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.
Showing posts with label Cairo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cairo. Show all posts
Monday, March 15, 2010
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!!!
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……
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 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!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)