A day of starvation..

So.... Yesterday I went a whole day without drinking or eating ANYTHING... Why you might wonder? No I’m not dieting and I’m defiantly not anorexic... Eating is actually one of my favourite hobbies! I eat all the time! Haha... Well here’s the thing.. The host family I’m living with are Muslims, and for the past 4 weeks they have been fasting. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating and drinking; from dawn until sunset…... How my host family (and any Muslims for that matter) can do it I have no Idea….Come to think of it, I haven’t said much about the family I am now living with! So let me just say a little bit about them and I will come back to my day of hungriness.

Well, a good friend of mine from my high school class, Karoline, and I decided to live together here in Cambridge, and we got a great family that lives very close to the school. The family consists of Selina, her husband Adnan, and their two kids Isa and Safa. Apart from them there are two really cool girls from Oslo also living here this school year (Siri and Palina). We are really happy with where we have ended up. Selina and Adnan are awesome and their kids are super cute! So anyways,… Siri (one of the Oslo-girls) and I suddenly decided that we would try fasting for a day and see how is was like. Selina and Adnan were very doubtful that we could do it, but at least we would try! Gosh I was quite nervous, and had no idea if I could do it.. I usually don’t go more than 4 hours without eating and defiantly not without drinking water, so this would be quite the challenge. And I surely was!!! Selina and Adnan usually get up at 3.30 AM to eat breakfast (since they have to eat before the sun comes up) And they were supposed to wake us up then, but when they knocked on our door we were sound asleep and didn’t hear anything... so the day went along and we were STARVED! Since we hadn’t even eaten the early breakfast it was torture watching everyone at school eating lunch in the canteen. I even had to write “don’t eat” and “don’t drink” on my hands just to be sure that I wouldn’t forget about the fasting and eat or drink something… And MAN I was hungry! Oh well it was my choice, so I shouldn’t really complain.. It was actually not as bad as I would have expected it to be.. But it got worse about 4 o’clock when I was sitting at home writing my chemistry rapport on my laptop and my hands were shaking and I started to get a headache. So Karoline and I decided to ride our bikes to town just to get out of the house and not think about food. Karoline was not fasting, but needed some school supplies, so she came along. So we walked around town for about two hours and then it was finally seven o’clock, and the fasting would officially be over in 17 minutes, so we got our bikes and started peddling home as fast as we could. (It didn’t really go fast…I didn’t have much energy left…) But exactly 19.17 we walked in the door to the sound of a Muslim song which indicated that the fasting for that day was over, and even better: the smell of food!! Selina had prepared a big plate of rice and chicken, and I tell you, food hasn’t tasted that good in like forever! Gosj! Selina was really proud of us and that we actually went through with it.. and I was quite proud myself! 21 hours without food or water… and the result of that was a great dinner that consisted of a huge plate of rice and chicken, 2 bowls of cornflakes, 2 slices of toast + 3 glasses of water..:-) I was very happy and full when I finally went to bed. I’m gonna be sooo much more appreciative of food after this. So what have I learned?

Well it was a good experience seeing what so many Muslims all over the world go through every year.. But could I go through with a whole Ramadan for over 4 weeks? .........NO CHANCE! !!