Happy Ramadan!

As part of my Contemporary Arab World class, we had to do a group presentation on a topic related to the Arab World.  So, a bunch of us after class one day decided to form a group and chose Ramadan as our topic.  My group was me, Jenny (a sophomore from Washington state), Vivian (a junior), Chourouk (an Algerian senior), and Zaid (a Saudi Arabian junior/senior?).  

Chourouk and Zaid are both Muslim so the three of us non-Muslim group members decided to partake in Ramadan for a day and use that as part of our presentation.  Chourouk also invited us to several events to celebrate Ramadan.  One of them included a discussion about Ramadan and the reason of fasting, which included representatives from the Catholic and Jewish student groups on campus.  

Chourouk also took us to the Islamic Center (the mosque in DC) for the Eid morning prayer.  Eid is the first day that Muslims stop fasting so it is a very momentous occasion.  Here are the pictures we took at the mosque and two others from this past tuesday of us making Algerian spring rolls for our class presentation.  

Ramadan

Other excitments:  I got rain boots and a new comfy chair from Ikea (only $99 and WELL worth it), and will be going on a day trip with the International students to Amish Country next friday for fall break!