Ramadan in Indonesia, by Hannah

Observing Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam.  It is fasting from dawn until dusk in the ninth month in the Islamic calendar.  This causes it to fall in June, July, or even as late as August; it changes from year to year.  Indonesia is 88% Muslim therefore Ramadan is an important part of the local people's lives.  Since our vacation in Indonesia happened to coincide with Ramadan we were greatly affected especially during the last five days of our vacation.  First of all, people's eating habits change.  Whereas before Ramadan most people would eat at home or eat out at various times, many more people chose to eat out during Ramadan after the sun set.  Therefore, there is a definite rush time at restaurants after the sun goes down.  Not only is it crazy in malls and eateries right after the sun goes down, people's afternoon routines change also.  Work and school ends at two o'clock instead of four o'clock.  Many people take to the streets in between the time of work ending and the breaking of their fast. When we drove through Mataram, the main city in the area where we were staying in Lombok, we saw that many people were sitting and waiting in parks, leaning on their motorcycles by the side of the road, and even sitting on the median in the road during the late afternoon.  There seemed to be thousands of people sitting in the streets waiting for fasting to end and the sun to go down. The people begin eating at about 5:20 after the call to prayer begins.  This is sometimes even played over the radio and played in large restaurants.  People who get their food in a restaurant before the call to prayer will sit and wait for the call to prayer to begin even if their hunger is awful (which I can imagine it would be).  But devotion to Allah is not the only motivation for not eating during the day.  It is against the law to eat during the day for all born Muslims in Indonesia, Malaysia and all other countries. Two Muslim women were caned a few years ago in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, for selling food during the daytime.  Anyways, although it did affect us in Indonesia, Ramadan was interesting to observe although all those mosques playing the call to prayer after the sunset does sound a bit like a dying cow.

Many people at the airport waiting for relatives to arrive for Ramadan

A sign in Malaysia that states it is illegal for Muslims to eat during the day during Ramadan

Fasting, by Aimee

In the month of Ramadan (around July) all followers of Islam have to fast every day.  The Muslims fast because it says so in the Quran so as to not be overcome by desires besides their god.  Muslims have to try and stop their greed for food.  Everyone from age two and older have to fast.  When the sun goes down they can start eating.  We noticed when we were in a restraunt that many people came before the sunset and they would sit there with their food already ordered and on the table until the sun went down.  They would know when the sun went down because the restaurant would play some Arabic music.  Then the people would just dig into their food and some would eat or snack all the way until sunrise or they would wake up before the sunrise and eat a lot then.  I thought this would be quite easy because they just fill up at night and before sunrise and go without food through the day.  So when I got back to Penang me and my sister tried it.  I did not eat the night before though. I went through the day and in the morning I was not that hungry.  But as soon as the afternoon came I began to get more and more hungry.  Finally at 5:00 I could not take it any more so I ate dinner.  I did not want to fast any more because it is extremely hard.  My sister, Hannah, was able to fast for two days but then stopped.

These ladies were digging into their food after the sun went down.  They are workers in this little shop, eating on the floor behind the counter

McDonald's was only open after the sun went down.  Otherwise it looked closed though we tried the doors and they were open but presumably just for non-Muslims for takeout food

This letter explained that no Muslims were allowed to eat in the McDonalds during the day

Singapore, by Hannah

Our most recent vacation was to Singapore. I really enjoyed Singapore. Now I can understand why it is considered a stopover by tourists exploring Asia. It was a wonderful place to be this past Christmas. First of all, the decorations are very nice. On Orchard Road, decorations are hanging up everywhere, giving off a nice Christmas atmosphere despite the hot weather. Another reason why it is a good place to be during Christmas is the amount of shopping malls in Singapore. There are so many huge malls in Singapore that Singapore could make a shopaholic sick of shopping. They are everywhere and during Christmas they are always full. They are also some of the nicest malls I have ever seen.  I enjoyed Singapore not only for the nice Christmas atmosphere it had but also for the awesome tourist attractions it had. I really enjoyed Universal Studios, Singapore.  It was a lot of fun. Another thing I enjoyed doing was going on the Singapore Flyer which was like a giant ferris wheel / observation wheel.  It was really cool to be so high above the city.  It was also nice to walk through the financial district.  The architecture was really nice. Overall, Singapore was a really nice city, probably the nicest city I have ever been to.

Marina Bay Sands Hotel.  Yes, that is a giant ship on top of the three towers of the hotel.  We did not stay there, however, although Aimee said her dream is to stay at that hotel one day

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Us at the entrance of Universal Studios, Singapore, in the morning

Me (in the blue shirt) on the roller coaster

Entrance to Universal Studios (but taken at night as we were leaving)

Polar bear at the Singapore Zoo

My Valentine's Dilemna, by Garth

For Valentine's Day, Eileen told me that she did not want anything tangible (cookies, chocolates, etc). I was in a bit of a bind knowing what to get Eileen for Valentine's Day. Fortunately, the Junior Class at the school was selling singing valentines for 2 RM (about 66 cents) - not a bad deal for a singing valentine. The Junior Class (Grade 11's) do fundraisers throughout the year to help pay for the Junior Senior Banquet (Prom) and their Senior Grade 12 class trip. I bought a singing valentine for Eileen - Michael Buble 'L.O.V.E.' Some of the students from the Junior Class came to her class on Friday, February 13th to give her the singing valentine. Eileen was really surprised, and really appreciated the singing valentine.

Junior students getting ready to sing in Eileen's class (Eileen is on the right in the blue and black dress)

Showing up in her class to surprise her (taken by a staff member)

Junior Class singing the song

Garth got this one right

Singapore Zoo, by Aimee

This is the tram that we took around the zoo.  We could hop on and hop off at different sections

The Singapore Zoo was really fun.  We went there on Christmas Day.  It was a scenic place because we were surrounded by a beautiful lake.  They had all kinds of animals from polar bears to every type of monkey.  They also had lots of animal shows.  It was a really hot day and there were not many air con buildings so it was hard to concentrate on all the animals.  My favorite animal was a meerkat in the jungle section of the zoo.  They are really rough but really cute.  They were all wrestling playfully.

This is the map of the zoo. The orange lines are the route the tram took

This is the front of the Singapore Zoo

This is a picture of the cheetah, another of my favorite animals

This is a rhino. They were a bit scary

This was the polar bear.  I was surprised at how huge it really was

This was another picture of the polar bear. It looked like it was smiling

This was during the feeding session where the trainer would throw the polar bear's food
in the water and the polar bear would have to dive down to get it

These were the adorable otters but the only problem was that their area stank.

These were the ginormous turtles.  They were really big!

This is the white tiger.  I think it is really rare

This was the giraffe (but there were actually 3 of them). They were amazing.  They were one of my mom's favourite animals

This was the orangutan and its baby

This was the Komodo dragon and it was huge.  This was my dad's favourite animal at the zoo

This is the head of the Komodo dragon,  Some fun facts are that the dragon's spit is poisonous,
and one Komodo dragon once ate a human (very gross).  Komodo dragons are cannibalistic and can
eat up to two or three times their weight

These are the adorable meerkats


This was the sentry who watched over the other meerkats.  After awhile another meerkat would take over as the sentry.  He could see predators from very far away

This was the powerful lion

Track and Field Day 2014, by Aimee

[Note from Eileen:  Aimee wrote this a year ago and I forgot about it so now I will publish it - better late than never.]

I started my events for Track and Field Day three days before the official big Track and Field Day. I ran 1.5 km with a girl in my class.  We had to leave really early (6:45 a.m.) to get to USM and we got back to school late.  I was happy about getting back late because I got to miss school (Bible class).   Yesterday (January 30) the entire high school and middle school had the actual Track and Field Day.  We got on the buses and went to University Sans Malaysia (USM).  I put my stuff down and started stretching.  I was on the red team and wore a red shirt that I traded with my friend because hers was too small and mine was too big. There was also a blue team, a green team, and a yellow team.  Hannah was on the green team and Kate was on the red team like me.  Two of the staff from middle school were announcers for the day and said really funny comments about the events.  They would discuss nursery rhymes with each other.  They also commented on different runners and placed humourous bets (for example, there was a guy holding his wrist and they said that they bet he was going to win because of good wrist "stretching").

My first run was 200m but I had to watch the 100m races.  Most of my friends did that race.  Finally it was 200m.  I sprinted and I managed to get second.  I was really excited.  I then had lunch.  Lunch was hot dogs and veggies and apples and fried rice, provided by the school.  It was very good.  After waiting nervously for my next race it finally started.  The 400m was a lot of work.  You had to have lots of endurance but also run very fast.  I was really excited because I finished first.  Meanwhile one of the guys was breaking a school high jump record which had lasted for 30 years.  The height of the pole was 1.8 meters.  There was a lot of record breaking that day.  Finally I had another event.  It was javelin.  I did not win that one though.  Finally, the last event of the day was relay races.  I was on the inside of the lane.  Our team was fast but we got fourth.  Sadly, the red team tied for second.  The green team came first.  I was satisfied but badly sun-burnt.