Ten Days!

I have had a pretty busy week, and have not had a chance to update. Friday, I spent the day studying, and then went to Liz’s apartment for our program’s Thanksgiving celebration. Everyone pitched in and brought something to the meal, I brought plates and utensils, and it was a success! I was so impressed with the boys, and they did most of the cooking, including the best sweet potatoes I have EVER had, and some pretty awesome cornbread. All of us were so happy to be eating traditional Thanksgiving food in Liz’s beautiful apartment. A lot of the Egyptians came to the dinner, but none of them tried any of the food. Almost everything was Halal, and there hadn’t been any dinner in the dorm that day, so I was confused as to why they weren’t partaking in the feast! I asked someone if he had tried the food, and he gave me a look and said, “No, it looks strange.” I wanted to say, “We eat YOUR weird looking food everyday,” but I refrained. I was really surprised, and for some reason kind of hurt, we have been living in this country for almost four months, taking in the culture as best as we can, and are often criticized for our lack of open-mindedness, yet they couldn’t even try some food?!
I mentioned Liz’s apartment being quite nice. It is spacious with a full kitchen, living room, dining room and bedrooms, and fully furnished. I think that if I had the opportunity to live an apartment in Egypt, the experience would have been different, and probably a lot easier. This is simply because we really have no chance to escape from the culture, or just hang out, and an apartment would fulfill both of those need. Alas, that was not possible, as it is mandatory to live in the student dorms, and students staying a full year can move into an apartment after the first semester.
Saturday was my final class on Christianity in Egypt, and I had to do a fifteen minute presentation. I am thrilled to be coming to the end of the program, but it was bittersweet finishing my class with Ustez Emad, as I thoroughly enjoyed it. The rest of the school week was pretty uneventful, and I spent Wednesday working on a video for my Egyptian Colloquial class. The video is supposed to be on the “Dos and Don’ts of Egypt” for the incoming students. There were a few road blocks, as it is against Islam to be in films, except for official purposes, and most people were not willing to be filmed. We found a group of middle school boys who were willing to be in the video and harass us, so as to show how to handle harassment. They were hilarious, and sort of nervous about the whole thing, thinking it was going to be on American television, but we explained to them that it was just for a class, and then even more agreed to participate. We went all over the city, pointing out the best spots to visit, and the best things to do.
Wednesday night was the first night of Hannukkah, as well as the beginning of December! It was sad to not be home for Hannukkah, and not even be at school with my friends, but Andi, Tik and I went to Harry Potter, which was a nice break from Arabic. Tik was surprised at the amount of harassment we got when leaving the movie theater. When he expressed this, Andi promptly replied, “Welcome to my life.”
I spent Thursday doing work. Andi and I went to a café to get a change of scenery. We tried to get a cab or tram or bus to the café, and it took us over half hour. We asked the driver what the issue was, and he reminded us of the soccer match that was occurring in Alex at that exact time. Nobody was working, as they were ALL at the soccer match. No, this was not a special match, or a final of any sort, it was just a normal soccer match, and all public transportation pretty much shuts down.
Friday I went to a Coptic mass with Jessie, and my teacher Ustez Emad, and his family. The entire service was in Modern Standard Arabic, except for some bits in Coptic, which is pretty much a dead language. A lot of the prayers are extremely similar to those in a Jewish Shabbat service, which was really surprising! My teacher had mentioned that he had the same experience when he went to a synagogue in the States, and that there is a strong bond between Judaism and Coptic Christianity. We had lunch with his family after the service and then I went back to the dorm to do more work. I lit the Hannukkah candles with Ariana and Brianna, and it nice but made me a little homesick!
Today I had my final exam for Islam in Egypt, as well as the speaking part of my final in Modern Standard Arabic. I am totally finished with my one on one class, and my other classes are coming to a close. I went running after my exam, and I thought about how beautiful the sky here is. You can’t see all the pollution and the sad state of the buildings if you are just looking up. The sun was setting over the Mediterranean, and it was pretty magical. I have trained myself to look down at the ground or at a random spot in the sky, so as not to make eye contact with anyone and get any unwanted attention. I was running and minding my own business, when a random teenage boy attempted to punch me in the face. I ducked and he ran after me and hit me in the back of the head. I was really upset, but finished my run and realized that there is absolutely nothing I could do about this, except to stop running, which I do not want to do. Instead I chose to just get over it, and think about the run itself. That’s what Egypt has taught me to do. I am now able to recover from small traumas, by dealing with them quickly and internally so I can move on. Ten more days until the end of the program!