Back to school

It's been a while since I last blogged. Since my last post, I've been back home to
London and returned back to Syria and started school!

After the scary interview (4 teachers on the panel asking everything from the rules
concernig doubts in prayer to the basis of wilayat!) and then a series of blood tests,
chest X-ray and blood pressure, we got accepted into the hawza (religious school).

Walking into school on the first day took me straight back to Iran. The hawza is
actually run by Iranians, but everything is taught in Arabic. Dua Ahad was playing
on the speakers and the day started in pretty much the same way as it did in Iran-
in complete chaos! We were sorted out into classes, and just like Iran, my class
has students from all over the world- Pakistan, burkino faso and France! The teacher
is from lebabnon and speaks a bit of french, which is lucky as most of the African
students speak French too.

Class ran from 8 to 10 after which we went next door to the mens hawza for the
opening ceremony. It consisted of three vey long speeches, which gave me an
opportunity to type out this blog post on my phone so it can be uploaded when I get
home! And read a LOT of Quran.

A group of students got up to sing some nasheeds and in the process managed to massacre
 an Imad Rami nasheed. Actually thats a bit unfair- part of the blame needs to go to
 the dodgy mikes. I'm sure the Stanmore AV team would have done a much better job. Lol

We all got given a goody bag with a pen, magazines, and snack pack to welcome in the new year.