Today marks the first day of the holiest months for Muslims.  During Ramadan they fast in order to feel for the poor people.  They are also suppose to give money to feed the poor.  Between sunrise and sunset (here I've been told 4am to a little before 6 pm) they refrain from eating or drinking anything (including water) and also from anything generally 'Haram', forbidden.  This includes sex, physical contact in general with the oppositte sex, like hugging, etc., smoking, drinking (this is always abstained from), swearing, looking and having thoughts about the oppositte sex, anything like this.  It is a great time to experience a different lifestyle as well as remind yourself of discipline and strenghthen your committment and connection with Allah.  Another thing Muslims are suppose to do during Ramadan is to read the Quaran.  I bought a copy yesterday and am about 60 pages in.

I have decided that at least for one week of Ramadan I am going to be a full participant in the custom.  Today I have not eaten or drank any water.  After this week I will see how I'm going and adjust my fast accordingly.  The last thing I ate were some french fries and a coke last night at about 3:30 and I drank about six ounces of water right before 4:00.  And I will not eat until probably 6:30 by the time we go to a restaurant or order.  It's about 4:30 right now.  My stomach is empty.  I can feel it.  I'm hungry.  But I'm definately not in pain or anything like this.  We went on the Metro for the first time today to get tickets to Alexandria (I'll talk about that next) and it was very crowded and I've been having some 'claustrophobia'/crowd panic issues lately.  On the train I was pretty sure that the combination of the hunger and the crowd were going to make me faint, but I help steadfast, closed my eyes, tilled my head up to reach okay air and made it out okay.  I don't think Hashem and Luisa even noticed I wasn't okay.

Also during Ramadan you are suppose to be in closer contact with family and friends.  A lot of people travel during this month in order to see relatives.  I am going to take this as my key to make sure I write here more this month than I have been.  So you all can look forward to that.  I will keep you updated on the fast, at least.

I am not doing all this because I am looking to adopt Islam into my life or anything like this.  Who knows, it may happen, but that is not my intent.  I am doing it for a number of reasons, though.  I think what made me want to do it initially is my desire here to take on a, "when in Rome, do as the Romans" attitude.  Every Egyptian and Muslim will be fasting, and it would be hard to eat throughout the day without eating right in front of someone fasting.  And I can't do that.  Also, a whole lot of my friends here are Muslim and I wanted to join in their festivities and traditions.  If I was in America and there was a foreign kid who had never experienced Christmas or Easter or even Thanksgiving for that matter, I would like to show him what we do for each of these events.  I have a lot more patients and independence and discipline than a lot of other kids here, but these are things that you can always grow and improve upon.  And this is just one more way for me to become even a slightly better person in some respect.

Anyway, enough about Ramadan.  The more I think about it, the more I realize how hungry I am.  As you may have guess from above, I'm not going to be in Syria this weekend.  Right now things are such that Americans cannot get visas at the airport.  I may, however, go next month.  I need to have my friend call the Syrian embassy and find out exactly how long it takes and what I need to do.  he's going probably the last weekend of the month, which is also Thanksgiving.  Hopefully I can talk to him and talk to a few other people and we can do Syria and Lebanon that weekend and miss a day or two of classes.