12 06 19 - 12 06 19 The Last Hurrah

Friday

11 16 19 Lamb

Saturday

I headed out to Yale-NUS around noon to join Muhammed Ali for lunch; the college was hosting a barbecue for all students and he invited me to join. They had lamb there which was so soft and tender, and IT WAS BONELESS. It was amazing. Yale-NUS truly has privilege because of the Yale in their name.

Anyway, after that, I headed back home to clean up and pack up, then I left around 3:30pm, first making a stop at Central Library to scan a textbook chapter for my studying efforts. I then headed to the Arab St. district to buy Ihraam. While in the area, I also hit up Masjid Malabar and Masjid Hajjah Fatimah. I then proceeded to Mustafa Uncle's house and arrived around 8:30, just in time for dinner. Now I'm just preparing for the loads of studying I will undertake in the next few days by sending off emails and such/

11 15 19 Mawlid + Family + Friends

Friday

Today was a good day. It began with going for Jumu'ah at Masjid Kassim in Kembangan. Then, since I was literally outside Fatema Aunty's doorstep, I stopped by their place for a good home-cooked lunch. After that, I made my way to Masjid Abdul Aleem Siddique for Asr, before calling it quits for the day and heading back to campus.

Little did I know that that was nowhere near "quits" for the day. After arriving back on campus, I decided to attend the NUSMS Mawlid event at UTown, convincing myself that this was probably my last NUSMS event in Singapore. I convinced Muhammed Ali to attend for the same reason as well. I arrived at the event around 6 and ended up discussing how my exchange has been so far over dinner with some local students. I then washed up, and came back to meet Adil of all people! I guess he decided to come out for this semester finale event; it was great to catch up. The rest of the event was interesting as well, and I attended till its end at 9:30pm.

I then went off with some friends, Muhammed Ali to be specific, to have some fun. First we met up with Saad and had a chat (Muhammed Ali had to pay off his Australia debts too). Then we went to grab a 11pm snack from Supersnacks at UTown. We sat on the steps overlooking the green, eating and reflecting on our exchange and life in general. And just then, along came Zafar, who had just finished strolling around while talking to his parents. So he stopped by and we talked for a bit. After he left, we talked about various things for a bit longer, before finally ending the night. I struggled for a bit to find a reasonably priced Grab home (as campus busses don't run at 1am), but finally found one for $14. Thus a remarkably exciting and fun-filled day came to an end.

11 09 19 Discovering MUIS HQ

Saturday

11 01 19 - 11 04 19 Bali

10 29 19 Masjid Tour Resumes, Dinner w/ Friends

Tuesday

10 26 19 TreeTop Walk + MacRitchie Reservoir

Saturday

Headed out around 7am with some guys from the Yale-NUS MSA. We took the bus to MacRitchie Park, then began the nearly two-hour hike to the TreeTop Walk.

10 18 19 - 10 20 19 KL Round Two: Meeting People

Over the weekend, I took a trip to Kuala Lumpur. See more about my adventures in the dedicated trip post here.

10 17 19

Thursday

I was out from 8:30am to 8pm straight today; suffice to say it was a busy day. Had class until 2, then lunch, then a meeting for NUSMS IAS committee, then I went for maghrib, followed by dinner at KR MRT, and then I finally came back home.

10 15 19

Tuesday

Officially booked my bus tickets to KL and my airbnb for the (last-minute) trip this weekend. Looking forward to making new connections and maintaining old ones!

Today's lunch:

Ended up skipping the last NUSMS G2G event tonight: a physics assignment due date kept me back, sadly.

10 12 19 - 10 14 19

Saturday

learning about lah and can singigh

Monday

Spent the weekend doing homework, and did some planning for more trips today. I also updated my resume and am starting to work on securing an internship for the coming summer.

Over the course of the weekend I found out that I got a 78 on my math midterm (prof said average was around 70 so not too worried) and a 75 on my physics midterm (it's only worth 10% of the final grade, so not heavily weighted).

10 7 19 - 10 11 19

Wednesday

Nils messaged me on WhatsApp today!

Friday

Not a very eventful week. Didn't even take the MRT once this week until today. I had two labs and multiple 9-5 days, followed by meetings in the evenings. Though just after midterms, the week was busy as ever.

Yesterday I met up with Muhammed Ali and our gang to plan our trip to Bali

Anyway, today my 9am class was cancelled, so I slept in comfortably, then got ready for Jumu'ah. I decided to try and make some more progress on my masjid tour given that I had the day off, so I ended up going to Masjid Ahmad for Jumu'ah.

10 4 19 - 10 6 19 The Abode of Peace

Another travel weekend, this time to Brunei Darussalam (via Kuala Lumpur). See the dedicated page here for the full trip report.

9 30 19 - 10 4 19 The Week of Stress

This is midterm week, so I won't have much to share aside from how I felt about my midterms as I take them. I'll spend most of the time studying.

Monday

I did try a new place for lunch: I discovered a Chinese place at the Science canteen was Halal, so I decided to give it a try. I got the sweet and sour chicken meal, and it was amazing! I will definitely be going there again Inshallah.

Tuesday

Finished my 30-minute ME3162 exam at 3:00; alhamdulillah it was along the lines of what I expected. I'm hoping for at least a 15/20 inshaAllah. Anyway, with one of four stresses off my shoulders. I treated myself to an iced green tea and a delicious pulled lamb wrap for lunch at YIH.

Wednesday

Studied all day.

Thursday

Don't feel that good about the thermo test, but alhamdulillah for everything. Hoping for a 70%. Math went well, I got all problems except number 5, which stumped me. Hoping for a 90 inshallah. Studied for Physics for the rest of the day, did a lot of printing for the Brunei trip and the coming week's assignments.

Friday

It's now almost 10:30am, and I've finished making my helpsheet for the exam. I'll finish packing for Brunei now, then go to return some books to the library (due today) before sitting for my exam.

9 22 19 Bondi Beach + Burgers

9 21 19 A New Continent

I woke up at 6:00 am, prayed Fajr, ate a hurried, yet filling breakfast (eggs and toast), and packed some snacks for the flight (crackers). Then, with a goodbye to the family, I headed off to catch bus 24 to Changi, around 6:45 am. I arrived around 7:10 pm, got my boarding pass sorted out, then crossed through immigration, officially entering the no-man's-land "transit area" of the airport.

I made it in time to catch Mohamed as he was about to board his flight, UA2 to SFO (at the gate right next to mine!) and give a final goodbye. He gave me the remaining $14 of his SGD cash, as he had no use for it. We briefly reminisced about our trip to Tioman and his stay in Singapore before parting ways as he went to join the boarding line. At this point, it was around 7:40am, and my other friends (Muhammed Ali, Zafar, and Saad) had just arrived at the airport via Grab. I took a seat in the terminal while they grabbed breakfast and got through immigration. Finally, the crew was together!

We made our way towards the gate, stopping to fill up water and exchange currency on the way. Upon arriving at the gate, we discovered something unique about Changi airport: security screening happens at the gate, as you board (so THAT"S why we weren't stopped about our water and liquids earlier). We saw quite a huge line, so we sat down and waited for the line to die down. Then, we got through security, where I lost my face scrub and Muhammed Ali his scissors. All of us lost our waters, so we headed to the refiling station only to find a huge line. They were literally closing the boarding gates as we filled up water, but we made it on just in time.

Since we didn't pay for seats, we were split up, although I was the only one in the back of the aircraft (the other three were near the front). Actually, my seat was in the corner in the last row of the plane. so I was fortunate enough to get more legroom where a third seat would normally go but couldn't due to the plane's shape.

After enjoying the takeoff and an hour of sleep, I cracked out my ME3162 textbook to knock out some studying. This was how I spent the majority of the 6-hour 50-minute flight (also snacking on crackers), as I only packed it away to take in the night landing in Sydney. I did also make friends with my seatmate, who was a graduate NUS student in Business (did other studies on Chinese mainland). We talked for a bit throughout the flight, and had established a pretty good vibe by the time we disembarked.

After arriving, we all ran to the bathroom, then proceeded to immigration. For some reason, I was able to use the automated lanes (US privilege haha), so I cleared immigration in 30 seconds, and had to wait 10 minutes for the others to come through. We then proceeded through customs together, uneventfully Alhamdulillah, and got an Uber to our AirBnB.

We dropped off our stuff, then went to get dinner from the nearest halal place we could find: a kabab sandwich shop. We enjoyed our meal, came back home, and got to work planning the rest of our trip in Australia. After a solid hour and half, our plan was in place and we got ready to sleep, before winding down while watching rugby. Saad taught the rest of us the rules and how exactly the game is played, so a nice learning experience. Finally, after quite a long day, I called it a night at 3:00am (Sydney time).

9 20 19

Friday

Spent the morning sleeping in, catching up from the sleep deficit of Tioman. Then packed for an hour, the headed off to Physics. After that, Jumu'ah at Tentera Diraja (in English again!!). My usual Friday routine is to grab lunch at E2 after Jumu'ah, but I was feeling like having some fast food ;), so I opted for Burket King at Kent Ridge MRT instead.

After that, I returned home, did some last-minute laundry, and finished packing up, Then printed out my important documents, washed and filled my water bottle, grabbed Muhammed Ali's jacket to return to him tomorrow (at the airport), and headed off to Kent Ridge MRT; except I LEFT MUHAMMED ALI'S JACKET ON THE WATER COOLER! I only realized while en route from Paya Lebar (I pit-stopped at Wak Tajong for Maghrib) to Simei. Luckily, I was able to coordinate with Saad who was still at PGP to grab it, so he should bring it to me (so that I can return it to Muhammed Ali) tomorrow Inshallah.

Anyway, arrived at the family's place by 8:15, sat down for dinner. Then after which I finalized bookings for the Brunei trip (yes, another trip coming up), and sent totals to Zafar. Now I'm just writing this post here, and I'll sign off for the night so I can get to Changi on time tomorrow morning.

9 19 19

Thursday

I came back from Tioman Island to a boatload of work on Thursday. Mainly, straight classes from 9am to 6pm, with break for lunch and Duhur from 2 to 4. After getting home at 6, I had to catch up on the recorded lectures I'd missed on Tuesday, so that basically occupied the rest of my day.

I checked in for my flight to Sydney during Thermodynamics lecture. After receiving my boarding pass, I realized I had made a (huge?) mistake: I put my passport expiry as month-day-year instead of day-month-year. I must have been confused by the way they do things here in SG so I guess I'll have to talk to the Scoot staff at the airport and see if it'll be a big issue.

9 17 19 - 9 18 19 Tioman Island

Wow. What an adventure! From start to end, this trip definitly felt like much longer than a day and a half. By the end, Mohamed and I mutually agreed that our 'week' of travels at TIoman Island was a good one. Here's the story...

4:30 am. Woke up, brushed, packed up toiletries, and cleared the bathroom for the PGPR bathroom cleaning that was going to happen in my absence.

5:00 am. Went downstairs to the foyer, filled up on water, and then called a Grab. Nothing. 2nd try: nothing. 3rd try: nothing still. It seemed that there were no grab drivers nearby at that hour, so I resorted to calling a taxi. I happened to see instructions for how to call one on the wall next to the water machine, so I followed them, and well, 5 minutes later a Comfort DelGro cab rolled up!

5:30 am. Taxi dropped me at the Kovan Hub--it came to a whopping S$30! I saw a McDonalds nearby, and decided to grab a bite to eat. It seems Mohamed had the same idea, so we both got food. We then prayed Fajr next to the bus stop, as Athan had just come in at 5:39. Finally, we boarded the bus. This leg of the trip was with KKKL from Singapore to Mersing.

6:00 am. We were on our way, leaving right on time. I got back to sleep, saving my food for when I actually wanted to "wake up." The bus ride up to the border was great, and uneventful. The bus had AC, wide comfy seats with recline, and free Wi-Fi. The border crossing was smooth and quick, as nobody was trying to go from Singapore to Malaysia at this early hour (there was monstrous traffic in the other direction though, from all the MY to SG commuters).

7:00 am. After the border crossing however, it became increasingly hard to sleep due to the particular driving style of our driver. He would drive fast then have to slow down (the road was very curvy), and this combined with the bumps made it nearly impossible to get good sleep. He did get us to Mersing anhour ahead of schedule though, so I guess it paid off...?

9:00 am. Arrived in Mersing. With half an hour to kill until check-in for the Tioman ferry opened, we decided to go to the local masjid, and MashaAllah, what a masjid it was! On a hill at the highest point in the city, we found Masjid Jamek Mersing. Not only were the views of the city and coastline unobstructed, but the masjid's interior was also quite an interesting place. It had quite a unique looking mimbar which, in my opinion looked (quite fittingly) somewhat like a boat. And the echo; the echo was such that you didn't even need a microphone to be heard throughout the whole masjid, even if reciting at a regular volume.

10:05 am. Headed back to the ferry terminal, checked in with my itinerary confirmation. They then gave us boarding tickets. We went to the jetty and showed the boarding tickets to get boarding passes. We waited in line with the boarding passes, and 60 seconds later the boarding passes were handed over again; but more importantly we were on the boat! In the process, we met a very friendly local who was commuting to work on Tioman Island. He gave us recommendations on where to get off the ferry for the best chance to get a chartered boat. He predicted that we would reach our stop by 1:30pm.

11:00 am. This leg was with Bluewater Express: the boat ride itself was calmer than our earlier bus (I even got a solid hour of sleep) and we got to the first stop at Tioman Island within two hours. One complaint about the ride was the stench of cigarette smoke that was constantly present--the crew would smoke outside and the smell would waft inside the cabin. Anyway, we were getting off at the last stop, so we stayed on.

1:30 pm. We arrived at Kampung Tekek, on time as predicted by the local. Tekek is the main city on Tioman, and one of the only ones with a significant network of roads. When we exited the ferry terminal, there was a shuttle waiting to take us to our hotel for check-in (It would have been a 30 minute walk in the heat otherwise). The Berjaya Tioman Hotel is a sprawling estate, and the only 5-star hotel on the island. We were dropped off at our "room" / beach house via golf cart after checking in.

GAVE UP ON MUKUT / HIKE TO ASAH

2:30 pm. Prayed Duhur. Got prepped and went in search of someone to take us to Coral Island, known locally as Pulau Tulai. We finally found a kiosk at the hotel's main road entrance, the "Happy Lobster Vacation Company." After a bit of negotiation with the driver, we convinced him to organize a boat for us to visit the two most-recommended snorkeling spots for a reasonable price. It came out to 350 RM, which is around $90 USD.

3:20 pm. Picked up from the kiosk by our personal transport vehicle (a pickup truck with AC!).

9 16 19

After a loong day of classes, met up with herbert, gave himmy ezlink, and we went to see the water show at the marina bay, then we went to the super tree grove, then called it a night, cause we had to sleep early for the next day's early start. I ended up sleeping closer to one am though, because I wanted to be all packed so that all I had to do was roll out of bed at 4:30 am, finish prepping my room for the pgpr cleanin b-room, and head out

9/15/19 nothing much to show for today. dod a lot of homework to cautch up and get ahead in order to make time for my upcoming travels

studied for my hindi miderem tomorrow. did a whole lot of laundry in preparationfor my upcoming trips. totally drained my EZ linkcard balance!

9/14/19 nothing much. got a harcut at a random place in clementi called snip avenue. reviews weren't higher than one star so i was taking a huge risk, but i went with my gut. after all, my cut is a simple one. it went well alhamdulillah. I also took the opportunity ti mail m malaysia postcards at the nearby SingPost. had pineapple banana pancakes fro breakfast

8/25/19 Sunday nothing much exciting happened, spent part of teh day planning exciting trips though ;) stay tuned

8/24/18: The Jewel

I spent most of the day doing homework, catching up on lectures, and preparing for the school week ahead. The highlight of the day were the few hours I spent at one of Singapore's most recently opened--and yet most famous--attractions: The Jewel at Changi Airport. The Jewel is an orb-like structure located between the three main airport terminals. It is landside, so anyone can go.

8/23/19: Friday

good day, classes, mechat 9am, phys halway at 12 then juma bus c, stayed in masjid and recited kahf and fell asleep briefly (nice) headed to e2 for lunch, had another singaporean classic for first time (ramen) the real deal. [pics] went to counselsg event at night dhoby ghaut mrt (no pic), headed to relatives house, upper changi mrt

8/22/19: thursday

classes, I slept through my 9am thermo lecture...lol woke up at 9 30 ish. its ok tho, i wasnt fully caught up from the lecture i missed, so now ill just try to catch up on both lectures for next week, when we start the real deal (Chapter 3) which is th emeat of the first half of the course. was able to find my thermo textbook available for checkout in the llbrary. snatched it up today. confirmed my travels for the weekend (wekend and uncle mustafa's house in simei (east singapore)).

went to get spatula from station half an hour away, was nice outing

i tried another singaporean classic for the first time..carrot cake

8/21/19: wednesday

classes, again, and msa welcome tea. saw my old buds and made a few new ones. booked my flights to australia (yeah m8!). blew my nose a lot.

8/20/19: A busy day

Tuesday, cold progressing, mech process instructor is continuouslyfunny, played flute at end of class lol. hot chicken spaghetti for breakfast lunch

met with rahul over bubble tea. went to msa agm, was closing event for last academic cycle, saw the outgoing leadership present their work form the [ast year. it was amazing how much they accomplised. was confused by the organizationall structure. to hand over leadership to their new counter[arts, the old comittee exco members exchanged gifts. adil was the one to oficcially dissolve teh exco, was an emotional moment. was very cool to see what al they normally do.

8/19/19: Catching a Cold

Monday, woke up starting to feel sick, went to clas after forgetting briefly that I had a class at 10a, ran out the door at 9 57 and made it to class 15 mins late after an unanticipated 8 flights of stairs.

8/18/19: Botanic Gardens (Round 2)

Sunday

Today was a good day Alhamdulillah. I started the day with a light breakfast of cereal, then got to work on some prep for classes on Monday. At around 12, I got a load of laundry started. I had to dry it twice on high this time, which cost me S$2 (it was a large load though). I grabbed lunch from the Dickson's, the Halal Indian food stall in the food court six stories below me. This was butter chicken and naan (always good stuff). Then I met up with Muhammed Ali and Suleiman for a trip to the Botanic Gardens at around 3. because we'r ecoming fro different parts of campus, They were transferring lines and catching the train that I was on, so it took some coordination to get us all together, but we managed. We spent about 2 hours seeing the sights of the Botanic Gardens. I show the highlights here, but you can see my full gallery from the Botanic Gardens here. Around 6:15, we had done all of the exciting stuff, and with only one area left at th efar corner of the park, we called it quits for the day--we all needde to prep for the school week ahead--and decided to come back another day to do it. With that, we rode to my MRT stop, Kent Ridge, stopped to grab a few things from the FairPrice @ NUH (I got bananas and shampoo), then we went our separate ways: Me taking the A2 to PGPR and Muhammed Ali & Suleiman taking the D2 to UTown. As soon as I got back, I started prepping for a dinner + Isha trip. Got the D2 to NUH, then got some Seafood Fried Rice at FKT (a classic) before heading out again to catch my bus to the masjid--this time the 95 (city bus). I decided to try a new tactic for soming back from Tentera Diraja. Usually I would take a bus to Haw Par Villa MRT, then ride one stop to KR MRT, then take the A2 or D2 to PGPR: all in all about a 30 minute trip (averaging wait times) and costing me a $1.50 since I was using public transit. Today I decided to walk to the NUS Museum bus stop, where I could catch the A2 directly and ride it all the way to PGPR. 10 mins wa;;lking + 10 mins on the A2 = 20 minute trip...not bad! I probably would have walked the same amount anyway in trasferring! This was made possible by wifi at Tenterea Diraja.

8 10 19

8 9 19 National Day SG, +4 Masjids

8 8 19 +4 Masjids

8 7 19 Pulau Ubin

8 6 19 Finding My Local Masjid

8 5 19 Made A Friend, +2 Masjids

8 4 19 The Real Move-In

8 3 19 West Coast Park

8 2 19 First Jumu'ah In SG

Friday

Today Adil, outgoing NUSMS President, offered to take me for lunch and my first Jumu'ah in Singapore; I happily obliged. We met up at Kent Ridge (KR) MRT around 11am. From there, we went to Bugis MRT, and walked to the famed Arab Street district. After getting an initial glimpse of the renowned Masjid Sultan, we went to a nearby shop to grab a drink before salah.

Not an avid coffee or tea drinker, I was unsure what to get and so I let Adil pick for me. He chose sugar cane juice. It had an interesting flavor, but surprisingly wasn't overpoweringly sweet. So haha take that Mama, after all your no-sugar brainwashing I drank cup of pure cane sugar JUICE! While enjoying our drinks we talked about Singapore and the U.S. A bit about the education system (Legacy came up too). I learned that all Singaporean citizens are required to do two years of national service between high school and university, either in the military, or civil defense force (Adil worked as an ambulance driver). I also learned that Singapore has very few public holidays, and the ones they do have are divided up fairly equally between the major religious/ethinc groups of Singapore [FINISH].

By the time we finished our drinks, it was nearing Duhur time, so we went and sat in the masjid (Masjid Sultan) awaiting the khutbah. The khutbah was in Malay, so I understood nothing (the translation was projected onto screens though).

After completing salah, Adil took me to Hj Maimunah Restaurant (again on Arab Street) for a traditional Malay-style cuisine. We were joined by one of his friends as well. The food itself was quite good: the base was a compacted dome of rice, which was accompanied by grilled chicken, steamed vegetables, coconut chicken curry, and chili (a staple condiment of Malay dining).

Following our meal Adil took me to Wardah Books, an Islamic Bookstore on Arab Street. The book offerings spanned a wide variety of genres, and we spent an hour or more just browsing bits and pieces of books throughout the shop. Adil said that this was how he would soend some afternoons--just getting lost in the books for a few hours.

At last, around asr in masjid

7 28 19 Move-In

Sunday

The big day finally came: it was time to move in to my residence on the NUS campus. I took the MRT (Singapore's subway / metro), then an Internal Shuttle Bus before finally arriving at Prince George's Park Residences. [Insert picture] After checking in, I found out that I'd be staying in a temporary room for a week while my newly-renovated room gets the finishing touches. I won't bother to show that here, as I'll show the new room when that day comes. I unloaded my bags, then went to the on-site minimart to pick up some essentials: bedsheets, soap, shampoo, etc.

7 26 19 - 7 28 19 Recovery & Marina Bay

I spent the two days after I arrived just recovering from jet lag and getting acclimated to the heat, and stayed with a family-friend in Singapore. Because of this, not much happened really. I did buy my local SIM card with StarHub, so now I have Singapore mobile number!

OH...one small thing I missed: on Saturday 7/27, I went for my first glimpse of only ONE OF THE MOST ICONIC LANDMARKS of Singapore: the Gardens By The Bay. I spent a few hours in that area and got to see the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and the Bay itself, and take a walk on the Skybridge in Supertree Grove--providing quite picturesque views of the city skyline. I've only put a few highlights below, so check out the gallery to see all my pictures from this outing.

I now had to collect my three suitcases, and transfer to the International Terminal, which was one stop over via the inter-terminal people mover, AirTrain. After lugging my suitcases with me up three elevators, I got to the AirTrain station . . . only to find that the Red Line was out of service for maintenance.

This meant that I had to take the long way around: 5 stops on the Blue Line. Whatever, not a big deal.

Anyway, more time on the train = fun.

Once I got to the International Terminal, I went to the Singapore Airlines area to check-in my bags. Seeing some self-service kiosks, I quickly ran to those knowing that my carry-on was overweight. I thought I might be able to slide by the weighing if I talked to the machine instead of the agent at the counter. Scanned my passport, boarding pass--you know, the usual stuff--and stuck my baggage tags on the suitcases (after taking the Southwest tags off, of course).

Then I saw the bag drop station. There was an agent there, waiting for me. Gulp.

I went up and she started weighing my bags one by one. I secretly hoped that maybe they'll only weigh the check-ins.

"Your cabin bag, sir"

"Huh?" I asked, acting like I didn't understand.

"Is that your carry-on bag sir?"

"Yeah it is"

"Can you please put it up here, I need to make sure it is the correct weight"

Although I knew I should take some stuff out like I had planned, I panicked in that moment and just put it on the scale.

"Ooh 9 kg"

"Huh?" I played dumb.

"Ok sir, your bag is a bit overweight, it should be 7 kg." Before I could say anything, she said, "I'll let it go this time."

"Oh thank you, thank you." I don't know what it was--maybe the way I looked, maybe the fact that I was traveling alone, maybe something else--that made her give me a pass on that one.

She continued, "Just when you get on the plane, don't let the flight attendants put your bag up for you, because they will know. They will know its heavy. They lift these every day. So just put the bag up in the overhead bin yourself, ok sir?"

"Ok , yes, I will do that. Thank you so much," I replied, still reeling in shock that I got away with that.

"Ok thank you, enjoy your flight sir."

Alhamdulillah. I made it unscathed. I took a moment to gather my documents, then went to the bathroom to do wudu, then to the chapel, which was landside and not far from the check-in area. The Berman Reflection Room, as it's called, was nice but designed on the inside to show no affiliation with any religion whatsoever. Regardless, I found the qiblah, prayed Maghrib and Isha, retied my shoes, and was back on my way to security within half an hour.

Security was a breeze--they didn't stop me for further checks of my vitamins like they did in Tulsa.