Cairo-June2010

I am now coming to the end of my three week break from Markaz Fajr (Fajr Center). Two days into my break I went to see my overall grade from Level 5. The grades are posted on the board for all to see. I knew my final exam grade about 15 minutes after I took my exam b/c the teacher graded write in front of me (since I have a private session and it was just me) which was a little nerve wrecking. I paid so much attention to the grammar that I didn’t study the vocabulary like I should have. So my final test grade wasn’t as high as the mid-term. Honestly, I can’t remember the numbers. I think I should start writing it down. My overall grade was good but I still want it to be higher.
After finding out my test grades I spent time preparing for my trip to Alexandria. I bought a new pair of shoes and went out to buy fabric for some new scarves in Attaba. While I was out I “discovered” this place called Khan El-Khalili. I had heard nice things about the place from a friend who said she couldn’t tell me how to get there because it involved a lot of walking. It just so happened on the way back from buying fabric I decided to turn down a row of shops. As I was walking I started to notice white people with cameras and backpacks. I asked one of the guys the name of the place and yep it was Khan El-Khalili!! Now this place is not super special but it is very hard to find things like post cards, T-shirts, something nice with Arabic or anything that says “Egypt” on it. Most shops are you everyday Family Dollar type stores. Because I didn’t initially plan on buying anything I mostly looked around. I found out that if they think you are Arab the price goes down. I bought a pair of sunglasses for 20LE but the man initially told me 100LE. The restaurants in the area have two menus: one in Arabic and one in English. The menu in Arabic has cheaper prices. For example, a kabob meal on the English menu is 150LE but 100LE on Arabic menu. This is not exactly a secret because when I asked the guy what is the difference between the two menus he pointed out to me the prices were different. The whole time I was there I spoke Arabic even when people spoke to me English. I have realized that the key to haggling is to know in advance what you should be paying and to just stand there and keep repeating the amount that you want over and over again. My hope is to go back and get lots of nice trinkets before returning home.
The second week of my vacation was spent in Alexandria! This trip was in the making before I even arrived in Egypt. When I announced that I was going to Egypt, Sister Nadia (someone from my masjid and my neighbor) immediately invited me to visit her because she too would be in Egypt over the summer. So I took the train from Cairo to Alexandria. I sprung for first class seating, which was only about $9 USD (50LE). The train ride was very nice and peaceful. It only took about 2 hours to get there on the non-stop train.
Al hamdulilah (Praise God), Sister Nadia had things very well planned. The first day she and I along with her niece went to visit the Castle Qait Bay. The place was big and had a lot of steep stairs. Fortunately we went on a day when it wasn’t crowded. We took a lot of pictures and I was very happy that I bought new comfortable shoes. After that we stopped for lunch and prayer and then went on to visit Al-Muntazah Palace. The Palace was a very beautiful and serene place. We couldn’t go inside although in the past they allowed people to enter. On the first day I rode in the front seat of the car and was able to look at everything along the Corniche (or the coast line). Both the Castle and the Palace were near the water. I also spent a lot of time gasping out of fear when I was in the front seat. I am now more accustomed to the driving in Egypt but in Alexandria the median is very small. Most people run from one side of the street to the median and from the median to the other side of the street. The median in Alexandria is like a balance beam and most people look like they are on the verge of falling off into traffic.
After the first day I was either in the back of taxis or the back seat of a car and my gasping was kept to a minimum. The second day was spent visiting the Alexandria museum and the Alexandria Library. The Alexandria Library was very impressive. We joined a tour group of mostly Americans from Tennessee. Being in the library reminded me of being at the Newseum in Washington, DC because both places are full of information. I think it was the best attractions in Alexandria. The next two days were spent hanging out at the beach. The beach was nice and the weather was never oppressively hot. Overall, my visit to Alexandria was a much needed break and I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to go.
I spent the last few days of my vacation saying good-bye to most of my roommates. Majority of the girls in the house have gone home for the summer. Some will return others will remain in their home countries. In the next week about 22 more girls will be arriving for the summer. Hopefully, I will be able to meet some more interesting people.

Cairo-Month 5

The last time I gave an update it was March! I have now been in Egypt for five months and one week! If you recall in my last update I was planning on signing up for a private session at the Fajr Center and I moved into a new place and I said that I had not seen any roaches and I was happy in my new place.

Well since then I did in fact enroll into a private class for Arabic. On the first day I loved and I was excited b/c I felt like I could move at a faster pace and I could focus on speaking more Arabic. At the beginning of each class the teacher and I would talk for 30 minutes on a given topic. For the most part I enjoyed. I quickly started to notice that all of the topics were turning to how is “x,y,z” in America. Initially I thought nothing of it because the topics were somewhat related to the lesson. Overtime though I became annoyed b/c I felt my teacher had a preconceived notion of things and wanted me to answer accordingly. The straw that broke the camels back was when she said that American families are weak because teenagers leave the home when they are 16 years old. So, I told her she was incorrect and they she told ME “no” because that is what she heard. (I plan to write another post about all the things I have heard about America from foreigners later). Needless to say there was tension between us and to make a long story really short I did not finish out the session with her and I was blessed with a new teacher who was much better in every aspect, Al- hamdulilah (Praise God).

Now to update you on my living situation: That roach free place I was living wasn’t exactly roach free. I last told you that my roommate had some type of bugs biting her. So literally the day after my post she decided to spray her room for bugs before she went off to class. A few minutes after she left I noticed a something on the floor and it was a roach. So I killed it and sat back down on my bed. Then I noticed one on the wall so I killed that one and sat back down. And basically this went on for about 30 minutes and I ended up killing about 13 roaches. These roaches were not your ordinary in your kitchen roaches. These were live in the wall HUGE roaches and the spray from my roommates wall prompted them to come in to my room. So, with that I decided to pack up everything in my room put it in the dining room and spray my room with roach spray before I went to class. By the end of the night I believe I had collected (some roaches came from the wall and died on their own) and/or killed about 20 giant roaches. Of course, this made me crazy. However, I did take comfort in the fact they only came out of the wall b/c of the spray. Then I thought I saw a mouse and the day following I heard something scratching at the wall. I was becoming really paranoid b/c we were on the first floor and the wall and the floor did not meet. There was newspaper shoved in between the two to close the gap. I decided to move b/c I was tired of my smoker roommate and I really didn’t like the fact that she had some guy come over and she didn’t even give me any kind of heads up. She said she had her tutor over b/c he did not have a table or chairs in his apartment, only a bed. I found it really strange that her tutor was in her bedroom as opposed to the dining room. The bugs, the possible mouse sighting, the cigarette smoke, and unannounced guys, prompted me to move.



I was told about a place run by Turkish people. I checked it out and initially felt a nice warm feeling and I decided to move there. Before I moved in I was warned by the girl who referred the place to me that it was very loud and she couldn’t stand sharing space with a lot of girls so after a week she moved. With this information I still moved in b/c staying where I was before was not an option. The whole mouse situation was giving me some sort of PTSD. I always felt like I was seeing or hearing something. So, since April 15th, I have been staying in The Turkish House (that is the name I have given it). When I moved in there were about 30 girls living in 8 rooms. So, if you can do math that is over 4 girls in each room. Including me there were a total of 5 girls in my room. The “rent” here is $100 a month and they serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The food is sometimes good and sometimes not. There isn’t meat everyday b/c I think it is too expensive. They have two automatic washer/dryers and the internet. There is a study room and saloon. Whatever, potential problems you can picture living in this type of place exists and by the grace of God I am going on three months living here! Most of the girls that were living here are from Turkey. There are Egyptian girls that were living here and several of them were here b/c they are studying the Turkish language and being around the Turkish girls helps them. There were four girls from Tajikistan, one girl from Nigeria, and three Moroccan girls from France have been here for the past few weeks. I am using the word “were” b/c now that the summer is here a lot of the girls have gone back to Turkey and a lot the Egyptian girls will be going back to their homes also. So I am thinking the place will be fairly empty and I am excited about having some peace. I am trying not to get to happy because of course some people might be coming here for the summer. I am thinking by next week I may have the room to myself!

I am now enjoying the last week of my three week break from class. Inshallah (God Willing) my new class will start June 29th. I will try to update you on what I did during the break and much more before then!

Cairo-Week 7: Settling in Again!

Sunday, March 7, 2010 at 10:32am

I am finally settled into my new place. I am happy to say that there is not a roach problem and I am praying that it stays that way. We do have big red ants, although it doesn’t seem like a complete infestation at this point, just an ant here and there. My roommate has fumigated her room twice now because something is biting her in her bed. She has red marks all over her feet arms and some on her back. At first she thought it was the ants but she says she never sees what is biting her and I think if it were ants she would have been definitely able to see them. I am afraid she might have bed bugs. Whatever it is I hope it has died from all the spraying because I don’t want any part of it. I am coming to see that dealing with creepy crawlers is just an unfortunate reality here.

Other than that the apartment is fine. I no longer have to walk up five flights of stairs to get to the apartment. I am now on the first floor so it makes going in and out and getting groceries much easier. There is a washing machine here but my roommate doesn’t know how to use it and neither do I. The washing machine looks like a big cylinder there is a hose for water and there is an electrical cord attached to it, however, it isn’t hooked up to anything. It is just sitting in the bathroom taking up space. This past weekend I washed my clothes in the tub by hand and then hung them out to dry on a clothes line that is below my waist. So basically, I had to fold all of my long wet clothes up and then put them on the line b/c otherwise they would drag. I didn’t do this right the first time so some of my clothes had dirt on them right after I just washed them. Al- hamdulilah (Praise God) the clothes dried fast even though they were folded.

I found out that one of the girls that I met from Britain will be going home at the end of this month. I don’t know exactly why she has to leave but she wants to come back because she didn’t get as far as she liked in her Arabic program. I am taking this as a reminder to learn as much as I can as fast as I can because I never know when I will have to leave. I think I am going to sign-up for a private Arabic session soon. The class cost more that way but the teacher covers 1.5 levels in the 5week period as opposed to 1 level in 5 weeks. I figure if I have a private teacher for two 5 week sessions then I can be on level 6 by June, which means half-way through the program.

Final exams are next week so I will have to study, study, study. There are two parts to the exam: a written exam and then an oral exam. I am not too confident about the oral portion but I think I might practice talking to myself!

All-in-all things are going well. I think I will start giving updates when there is something interesting going on. At this point if I write every week you might start reading about what I ate for dinner.

Cairo-Week 6: Roommate Conflict (minor)

Saturday, February 27, 2010 at 9:21am

My week started off with me trying to figure out how to get rid of all of the food I bought for my company. I really over did it. I bought pre-cooked food from the grocery store Spinney’s (in the section similar to where Wal-Mart sells cooked rotisserie chickens). Thankfully, my French friend with the Russian roommate was willing to take some of the food off of my hands. Before I left her apartment she was asking me about an exam for my class. I told her I knew nothing about an exam. She explained that her class is preparing for an exam and everyone in the center takes an exam at this time. I let her know that in my class it was business as usual and we were going over the new lesson.

Meanwhile, when I got back to my apartment I had a conversation with my roommate over the bills. To make a long story short, my roommate paid a guy to find her the apartment (prior to me moving in and back when her brother was her roommate) and she thought that I should contribute to the fee for the agent. I basically told her that I disagreed because that was a service she chose to solicit prior to me coming, I knew nothing about this fee before moving in, and I already paid the Fajr Center (where I am taking Arabic classes) to find me a roommate. So with that we had a disagreement.

My roommate thought because she helped the guy who found me find an apartment (by letting him know she needed a roommate) that I was supposed to get some money back or something to that extent. And then she said that she joked with the guy who brought me to her apartment about getting a cut of his fee. So she wanted me to ask was there some money supposed to be coming back to me. I asked and the answer was, “no”. My roommate felt that I asked the wrong question and said she would talk to the guy herself.

So, a day goes by and I go to class the next day and the second half of the day we start reviewing old material and I ask the teacher if we were having an exam and she said that we would have one in two days. Now, I really don’t know when she was planning to tell us. I think that overall that she is under the impression that we all know how the system works so there is no need for much explanation, hence why I need a tutor. After class I go back to the apartment and my roommate tells me I spoke to the guy (who helped me find a roommate) and “he is going to help you find another apartment.” Basically she said that she didn’t think it was fair that I didn’t want to pay the agent fee and other people would be paying the fee for me. So, I was like “ok”. I was very calm and at peace about it because I made Istikhara about it to see how big of an issue I should make of what was essentially an extra $15 dollars a month (75LE-sounds like a bigger deal though).

I went about my studying and preparing for my test although I wanted to leave immediately in dramatic fashion but did not have the means nor the energy to do such a thing. I found a roommate fairly quickly. The first thing I could think of was to ask the Chinese girl with the “boy friend” that I turned down in my original search. I was not feeling too excited about staying with her. Al hamdulilah (Praise God), my new second roommate (French girl) who is also moving out to stay with her brother said that I could move in with her after her brother leaves on April 15th. So, with that I decided to stay with the Chinese girl since it would only be for a short period of time.

I completed my exam. It was not that hard and I almost got nearly a perfect score except I misunderstood the directions in the writing portion. Apparently it said to write about a specific topic and I just wrote about anything. I don’t think it was clear because about 4 out of 9 people in the class did the same thing. A couple of days after my classes ended for the week I moved out. I am happy I did so because the day before I moved out my roommate also informed me that when the landlord found out that me and the French girl were now staying in the apartment that he was going to raise the rent. So, basically what I originally thought was an apartment for 1500LE a month was turning out to be 1750LE a month.

I am now adjusting to my new apartment and I am now closer to the Fajr Center. I had been trying to quickly eat the chicken and left over rice. I think it was just too old because now I have some GI issues to deal with. Until next time folks!!!

Cairo-Week 5: Highlights

Saturday, February 20, 2010 at 1:03pm

I have been busy studying a lot lately. There is a lot of vocabulary to look-up and memorize. I also have verb conjugations and grammar that I am kind of not up to task with. So, I really need to be studying so here are the highlights.

1. Early in the week, I realized it was the 30th day that I have been here and my visa needed to be renewed. I immediately took a 45 minute cab ride to the Department of Foreign Affairs. It is a busy place with no real lines. When I walked up to the counter the ladies were just talking and talking. I realized that I have to just start speaking because no one is going to ask me "Do you need anything?" It took no time to fill out the paperwork and I thought I would have been good to go but no I had to return the next morning to get the visa. The next morning the lady took my paperwork and put it with my passport and told me to come back in two hours. Thankfully, I had a feeling it wouldn't take that long so I went to get something to eat and was back in like 50 minutes. I went to the window the lady wasn't there but my passport and application were on top of the pile. I along with some others had to wait for the lady to come back (I think she was on a tea break). There were tons of other people standing around but apparently they couldn't help us. All-in-all the process was painless!

2. I have a new roommate! She is from France and speaks Arabic and French but no English. She is very nice although for obvious reasons we don't speak much. Unfortunately she is only here for two weeks and she will be going to stay with her brother who is coming to Egypt also. So, the rent will not be going down in a permanent way :(.

3. I want to try to go make Umrah in Makkah, Saudi Arabia during my March break I just need to figure out how to call the Saudi Embassy. Dialing land lines from cell phones is very tricky. You have to dial extra numbers and basically I have been guessing at what the prefix might be.

4. I want a private tutor. I am looking into getting that. I want one-on-one attention. I don't think I am speaking enough in class. The pace of the course is fine and I think we will have an exam soon. I hope we just don't have a final exam and that's it. I would like to get a feel of how the test may go first. I feel like there are not enough hours in the day for studying.

5. I had my first visitors over. Two of my Egyptian "sisters" came over. I stayed with them when I first got here. I bought way too much food for them. So, I forced them to take food home and found someone else who accepted the food. They hit off great with my new roommate. We all went shopping after dinner. I believe we (me and my new roomie) have a date to hang out with them next week. I say I believe because they were speaking in Arabic and I think that is what we concluded.

6. Last but no least, I had my first "accident". The ceiling fans in the apartment hang pretty low. I raised my hands over my head without even thinking. All I felt was pain and I fell to the floor and then in a split second I realized that my hand was hit by the ceiling fan. Then I told myself, "Look at your hand to see if your fingers are still there." I seriously thought there was a possibility that my fingers were chopped off. So my middle, ring, and "brownie" finger were hit. One finger was cut and bleeding, the other had an abrasion, and all three fingers were bruised and swollen. My little brownie finger is bruised so badly it looks like I put black henna on that finger. Now, I am extremely cognizant of what I am doing while I am standing up.

That's all folks!

Cairo- Week 4: My new (sometimes yucky) routine

Saturday, February 13, 2010 at 11:12am

This Tuesday I will have been in Egypt for exactly a month. I can’t believe it, time goes by quickly. It will probably continue to go by quickly since I have started my class. I was initially afraid that they may have placed me in the wrong level but level three is appropriate for me at least vocabulary wise. There is sooo much vocabulary. I am busy looking up every word even the instructions to the assignments. There are 9 people in my class. I don’t even know all of their names. The class is all women (the women have a separate building near the men’s building). Five of the girls in the class are between the ages 18-24. There is one American girl (the only other American besides me) who is in Egypt with her Aunt, she is 13. Then there are two middle-aged women in the class (like mid-forties). So besides the Americans, there is one Nigerian, and the rest of the class is either Asian or from some place like Russia or Tajikistan. I have gathered that the most of the people at the center are from Russia, Chechnya, Tajikistan, or some country that was formerly part of the Soviet Union. Then there are a lot of Asians (i.e. Chinese and Indonesian). Actually I think this is my first time ever meeting a Chinese or Russian Muslim. Apparently there are a lot of Muslims in eastern Europe. My teacher is Egyptian she is very nice. Her name is Afaf and she is 29 just like me!

My class is at 2:30 pm in the afternoon. I wanted an 8:00 am class so I could avoid being lazy and waking up late in the morning. Surprisingly I have been doing good staying up after Salatul Fajr (5:45 am). I walk about 6 minutes to the bus stop and take about a two minute microbus ride to the stop near Al-Fajr Center. I walk back home though because we get out of class at 5:30 pm and the buses are packed and there is no point in standing and waiting for the bus. If I walk really fast I can get home in 20 minutes before it is really dark out. I can tell from walking home there are others that go to Al-Fajr Center that live in this neighborhood. There seems to be quite of few non-Egyptians in this neighborhood. It is very easy to spot the Russian and Asian men. They are usually the ones in the thobes with the high water pants and the really BIG beards (the Asians have smaller beards). Most of the women who attend Al-Fajr Center wear niqab (face veil) so really I never know if I am passing someone familiar on the street. I can only hope they wave if they recognize me.

All-in-all things are going well. I am just developing a routine. One unfortunate routine I have now is spraying Raid every night. Yep, we have roaches! I have seen at least one roach a day since I moved in. The first roach I saw was crawling across the mattress as I was putting new sheets on my bed the first night I was here. Thank God I decided against using the bedding that was already here. So, now I check my bed every night. Since then I have only seen roaches in the bathroom and the kitchen. It is very disturbing to see a roach crawling across the towel you use to wipe your face or in the drawer with the cooking utensils. Needless to say I went online to find out the best way to kill roaches. My answers so far are raid, Clorox, and a boric acid mixture. I spray raid then dump bleach down the drains. I now have this boric acid mixture that is supposed to really work. Since I have been spraying I haven’t seen any roaches in the day in very obvious places. Now, I only see them at night right before I go spray or right after I spray (running from the fumes). I just started with putting out the boric acid. They say it takes about two weeks to work. The roaches are supposed to eat the boric acid mixture then take it back to their nest and poison all the other roaches. We’ll see, Inshallah. I read online the two sure ways to get rid of roaches is boric acid or burning your place down. For the sake of everyone who lives in this apartment building I really hope the boric acid works! Until next time peeps.

Me singing: The Roof, the roof, the roof is on fire! We don’t need no water……

Cairo- Week 3: I found a FLAT!!

Friday, February 5, 2010 at 5:23pm

Since the folks at Al-Azhar University told me I had to wait three months before I could possibly move-in I was very anxious to find a new place. Al-hamdulilah (Praise God) that I someone told me about some other options. I was given the number of a girl from France who I thought at the time was looking for a roommate. I sent her a long text explaining my situation only for her to send a text back that basically said that she did not speak English and that I spelled her name incorrectly. So, with that I decided to use google translate to text her a message. This was very helpful but the only problem was that she was texting me back in French. I don't know if she was using short hand or I didn't have the proper letters with accent marks to type into the google translator but I could only make out portions of her message. We eventually managed to come up with a meeting time and place. Because she didn't speak any English we could only communicate in Arabic. She knew as much Arabic as I did, which is not much and it was hard to for me to understand her Arabic with a French accent. Thankfully, we met at the Fajr Center and someone was there to translate what she was saying to me.

Basically there was a girl staying with her and her roommate that needed a place to stay/roommate also. So, the plan was to meet someone that her roommate knew that had a potential place but we couldn't do it until after Salatul Asr (3:30pm) and when we met is was 10:30 in the morning. So, in the mean time my new friend from France invited me back to stay at her apartment until it was time to go see the place. While I was there I was able to meet her Russian roommate who also did not speak any English. The two of them spoke only Arabic to one another. The lady from Russia has lived in Egypt for three years and spoke Arabic very well and I was able to understand her much better.

While I was waiting at their apartment I got a call from the guy at the Fajr Center who was supposed to arrange for me to have a roommate and housing. He told me he had a potential roommate/apartment for me to see. Al-hamdulilah, I was already in Nasr City (where the Fajr Center is located) and only had to walk ten minutes to meet him. So when I met him I was introduced to a Chinese girl who was studying at the Fajr Center. She had an apartment close by and was in need of roommate. She was with her friend, a guy, also from China. The place was decent and the price was fine. My biggest concern was her boy friend, which may have just been a guy friend or actually her boyfriend. He seemed very familiar with the apartment and was the one that was doing most of the talking and giving the tour. He said himself that he would move-in and be her roommate but the program wouldn't allow it. I was really thinking that he might visit more than I would like and I don't want to have to deal with that. So, a couple days later I told her “no, thanks."

So, after the tour of the apartment with Chinese girl I still had several more hours until seeing the other place. While I sat with the ladies from France and Russia they explained to me their perception of America. They were explaining to me how it is very easy to get killed in America. One of the ladies was indicating the act of shooting with her hands. She wasn't even using the old pointer finger and thumb she was using two hands almost to indicate people get killed with machine guns. I was explaining to them that I think they watch too much television. And even though they swear they don't know English together they came up with "economic crisis" to explain how bad it is in America. The girl from France motioned to the floor while explaining in Arabic that people in America are living on the streets. I told her that it is not as she thinks. They both were adamant that it might not be like that where I live but maybe in other places like L.A. and New York. Their take on America was interesting to say the least but all and all they were good people who fed me twice while I was staying there! So, I was at their place for hours and for whatever reason (language barrier) didn't see the place I intended on seeing. They said that they would be in touch. I heard from them the next day and from what I could gather from our phone conversation (it is very hard to talk to someone in a different language over the phone) was that their friend found a place staying with a woman who had children. However, I was not interested in staying with someone who had young children or any children for that matter.

That same day I heard once again from the guy at the Fajr Center. He had another place for me to see. I was praying very hard that the place would be suitable. When I first saw it I knew that I would say yes. The place was decent well furnished and nicely priced (it is a 3 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath apt and the rent we will each pay is about $136). My roommate is from Nigeria she already knows a lot of Arabic b/c she has studied at Al-Fajr center two times before. The apartment is probably a 15-20 minute walk to the Fajr center. It is one of those things where if I walk all the way to the bus stop I might as well keep walking to the center.

Walking might be a good thing considering one of the last times I was on the microbus this guy was trying to touch me. Just to remind you riding the microbus is like riding in the back seat of a car everyone is close together. The guy sitting to my right kept elbowing me and his knee kept hitting my knee. I thought this was strange. We were on a bumpy unpaved road but I thought that he could make himself smaller. So I kept scooting over the best I could without being all over the guy to my left. Then next thing I know, the guy on my right has moved his right hand on his left leg and it looked like he was doing spirit fingers in my direction (while the palm of his hand was still on his leg). As soon as I saw this, I shoved my pocketbook (which is pretty big) in between us and then he scooted over really fast. Then I started thinking if he could scoot over that much he could have done that from the beginning. Thankfully, this was a short ride but needless to say I was utterly disgusted for the rest of the day. At least now I am comfortable taking taxis by myself. I am getting good at playing "name your fare" with the cab drivers. The taxi drivers won't tell you a price for a ride. They want you to tell them, so maybe just maybe you can say a price higher than they would have charged you. I think I will post pictures of my apartment soon.

Cairo-Week 2, Part 2: Riding the Bus

Now that I am on a mission to find a place to stay I have started to take the bus by myself. From what I have seen they have three types of buses in Cairo. They have a microbus which is like the 70s hippie love VW buses and they hold only 15 passengers at a time. They have the mini-bus which is either like a party bus or a regular city bus and then they have the autobus which is like the big charter buses that sports teams use to travel. I have only taken the autobus once when I was going to Giza to see the pyramids and I am guessing these buses are for long distance trips. The microbus and the minibus are for everyday use here in Cairo.

When you get on the bus you sit down and then you pass your money to the front and then the bus driver passes your ticket (along with change if necessary) to the back. If you get on the bus with a group of other people you are all passing your money to the front. The only problem is the bus driver sometimes forgets to pass the right amount of change to the back and you hear people going back and forth with the driver about their change. So, I am always conscious of having exact change for the bus because I am not prepared to yell to the front of the bus, “Hey you forgot to give me my change” in Arabic. The bus system is complex and comprehensive. The only thing is that I can’t exactly figure out how it works. I wish they would have a map of the bus routes. So far I just ask people where to get the bus. The first time I was taking the bus by myself it was at night and I was on a microbus. I was asking the girl next to me where I should get off to take the next bus she and the guy in front of me were very eager to help. Luckily she spoke a little English and so we were able to communicate. When I got off the microbus in order to switch to the minibus, the girl just took my hand and ushered me on the way to the area to catch the next bus. She was very nice and waited until the next bus came and made sure I got on the right bus. Overall, I have noticed that the people on the bus try to be very helpful when they realize that you don’t know where you are going or you can’t speak Arabic. My trick is to try to speak to someone who is young because maybe they know a little bit of English. I did this once when I was sitting next to this young guy on the microbus. Now the microbus is a get-in where you fit-in type of situation. If there is space a guy will not sit next to you but if they have to get on they will get on and you might as well just scoot on over because everyone is mashed up next to each other on the bus. So after this young guy figured out that I was lost and an American, (which by the way people love to ask where you are from and I don’t want to lie) nicely told the driver (and the whole bus) that I didn’t understand Arabic and he told them where I was trying to get off. He also, tried to slip me his number before he got off the bus. I said “La Shukran” and he said “okay” but then it became clear to me how Egyptian girls find their boyfriends. Overall, the bus experience is okay. I am still not clear exactly where to catch the bus back to where I am staying which led me to be on the bus once for 3 hours.

The bus is very packed and busy during rush hour, 9am and around 5-6pm. People just seem to randomly hop on the bus while it is in the middle of traffic. Also, if the bus is packed people have no problem asking you to hold their bags or other belongings if they are unable to stand and hold it at the same time. If an old lady gets on the bus usually someone will give up their seat for her. Also, if you have a baby someone will give up their seat for you or you can just let some nice lady hold your baby while you stand. Once this girl asked for my seat, she pointed to her stomach and said something about “baby”. I am guessing she was pregnant even though she just looked a little chubby to me. All in all the buses are fine to ride as long as you don’t mind hopping on and off the bus while it is still moving!

Cairo-Week 2 (Part 1): Finding a Place to Stay

Saturday, January 30, 2010 at 12:18pm

My objective for my second week in Cairo was to try to get some concrete leads on places to stay. The first week that I was here I saw 3 places. All of them were in walking distance from the Fajr Center where I will Inshallah (God Willing) be taking my Arabic classes. The first one I saw was very nice. It was a three bedroom. The only bad thing was two girls were leaving to go back home and that would leave one girl and maybe me to pay the rent for a three bedroom. The place was fully furnished with pretty up-to-date appliances and satellite TV. I didn't like that it would cost $375 to stay there, which I hear by Egyptian standards is a lot of money. I found this place through the Fajr Center which says they will help you find accommodations.

After I saw the nice place, I asked to see another place. I saw two other places, one was a one bedroom- it was almost alright except in the bathroom there was just a shower head. There was no shower curtain, no basin or tube to stand in-just a shower head. So basically, I was supposed to shower and get water all over the floor for 1400 LE a month, which is about $280 a month and according to my sources too much. The third place I saw was horrible. It was “furnished” but all of the furniture was dilapidated, and I am being nice with this description. This was a two bedroom flat for 1400 LE ($280) a month. So, once I saw the third place I started think that Al-Fajr Center was running some kind of racket because the price seemed high but the quality seemed very low. The guy who was showing me around basically said anything nicer would be more money like $400 a month. So based on this, I stopped dealing with him. Then I started thinking I could stay in an area called Al-Rehab which according to people nice and still a good price. I found out that the low price flats are unfurnished meaning you would have to buy the cabinets, refrigerator, oven, and all other imaginable furniture. The furnished flats are presumably more and the place is not as close to the Fajr Center. The other thing is that it is hard to find a place on your own often times people get brokers. I talked to this one guy and his fee was one months rent for finding you a place!!!

So with all of this information I heard about some British girls who stay in the girls dorm for Al-Azhar. Al-Azhar is a popular Islamic University in Cairo and apparently if you are studying at another center you can stay at the girls dorm for Al-Azhar for a fee. The cost…..150 LE or $30 a month!! Now, of course I thought that sounded like something that I wanted to look into. Of course I was skeptical about what that 30 bucks would get me. So, I spent pretty much my second week trying to get in touch with the British girls and waiting to meet them and then waiting to hear back from them. I eventually went and saw the place. There is a doorman, the girls have to sign in and out, they can only go and come from the building 2 times a day, they can have visitors on Friday, once a month stay away from the dorm, and they have an 8:00 pm curfew. You also have to share a room unless you are getting a Masters degree from Al-Azhar. The place looks like a dorm with two kitchens on each floor and communal bath areas. They have a library/study room and a computer room (with no printers or internet). They also have an area to wash clothes. Overall the place was clean, decent, and in a quiet and remote area. In order to live there you apparently have to speak to the manager and have an interview. According to the British girls he wanted to know why they were in Egypt and how much Quran they knew. To stay there you also have to take a blood test. I don’t know what exactly they are testing for. With all of that being said, I waited two days and heard back that I would probably have to wait 3 months to stay there. So now I am back to square one. Pray for me. I need a place to stay!

Cairo-Week 1: Just Arrived

Friday, January 22, 2010 at 4:30pm

So, I have been in Cairo for a full week. I am here to learn Arabic (foss-ha or classical). Believe me when I tell you that it feels like I have been here for a month. When I first got off the plane I knew this was different from the other countries (only 2-USA and UAE) that I have lived in/visted. The guy puffing smoke in my face at the money exchange/visa window was a clear indication of one big difference. As soon as we crossed through passport control someone was trying to hustle us. One guy was trying to get us to go along with some tourist package and as soon as we bypassed him another guy was "offering" to help us get our bags off of the conveyor belt.

My father and I managed to ignore all of this get our bags and proceeded to exit the airport. Keep in mind that our plane was over an hour late and it took us some time to find our luggage and someone that I had never met or seen before was supposed to come pick us up. A friend from home who is Egyptian arranged for me to stay with her cousins and they were going to come meet us at the airport. I was very worried that they got tired of waiting and just left but as soon as we came out of from the luggage retrieval area I saw this girl in a red coat smiling and waving very hard at me. I felt so relieved. She looked like she could be related to my friend from home so I felt confident that was her. She was there waiting with her fiancé. They were patient and waited over an hour for us. As soon as we got in the car my new host, Marwa had cold juice boxes waiting for me and my father. This was just the beginning of several generous offerings to come.

My father was only staying 2 days and one night in Cairo. This was his first trip to Egypt too so he wanted to tour. Marwa went out with us and we went to see the Pyramids. We also went to the Muhammad Ali (not the boxer) mosque in Egypt. Of course, the hustle was in full effect when were out. That's what happens when you look like a tourist. All of the sites were very nice. I managed to have a long overdue emotional break down while walking up to see the Muhammad Ali Mosque. The combination of being tired, hungry, sick, and annoyed with all of the hustling put me over the top and I just burst into tears when my father asked me if I wanted to take a picture of the masjid. I managed to snap out of it though when we entered the prayer area of the masjid and I realized that the masjid was in the movie Malcolm X! There is also a famous picture of Malcolm X praying in the masjid. Of course I had to try to recreate the photo. I wasn't going to let a little funk make me pass up that moment. After that we ended the day. We ate dinner and then my father left for Dubai.

Since then, I have been adjusting to life in Cairo. My hosts live in the Time Square of their neighborhood. It is literally action and noise all night long. It doesn't stop at all. There are donkeys making noises, there is music, and there is lots of honking of horns. One night it was so noisy I asked if we could close the balcony door and I was told that it was already closed. I have learned to sleep with earplugs. I brought the earplugs for the plane and had no use for them. Now I am on my second pair of earplugs.

I have visited Al-Fajr Center where I will be studying Arabic (Inshallah-God Willing). The place seems decent. I took the entrance exam and will be starting on Level 3. I have no clue about what I will do once I finish. The plan is to play it by ear. My next big challenge is finding a place to live. So much can be said about my search from seeing the bad to the worse but this is all for now. Inshallah, I will have another update next week!