Weekend One

The past few days have been really low key. My class on Tuesday was great. The teacher goes at a good pace, I am learning a lot of history as well as great new words and phrases and the work is totally manageable, enjoyable even. After class Molly (from Smith) and I went to another neighborhood called San Stefano and walked around. Before we went back to the dorms we grabbed some Starbucks and sat outside. The Starbucks was delicious (a taste of home!), and as we were sitting one of the employees approached us and began to talk to Molly. She said we were Norwegian (nobody speaks Norwegian here and if we say we are American people just speak English to us) and gave us fake Arabic names. At first the exchange was friendly and light, but then he got aggressive. He demanded to get our numbers. She said she was married, and I said I didn’t have a phone, but I would get one and maybe return. He demanded to know when, where, and what time I would return. We tried to be evasive, but he was persistent. Finally we said we had to leave and walked away. This is by no means an uncommon occurrence, and we have to keep in mind that it’s not rude to refuse to speak to someone or publically scream at someone if they are bothering us.
That evening about fifteen of us met at a bar on the corniche. Yes, alcohol is forbidden by Islam, and therefore sort of taboo in general here, however beer is pretty accessible while hard liquor and wine are more expensive and less safe to drink (there are a lot of cheap Egyptian made versions –Johnny Waller anyone?- that are dangerous). They played American music and we hung out and had fun. It was nice to have a break from Egyptian life.
Wednesday was the weekend (my classes are Saturday-Tuesday), and it was relaxing. Andi and I ran to Starbucks in the morning (its not nearby the dorm) and encountered some Americans. They saw my “Million Dollar Cowboy Bar” t-shirt from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and started chatting with us. They worked in Qatar (which they pronounced “cutter”) and were clearly not immersed in the culture, they didn’t know a word of Arabic despite the fact that they traveled with a team of native Arabic speakers and live in an Arab country. For the rest of the day, I did work and got lunch and then we went to a café at night. I tried to work in McDonalds because I’d heard they have the best Internet, to find that it was out of commission only after I bought my massive, expensive Diet Coke…oh well.
Today I woke up late, which I was thrilled about as I haven’t really been sleeping well, and did work. Molly and I took a lunch break and got some juice. They didn’t have mango, so I decided to be adventurous and pick a random juice. I picked one and it was like saccharine, you win some you lose some I guess. I looked it up and asked Eman and neither of us could figure out what it was in English. I will most definitely avoid it in the future.
At 5:30 we had a scavenger hunt! It was SO much fun. We split up into random groups and I was with Sam (from Middlebury), Allie (from Davidson) and Molly. We had to find as many places as we could (and take a picture in front of them) on the given list and be at a restaurant at 7:30. We stratigized by visiting my friend Ahmed, the fruit man, and he told us which places were the closest and which were the farthest. We then set off. We had such a great time and worked well together! We ended up getting six out of eleven of the places, and were the first at the restaurant. WE WON! It was so exciting, and honestly nice to make a new friend, as I hadn’t really spoken to Sam before. After dinner, we went out to a bar, and Molly and I took the tram back. When Egypt goes my way, it is a really fun place to be. But at times, when everything is working against you it is so frustrating. Tomorrow I am going to run with Andi and finish my homework, and on Saturday a bunch of us are going to try to go to the synagogue for Yom Kippur. There isn’t a working congregation there, but it is open if anyone wishes to see it or pray there. We shall see how that works out!