Ottawa

So I promised a blog about my trip to Ottawa and here it is insha'allah. I started my trip at 11am on Friday morning, a little later than I had expected considering I had been awake since 9am but alhamdulillah it was ok. I had worked until 11pm the night before after only 5 hours work (see previous blog) so I was very refreshed. I took some sandwiches, fruit and water for the journey as I was intending on only stopping for petrol or the toilet if I needed it. I made it onto the highway and the car was really stressing me, it wouldnt seem to go over 100km/h even with my foot to the ground and God forbid if I came to a hill. At one point I was toddling along at 70 which was stressing me out completely! and the other drivers around me, I just wanted to shout 'I cant go faster' and I could just imagine their thoughts, 'silly foreign lady who doesnt know how to drive' Oh well, anyways I got to my friends at 5pm on the dot alhamdulillah which was the time I had expected. We parked in the visitors car park, unloaded the car and chatted for a bit while walking back to her flat. Lemme tell you it was sooo cold!! the wind was really bitter! I dont know how she stands it, she even say it was a nice day! NICE DAY??! Alhamdulillah :)

So I met her new flatmate and then we set off in search of food, we found a really nice middle eastern restaurant in downtown Ottawa. The service was good, food was excellent and the company was brilliant too :) If you know me in UK, I had an obsession with falafel from when I first tasted it at the arab cafe down the road from my university. Since coming to Canada this obsession has turned into an obsessive disappointment :( every place I see that sells them, I have to try them and Im always disappointed, well my friends.. not this time!! they were amazing masha'allah. This picture is of the ceiling of the restaurant, the guy did glass painting masha'allah and had them all around the walls, he was also selling big beautiful doors from different countries, wish I had got more pictures now. But it was really nice and Im glad we found it :)

Then we set out in the direction of Carlton university were they have lectures every fortnight (see the Muslim association of Canada-youth blog I added to my Islamic blog section) this lecture series is on the names of Allah (subhana wa ta'ala) and Fridays talk was on a name that I cant remember the Arabic of but it basically means him who gives life and death masha'allah. It was a good lecture, and it was nice to feel part of a learning group again, I miss that where I live. I'm hoping insha'allah that when I move back to UK and get settled down that I will be able to help more in the community and get involved in stuff like this with the youth (even though I still class myself as youth :P) I met some of Audrey's friends which was nice and we had a little chat after the lecture, then we headed back to the car. I took some pictures of the lecture building, yeh... I miss uni remember! :) then she took me on a little nighttime tour of the city, although I couldnt really see much for the darkness and the snow banks heehee but was nice.

We got back and sat around chatting with her flatmate who was really nice masha'allah, then we all turned in around 12am :) late night lol.

Woke up early the next morning, I wish I had her room!! I woke up exactly same time both mornings and it was a good time 8:45 which is something I need to do here!! Anyways, we sorted ourselves out and drove into downtown towards the Canadian War Museum stopping off at Quiznos for a nice toasted veggie baguette :) We sat about for a little while digesting the food and discussing, well I cant even remember to be honest lol. Then we walked back and drove over to the museum to spend some time over there. She has already been and apparently its free on thursdays if anyone lives around there and wants to check it out. Its a good day out, we spent 4 hours there and didnt even get to see everything. Its full of emotions though so be warned, I had a little cry at the beginning of it.

Anyways, I have to get ready to take the car back. So Im just going to leave it there for the time being, insha'allah Ill finish this blog off tonight or at some point tomorrow.
Peace and salams, Ammena