Let's get Loud

Bismillah,

There was one time when I was sitting there at my table, staring at my laptop, while my two colleagues were talking. Suddenly, both of them raise their voice as if they were quarrelling or arguing on something. And believe me when I said I was scared at that moment, praying and hoping they won’t pull each other’s hair or wrestling on the floor. After about 5 minutes, one of them stopped and turned to me and asked,

Haris: “Hey, what’s up?”

I was surprised to see that he was okay in a blink of an eye. So, I asked him carefully,

Me: “Are you okay now? I hope you are not mad anymore”

Now, he looked surprised with his jaw hung open, he asked me back,

Haris: “Huh? Why would I be mad?” 

Me: “I thought you had a fight with Mirnes that’s why I’m asking you that question.”

Haris: “No, we were not. We just had a conversation. I was asking him opinion on something and what I think about it. That is it”

Me: “But you were very loud back there. Both of you. I was afraid you guys might punch each other’s face” 0_o

You know what, he laughed (=_=’)

Haris: “HAHAHA! We were not fighting. We were trying to get our idea across. When we want to be heard, we would say it loudly. Not like shouting but louder. That’s how we talk here.”

Me: “Ah-ha. So, you weren’t fighting. Thank god. Okaay. I will have to get used to it next time.” (^_^')

It’s really different here. I mean comparing Malaysia and Bosnia. We don’t usually say things loudly unless you need to shout when someone couldn’t listen to you. But here, it’s normal. Sometimes when people talk like that, and at the same time someone is talking on the phone, it could be really loud in here. Since I don’t understand them, all I could do is just sit and listen to them talking, pick up some words that I'm familiar with or if not probably I would jot it down and ask for the meaning later. Otherwise, I could just pretend that I’m deaf and let those words vanish into thin air. hehe.

p/s: I wish I could understand Bosanski immediately. I’m going to need a wand and not to forget Miss Hermione Granger to cast the spell for me. Who knows what language it would turn out to be if I did the spell. =)

Owh Tram!

Bismillah,

Some rules are meant to be broken. Well, for my case I did not mean to break the rules.

They said that half of the passengers don’t pay for the tram ticket. That is what Shasha told me. In fact, she kept telling me that. She has been living here in Bosnia for a year and a half. She didn’t understand why do I always buy ticket when even half from everyone don’t. And I did not answer her since I think that depends on individual. If he or she has the guts to do that, then he or she will. But for me, I don’t have the guts to break the rules. I will tell you why later.

So, that same day, I hopped on the tram again that night. I already had the coins of 1.60KM in my hand, ready to buy the tram ticket. But, one of my friends whispered to me saying this:

“Let’s not buy ticket for this time. The station that we intended to go is just two stations away, it’s near and is not worth it to pay for the ticket.”

As for her and my other friends, they don’t have to buy ticket since they already have the pass for public transport. So, it’s fine for them but not me. While hesitating whether to buy or not, the tram moved and reached the next station. Unfortunately, I realized that there were like five men wearing black coat climbed into the tram and started checking passenger’s ticket. Oh my god! That's the BUS OFFICERS/ CONDUCTORS!!



This is just picture okay.



And I knew I’m doomed!  My heart was pounding hard. And I just stood up there, panicking in the inside, didn’t know what to do, until those men came to me and asked for my ticket. Oh Maaak! =S

What am I supposed to do now? Feeling uncomfortable with the awkward situation, I dragged my friend to accompany me to buy ticket at the tram driver immediately. But it was too late. Those five men were following us to the driver and they talked with the tram driver in which I could not understand. Then one of them showed me something written on a paper, which tells me that,

“One must pay for the tram ticket. If one failed to do so, one will be fined 26KM.”

I knew the penalty and started to dig for my purse to pay the fine. Suddenly, the tram doors opened since that is the next station and from what I understood, the bus officers wanted me and my friend to come down from the tram. So, we did. And the tram and my other friends left us at that station in the middle of nowhere. Then, I paid the fine, and bought a new tram ticket. There goes my 27.60KM. T_T

Now, I will tell you. I’m that kind of girl who always plays by the rules. ‘Skema’ as they say. But who cares what they say. I know myself better than they do. I know that I won’t be able to break the law or rules or whatever they call it. Looking back at my experience, everytime I wanted to go against the law, I would be caught. Check this out:

1.   I skipped Investment class for the first time during diploma and it happened that the lecturer was looking for me. “Mana Tasneem ni? Kenapa dia tak datang??” (Where is Tasneem? Why is she absent?)  =_=’  Bad reputation.

2.   I skipped Research class for the first time and out of the blue, the lecturer suddenly did pop-quiz. As a result, I got ZERO for that quiz

3.   I went to the university library (PTAR2) wanted to carry my bags with me into the library. Since my friends always do that, so they told me to act cool as if I did nothing wrong. So, with that piece of advice, I walked calmly into the building with my bags. Just exactly four steps I made, I heard this, “Beg tak boleh bawak masuk ye”. (Bags are not allowed inside)

Thanks to the tram incident! This list of mine goes up to number 4 now.

So, if you think you can handle the risk of breaking rules, go ahead. But for those who are in the same category with me, I’m telling you don’t ever try. Your first time might be your last time. Maybe other people do it like so many times and they still managed to get away with that. Just think that maybe Allah loves us more. That’s why He gave difficulties or obstacles when we want to commit wrongdoings. So we won't dare to repeat it again. Even if you are in a foreign land. For that, I thank you, Allah! =)))

Allow me to add something to this common saying…

“Some rules are meant to be broken. But some people are just not meant to break the rules.” Heee~

Have a nice day, friends =)

Just another weekend

Bismillah,

Last weekend, we did not plan to somewhere out of town. On Saturday, we slept over at Uncle Ramlan and Aunty Asmah’s house. Since everyone was craving for “laksa”, a rice noodle dish in a fish-based gravy soup, and it happened to be that the entire needed ingredient to make laksa is available at their house, so, we made a deal here. They bought all the ingredients like fish (we used Sardine this time), and let us use everything they have in their kitchen. That includes daun kesum, bunga kantan which they keep in a chiller. Our part is to cook laksa. And we did it! Alhamdulillah. Merasa juga nak makan laksa ni! Hehe

So, for Sunday, we planned to go for ice-skating. We went there in the morning escorted by dear Miss Ajla Alic. =)

You can find place for ice-skating at Zetra. It is an Olympic Hall, or also known as Zetra Ice Stadium and act as an indoor multi-purpose arena in Sarajevo. It was used for various sporting events at the 1984 Winter Olympics. So we went there. The entry ticket is 5KM and for the skate boots you will need to pay another 5KM. So, altogether is 10KM. Remember that the 5KM for entry will only last an hour. If you want to continue, you have to pay another 5KM for the next hour.

Big balloon! They skate inside that balloon.

from the left...

...center...

...to the right.

With dear Ajla (on far right)

Then, Ajla and I went to the nearest djamija (mosque) for solah. By the time I was in there, there was a group of women, most of them are old, and they were sitting in halaqah, literally means “ring”, like an informal gathering where a guest speaker or imam may give a talk in the mosque and the audience or people will form a circle to listen. They were reciting the versus from Quran. I thought maybe they were having like Quran class.

After they finished, one of the women distributed food in small yellow plastic bag to the people. Alhamdulillah, I received it too =D It is bread with black sesame seed sprinkled on top of it. Then, I showed the bread to Ajla and she told me that I have to recite Al-Fatihah before I eat it. I asked her why, and she told me that actually those women that I saw in the mosque were not having Quran class or something. They were having tahlil, an events where they recite Quran verses for the person who died recently.  Owh I see. Now that made sense. So, before I eat the bread, I will recite Al-Fatihah as my prayer or du’a for the death. Nice. ^_^

How was your weekend going on?

Touring Mostar and its ancient Old Bridge (Stari Grad)

Bismillah,

I tell you what on the first day of 2011, the seven of us woke up while most of the citizen were still in bed because last night was new year's eve and probably most of them stayed up late celebrating.

Early riser huh? Hehe

We planned to stomp to the southern part of Bosnia:

MOSTAR

Why did we go there?  Because everyone kept suggesting us to go there and visit the Old Bridge. 

 

Bought the ticket for the first bus in the morning. The ticket price is 17KM (RM34) for single trip per person. At the bus station, we asked a man which bus heading to Mostar. And he pointed a bus just behind him and straight away made his way to the bus. So we followed him but when he opened the door bus, suddenly he turned to us with his confused look. After like 10 seconds, then only we realized that he is the bus driver! We were supposed to use ANOTHER entrance for passengers to get into the bus! LOL! Forgive us, Mr Bus Driver! =) Terlebih excited pulak kami ni!  We left the station at 9.55am.

It took us 2 ½ hours to reach there. If you take the train, it would take you like 4 hours.

For the first time in 2011, I did not fall asleep riding with the bus! Hehe. Maybe it’s because I wanted to see everything on the road. I didn’t want to miss a thing. If I fall asleep, I won’t be seeing this…

Until now, this picture still looks unreal to me. Seriously.

The river is greeeen! MasyaALLAH!

Went through so many tunnels since it very hilly here

Mountainous view..My dad is going to love this cause he likes mountains..=)

We arrived there around 12.30noon. We walked from the Mostar bus station to the Old Bridge which is like 15 mins. On our way there, we found this Muslim cemetery. It is clean and beautiful.

I observed that most of them died in 1993, which is during the war. It is said that this cemetery used to be a park. But during the war, particularly in 1993, lots of people got killed and they were running out of land to bury those bodies since the Bosniaks (Muslim Bosnian) were under siege from every side. In the end, they used this park and buried those dead bodies. Most of them are young people who died.

Since our stomachs had making lots of noises, we decided to fill up our empty stomachs at a restaurant near the Old Bridge.

Done eating, we quickly made our move to the bridge. Wohooa! MasyaAllah! :D

This stunning bridge was built during the Ottoman Empire by a Turkish architect, Mimar Hayruddin. It took 9 years to build and is completed in 1566. It is classic example of stone arch bridge and was an example of advanced technology at that time. How to build arch stone bridge?

“The Sultan of the Ottoman Empire swore to execute Mimar Hayruddin if the bridge collapsed after the wooden supports were removed. It is said that Hayruddin started to dig his own grave on the day the supports were removed. However, the bridge stood for 429 years, a testament to its excellent design and construction.” –quoted fromTechonology Student Webpage

Mostar was named after the old bridge (Stari most) and the towers on its sides, “the bridge keepers”. Those bridge keepers are called Mostari. Unfortunately, it was bombarded and destroyed by the Croats during the war.

Watch this powerful clip above. Though it’s quite long but well worth watching as it shows the footage of the moment this bridge was destroyed

After the dark war years ended, they began to reconstruct the bridge. It took longer time to rebuild it than to build it at the first place. The fund for reconstruction came from the World Bank and under the patronage of Prince Charles of Wales.

Now, this bridge has become one of the UNESCO World Heritage List. =)

We spent a night in there and stayed in Demadino Motel, rented an apartment for 5 people with 3 bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen and living room. It costs us 160KM per night.

]The next day, we wandered around the old town, walked over the bridge, and buy some souvenirs.

We managed to buy metal handicraft which is cheaper than the one I saw in Bašcaršija. We could get like half price after extensive bargaining. For example they sell 25 Euro for a 40 Euro exactly the same item in Bašcaršija. Maybe because this store is quiet hidden and not many tourist could see it. Okay, Mom! Your souvenir is done! Hehe



With the owner of the shop =)



After that, we walked to the bus station and bought the ticket. This time we got discount and student price of 11KM. We were still wondering why we did not get student price for our first trip to Mostar yesterday. We left Mostar around 4pm when the dark started to replace day light.

I think I want to come here again. InsyaAllah. Maybe in spring. The astounding green Neretva river and historic bridge hooked me now. Mostar, will I ever come back?

Time Travel

Bismillah


“Time Traveler’s Wife”

Have you watched that movie? It’s basically about a man who has this disorder to ‘travel’ involuntarily and unpredictably through times, backward and forward relative to his own timeline. Imagine if you were having this disorder? It’s terrifically great because you can travel a lot, got to see your old friends, or maybe changing your past and not aging. But thinking of the worst of not being able to completely settle down in one place, suddenly leaving your loved one behind when they really need you, not knowing when you are going to get back to them, I think that is the saddest part ever.

Anyway, that is not the main idea for this post. Hehe. My point here is the time difference. =p

The time difference between Bosnia and Malaysia is 7 hours. It’s 3.06pm here in Bosnia as I’m writing this, so if you want to know the time in Malaysia, you just add up another 7 hours to Bosnian time. It is like you guys in Malaysia is 7 hours ahead of me. So, when I wake up in the morning to go to office, my family and friends in Malaysia have already live half of the day. If my family wanted to talk to me through phone or Skype, they will have to wait for me until I got home and by that time, it’s already 12 midnight in Malaysia. For this reason I wish I could time travel. So that I could drop by and visit them every now and then. I guess for that matter, this will just be another mindless dreaming because it is impossible to time travel, Tasneem. Well, at least this dream helps me titled this entry. Hehe.

If Malaysia is equal of 12 hours night-time and 12 hours daytime, it is different here. Now that it is winter here, so the night will be longer and the day will be shorter. The sunrise is at around 7am, and the sundown is around 4.20pm. So, it’s like 9 hours daytime and 15 hours night-time. This situation is new to me and my friends. We have to plan our day activity wisely since the day is short. And there was a time when we thought that we had a long day and thought that it was already midnight but when we looked at the watch, it was only 9pm! HAHA! There was another case when I unintentionally forgot to pray Zuhur because I thought that Zohor time prayer is at 1.30pm like in Malaysia when it is actually at 11.50am. Sometimes, the Malaysian time still stuck in my head I guess. (=_=) I need to be very careful next time especially for solah time.

“O ya Allah guide my steps, don’t let me go astray…” (While humming Maher Zain song of InsyaALLAH) ^_^

Time does trick us you see. That is some part of travelling that you need to encounter.

Till then, have nice day, dear readers =)

Coming up next: Touring Mostar and its ancient Old Bridge.




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