#Thejirans memory lane Part 1

اَلسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَا تُهُ

Our first place that we called home back when we were in the States was located at Luther Drive, Ames, Iowa. The first few weeks, we stayed at one of our senior’s house, a couple of blocks away. It helps actually, with us, jetlagged, we couldn’t really stay awake throughout the day. And lucky us (read me and Ras), we arrived exactly when the orientation week starts; guess who fell asleep when the tour guide explained to us *waving my right hand*

Our first house. Luther Drive.

First house warming party.

That was how we decorate our house for the party. *Sorry for the Low Quality picture*

Right after we got our keys to our unit, we asked help from our senior to drop us off at Walmart, so that we can buy all the necessary things. Oh right, at that time, me and Ras doesn’t have any money with us, I meant, Dollars. So, we depended on Fuzah to take care all the expenses occurred for our first haul of house appliances. Bear with me, I’m going to jump from one topic to another, one season to another.

Although you can't see the background, this was actually taken when we were on our way to the Walmart late at night. 

Fast forward to somewhere where I can’t remember which semester it was, we would go to SUV to do our laundry just because it’s cheaper and guess what, usually we went there at night, during winter season. And we would cramp all six of us into one car and with our laundry baskets cramped in the bonnet. We would bring Uno games with us, or even books and also earphones as one of our ways to kill time while waiting for the washer and dryer.

Killing time by playing Uno card while waiting for the laundries.

I remembered vividly there was one night, we took a picture while, if I remember it correctly, 5 of us acted as if we were stuck or suck by the washing machines (ah well, I can’t find the picture), it was hilarious. There were times that we just loaded our laundries into the washer and off to Walmart or Hyvee to stocked up our foods. That was if we decided to go wash our clothes during the day on Saturday. 

Fuzah is the photographer btw.

During semester breaks, we invited our upstairs neighbours, #132 to come over and have a slumber party. Kidding. We had a movie night. Nine of us, cramping and lying on the floor of Hajar’s room and turn on a laptop before putting it on Hajar’s chair. With heater on, oh it was snowing that night, and some of us can barely lie down properly. We woke up the next day with bloated faces because it was too hot. Thinking back, we could have just watch it at the living room, or perhaps Izs and Ib’s bedroom which was larger.

At one point, we decided to have a cooking shift for the six of us even though we lived in two separate units. I loved Ras’s sambal Ikan, Fuzah’s and Ib’s Lamb’s curry. Izs’s chicken blackpepper. Sometimes, Izs would bake crème brulee and the next day we would eat roti paratha and egg white; the excess from the crème brulee. Every once in a while, they would request tteokbokki. I’m the one who will cook it and we ate it straight from the pan. In a circle. Oh, How I miss the good old days.

Ras, Izs and I were invited to a Halloween party in which we regretted it the next morning because all we did was jumping and danced all night long. Though we were super excited over buying costumes; Izs went for a witch costume, Ras went for a pirate while myself.. hmmm a confused hippie until I know recently that hippie is actually a drug addict. Lols.

To be continue....

p/s: I lost some of the photos hence I couldn't upload it here. Pardon me! But I hope you enjoyed this!