Saturday 7/03/04 was a sad day, Yang’s last day in buffalo. I went to his house at about 10:15, and Serge and Lisa were there helping his mom pack. i waited for yang to get back, as he was already late, and didn’t show up for another half an hour, so i just chatted with them. Finally, when yang arrived, me, and his dad, got in there Taurus and drove to Syeds Auto, so he could check out the car to see if it was wroth buying. I really waned to buy his car; it had leather seats, and was a good deal. But man, Syed Shams totally advised against it, he said it would need $500 worth of repairs before it could get on the road. I personal still would have bought it, but it was up to my dad. So Yang's father and i drove back to my house. We talked with my dad, and he said would give them an answer within the hour. After Yang’s dad left, i talked with my dad, and he called Shams again, but he really advised against getting a 95 Taurus, and said it would need allot of work. I felt bad for Yang, he was leaving fro NJ, and i wanted to take the car off his hands, but as my dad put it, weed be taking the problem out of there hands and into ours. I really hoe he finds someone to buy the car.

After stopping at Yang’s to tell hi the bad news, we went to Dr. Jureydas house, and had a nice conversation with him, Ali, and Bayram, and i got to eat a great lunch. Then at about 3:30 we drove back home and i took the Sienna, and drove to Yang’s and caught him just before he left. Brian, Bhavneet, Josh, LZ, and Serge were there saying goodbye, afterwards, they put Serge’s bike in my van, and i drove by Yang’s car, waved goodbye, and dropped serge off.

Then i stayed until about 5:15 at Brandon’s part, but i didn’t really know allot of the people that were there. I went home, and relaxed for a bit, before my dad dropped me off at Dave’s Party. His party was nice and relaxing, we basically just sat and chatted with Dave, York, Aezad, Greg, and some other people. We had a really weird conversation with Dave’s much Older Cousin who was in the Army, and thought Saddam and Bush should both be raped (he went into disturbing detail as to how).

 I left the party at 10:00 and walked to the masjid, we prayed Isha, and shortly after was a Sufi Hadrah. It was amazing, basic we sit in a circle, as the "munshedin" recite beautiful poetry, and then we all meditate its such a wonderful experience. I finally got home at around one.

Sunday 7/04/04 was a fun day as well. We went to a picnic at Ellicott creek park. It was soo hot, but great food. I played 2 game of Barjeese with my grandma and she beat me both times, grrr. Then i saw none other then Ala` (Alex/Aladdin) Man this guy was awesome, we were great friends years back, but then his dad sent him to Jordon, to whip him into shape, and he just came back, he’s a good guy, doing pretty well, hopefully ill see him more often when i come back from my trip.

After that picnic, we went to the Eddib's Aquequah- basically a celebration when someone has a baby-at whirl pool park. Right when we got there a heavy storm set it, but it was cool, since we were under a big shelter. I enjoyed the food, and chilled with Hassan, and Ahmad Eddib, Adil, Ali, and Yousef from Texas.

They played some foot ball in the rain, and then we sat round and told jokes for a while. Then we went down and looked upon the whirlpool.

When we came back, my friends like watch out! and i looked down and saw this weird embryo/undeveloped baby animal thingy, it was probably a squirrel. We saw it move so i guess it was alive, but it seemed as its eyes haven’t opened up yet.

We felt sorry for this helpless creature, so we covered a leaf over its body, and put a stick next to it so no one would step over it. then we saw another squirrel running around, so we left it, and figured it was its mother or something.

Afterwards, we played a great game of soccer. Alis dad scored to goals, it was so much fun.

Then i got in the car with Alis dad, and there family and we drove to the Seneca Niagara casino parking lot to see the fire works, they had there own background music which was pretty cool.

After a 20 minute show, it took us an hour and 20 minutes to get back, because we had to get gas for one of the cars following us, and alis dad was driving like 40 mph on the highway so the cars behind us wouldn’t get lost. I got a little impatient, because i had already missed the Isha (5th prayer) prayer in congression at the masjid, and i was afraid of missing the Hadrah.  We got to the masjid 11:40, i made cleaned up, prayed Isha, and saw Fahad, who was really happy i told him about this program, I also met a great brother who had graduated from Harvard Law, and wanted to stay in touch so he could help me out with advice, very nice guy, i guess his wife and my mom are good freinds too, the live in D.C-- the hadra had just begun-wow, what an amazing spiritual experience, by far Sufi Spirituality, is by far the best the world has seen, i guarantee you’ll love it, combining love, unity, and oness with the divine, transcending to a whole new level, unbelievable.

Monday 7/05/04, i got up pretty early, at 10:00, and went to the masjid, and sat down and listened to the poetry, until Sheikh Keller, came and shared his wisdom. Afterwards was lunch, lots of meat, then we prayed Duhur. Man, i was so lucky!!! i was standing right next to Sheikh Keller during the prayer and got a chance to speak with him afterwards, he’s so humble and compassionate and tranquil. Afterwards, there was one last hadra(if you want more detail as to what it is exactly talk to me or something) led b the Sheikh himself. After that, we did this thing with everyone in the hadrah, starting with the man  next to the sheikh, he would shake and kiss each others hands, and then stand next to him, and then the third  person in line would do the same, and so forth until all like 200 of us had shook hands with everyone else. It was beautiful, I met so many wonderful brothers during this weekend, and you really feel a strong brotherly love and connection with each one of them, i cant wait too see them when the sheikh comes back in two years!

When i came home i took the rest of the day to relax, read a book, slept, had some fun... Leaving for Syria in 5 days!!!!