Day 37

February 25th

So I will be teaching my first English class tomorrow. I am actually quite excited about it. My roommate and I have made up copies of the syllabus, gone over and edited what they thought we should teach the students (they being the center) and made notes to stress what we thought was really important in class. John and I are both super-pumped for the first class, as we have made additions including Dan Lindley's Myths/Fears of Classroom Participation and we are going to have them watch Lebron James: Be Better than Me, on youtube. Basically its going to be sweet.
The real interesting thing I found while reading though the packets was information about American culture. They talked a lot of myths of American people, and the one that stuck out the most was the one that said all Americans think that their culture is superior to all other cultures. I then began thinking about all the comments I have been making lately and I was wondering if I would fall into that group of people. So then I really began to think about Arabic Culture or Cairo Culture, and I realized that there are a lot of things I don't like about it. I don't like the fact that there is so much poverty and so little chance of social mobility in this country. I also really hate the pollution and the lack of caring for the history of Egypt. Or the fact, that you can never really trust a person to help you, how you can never tell if they are honestly being a good person, or if they just want to scam you. I also hate how I have to barter for everything, how I have to be a hustler, or be hustled. It's really frustrating, and I wish it wasn't that way. Does that mean that I think American culture is better. I am not sure, because at the same time, I really like that religion is prevalent, that the family is so key to their identity, that they drink tea all the time, that they know how to relax. I genuinely enjoy a lot about the Arab culture, but I must make a point to not get mad or complain, just because something doesn't work the way it does in America.