Ramadan

For those of you who don't know, Ramadan is currently in existence. Here's a link that explains more about what Ramadan is and what people do during Ramadan. I know its from wikipedia, but its useful.

I haven't completely celebrated Ramadan because I don't like the idea of fasting:)Its a way for families to get together (and I don't have any family...or really know any yet) and I'm not Muslim, so it doesn't have any significance to me. But I am planning on fasting at least one day and having the meals with my roomates (they're both Muslim). I did have Iftar (the breaking of the fast....the evening meal) with my roomate and that was fun to cook. People have a varietly of food but what we had was cucumber yogurt sauce, hummus, lebanese flat bread, chicken vegetable and pasta medly, and tomatoes. Oh and we started by eating a date to break the fast. I forgot the significance of the date...but thats what people do. I know... I'm ignorant. sorry!!

But Ramadan is nice....people don't smoke during the day:) and kids are always running around shooting off fire-crackers. I need to figure out what kind of fire crackers they use because they're really cool and REALLY LOUD. Much better than blackcats:) And also as tradition (mainly Egyptian) Ramadan lights are hung everywhere. They have a similar significance as Christmas lights, but are bigger
and have designs.

Animals

There are suprising a lot of animals in Egypt. Cairo is defenitely an oasis like Alaska...but for the population size of Cairo, I'm kinda suprised to see animals other than rats. I luckily haven't seen a rat but supposedly they are there. I'm hoping to stay nieve and not have to worry about it:) Anyway,the first thing I have noticed was how many cats there are!!! No wonder people say cats have 9 lives. They never seem to go away!! Its kinda funny thinking of stray cats but they exist. I see them constantly in the streets, in piles of gargbage, in the stairwell of my apartment, and even on campus. So if you are allergic to cats, I warn you to bring allergy medicine if you come to Cairo. There are also the few stray dogs...which really scare me because dogs are usually more fierce than cats and they follow you too. oh well. Then the cool thing was that one time I woke up at 6 am to a sound of a bird. lol I thought I was back in Colorado because there are 2 giant trees next to my room. But I was still in Cairo...and there was a green tropical looking bird(sorry I'm not a bird expert) on the chair of my balcony!! It was a cool surprise and a really beautiful bird. It even stayed on my chair when I opened the door. I was really impressed. I'll have a picture posted soon also:)

New Class

So I ended up switching to a higher level class. The class I was placed in soon became very frustrating. I know the first week is always review but the students in the class didn't know how to answer questions about their name or where they lived. ugh oh well...I'm done with that now. I had to argue with the director to let me enter a higher level class but it was totally worth the effort. My new teacher only speaks in Arabic and the class is hard, but I've been able to keep up with the class. The students in the class have taken Arabic for 2 years, and I;ve only taken one year, so they are more advanced than I am in the grammar section. The teacher knows that though because I asked him for help after class once and seems to make sure I won't fall behind and that I understand everything. hahah I was afraid that he would kick me out of the class at first. But he didn't and my Arabic (modern standard at least) has improved so much! lol now I need to go memorize my 100 vocab words:)

September 5th. School and the Red Sea

September 5, 2007.

I had my first day of school today! Haha I feel like a little kid since I was so excited. I only had 2 classes today and I scored by starting at 12:30 Since it was the first day of class we just did introductory stuff. So far I like my teachers and I don’t think I’m going to switch classes, but we’ll see. I’m waiting for my teachers to grade my homework and then tell me if I somehow advanced over the summer. That would be nice My schedule is harder than I thought, some days I start at 9:30 and don’t get done until 4:30. I feel like I went back into time and am reliving high school. Oh well I’m learning Arabic and that’s the most important thing.

Over the weekend I went on an ALI trip to the Red Sea. We stayed in El Gounah and I had sooo much fun! I’m not used to being around beaches, oceans, and seas so I had a blast. I went out swimming with a friend to see how far out we could go, and when we turned around we realized we had trouble swimming back!! The current/wave would always suck us backward. So it was 3 steps forward, 2steps back. Good thing I wasn’t too tired! We also went snorkeling, which was another first for me. It was soo cool!! There were lots of different colored fish, and coral and sometimes the water even changed temperatures. I had a great time on the trip, except that I didn’t put enough sunscreen on, so I’m fried! Haha well, in a couple weeks I’ll have an awesome tan

Unfortunately (for you and me) and only have a couple pictures. I couldn’t get my camera to turn on, but now it works so I don’t know what the deal is. At the bottom of the page is a link where you can view the rest of the pictures. I’m planning on borrowing pics from my friends…so you should see more in the future.

Interesting Handout

This was another handout from the speaker that made my head hurt and I thought it was really interesting.
Common American Stereotypes About Egypt and the Arab World

American's views on the Arab World

1. The Arab world is a violent place, characterized by terrorism.

2. The violence that characterizes the Arab world is caused by the inherent character of Arab society and / or Islam.

3. All Arabs are Muslim. All Muslims are Arabs.

4. Arab society and culture is completely dominated by religion---specifically Islam.

5. Islam is a violent, backward, and repressive religion.




6. Islam and Arab society place women in a subordinate position and severely repress them.

7. The repression of women in Arab society is reflected by the practice of veiling.

8. All Arabs are wealthy.

9. Islam and the Arab society have difficulty in responding to the demands and opportunities of the modern world.

10. The great threat to the world in general and to Egypt in particular is fundamentalism. Common Egyptian Stereotypes About the United States.

Arab's views on America

1. The US is a violent place, characterized by crime.

2. The violence that characterizes the United States is caused by the inherent character of western culture.

3. Most Americans are, at least nominally, Christians. The rest are Jews.

4. American culture is characterized by atheism and secularism.

5. Western culture is violent, morally corrupt, and arrogant. ** The speaker pointed out that only 200 people died in Egypt for all crime related reasons. Then he asked, “how many people died in NY alone??”...good point **

6. Western Culture and American society repress and exploit women. Provideng them no protection in a culture characterized by the complete collapse of family structures.

7. The repression of women in American society is reflected in their revealing clothing.

8. All Americans are wealthy.

9. Western Culture and American society have turned modernism into a destructed process.

10. The great threat to the world in general and to Egypt in particular is western culture.

orientation

Haha well I’m not doing better on getting any sleep, but I have doing better socially. I had my oral proficiency test this morning and I think I did really well. Or at least I didn’t leave the place freaking out. After that I registered my computer for wireless on campus and caught up on all my emails. I then met a girl (Bridgette) who convinced me to crash an orientation because there was going to be a free brunch. I decided to go because I couldn’t get a hold of my other friend for lunch. The food wasn’t too bad. It was a falafel in small pita bread with lettuce and tomatoes. The also had fuul in a pita but it was nasty. It tasted like flavorless refried beans, and I don’t like regular refried beans. Then there was some separate meat….have no idea what it was but I had to try a bite. Not too bad…could have been worse. I heard that a girl ordered a sandwich one night and it had brains on it. Yuck!! She even finished it once she found out what it was!! I would be puking in the bathroom instead After the brunch there was a talk giving information about student groups and sports. Not too impressed. They didn’t mention women’s soccer but supposedly there is a team. I don’t know it’s too small of a place to have teams (the main gym only has 2 treadmills and no free weights….lol I’m still attached to the UW gym) oh well. There was a speaker also. He was really good but he kept asking questions (that in my opinion shouldn’t matter what the answer would be) and making up situations that made my brain hurt. Such as: Are Egypt African, Middle Eastern or Mediterranean? If it is African then its not Middle Eastern, even though there is a huge Arab population? Then what about Morocco, Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia? Are the Egyptians African or Arab or even Greek, since Egypt is a Greek word? Are they the descendents of the great pharaohs? Some of these questions would be similar to asking someone from France if they were French or European. Of course they would say French, but if you said “since you are French, then you’re not European…” they would think you are crazy. Or asking someone if he was a Texan or an American? In my opinion the answers shouldn’t matter, but its sad that people want to make the distinction. Also, when asked people answer differently based on the situation. Right now, A-R-A-B is a dirty word (and has been for a long time, even before 9/11) so most people would answer to being Egyptian or Lebanese or Iraqi….but they wouldn’t forget their Arabic heritage. He brought up a lot more points….but I don’t want to make your brain hurt. If you are really interested, let me know and I’ll give you the handout that was given. After the talk, Bridgette told me about a trip to the Red Sea for all ALI students. I wasn’t originally invited because I’m not a dorm resident. But I talked to the ALI department and convinced them to let me come, but I had to meet them at a dorm to leave. It only cost 500 pounds (~ 90) for the weekend. Travel time, lunch and dinner, and hotel stay are included. A really good price I leave Saturday. I’m soo excited!! In order to officially be on the trip I had to pay in cash. So I ran around with another guy (Graham) looking for a working ATM machine. Afterwards Graham showed me the Nile Hilton Hotel…it has a really nice pool that I think I’m going to have to take advantage of and you can go on the rooftop (there is a restaurant there) and look at a cool bird’s eye view of downtown Cairo and Zamalek (an island in the Nile river). Look at the link at the end of the page for pics then I caught up with Haytham and Nate (both from UW) and their friends. And once again I stayed out late till 4am. Oh dear. But I had a great night and met a lot of new people. Oh! I almost forgot. For dinner I had Kosheri. I’m not exactly sure what is in it, and it looks gross but it was really yummy. Again look at the pics on the web link. I also tried sweet juice (sugar cane water) and it was nasty!! Some people liked it though. The juicing machine was cool too