Throughout the lesson, we also practiced our greetings, which is my favorite part because I want to be able to converse with the people I meet on the street and in stores, so for me, the part where we have small conversations is most important. So far, we have just completed the greetings like, “Welcome,” “what is your name,” how are you,” etc. We’re also learning other words and phrases here and there that are useful like, “How much?” which will be a useful phrase to use when I go shopping in the marketplace and want to bargain for an item. During the break, I tried a different tea today called Anise tea. At first I thought that I’d never tasted anise before, but when I drank it, I realized that I’d eaten anise, but I just never knew that that’s what it was called—I just knew that in Urdu, we call it “somf.”
So after the Arabic lesson was over our vans dropped us back to the hotel. I planned on working on my journal and reading the book, but then my mom called me and asked me to change the date for my return flight back to New York. I had trouble finding Turkish Airlines’ number in Cairo so I asked the receptionist and he found it for me. However, when I tried calling Turkish airlines, they wouldn’t pick up the phone, and when I was finally frustrated, I stopped calling. I began to collect my dirty clothes for laundry when Erica dropped by our room and informed us that she was missing money from her bag. As I listened to her, I was shocked and sad that that happened to her, but at the same time I was also afraid that it might’ve happened to me. Fortunately, when I checked all of my stuff, everything was in it’s place, but the fear of having our stuff stolen was still there. Then, Noureen and I went to Canada Clean Laundromat and dropped off our dirty clothes. We felt the price was a bit high, especially considering that we’re in Cairo, but we were so desperate for clean clothes that we decided that we would just get this done right away. With the little time we had left, we went to a Chinese restaurant and ordered food. I was a bit annoyed when I had to ask for a spoon and then found out that the restaurant didn’t carry disposable spoons. I guess because it was a fancy restaurant, they don’t usually have people take food to go. After he was finally nice enough to let us borrow two silver spoons, we dashed for the vans, which were scheduled to leave for 2:30. We got there just in time and then headed to Cairo University.
When we got to Cairo University, I just thought that they had such a beautiful campus. But not only was their campus beautiful, but so was the inside of the building that we entered. One of my classmates made the comment, “This is nicer than the Marriott,” and I laughed because I agreed with her. It was so beautiful with a chandelier and marbled tiles and stairs and the stairs had such antique banisters. We also visited the massive auditorium where President Obama gave a speech. This auditorium was also ornate and just put any other auditorium I’d ever been to to shame.
Then, we had the most interesting dialogue with Egyptian students at the university where we had a Q & A session with them and they with us. We discussed the differences/similarities between Obama and Bush, Egypt’s state of emergency, the topic of sexual harassment, and the idea of permissible polygamous marriages. It seemed to me that many of the Egyptian students’ responses were based on the Quran. When it came to issues like homosexuality and polygamous marriages, they quoted the Quran to provide support for their opinions. I also noticed that the students varied in their level of conservatism. Just like the people we met on the streets of Cairo, some of them covered their heads and some of them did not, but when it came to national and foreign policies they had similar views.
When we finally got back to the hotel, I skyped with my family in the lounge and some of the other girls and I also discussed the days events with Nevenka.
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