Yesterday I fell asleep while I was reading Qur'an, and about an hour or so later, I suddenly woke and bolted upright, saying, 'have we been to school yet today?' and everyone laughed. It was really strange – it was about half four and I really thought I'd woken up late for school, and had completely no recollection of actually going to school in the morning.

I think our phone sim has expired, or something. I miss-called baya (that is my big brother) from my normal phone yesterday just to, you know, remind them we're still here because they haven't called for days, and he texted back to say they'd tried calling a million times but couldn't get through. Come to think of it, nobody has called us for days – not Shamim baya, not our tutor (her name is Do'aa), not Laila…things began to make sense. XD

It is very early for me to be out – at this time I am normally in bed in these days of 10.40 classes. I really want my 8 o'clock class back.

Ooo the other day, our normal teacher, Samia, was ill, and we had a substitute – also called Samia. There are 3 Samias at Markaz Fajr – Samia Saghira or Qadeema (Small Samia/Old Samia), Samia Kabira and Samia Jadeeda – Big Samia and New Samia. It was very funny how she told us about how someone said the name, and everyone in the room would turn around. She was a really fun teacher – I learnt a couple of new grammar things (how to make certain masdar (gerund) forms) that I never knew before, which really must be a first so far, in all this time (not yet been taught any other grammar I didn't already know), and she spent a large part of the lesson telling us about how a woman in Russia liked to kidnap little girls and skin them, and store them in the freezer, and when they caught her, she had a leg, two arms, a head, and other various body bits, skinned and cleaned, stored away, and she was eating them. I was actually really horrified and spent most of the time she was talking about it covering my ears and wumbling so I wouldn't hear her. And then we started talking about Steve Irwin and how he played with timsahs crocodiles, and now he was dead.

I hope we get her for the next level; that would be fun.

John - There's only one Zakia Superman XD Of course it's her - do we not lead parallel lives? Except she is doing medicine, and I am, like, not. Also, in your great venerability, take care to Mind The Gap Between The Train And The Platform, Please. Hee. And sounds like there is too much rum going around. Oooo that reminds me -

I just remembered this a few days ago, but a couple of weeks after we arrived, I went over to Zakia's for the first time, and there was a can of beer in her fridge. So we decided to try it - that's another experience for the scrapbook, trying beer together in her kitchen. XD XD We were laughing so much while pouring it out that we sloshed it into the sink, and then we poured it into glasses but the foam reached the top before it was even half-full! So we were like, quick! drink the foam before it goes away!

It was sooo disgusting, I don't know why people drink it. We both had a mouthful, and we just looked at each other. SPIT! into the sink!

So that was our experience of trying beer together for the first time. A phase people tend to go through in their teens, but all the better for being done in our twenties. XD XD

It was, of course, non-alcoholic.