Salam Merantau

The roads to Jalan TAR are bottlenecked with cars transporting people young and old, male and female alike, who are there to shop till the cows come home. For the adventure-seeking, hot-blooded individual (like yours truly here), public transportation is the best alternative turned worst nightmare as it takes you traipsing along the trails of sin and spending from Masjid Jamek all the way to what was then called Batu Road.

I took to the wild city of Kuala Lumpur, scorching sun, impending rain and all, with the sole goal of claiming my grandmother's baju kurung from the tailor. The tailor was located rather unstrategically--right smack and center of the Hari Raya bazaar, close to Semua House. Naturally, I came back with no less than four plastic bags and a dwindling supply of the advanced duit raya I received from two aunts.

I emerged triumphant with the cutest slip-on tudung I'll probably only wear once, a striking green and fair imitation of the Rayban shades I cannot quite afford, three boxes of Pop-Pop (bought becaused I pitied the man, what else is new?) and another I<3KL t-shirt as a souvenir for whom?-I-haven't-quite-figured-out-yet.

So yes, I know it is the time of the year again as I bring my petite self across oceans of bodies that displayed a plethora of smells (BO being my least favorite). Raya songs were blaring on loudspeakers in the background while mountains of kuih raya were displayed under stuffy tents.

I wasn't fasting yesterday (for obvious and allowed reasons by virtue of being a female), so the feel of Raya did not really hit me until I was in the safe--not to mention cold--premise of the STAR to Masjid Jamek and PUTRA to Sentral (I took the transfers because 1.it was raining cats and dogs, 2. I was flat broke and couldn't deal backtracking on the bloody path of consumerism).

It is Hari Raya Puasa is Aidilfitri is Eid Fitri of the year 2009! It's also my third Raya as a college student without a Salam Perantauan in tow. This in mind, Salam Merantau is born.

Nurjannah Iman Syaqirene Ahmat mengucapkan Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri kepada keluarganya yang akan beraya bersamanya di Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (wohoo, jealous tak you 'ols?). Seterusnya beliau yang mesra alam dengan panggilan NJ juga menyampaikan ribuan kasih dan sayang Aidilfitri kepada regularsnya yang sering ke hulu dan ke hilir bersama-samanya pada cuti summer kali ini (you know who you are).

Juga kepada sahabat-sahabat handai dan seperjuangannya di Amerika Syarikat, terutamanya di University of Chicago, University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, Carnegie Melon University, University of Pittsburgh, Rochester Institute of Technology, Pennsylvania State University, University of California-Davis, Purdue University, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Indiana University-Bloomington, Ohio State University serta rakan-rakan yang lebih tua dan sudah berkerjaya seperti kamu di Chicago, dan kamu lagi satu di Milwaukee (you guys know who you are). Salam sayang Hari Raya turut diluahkan kepada family-family yang baik hati terutamanya Kak Nana, Kak Ain, Aunty Jaz, Aunty Lin dan crew MSD Chicago.

Salam Lebaran tidak dilupakan kepada rakan-rakan di Australia dan New Zealand, terutamanya kamu di University of Queensland yang saya sangat rindui, dan rakan-rakan di United Kingdom (KYSERs di sana, teman-teman scholars serta orang random yang telah saya temui melalui dunia siber yang bersekolah di Dur-ham-I-tak- nak-sebut-Dar-rum), rakan-rakan di Russia (okay, seorang teman sahaja) dan Europe (Germany dan bekas-bekas teman sebilik Blok 2/504 Akasia saya di France).

Terima kasih dan seribu maaf dipinta kepada pendidik di SKBD, Sekolah Agama Masjid Saidina Umar Al-Khattab, KYS, ADFP INTEC (terutama guru Kalkulus merangkap Ibu). Saya juga sayang dan ingin mengirim kucupan Aidilfitri kepada 2 kakak angkat/kakak besar dan adik angkat saya yang gelap tapi masih comel serta junior-junior lain yang kian merata-rata juga. Di sini, saya turut menyusun sepuluh jari memohon maaf dan 'menyalam' aidilfitri kepada rakan taulan dan kenalan di UiTM, UIA, UTP, UKM dan USM. Walaupun kita jarang bersua, saya tetap sayangkan anda semua!

Last but not least, Selamat Hari Raya to you readers, random or not, followers or not, friends or not, and thank you. Yet another Ramadan has come and gone, and I pray that you're blessed with hope and happiness, health and faith and all good things that leave you warm and fuzzy.

Selamat!

5' Thoughts About 6' Under

There is something about deaths that just silence me. News of so many of them just seem to creep up on you all at once that it begs you to think you must have crossed that minefield of time. Unrelated deaths of three, four or five people just seem to breeze by you one day at a time, overwhelming you with the reality of it all. 

The reality is that people die, every single day, every single minute. With every sneeze that you take, you escape death, but death preys on some other person, at another place in the world. 

This academic quarter I received heavy news of the passing of both my late grandfather's brothers, Aki Chu and Aki Dea; my grandmother's sister-in-law, Wan Dea; an Uncle Julian (an aunt's uncle who died of cancer), and the tragic death of a first year Malaysian from Pennsylvania State University.

The last and most recent (May 25, to be exact), gripped me senseless particularly because he passed away from a drowning incident while camping at a National Park in Tennessee. All my life, I have been indignant about having to produce permission letters from parents before a field trip, and scoffed at unfortunate events chaperons pull out of thin air to scare us schoolkids at campgrounds. Evidently, shit happens and I un-rest my case.

And old age? Old age strikes. It strikes us in the face, hard. Last summer I had "that" conversation with my aunt, Tam, who out of the blue adviced that I be strong and understand that my loved ones are aged and time will take its toll. She ranted on and on about having to let go, especially since I am studying thousands of miles across the seas from home.

Considering the weakling that I am and  the close call we had last year, naturally I burst into tears. Secretly, and away from her eyes of course (I looked out the window throughout the uncomfortable 15 minute car drive). I was disgruntled and upset that she chose to give me such a peptalk at an occassion I am most happy--driving to a bazar ramadhan. To me, these things should be unspoken of. I will pretend to be strong when the time comes, because I know I will have to.

Perhaps it is unkind for me to confess that the deaths I mentioned did not particularly break my heart. Instead, the corporeality that it could be my grandmother(s) devastates me. And this is why the home bells are ringing. I do not regret for a second that I booked the next flight home once I received the ultimate rejection. 

In a month's time, I will be home. I will be home for Nenek, whom has been ill for so long now. And Wan, I will be home to take you to the grocery store, to drive you around (with the exception of the city centre and Bangsar due to obvious reasons for a girly manual car driver like me), to demand good food and fatten myself up, to tumbuk-tumbuk your legs, and to literally sleep under your ketiak at night. 

I will be home. Unless home means the eternal hereafter, I will be home, I promise.

Roadtrip 2008: Reflections

Hello 2009! Here's to wishing that this new year would be a better one, despite that it has already began with mass bloodshed of innocent Palestinians. A moment to pray that justice, strength and Allah's protection be with them *Amin*. Hm, let's for now put the ugly side of the world aside, and I shall do my best to entertain you with some reflections/comments on the roadtrip downsouth I ended 2008 with.

1. Driving along USA freeways, one has to be ready to sight gruesome and abundant roadkills. It's upsetting to see countless of porcupines, hedgehogs, skunks, squirrels, hares, deers and dogs so dead, lifeless and sometimes brutally mauled by the shoulders of the highways. Along the way to Key West, the Southernmost and last of Florida Keys, we even spotted a dead baby alligator as we passed an 'alligator crossing' zone. (I kid you not, they really had that signboard).

On that same journey, there were signs reminding drivers about roadkills and the statistics was truly bad! When the authorities plant such signage, drivers should take caution and be wary of any kind of poor animals that may be wandering on the roads we human have selfishly built over their natural habitats. The heart breaks looking at those poor dead animals. If you don't want to lose your kids, those animals don't wanna lose their babies too. Have a heart!

2. Truckers are one horny group of people, or so I've come to learn. But the fact that some desperate women seek horny truckers to gratify their sexual needs is even more disturbing. I have been told by a believable source (one whose Sex Education knowledge goes up to the 400-s level) that some women hang about at truck rest areas just to "get it on" with truck drivers.

That truckers are sexually thirsty is not quite surprising since some do travel on the roads across vast USA for weeks without any form of entertainment. But the real telltale sign were billboards advertising adult superstores (ie Lion's Den, XXX Megastore) that we observed throughout our roadtrip. They came as far as to advertising discounts and special benefits for truck drivers, and that would imply you know what lah kan?

3. I have come to realize that if I were better in physics, had better drawing skills, and could properly draw straight lines (yes I am sadly impaired) I would have chosen to take up architecture and devoted my life to working on designing themeparks. I have always been fascinated by thrill rides and roller coasters and themeparks, and I just realized how tres cool it would be to be the one behind creating these dreamlands. Disneyworld has truly shown me how far themeparks can go in terms of creating a place where everyone can truly be happy and let their imaginations run wild.

All of their major rides are housed in meticulously detailed structures according to the theme. Haunted Mansion was truly a haunted mansion in manifestation, The Twilight Zone Hollywood Tower of Terror was an old, classic hotel structure decorated to the smallest detail, Test Track was set like a GM car assembling factory. In short, the waiting bit was an important part of the whole Disney experience, and in some cases like the Kali Rapids Expedition, the more significant part.

4. If you are an ardent Gossip Girl follower, you may have heard of "pulling a Jenny", which means one acts rebelliously and foolishly like how Jenny the little Humphrey does in the series. Hm, likewise, this trip has seen to many "pulling an Nj" or "Nj moments". These two terms designate an action that is careless or forgetful and silly, just as how I act sometimes.

For example, Isa "pulled an Nj" when he dropped the coins onto the highway at an Orlando toll plaza, corresponding to this one time during our winter break at NYC last year when I dropped my whole collection of coins from my wallet at a Ripley's Believe It or Not's spiraling coin thingamajig.

The most hysterical incident must be when I myself "pulled an Nj" as I lost my contact lenses in the morning before we left for Key West, and resigning to the fact that it was gone until I found it in my eye that night itself. But really, I even asked Asma whether it was in my eye, and even she confirmed it wasn't. My only guess to fathoming this mystery was that the contact lens got stuck at the back or top of my eyeball because I did give that eye a jolly good rub. *Giggles*

5. Dreams do come true. When I was about 5 or 6, I would pore for hours over the Disneyland map at the back of the Disney magazines I bought, marveling at the wonderful rides and places, imagining how it was like. Then when I was in high school, I had a girlfriend who has been to Disneyland/Disneyworld so many times that most of the towels she used in the dorm were Disneyland/Disneyworld towels.

13 years later, now that is, my childhood fantasy of going to Disneyland truly came true, and I could have bought as many Disneyworld towels as I wanted to! We let our inner child loose and wore black and pink mickey hairbands as a team and clapped and shouted over the smallest thing that excited us there at Disneyworld. Minus me boobies, I definitely passed off as a 12-year old at Disneyworld =P

6. If you think you've seen your fair share of fireworks, you've obviously not seen what they do with fireworks at Disneyworld! For two nights in a row, first at Magic Kingdom then at Epcot, I shouted like a 4-year old girl, eyes transfixed on the display of marvel in the sky. Never in my life have I seen fireworks that form smileys and numbers (countdown during New Year's Eve), colors ranging more than the usual orange, yellow and red (they had purple, pink, red, green, turquoise) and unique bursts of light and fire . . . until Disneyworld.

They spend a fortune on fireworks every single night, that it's not even funny. We wondered whether Disney actually makes enough money to cover its costs (fireworks, advertisement, workers' wages, maintenance, shuttle buses), but then looked down at the Disney bags in our hands and thought again about how much money families spend on souvenirs and food besides the tickets and thought no further. Uhuh, I'm gonna have to survive on ugly dining hall food and refrain from unnecessary, impulsive shopping until March. But we'll see how long this vow lasts. *Snickers*

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The Roundup

Duration: 12 Dec 08-4 Jan 09.

Participants: Asma, Isa, Joe, Khalis, Nj.

Places visited: (in particular order) St. Louis, MO; Nashville, TN; Miami, FL; Orlando, FL.

Points of interest visited: Downtown St. Louis, Gateway Arch; Vanderbilt University and downtown Nashville; Bayfront Park, Key Biscayne, Miami Beach, Key West (Southernmost Point); Disneyworld, SeaWorld.

Chef de Mission: Bridget the GPS bitch

Official song: Cinta di Akhir Garisan (sang in acapella a tempo)

Official private joke(s): Bye tau, 'wak; Marahnya; So angry; Don't haaaate . . . Don't judge; You pay me now, Nurjanni (in appropriate intonations)

Official latihan dalam kumpulan (LDK): Man-watching and calling random people pelac (short for pelacur).

Unofficial mascot: Shamu the Killer Whale (plush toy born and bred at SeaWorld but selfishly bought by Isa)

Car abused: Chevrolet Impala '08, full-sized car rented from National.

Official kokak driver(s): Isa, Asma

Unofficial kokak driver: Nj (driving illegally with Malaysian license, eveready to lie that she's only been in the States for 3 months to get off the hook if anything happens)

Committee
Proposal & Entertainment: Joe, Nj
Photographer: Khalis (cheap labor imported from Burma)
Fast Pass Grabbers: Khalis, Nj (tiny kids to simplify the task of catching up with others already ahead in queues).
Food First & Zabihah lookout: Isa
Voice of Aye & Nay: Asma
PR, Tukang tanya soalan & telefon orang: Nj