Getting Out of the Funk

So, I haven’t posted for over a week, and that is really because nothing extremely positive happened, and I am getting sick of being such a Debbie Downer…believe me I am really trying my best to enjoy my time here and view this as a life experience, but in the moment it is definitely not so easy.
Classes went on as usual after my parents left. I had a particularly interesting religion class in which we were discussing why Islam allows men to have up to four wives. Some of the reasons were social, such as the fact that there were simply more women than men, so it was an opportunity for everyone to have a chance at marriage. The prophet Mohammad married many women, and only one of them was younger than 45 years old when he married her, as many of them were older widows, or relatives of his friends and he helped them through marriage.
The discussion was going really well when my teacher started talking about “3laqat gheer 7lal” or relationships that are not “Halal” or sanctioned by Islam. He proceeded to tell me that women who engage in sexual relationships that are not sanctioned by Islam WILL get sexually transmitted diseases, like AIDS. I really thought I didn’t understand him so I had him repeat it several times, yet unfortunately I got it right the first time. It is a solid example of yet another cultural gap between the US and Egypt.
The next day, I was walking by a tram, and a teenage boy stuck his hand out the window and smacked me in the face. I was absolutely stunned, and couldn’t believe that had happened. The catcalls and the whistling really don’t bother me, but an invasion of personal space by a total rando is difficult for me to deal with. I can safely say that people in the States DO NOT walk around smacking people, and while it is not by any means endorsed by the masses in Egypt its not uncommon.
Tuesday night I went to the American Center with a bunch of the kids from the program, where we met up with some students from Alex U. These are weekly dialogs, in which the students as a group choose issues and discuss them, and this week the issue was “the Environment.” While I think these dialogs are really great in theory, in practice it was kind of a failure. We ended up just talking a lot about “Captain Planet”, and came to the conclusion that the entire Egyptian culture would need to shift in order to make any drastic changes toward a cleaner Egypt. I don’t think I will go back.
After the talk, a group of us went out to a fish restaurant, Qadoura, which was great! I am definitely going to make a conscious effort to eat out more, as its relatively inexpensive (my two shrimp and quarter kilo of calamari plus tons of mezzes was LE 40, about $8), really delicious, and breaks up the monotony dorm life.
The next day we went to Mars al-Matrouh, a beach town four hours outside Alex. Truth be told, I was not a fan of this outing at all. The beaches were beautiful, but they were covered in trash. There was no way I was going in the ocean after I saw dirty diapers and the like floating around in it. I was the only person who didn’t go in the water, and everyone wondered why…
Additionally, the air-conditioning on the bus broke on the way back, the windows of the bus did not open, and we got stuck in traffic. Unfortunately my seat was right next to the bathroom, and the door to the bathroom was broken as well. The smell was unbearable, and it was a long ride back. I never thought I would be so happy to be back in Alex.
After returning from Matrouh, I slept in, and spent the day relaxing and doing homework. I also made the decision to skip the next group trip, and instead use my ten free days to go to Europe (THANKS MOM AND DAD!!!) Generally, I dislike big groups of people, especially when I am traveling, and I have been having a difficult time here. I think seeing my friends from Penn in Europe, as well as just being in western civilization, will be a refreshing break for me before the last three weeks of class. I am so excited about this trip, and I am going to start anew and make a bigger effort to be more positive here, only 44 more days!