid.

After prayer and everything, we came home, and my dad gave us Eid money, aka Eidy. I was a bit taken aback and surprised because this was the first year. I got $10, and each of my sisters and brother got $5. Nevertheless, my mood started to get better.

My mom started getting cravings for donuts and a boba shake, so we went to our favorite donut store and bought some donuts, bagels, and a mango boba shake. After we finished eating, we got ready.

I decided to change (or rather, my mother decided for me) and I wore a new brown pishwa, which is basically a shelvar kamis except it's A-line cut. With that, I wore a thick gold necklace, called booter mala because the balls are big and circular. Kinda sphere-ish. I wore matching gold ear rings, and a maroon ring, since there were maroon designs on my pishwa. And I put a little bit of mascara.

Then we drove 20-30 mins to a friends house. I had a bit of grilled chicken, since I was still full from breakfast. I talked with my friend and teased a boy whom I had known since he was 3. Then we drove two hourse to SD (aka San Diego) and I took my friend with me.

In SD, we first went to one friends house, where I had morok polaw which is basically rice and chicken. For dessert, I had rosho golla which is curd balls boiled in a simple syrup. Then I played Wii.

After that, we drove 20 mins went to ANOTHER friends house. From there, we visited 3 other houses because they all lived in the same complex. One of the aunties gave me a present. It was a REALLY CUTE porcelain mug. MUCH better than what my dad gave me.

After that, we drove another 20 mins to ANOTHER friends house. There, we had dinner. We played, and really goofed off. I talked with my old friend who I usually see only on Eid. And we played tricks and scared each other. It was fun.

By the time we came home, it was 1:00 AM


pretty good eid alhamduliAllah

Came Back from El Centro

I just came back from my cousin's house in El Centro. We had fun MashaAllah. My father and uncle went to the ranch right after Fajr and slaughtered two goats. At night we had and ice cream cake from The Marble Slab. Man was it good mashaAllah. Here's a pic of it

Can't wait till we go again. I just discovered HFW (Hijabi Fashion Week)  and I love it! It's so nice to have something like that. I'm going through a fashion phase. I feel a need to change my wardrobe, but, parents wouldn't think of it. Well, I guess I have to wait until the next time we go to BD (Bangladesh) Till the next time!