Today was the first day of our weekend. We have Fridays and Saturdays off, Class on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays with Tuesdays as a Service Project Day. We have quite a bit of homework this weekend from Arabic as well as reading for Culture and Change in the ME and Peoples and Cultures of the ME.
So, with our first off day since we have been there, a group of us (consisting mostly of my flatmates) decided to go to the Citadel. For those of you unfamiliar with this astounding work of history, it is a huge stronghold/castle built by Sal'adin in the 10th Century in the Crusades. It has been improved over several centuries to include the Muhammad Ali mosque, his palace and numerous underground dwellings for soldiers. Egypt was ruled from the Citadel for several centuries. It was breathtaking to see in person and I have posted pictures that do not do it justice.
Tomorrow we go to see the Pyramids, so there will be another post just as excited as this one tomorrow!
Friday, September 4, 2009
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Classes have started and we have been learning Arabic, Islam, and Politics and Cultures in the Middle East. We have huge books to read and many papers to write. This will by far be my most challenging semester and the one in which I learn the most!
The first day of class, my flatmates and I decided to dress up shirt and tie style and bring the class on the first day of class. It was fun!
Today we began our study of Islam with some videos on jihad and extremism... just to get that elephant in the room started. There was some interesting discussions!
As the homework begins and a rigourous class schedule starts, I will have to find a comfortable balance between the experiental education on the streets of Cairo and the in class education through books and academics.
The first day of class, my flatmates and I decided to dress up shirt and tie style and bring the class on the first day of class. It was fun!
Today we began our study of Islam with some videos on jihad and extremism... just to get that elephant in the room started. There was some interesting discussions!
As the homework begins and a rigourous class schedule starts, I will have to find a comfortable balance between the experiental education on the streets of Cairo and the in class education through books and academics.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Living 3 blocks from the nile
Well, Well this is orientation week, so we havent started classes yet, although we are doing some independent reading to prepare. We have mostly been going around the city and learning the "survival" parts of how to live here. For instance, we learned our way around our neighborhood (Agouza) and around Cairo. We learned all about the Metro train and taxis and how to barter here. We have been learning the small Arabic phrases to get around. We have seen several great sites! There is sooo much here. It has been really exciting. Today we went to Garbage city where all the trash collecting people live and saw how weird but beautiful their little poor culture is. We have seen the Coptic churches that are built in caves. Yesterday we were broken into small groups and sent around on the Metro to visit other places in the city. We visited Shobra, which is the factory part on the outskirts. It was very poor, but the people were very interesting! They loved us and were very hospitable. We were told that they had never ever seen foreigners in that part of the city. haha
My roomates are great. I like all of them a lot. Actually I like all 12 guys on this trip a lot. There is a lot of man love and bromance haha. ( not like gay stuff. We just all love hanging out with each other) The girls are kind of 50/50. There are some cool ones and some not cool ones. Overall, I am very pleasantly surprised at all the cool friends I am making from all over the US. I think some of them I could keep up with for a long time.
The culture is wonderful. It is very safe and comfortable here. The people are extremely hospitable and welcoming. We get yelled "welcome to egypt" a lot haha. I have already made friends and play soccer in the street with them on the way to my flat most nights. (ahmed, timor, and k'haled) I am very excited about classes and learning more and more about Islam and the culture and the rest of the middle east. I have already learned so much! It is also Ramadan here, and 90% of the country is Muslim. That means taht they do not eat drink or smoke from sunup to sunrise the whole month. after the evening call to prayer, bread is broken and feasting, smoking and partying begins.... every night! walking the streets at night, I am constantly offered food and drink and people are very excited about their holy holiday. It is great.
Our flat is 3 blocks from the nile and 5 minutes from Downtown Cairo. It has been amazing to see all the stuff you learn about in history books. Tomorrow I will be volunteering at a local NGO, Think and Do, which is very ironic. I seriously considered interning for the semester at that very NGO, so it is cool how I get the best of both worlds and it all worked out together.
My roomates are great. I like all of them a lot. Actually I like all 12 guys on this trip a lot. There is a lot of man love and bromance haha. ( not like gay stuff. We just all love hanging out with each other) The girls are kind of 50/50. There are some cool ones and some not cool ones. Overall, I am very pleasantly surprised at all the cool friends I am making from all over the US. I think some of them I could keep up with for a long time.
The culture is wonderful. It is very safe and comfortable here. The people are extremely hospitable and welcoming. We get yelled "welcome to egypt" a lot haha. I have already made friends and play soccer in the street with them on the way to my flat most nights. (ahmed, timor, and k'haled) I am very excited about classes and learning more and more about Islam and the culture and the rest of the middle east. I have already learned so much! It is also Ramadan here, and 90% of the country is Muslim. That means taht they do not eat drink or smoke from sunup to sunrise the whole month. after the evening call to prayer, bread is broken and feasting, smoking and partying begins.... every night! walking the streets at night, I am constantly offered food and drink and people are very excited about their holy holiday. It is great.
Our flat is 3 blocks from the nile and 5 minutes from Downtown Cairo. It has been amazing to see all the stuff you learn about in history books. Tomorrow I will be volunteering at a local NGO, Think and Do, which is very ironic. I seriously considered interning for the semester at that very NGO, so it is cool how I get the best of both worlds and it all worked out together.
Monday, August 24, 2009
De-Virginating this Blog
Well, this is my first blog post. I am packing and getting ready for my Egypt trip and getting this thing in good shape to transmit the news flashes of my life in the Middle East.
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