Islamic Cairo

I finally made it to the huge area of Islamic Cairo but wasn't even close to seeing everything because it's so big!

THE KHAN

After Arabic class on Dec. 3rd, Izzy and I took a microbus and metro to downtown Cairo and made our way to Khan il-Khalili, the sprawling bazaar in Islamic Cairo. We followed the advice of my Rough Guides to Egypt guidebook and walked there via Muski Street. Muski Street is this incredibly narrow, crowded pedestrian street surrounded on every side by small shops and stalls selling clothes, souveneirs, gelabiyyas, and just about everything else imaginable. We worked our way slowly down that street, dodging men pushing large carts overflowing with boxes and the throngs of Egyptians wandering among stalls. (picture: at the start of Muski Street)

Khan il-Khalili occupies many intersecting streets and is roughly organized into areas of shops selling jewelry, perfume, spices, silk, and much more. The shopkeepers were very aggressive, which kind of discouraged us from browsing too much because they kept talking to us and advertising their wares. Many of the shops were also connected to their workshops/warehouses, so it was definitely a lively place. I was a little disappointed because it was pretty touristy (we saw a lot of foreigners), and we didn't buy anything because we plan to return with an Egyptian so we don't get ripped off by the shopkeepers. (picture: one of the streets of Khan il-Khalili)

We went into Al-Azhar Mosque, which was founded in 970 and has served for over 1,000 years as a university to teach its students the Koran and other subjects; as a result, the mosque itself has been (and continues to be) politically significant.

The mosque was beautiful and very peaceful, and Izzy and I paid a guard some 'baksheesh' (bribe, tip) to let us go up one of the minarets to get a good view of the Khan and Islamic Cairo. We were the only ones up there (because it's not advertised to the public), and we had to use the flashlights on our cell phones to see the stairs inside the minaret. It was a pretty neat view at the top and was luckily not too hazy, so we got some great pictures. (The picture is taken part way up the minaret, looking down onto the central courtyard of the mosque. We covered our heads to honor the Muslim custom.)

We made our way down some back streets and through a vegetable market to il-Ghuriya Mosque-Madrassa, which is a mosque and a madrassa (a center where students studied Islam inside the mosque). We paid some more baksheesh to go up the minaret, and there were even better views of Islamic Cairo from atop the minaret! (Picture: vegetable market and atop the minaret at the Ghuri, looking down onto Islamic Cairo and Khan il-Khalili)

We wandered back through the bazaar a little, drank some sugar cane juice (not my favorite, but really cheap), and then made our way back home.

THE CITADEL

On Saturday, Dec. 5th, Izzy, Sam, and I went back to Islamic Cairo to visit the Citadel, which is a bastion begun in the 12th century and has served as a fortress as well as royal residence. It is located on a hill overlooking Cairo, so there were great views again! (Mosque of Mohammed Ali inside the Citadel.)

We arrived early in the morning around 9am, so it wasn't too crowded, although many tour buses had already beat us there. The main attraction within the walls is the Mosque of Mohammed Ali, which was actually built in the 19th century, and was very pretty inside, with hanging lamps illuminating the central area.

We wandered through some not-too-interesting museums, and then skipped a few and headed out of the complex.

We walked down around the Citadel to the Mosque of Sultan Hassan, which is a cavernous, but beautiful structure. Its giant, open courtyard is surrounded by four vaulted liwans (areas devoted to teaching a rite of Sunni Islam). We entered the main sanctuary, admired the giant carved brass doors, and were lucky enough to hear a short demonstration of a muezzin's call to prayer inside the mosque. We were all amazed by his beautiful voice and the amazing acoustics of the mosque.

That's all we saw of Islamic Cairo, but we will definitely plan to come back, insha'allah.

And I hope you have a Merry Christmas! (Unfortunately there aren't many festivities around here, but I'm going to try to go to the Nutcracker Ballet and a Christmas carol concert at the Cairo Opera House!)

Eid il-Adha Pictures

The enclosure where the sheep were kept overnight until they were killed on Friday morning - Nov. 4th. The man in white is the butcher, and the other men are part of the family.

Skinning the kharuuf in the doorway...and then carrying it upstairs to the apartment

My lovely temporary host family at their aunt's house on Nov. 5th...they technically aren't might 'actual' temporary host family - I just slept over at their house for four nights because I know their daughters, and they live right down the street from my real temporary host family, with whom I'll be living until Monday. Both of the families are wonderful, though.

On the right...posing next to the heads of a bull and a sheep on the street in Abbasiyya, which is an older part of Cairo. In the background, there's a big metal bowl on the ground where a woman was cleaning the legs/hooves of the bull for people to eat.

Happy Eid! (and host family updates)

The past few days have been part of Eid al-Adha, the Muslim holiday celebrating the end of the Hajj, which is the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.


However, things have been pretty hectic around here because I switched host families on Thursday (Nov. 26th). The switch was due to various reasons, but I have been very happy the past few days staying with my temporary host family, so I am glad I finally spoke up and made the switch, even though I was really nervous about it. I will stay with this temporary family for about two weeks until the AFS-Egypt program finds a permanent family to host me for the rest of the year, insha'allah (this phrase means "God willing," and Egyptians use it ALL the time, so it has found its way into all the exchange students' vocabulary).


On Friday morning, I went with my host family to the mosque for the morning prayer, which was really interesting, and I had to cover my head in a scarf like all the Egyptian women do for prayer. We walked back to their apartment, which is actually very near my previous host family's apartment, and then watched a butcher kill three sheep!


The sheep - 'kharuuf' in Arabic - had been living in an enclosed area next to the apartment for a couple nights, and on Friday morning, the butcher came over and literally cut their throats, skinned them, cut up the meat, and threw it in these plastic buckets right there in front of us. He then took the bucket up to the apartment where my host mom sorted through it, put some in the freezer, and then started cooking some on the stove for us to eat later that day. They gave the other kharuuf to their aunt, and the third was for the poor people.


It was quite a spectacle, and I was pretty disgusted, but it was also fascinating how the butcher and his assistant did everything. They waited until most of the blood drained out from the sheep's neck, and then they cut a whole in the sheep's hind leg, and one man blew air into the leg to fill up the abdomen of the sheep while another used a stick to whack the abdomen to separate the meat from the skin. Then, they dragged the kharuuf over to a doorway and hung it from its hind legs while the butcher skinned it and cut off all the meat.

He threw out the intestines, kidneys, bladder, etc., but kept a lot of other organs that we don't normally eat in the U.S.

We basically spent the next two days eating kharuuf, fatha - a rice dish mixed with soggy bread pieces that was actually pretty good, sleeping, and visiting relatives. We spent a lot of time at their relatives' apartments, which was a lot of fun. Everyone was so welcoming, and it was such a happy celebration...and it was such a change compared to my old host family. I was also amazed by how much Egyptians talk! Sometimes so many conversations were going on at once in the same room that the noise level rose to shouting. There was definitely a lot of joking and laughing involved, too. After dinner on Friday the family set up speakers in the living room, and we all took turns dancing, even the parents! Unfortunately, I haven't learned how to dance Egyptian-style yet - it involves a lot of hip-shaking and hand movements, and is really fun to watch.


I slept in until noon for three days in a row, and I went to see a movie at the CityStars Mall on Sunday night - it was packed because everyone was going to the cinema for Eid. I went shopping on Monday afternoon with Izzy and my host sister, so it's been a relaxing vacation! I also went to the hairdresser on Friday morning with my two host sisters and got my hair curled for the first time ever, so I was shocked with how it turned out, but it has grown on me...it only cost five dollars, too.

I don't go back to work until Sunday (Dec. 6th), so it's a pretty long break, and I hope to visit Khan il-Khalili, the huge bazaar in Islamic Cairo, as well as the Citadel, by the end of the week. The Dahab trip was cancelled due to safety concerns from the American Embassy, but I'm really hoping it will be rescheduled sometime soon because I was really looking forward to that!

So Happy Eid, and I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving, too!

P.S. Since I switched host families, please do not send any more letters to that address...and I will unfortunately probably not receive any letters that you sent to that address.

And I apologize for the lack of pictures, but they wouldn't upload properly on this computer, so I will try to post them later or from a different computer if I get the chance.

Egypt is out...

Egypt just played its final two qualifying games for the 2010 World Cup on Nov. 14th and Nov. 18th, both against Algeria.

These games were a HUGE deal for the entire country, and everything went on hold from 7:30-9:30 pm both nights because everyone was watching the games.

The first game, I went with Izzy to watch the game at the apartment of her counselor, who has two daughters around our age. A projector and big screen had been set up outside in the parking area, and a bunch of people had gathered around and sat on chairs and cars to watch the game. Some of the other NSLI-Y students and I had tried to get tickets to the game, but the Egyptian who tried to buy them for us the morning they went on sale, returned with scratches on his arm...apparently, 25,000 people had showed up at the sporting club he went to, and only 8,000 tickets were available there, so I'm sure it was NOT a civil, orderly process.

Starting late morning/early afternoon, cars kept driving by our apartment, honking, and I could hear people yelling "Masr" ("Egypt") cheers, and flags soon appeared all over people's balconies and cars. Men had been selling them along the street for 2-3 days before the games, so it seemed like everyone had an Egyptian flag. picture: our 'outfits' for the 1st game)

I painted Egyptian flags on both my cheeks before the game, and practically everyone was wearing red and black (the flag colors are red, black, and white)...and then we waited expectantly until kick-off.

The US Embassy had actually sent out an email warning about the game and advising that people stay away from the stadium and away from Nasr City (where the stadium is located), because they said it probably wouldn't be safe. I think that was a little bit extreme, but the atmosphere definitely was electric.

The game...

Egypt had to win on Nov. 14th at least 2-0 to even have a hope of qualifying for the World Cup. If they won 2-0, they would have to play Algeria again on Nov. 18th (which is what happened), and the winner of the Nov. 18th game would go to the World Cup. If Egypt won 3-0, then they would automatically qualify, but if they lost, tied, or only won 1-0, then they would be out. So there was a lot at stake the first game, and it was even magnified by the fact that Egypt and Algeria are really big rivals, and many people told me that Algeria's media had been trash-talking Egypt.

Egypt ended up scoring the first five minutes and the last five minutes, so it was pretty exciting. There were six minutes of stoppage time at the end of the game, and I thought the game was over when only a few minutes were left, and I could tell that nearly everyone else had given up on them, too. So when they scored that last minute goal, everyone jumped up and screamed and danced and hugged each other - i.e. only with the same gender - and then continued the party for the rest of the night! (picture: after Egypt scored their 1st goal)

First, there were fireworks, firecrackers, and sparklers going off everyone, and some people were even throwing them from their apartment windows, so it was a bit dangerous to be below. Then, everyone went to the streets!

There were men, women, and children in the streets, but it was mainly the men who were doing all the dancing, singing, beating of drums, and other crazy things. Some were doing these cult-like dances around Egyptian flags; others had Raid/Pyrosol cans and were spraying them onto a flame from a lighter to make these fire columns; and there were many others who were just driving by in their cars with their windows down and waving flags. People were congregating under bridges and in tunnels, and were jumping, clapping, cheering, and beating drums.

It was crazy to think that if the game had ended one minute earlier, and the final score had been 1-0, then none of this would have happened...all these millions of people would not have taken to the streets.

I don't know how long the party lasted, but I wouldn't hesitate to say that it lasted until morning, until everyone had to go back to work and school. (picture: the two daughters of Izzy's counselor, Izzy, and me, after the game)

The second game was played in Sudan, so there wasn't even a possibility of getting tickets for that one, but everyone was still glued to the TV that night. I watched that game at a cafe with my host family. We watched the first 30 minutes at home because we were running late, and then rushed to the cafe. There wasn't even any traffic, which is abnormal for Cairo, because literally everyone was watching the game.

Algeria ended up scoring the only goal of the game while we were in the car, but the cafe was completely packed - mostly with people in their 20s and 30s. A lot of people were smoking cigarettes or shisha, but everyone watched the game attentively until the very end. (picture: inside the cafe, watching one of the 5 TVs)

This time, there was no mass migration to the streets, except to go back home. People folded up their flags, put their Pyrosol cans away, and left in a bad mood. I never saw anyone respond violently, although I did hear that there was some sort of demonstration at the Algeria Embassy in Cairo on Nov. 20th for some reason.

Although I wish Egypt had won the game, it was really interesting to see the opposite reactions in these games, and again, it's still hard for me to believe how deeply these games affect the ENTIRE country. I do not think anything sports-related in the US can compare to this. And unfortunately, Egypt will not be in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

This Friday is a Muslim holiday, and on Sunday I'm supposed to leave on an 4-day, 3-night AFS trip to Dahab in Sinai, so I'm really looking forward to that! Otherwise, my language classes and volunteer work are still going well, and the weather is cooling down, which is definitely nice.

Happy Thanksgiving, too. I will especially miss the cranberry sauce and pumpkin bread, and of course, our family time, so I'll be thinking of you all!

Race for the Cure

The day after the Alexandria trip, we had to wake up early again and go running! Not only was it the first time I had run since I'd arrived in Egypt, but I got to run around the PYRAMIDS!

This was the first ever 'Race for the Cure in the Middle East' to raise awareness for breast cancer, and we heard about it through the AFS-Egypt volunteers. It only cost about $5, and we all got a t-shirt and hat (as you can see from the pictures), which made it even better. I also got to wear shorts in public for the first time since I've been in Egypt, which felt really good, and even though there were a lot of Americans there, it still felt a little weird.

Most of the NSLI-Y students didn't show up for the event, but there was a good group of us there, so we had a lot of fun.

Getting off the bus and seeing the pyramids through the morning haze was such a surreal experience. I couldn't believe I was actually SEEING the pyramids, and even though I'd looked at so many pictures of them over the years, being there in person was amazing. These monstrous structures seem to just be sitting in the middle of the desert, and 3,000 years later, they are still impressive! It also felt strange to BE right there at the pyramids, but to not be completely focusing on them because I was distracted by the race preparations and talking with my friends.

The race was not well organized, so after we registered amid all the chaos, we walked the 1.5 km to the starting line because they did not have enough buses to transport everyone. We stood around behind the starting line in a huge mass of people, not knowing what was going on, and when the race finally started around 10:30 am, the first 0.1 km were a snail crawl because it was so crowded! (picture above of the pyramids and running route)

Most of the other people in my group decided to walk, but I gladly ran the whole way! I had to dodge hordes of people, cars, loose rocks, sand, and tour buses for 1.5 km until I reached the finish line, but it was worthit. A lot of people didn't even follow the correct course, and hundreds weren't even able to reach the starting line in time, so they began in the middle of the race. So it was not, by any means, a competitive race, and there were no winners (because it was impossible to tell). (below: at the finish line)

I tried to soak in the feeling of running by the pyramids, but it was pretty difficult to look at the them while trying not to run over people (or be run over myself by buses and cars). After the race, the event continued with a parade down past the Sphinx to an area below where a tent was set up.

On our way down past the Sphinx, my friend (Izzy) and I, were tricked by this Egyptian man into riding a camel, and it was too late to do much once we were up on the camel's back. However, we managed to get away with a pretty good price for our 10 meter-long camel ride because we acted really upset with him, and Izzy refused to pay any more than 20 pounds (about $4). (above: Izzy being tricked into riding the camel...I got on soon thereafter.)
All of the NSLI-Y students headed back into Cairo because there wasn't much to do after the event, and Izzy and I got some very refreshing, fresh mango juice from one of the many juice bars throughout the city. Drinking fresh juice is one of our favorite activities now, and so far I've tried cantaloupe, guava, strawberry, mango, and lemon...they also have pineapple, banana, pomegranate, and I'm sure a lot more depending on the season!!

I took some great pictures of the pyramids, but I would definitely like to go back and take a tourn INSIDE one of them. (above: after the race in front of the Sphinx and pyramids.)

Alexandria Day-Trip

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

The 5 am wake-up time and 130 L.E. (about $25) were well worth the trip to Alexandria! This trip was organized by AFS-Egypt, so I wasn't expecting much, but we managed to pack a lot of events into one day. This meant we rushed through nearly everything...but it was better than not seeing Alexandria at all!

There were about 50 people in our group, which included most of the NSLI-Y students, AFS-Egypt volunteers, as well as other AFS exchange students in Egypt (e.g. from Italy, Austria, Belgium, Thailand).

The first activity we did after the 2 1/2 hour bus ride was tour a citadel called FORT QAITBEY, which is situated on the water, so we had great views of the city, the marina, and Mediterranean. It was built in the 1480s supposedly on the same site as the Pharos Lighthouse, which is one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. (The picture is of my friend, Izzy, and me at Fort Qaitbey.)

Next we visited POMPEY'S PILLAR and KOM AL-DIKKA, which are both excavation sites of Roman remains. During Roman times, Kom al-Dikka consisted of a small amphitheater, baths, and villas, but the amphitheater is what mostly remains today. Pompey's Pillar was a giant marble pillar erected by the people of Alexandria in an effort to assuage the anger of the Roman emperor, Diocletian.

We took a 30-minute boat ride out into the marina which was a nice change in scenery. We divided into two boats and had a small water fight, which was entertaining, and luckily I didn't get too wet! The marina was littered with small, brightly-colored boats which made the area very quaint and picturesque. I did see a few really, really fancy yachts, too.

(One of our boats with Fort Qaitbey in the background.)

The BIBLIOTHECA ALEXANDRINA (Library of Alexandria) was the highlight of the day! The building, which cost around $355 million and opened in 2002, is very impressive. The reading room of the library, which has seven levels, is the largest in the world, and there are many special architectural features to make it an ideal setting for studying, reading, etc. The AFS girl from Thailand is staying in Alexandria and she said she comes to the library nearly every day after school to study, so everyone was, of course, very jealous of her! After a 30-minute tour/info session, we quickly ran through the small museums inside the library before we had to get back on the bus.

Since we were in Alexandria, eating fish was a must, and even though I don't usually care for fish, the one I ate was delicious! Egyptians usually eat fish with this special rice - called "fish rice" ('ruz samak') - which is brown because of the cinnamon and other spices added to it...yumm.

We went to a mall after dinner for an hour, and I was expecting it to be the worst part of the day because the last thing I wanted to do in Alexandria was go shopping, but some of my friends and I managed to turn it into a great bonding experience. Some of my best memories are actually from the mall...not to say that I didn't like the rest of Alexandria, because I did!

That was about all the sight-seeing we did for the day, but I was exhausted! I wish we could have walked around the city and along the shore because we went everywhere by charter bus, but it seemed like a friendly, beautiful place to live, and the air was much cleaner than in Cairo!

I ended up getting back to my house around 1am and then had to wake up the next morning and run around the PYRAMIDS...hopefully I can post that story soon!

U20 FIFA World Cup

Egypt hosted the U2o FIFA Men's World Cup this year, and I had been dying to go see a game because I have been so soccer-deprived ever since I've arrived here. I had been playing pick-up soccer multiple times a week during the summer with Mallory and some friends back at home, so it has definitely been difficult to not be playing at all!

Two of my other NSLI-Y friends, Izzy and Sam, that live in Heliopolis organized an outing to the championship match last Friday, October 16th. My host mom was hesitant about letting me go because she said it wasn't safe, but she finally agreed after warning me multiple times to "take care."

We were planning on going by ourselves, but we ended up going with two Egyptian guys whom Sam knew. I am very glad they were there because getting through the gate into the stadium was way more difficult than it should of been because the security guards kept saying that various entrances were closed. We made it eventually, but we walked in surrounded by hundreds (actually thousands) of soldiers dressed in brightly-colored sweatsuits that made them look like prisoners. Apparently they had been shipped in for every game to fill the stadium because Egypt wanted to break the overall attendance record at the U20 World Cup. They all sat on one side of the stadium and probably filled about 15,000 (of the 80,000) seats.

Egypt decided a few days before to open the gates for free so they could attract as many people as possible, so we didn't even have to pay, which was amazing! I thought for sure that tickets would be hard to get, but since Egypt wasn't playing, most of the country wasn't interested.

Hungary beat Costa Rica in penalty kicks for the third place game. The match was not very exciting except for the last thirty minutes or so, but I was glad to be there anyway. The championship match, however, was a lot of fun. Ghana beat Brazil in penalty kicks, which was a lot of fun to watch because most of the crowd was cheering for Ghana. Some sections of the stadium were dancing, beating drums, and cheering, but the atmosphere was not as "fanatical" as I had expected, which was probably because Egypt wasn't playing.

We were at the stadium for about seven hours, which was a long time to be outside in the VERY polluted Cairo air - I could barely see the low-flying airplanes overhead because it was so hazy - but as I said before, I had a great time and satisfied (temporarily) my hunger for football!

Finally!

Hi family and friends!

My first post is a little belated because my host family did not have internet for the first six weeks, but it's finally up and running, so hopefully I will be able to maintain this blog more consistently.

I have so many things to share, and the past seven weeks have really flown by! So, although I hate to summarize the past seven weeks all at once, here is an outline, in a somewhat organized fashion:

The program: National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y)...however, it is being facilitated by the American Field Service (AFS) in Egypt.

My home: I am living in CAIRO (not Beni Suef, as I was originally told), due to a last minute change. We were notified of this change only two days before my departure, so it was very stressful, but so far, I am very happy that I am in Cairo because it is such a fascinating city. My host family has a nice apartment in Heliopolis, which is a section of Cairo.

My host family: The transition to my host family has not been perfect, but I am getting the hang of things and beginning to understand and adapt to their way of life, so things have greatly improved.

Mira - 10-year old host sister

Ahmed - 9-year old brother

Mohamed - 18-year old brother

Somaya - my host mother

Maisa - a live-in maid who is around my age

I have yet to see the host dad at the house, although I did see him for about 15 minutes outside of the house.

The beginning:

Ramadan, the month of fasting for Muslims, was going on the first 2 1/2 weeks I was in Egypt, so everything was different from what it will be like for the rest of the year. Muslims cannot eat or drink during the day (from about 4am to 6pm), so EVERYTHING slows down. My host siblings basically slept from 5 or 6am until around 4pm, and then everyone in the family (and maybe some relatives or friends) would sit down for a huge feast around 6pm. We would watch TV during dinner and for many hours afterwards.

Sometimes we drove to visit relatives or went out after dinner and didn't get back until 3am! I don't mind staying up late (as my family back home knows), but I was (and still am) shocked at how nocturnal Egyptians become during Ramadan. Many Egyptians like to spend time at cafes and sporting clubs, so I was able to go a few times. We visited some relatives who lived in farming villages outside of Cairo, which was fascinating...narrow dirt roads surrounded on either side by cement apartments, donkey carts filled with stalks of corn or other goods, men riding donkeys sideways, women carrying huge loads in baskets on their heads, shops with Coca-Cola signs right across the street from makeshift stables.

The kids didn't have school during Ramadan, and I hadn't started work or language lessons, so I had to find ways to keep myself from being bored out of my mind!...it mostly consisted of studying Arabic on my own, reading, doing Sudoku puzzles, and doing chores around the house.

Now:

My daily life now is much, much different. I have language classes three days a week (Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday) from 8-11 am. I walk to school with one of my friends on the same program, which usually takes 45 minutes. Now that the weather is cooling down, I really enjoy this bit of exercise, despite the dirty streets and pollution! My feet are always black by the end of the day, and sometimes when I'm walking I can't inhale all the way because of the exhaust, but I'm just glad to be walking! I am in a class with two other girls who are also on the NSLI-Y program, so I enjoy seeing them because I haven't had much of a chance to meet other people my age.

I am also volunteering for six hours a day, five days a week at this center for mentally-disabled people. The 'students' are both children and adults, and there are a wide range of disablities as well, from autism to Down Syndrome (and many more of which I do not know the names). Since I have had no previous experience with disabled people, I have had a difficult time learning how to handle them, but I am already beginning to feel more comfortable. The other adults working there have been very welcoming, so I am very grateful to them, and I hope to become more involved once I understand how things work.

The most different parts about my life now:
So far, I have had to be very self-reliant, especially when it comes to transportation. The traffic in Cairo is truly amazing, and the driving is even crazier...there are basically NO lines on the roads and no stoplights, so as my host mom says, everyone drives "by luck." Many people in Cairo take these microbuses, which resemble large vans, and they pick up/drop off people along various routes. The trick is to get on the right bus and then to get off in the right place. Although the first few times were scary, I am pretty comfortable with using them now, and I have found most Egyptians to be very helpful if I need any directions. Each ride costs no more than 1.50 L.E. (about 25 cents), which is wonderful...and the NSLI-Y program is paying us back anyway. I have also navigated the wonderful metro system by myself and taken taxis (which is my least favorite mode of transportation). (The picture is of a typical microbus.)

I love being able to go ANYWHERE without driving, and although I got lost by myself in the middle of Cairo for two hours one time, I have never felt like I've been in any danger.

After every language class, the other two girls and I stop by one of the many fruit stands that occupy nearly every corner of Cairo. The array of fresh fruit is amazing...right now there are three kinds of fresh dates, pomegranates, persimmons, figs, bananas, apples, grapes, pears, guava, watermelon, and a few others that I don't know. We bought of kilo of fresh figs today (~18) for 6 L.E., which is about $1, and split them between us. We also eat a lot of delicious bread that is somewhat like pita bread but 100x better. During Ramadan, there were at least two types of meat every night, as well as pasta and other side dishes, but now the meals are not as extravagant, but still delicious.

The Arabic:

My host siblings usually talk to me in English - they all go to schools that are taught completely in English, so their English is pretty good, especially my older host brother's. Since the beginning, however, I have tried to respond in Arabic as much as I can, which has really helped. I have seen improvement in my comprehension and oral skills, but I still have a long, long way to go as far as carrying on a somewhat fluid conversation. The language classes are taught in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), which is what the Quran is written in, but Egyptians speak Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (ECA). ECA has very different vocabulary and grammar, so the language classes have not really helped with my everyday usage of Arabic. However, I am hoping my oral skills will improve once I begin to understand more.

I have yet to see the pyramids, or do much other traveling (which was not part of the program description anyway), but I am planning on organizing weekend outings around Cairo with some of the other NSLI-Y students in my area. We did go to an outdoor book market where I bargained for some giant Arabic-English dictionaries, but there are so many things I want to see!

There are many ups and downs throughout the week, and I miss many things back at home, especially Lily and Abby, but overall, I am enjoying my time in Cairo. Things started off slowly at first, but have really picked up, so I hope to write back soon with more detailed stories.

If you got through this long post, I want to tell you that I miss you all and appreciate your interest!! Please feel free to leave any comments and keep me updated on whatever you are doing.