Ramadhan

Ily's recent post gives me the idea to write down this entry. This year's Ramadhan is quite different than last year's as we started on early September, which bring forward iftar as late as 830 p.m. in Lafayette (it's getting earlier though). And it's a bit tiring at the beginning. My 1st day was in my so-called-hometown, 'The Red River Gorge, KY', specifically, Miguel's Pizza.

It was the weekend of labor day plus a canceled morning class on the coming Tuesday, which gave me along with Kate, Adrian and Andy plenty of time having a relaxed-climbing trip. It was not until 3 hours I left Purdue that I called Addin asking solat time, which I rarely forget to jot down before heading to The Red, I figured the 1st of Ramadan was the coming Monday!

There was no problem at all fasting at The Red plus climbing at least 4 routes per day. On Monday after done climbing, Jenny came with an idea to do drive-in movie. And it was gonna be 3 movies back to back! Oh ya, drive-in movie or theater is a form of cinema structure consisting of a large outdoor screen, a projection booth, a concession stand and a large parking area for automobiles. So, basically we pay $2 for each movies and of course drive in into parking area, turn on radio channeled through the frequency given, sit back, grab popcorn and enjoy!

So, Jenny decided, as she always does, to have an early dinner at a Mexican restaurant. I didn't tell them that I was fasting that day. We drove 30mins away from Miguel's and got into this fancy Mexican restaurant in Winchester. When it came to my turn to order, I just said no, which was totally surprising everybody. It is uncommon for us not to have a big meal after such a tiring day of climbing as we always have at least 4 big slices of Miguel's Pizzas. Also, we kinda climbed a bit harder than days before since it was the last day.

As I told them that I was fasting because of Ramadhan, because Muslims before me had to do so, I can neither drink nor eat anything at all bla bla bla, I was bombarded with tons of questions!

Andy: "What if when you're climbing, you're sweating and the sweat drop into your mouth?"
"What if when you brush your teeth and you drink some water?"
"What if I shovel pizza into your mouth now?"
"What if you climb, falls and almost dying in need of water?"
It all came at once! And I was like "Andy..." but Kate goes "Stop it Andy! Otherwise you're gonna be thrown into the Hell." I didn't know whether to laugh or not, but Kate's response making sure I was not troubling myself answering those questions, considering that I was starving, I found hilarious.

The best part of it was when I bought this super duper delicious ikan bakar to eat while watching movies. AND of course Ale-8, a kind of soda which I brought some home a while ago and some people thought they were beers, which doesn't offend me at all. AND drive-in theater was great! I think better than normal theater.
Hmmm.... I miss the Red....