Asma In Singapore: October 2006

MRT - on the way to Eid dinner

Eid dinner at Thai Express

Yuni's uncle and his family all dressed in the same colour, like other Malay families

Ira, me, and Nadia

Us with Yuni's family - apparently this was only half the people that were supposed to be there!

Dania and her grandma (Yuni's mom)

At Yuni's grandmother's house

At Yuni's house - Nadia, Yuni, and me

The "Malay couple" who aren't really Malay (and aren't really a couple for that matter)

Yuni and Dania

Ad getting henna done

Lisa and Nadia getting henna done

Ramadhan Bazaar at Geylang Serai on the night before Eid - it was ridiculously crowded and hot, and apparently goes the whole night until 7 am....we left at 2 because we couldn't take it anymore

This year was my first time celebrating Eid away from my family. It was really weird at first and all of Ramadan I was feeling homesick. On the day of Eid itself, I was sad in the morning because it just didn't feel like Eid not being around family and friends and it was even worse when my parents called and I could hear my cousins from Pakistan at my house in the background. It felt weird being here in Singapore while everyone was over there in Canada. Anyway, the day got better from there though. Me and Nadia (from the Netherlands) went over to Yuni's house (my host sister) and Ira (from the States) arrived a little while after us. We hung out with her and her brother for a while and had lunch. Then we set off to her grandmother's house where all her cousins and aunts and uncles were gathering. There were so many people there and according to her, it was only half the people that should have been there! The great thing was, we all felt so comfortable with her family that Nadia and I felt like we were celebrating Eid with our own family and friends, so Eid turned out a lot better than I had anticipated. Although I did miss everyone back home, especially my parents, it was nice to be with another family and celebrate with them. The amazing thing about Malay families on Eid is that each family wears the same colour/matching outfits for Eid...it looked so nice, I think I'm gonna have to steal that tradition from the Malays :O). After hanging out at Yuni's grandma's for a while, Yuni's family and Ira set off to her uncle's house and me and Nadia went to Arab street to meet all my friends for dinner. Unfortunately, us being the ignorant muslims we are, we forgot that Arab street would not be open because everyone was at home celebrating Eid, lol. So we ended up going to Thai Express on Orchard Rd instead and then some of us went to watch a movie. Overall, it was a really good Eid, despite being so far away from everyone.