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!