Day 4: Classes

Thank goodness things have finally slowed down. If I'd stayed in super tourist mode I think I might have busted. But today, we started classes, and as such I only went trekking all over the city once.

My morning was a little earlier than it has been, but that wasn't much of a problem. My first class was Fusha, or formal Arabic. My professor's name is Nour Abdel Din while the assistant professor is Sharou', who I mentioned the other day. There's not really much to talk about class wise. I think it will be fun? It's all in Arabic, no surprise there. The book they're using is a little frustrating. It's an in the works packet, self-assembled, and it's identical to Al-Kitaab, except they don't translate the new words for you. So it's Al-Kitaab + frustration x ten.

Don't worry, I looked them all up in the dictionary.

My second class was Egyptian, with Ustaaz Immad. Again, not much to say there. Oddly enough, all the kids in my Egyptian level are from Texas, so it wasn't really a "get to know your classmates" kind of first class.

After classes, I had lunch, and headed back to the University. My Arabic house form that I didn't receive until I was in DC with no access to a scanner or fax machine, was due yesterday. The scanner in the dar, however, is broken. There's a technician on the way, but who knows when it will get fixed. I've alerted Helena to the hold up, but I'm still frustrated at the entire situation.

Ustaaza Radwa got out of class while I was waiting around the dar trying to get the scanner to work. Again. She was taking her Egyptian class for rice pudding and ice cream, and all the UT students hanging around were invited. We rode the tram to a somewhat shabi area and walked a good ways to the store. Not only did we go through China Town, but we passed a shop selling live chickens and rabbits for slaughter.

The rice pudding was good. It had nuts and raisins on top. The guy working at the store was a bit too friendly, he even told Bruce (one of the few guys in the group), how lucky he was as we were leaving. Egyptian guys don't get much time with women on a regular basis. Still, the store as a whole was very hospitable.

When we got back to the dar there was a language partner meeting for those people who haven't met their partners yet. Habiba and I have already gone out together, of course, so she wasn't there, but as a Flagship student I still had to attend. It was ridiculous, having that many people in one room (something like eighty). But there was delicious fresh juice and they made us play a funny little game to get to know each other.

We all had to find five people born in the same month as us, five people with the same favorite color, and then the Egyptians had to find five Americans who don't like football, while the Americans had to find one Egyptian who doesn't like Soccer. There were only three of the later in the entire room.

After the meeting, I headed back to the dorms to begin my homework. Unsurprisingly, it's incredibly helpful living with Egyptian girls. I was doing my homework with Habiba earlier, and all I had to do was look up and ask a question to have it answered. Then, just a few minutes ago, Hadir translated some of my new vocabulary words for me so I didn't have to look them up.

I'm thinking my posts may start getting shorter, now that I'm in class. There's no guarantee I'll be doing interesting things every day anymore. Anyway, back to homework.

Also, to do list for tomorrow so that I have it written down somewhere:
- Talk to Shareen about getting a room key.
- Buy books.
- Print the Fusha syllabus in the dar.
- Send Arabic House form.