Al-Hiyaa Al-Yawmiya (Daily Life)

Well I've been here for about 2 weeks now (it feels like so much more), and things are starting to settle down. I decided on my classes, and I'm pretty happy with all of them. I'm taking Classical Arabic, Colloquial Egyptian Arabic, Islamic Politics (Like my modern Islam class at Tufts, but in Arabic!!!! It's my first time reading Islamic theorists in Arabic, taking notes in Arabic, discussing in Arabic, and writing papers in Arabic. Both invigorating and intimidating...), and a "one-on-one" History of the Middle East class, which is basically the same deal as Islamic Politics as far as doing readings, writing papers, etc. but it's just me and the professor, which on the one hand is even more intimidating, but on the other hand helps because I can ask him to stop if I don't understand something or if I need a word explained. It went pretty well today until towards the end when I think he got excited because I understood him so well, and in his excitement talked at rapid speed. But all in all, I'm excited to see how I improve this semester.

Outside of class there have been activities organized for us, for example every other week we learn popular songs in Egyptian colloquial, so a few days ago we went to a concert for the band Wust Al Balad, whose songs we learned in class. We also had a scavenger hunt in the city, and have celebrated one birthday already at the somewhat westernized restaurant/sketchy dance place called "Mermaid."

I still haven't gotten to dance yet, but I'm in the process of remedying that...the program might offer Raqs Shaabi (Middle Eastern folk dance) classes to us at a reduced price starting next week. I had really been hoping for belly dancing lessons, but it turns out there isn't really any organized instruction here, only in Cairo.

Life in "the Medina" (literally "the city" in Arabic, it's the place where students who are from out of town live while school is in session, and where we Americans live), takes some getting used to, but is definitely manageable. I have a mattress that isn't like a rock this time (in comparison to last summer...), however my bed sags in the middle, so its like I'm in a hammock. This is the case for most of the girls. The bathroom consists of 3 toilets (only 2 of which work) and 2 shower stalls for the whole floor. There is no toilet paper, and no soap. Which means you need to remember to buy toilet paper, and to take it with you every time you use the bathroom. If you forget, well...you learn the hard way. Also, there is really poor drainage, so every time someone takes a shower, the whole bathroom floods. So you need to remember to always wear shoes (you also learn this the hard way).

Food also is a little rough, but definitely tolerable. For breakfast we usually have some type of hard bread, jam, occasionally plain yogurt (which I dump honey in), hard boiled eggs, plain cornflakes, and either milk or juice (but we're not allowed both, unfortunately). I still haven't figured out why the milk and yogurt don't need to be refrigerated....For lunch we're on our own, and we usually run to Abu Rabia, a tiny restaurant close to our school where you can get a fool (bean paste) pita for 75 piasters (you do the math: 5.5 guineas in a dollar and 100 piasters in a guinea, so obviously very cheap by American standards). For dinner we usually have some sort of fried chicken or fish, rice, occasionally some vegetables with lots of oil, sometimes soup, sometimes noodles, and sometimes fruit. All I can say is I've learned to be a lot less picky. I now eat eggplant and cucumber because they're basically the only vegetables we get, as well as oranges and tangerines, because they're basically the only fruits we get.

The Egyptians that live with us are very friendly and very sociable. My roommate has had exams this whole time (yes, the education system in Egypt is pretty rough. They had final exams that stretched this entire past month), but we went shopping last night together which was really nice and a great way to practice my speaking. They are all very nocturnal as well. I don't know when they sleep, but obviously not at night. The combination of thin walls and loud voices (soooo much louder than the dorms at either Tufts or Carleton) woke me up at 2:30 am this morning. There's just this sort of sisterhood, I guess. A friend compared it to freshman year in college when everyone travels in packs and is always in each other's rooms. Except some of these girls are in their 5th or 6th year of school (at least in the case of the medical students).

I suppose that's enough for now. It's really difficult to balance keeping in touch with people and trying to immerse myself in this new language and culture. I've been trying more and more to think in Arabic, but that's somewhat difficult because every time something out of the ordinary happens (which is basically every day here), I want to share it with friends and family at home so I automatically start thinking about it in English.