You Know it's Home when You Start Singing in the Shower

     Firstly, I'll apologize for it being a while since my last post pertaining to what I've been up to. The past two weeks caught me by surprise as I became suddenly homesick. After talking about some things with my incredible host family though, I feel much better and back in the game!

    So to start, I realized I didn't even write about Hari Raya. There's a lot to write but i will keep it brief. Hari Raya is one of the biggest Muslim Holidays. I see it as very smilar to Christmas for most Americans. Hari Raya is a time to wear the traditional Malay clothing, which consists of baju Melayu for me and baju kurung and tudung for women. It is also a time to eat. 

And when I say eat, I mean eat. 

A lot. 

   Hari Raya is celebrated for around one month, in coordination with the one month of fasting preceding the holiday. During that month, families host Open Houses, where you come, visit, eat, and collect Duit Raya, which is a monetary gift from family and friends to the younger people. Hari Raya is a very busy time for families to travel to their home villages and visit with loved ones. It is common to visit many open houses in one day, and to end the day so full, you feel pregnant!

HARI RAYA!

(Collecting Duit Raya from my parents)

(My family!)

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Also recently I went to my first professional soccer/football game. 

It.

Was.

So.

Cool.

It was Pahang (my state) versus Kelantan (a neighbor state) and the amount of unity in the crowd was just something I had never seen before. During half time, everyone was able to get the entire crowd to get a wave going around the arena and it went around 3 times! Supr awesome. 

(Arena before the game started!)

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     And last but not least, my school celebrated Merdeka, which is their Independence Day. On a Saturday, we attended school at the normal time like we would on weekdays, but I stead of classes, enjoyed a day of activities including a drama, musical performances, choral competitions and a visit from a warrior. It was so awesome to see everyone celebrating the Independence Day in school in unity, because in America, it seems like only the younger generations care to celebrate any type of patriotic activities in school. 

(I'm the blurry brown and black blob carrying the pot on my head as an Arabic) 

Other than the drama, I also sang "Heal The World" by Michael Jackson with a friend of mine and the English teachers. I'd say it was pretty good, especially considering I learned the song about an hour before the performance. The student body seemed very supportive, and even though I felt malu, they clapped and cheered us on. Thank you Sungai Soi. :')

I apologize for my writing being brief and scarce lately,  I promise I will try to write more often! (: 

Sincerely,

Kaley.