I promised myself that I wouldn’t travel anywhere this year as I had to save money, but I just couldn’t resist it!!! It really was so hard not to travel when there were so many opened doors (cheap transports, free time, beautiful places, etc etc). So, a few weeks ago — during Easter holiday — my 4 friends and I went for yet-another-road-trip. I went for a road trip last year to Luxembourg, Strasbourg (north of France), and Heidelberg (Germany)Read more
Ever heard of the term Project 365? A lot of people, especially photography enthusiasts (take for example Dustin Diaz), have done this sort of project — they’d take one picture each day for 365 days. It sounds easy but it requires a lot of commitments, especially if you’re taking this project seriously. Project 365 is not only about motivating and pushing you to take good pictures every single day. It’s about being able to look back on your life throughRead more
Few weeks ago, I came to find the list of "25 things about me" which I wrote about a year ago. But I realized some of them do not apply to me anymore. So, I figured it'd be fun to write one more list for this blog! After days of leaving this post into a draft, here it is my "other" version of 20 things about me: I have a weakness in accessories, especially necklaces and hijabs of different colorsRead more
I have lived here for more than 1.5 years and have traveled within the country for many times. These are just some of the places I'd recommend you to go to and some tips of what you should do when you are here 🙂 . Hope it's useful. Keukenhof, Lisse, and its surrounding In my honest opinion, the best time to visit the Netherlands is in the month of April or May. This is the time when flowers blossomed andRead more
I escaped the snowy Eindhoven and spent my winter/Christmas break this time in the sunny Saudi Arabia. It had been 2 years since my family and I hadn’t had a vacation with the complete members; it’s either I wasn’t there, or my sister wasn’t there. That’s why this vacation was quite exciting as all of us reunited again. And I wanted it to be a bit different than usual, so we decided to go to somewhere nice that we hadn’tRead more
I wanna share a VERY interesting and enlightening video by Nouman Ali Khan. I got this video last year actually, but I always forgot to share this in my blog! I love his speech and da'wah. He delivers his messages and points in a way that is easy to understand and most importantly: not boring and monotone. He also gives many interesting examples and arguments along the way.
I am not going to lie to anyone and I’m not being a hypocrite. I do enjoy living abroad, despite cultural and language differences, despite being a minority, and many other things. I don’t care about those people who have accused me of being unpatriotic towards my own country! Talk about whatever you want; you won’t understand it until you experience it yourself! I am already used to living in a country where everything is convenient, safe, and clean. IRead more
* This post is quite outdated, actually. It happened in the mid of December 09. I should have written it a long time ago, but I didn’t have much time as I was having vacation with my family back in Saudi Arabia 🙂 . It was on Friday, 18 December 2009. I felt so relief that it was my last day of university before the winter break. I was so busy that day, preparing for the end-of-year gathering with myRead more
I have always been very ignorant about the Palestinian and Israeli conflicts. I've kept my ears and eyes shut when it came to these issues. The problems that the two nations face are too complex involving years of pain, revenge, and anger, and a number of political parties, foreign countries, and the civilians. Every time I saw the Palestinians killed by the Israelis, my heart ached. Every time I saw the reports of expansion of settlements by the Israelis, myRead more
So, the decision is final. The Swiss people don't want the minarets anymore. It was shocking, concerning that there are only a total of 4 minarets in the country. I wonder why do they even care about such thing? Why and how did this issue come out and be voted in the first place? I mean, it's only a minaret, for God sake! I saw the interview on Al Jazeera about this and the reasons that the government provided onRead more
It was on April 2004 that I decided to open a new blog for myself. I had just arrived in Brisbane and I thought that it'll be great to write my new experience in the new country. After all, that was the first time that I traveled alone in a totally strange place. I still had problems with English, especially writing. And I wanted to find a fun way to encourage myself to practice writing in English more often. IRead more
Few years ago, I wrote about a number of accomplished Khaleeji women who became the leader of their men-majority society. Inspired by this post, I decided to wrote one about Saudi women. I previously asked in that post: When will Saudi society appoint their first woman leader? The truth is that, they already did. Well, they're not quite there yet, but it's unarguably a milestone for women in Saudi Arabia. So let’s now meet some of the distinguished Saudi women…
When I went to an Indonesian mosque in Den Haag to break my fast, I was left with astonishment. I was told to sit in a room designated for children and youngsters — there were perhaps 30 pupils or even more crammed into a small room! Few minutes before we broke our fast, suddenly a guy (whom I knew) led us to recite salawat and a number of short surahs from the Qur’an. I saw from little children to youngRead more
Resuming to the university life after 2 months of great holidays has been so hard. Yes, it's been almost a month since the semester had started, but the so called "holiday mode" has been the cause of my laziness and unmotivated attitude for the past weeks. I dream for another travels — though I've traveled to 9 countries during the last holiday, it never felt enough. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for the opportunities but the problem is that…Read more
Time passes by so quickly and I can’t believe that I’ve lived in this country for 7 months. That means, I’ll go back home in 2 more months and I can’t wait for it! Despite the homesickness, I’ve been living my life to the max. And sometimes I’m worried that I probably have too much fun. But I never regret it; because I’ve learnt and experienced so many things on the way. I feel great about living here. It providesRead more