Ramadan 2011 -- Day One

My alarm got me up at 3 in the morning so that I could have my morning meal before first light at around 3:20. I barely remember eating it, I think I kept my eyes shut and just reached for whatever food was on the nightstand, and drinking plenty of liquids. Once I was done eating went back to bed. Got up at 6:45 to go to work. I could sleep in a little later since I didn't have to eat breakfast.

Traffic was about the same as usual; I was kind of hoping it would be a bit lighter but no luck. Not a big deal though since it normally takes me 15 minutes to get to work.

Surprisingly I didn't have too difficult a time fasting at work. What I recall from last year was that my stomach would really start acting up around lunchtime but today nothing. Aside from some obvious tiredness in the afternoon it wasn't too bad. One of my Qatari colleagues had it a bit worse than I did because he's a smoker, and smoking during the day is a no-no as well. He wanted a cigarette more than something to eat or drink.

After work I cleaned the apartment a bit in preparation for a Kuwaiti friend of mine and his wife coming over for Iftar. At around 16:00 I went to have a nap and foolishly forgot to set an alarm. My Kuwaiti friend called around 17:30 to double-check what time to come over it was a good thing he did because that woke me up. Iftar was less than an hour away! Had my friend not called I might've been sleeping until he knocked on the door.

I woke up and started preparing soup and getting the table ready. My friends came by around 18:00 with some other food.

Here's the spread for my first Iftar of 2011!



After the meal we sat around a while with some tea and my friends went home and I had to go to the mall to pick up some stuff I had ordered. Surprisingly the mall was not crowded, I'd expected it to be busier than it was. I guess since this is the first day of Ramadan everyone was visiting friends and relatives. I did a few laps of the mall to get some exercise (too hot to exercise outside) before I headed home.

Ramadan makes it more difficult to fit some exercise in. Can’t do it during the day since I'm not drinking any liquids, and there is not a lot of time at night. That said I'm likely going to play squash with a Qatari friend of mine on Wednesday night -- from 10 PM to 11 PM. It wouldn't surprise me if during Ramadan the courts were open until 1 or 2am

Ramadan Kareem everyone.

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