Today was quite an interesting day. First, we went to the
British Museum where there was a Hajj exhibit. Something unique about London is
that all Museums are free. You just have to pay for special exhibits. Going
back to the museum, it was really nice. Even if someone already went to Hajj,
there was a lot to be seen (my grandparents who live in Saudi Arabia would beg
to differ). They had artifacts from ancient Mecca that showed travel routes
that people used to take, how they would find the Qibla (the direction of the
Ka’ba), among others. The thing that I found most interesting was the fact that
they had pieces of old kiswas (coverings of the Ka’ba) in the exhibit. I don’t
think I would have been able to see it that up close if it weren’t for this
exhibit. At the end there was a video of people making Hajj that really made me
want to go and make Umrah/Hajj. After that, we saw the Egyptian mummy exhibit,
the Sudan/Egypt/Nubia exhibit, and then the Islamic exhibit. I was only able to
take pictures in those exhibits, but I took tons.
 |
| Trafalgar Square |
 |
| Piccadilly |
My grandparents left in the middle of our museum time, so my
mom and I toured London on our own. We went to Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly,
and the M&M store. Now let me tell you about this M&M store. It is a
huge store filled with just M&M products. As I mentioned before, there are
a lot of Muslims and Arabs in London. A lot of people from the Gulf come and
visit. This mea
ns that the people of London need to cater to them. They have
all directions written in Arabic. There was one sign that had English, Arabic,
Chinese (or Japanese), and Spanish. There was no French. We went to go check
out and I had M&Ms that were red in the package. The sales person, who is
not Muslim, said that the red M&Ms are not halal (permissible for Muslims
because it probably has pork). She went
and changed the package so that there were no haram (forbidden) M&Ms. Apparently;
the red, pink, and maroon ones are not halal. My mom and I were quite impressed.
There seems to be more of an acceptance and liking for Muslims in London. After
that we were supposed to go to Hyde Park, but it started to rain so we went to
Harrods again instead. We love that store. Afterwards we went on a walk that
lead us to a cemetery- the first time I went into a cemetery I might add. The
headstones were all intricately done and I enjoyed looking at them (that might
sound weird, but whatever. It was really nice mother-daughter time for my mom
and I. All in all, it was a wonderful day.
Today was quite an interesting day. First, we went to the
British Museum where there was a Hajj exhibit. Something unique about London is
that all Museums are free. You just have to pay for special exhibits. Going
back to the museum, it was really nice. Even if someone already went to Hajj,
there was a lot to be seen (my grandparents who live in Saudi Arabia would beg
to differ). They had artifacts from ancient Mecca that showed travel routes
that people used to take, how they would find the Qibla (the direction of the
Ka’ba), among others. The thing that I found most interesting was the fact that
they had pieces of old kiswas (coverings of the Ka’ba) in the exhibit. I don’t
think I would have been able to see it that up close if it weren’t for this
exhibit. At the end there was a video of people making Hajj that really made me
want to go and make Umrah/Hajj. After that, we saw the Egyptian mummy exhibit,
the Sudan/Egypt/Nubia exhibit, and then the Islamic exhibit. I was only able to
take pictures in those exhibits, but I took tons. 
My grandparents left in the middle of our museum time, so my
mom and I toured London on our own. We went to Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly,
and the M&M store. Now let me tell you about this M&M store. It is a
huge store filled with just M&M products. As I mentioned before, there are
a lot of Muslims and Arabs in London. A lot of people from the Gulf come and
visit. This means that the people of London need to cater to them. They have
all directions written in Arabic. There was one sign that had English, Arabic,
Chinese (or Japanese), and Spanish. There was no French. We went to go check
out and I had M&Ms that were red in the package. The sales person, who is
not Muslim, said that the red M&Ms are not halal (permissible for Muslims
because it probably has pork). She went
and changed the package so that there were no haram (forbidden) M&Ms. Apparently;
the red, pink, and maroon ones are not halal. My mom and I were quite impressed.
There seems to be more of an acceptance and liking for Muslims in London. After
that we were supposed to go to Hyde Park, but it started to rain so we went to
Harrods again instead. We love that store. Afterwards we went on a walk that
lead us to a cemetery- the first time I went into a cemetery I might add. The
headstones were all intricately done and I enjoyed looking at them (that might
sound weird, but whatever. It was really nice mother-daughter time for my mom
and I. All in all, it was a wonderful day. 
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