sheik speare: February 2009

assalamu alaikum :o)

bismillah.

the flight to chicago was nothing special. once in chicago, i undertook a trek around the airport looking for a chapel. when i couldnt find it, i decided to pray to pray next to some phones at an empty gate. after that, i made my way to the food court and ate my aloo di roti. mother made a couple and forced me to take them along. not knowing what to do with the container, i tossed it in the trash and made my way to the gate. the flight from london to chicago was quiet boring. i sat next to a guy that was going to kiev, ukraine to visit his relatives. we discussed our trips for while and how the experiences should be amazing. he turned to his laptop for entertainment, while i read. the rest of the flight consisted of me sleeping, waking only to the plane wobbling during periods of turbulence.

as we landed i made my way to the immigrations area. there were quiet a few uncles and aunties directing the lines and even working as immigration officers. the line moved swiftly and soon i was on my way to baggage claim. after collecting my bags, i stored one in an airport locker, and then made my way down to the heathrow tube station. id been in london's gatwick airport a few times, but it was my first trip to heathrow. since it is one of the world's largest and busiest airports, it was only expected for me to get lost. eventually i found my way to the tube and jumped on. i spent the hour and a half trip to redbridge just talking to locals on board. since it was early in the morning many were on their way to either work or school.

i made it to redbridge and was soon picked up by my cousin bilal bhai's wife, hina bhaabi. the last time i saw him was during 2006, when i made a stop in london while returning from france. we chatted about family matters for hours, ate, and then continued to talk. bilal bhai is a business man, so he could just go on and on about his many successful business endeavours. the rest of the day consisted of me playing basketball and soccer with neha and heading down to the local zabiha fried chicken place for. upon returning home, i was physically and mentally drained. needing some rest, i decided to take a short power nap. upon waking up, i gathered my stuff together and got ready to head out for the airport. at that point i noticed that my phone was missing. frantically looking for it, i realized that it was lost, left either on the plane or the tube. this was a real downer for me, as id grown quite close with that phone. anyway, i had no time to mourn my loss. i said my goodbyes to the family and was on my way. the ride to the airport was very nice, with me taking in the english countryside as well as discussing family issues with bilal bhai.

i arrived at stanstead airport, checked in, and made my way to the securtiy checkpoint. everything went pretty smooth, expect for when they had to measure the length of my deodorant part to make sure it was within the allowable size. once they approved, i was on my way. the walk to the gate was very long, approximately 15 minutes or so. once i got there, i quickly realized that many eyes were on some, some belonging to people that appeared quite nervous. among all of the passengers, i was the only colored person. anyway, we walked down to the plane, boarded, and an hour or so later, we landed in shannon, ireland.

i went through immigration and customs, got my bag, and spotted amir bhai and sadia. we got home in limerick, ireland around 11 pm, irish time, which is 5 am houston time. i hadnt showered in approximately 2 days, so the first thing i did was take a nice long hot shower. after that, i joined the rest of my cousins and phuppo for a nice hot dinner, which was followed up by a couple hours of catching up over delicious sameya.

its 2 am now, and i have a few prayers to make up. night night.