Protests and more

Well folks - it's been about a week...not a whole lot has changed. My plans for a trip to Alexandria got ruined a third time - but it turned out ok. The day I found out I couldn't go because I had to start RA training the next day - was the day my roommate surprised me by coming back 2 weeks early. So it was a nice surprise and was all good.

Today has been CRAZY. The protests have begun in Egypt. The people are protesting in Cairo (multiple places - at least 5- Tahrir, Mohandaseen, Dokki, Shoubra and a couple others I can't remember). They are also protesting in Aswan, Alexandria, Tanta, Suez, Ismailia, Marsa Matrouh and many other cities today.

In Cairo - official numbers have been very hard to come by. I've heard Tahrir Square (The center of downtown Cairo) had anywhere between 20-50 thousand people today.... from the pictures I can't tell - but it is thousands and thousands of people...and they're shouting and chanting and yelling all day and it's 11pm and the live video feeds I'm seeing they are NOT stopping.

They are yelling "Down Down Hosni Mubarak" and "Like a volcano we'll burn you Mubarak you coward" and "Saudi awaits you too Mubarak". The latter is a reference to the Tunisian president who fled the country to take refuge in Saudi. The protests which started as early as 11am today have been peaceful. There was a video I saw of one Egyptian youth going toe-to-toe with a GIANT police tank armed with a powerful water hose... He stood in front of it and grabbed the hose and pointed it in the air as the truck moved slowly forward pushing him with it.
I saw pictures of women handing flowers to the police (Something that reminded me a lot of the Tienanmen Square protests in China years back.)

2 youth are now dead in the Egyptian city of Suez in the north. Reports are still hard to decipher I've heard live ammunition was used and I've heard rubber bullets to the head were the cause - but either way - 2 protesters have lost their lives. Allah yer7amha.
And one policeman has died too in a rare event in Tahrir when one protester threw a rock that hit him in the head. Allah yer7hamha.

The Egyptian government has tried to block cell service in Tahrir and they've managed to block Twitter and rumors are flying that they are trying to block facebook - but so far it's still working.... we shall see.

It is sad to see people losing their lives. But the people are putting their lives at risk to protest what they see as unfair and unjust and they want change. 140 people (or maybe more) died in Tunisia to see the ousting of their government and the people of Egypt are ready to do the same. Many of the protesters were heard chanting "Tunisian, Tunisia" today as well.

I did not leave my dorms all day - and the protesters are camping out in Tahrir and other cities tonight so we will see if I leave my dorms tomorrow or not.
Hassan is in Alexandria and will be traveling by train tomorrow - so keep my little brother in your prayers that he makes it safely back home as well.

This is some information if you want to follow the protests:
Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70O3UW20110125?pageNumber=3

Protest Organizers facebook pages:
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/elshaheeed.co.uk

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/event.php?eid=115372325200575&index=1

it's been a while...hello again!

So I know it's been waaaaay too long...but it's so hard to blog this time around and I don't know why. But...here goes....

Since last blog - school has finished ! YAY.... and i got my grades back. A,A,A,A- so I am really happy about those grades. Next semester i'm only taking three classes so i should expect A's next semester with more time/less classes.
And i'll be an RA next semester - so a little time commitment there but nothing all that bad - and free housing!

I got to spend my Christmas in Rome this year. That was an amazing experience I won't soon forget. Got to go to Christmas mass at the Vatican and see the Pope. Incredible experience. And then got to sight-see all week with all the stuff Rome has to offer - Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Vatican, Coliseum, Pantheon, etc. It was all in all an incredible week. My roommate Hassan was on the trip with me - but we got to meet some GREAT new friends and we've kept in contact and that was an added bonus - some real great people!

School starts in 2 weeks exactly from now.... and I kind of can't wait. Going to Alexandria tomorrow - had to postpone the trip b/c of some bombing stuff- i'm sure you all heard the news - my friends there were pretty rattled by it. Not the Egypt they all know and love so it was tough on them. Happily though the reaction was that people actually pulled together and not apart down sectarian lines so it was much better than it could have been.

Yesterday it thunderstormed in Cairo and all over the Middle East in a rare event...it rained and poured for hours... Hassan is back in Kuwait and it rained there too.... it was baaaaad. We had some grand plans that got totally messed up - but there's always another time I suppose!

So i moved into my new room already. It's a double room with Hassan - and it's true double room college stuff with double bunkbeds which is pretty funny. I've almost fallen out a couple times...lol but I haven't!

And so i hope to blog more soon!

and the wind blew......

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.

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

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