This morning was pretty uneventful, so I'm not going to waste time telling you how uneventful classes were and will instead skip to the afternoon.
After lunch we had our weekly Flagship meeting in the dar. There wasn't much new news. The food in the dorms isn't going to change. Some people had complained, and so Robyn spoke with the Vice President of the dorms who pretty much told us to deal with it. Honestly, the food isn't that bad. There's a lot of rice, and not much meat, but the way the world's economy is right now that's really all the dorms can afford. And there's always enough of it, so I figure we should shut up and eat. Besides, it's not like we can't go out if we really can't stand whatever the meal is that day.
Robyn also presented some interesting opportunities to us at the meeting. One of the girls who works for Flagship is close with a Sheikh who happens to be in Alexandria at the moment. She's offered to set up a few meetings for us with him and I put my name down. So, if any of you have any burning questions about Islam, let me know. I'll be in a position to ask an authority.
Also, I signed up for a tour of the catacombs this weekend with Moutaz the ancient history major. I'd planned on visiting the catacombs anyway, and if I go with someone who knows everything there is to know about the history surrounding them, that's even better, right? Habiba may or may not go with me. She's been a lot of times before, but she's been invited, so we'll see.
The big surprise of today came at the end of the meeting. Robyn will no longer be staying in Alexandria as director of the year long program. Her family needs her in Washington so she'll be returning shortly after the summer program ends. It doesn't affect me directly, but I hope her family's alright. She seemed a little emotional when she told us, but it was masked very well. It will be harder for the year long students without her, but I expect they'll get by just fine.
After the meeting I went back to the dorms for a nap before dinner. I was exhausted. Ridiculously so considering I got halfway decent sleep last night. After dinner, I had a meeting with Habiba. I thought we were hanging around the dorms, until she showed up and told me to get dressed anyway. Not that I minded. I enjoy going out and seeing new places with her. When you have an Egyptian with you, you know you're not getting ripped off.
We went to a bazaar of sorts down the street from the dorm. It's a giant tent filled with little vendors selling clothes and jewelry and knick knacks and the like. Kind of like a flea market, but a little bit nicer than most flea markets I've seen. It even had a theater and kiddie park at the back, complete with cotton candy and a ferris wheel. We didn't go in, but we could hear the loud music.
We stopped at the Avon lady first, at which point Habiba was ecstatic to hear we have Avon in the states too, and then spent most of our time wandering and chatting. I didn't buy anything, though there were a lot of pretty options. I keep having to stop myself from buying clothes because the dresses here are gorgeous, but far too fancy to wear in America on a daily basis. Egyptian fashion tends to be a bit dressier than American. I enjoy it, but it's not conducive to cultural translation. If I had bought anything, it would have been this gorgeous gold and cubic zirconium ring in the shape of an eye. It wasn't terribly expensive, but it was just the tiniest bit too small. I kind of want to go on a city wide search for one in my size. I liked it that much.
Despite not buying anything, I'll probably be returning at some point for souvenirs at the very least. Habiba says the market is there year round, so I don't have to worry about it picking up and leaving.
Apart from the shops in the market, there were quite a few food stands interspersed: ice cream, pizza, rice pudding, juice. One stand particularly close to the kiddie park caught my eye as we were passing and I had to do a double take. Sitting out on display was a tray of little dough balls that looked suspiciously fried. So I asked Habiba what it was.
Baklava she says.
Baklava? I know baklava, and that was not baklava. And if there's one thing I know better than baklava, it's fried dough. After all, I did work in close proximity to the funnel cake stand at Six Flags.
Disturbed by this claim, I had to buy a tray. It gave me a chance to cash my fifty pound note at any rate. When we finally got the tray, full of balls fresh out of the oil and covered in powdered sugar mind you, my triumph was complete. They're fried dough balls. But apparently anything sweet and slightly pastry like in Egypt is considered baklava. Go figure.
That launched a long conversation about why no one in America has ever thought to make fried dough balls instead of funnel cakes. I mean, I know funnel cakes are an American past time, but the balls are so much easier to eat. And all the messiness of funnel cakes usually detracts from the taste anyway.
Having solved the food mystery, Habiba and I wandered down to the beach to eat out fried dough and walk back to the dorms. She told me about a famous Egyptian who died in a car accident a few days ago, and his friend who is still in intensive care (useful word). I told her about the gay marriage debate in America. And so on and so forth.
When we got back to the dorms she helped me with a few questions I had about some expressions that are going to be on my exam tomorrow, and then we went our separate ways. The plan is for us to go to the beach on Friday with Charlie, her second language partner. It sounds like fun, but I'm wondering if I might run into some of the same problems I faced in Sharm Al-Sheikh. My bathing suit is definitely too big, but I don't want to buy a new one in Egypt with only three weeks left. Oh well, I'll figure something out.
Anyway, that's about it for today. Now I'm in my room, studying far later than I should for that exam that's coming up. I didn't do very well on the last one. Not that anyone did. And though no amount of studying could have helped any of us, I still feel the need to over study. I suppose it's just me.
Hadir isn't back yet. I think she might be staying with her aunt for another night, which is nice. It gives me a chance to study without distraction. I'm really going to have to work on finding a new study space now that she's back because I've gotten far too used to the silence...
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