Smoke Break During a Movie? Only in Egypt!

So I definitely worked on smiling this week, and I think it had a positive effect on my psyche. The weather the past few days has been amazing, a high of about 85 degrees and getting down to around 65 degrees at night. The week went off without a hitch, one of the more embarrassing moments included having to perform a poem from memory in my ECA class. Tuesday was Molly’s birthday! We had so much fun, and went to China House to get dinner and a birthday drink, and met up with a lot of the group at an Ex-Pat bar called Spitfire. Apparently, the Egyptian beer company Stella was having some sort of promotion with a prize under the cap of the beer. Desperate to find the winning bottle, the bar was giving out free beers! (Where are we again?) This was a particularly unique and fun experience in Alex, and I have to say, a great start to the weekend!
Wednesday, Andi and I got up early and tried one of the old, famous cafes on the Corniche. It was called Atheneos, and it definitely left its glory days somewhere in the past, but it was great to get out of the dorm! Determined to stay out, Andi and I ran, and then went to City Center (aka Little America) with Molly. We walked around and got Starbucks and it almost felt totally normal, until someone pushed me out of line at H & M and I had to yell at them to get my place back…
Thursday I basically spent the entire day relaxing and doing work, and then we went to see “The Social Network” in an area called Smouha. The shopping center that housed the movie theater is called Green Plaza, and is actually really beautiful. Its totally outdoor and the weather is perfect, so we just walked around until it was time for the movie.
The movie itself was great! I think I liked it because I am so starved for any American culture and it was extremely witty and sarcastic. I really don’t think the Egyptians got a lot of the Pop-culture references, as the translation was really strange and nobody laughed at the funny parts. The weirdest part of the experience was the random smoke break. Justin Timberlake was talking, and all of a sudden the movie was cut off, and the word “Break” appeared on the screen in Arabic. All of them men filed out of the movie to smoke, and the filed back in about five minutes later as the movie resumed.
Friday was fabulous. My MSA teacher owns several private centers that teach fus-ha (MSA) to Egyptian students. Friday, six of us went over to his school to go to a class. The students are all in high school, and focus on grammar, while foreign students are encouraged to study grammar, listening, speaking and writing. The class was over fifty kids, and boys sit separately from the girls (cause otherwise they would talk too much). The students clearly revere my teacher, and were paying attention for almost the entire two hours. Everyone participated, collectively shouting out the answers to his questions, and laughing along with his jokes. After that we went to a café to do work.
The school week was pretty much uneventful. We had midterms, and a lot of stuff due before the big break. Tomorrow I am off to Europe!