Day 19

February 7^th

Thursday has come at last. Thank God. This first week of classes has been brutal and at the same time remarkably easy. I think the fact that I am in Arabic for 3-4 hours each day and not seeing that much improvement is the brutal part. Hopefully though I will get better as I pick up more vocabulary and improve my listening. The classes are remarkably easy because, well they seem to geared towards kids in high-school. Most of my classes are with foreigners so I don’t have first hand stories of Egyptians complaining about having to read 10 books in a semester for a literature class. In fact, in my Comparative Politics class which has two Egyptians, one of them came off sounding quite educated, and the other one quite, well passionate. I look forward to seeing how the semester will progress.
I am going to stay the summer in Cairo. I will take Arabic classes through an institute and also try to get an internship. I am really disappointed that I was rejected by the State Department. That would have been an ideal experience for possible future career paths. Now I am getting involved with a program at AUC that teaches English to students. This should help me see if teaching is a possible job path. I think I also want to get involved in development issues in Egypt and maybe I can get involved with an organization for the summer. My goal for next week is to A. find a institute to study Arabic at for the summer. The one I found is only 200 dollars and for 2 and ½ weeks in July. I also want to find a job.
I look forward to getting back on the road and having a three day week-end. Being so caught up in my Arabic studies, I sometimes forget that I am in Egypt as I have my eyes so fixed on studies that I lose sight of all knowledge that surrounds me. Hopefully a trip to Alexandria will reinforce the sensation of awe.