Ramadhan 2017

         As I promised before this, I will throwback some moments of my life, starting from the last first semester of second year student. For sure there were a lot things had happened during those 6 months.        

       Firstly, I will share about my Ramadan experience at Korea this year on 27 May 2017.

      So, what are the difference between fasting in Malaysia and Korea?

1.duration of fasting

      In Korea, Muslim will be fasting roughly 16 hours longer than fasting in Malaysia which is around 3.27 a.m. till 7.45 p.m. I think the duration of fasting is quite acceptable to be comparing with the other country that fasting more than 20 hours.

  Honestly, I did feel tired during the fasting month. As in my situation, after finish praying sholat terawih around 10:30 p.m., I will continue to finish any assignment that need to be submitted. Usually I will start studying around 12 a.m. in the morning as I was too lazy to work on the brain. 

   Since I'm not a morning person, it was not an easy thing to wake up early at 3 o'clock for sahur. Therefore, I decided to stay up until sahur and slept after subuh which I know it's not a good habit.   

    But what other choice do I have? I had tried to sleep right away after tarawih and managed to wake up at 3 o'clock but I ended up by sleeping after subuh which mean I didn't work on my assignment or studying! I'm too sleepy until I could not even open my eyes widely and my brain can't function well. I know that is my weakness.


2. Environment 

    Since Muslim is minority community in Korea the chances to feel qudwah is low.

•No athan can be hear nearby your house

• You can't see any advertisement of Ramadhan on the television

 • There was no any food bazaar in Korea.

 Can you imagine that? You can't feel any spirit of Ramadhan in Korea. What a waste!

   Moreover, living in Korea also means that people around you is mostly non-Muslim which mean they are living their life like usually, eat and drink publicly in restaurant or cafe while you are fasting. 

    Of course, this is opposite with Malaysia which majority are Muslim and many food stores will be close during the day. 

   The special month comes once in a year but you will feel it just like other ordinary months if you fail to light up the special month by yourself in Korea.

       So here are few things what I had done with my friends during the special month.

1. We were going to a small neighbourhood mosque to pray sholat Isya'a and tarawih as well every night.

last  sholat tarawih in Korea

      Thankfully this year that even to the last day we were in Korea before summer break, we managed to pray at mosque and my goals had achieved. Delightfully, we also were being invited by Imam to join iftar with others Jemaah. The food was really on tip top. Nothing can beat their sweet Biryani rice, Rendang with full of spices and their big, soft chapatti.

2. Usually there will be some religion program such as this year, the first Ramadhan I and my bestie went to short talk by our own senior at our junior house which once had been our accommodation while we were studying Korean language. 

Although, at first reason I want to go there because of someone but what are so special is we heard short talk, then prayed sholat tarawih and "moreh" under the sparkling night star and can feel the breeze of wind.

we acted spontaneous by did some photo shoots at sky dome. Actually, it was my idea and she was my victim.

book given by the weird girl as birthday present this year

3. Sometime we will iftar together whether by cooking by ourselves or go to nearby restaurant.

cute fried potatoes

4. The most interesting thing was we went to Homeplus for groceries during fasting.

   Since Homeplus it's a supermarket, I can't stop myself from buying a lots of delicious food. 

  The funny part is that, at first we only planned to buy certain stuff such as noodles, ketchup and frozen food but turned out we bought more than that. 

   The result, we were looking to each other and sighed "what a long way to reach home". Just imagine, both of our hands full of heavy groceries and one of us will bring two stacks of eggs, walk along our university while fasting. How embarrassing and thirsty at that moment. 

    Homeplus is quite far and we need to pass through our university to go home. So we ended up to walk stop by stop. Just like one of the old Malay's movie called "7 Perhentian".

the day we went looking for snacks to bring back home in Malaysia.
p/s: i guess you can see she is weird person. Don't be bother. 

  I think that's all from me for today. Have a nice day. May we see on the next entry SUGAFES.



Sincerely,
Han Su Ra  (한수라)
한국에서 사는 여자 수라 야.