al-akhbar al-jadeed Trip to Rasheed, etc.

al-akbar al-jadeed. The new news. Of course, as always, I'm a little behind on my blog updates. I apologize, but I swear- it's been a busy last few weeks!! The homework has really been piling up- it seems our teachers mean business this semester. I actually recently wrote a research paper for my Modern Standard Arabic class that was 13 pages long! 2492 words in Arabic. Complete with academic citations and a chart. I feel like this means I've reached a whole new level in my Arabic ability.

We also took a class trip to Rasheed, a small town in the Egyptian country side where one of the forks of the nile meets the Mediterranean Sea. Better known as the place where the Rosetta stone was discovered which helped Egyptologists finally unlock the secrets to translating ancient Egyptian Heiroglyphics. Famous also for its resistance of the French occupation. Apparently the people of Rasheed, lacking any real way to defend themselves, poured boiling water on French soldiers when they tried to enter their houses. The tactic worked and the French vacated the town. Lesson: Don't mess with angry Egyptians with hot water. Not a good idea.

We visited the Citadel and the spot where the nile and the sea meet. We had a lovely lunch of fish at a local restaurant. Rasheed, like Alexandria, is famous for its fish. Then we visited the local museum and an old bath house where brides and grooms used to go to prepare for their wedding. We finished the day on a nice hill with a scenic view. Apparently we were supposed to go for a boat ride, but the tourist police weren't aware of this and because they couldn't make the proper preparations, we weren't allowed to go. Being escorted around by tourist police is always interesting. It's convient for us- they tend to stop traffic and generally interrupt the lives of all of the Egyptians so that we can get through. Inconvient for the Egyptians though.

It's been a little bit of a stressful past couple of weeks. One of my roommates who recently moved in at the end of January has been having some medical problems that resulted in her having to go back to the states. It makes me very greatful that by in large I have remained healthy here.

I'm very excited now because my Mom will be arriving in the next few days. I look forward to showing her around and getting her to experience my life here and the Egyptian culture. I will definitely be taking her to Cairo and also on a trip to several monestaries out in the desert through a trip through my program. Time on the beach on the north coast is also in order. Hopefully she will enjoy her trip very much!

As March quickly passes, I look forward to April when we are on spring break. I plan on going on a camping trip in the White Desert and then to Dahab to get my SCUBA certification. Good times will surely abound. Then after spring break, it's under two months until I head home. I decided that on the way home I would stop for a two or three day lay over in Paris. I figured it would be nice to drink some good wine, eat some fancy cheese, and see the Eiffel tower, as well as expand my French vocabularly, which right about now consists of about 5 words, two of them being baguette and croissant.