So delighted I was to have the chance to spend this year’s Eid in Jeddah! It all seemed perfect when my whole family reunited again. It felt ages ago when we spent our Eid together as a family. As for me, this was my first time to be with them during Eid after 6 years (straight!) of absence. I just couldn’t imagine spending another Eid without my family. So when the opportunity came (i.e. I had to come back toRead more
The CouchSurfing Project (CS) is currently the world’s largest hospitality exchange network, founded by Casey Fenton in 1999. The network connects like-minded travellers for cultural exchange, friendship, and learning experience. Travellers can be hosted by the locals for free and sleep in whatever empty space available (floor, couch, or bed). The idea of CS came up when Fenton got a cheap flight ticket to Iceland. Rather than staying in a hotel, he spammed over 1,500 Icelandic students in Reykjavik toRead more
Blogging has been part of my life since 6 years ago. When I started the blog, privacy was not my biggest concern. I just didn't care about it. I was an unknown girl in a virtual world. Nobody would be interested in my crappy stories, I thought. I didn't feel hesitant to write anything I wanted on my blog. I was quite ignorant about it. That's why most of my posts (especially those published in the first 3 years) wereRead more
(Read the Part 1 first) After successfully got a good deal for the room, we dropped dead to sleep. We were just tooooo tired! I blamed the World Cup Final for this! 😀 We hadn’t had a good sleep until that afternoon. We were even woken up by a knock on a door and were asked whether we wanted to join for the snorkelling but we refused. We needed a good sleep. Come back tomorrow 😛 . We woke upRead more
(Embrace yourself, this is going to be a loooong post!) Yes, I went to Indonesia last June. It was honestly a sudden decision. Mom had been bragging me about coming back and I kept on resisting; hoping that I could plan an escape to somewhere in Europe. After days of "yes" and "no", eventually, I decided to go back. This vacation was a bit different than my previous ones. My lovely traveling buddy, Jessie, was spending her vacation too inRead more
I don’t normally post technical or IT-related stuff in this blog. But I’ll do it this time (and probably the last time 😛 ). For those who are not TU/e students, I strongly recommend not to continue reading this post as it will waste 2-5 minutes of your time that can otherwise be spent on other useful tasks 😛 When trying to access digital libraries like Springer Journals from home or off-campus, I have to login to the TU/e JanusRead more
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 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
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
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