hi guys my name is raha I'm a first year
at the University of Cambridge and this
year Ramadan was gonna fall in Easter
term the last term with all the exams
and I was really looking forward to
helping out the ISIL and organizing all
the events and just getting to be
together with everybody but obviously
due to the current situation in the
world that was not possible and we've
all been sent home so I'm here with a
few other students just forget their
sort of point of view how I'm a second
year PhD biology student at Jesus
College hi guys I'm Safi and I'm a third
year and Union College
I saw every day organize sometimes even
support in the prayer room so everyone
can meet up and and it's really nice
after a long day of revision providing
and to come together because normally
you're with your family and especially
if it's your first year away and it's
really nice to be able to come together
with I saw I've never really broken my
fast with my friends and I was quite
looking forward to being around my
friends together you know moving out
away from home having that slight
feeling of Independence yeah before
coming here I was in Japan if the main
difference was although like in Japan
they aren't that many Muslims but the
king was because I had almost not
everyone there so it used to be more
like a family bath like here because I
arrived here and like here like I didn't
know anyone so it was good dad the I
suppose like organizing everything and
like I felt like part of like much
bigger society on community so I'm an
international student and coming to the
UK and realizing how long the days are
during Ramadan was a bit of a shocker
so in first year I really struggled with
like breaking my fast at 8:30 or so on
but I was really lucky like I saw had a
lot of if tourism in addition like with
my friends in college we would meet up
and eat together but there were also
some
very lonely nights eating alone and it
was a balance of those and also there
was my first set of Cambridge exams
coincided with Ramadan which
surprisingly I found quite nice I find
that during fasting I'm more able to
concentrate during the day it's been a
weird balance of challenging but also
really fun and nice and like it's really
special fasting with friends in a
similar situation and like your friends
become a family and I soft because
you're family so I was supposed to be on
my airport in Egypt I was supposed to be
spending Ramadan in Muslim country which
would have been really nice it's just
gonna be spent with my immediate family
and who I live with
so it's not gonna be as of a community
vibe as I'd hoped I was really looking
forward to it and I yeah because I have
I have absolutely no work to do now and
I have no exams nothing and so it would
be really nice to be able to focus more
like on myself and on my religion
because normally go exams you have to
revise and then you feel guilty because
you're not spending enough time focusing
on your religion which what this month
is about so that would be really nice
I'm looking forward to that it will be
an experience and freedom of my really
good friends I like still in camp
reached so they're from st. John's
Trinity and Christ College so we are
thinking of like doing a combined quran
session so like we recite the Quran
together on zoom' and things like that
it's weird because everyone's at home
when my siblings usually just barging
into my room to annoy me or something so
I have to say beforehand please don't
disturb me I'm gonna be kind of cool
etc etc so that sort of aspect over is a
bit weird but it's still pretty nice
it's a nice substitute so my 2020
Ramadan is gonna be a bit different so
I'm staying with a friend's family in
Cambridgeshire and my exams start with
Ramadan but I'm looking forward to
breaking my fast with
found in her family I like trying after
exams trying to cook food from Egypt
like from back home to feel at home I'm
looking forward to like making lots of
desserts and stuff because like in
university accommodation it's you during
downtime you're like I'm not gonna cook
so excited now to explore like ever any
plan with my mom will be doing phone
calls so that I can get recipes and
stuff we've already making plans to book
rooms and stuff for events and then a
town got cancelled so we had to make
different plans and so we've started
inviting different speakers to give like
spiritual talks like motivational talks
we're trying to organize like qur'an
recitation' circles where we all join in
on Mizzou online because this month is
about how a holy book and we try to
focus on that a lot so that I suppose a
lot of events lined up trying to find
out or up to you just check us out on
Facebook and check our website out and
everybody here at the ice book which is
everybody a Ramadan world
you