My(Abridged) Adventure So Far

So, now that you know all about my trip over, I suppose I need to start talking about what I've been up to this whole time. I've been up to a lot. I'll try to cover all the important or interesting bits.

The first place we all went in Alexandria was the girls' dorm. All the female students in the program were dropped off here and left in the care of our roommates. Every female student living in the dorms is paired with an Egyptian woman. Having a roommate from your own country and your own culture can be very difficult, and it stands to reasons that the same would apply with someone from a completely different culture. While this may be true because there are certainly occasional differences or misunderstandings, I have to say that one of my favorite things about the program so far is my Egyptian roommate. Honestly, she's a riot. She has a wonderful sense of humor and a boisterous personality. It's very difficult to be sad with her around. She's also always willing to  help, be it with homework, or taxis, or getting to a market, or even lending me a set of pajamas the first night I was there because my bag hadn't made it upstairs yet. Also, she's told me that her mother is a teacher، and that she's looking forward to helping me with my Arabic...which is good, because on day 3 of the language pledge, I can certainly say that I need all the help that I can get. Hopefully at the end I'll look back at this and laugh, but right now it can get pretty frustrating not being able articulate what I'm thinking or feeling.

During orientation we all got shown around the university, and the city as well because of some of our excursions. The first morning I was in Alexandria, a group of us walked five minutes down the street and I took this picture. It's almost like being at home. It smells the same, but the wind isn't nearly as cold. Go figure. Maybe I should start an Egyptian lobster fishing business...

During orientation we also went to the Alexandria Library. The big, famous one. We got a tour, and it's enormous. It's very different from a regular library, though. You can never check out any of the materials in the library. They're only available to use in the library. We also went to the National Museum in Alexandria, which was relatively small, but gave a good picture of Egyptian history through the ages, from Pharonic Egypt to contemporary Egypt. It was very interesting, and also air-condition, which was definitely a bonus.

Later in the week the Dean of the Faculty of the Arts set our program up to go to this amazing park that was once the palace garden when Egypt still had monarchs. We got a tour of the palace that the king used as an office, and then we sat outside in the garden on these big couches and talked and had juice and tea and coffee and smoked shisha(hookah). It was a wonderful time. There was a performance by a 'Whirling Dervish.' See how they got the name? It was quite a sight to see.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=432770284813&ref=mf

 Before we went to the palace gardens, we had Iftar at an Egyptian restaurant.

So, about Iftar and Ramadan: When we arrived in Egypt, it was during the last week and a half or so of the month of Ramadan on the Islamic calendar. During Ramadan, Muslims fast during the daylight hours. They get up very early, before sunrise, or as seems to be the case with our Egyptian roommates, stay up all night, and eat a large meal before the sun rises. During the day, they abstain from eating, but look out when the sun sets (around 6:15), because everything stops. Shops close, trams stop running, and everyone begins Iftar, which means breaking the fast. The Iftar we had in the restaurant consisted of pita bread with hummus or tahini, different kinds of meat, rice, beans, and a drink called 'qamr al-deen,' which is a very sweet kind of apricot beverage. It was very, very good.

After all this fun, things finally had to get serious. We had placement exams, and then the (in)famous signing of the language pledge. Honestly, life is a lot harder not being able to speak at all in English. It makes simple things like asking for food or arranging to meet, or traveling very difficult at times. This is all complicated by the fact that most of us have only studied al-Fus-ha, which is Classical Arabic(kind of like Shakespearean English), but all of the people here speak ammiyya, or colloquial Arabic, and many don't speak or understand Fus-ha very well. So, as it stands, we're all kind of learning ammiyya on the fly. Hopefully when classes start it will get easier.