The Blog Begins!

Hello! FINALLY, I have set up a blog for my semester abroad in the Middle East! I have been in Cairo since Wednesday, August 25th.

My first week here was orientation week, which was full of extremely busy days! We learned some "survival Arabic" to help us get around, visited a mosque, went on a scavenger hunt throughout Agouza (the neighborhood we live in), figured out how to take taxis and use the metro system, and took a Felucca ride down the Nile!

One cool thing about being in the Middle East this fall is that I get to experience Ramadan. Ramadan is a month-long holiday celebrated by Muslims. During Ramadan, Muslims fast from food/drink during the day and then break fast with a feast once the sun goes down. In order to be sensitive to the culture, we have been trying not to eat or drink in public during the day. This has been a bit of an obstacle when we are out and about in the 100-degree weather and need to stay hydrated! Also, a lot of the food shops are closed during the day since they won’t be getting very much business. The streets are pretty quiet during the day, since everyone is exhausted and thinking about food.

For the next two months before our travel component I will be living in Agouza, which is a Muslim neighborhood just across the Nile River from downtown Cairo.

I live in a 3^rd floor flat with four other girls (Emily, Brianna, Samantha, and Crystal). Our flat has been nicknamed “the Paisley Palace” by previous MESPers because of the paisley pink furniture in the living room. The flat is a lot larger than I expected. We have a living room, dining room, full kitchen, three bedrooms, and two bathrooms.

About a 3 minute walk from the flat is the MESP villa, which is where we take our classes and eat meals. In Egypt, the weekend consists of Friday and Saturday since Friday is the holy day rather than Sunday. So I have classes Sunday through Thursday, but on Tuesdays we go to a service project instead of class. For my service project, I am teaching English as a second language to Sudanese refugees with three other MESP students. So far I have only had 3 days of class, which consisted of Arabic and then introductory lectures on Egypt/the Middle East from Dr. Holt, our program director.

My first weekend here was a lot of fun! On Friday morning I went with eight other students to visit the pyramids in Giza! Then in the evening, the majority of us went to see Eftikasaat in concert. Eftikasaat is a jazzy Arabic band, well known for its violinist and drummer. I spent the majority of Saturday sleeping. We are all exhausted and still adjusting to the time change! (Cairo is 7 hours ahead of Chicago). One of my roommates slept in until 4:30pm!

Tonight (Sunday, September 5) we were introduced to our “Egyptian friends,” made for us by the interns. MESP put together a little party for us at the villa and paired each of us up with an Egyptian and gave us their contact information. My assigned friend’s name is Christine, and I really liked her. She actually lived in New York for 4 years because her dad's job.

Well, from now on I will try to post more often so I don’t have to cover so much information in one post!

Maa Salaama! (Goodbye!)