Hari Raya in Philadelphia

A while ago,we were taking a bus from Market street ready to go to Temple for a Malaysia Hari Raya gathering. Yeaps. There is a Malaysian community in Temple (mostly Malays though). And mostly JPA scholars. 


So since there wasn't enough space to fit all 7 of us into a senior's car, me and Zhi Ven have to take the bus. Urgh, really hated the bus wait. The bus was half an hour late, and there was this lady with long dirty blonde hair carrying 3 huge bags, wearing long floral skirt which looks dirty, and was shouting into a non-functioning phone to a non-existing police man about someone stealing her purse (which probably is non-existing either).  Then next to me there is this dirty looking guy trying to tell me the lady is crazy. And when I ignored him, he walked over to tell 3 other random strangers that the lady is crazy. And he pissed of this security guard so bad she was shouting at him to leave her alone with lots of profanities. 


And 10 feets away, was this guy wearing a body hugging green shirt pole dancing with the lamp post.


This is Philadelphia after 5pm for you. 


Sometime I resent being sent here. I wished TJU was in Miami or NYC or Washington at least. Or maybe every city in America is full of weird schizophrenics and drug abuse homeless people sleeping in subways making the train station smell like pee. 


And just a few days ago I was telling my resident how firearms and guns should be made illegal here. Then America will be a much safer place to live in. For now, I'll just avoid going to ghetto places.


Anyways, back to Hari Raya. Apparently there is a Malaysian community association thingi in Washington DC, and the Malaysian Malay community is pretty tight here. Did not knew that. What I heard is that, the community used to be a  scholar thing strictly, until one year there were 3 Malaysian that died in America, 1 a scolar, 2 others not-government funded, and only the scholar's body was sent back. So the families of the other 2 were pissed, saying that Malaysia government only care about their scholars and not the Malaysians in general. So now they are keeping in touch with non-scholars too. Like me. 


Which is why I got the invitation for their Hari Raya thing. 


No pictures though, because it was dark and I was busy eating nice Malay/Pakistan food and making new friends. But it was kinda familiar being surrounded by a lot of Malays again, with them in their new baju kurungs and all.


Alright. Wordy post ends here.