Yes, I’ve survived my first week. I might finally be getting used to the fact that the work/school week runs Sunday-Thursday here. We’ve sort of developed the logic that Thursday is the new Friday, Friday is the new Sunday b/c of its religious function, the day of Jum’a, or gathering in the mosque, and Saturday remains Saturday.
My classes are as follows:
Intensive Modern Standard Arabic: There is nothing like 2-3 hours of Arabic at 8 AM 4 days weekly to make me regret my life choices. The professor is really intense, in a good way since I’ve been needing a challenge to make me really work at learning the language. The lovely Jules and Megan Sweitzer join me in this endeavor.
Gender and Modern Arabic Lit in Translation: There will be a lot of intense intellectual discussion in this class, as we tackle 10 novels 1950s-present by Arab authors through the lens of gender. Small, seminar-style class. I’m excited, given my love of postcolonial lit (yes I’m serious, not trying to be stuck-up) and the fact that I haven’t had a good novel-based literature class in a while. We had 4 token men at last count.
This class also made me realize how strange it is to be taking a class composed of half Egyptian students, with an Egyptian professor, reading translated novels by Arab authors, in Egypt, but conducting classes in English. Arabic is surrounding us, but not spoken, and it’s just a bizarre sense.
[a picture from the library of what we call "Greek Campus"
Intro to Colloquial Arabic: Modern Standard Arabic, I’ve learned, isn’t exactly useful in Cairo, and the difference between what is spoken on the streets and what I’ve spent 2 years learning (and the 10 hours/week this semester) is approximately the difference between Spanish and French, but they’re both still Arabic. Reassuring, eh? Sooo, this conversation-based class with a very animated professor named Fatima is necessary and fun, except it isn’t till 3 PM, so I’m usually on campus between 8 AM and 4, Monday-Thursday, and exhausted by Wednesday night.
Some important vocabulary:
Mumkin: Is it possible, would you please?
Aywa= yes
Ya’nee= “like” or “it means”, a placeholder. My Literature professor will interject this into her lecturing, it’s quite funny. If I had a pound for every time she said ya’nee, I’d have about 3 bucks. You do the math.
Ayza=I want, if you’re a chick. Aayiz if you’re a guy.
Kuwayyis/kuwayyisa=good, great, etc.
Modern Movements in Islam: This class may kill me with the workload, but it’ll totally be worth it, dealing with political and intellectual movements that incorporate Islamic language and ideas in some way or another, including Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia, Al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah, to name some of our more famous subjects. 2 ½ hours every Sunday, a delightfully small and intense class. More to come
Beyond that, we’ve been hanging out, having study parties, going out to dinner, spending way too many pounds on our textbooks and food. I’m getting into football, soccer to the rest of you Americans. Egypt is now in the finals of the African Cup, to play Cameroon on Sunday. When in Egypt, do as the Egyptians do. At the pro level, football is a lot of fun.
This weekend a lot of the international students went to Alexandria on a big trip, but I’ll go with my roommate some weekend, Insha’Allah. Instead, I bummed around and did homework today, caught up on sleep, and then went to the City Stars shopping mall in Nasr City (an up and coming region in Cairo_ with my friends Laura, Teresa, an Egyptian Girl named Dina. It’s like 10 stories, bigger than any mall I remember being in, pretty expensive, but full of staples like Claire’s, Virgin Records lots of European stores and the food court has everything from Fuddrucker’s to Papa John’s. It felt disconcertingly Western, but the shopping populace kept me keenly aware I was in Egypt. A great place to people
watch, observe kids that could be American teenagers, European-dressed men with the scarves and loafers and then all the women in the niqab, just a big cross section. Also puzzling were the scandalous clothing for women that was advertised, low-cut halter tops and the like. If you look around at the shoppers, the majority are dressed really conservatively. You can argue that they are clubbing outfits, or that women can layer clothing to conservatize it, but still I observed a dramatic difference between what is advertised in storefronts and what women wear. An advertising strategy or an incomprehensible paradox, perhaps?
Also I bought a 15-pound scarf I’m rather fond of. More scarves will be purchased, have no fear, especially when I hit Khan al Khalili either tomorrow or Sunday after class.
Alright, sleep now, homework tomorrow and more Cairo fun for tomorrow!!
In Peace, Caffeine and capitalism,
Laura
My classes are as follows:
Intensive Modern Standard Arabic: There is nothing like 2-3 hours of Arabic at 8 AM 4 days weekly to make me regret my life choices. The professor is really intense, in a good way since I’ve been needing a challenge to make me really work at learning the language. The lovely Jules and Megan Sweitzer join me in this endeavor.
Gender and Modern Arabic Lit in Translation: There will be a lot of intense intellectual discussion in this class, as we tackle 10 novels 1950s-present by Arab authors through the lens of gender. Small, seminar-style class. I’m excited, given my love of postcolonial lit (yes I’m serious, not trying to be stuck-up) and the fact that I haven’t had a good novel-based literature class in a while. We had 4 token men at last count.
This class also made me realize how strange it is to be taking a class composed of half Egyptian students, with an Egyptian professor, reading translated novels by Arab authors, in Egypt, but conducting classes in English. Arabic is surrounding us, but not spoken, and it’s just a bizarre sense.
[a picture from the library of what we call "Greek Campus"Intro to Colloquial Arabic: Modern Standard Arabic, I’ve learned, isn’t exactly useful in Cairo, and the difference between what is spoken on the streets and what I’ve spent 2 years learning (and the 10 hours/week this semester) is approximately the difference between Spanish and French, but they’re both still Arabic. Reassuring, eh? Sooo, this conversation-based class with a very animated professor named Fatima is necessary and fun, except it isn’t till 3 PM, so I’m usually on campus between 8 AM and 4, Monday-Thursday, and exhausted by Wednesday night.
Some important vocabulary:
Mumkin: Is it possible, would you please?
Aywa= yes
Ya’nee= “like” or “it means”, a placeholder. My Literature professor will interject this into her lecturing, it’s quite funny. If I had a pound for every time she said ya’nee, I’d have about 3 bucks. You do the math.
Ayza=I want, if you’re a chick. Aayiz if you’re a guy.
Kuwayyis/kuwayyisa=good, great, etc.
Modern Movements in Islam: This class may kill me with the workload, but it’ll totally be worth it, dealing with political and intellectual movements that incorporate Islamic language and ideas in some way or another, including Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia, Al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah, to name some of our more famous subjects. 2 ½ hours every Sunday, a delightfully small and intense class. More to come
Beyond that, we’ve been hanging out, having study parties, going out to dinner, spending way too many pounds on our textbooks and food. I’m getting into football, soccer to the rest of you Americans. Egypt is now in the finals of the African Cup, to play Cameroon on Sunday. When in Egypt, do as the Egyptians do. At the pro level, football is a lot of fun.
This weekend a lot of the international students went to Alexandria on a big trip, but I’ll go with my roommate some weekend, Insha’Allah. Instead, I bummed around and did homework today, caught up on sleep, and then went to the City Stars shopping mall in Nasr City (an up and coming region in Cairo_ with my friends Laura, Teresa, an Egyptian Girl named Dina. It’s like 10 stories, bigger than any mall I remember being in, pretty expensive, but full of staples like Claire’s, Virgin Records lots of European stores and the food court has everything from Fuddrucker’s to Papa John’s. It felt disconcertingly Western, but the shopping populace kept me keenly aware I was in Egypt. A great place to people
watch, observe kids that could be American teenagers, European-dressed men with the scarves and loafers and then all the women in the niqab, just a big cross section. Also puzzling were the scandalous clothing for women that was advertised, low-cut halter tops and the like. If you look around at the shoppers, the majority are dressed really conservatively. You can argue that they are clubbing outfits, or that women can layer clothing to conservatize it, but still I observed a dramatic difference between what is advertised in storefronts and what women wear. An advertising strategy or an incomprehensible paradox, perhaps?Also I bought a 15-pound scarf I’m rather fond of. More scarves will be purchased, have no fear, especially when I hit Khan al Khalili either tomorrow or Sunday after class.
Alright, sleep now, homework tomorrow and more Cairo fun for tomorrow!!
In Peace, Caffeine and capitalism,
Laura
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