Google Maps

Sorry,

Really excited by this though:

Classes are here:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Library+of+Alexandria,+Alexandria,+Egypt&aq=0&sll=31.208351,29.943452&sspn=0.00256,0.006196&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Library+of+Alexandria,+Egypt&ll=31.208163,29.911807&spn=0.00128,0.003098&t=h&z=19

The two buildings on the right, near the vacant lot. The smaller one is the teaching arabic to foreigners center, and the bigger one is a general classroom building. Note the Alex Library and the water going up and to the left.

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=31.208122,29.943361&spn=0.00256,0.006196&t=h&z=18

I live in the bottom of the cross-like buildings. The down most building is where we take classes, and the field to the top-right is open for us to run, play soccer etc.

These should put the pictures in context better.

Google maps for the win. 

Cabin fever is officially taking over.

Muzaharat

Protests in Egypt.

I've been reading a lot of news since its strongly encouraged for us to not be going too far from the dorms, or at least was yesterday. They, the program people, still don't want us to travel as of yet.

Everyone should be reading about the Palestine Papers for sure, tons about Egypt.
The New Yorker
BBC, BBC Pictures
NYT
AlJazeera, 2, 3, 4, 5

They're absurd and I was late reading them, but an Israeli minister who admittedly doesn't care about the law, the Obama administration who will do everything possible in public to push the peace process forward without care to the circumstances, and complete utter Israeli and American disregard for any sense of justice in the negotiations, resting on brute force and the upper hand. It's depressing and revels another level of disillusion that I didn't think was possible on Palestine. We've all sunk a little lower now.

And Egypt.

I tried, against the better advice of program directors here to check out what was happening early in the day. I got close enough to one of the neighborhoods to hear the screaming, but the traffic and crowding was crazy and I honestly didn't want to put myself in a position alone with a camera in a mob. I walked around for a while then jumped in a cab. There was for sure lots of energy in the streets and everyone was talking about the protests. I also saw more police than ever before. Huge trucks and trailers full of guys, at the time mostly hanging out and waiting for things to get worse, decked out in riot gear and looking pretty intimidating. There was security still around the coptic churches and tons around the police stations themselves. Traffic was insane from the closed roads, check points and police vehicles. I know what they mean now in reports about so little actual information being available. In a climate where saying anything of meaning can get you into a lot of trouble and just protesting itself can get you in a lot of trouble, everything will stay subdued until... it doesn't. It just takes that first person who is no longer scared of the security forces, uses the numbers behind him and just goes for it. That may happen, it happened last night, or it may not and huge crowds may gather and then leave. There's no "organization" no central command, just fed up people gathered. There's also no way of knowing where it will go if anywhere. As far as I know the protests have stopped now, but they could start again, they could not start again, anything could happen.

Lots of pictures are a fortunate consequence of my day out. I found riding around in a tram for as far as it would take me to be a good way of taking lots of pictures from a good view of the street and not be insulting or get too many stares. The tram costs about....5¢ to get on too.

This is the guy's dorms neighborhood, affectionately called the hood by some guys from last semester. Izbet Saad is what the name sounds like, but I've yet to see it written. This is a kind of street market there. It's our daily place for lunch, shisha, juice, koshari, foul, filafil, etc. 

I don't think we want to know what these animals are for, but they were in the neighborhood.

From inside the tram

Pretty standard coffee shop, taken from the tram. In more rundown or less trafficked areas you can still get shisha inside, but they're all great for sweet tea, turkish coffee, or shaleeb, a hot milk thing with coconut, nuts and dried fruit in it. A coffee or tea will run you about 20¢. 

The fruit/veggie market at the end of this tram line, it was pretty close to where the protests where.

Pretty standard tram.

Overall tram idea.

In the Thick of Things

After a never ending week of illness we're back in classes this week. The days are surprisingly long for me not even having all of my classes yet. Speaking Arabic all day and hanging out for hours at a time in Limbo because it doesn't make sense to go all the way back to the dorms is a pain, but the Midd apartment is great, and the floor cushions might be more comfortable than my bed which is falling apart as I sit on it.

Police day tomorrow means protests for sure, and has cancelled my trip to Cairo. Really annoying, but I'm anxious to see what if anything actually happens. Cairo will have to wait. I will take the chance though to try to explore and take tons more pictures.

I did sneak out yesterday to take a few pictures of the surroundings at the school. It's only a few, and I've yet to magically become a good photographer, but enjoy. 

Otis and Eric hard at work in the Midd apartment. This is the place we mostly hangout at between classes, its a 5 min walk from "campus" and has the fastest internet. I didn't get a picture of the cushions and the napping/meeting area, probably because someone was napping. 

Front door of the apartment

 Street view of the apartment, pretty average, but quiet Alex street.

View of the sea and the Cornish, the huge highway that runs along the sea. This is about 5min from campus and where most of the nightlife is, along the sea. A crossing underpass is on the left.

Random mural from a the government

The cornish, crossing this involves high faith in something, superior frogger skills, and compassionate drivers - all at the same time. 

More evidence of that. 

Random apartment near the Cornish

Kulliat St. Marks - St. Mark's College, think prep school, obviously foreign built. 

View of the sea from the other side of the Cornish. 5 min from our campus. 

Street view from apt. again, with horse.

Alexandria library, finished just a few years ago, across the street, literally, from campus.  

First Classes

Salaamu 3lekum,

I don't think it's possible for another human being to sleep as much in the past two days as I did. I woke up ... Thursday feeling like crap, so I went back to sleep, woke up for dinner, went to a pharmacy, went back to sleep, and basically woke up for dinner the next day, and then I was up for class today. Vicious, but quick, cold.

We've been under the language pledge since Wed. I like to think I was always polite to people working in a second language, at home, in LPC, or whatever, but my god, I never realized how tough it is. Every word that we say to each other is Arabic. Everyone is dedicated to it, so far, and no matter how frustrating it is to circumvent the word we want in Arabic, so far we've done it. Of course, its only been 3 days, and not even a week of class, but so far so good. I've found a language pledge is a good way to make me shut up. I definitely pick my words carefully now, get my point across, and khalas (enough, that's it).

Everything is more complicated, working out which gym to join, the prices, all of it, gave me a headache alone. Pretty much everything and anything has been giving me a headache. But, it definitely feels good to be disciplined, and I know if I really throw myself into it, my Arabic is going to get pretty beastly.

Classes:

I did pretty shitty on the written placement test, so that placed me below where I'm meant to be (but my oral exam put me above where I'm meant to be, contrary to most students) so my MSA (formal Arabic) class will start at ch7, so I should be able to cruise for a few weeks. Haven't decided if I should try to get myself to the higher level, or if I should just be cool cruising.

Other than that, everyone got placed in the first level of colloquial Arabic, and I'm taking Arabic Literature, and Religious Life in Egypt. The last class is taught one on one with a professor, in this case two professors, one Muslim one Copt. The professors are different from years past, which should be good, because in the past they received bad reviews.

I keep meaning to bring my camera out with me, but I fail.

Everyone who reads this should remember to wish my sister a happy birthday tomorrow. She's super old now, and its getting scary.

Salaam.

Just some links:

I pretty much think Clinton nailed it.

Kinda funny that Tunisia and Egypt were the two places I kept reading were definitely safe to study abroad in the Middle East this semester. But at the moment, Egypt is just pissed with the Pope, its calm on the streets.

More crap in the West Bank, and what about Jordan?

Pledge Tomorrow

The past two days have been great for feeling more settled around here. We've been eating more Egyptian food, mixed reviews on that but overall better than I expected. Kushri was yesterday. Picture, as someone today put it, every simple carb put into a bowl, plus beans and some red sauce, served with hot sauce and garlic sauce to be added to taste. It's literally rice, random pasta, chickpeas, beans plus sauce. Pretty good though. Amr passed on a good explanation for where it comes from as a poor woman dumping everything in her cabinet into a pot for a meal and bam. Kushri.

The foul sandwiches are a good, filling snack. It's like hummus but of smashed fava beans and wrapped in pita often. Filling, low on taste, like most Egyptian food I'm starting to sense. There have been exceptions. I forget the name but we had some eggplant cooked with a spicy red sauce, eaten with pita, like everything, and that was great. Also, all the food they serve us here in the dorm has so far been amazing. Great rice, chicken, kebab, salted yogurts for breakfast (trust me) with incredibly friendly people always.

We did a lot of harassment talks, and for good reason. I don't think I would be able to travel in this region as a female. Quite honestly. The stares, cat calls, groping stories, cars stopping, being followed. All of it. Way worse than you can imagine until you've seen it. It didn't exist in other places I've been besides the Middle East and its much worse so far in Egypt than in Jordan. Foreign women obviously get it worse, largely because of course if you're a foreign woman you're easy. That being said, natives get it too, right up to fully hejabed, conservatively dressed, even older women. It just doesn't seem to matter. Probably more than anything else here this is what makes me boil. Insult my country, bash the polices, bash my religion, bash other countries, other religions, all fine, and I do it myself more often than not, but please stop so goddamn gross around everyone woman you see. I guess it would make me less angry if the sexual tension was just always high and everyone was intensely sexual, but its just guys, they act ridiculous when no one but their male friends can see them, and god forbid they find their sister or wife without a hejab or looking at a man. We actually saw a guy slap a girl in front of us twice, apparently for looking at us. We couldn't be sure, and to just get it to stop we moved away.

The Egyptian visa extension form asking for your religion was also a blast. They would also only recognize one of the three Abrahamic religions, and of course you absolutely had to put one. Leaving it blank, not an option.

We did get to check out the museum today, which was very impressive. I saw a real mummy. Pretty sweet. Although it all looks too well preserved to be true. Then we wandered down some alley and found a cafe who would serve us shisha, which hasn't been super common because it's been outlawed for three months-ish (in response to swine flu, pollution, and health concerns??) and across all Egypt. I haven't checked out Cairo, but I can't imagine how this came about. But a tea and a nonflavored shisha was about 20 cents and came with great conversation.

Pictures coming soon? Inshallah?

Tomorrow starts the language pledge, nothing but Arabic with few exceptions for talking with family/close friends, blogging and the occasional english release in form of a book/movie. It's going to be an absolute bitch for a long time, and we're going to be pretty damn quite for a while, hard to get past "izzayak?" with meaningful thoughts, all the time.

Salaam

First Day

I wish I could say I arrived in perfectly good spirits last night. But honestly at nearly 4am, feeling a bit sick and not perfectly comfortable in my room, I was in a pretty shitty mood.

It definitely got better as the day went on, and continues to improve as I write this. I overslept, which is annoying since I STILL have not caught a shower, missed breakfast and coffee/tea. After I ate and had a coffee though around midday, I felt way better. The staff is great. The director is hilarious, very pragmatic and approachable on first impression, the two deputies are also amazing, one is a UWC grad Palestinian woman and the other an American Midd grad with inspiring Arabic abilities and a great attitude. 

Good reviews on my first impression of everyone here honestly, and as I talk to people I get less stressed about the language pledge and the difficulty of everything. I won't be the best, but I probably won't be the worst, and I feel like no one will, it'll be a struggle for everyone. 

Taking the tour of the neighborhood around the University of Alexandria was great. Seeing real live students hanging out and being in their classrooms and the shops was awesome, and I felt really comfortable. We took a tour of the Library of Alexandria, a recently completed project a few hundred meters from the original. I can honestly say that it rivals the Library of Congress. Modern, impressive facility with definite care to maintaining classical attitude, its huge, well organized, impressive security and had a really academic atmosphere. I think I'll buy a yearly pass and spend a good amount of time there. It closes really early, which is annoying, but maybe I'll work early? The exhibits were awesome as well, and I look forward to study breaks of exploring them. They have some really cool projects going on too, pretty cool for you obnoxious French speakers out there, here. 

Living conditions: Well, for the first time in many years, I have my own room with a locking door. It's small, about the size of my LPC corner, or about 8'x8', I have a window that looks on to a courtyard between dorm buildings. I would say the overall living conditions are about as spartan as LPC was, maybe a bit more so. The room is a scuffed up off white, with a 3'x2' shaky desk, a book shelf hanging on to the wall by a prayer and a cupboard-closet thing. I'm glad I packed light, otherwise I would be super claustrophobic and I don't really need much. We live in a dorm building about a 15 minute ride from the U of Alex campus, other than that I can't yet orient it in the city at all. My language partner, a native Egyptian student also fluent in English, lives across the hall and by my luck has met and talked to Amr before through mutual friends at Midd. I have mutual friends with several other people in the program, proving a small world.

Sleep is beyond necessary. 

Awkward First Post

This blog is going to be used throughout my semester in Alexandria, Egypt with Middlebury College. I hope to drastically improve my Arabic and learn more about Middle Eastern society, especially given the recent turmoil in Egypt and the upcoming elections. I'm horrible at keeping in touch while away so I hope family and friends can keep tabs on me through this blog. Huge thanks to Christine for setting it up for me and dealing with my pickyness and plainness on the layout.

I'm mostly packed, and I leave tonight. The snow, still falling, might delay that right now but its a nice send off. I fly to London tonight where I will have a seven hour layover, meet up with Jackie and Selin hopefully, and then continue on to Cairo, landing around midnight, scheduled. From there a car has been arranged by Midd to pick me up and drive to Alex, Inshallah getting there before morning. Unfortunately, Ramy is off playing in the desert and I won't be seeing him till next week.

Some recent news about Egypt and especially about Copts and new security arrangements.