At last- the end of Egypt, our trip home, and readjustment to all things Red, White, and Blue

So I suppose I owe anyone who was actually still reading my blog at the end of the year an apology. I promised to write about the end of my trip and then I got home and didn't want to think about Egypt. Ever. Again. Luckily, the more distance I get from the experience, the more I've come to accept it. The good and the bad. This is all part of the re-adjustment to the western world. More on that later.

SO, our last week or so in Alexandria- We had guests from Dahab on two separate occasions. Both groups were welcome distractions from you know, things we should have been doing, like studying for finals. Although in the end, I failed the only final I actually studied for (14+ hours with my academic partner the week before, so it wasn't for a lack of trying!). We were more than happy to show our guests around Alex. The first group was 2 Americans and an Australian. The second group was an American, Mexican, Canadian, and Australian. We sent them out exploring Alexandria while we took our finals and we had beer and smoked shisha with them. Just before leaving, one of them set off fireworks (very small noise maker ones) in our living room. All around fantastic time.

Someone suggested to me that I was crazy for letting these guys stay in our apartment after having know them for a very brief time on our

Dahab trip. A few of them we d

idn't even know, they just accompanied the ones we did know. I guess it might seem a little crazy, but you form this weird bond with people you meet in Egypt, who are not Egyptians, or from the Middle East, or Europe for that matter. You all share that adventurous spirit and you bond. I would still open my house to any of them who came to visit the states. Even you, Dale, even after the fireworks that made my roommate yell at you.

We all left Alexandria at different times. Some even stayed in Egypt for a month or two to escort relatives and friends around. Laura, Hannah, Nour and I set off for a layover in Paris. I wasn't emotional leaving Alexandria. I didn't think I would miss it. I was wrong. I do miss aspects of it. I miss our apartment, the view from our balcony sitting and drinking my coffee in the morning. I miss hearing the call to prayer. I miss the man yelling down the street, selling strawberries every morning. I miss being able to speak English in public and not have everyone understand me. But there are lots of things I don't miss. More on that later.

I was more than anything sad to leave the people in my program. We had become close in the last year. So close that

I think we were all driving each other crazy. So it was definitely time to part ways. Luckily, I've been able to see some of them again. I spent the first two weeks of July in Washington, DC house and job hunting and hanging out with Laura and Sara, and also seeing Nour. I heard Hannah was in town, but missed her. My mom and I drove up to Michigan one Saturday afternoon in June to see Valerie who was in Ann Arbor for a weekend for a conference. These are the ladies I lived with. The ladies that made my year in Alexandria bearable. And I miss seeing them everyday and I will continue to do so.

Anyway- Paris. Oh Paris. What a city. When we arrived late at night, having not slept much in our last week in Alexandria, lugging Nour's giant 100 lbs suitcase with broken wheels around, I hated it. I hated the French everywher

e. I hated the rain. I hated the cold. By morning, after the most delicious coffee I've ever had, I began to take a more positive view. I confess I was a bit underwhelmed in general by the city. The Eiffel To

wer was just a big hunk of metal, the Chanzelize was a street with a bunch of shops with goods I couldn't even afford to look at. And not understanding French, I failed to make a connection with the local population. But I did on our second day of walking around find myself in love

with the city. The art, everywhere, on the street. Walking along the river, my eye attached to my camera, seeing everything in shades and colors and shapes in magnificent contrast to the dark, dusty, crowded streets of Egypt.Someone yelled at me for walking into a coffee shop and asking for the bathroom.

The green. I had forgotten how much I love the color green. Even if some pollen in Paris gave all of us wicked allergy attacks. I would have a similar thought driving from Cleveland to Columbus after I returned home. The flat, endless fields of agriculture that stretch through rural Ohio, that feed so many. This landscape stands in such stark contrast to the endless desert full of brown rock and dust in rural Egypt. Whereas, having grown up in Ohio, making the trip from Cleveland to Ann Arbor for school countless times, driving through this endless stretch of green, finding the view of farmland mundane, I can only imagine what an Egyptian would say at such a sight, just as I found the western Sahara and the moon like landscape of Sinai fascinating. I marveled at the architecture in Paris, at the endless corner flower shops, the couples walking side by side, holding hands and embracing openly.

We drank coffee, ate creme brulee and cheese, and bought cheap wine and champaign. I loved the whimsical feeling in the city, the romantic appeal. I felt like anything

was possible and some crazy love affair waited around every cobblestone corner. I was in love with Paris, if only for the simple fact that it was not Egypt.

The two days in Paris passed quickly. The night before we left, we went to dinner with the man who owned the apartment we were staying in- our French grandfather.

He was an adorable man who left us bananas on the door in the morning and took us out to a lovely dinner- refu

sing to let us pay. "Listen to you all!" he said, in French. "Whining like babies- 'let us pay! Let us pay!' Listen. I'm the old man, you're the young ladies, it's my job to pay." I had

the most delicious French onion soup and we all tried snails. A little earthy, but not too bad. I think it's all in the sauce.

I was glad to finally arrive home after a brief lay over in DC.

Begin re-acclimation. Things I had to re-adjust to:

1) being able to wear shorts and tank tops in public. I still have a hard time with this one. Sometimes I see girls walking down the street and I want to yell, "put on some clothes!"

2) American food. I was mildly ill for about 2 weeks after I got home.

3) All the English. I miss Arabic.

4) Being able to flush toilet paper. Awesome.

5) That mild feeling in the pit of my stomach missing Egypt.

While I do miss Egypt a little, there are aspects I really don't miss. The crowds. The taxi drivers trying to rip me off.

The endless harassment and sexism that has cranked my already ardent feminism (I went to UofM, it happens) into something like a steroid induced overdrive. The flagship program (minus Robyn. I miss our director, Robyn).

They say that we were the first large group. There were bound to be problems and kinks to work out. They're making things better for students this year. I hope so. And while I admit that sometimes our efforts were lacking, they never bothered to understand why. I think American Councils labeled the majority of students in our program as simply unmotivated, uninterested, and lazy.

Yet, I know we are all great students. I'm sure our academic records at our home Universities reflect such. Why did we not succeed then, as they expected? It couldn't possibly be the poor curriculum that not only failed to reflect our actual abilities, but bored us to the point of exhaustion. The poor organization on everything. The failure of the program to understand the challenges students, especially female students, were facing outside (and sometimes inside) the academic program. The extreme culture shock that

actually caused a breakdown in one of the TAFL center students I lived with second semester? The inevitable depression. Personal issues that arose individually and within the group. etc. etc. The list goes on. Unfortunately, no. American Councils has failed to recognize the numerous challenges, obstacles, and pitfalls we overcame.

For some, simply making it through the whole year, just staying in Egypt, was an accomplishment. Like I mentioned before, one of my roommates second semester didn't make it. In fact, the culture shock was so extreme for her, she left only 3 weeks after she moved in with us. Instead, American Councils has chosen to see us as irresponsible and, I think, a general waste of their time.

Laura, Sara, and I had lunch with 2 girls that were with us in the summer last year and are going back in the fall for the year long program. We tried to explain why we had left Egypt feeling the way we did. Exhausted. Disillusioned. Angry. But even they did not understand. After trying to explain myself to several people, it's clear: Unless you've lived there for that long period of time, you'll never understand. Tourists could never

understand, in their short visits to the popular destinations. AUC students (yes, I'm ripping on the AUC study abroad students- you don't actually study in Egypt. Deal with it)

who's campus is now located in the middle of the desert outside Cairo, who attend University

with only the upper echelons of Egyptian society, spend EVERY weekend partying in Dahab or in the bars in Cairo, and who do not actually speak Arabic because most people in Cairo speak

English, could never understand.

It's frustrating to have had what was easily the most amazing and most terrible experience of my life, all at the same time, and have no one outside our little group of 14 understand it. But that's the way it is, the way it will always be.

I can only hope that you've enjoyed my stories and my pictures throughout the year. I hope that it gave you a peak into my life abroad, into my incredible journey, and into my personal transformation.

I will continue to use this blog to post updates for my next step in life, though I'm sure they will be far less interesting. I'm still job hunting and planning on moving down to Washington, DC in August with one of my best friends, Kristen Weidus. I've known her since birth, literally. We were next to each other in the nursery. I'm excited to live with her and share adventures while she continues her second year of law school and I look for a job and try to decide in which direction to take my life.

But for now- Shukran thank you. For your interest and support.

Ma'a Salama. With Peace. Goodbye.

Dahab- the final weekend

If I could give one word of advice to next year's program students, it would be to make a periodic escape to Dahab to keep your sanity during the year! We made it back to Dahab with quite the production. I'm not sure if there was some kind of security threat, but our bus was stopped multiple times at check points and twice we were stopped for over an hour. Total, it took us about 14 hours to get to Dahab. But it was worth it. The premise of the weekend was to celebrate Melissa's 21st birthday and we were also invited to the birthday party of Charlie, the British girlfriend visiting her Egyptian boyfriend who is a scuba instructor that we know in Dahab. We arrived and got some food and checked into our hostel. In summary, the weekend consisted of us hanging out at Yalla bar restaurant during the day, sitting in the sun and swimming and then going to happy hour at Yalla bar then moving to Mojito bar for the rest of the evening. The weather was hot and the sea was the perfect temperature for swimming. We celebrated Melissa's birthday in good form, all wearing pink barbie party hats. We much some new friends- a few Austrialians traveling around Egypt, one then making his way to Canada, a guy from Washington state working on his dive master certification, some random French guy. Overall it was a ton of fun. We decided to skip class on Sunday to stay an extra day, well worth it. We were all sad to leave Dahab. It seems like the one place in Egypt that is liberal were we can be more of ourselves. Plus the Red Sea is so beautiful! I never tire of swimming in its crystal blue waters. Now, its back to the reality of Alexandria- the crowd, the traffic, the noise and the weather and humidity are really picking up. We finished our last classes today and have a week of exams and projects in front of us before we leave. Then, it's off to Paris for a two day layover before finally coming home.

I have mixed emotions about the year ending. I'm excited to finally be dome with all the work of our program. I'm happy to be heading back to America. However, I feel like I've finally adjusted to life here. I love hearing the call to prayer, the cheap prices, the fresh juice and other delicious food like fatir and koshary. I'm definitely going to miss the people in my program that I've become close to. Luckily, a lot of them are going to be in Washington, DC, where I hope to move and work after spending some time at home. I will definitely enter a final post or two in my last week here and then I hope to have lots of fantastic tales from paris to tell!!

Spring Break Dahab!!

Shortly after Laura left, it was time for a much needed Spring Break!!! Several of us decided to pack up and go to Dahab for the week, a little spot over on the Red Sea. We took the train down to Cairo and spent a night in Cairo and then hopped a mini bus over to Dahab because the public bus was sold out. We arrived in Dahab early in the morning and lounged until we could check into our hotel.

The week was spent lounging on the beach and eating good food and hanging out with friends. I completed my open water Scuba course! I'll paste a copy of part of an email I sent my parents about my course:
At first it was really scary. It took a bit of time to get used to breathing through the regulator. The first time I went down (we were in super shallow water) I came back up after only 30 seconds because I was scared. But after that, it got easier and easier. We practiced skills like clearing your mask and your regulator, retreiving your regulator if it falls out of your mouth, breathing from a friend's extra regulator, and breathing w/o your mask on.

(pic- My Diving Buddy during my course- Lizzy)

The last one is a little difficult for me because I have contacts, so I have to keep my eyes closed, which is a little scary. Then we did our first open water dive where we just swam around a coral reef. Today we did some harder skills, like taking off and putting back on our weights under and above water and removing and putting back on our BCD (the vest thingy that our tank is attached to) under and above water. We also did an emergency ascent (simulating that you are out of air and have to ascend slowly to the surface) and swimming without our mask on. Everything went well though! The hardest are the drills where you are simulating that you are out of air, and they want you to know what it really feels like, so the instructor turns your tank off (and then right back on). Like I said, it's a little scary at first, but it is getting easier and easier. I love it! I think I'm addicted!!
I completed the course the next day and passed my written exam only missing one question. The course was really great except for my instructor, who was super nice, but Egyptian and was trying to date/marry me on the first day. Brent was also visiting from the States and he went to Dahab to do his open water and advanced SCUBA course, so it was nice to have another visitor from home to hang out with. He even came up to Alexandria to visit for a few days at the end of his trip.

At the end of the week a group of us took a trip out into the desert and hiked through the white canyon, which involved a little more climbing than I expected. I wished I was wearing something other than flip flops! After the white canyon Robert and hopped a ride with a few bedoiuns to Nuweiba and spent the night there. We stayed at a small camp on the beach. At night we had quite the mix of people: Beduins from Sinai, Israelis on holiday, a cook from Sudan, a musician from Saudi Arabia, and of course, us, the 2 Americans. We had everything but an Egyptian! After dinner there was a little party where the musician from Saudi Arabia played some stringed instrument and the beduins sang and danced. It was strange and wonderful. It's hard to explain, but its the kind of experience you only get backpacking around the Middle East.

The next day (my Birthday!) we hopped a bus back to Cairo and then the train from Cairo to Alexandria ending a wonderful spring break!

2 weeks after spring break a few of us went back to Dahab for a long weekend and I completed my advanced SCUBA course, so I am now a certified advanced diver! That weekend was one of the most spectacular weekends I've had in Egypt. I did three dives for my advanced course, including a night dive. I was really worried about the night dive at first, after all, who really wants to be underwater in the dark? But it was surprising how much you could see! It was really relaxing and I enjoyed seeing all the different aquatic life that's out at night! The only bummer was I got nose bleed on the night dive. I thought my mask was filling up with water, but when I lifted my hand holding my flashlight to clear my mask, I could see that it was blood. Luckily it stopped after a few minutes. Other activities included jumping in pool completely clothed. Yes I was in a bar but I was sober! And sang karoake with my friend Sara. For those of you who know me, this is a rare phenomenon. It was a super fun weekend and I was sad to return to Alexandria, but we are actually making another trip to Dahab this weekend for a birthday/engagement party and Melissa's (girl in my program) 21st birthday. It's a long bus ride (around 10 hours) but it's worth. Night bus to Dahab, here we come! Again!

Mom and Laura's Visit Part 2

Ok. Back to update again. Sorry- it's been busy times as usual!

So Laura arrived and we packed our bags and headed to Cairo the next morning. I thought we were taking the direct train, but turned out it was one of the slower ones. It was about a 3.5 hour train ride. We arrived in Cairo, bustling with life as usual and grabbed a taxi to our hotel. By some miracle, my directions landed us pretty close. When I stopped to ask a man about the name of a street, he of course insisted he take us to the hotel, and though I tried to shake him off (he more followed us than anything) he went with us to the hotel and tried to earn a commission from the owner for "bringing in customers" even though we already had a reservation. The owner just blew him off. Then we grabbed some quick lunch at Hardee's complete with a giant poster of Brad Pitt from the 90s up on the wall in the lobby. Laura and I wanted to get a picture by it, but there were people sitting right in front of him, so we passed. Then I walked my Mom and Laura over to the Museum and bought them tickets, using my student ID for Laura so she could get a discount. Whenever she had to show the ID since she really doesn't look like me, but you know, to Egyptians, all short white blonde girls kind of look alike, so she just put on her sunglasses and flashed the ID. Apparently it worked! I went back to the hotel and took a nap since I've been to the Museum 3 times already. When my Mom and Laura got back we hopped a taxi to Al-Azhar park which is a beautiful park on a hill in Cairo where you can see all around the city and hear the call to prayer from everywhere. We watched the sunset and got some dinner. It was beautiful, but a little windy, so it was surprisingly chilly. Then back to the hotel for a quick stop before off to a delitefully sketchy local bar atop a hotel for a beer and a shisha. It was Laura's first time smoking shisha (Hookah, Nargeela, Hubbly Bubbly, all the same thing) and I got her hooked! As we were leaving the coal guy asked Laura to take his picture, so she has a fantastic picture of this old, toothless Egyptian man in a galabiya (the long robe thingy). Awesome.

The next day we got up bright and early and headed out with a drvier to see all the pyramids. We did what my Dad and I did when he visited, we went to Doshur, Saqqara, and Giza and we also threw in Memphis this time. We arrived in Doshur first and the weather was pretty clear. We all climbed up the Red Pyramid and Laura and I went down inside. I was talking to the guy sitting at the enterance, basically doing nothing and of course when I spoke Arabic to him we started the usual, "where are you from, why do you speak Arabic" conversation and he asks me if I'm married and when I say no he starts telling me how beautiful marriage is and how I should marry soon and have kids and how I need to marry an Egyptian because I speak Arabic, etc and I signal to Laura it's time to go! We then walked around the side of the pyramid to take pictures of the Bent pyramid off in the distance and two of the tourist police start coming over to us. Then end up bringing over a camel and letting Laura sit on it while we took pictures. Apparently the camel's name was Antonio. Awesome.

Next off to Memphis and then Saqqara and finally Giza. Of all the pyramids, the ones at Doshur are definitely the best. Saqqara is really fun too, but Giza is crowded, dirty, and annoying. But what can you do? You can't come all the way to Egypt and not see the pyramids at Giza. Memphis was underwhelming, but we did take a picture that looked like I was picking the nose of a statue of Ramses II. Nice.
A note on our driver. Our driver was nice, but his english was pretty poor, so I ended up conversing with him in Arabic most of the time. He seemed pretty nice, but things got a little strange when we went to Giza. We took a detour and he drove by this car tire place, stopped, honked the horn and started yelling angrily for a solid 2 minutes. He was yelling really loud and fast and I could tell he was not happy, but it was hard for me to understand exactly what he was saying. He then drove down the street, turned around, and did the same thing on the other side of the street. Finally, after we drove off I asked him, Ok what was up with that? He explained that once he bought tires from that shop and they popped within a week and the shop refused to give him replacements or refund his money, so everytime he is in Giza, he droves by and yells that they are all theives, so everyone will know. Ok then.

After our pyramid tour we went to Zamalek for some delicious lunch and then back on the train to Alexandria. My mom left the next morning.

The next 2 days Laura and I spent hanging out in Alexandria. We visited the citadel, the library, and Manshia, the local shopping market. Laura bought a small shisha to take home with her and me and a friend bargained for over an hour for two handcrafted copper shishas, one of which I'll be bringing home with me. We also did some shopping. A few highlights: While we were walking out of the Citadel, as usual a group of young Egyptian girls asked to take their picture with us. This was probably the fifth or sixth time this happened during Laura's visit. For some reason Egyptian's like getting their pictures with foreigners. Laura and I decided that there is actually a point system and when they get together with their friends they all show each other the pictures they have with foreigners and award each other points depending on nationality, gender, and attractiveness. Who knows, it could be true. Then as we were walking along the sea, Laura got to experience some wonderful Egyptian male harrassment. Most of it was pretty mild, but at one point, a young guy walked by and said, "I want to f*** you." I turned around and started yelling in Arabic and Laura just started laughing. It was an experience.

Too short of a time later I had to take Laura to the airport and send her off. It was wonderful to have both her and my Mom visit and show them the touristy places in Egypt but also how I live around here on a daily basis. They'll tell you, it's no picnic, but once you get used to the trash in the street, the harrassment, and the insane traffic, well it feels like some twisted Dr. Suess/ Tim Burton version of home.

Mom and Laura's Visit part I

It's been a crazy past two weeks! My Mom came to visit and in between class and my new internship I've been showing her around Alexandria, the North Coast and al-Alamen, and Cairo. My Mom arrived late on a Sunday night and I tried to slowly get her adjusted to Egypt in the next couple of days. We went grocery shopping and took the tram around a little bit, which is always and experience. I cooked for her and took her to some nearby restaurants. On Wednesday March 17, we celebrated St. Patrick's day at a party at a local restaurant sponsored by the American Center. There was actually Sam Adams and Budweiser! Needless to say, after being in Egypt for 10 months and only having the option of drinking Stella, Sakkara, or Heiniken, American beer was a welcome taste of home! Then the first weekend, we rented a car and my Mom, Robert, and I drove up to the North Coast and spent the night in a hotel on the beach. Getting out of Alexandria was interesting, the main highways to the North Coast was closed for repairs in the direction we were going, so when we stopped to ask the traffic police guarding the roadblock for directions, they ended up having us follow a generous Egyptian citizen who agreed to lead these crazy foreigners in the right direction. Eventually after driving through the western most part of the city by the port and through Agamy, we met back up with the highway and were on our way! The North Coast along the Mediterranean in Egypt is beautiful! You would hardly believe from the pictures that we were still in Egypt! With the gorgeous sandy beach and the blue water, it looks like we were somewhere down in Mexico or the Carribean. The weather was a little windy and cold and it is still the low season up there, so we mostly had the hotel to ourselves. The water was a little chilly, but we went swimming anyway.

After spending the afternoon on the beach, on our way back to Alexandria we stopped at the monuments at al-Alamen, the site of a large WWII battle were the allies stopped German and Italian forces from advancing in North Africa and taking control of the Suez canal. Looking at a guest book at the Italian monument, we were surprised at how many visitors had made it to this remote location in the past month. There is also apparently a big problem of unexploded land mines in the area and locals are often injured when walking around (including children out playing) the desert in the surrounding area. We also stopped and took pictures of some camels being herded around near the highway. We arrived back in Alexandria safely thanks to Robert's expert driving.

The next day my Mom accompanied me on a class trip to two monestaries in Wadi Natrun. We walked around the monestaries and listened to a monk giving us a tour. Because it was a program event, everything was in Arabic, so I tried to translate for my Mom. It was the first time I had tried my hand at simultaneous translating, which was really difficult. A few of the other students ended up helping me because I was unable, to listen, translate, and speak all at the same time. The monestaries were gorgeous. It is hard to believe they have been around for so long. Both of the monestaries had beautiful gardens.

My Mom relaxed for the rest of the week while I was in class and we were busy in the evening. We met with my language partner from last semester, Rina and also had a birthday party of Nour, one of the girls in our program. On Wednesday my Mom accompanied my class in a trip to a local mosque as we had a discussion with the Imam there. It was her first time inside a mosque and her first time wearing a head scarf. We ended up taking a microbus to and from the mosque, which is also an interesting experience. They are small vans that you flag down and pack people in. The drivers are a little eratic and ours was driving, collecting fares, and passing change out of his window to a fellow microbus all at the same time!

On Thursday, March 25, My Mom and I spent the day seeing the sights of Alexandria. We started off at the Citadel and moved to the Roman ruins by the train station at the center of town before stopping for dessert at a sweets shop. We order Um Ali and Kunafa, two traditional Egyptian desserts. Then we visited the Alexandria library and stopped in Ebrihimiya for some scarf shopping. After that there was a brief visit to the train station to buy our tickets to Cairo the next morning. The last stop of the day was Stanley bridge for a couple of nice sunset pictures by the sea.

Later that night, my friend Laura arrived at the Alexandria airport and I picked her up and the next day we all departed for a whirlwind tour of Cairo. That story is to be continued in the next post.

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.

kul 7aga mumkin fi misr! Everything is possible in Egypt!

It's been quite the busy week! Just diving in to some new classes and getting everything organized for the new semester. I have a couple of fun events from the week to share. First, I went to this very interesting lecture at the American Center on Tuesday night. It was a professor speaking about who, in his opinion, were the nine most influential (good or bad) political leaders of the 20th century. The list included Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, FDR, Truman, Churchill, Ghandi, Mao Zedong, and Deng Xiaoping. The lecture itselft wasn't that interesting, but we got to listen to the simultaneous translation. The lecture was being given in English and we listened to the Arabic translation. Simultaneous translation is insanely difficult and I gave the translator credit. I also found myself wondering how I would translate the lecture. The question and answer portion afterwards was far more interesting. Several Egyptians were arguing with the professor about why he didn't include Nasser in his list of 9 people. The professor said that while he felt Nasser had made a major difference in the Middle East, he hadn't done so on a global level. Then Israel came into the conversation. The professor remarked that Israeli forces had beaten several Arab countries at once including in the 1948 war, the 1967 war and the 1973 war. At the mention of the last war, the room exploded because Egyptians consider the 1973 war an Egyptian victory, not an Israeli victory. The director at the American Center then wrapped up the question and answers and remarked that the American center invites all sorts of people with different opinions to speak there and that their views do not always reflect the views of the US government.
Afterwards, a man in a suit came up to me and grabbed my arm and said, "come, you do interview downstairs." I asked him what the interview was in Arabic and he looked very surprised. "You're American, no?" I replied that I was. I found out the interview was for a local channel. When the correspondant found out that I spoke Arabic, she insisted that I conduct the interview in Arabic with her. Needless to say, I was super nervous and freaking out! However, she asked me the basic questions: Where are you from? How long have you been here? Why are you studying Arabic? So I think I did well. The interview apparently was on TV the next morning at 11am, but I was in class and did not get to see it.
After the lecture ended, I went to a bar with two friends to sit and chat and split a bottle of wine. As we were sitting at the bar in this little Italian restaurant, we heard club like music and asked about it. It turns out there was a birthday party going on in the party hall of the restaurant and the waitors invited us in. The party was for an Egyptian girl, around the age of 20. We were standing on the sides dancing a little to the music, which was a mix of Arabic and American music and the waitors kept motioning for us to join the Egyptians and dance, but not wanting to intrude we refused. Finally, a group of Egyptian girls came over and pulled me on the dance floor. I danced for a song while they sort of stood awkwardly by and the fled the floor embarrassed. It was fun nonetheless.
Later this week we had a birthday party in the guy's apartment for Mona and Seba. It was a "classy affiar" and we all dressed up in our best for some dancing and socializing. We even had some of the people from the Middleberry program and some other Egyptian friends show up. The party was super fun and lasted late into the morning. It ended with a group effort at making hashed browns in the kitchen at about 3am. They were delicious!
The next evening, Mona's host family had a birthday party for her at the home of their grandfather, so some of us went. There was super delicious pizza and cake and Syrian sweets. We spoke a lot of Arabic and had a really good conversation with Mona's host mother about language. We also got to hear Mona's host mother and Tammam (one of the guys from our program) recite the Koran. It was absolutely beautiful. There were children present as well, including two babies (babyhat in Egyptian) and it was hilarious to hear us all speaking Arabic to the babies.
Sitting there, full on delicious food, speaking in Arabic in a comfortable Egyptian home, I see the obvious benefits that I've missed out on by choosing not to live with a host family. I know my language skills would be so much better and that I would be forming very special relationships that would last a lifetime. However, I also know about all the challenges from listening to the girls who do live in host families. Some host families are constantly gone, some don't have hot water, one is in the midst of extreme maritial problems which has put the student directly in the middle, one girl witnessed her host father slap her host sister. There are without doubt, huge challenges to living with host families, and I deeply admire the girls who have chosen to do so.
As for me, I'm happy with my living situation. I just have to work a little harder for the language practice and interaction with Egyptians, but more and more, I find myself willing to do so.