Well its about time for another blog I think. I've only been in Egypt for just over 3 months and I've experienced my second sand storm. It was pretty bad this morning. The wind started last night around 7pm, but the sky wasn't brown with sand until this morning. It's finally dying down now, but this morning I could barely sleep because the wind was that loud.
My semester is QUICKLY coming to an end and that's exciting and sad all at the same time. Its amazing how quickly time flies by these days. Maybe its my age, but it seems like I'm constantly wondering where did October go? Did I miss it? Where have my 20s gone...lol. Lots of papers and exams this next week - might just kill me. That is if I don't kill a professor first. Had to send a pretty forceful and opinionated email today. Wasn't happy about it - but couldn't hold my tongue. This lady and I might wrestle by the end of the week. But oh well, I won't let her ruin what has otherwise been a great semester.
Met some GREAT friends - including the guy who will be my roommate going forward. He calls me his older brother and I call him my younger brother. Have some other friends that I see on a daily basis too. Some great friendships have been forged - I learned a lot - seen a lot - had a lot of fun - did a lot of hard work - and overall feel very happy about my decision to come here.
I decided to postpone my moving off campus plans for a while. First - I want to focus on school and I feel I can do that better on campus. Second - I'm a little spoiled living here I have to admit - and I kind of like that. Third - my roommate is staying and that make a big difference too. So I will be an RA next semester. I'll be responsible for about 40 guys living on campus. It should be a lot of fun. They call me G'do (grandpa) now and they always come to me for advice about girls, and school and I have first aid kit and instincts too. I have taken out splinters, put on bandaids, advised and assisted in callous removal on a toe - you name it. I'm therapist, doctor and grandpa. I like it. I feel that my age is really useful here b/c they all look to me to be the one with answers.
To sum up my semester so far in a paragraph:
I spend entirely too much time on facebook; I eat McDonald's for too many meals a day; I sleep til noon almost daily; I haven't had a drink in over two months; I smoke more than I did in the States; the only things I can say in Egyptian Arabic are bathroom, straw, how are you, i'm good and a bunch of swear words; my students in English class love me and transferred from another teacher back to be in my class this semester; I spend entirely too much money and I don't know on what; my caffeine intake has risen substantially since coming here; I'm still petrified riding in cabs; i've become a professional at riding the Cairo metro and the Egyptian rail services; I have resolved to read for pleasure over Christmas break - something I haven't done in 2 years; I miss my family; I miss my friends; I miss a LOT of IUPUI people; I can't wait to go to Rome for Christmas; I messed up trimming today and had to shave off my beard and HATE that I had to; I have taken sooo many pictures; I am so excited for next semester; I have papers to write now and should stop blogging.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Friday, December 3, 2010
New Post....
Good evening family and friends!
I know its been a while since I posted. Things can get so busy here that I forget and I get swallowed up in stuff to do. A lot has gone on since my last blog. First, my first semester as a teacher ended (6 week semesters) and I survived! My students love me and so I continued up to the next level with them and they all followed me. Some got assigned to different teachers for this semester and they switched into my class!
I survived my tests - and even got all A's so far.... keeping fingers crossed for final grades. Got two midterms and two big papers due in the next two weeks...so keep your fingers crossed with me.
I was offered an RA (Resident Advisor) position this week for next semester and I've taken it! So I have a job now, and I'll be staying in the dorms for one more semester at least. I realized when I was apartment hunting with my potential roommate that we had very different things in mind. First, he was a study abroad and he came to Egypt for a cultural experience. I came to Egypt to work on my Arabic, and because the two issues that I am interested in are geo-politically connected to the area. Failed and Fragile states in Africa (Somalia, Sudan, Congo, etc) and refugees (specifically Palestinian refugees). So while I came here for academic and professional advancement and to get my feet dug in to a region where I can see myself working in the future - he came to experience a culture and get an experience. That's why we had very different tastes in what we were looking for and I realized I'm looking for a nice, clean, quiet, place that is convenient for my studies. And that turns out to be on campus! So for now at least, I'm staying put. It's a little bit away from "the action" of Cairo, but "the action" of Cairo would probably be distracting to me at this point anyways.
It's a little wierd to be the oldest one here, and always giving advice, but now I'll get paid to do just that. And the staff saw that in me and offered me the job - so I think it all will work out fine!
Looking forward to spending Christmas in Rome with my little brother. No, I don't really have a little brother, but I adopted one! LOL He's like a little brother to me. He's 18, soon to be 19 and we hang out all the time. He moved into room, and sleeps on couch cushions on my floor! He'll be my actual roommate next semester now. So that should be a fun trip. I bought a ticket (or thought I did) to Greece for 5 days in January. My friend Libby will be visiting friends there for three weeks and I was going to come by and see her. However, I just realized today that I never actually received the e-ticket and I can't get a hold of the travel agent - so now I dont' know what's happening and I'll have to figure that out soon!
I experience my first instance of Egyptian bureaucracy this week too at the Mogamma. Its the biggest government building in Africa, and it's the middle of downtown Cairo. Among other things - that is where you take care of your passport visas, etc. The university has an office that will do it for you, but it takes two weeks. And I heard that just going there yourself will take about 3-4 hours. So I tried it and was sooooooo frustrated by the end of it, that I went to the university office and let them handle it after two days of getting NOWHERE with that place. It was crazy, frustrating and definitely an experience....but one that I won't do again! All in all though - I love it here. There are things that frustrate me, but there are things that frustrate me about the States too. This country is beautiful and the people are 98% wonderful. Every country has a few stinkers, but I feel on the whole Egypt has less than most. I can't wait for 2 more years here! :)
On a less happy note, my grandfather passed away this week as well. He had been sick for a while, so I wasn't completely surprised by this, but it didn't make it any easier. And it sure hasn't made it easy being literally half way around the world, away from my family and my parents. But I'll be okay for now and hopefully will be home soon to see my parents and family.
Until next time - G'do
I know its been a while since I posted. Things can get so busy here that I forget and I get swallowed up in stuff to do. A lot has gone on since my last blog. First, my first semester as a teacher ended (6 week semesters) and I survived! My students love me and so I continued up to the next level with them and they all followed me. Some got assigned to different teachers for this semester and they switched into my class!
I survived my tests - and even got all A's so far.... keeping fingers crossed for final grades. Got two midterms and two big papers due in the next two weeks...so keep your fingers crossed with me.
I was offered an RA (Resident Advisor) position this week for next semester and I've taken it! So I have a job now, and I'll be staying in the dorms for one more semester at least. I realized when I was apartment hunting with my potential roommate that we had very different things in mind. First, he was a study abroad and he came to Egypt for a cultural experience. I came to Egypt to work on my Arabic, and because the two issues that I am interested in are geo-politically connected to the area. Failed and Fragile states in Africa (Somalia, Sudan, Congo, etc) and refugees (specifically Palestinian refugees). So while I came here for academic and professional advancement and to get my feet dug in to a region where I can see myself working in the future - he came to experience a culture and get an experience. That's why we had very different tastes in what we were looking for and I realized I'm looking for a nice, clean, quiet, place that is convenient for my studies. And that turns out to be on campus! So for now at least, I'm staying put. It's a little bit away from "the action" of Cairo, but "the action" of Cairo would probably be distracting to me at this point anyways.
It's a little wierd to be the oldest one here, and always giving advice, but now I'll get paid to do just that. And the staff saw that in me and offered me the job - so I think it all will work out fine!
Looking forward to spending Christmas in Rome with my little brother. No, I don't really have a little brother, but I adopted one! LOL He's like a little brother to me. He's 18, soon to be 19 and we hang out all the time. He moved into room, and sleeps on couch cushions on my floor! He'll be my actual roommate next semester now. So that should be a fun trip. I bought a ticket (or thought I did) to Greece for 5 days in January. My friend Libby will be visiting friends there for three weeks and I was going to come by and see her. However, I just realized today that I never actually received the e-ticket and I can't get a hold of the travel agent - so now I dont' know what's happening and I'll have to figure that out soon!
I experience my first instance of Egyptian bureaucracy this week too at the Mogamma. Its the biggest government building in Africa, and it's the middle of downtown Cairo. Among other things - that is where you take care of your passport visas, etc. The university has an office that will do it for you, but it takes two weeks. And I heard that just going there yourself will take about 3-4 hours. So I tried it and was sooooooo frustrated by the end of it, that I went to the university office and let them handle it after two days of getting NOWHERE with that place. It was crazy, frustrating and definitely an experience....but one that I won't do again! All in all though - I love it here. There are things that frustrate me, but there are things that frustrate me about the States too. This country is beautiful and the people are 98% wonderful. Every country has a few stinkers, but I feel on the whole Egypt has less than most. I can't wait for 2 more years here! :)
On a less happy note, my grandfather passed away this week as well. He had been sick for a while, so I wasn't completely surprised by this, but it didn't make it any easier. And it sure hasn't made it easy being literally half way around the world, away from my family and my parents. But I'll be okay for now and hopefully will be home soon to see my parents and family.
Until next time - G'do
Sunday, November 7, 2010
tests and teaching
Good afternoon readers (it's 4:30pm) where I am today while reading this and I don't have class tonight! I have a midterm instead. But it won't be bad. The professor will email it out at 5pm. It should take us 2-3 hours to complete, but we have 72 hours to return it. It's not nearly as bad as my other midterm this semester. I have four classes but only two have tests. The other two are very theoretical and broad concept classes so instead of papers, we have papers, many many papers over the semester. But my other class with a midterm was International Law, which in itself is an impossibly broad and theoretical class, as was its midterm. The midterm was emailed to us at 2pm. It was estimated that it should have taken us 6-8 hours to complete and we only had 24 hours to return it. In reality, it took much longer. I finished in just over 9 hours, and my 7 friends in the same class all took longer. There are 6 people that I know of in the class that pulled all-nighters to complete it. And now I sit, awaiting my grade. The professor emailed a couple of hours ago that he is in the process of posting the grades along with comments for each of us online now. Mine still is not posted... so keep your fingers crossed with me.
I have also been teaching English this semester as a volunteer in one of the churches in Coptic Cairo. It has been a lot of fun,and the new English semester will start in 2 weeks. I taught two classes (22 students each) on Wednesday nights. I will move up to the next level with my students. It was so much fun, and kind of challenging. I didn't realize how much of the English language that I don't know, and apparently others don't either. I would ask some of my friends questions I had, and NO ONE seemed to know the answers. For native speakers, it seems we take a lot for granted in our speech. Rules are not so much dictated to us as we grow up, but instead we just pick them up through listening and conversation. They exist no doubt -because we do it, but we don't KNOW them. So when trying to describe to my class why can't use this word here or can't say this, I needed more than "because that's what you do" or "because that SOUNDS more correct".
It turned out I would often look on the internet and find really weird or completely inaccurate statements, or none at all. On the internet! Are you kidding - NO ONE has asked this question on the internet before! So I would sit for a while and write example sentences of whatever grammar problem I was presented with, and try through trial and error to deduce a possible rule that might exist. I was successful in most cases. However sometimes I would THINK that I found a very concrete, clear rule, only to my dismay to find it mis-used in next week's homework, and i would have to start over again... frustrating.
The worst questions were the ones that came on the fly, and which I answered confidently and quickly. I learned to stop doing that actually.
"Mr. Randy - we can make 'she is' the contraction of 'she's', what is the contraction of 'she has'?"
"Oh class - that is also "she's"
Next week's homework: "She's a tall woman. She's brown hair."
Randy - CRAP!
Next week's class: "Okay class now you can only use "she's" for she is when describing someone - nouns and adjectives. And you have to use she has otherwise. You can only use "she's" for she has when using verbs. Such as:
She's been to China twice this year. OR She's ridden a motorcycle before"
This was my process week in week out. I would never have told you before I got here that there was a rule for when you could use she's for each of its forms. One for verbs and one for nouns and adjectives. It is just part of our speech. But now I have to know it - because 44 eager college students are depending on me to make sure they don't tell someone "she's brown hair"!
I appreciate my teachers all the more now - forced to come up with smart, engaging, concrete rules and answers on the spot for eager minds with many questions. It is harder than it looks people! Appreciate those who taught/teach you! I do! This one's for you Ustetha!
G'do
I have also been teaching English this semester as a volunteer in one of the churches in Coptic Cairo. It has been a lot of fun,and the new English semester will start in 2 weeks. I taught two classes (22 students each) on Wednesday nights. I will move up to the next level with my students. It was so much fun, and kind of challenging. I didn't realize how much of the English language that I don't know, and apparently others don't either. I would ask some of my friends questions I had, and NO ONE seemed to know the answers. For native speakers, it seems we take a lot for granted in our speech. Rules are not so much dictated to us as we grow up, but instead we just pick them up through listening and conversation. They exist no doubt -because we do it, but we don't KNOW them. So when trying to describe to my class why can't use this word here or can't say this, I needed more than "because that's what you do" or "because that SOUNDS more correct".
It turned out I would often look on the internet and find really weird or completely inaccurate statements, or none at all. On the internet! Are you kidding - NO ONE has asked this question on the internet before! So I would sit for a while and write example sentences of whatever grammar problem I was presented with, and try through trial and error to deduce a possible rule that might exist. I was successful in most cases. However sometimes I would THINK that I found a very concrete, clear rule, only to my dismay to find it mis-used in next week's homework, and i would have to start over again... frustrating.
The worst questions were the ones that came on the fly, and which I answered confidently and quickly. I learned to stop doing that actually.
"Mr. Randy - we can make 'she is' the contraction of 'she's', what is the contraction of 'she has'?"
"Oh class - that is also "she's"
Next week's homework: "She's a tall woman. She's brown hair."
Randy - CRAP!
Next week's class: "Okay class now you can only use "she's" for she is when describing someone - nouns and adjectives. And you have to use she has otherwise. You can only use "she's" for she has when using verbs. Such as:
She's been to China twice this year. OR She's ridden a motorcycle before"
This was my process week in week out. I would never have told you before I got here that there was a rule for when you could use she's for each of its forms. One for verbs and one for nouns and adjectives. It is just part of our speech. But now I have to know it - because 44 eager college students are depending on me to make sure they don't tell someone "she's brown hair"!
I appreciate my teachers all the more now - forced to come up with smart, engaging, concrete rules and answers on the spot for eager minds with many questions. It is harder than it looks people! Appreciate those who taught/teach you! I do! This one's for you Ustetha!
G'do
Friday, November 5, 2010
Egyptians on Strike
So while I was sick last week - I didn't blog extra. First the one blog I did make wouldn't publish.... and I finally got it to publish today but had to take the pictures down to make it happen... boo. But anyways... last week was eventful on campus. The janitorial staff went on strike with a huge showing of support from the students and faculty. The law department I am in was in support. In fact the Department Chair helped to organize part of the strike and I believe was in the negotiation process. It was HUGE. The workers and hundreds of people gathered around them protested for hours each day outside the administration building. Without anyone to empty the trash, sweep, etc - in about 24 hours we were literally swimming in a sea of trash. Just to compound things a little - the weekend was to be the Alumni Sports weekend where the Algerian, Mauritius, Egyptian and Libyan national rugby teams were having exhibition games, there were exhibition games from the AUC sports teams, the sports awards, all kinds of things. And it was an excuse to bring out alumni (and their $$$) to see all the new campus and the athletic areas of campus.
So just to make sure the administration would be fully and completely embarrassed in front of the alumni - the students went the extra mile in dirtying up campus. Instead of just throwing your McDonald's bag let's say on the ground... you held it upside down and emptied its contents of wrappers, ketchup packets, napkins and few stale fries onto the ground and THEN through the bag on the ground. The idea was not only would the administration be embarrassed, but they would be forced to tell the alumni where their dollars were NOT going - to the staff that work 6 days a week and bring home $75 per month.
Yes - I said they net $75 per month. Some of the more senior janitorial staff bring home as much as $135 per month. It's truly outrageous really. When an undergraduate student pays 55,000 pounds each semester and a graduate student pays 80,000 pounds each semester to attend and live here - and the janitorial staff (80 of them combined- net less than 50,000 pounds together each semester). Yes the amount of money that ONE undergraduate student pays per semester to attend school and live on campus - pays the entire NET salary of EVERY janitor on campus for the same time period. It makes me a little nauseated and REALLY frustrated. That's why many of the American students were out in force - one because a lot of us have union parents and we know what it's like when they have to walk out on their jobs just to get treated fairly. And two - because we know it works. And three - because none of us could believe that our money was contributing to a system of such gross inequality.
Well needless to say they had to hire a private janitorial firm over night to clean up campus but it wasn't fully clean by the time the alumni got here. They were standing around in circles pointing to fountains FILLED with trash and garbage cans still overflowing on the ground. The added attention of the strike making it on to plenty of blogs... campus and Egyptian newspapers and even on CNN.com (http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-508913) the administrators budged. The students started a facebook solidarity page with 1100 supporters and an online petition with over 2000 student signatures. The workers got most of their demands met. The administration even went so far as to email the exact terms of the settlement to the ENTIRE AUC community because they just wanted to see the protests end and they knew that EVERYONE was involved anyways so they felt the need to save some face.
It felt really good to see the students mobilize around an issue so quickly and willingly. It felt really good to see Egyptians realizing they deserve rights and protesting and striking for them. This is something as I understand it - does not happen in a country with the authoritarian nature that Egypt has. I heard rumors of other places in Cairo being inspired by AUC and striking at their jobs too.. I don't have details but it was exciting to see the populace move in this direction. It reminds me of the famous quote - all it takes for bad people to win is for good people to not do anything about it. The good people of AUC and Egypt did something about it!
So just to make sure the administration would be fully and completely embarrassed in front of the alumni - the students went the extra mile in dirtying up campus. Instead of just throwing your McDonald's bag let's say on the ground... you held it upside down and emptied its contents of wrappers, ketchup packets, napkins and few stale fries onto the ground and THEN through the bag on the ground. The idea was not only would the administration be embarrassed, but they would be forced to tell the alumni where their dollars were NOT going - to the staff that work 6 days a week and bring home $75 per month.
Yes - I said they net $75 per month. Some of the more senior janitorial staff bring home as much as $135 per month. It's truly outrageous really. When an undergraduate student pays 55,000 pounds each semester and a graduate student pays 80,000 pounds each semester to attend and live here - and the janitorial staff (80 of them combined- net less than 50,000 pounds together each semester). Yes the amount of money that ONE undergraduate student pays per semester to attend school and live on campus - pays the entire NET salary of EVERY janitor on campus for the same time period. It makes me a little nauseated and REALLY frustrated. That's why many of the American students were out in force - one because a lot of us have union parents and we know what it's like when they have to walk out on their jobs just to get treated fairly. And two - because we know it works. And three - because none of us could believe that our money was contributing to a system of such gross inequality.
Well needless to say they had to hire a private janitorial firm over night to clean up campus but it wasn't fully clean by the time the alumni got here. They were standing around in circles pointing to fountains FILLED with trash and garbage cans still overflowing on the ground. The added attention of the strike making it on to plenty of blogs... campus and Egyptian newspapers and even on CNN.com (http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-508913) the administrators budged. The students started a facebook solidarity page with 1100 supporters and an online petition with over 2000 student signatures. The workers got most of their demands met. The administration even went so far as to email the exact terms of the settlement to the ENTIRE AUC community because they just wanted to see the protests end and they knew that EVERYONE was involved anyways so they felt the need to save some face.
It felt really good to see the students mobilize around an issue so quickly and willingly. It felt really good to see Egyptians realizing they deserve rights and protesting and striking for them. This is something as I understand it - does not happen in a country with the authoritarian nature that Egypt has. I heard rumors of other places in Cairo being inspired by AUC and striking at their jobs too.. I don't have details but it was exciting to see the populace move in this direction. It reminds me of the famous quote - all it takes for bad people to win is for good people to not do anything about it. The good people of AUC and Egypt did something about it!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
American Football
So last Friday night I went with some friends to Wadi Degla, one of the big sports clubs in Egypt (in Maadi suburb of Cairo). For those of you not familiar with Cairo, think of it as New York City. Everyone lives in New York, but you really live in Manhattan, Long Island, the Bronx, the Village, Upper East Side, whatever....that's Cairo. Anyways, Wadi Degla is one of the biggest sports clubs in Cairo as it has branches in Maadi, New Cairo and 6th of October City. My friend Khalid plays for Wadi Degla New Cairo. The three Wadi clubs and a club in Alexandria have all started American Football teams this year. They have a 4-team league that will play games every Friday night. It is so much fun. This was the first game of the season and it was New Cairo at Maadi.
It was a blast. They "know" the rules to American football but they're not quite followed. For instance as soon as the ball is passed to someone, you see 22 people running down field, like soccer more or less. The crowd loved it though. Except the game was slightly anti-climactic ending in New Cairo winning 2-0. Imagine me and the other American guy Justin in the stands trying to explain to the crowd what a safety is and how football can have a score of 2. Nobody knew that there was any scoring option other than a touchdown. But what I liked is that the crowd was into it, the players had fun, and it was a good time.
The first picture is the teams shaking hands after the game. The second picture is the team playing. Number 8 (white team - Maadi) is the quarterback and he's passing the ball off to his running back. The third picture is me, Khalid and Justin and my friend Hassan in the front.
The last picture is of the Wadi Degla signs at the club.
I'm sick as hell by the way.... so while I lay in bed this weekend, expect some more blogs to come!
-G'do
It was a blast. They "know" the rules to American football but they're not quite followed. For instance as soon as the ball is passed to someone, you see 22 people running down field, like soccer more or less. The crowd loved it though. Except the game was slightly anti-climactic ending in New Cairo winning 2-0. Imagine me and the other American guy Justin in the stands trying to explain to the crowd what a safety is and how football can have a score of 2. Nobody knew that there was any scoring option other than a touchdown. But what I liked is that the crowd was into it, the players had fun, and it was a good time.
The first picture is the teams shaking hands after the game. The second picture is the team playing. Number 8 (white team - Maadi) is the quarterback and he's passing the ball off to his running back. The third picture is me, Khalid and Justin and my friend Hassan in the front.
The last picture is of the Wadi Degla signs at the club.
I'm sick as hell by the way.... so while I lay in bed this weekend, expect some more blogs to come!
-G'do
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Every floor is my ashtray. Every street my garbage can.
NO NO NO. Don't assume from the title that I've become a complete litter bug. This is just how I feel sometimes. EVERY floor - the floor of classrooms, the sidewalk, the street, the floor of restaurants, the floor of buses and trains, the floor of the mall, I'm no exaggerating to say that EVERY floor is an ashtray for people. I feel so uncomfortable sometimes because I look around for a trash can or ashtray or somewhere I can appropriately dispose of my cigarettes but my Egyptian friends are always "just drop it." So I have acquiesced and now every floor is my ashtray too. However, I have not been able to acquiesce to the fact that every street is my garbage can. People just drop it when they're done with it. Much like cigarettes. Newspaper? McDonald's bag? Soda can? Cigarette pack? Tissue? It doesn't matter! Just drop it where and when you're done with it! Seriously the environmental people in the States would probably just cry here.
So school has been keeping me pretty busy. And I also am teaching English to Egyptian college students too. The problem is that my classes are at the old downtown campus, an hour away from where I live on New Campus - which is out in the middle of the desert. So each day I have class - Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday I take the 10AM bus downtown and I meet my friends Kais (German-Tunisian) and Ellen (American) and we study until our classes are 5:00. After class gets out at 8:00, we (me and my other classmates) take the 8:30 bus back to campus and we arrive close to 10ish. So I am gone every day from 10 til 10. My friends on campus have been giving me hell because I'm never around anymore. But these grad school classes are brutal IF you get behind or don't stay ahead. I'm doing great - because I have made sure to always stay up on it. But I've seen some classmates who haven't - and it's not a good thing.
I'll tell you all about my English class disasters in my next blog - so stay tuned. I'm learning how to be a teacher as I go, and believe me I have so much sympathy for those who teach now!
But last weekend was SO much fun. I blogged before that I had the privilege of being asked to help recruit for IUPUI at a college fair in Egypt with the IUPUI Director of International Recruitment. It was SOOOOO much fun! It was CRAZY and I didn't expect that we would have the turnout and interest that we did. It was an overwhelming response. I shutter to think what would have happened to poor Pat if she had been there all alone! Let me explain something about Egyptians. For Americans - it is widely accepted that you can make a career out of pretty much anything. So people go to school to be nurses, engineers, lawyers, doctors, they study math and history, they want to be teachers and police officers, they study political science and social work. Basically American students have diverse ideas about what success is - what they want to devote their lives to and so what they study in college.
This diversity DOES NOT exist in Egypt. You MIGHT be successful as a lawyer or businessman. You can probably do pretty good as a doctor. BUT engineering is the only REAL way to be successful and make lots of $$$. So this fair was mostly a bunch of US liberal arts colleges. One had a law school (but not medical and engineering). One had engineering (but it wasn't well known and didn't have medical or law). One had a medical school (but not law and engineering).
IUPUI has IU's nationally ranked law school. IU's nationally ranked medical school. and Purdue's world-renowned engineering school.
Thus - EVERY student wanted to talk to us. It was crazy. There were two of us behind a table and in Cairo and Alexandria both we were absolutely mobbed with at least 75 students at a time for the entire 3 hours the fairs. NYU looked pretty bored. I thought Boston was going to fall asleep. And here are Pat and I who can't stop to take a drink of water because the students were aggressively (yes there was some pushing and yelling) seeking information. "I want to be a doctor. I want scholarships!" "I want to be an engineer! How much?" "Do you have scholarships for medical school?!" And this was how it continued for three hours. The problem was once we were done talking - we had ABSOLUTELY no idea who was next and so we just picked someone and that's who we talked to. We tried to talk loud enough that everyone who had similar questions could hear. However that didn't work. Because as soon as I was done. The student next to this one would have the EXACT same questions - apparently expecting different answers.
It was so much fun though. These students are so so so eager to be successful. And to many of them, success means a degree from the states. They are so eager to do it. I have never seen American students so eager. It reminded me of why I hear stories like in Purdue. Two of their Master's programs in engineering this year (I think Mechanical and Electrical but can't remember for sure) have NO American students in them this year. It is this eagerness to succeed that is leaving American students and employees behind in the world. We have taken for granted too long that we are American and so all will be okay. While the rest of the world is aggressively trying to pass us up. And they are using our own colleges to make that a reality. And I say - good for them. Americans could take a page from the eagerness and determination that these students show. It shouldn't give Americans an excuse to write articles like "Foreign workers take American jobs" or "The assault on American Universities" that I have seen. They should be writing articles like "Americans are falling behind and its our own fault" and "Wake up America! Success comes to those who want it most - and that's not us anymore!"
~Randy
~Ramy
~G'do
~IUPUI International Ambassador
So school has been keeping me pretty busy. And I also am teaching English to Egyptian college students too. The problem is that my classes are at the old downtown campus, an hour away from where I live on New Campus - which is out in the middle of the desert. So each day I have class - Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday I take the 10AM bus downtown and I meet my friends Kais (German-Tunisian) and Ellen (American) and we study until our classes are 5:00. After class gets out at 8:00, we (me and my other classmates) take the 8:30 bus back to campus and we arrive close to 10ish. So I am gone every day from 10 til 10. My friends on campus have been giving me hell because I'm never around anymore. But these grad school classes are brutal IF you get behind or don't stay ahead. I'm doing great - because I have made sure to always stay up on it. But I've seen some classmates who haven't - and it's not a good thing.
I'll tell you all about my English class disasters in my next blog - so stay tuned. I'm learning how to be a teacher as I go, and believe me I have so much sympathy for those who teach now!
But last weekend was SO much fun. I blogged before that I had the privilege of being asked to help recruit for IUPUI at a college fair in Egypt with the IUPUI Director of International Recruitment. It was SOOOOO much fun! It was CRAZY and I didn't expect that we would have the turnout and interest that we did. It was an overwhelming response. I shutter to think what would have happened to poor Pat if she had been there all alone! Let me explain something about Egyptians. For Americans - it is widely accepted that you can make a career out of pretty much anything. So people go to school to be nurses, engineers, lawyers, doctors, they study math and history, they want to be teachers and police officers, they study political science and social work. Basically American students have diverse ideas about what success is - what they want to devote their lives to and so what they study in college.
This diversity DOES NOT exist in Egypt. You MIGHT be successful as a lawyer or businessman. You can probably do pretty good as a doctor. BUT engineering is the only REAL way to be successful and make lots of $$$. So this fair was mostly a bunch of US liberal arts colleges. One had a law school (but not medical and engineering). One had engineering (but it wasn't well known and didn't have medical or law). One had a medical school (but not law and engineering).
IUPUI has IU's nationally ranked law school. IU's nationally ranked medical school. and Purdue's world-renowned engineering school.
Thus - EVERY student wanted to talk to us. It was crazy. There were two of us behind a table and in Cairo and Alexandria both we were absolutely mobbed with at least 75 students at a time for the entire 3 hours the fairs. NYU looked pretty bored. I thought Boston was going to fall asleep. And here are Pat and I who can't stop to take a drink of water because the students were aggressively (yes there was some pushing and yelling) seeking information. "I want to be a doctor. I want scholarships!" "I want to be an engineer! How much?" "Do you have scholarships for medical school?!" And this was how it continued for three hours. The problem was once we were done talking - we had ABSOLUTELY no idea who was next and so we just picked someone and that's who we talked to. We tried to talk loud enough that everyone who had similar questions could hear. However that didn't work. Because as soon as I was done. The student next to this one would have the EXACT same questions - apparently expecting different answers.
It was so much fun though. These students are so so so eager to be successful. And to many of them, success means a degree from the states. They are so eager to do it. I have never seen American students so eager. It reminded me of why I hear stories like in Purdue. Two of their Master's programs in engineering this year (I think Mechanical and Electrical but can't remember for sure) have NO American students in them this year. It is this eagerness to succeed that is leaving American students and employees behind in the world. We have taken for granted too long that we are American and so all will be okay. While the rest of the world is aggressively trying to pass us up. And they are using our own colleges to make that a reality. And I say - good for them. Americans could take a page from the eagerness and determination that these students show. It shouldn't give Americans an excuse to write articles like "Foreign workers take American jobs" or "The assault on American Universities" that I have seen. They should be writing articles like "Americans are falling behind and its our own fault" and "Wake up America! Success comes to those who want it most - and that's not us anymore!"
~Randy
~Ramy
~G'do
~IUPUI International Ambassador
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Survived the Weekend
So I had a pretty fun weekend. It started on Thursday night (as the weekends in Egypt are Friday and Saturday). I survived my first sandstorm on Thursday night. It was SOOOOO bad. I was trying to catch the bus at 7:15 to go meet friends downtown and the storm started about 7:10. It was just a blinding wall of sand that blew right at you. My nose, mouth and ears seemed full of sand. I was blowing sand out of my nose and cleaning sand from my ears still the next afternoon. It was funny because it FELT just like a storm in the States. The sky got dark and you could see "clouds" rolling in and it started to be a little windy. I SWEAR I thought it was going to start pouring. This of course is silly b/c it rains in Cairo maybe once a year. But suddenly it was just SAND everywhere. While in the bus the lights reflected off the sand like fog or heavy rain and it really decreased visibility. Once we got into Tahrir (downtown Cairo) it was better, but still windy and it was still kicking up sand. When I got back to campus later the next morning the place was a WRECK. Signs and trash cans, patio tables and umbrellas, chairs and trash just blown all over the place. This campus is FILLED with water fountains and they were just completely clogged with leaves and sand.
But I had a lot of fun this weekend. Tonight was a felluca ride (my third or fourth so far) for the Law Students Association. A felluca is like a sailboat that you ride on the Nile. They aren't particularly fun after your first one, its really the company and fun you have with friends that make them worth it.
I met some new friends Thursday night too. I'm glad I'm a social person or I would hate living here... but I don't cause I meet people like every week. I found out some GREAT information about Gaza too. I met a girl who has been a few times. I want to do my internship there and so she had great pointers and information to share with me.
Also I got confirmation from Pat, the Director of International Recruiting at IUPUI that she will arrive on Wednesday night. I'm attending a University fair with her in Cairo on Friday and Alexandria on Saturday. I'll be offering the alumni perspective to IUPUI in an attempt to recruit for Egyptian and other Arab students to come to IUPUI for their undergrad or grad school. That is really exciting and providence that I got to meet Pat right before I graduated and planned to meet her for this. Its kind of exciting to represent my school as an alumnus so soon after graduating.... woo hoo!
Loving Cairo,
Missing home,
Never wanting to leave,
Randy
But I had a lot of fun this weekend. Tonight was a felluca ride (my third or fourth so far) for the Law Students Association. A felluca is like a sailboat that you ride on the Nile. They aren't particularly fun after your first one, its really the company and fun you have with friends that make them worth it.
I met some new friends Thursday night too. I'm glad I'm a social person or I would hate living here... but I don't cause I meet people like every week. I found out some GREAT information about Gaza too. I met a girl who has been a few times. I want to do my internship there and so she had great pointers and information to share with me.
Also I got confirmation from Pat, the Director of International Recruiting at IUPUI that she will arrive on Wednesday night. I'm attending a University fair with her in Cairo on Friday and Alexandria on Saturday. I'll be offering the alumni perspective to IUPUI in an attempt to recruit for Egyptian and other Arab students to come to IUPUI for their undergrad or grad school. That is really exciting and providence that I got to meet Pat right before I graduated and planned to meet her for this. Its kind of exciting to represent my school as an alumnus so soon after graduating.... woo hoo!
Loving Cairo,
Missing home,
Never wanting to leave,
Randy
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Finally
So finally I am updating my blog....
Its crazy really how busy I've been and how much I've settled in all at the same time. When I was abroad last summer it seemed that I blogged nearly daily - but it feels different now. Then - I knew there was an end date in sight and I knew just how temporary the situation was and wanted to record every moment. Now - things feel different. I'm not here for six weeks. I'm here for two years. It feels so much more permanent and so blogging about it seems weird- because now I'm not blogging about an adventure abroad - but I'm blogging about life.
And at the same time - that feels more appropriate - so I think i'm going to start blogging more often.
Classes are amazing. Hard - and amazing. They aren't hard in the traditional sense that I have a lot of homework and its hard. Or even that the material is somehow hard to grasp or understand - it's hard because all I do is sleep, eat and READ. I read until I think my eyes are going to bleed sometimes. Thus the nature of law classes I suppose.
Most of the grad students take three classes - but I'm doing four. That's partly because I'm doing a Master's and a Grad Diploma so I have more classes to fit in. And partly because if I only did three I think I would be bored. It's honestly a lot - but just enough at the same time. I think because if I had less - I would be more tempted to hang out with friends and go out more and put it off. But the workload is such, that I know I can't afford to get behind - so it keeps me in the books and on my toes.
I have met a lot of friends here. And I think good friends that I'll keep for a long time. There's Kais - the German/Tunisian. We go out for koshry after class and play backgammon for a couple hours twice a week after our classes. Then there's the Lebanese crowd. I like Ramy and Sheeraz the most - we like to talk politics and world affairs in the commons. There is the Egyptian Hassan. My god, we start talking about whatever at 9pm and then crap! when did it become 3am! There's plenty of Americans I've gotten to know well too. The only unfortunate thing is that most of them are study abroad for a semester or year and so soon they shall be gone... the Arabs are here to stay longer term and so I really feel the opportunity to get to know them and build friendships is better.
The students here on campus are sooooo young. I've helped I think 5 students now learn how to do laundry for the first time. I was doing laundry by the time I was 10! They're 19 and don't know how... must be nice. They don't know how to cook or grocery shop for themselves. They don't know how to write papers / source them / notecarding research methods / how to use commas and semicolons... the list goes on and on. I help so many of them with so much, and the fact that I'm the second oldest in all the dorms - has earned me the nickname of Gdo. Gdo is Egyptian for grandpa. Its really funny to me - because I honestly do feel that way sometimes. LOL
So for now it's getting late and Gdo needs to go to bed.... see you all very soon.
Its crazy really how busy I've been and how much I've settled in all at the same time. When I was abroad last summer it seemed that I blogged nearly daily - but it feels different now. Then - I knew there was an end date in sight and I knew just how temporary the situation was and wanted to record every moment. Now - things feel different. I'm not here for six weeks. I'm here for two years. It feels so much more permanent and so blogging about it seems weird- because now I'm not blogging about an adventure abroad - but I'm blogging about life.
And at the same time - that feels more appropriate - so I think i'm going to start blogging more often.
Classes are amazing. Hard - and amazing. They aren't hard in the traditional sense that I have a lot of homework and its hard. Or even that the material is somehow hard to grasp or understand - it's hard because all I do is sleep, eat and READ. I read until I think my eyes are going to bleed sometimes. Thus the nature of law classes I suppose.
Most of the grad students take three classes - but I'm doing four. That's partly because I'm doing a Master's and a Grad Diploma so I have more classes to fit in. And partly because if I only did three I think I would be bored. It's honestly a lot - but just enough at the same time. I think because if I had less - I would be more tempted to hang out with friends and go out more and put it off. But the workload is such, that I know I can't afford to get behind - so it keeps me in the books and on my toes.
I have met a lot of friends here. And I think good friends that I'll keep for a long time. There's Kais - the German/Tunisian. We go out for koshry after class and play backgammon for a couple hours twice a week after our classes. Then there's the Lebanese crowd. I like Ramy and Sheeraz the most - we like to talk politics and world affairs in the commons. There is the Egyptian Hassan. My god, we start talking about whatever at 9pm and then crap! when did it become 3am! There's plenty of Americans I've gotten to know well too. The only unfortunate thing is that most of them are study abroad for a semester or year and so soon they shall be gone... the Arabs are here to stay longer term and so I really feel the opportunity to get to know them and build friendships is better.
The students here on campus are sooooo young. I've helped I think 5 students now learn how to do laundry for the first time. I was doing laundry by the time I was 10! They're 19 and don't know how... must be nice. They don't know how to cook or grocery shop for themselves. They don't know how to write papers / source them / notecarding research methods / how to use commas and semicolons... the list goes on and on. I help so many of them with so much, and the fact that I'm the second oldest in all the dorms - has earned me the nickname of Gdo. Gdo is Egyptian for grandpa. Its really funny to me - because I honestly do feel that way sometimes. LOL
So for now it's getting late and Gdo needs to go to bed.... see you all very soon.
Monday, September 13, 2010
new post.....FINALLY
SO.... I know its been a while. A week actually since my last post. It has been soo soo very busy here in Cairo. So much has gone on that I don't know where to start. I will write a couple of blogs tonight so I can catch up without overwhelming those of you reading my blog.
First things first.... thanks to my friend Amy's message, I realized that the auto settings for my blog required you to register an account to leave a simple comment. I thought that was silly and would LOVE to hear your comments on my blog - so that has been updated to allow for comments. However, if it doesn't give you a spot to put a name, please do in the comment or I wouldn't know who you are! I'm still figuring out how blogger works....
I LOVE it here in Egypt. Since we last left off, I have been on many adventures. The cool thing is that the Housing and Res Life here on campus makes every effort to plan a lot of trips. This really gives us the chance to get out and see Egypt. This is a popular university for semester and year-long study abroad. They have one of the best Arabic Language Institutes around so many people come here to enroll in their intensive and beginner Arabic programs. So they know each semester new people come and go and they repeat trips each semester accordingly.
Last Tuesday before classes started, there was a trip to the pyramids with lunch after planned. Many of us went, although the only Arabs, or Muslims for that matter, that went were the tour guides and the RAs. This is because it was during Ramadan, the holy month of the Islamic calendar. As such, during Ramadan, Muslims fast each day from sunrise to sunset. Egypt actually backs it time up an hour during Ramadan to make this easier on its residents. So from about 4:30AM to about 6:30PM (though it moves up a minute each day so it changes) they cannot eat or drink ANYTHING - not even water. So a trip to the pyramids at 11AM during the hottest part of the day in one of the hottest months of the year in August - isn't really wise if you can't drink or eat.
It was a blast. It was a funny feeling. It was a lot like seeing Stonehenge last year for me. There they are - standing right in front of you - 5000+ years of history and architecture, I climbed on them, touched them - smelled the inside of the millenia old tombs - and then we left.
Its such a wierd feeling that I find hard to put on paper. It is so AMAZING to see and touch them, but then its over. They don't do tricks - they don't speak to you of their mysterious architecture and hallowed history - and you realize that they will be here for still more milennia to come and that's it. The mystery fades as quickly as it captured me when I was 8 or 10 or whatever age I was that I became fascinated with the Egyptian pyramids. I think, at least for me, I hype these things up in my mind, I build them up expecting some great euphoric moment when I see and touch this amazingly historical item and it doesn't come.
And my friend Ahmed, an Egyptian from Giza pictured with me above, has lived for 19 years in the shadows of the pyramids and this was his first visit. To him, and his family its nothing special. They've been there for generations, and will be for more and it was nothing special. It was really interesting to find the ambivalence of the pyramids that many Egyptians have b/c it is something they see everyday of their lives.
But I must profess - as cynical as the above sounded - it was INCREDIBLE and I'm SOOO glad I did it. But it was the tourist trap of all tourist traps. You are basically hounded from all sides, angles and locations by people wanting you to buy anything - even your own camera back from them....
The general rule for materials sold at these areas seems to be "if its already in your hand..... you've already bought it". They place an item in your hand, you take it, look at it and say no thanks, but they won't take it back and they expect payment. EVERYONE is out to make a buck. Literally - they didn't want to be paid in Egyptian pounds - they all but demanded payment in US Dollars. Even the security guards were out to make $$. Don't climb on the pyramids, the signs read - but for a tip you could climb as high as you'd like. Don't take pictures in the tombs and in the pyramds, but for a tip, take as many as you'd like.
Justin, and I (pictured with me on the camel) met a "nice" Egyptian man who wanted to dress us in turbans and pose for pictures with us. We knew this would require a tip, or "baksheesh" after, but we didn't care - we thought it would be fun. That is until he all but ran away with my camera - sort of. There are Egyptian Tourist Police everywhere, so he wouldn't have gotten far with it - and didn't intend on it anyways. He led us over to his camel. Before I could get my camera back (because he selectively spoke English only to his benefit), Justin and I had to sit on the camel to pose for a picture. No sooner had the flash gone off, he signaled the camel to stand. We immediately started protesting this, to which he answered, "you'll have fun!" We protested no - its' not fun - stop~! and let us down.... to which he suddenly spoke no English again. We steadily protested for what seemed like ages, while we watched our friends Tiffany, Lizzy, Mike, etc all parade by on camels screaming "Stop! Let me down!"
It seems we had all been had almost simultaneously at different points around the Great Pyramid. We finally found our way down, and got my camera back after negotiating a tip with our camel-kidnapper. We survived and had a great story to tell and pictures to prove it.
I survived my first ever Cairo Tourist Trap....
Sunday, September 5, 2010
More Cairo
So I freaking love being in Egypt.
I have already made some really good friends. There are a few Americans that I have become friends with but I have actually became better friends with some Egyptians and mostly with some Lebanese.
The Jordanians and Lebanese that I have met, I have hit it off with the most. I love the people over here so much. There are 7 Lebanese students here and I've become good friends with them all. Nancy and Nataly are twins and Rasheed, Mohamad, Ramy and Mostafa are all sophomores at AUC. They are all on MEPI scholarships which are U.S. State Department scholarships. They all also participated in the YES program which is an exchange program which sends students from abroad to US high schools. Nancy spent a year at Perry Meridian in Indianapolis. She misses the people in Indy and her host family and its cool to meet someone who lived in Indy from the Mid East so we have bonded over our love of the Colts as well. Mohamad spent time in Toledo, OH and Mostafa was in Michigan and in true Michigander fashion, when I asked where he was at in Michigan he got out his hand and pointed. There is something re-assuredly American about them, but wholly and completely Arab too. The 7th Lebanese is Shiraz and she is in my graduate program in Migration and Refugee Studies. Mostafa's girlfriend, Sherri, is from New York and she is in my grad program of International Human Rights Law. So I think it was providence that I fell into that group.
There are also 6 Jordanians that I have met as well - and I love the Jordanian people as well. The two cultures are less conservative than even in Egypt. Egyptian conservatism can be seen and experienced right on campus nearly every day. In order to attract Egyptian students the University reflects the values of the greater Egyptian culture which means that there is great separation of sexes. Being on the other sides' dorm area is immediate expulsion. PDA of any kind gets you points and 7 points gets you kicked out of housing. Liquor is completely forbidden and gambling as well. So no poker and beer on campus for me.... Although I'm quickly learning that these are more "official" policies than they are actually enforced. There is a bit of a double standard for Americans as well. While they want to appeal to Egyptians with their conservative values, they want to appeal to Americans so they tend to look the other way and hand out a lot of warnings to Americans as opposed to how they treat Arabs. Its not really fair, but its the way it is....
It turns out that they forgot to tell me and all the other grad students in the program that our classes are all downtown and not at the new campus. Because a lot of law students in Cairo also work in the law field and criminal justice system in Egypt, they keep their classes all at night and all downtown. But those of us who thought it would be a good idea to live on campus - whoops! They forgot to tell us and so we will have an hour bus ride each day, each way to get to our classes. My first class is tonight. Classes are held Sunday - Thursday because Friday and Saturday in Egypt are the weekend days.
This is the tail-end of Ramadan so a lot of schedule stuff is messed up anyways because of the required fast for all Muslims every day in the month of Ramadan. Muslims fast while the sun is up, so Egypt bumps back the time during Ramadan, to make it easier on its citizens so they cannot eat from 4:30AM until 6:30PM. 6:30 is Iftar which is the breaking of the fast when they eat. I've been hanging out with my Lebanese friends a lot and so have kind of accidentally fallen into their fasting schedule. I stay up with them and eat at 3AM and then go to bed and sleep till noon and don't really get hungry till around 5:30 or so, so I just wait and break fast with them at 6:30. Although they have to fast from EVERYTHING including water and cigarettes too...so I'm not fasting but am definitely on their eating schedule by now - I'm gonna have to transition off soon because Ramadan ends soon with the upcoming Eid holiday on September 9-12 where we have a four-day weekend - Thursday through Sunday.
I'm ready for classes to start tonight. Although this first week instead of classes being from 5:00 - 8:00 like normal, they are all from 8:00 - 10:30 this week to allow for the breaking of the fast (Iftar). Its amazing to be here and experience the diversity of thought, opinion and background here and the great bonds we have in spite of the differences. Last night I was at dinner with Lebanese, Jordanian, Puerto Rican, American and Palestinians.
Its a great atmosphere. There are a LOT of students here who have one (or both) Arab parents but have always lived in the US, so now that they are here they are experiencing their own culture for the first time. And although they may have never lived in Palestine, Egypt or wherever, they are accepted by those groups as if they always had....
I cant wait for two more years here.... so so so excited for the adventure to continue!
I have already made some really good friends. There are a few Americans that I have become friends with but I have actually became better friends with some Egyptians and mostly with some Lebanese.
The Jordanians and Lebanese that I have met, I have hit it off with the most. I love the people over here so much. There are 7 Lebanese students here and I've become good friends with them all. Nancy and Nataly are twins and Rasheed, Mohamad, Ramy and Mostafa are all sophomores at AUC. They are all on MEPI scholarships which are U.S. State Department scholarships. They all also participated in the YES program which is an exchange program which sends students from abroad to US high schools. Nancy spent a year at Perry Meridian in Indianapolis. She misses the people in Indy and her host family and its cool to meet someone who lived in Indy from the Mid East so we have bonded over our love of the Colts as well. Mohamad spent time in Toledo, OH and Mostafa was in Michigan and in true Michigander fashion, when I asked where he was at in Michigan he got out his hand and pointed. There is something re-assuredly American about them, but wholly and completely Arab too. The 7th Lebanese is Shiraz and she is in my graduate program in Migration and Refugee Studies. Mostafa's girlfriend, Sherri, is from New York and she is in my grad program of International Human Rights Law. So I think it was providence that I fell into that group.
There are also 6 Jordanians that I have met as well - and I love the Jordanian people as well. The two cultures are less conservative than even in Egypt. Egyptian conservatism can be seen and experienced right on campus nearly every day. In order to attract Egyptian students the University reflects the values of the greater Egyptian culture which means that there is great separation of sexes. Being on the other sides' dorm area is immediate expulsion. PDA of any kind gets you points and 7 points gets you kicked out of housing. Liquor is completely forbidden and gambling as well. So no poker and beer on campus for me.... Although I'm quickly learning that these are more "official" policies than they are actually enforced. There is a bit of a double standard for Americans as well. While they want to appeal to Egyptians with their conservative values, they want to appeal to Americans so they tend to look the other way and hand out a lot of warnings to Americans as opposed to how they treat Arabs. Its not really fair, but its the way it is....
It turns out that they forgot to tell me and all the other grad students in the program that our classes are all downtown and not at the new campus. Because a lot of law students in Cairo also work in the law field and criminal justice system in Egypt, they keep their classes all at night and all downtown. But those of us who thought it would be a good idea to live on campus - whoops! They forgot to tell us and so we will have an hour bus ride each day, each way to get to our classes. My first class is tonight. Classes are held Sunday - Thursday because Friday and Saturday in Egypt are the weekend days.
This is the tail-end of Ramadan so a lot of schedule stuff is messed up anyways because of the required fast for all Muslims every day in the month of Ramadan. Muslims fast while the sun is up, so Egypt bumps back the time during Ramadan, to make it easier on its citizens so they cannot eat from 4:30AM until 6:30PM. 6:30 is Iftar which is the breaking of the fast when they eat. I've been hanging out with my Lebanese friends a lot and so have kind of accidentally fallen into their fasting schedule. I stay up with them and eat at 3AM and then go to bed and sleep till noon and don't really get hungry till around 5:30 or so, so I just wait and break fast with them at 6:30. Although they have to fast from EVERYTHING including water and cigarettes too...so I'm not fasting but am definitely on their eating schedule by now - I'm gonna have to transition off soon because Ramadan ends soon with the upcoming Eid holiday on September 9-12 where we have a four-day weekend - Thursday through Sunday.
I'm ready for classes to start tonight. Although this first week instead of classes being from 5:00 - 8:00 like normal, they are all from 8:00 - 10:30 this week to allow for the breaking of the fast (Iftar). Its amazing to be here and experience the diversity of thought, opinion and background here and the great bonds we have in spite of the differences. Last night I was at dinner with Lebanese, Jordanian, Puerto Rican, American and Palestinians.
Its a great atmosphere. There are a LOT of students here who have one (or both) Arab parents but have always lived in the US, so now that they are here they are experiencing their own culture for the first time. And although they may have never lived in Palestine, Egypt or wherever, they are accepted by those groups as if they always had....
I cant wait for two more years here.... so so so excited for the adventure to continue!
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Cairo, Cairo, Cairo
It hasn't quite been a week yet, but I've already done so so much here. After getting all settled in on Thursday and already meeting a bunch of people, on Friday night we took a Felluca ride on the Nile. A felluca is basically a sailboat with a bunch of seats on it for tourists. So 20 per boat we piled on and took off for about a 30 minute trip on the Nile. I have some pics, but my camera is acting funny in the dark, so not many pics look good. I need to learn how to adjust the exposure time...but anyways.....
It was a time for us to get to know one another as well so we played different ice breakers and such. It is a very interesting group here on campus. I live on the New Cairo campus. There are about 500 students living here. Then there are students living in the old dorms in Zamalek - the very "American" ex-pat part of Cairo with I think a thousand or so students and then most students live in housing for a semester or year and then find an apartment in Cairo to experience Cairo life more fully.
Here there are about half Egyptians and half international. I've met 40 or so Americans so far that are either doing grad studies or their undergrad studies here. But I've met like 200 Americans that are doing semester and year-long study abroads. There are students here from 62 countries including all 29 Egyptian states and something like 30 U.S. states. Although being from the Midwest is somewhat of a commodity. The vast majority of the Americans I have met here are from the coasts.
I have met Japanese and Italian, one of my roommates is Korean, and most of the Arab countries are all represented. Its the most diverse campus I've ever been on - and I love it.
I've been shopping a few times and stuff is pretty cheap. We went to the biggest mall in Cairo - City Stars, which is a 7-story ridiculously plush mall with a huge, but cheap supermarket on the first floor. I was able to get pots, pans, cups, spatulas, silverware, etc and 5 bags of food for about $55. Because there are plenty of food options on campus, but an average meal is $5-$6. Why pay that every day, when I can just pay for groceries and have more money to spend out. There is a horseback riding trip to the pyramids tonight at 9pm, but by the time that me and my friends tried to sign up, it was already full. But one of our Egyptian friends, Ahmed, said we can go for half the price that they're charging so we're going to go another time. Also, all of the trips they organize each semester and I'm here for at least 4, so I think I'm good.
I am signed up for a trip to Old Cairo on Saturday which is the centuries old area of CAiro with old museums, mosques, etc. That should be a great picture day. Throughout the semester there are many great trips planned. So I plan on taking all that I can! I'm going to Rehab again today to get my phone unlocked so it can take my Egyptian sim card. So hopefully I'll have an Egyptian number soon!
And remember I do have a skype number so you can call it anytime as an Indianapolis number and it will ring me in Cairo! If I'm online - I'll answer, and if not (it is 7 hours difference) than you can leave a voicemail! So feel free to call! 317-353-3233
It was a time for us to get to know one another as well so we played different ice breakers and such. It is a very interesting group here on campus. I live on the New Cairo campus. There are about 500 students living here. Then there are students living in the old dorms in Zamalek - the very "American" ex-pat part of Cairo with I think a thousand or so students and then most students live in housing for a semester or year and then find an apartment in Cairo to experience Cairo life more fully.
Here there are about half Egyptians and half international. I've met 40 or so Americans so far that are either doing grad studies or their undergrad studies here. But I've met like 200 Americans that are doing semester and year-long study abroads. There are students here from 62 countries including all 29 Egyptian states and something like 30 U.S. states. Although being from the Midwest is somewhat of a commodity. The vast majority of the Americans I have met here are from the coasts.
I have met Japanese and Italian, one of my roommates is Korean, and most of the Arab countries are all represented. Its the most diverse campus I've ever been on - and I love it.
I've been shopping a few times and stuff is pretty cheap. We went to the biggest mall in Cairo - City Stars, which is a 7-story ridiculously plush mall with a huge, but cheap supermarket on the first floor. I was able to get pots, pans, cups, spatulas, silverware, etc and 5 bags of food for about $55. Because there are plenty of food options on campus, but an average meal is $5-$6. Why pay that every day, when I can just pay for groceries and have more money to spend out. There is a horseback riding trip to the pyramids tonight at 9pm, but by the time that me and my friends tried to sign up, it was already full. But one of our Egyptian friends, Ahmed, said we can go for half the price that they're charging so we're going to go another time. Also, all of the trips they organize each semester and I'm here for at least 4, so I think I'm good.
I am signed up for a trip to Old Cairo on Saturday which is the centuries old area of CAiro with old museums, mosques, etc. That should be a great picture day. Throughout the semester there are many great trips planned. So I plan on taking all that I can! I'm going to Rehab again today to get my phone unlocked so it can take my Egyptian sim card. So hopefully I'll have an Egyptian number soon!
And remember I do have a skype number so you can call it anytime as an Indianapolis number and it will ring me in Cairo! If I'm online - I'll answer, and if not (it is 7 hours difference) than you can leave a voicemail! So feel free to call! 317-353-3233
Monday, August 30, 2010
Cairo
Ok, ok - I know this is LONG overdue.... I have been so very very busy here in Cairo.
London was a lot of fun - and it was great to see my friends there. Wednesday the 25th was a long day for me. I woke up about 9AM so we could get ready and then head out with my luggage. I needed help to get myself on to the tube train that takes me to Heathrow b/c I had all my bags for Cairo with me. So I got on the train and arrived at the airport and was ready to check in at 1pm for my 6 pm flight. So I chilled outside a while smoked and enjoyed the last cool day I would have for a while. Then I checked in, went through security and still had about 3 hours to kill. I finally got aboard my flight to Frankfurt Germany and landed an hour and a half later. I had another two hours to kill in Frankfurt. Thank God for the Germans who still have smoking rooms IN the airport terminals! Then I finally arrived in Cairo at about 3:00AM, headed through Customs, and got picked up at the airport with my friend Justin. He is a one-year study abroad student from UC Berkeley. We were on the same flight but didn't meet until the ride from the airport to campus. I didn't get any pics from the airplane b/c I was in the middle row (had it all to myself though) and it was too dark to see anything anyways.
Everything my Arabic professor (thanks Dr. Mashhour!) told me about driving in Egypt
was true! Even the campus drivers drive CRAZY! There are speed bumps every so often to encourage people to slow down - but all they do is floor it to like 90 and then hit the brakes hard when they see a speed bump - and they don't drive in lanes and they pass whenever they feel like it! It was a little scary! But every ride since coming here has been similar.
So I finally arrived in my room after check-in at about 4:30AM. I though about unpacking for a minute - but decided against that quickly and just hit the sack. The room came a lot more furnished than I had expected. I had sheets and a comforter and trash can and desk lamp and rug and towels, etc. So I had to buy much less than I had originally expected to.
The first day on Thursday was pretty low-key. I met a few people and then Friday I met LOTS of people and took my first trip to Rehab (a suburb of Cairo). I should take this moment to explain where I am. I am living on the new campus (this is the third semester for this brand new campus) in New Cairo. New Cairo is a suburb about a 25 minute drive from Cairo and is in the MIDDLE of desert on all sides. It is QUICKLY expanding and in the next 5 to 10 years it projected to have a population of 2.5 million. It is mostly upper class and upper middle class. There is housing going up EVERYWHERE around us and also shopping centers and such as well. There are buses that normally leave every hour for various destinations around Cairo and its suburbs until 10pm and buses that come back to campus from these locations until 2AM. So it is pretty easy to get into the city easily and quickly.
I don't want to put too much in this first post, so I will post more later today with pics and a little more about whats been keeping me so busy, en sha allah.
ma salaama!
~Randy
راندي
London was a lot of fun - and it was great to see my friends there. Wednesday the 25th was a long day for me. I woke up about 9AM so we could get ready and then head out with my luggage. I needed help to get myself on to the tube train that takes me to Heathrow b/c I had all my bags for Cairo with me. So I got on the train and arrived at the airport and was ready to check in at 1pm for my 6 pm flight. So I chilled outside a while smoked and enjoyed the last cool day I would have for a while. Then I checked in, went through security and still had about 3 hours to kill. I finally got aboard my flight to Frankfurt Germany and landed an hour and a half later. I had another two hours to kill in Frankfurt. Thank God for the Germans who still have smoking rooms IN the airport terminals! Then I finally arrived in Cairo at about 3:00AM, headed through Customs, and got picked up at the airport with my friend Justin. He is a one-year study abroad student from UC Berkeley. We were on the same flight but didn't meet until the ride from the airport to campus. I didn't get any pics from the airplane b/c I was in the middle row (had it all to myself though) and it was too dark to see anything anyways.
Everything my Arabic professor (thanks Dr. Mashhour!) told me about driving in Egypt
was true! Even the campus drivers drive CRAZY! There are speed bumps every so often to encourage people to slow down - but all they do is floor it to like 90 and then hit the brakes hard when they see a speed bump - and they don't drive in lanes and they pass whenever they feel like it! It was a little scary! But every ride since coming here has been similar.
So I finally arrived in my room after check-in at about 4:30AM. I though about unpacking for a minute - but decided against that quickly and just hit the sack. The room came a lot more furnished than I had expected. I had sheets and a comforter and trash can and desk lamp and rug and towels, etc. So I had to buy much less than I had originally expected to.
The first day on Thursday was pretty low-key. I met a few people and then Friday I met LOTS of people and took my first trip to Rehab (a suburb of Cairo). I should take this moment to explain where I am. I am living on the new campus (this is the third semester for this brand new campus) in New Cairo. New Cairo is a suburb about a 25 minute drive from Cairo and is in the MIDDLE of desert on all sides. It is QUICKLY expanding and in the next 5 to 10 years it projected to have a population of 2.5 million. It is mostly upper class and upper middle class. There is housing going up EVERYWHERE around us and also shopping centers and such as well. There are buses that normally leave every hour for various destinations around Cairo and its suburbs until 10pm and buses that come back to campus from these locations until 2AM. So it is pretty easy to get into the city easily and quickly.
I don't want to put too much in this first post, so I will post more later today with pics and a little more about whats been keeping me so busy, en sha allah.
ma salaama!
~Randy
راندي
Monday, August 23, 2010
Vacation in London
So since we've last talked I've done a lot. Starting on Friday night we went to TGI Friday's in Covent Gardens. I know, I know, you would have thought I needed a break from TGI Fridays food as I only stopped working there 2 weeks ago, but Stefano, the friend I'm staying with LOVES Friday's food.
It turns out, Fridays is not much different in London - they still have to sing Happy Birthday to people and the food isn't all that much different other than they have kept things on the menu that the U.S. stores got rid of long ago.
I've done some browsing too, but not any real shopping. My suitcases arrived in London at the max weight, so buying anything at the moment is NOT an option (sad, b/c I love to shop) but it's probably a good thing since I need to budget anyways until I get my school money later in Cairo.
I was trying to think of what were the things that I missed last year in London. There honestly is not a lot, since I was here for 7 weeks last time I got to see most things. The two things I came up with first were seeing the grave of Karl Marx and visiting Buckingham Palace. I did get to see Karl Marx's grave. Its located in Highgate Cemetery on London's northside - a very old cemetery.
Tombstones here in the UK are very different from US headstones. They come in basically two varieties - tall statue and what I describe as a "planter tombstone".
The planters are long (the size of a casket) and are filled with dirt which was intended to be tended by decendents who would plant flowers, etc and take care of it. However, years of neglect at most, have either left them overgrown with weeds and bushes or just covered in grass.
It was a very interesting cemetery because the tombstones are bascially on top of one another and there is hardly any space between tombstones at all. Just like all of London, space is a premium and its hard to come by, so in death, like life, homes are ran up against one another.
The queen leaves for Windsor Castle two months of the year and while she is not in residence you can tour it. So last year I got to see Windsor, but not Buckingham b/c she doesn't leave until mid-August and I left at the beginning of August.
However, it costs about 50 American dollars to tour it! What are they thinking. I'm sure its cool, but I'm also sure it can't be much different than any other royal castle I saw last year. So I think Buckingham is probably out.
Today we're going house shopping (Stefano has to move) which should be fun to see flats and prices in different areas as London is a place I would like to live after grad school so this will give me a great preview. And tonight at 8pm I'll be watching Avenue Q in London's theater district.
I couldn't leave without seeing a show, and I've heard such good things about Ave Q.
Very excited for the day. Wednesday I leave! So not much time left. I wanted to take it easy this time, it's less about sightseeing and more about vacation before I head to Cairo and life gets crazy one more.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
London first real day and stuff
Well first, i forgot to thank the two anonymous strangers that helped me immensely yesterday in the London tube. Here I was with two fifty-pound suitcases, a carry-on and a laptop bag trying to figure out how I was going to carry these massive things on and off the subway by myself and up the stairs at the subway too! I didn't have to think for long because the two times that I needed helped a guy (different ones) volunteered straight away to help me carry a bag up the stairs.... I was SO happy b/c I think I would still be down there now trying to carry those ridiculously heavy things up stairs.
Today was a little rough. I managed to wake up on my own at 9am local time (that's 4am Evansville time) and I thought i was fine! I got up, showered, ate breakfast and went out to explore London. But sadly it was about 3 hours later that I fell asleep on the subway and missed my stop because it turns out I was exhausted after all. So I relented, went back to the flat and took a nap. Here's hoping I'm not feeling jetlagged tomorrow. Although it is 1am here now which is my normal bed time anyways so I hope it will be fine.
One of the victims of my packing nightmare (trying to fit everything I need for two years in 2 suitcases) was ANY long-sleeved or warm clothing. After all Egypt gets coldest at about 70 degrees! But I forgot that London in August is cold. Its about 50 degrees outside and windy so I'm pretty much cold here all day!
Speaking of packing nightmare - I'm still nervous about my flight out of London - there is chance, albeit a small one, that Lufthansa could stick it to me with an $800 over-weight baggage fee.... I THINK I got it all resolved with their customer service and they put a note on my travel ticket but who knows... I'm still keeping my fingers crossed and I'm arriving at the airport HOURS and HOURS early in case they make me jump through hoops.
I had forgotten how tiny the streets are in London and how CRAZY drivers are. In Indianapolis, this street would have two lanes, but in London, it is 4 lanes. You have just enough space when parking to have one tire touching the curb and one touching the line. I would sideswipe cars all day in London. And when you ride the bus you think you're going to die about every 30 seconds. These bus drivers are better than Nascar drivers - I swear! I hope they get paid well because I think they're job is HARD!
And people can park in whatever direction they want! So people park front to back and front to front, I don't know how there aren't more accidents - but I guess they're use to it. And it helps that there so so many small cars like the white Toyata pictured here.
Every doorway it seems is beautiful as well with tile on the either side of a recessed doorway and stained glass. It is very welcoming - but you MUST love your neighbors because you there is NOT much space between you. Big yards (or yards at all) are a luxury in London and they are few and far between.
Tomorrow I will start really exploring what I managed to miss the first time. I think I'll be seeing a play this weekend and I should have a lot of fun. But still trying to have fun on the cheap since I have to budget my money well for Cairo. I will be in Cairo almost three weeks before I get my refund check so its all budget, budget, budget until then!
Until tomorrow... Cheers!
Today was a little rough. I managed to wake up on my own at 9am local time (that's 4am Evansville time) and I thought i was fine! I got up, showered, ate breakfast and went out to explore London. But sadly it was about 3 hours later that I fell asleep on the subway and missed my stop because it turns out I was exhausted after all. So I relented, went back to the flat and took a nap. Here's hoping I'm not feeling jetlagged tomorrow. Although it is 1am here now which is my normal bed time anyways so I hope it will be fine.
One of the victims of my packing nightmare (trying to fit everything I need for two years in 2 suitcases) was ANY long-sleeved or warm clothing. After all Egypt gets coldest at about 70 degrees! But I forgot that London in August is cold. Its about 50 degrees outside and windy so I'm pretty much cold here all day!
Speaking of packing nightmare - I'm still nervous about my flight out of London - there is chance, albeit a small one, that Lufthansa could stick it to me with an $800 over-weight baggage fee.... I THINK I got it all resolved with their customer service and they put a note on my travel ticket but who knows... I'm still keeping my fingers crossed and I'm arriving at the airport HOURS and HOURS early in case they make me jump through hoops.
I had forgotten how tiny the streets are in London and how CRAZY drivers are. In Indianapolis, this street would have two lanes, but in London, it is 4 lanes. You have just enough space when parking to have one tire touching the curb and one touching the line. I would sideswipe cars all day in London. And when you ride the bus you think you're going to die about every 30 seconds. These bus drivers are better than Nascar drivers - I swear! I hope they get paid well because I think they're job is HARD!
And people can park in whatever direction they want! So people park front to back and front to front, I don't know how there aren't more accidents - but I guess they're use to it. And it helps that there so so many small cars like the white Toyata pictured here.
Every doorway it seems is beautiful as well with tile on the either side of a recessed doorway and stained glass. It is very welcoming - but you MUST love your neighbors because you there is NOT much space between you. Big yards (or yards at all) are a luxury in London and they are few and far between.
Tomorrow I will start really exploring what I managed to miss the first time. I think I'll be seeing a play this weekend and I should have a lot of fun. But still trying to have fun on the cheap since I have to budget my money well for Cairo. I will be in Cairo almost three weeks before I get my refund check so its all budget, budget, budget until then!
Until tomorrow... Cheers!
Friday, August 20, 2010
Arrived in London
Well.... I arrived in London safely. I didn't think that I would EVER make it to London. We had SOO many delays - we had incorrect baggage make it on the flight and we had to go back to the gate. Then the airport found a lost passport for a passenger and we had to go back to the gate again to get it. Then in mid-flight over the Atlantic a lady about 6 rows back went CRAZY! She stood up and started SCREAMING at someone behind her to stop kicking her seat or she was gonna come over the seat and it got super crazy and hairy for a minute. It took a couple of flight attendants to go back to her and calm her down. They even threatened to turn the plane around!
But then I landed and went through customs without an issue. I picked up my bags (both of which had the "random search" tag inside when I got them. I figured as much since I was flying a one-way ticket to the Middle East. I am really jetlagged. In the last 36 hours I have slept about 3. So tonight will be a GOOD nights rest for me but hopefully staying up today will get me close to being on track with a new sleep schedule 6 hours ahead.
After a VERY busy school year with 2 jobs, 2 internships and a full class load even into the summer - this week off to enjoy myself in London is JUST what I need to unwind and relax before I arrive to Cairo for grad school. Tomorrow I plan to head out into the city and try to catch some stuff I missed on the last time around. Expect some pictures to come tomorrow and some more updates too!
Oh and by the way - there is a link on the left hand side of my blog page where entering your email can alert you when I put up a new blog! (Thanks to cousin Angie Dobbs for teaching me about how to add that to my blog:)
Until then....
R
But then I landed and went through customs without an issue. I picked up my bags (both of which had the "random search" tag inside when I got them. I figured as much since I was flying a one-way ticket to the Middle East. I am really jetlagged. In the last 36 hours I have slept about 3. So tonight will be a GOOD nights rest for me but hopefully staying up today will get me close to being on track with a new sleep schedule 6 hours ahead.
After a VERY busy school year with 2 jobs, 2 internships and a full class load even into the summer - this week off to enjoy myself in London is JUST what I need to unwind and relax before I arrive to Cairo for grad school. Tomorrow I plan to head out into the city and try to catch some stuff I missed on the last time around. Expect some pictures to come tomorrow and some more updates too!
Oh and by the way - there is a link on the left hand side of my blog page where entering your email can alert you when I put up a new blog! (Thanks to cousin Angie Dobbs for teaching me about how to add that to my blog:)
Until then....
R
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Getting Ready...one week left!
Well...one week left in Indianapolis! My parents come up on Saturday of this week (the 14th) to pick me up. On our way home we will be visiting my Aunt Barb and cousin Penny. Then on to Eville to see friends and family before I leave for the Louisville airport on Wednesday the 18th. From Louisville I will fly through Newark to London. There I'm staying for a week to see friends and fall in love with London all over again. After a week, I will continue my travels on to Cairo arriving on the 26th at 3AM Cairo time. Then the fun begins.
In the mean time - I've been packing and sorting. I've got a few friends coming over today to pick through my stuff and make good homes for what I can't take with me.... should be a fun afternoon! So anxious to leave and this seemingly endless getting ready for it is driving me NUTS!
In the mean time - I've been packing and sorting. I've got a few friends coming over today to pick through my stuff and make good homes for what I can't take with me.... should be a fun afternoon! So anxious to leave and this seemingly endless getting ready for it is driving me NUTS!
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Getting Ready to Move
Well…. it’s mostly just packing, trashing, giving and staying BUSY! I can’t believe it’s coming up to six weeks! crazy crazy stuff!
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