Day 107: December 9

Woke up and went to class. Usual song and dance. Arrived to class on time at 9am.

In media class we watched a segment about Barack Obama and his progress over the past year. Talked primarily about campaign promises and how he has kept or broken them. Understood the gist of the article but not the nitty gritty.

Afterwards we had MSA. Our most current assignment is a presentation based on our paper. I go early next week, however today we had the first two people. I was impressed by their presentations on Egypt’s history, and am becoming increasingly nervous about mine. I’ll cross that bridge soon enough.

After MSA we had a 15 minute break which Colin and I used to run and grab some food. I grabbed some McDonalds to break a hundred pound note. Most businesses do everything to avoid breaking large change, and McDonalds is one of the few that will consistently do it.

Next was the writing, where we discussed the special adjective forms… just when you think you have everything figured out… sigh

Another 15 minute break later and it was off to conversation class. Out professor is still out sick so we had another sub. We are currently on chapter ten in our colloquial book, but she had us reviewing chapter one and four. At first I thought it was going to be useless, but we did situations which allowed us to practice the vocab in a ‘realistic’ manner. It turned out to be good review.

After class I walked over to the gym to do another workout. Did the rowing machine again followed by some upper body work. The rowing machine gave me some pretty gnarly blisters… Afterwards I used the gym showers and caught the bus home.

Unfortunately we took the indirect way home… ie not the way which goes by our apartment. So I rode the bus all the way to Tahriir… lame. Anyways from there I had to catch the metro.

It was more packed than I ever thought possible. Literally no room to move. I squeezed in and had to hold my bag. Of course the metro didn’t leave for five minutes. Usually it leaves about thirty seconds after it arrives… Today they decided to open and close the doors ten times and sit there. By the time we left my arm was pretty tired.

I was very happy to get off the metro. I’m not claustrophobic, but that was sure uncomfortable. From the metro I walked over to the fatiir shop and grabbed dinner for me and Evan. Walked back and ate with Evan.

Did homework afterwards. At around 8:30 I got a call from Mike Airosis. Tomorrow they are having a Christmas sweater party and we are meeting up to find sweaters. Apparently the place to go to find crazy stuff in Cairo is an open air souk called the Date Market. It’s pretty much an open air Good Will. There are racks upon racks of clothing.

I took a taxi over and met them (Mike, Emily, and Lauren) in front of the souk. We spent the next hour and a half looking through the racks finding potential sweaters. We couldn’t find any stereotypical ones with Rudolph or Santa, However there were some pretty hideous ones. The hardest part was finding one that was suitably hideous and fit well. Eventually I found a blue/purple/and white one that ‘fit perfectly’.

After looking around awhile longer I decided to top the look off with a polar bear scarf. It’s pretty classy. I also fully plan on wearing it for Christmas back home.

We all found suitable sweaters and headed out of the market. We stopped by a fatiir/pizza restaurant so that Mike and the girls could eat. I hung around with them while they ate and then caught a cab home.

Got home at 11 and did some more homework until midnight. Went to bed shortly afterwards.

Tue: Day 106: December 8

Didn’t sleep well last night.. don’t know why, just didn’t. Woke up feeling exhausted. Went to the bathroom to get ready. While brushing my teeth I decided to take the day off and play hooky. I have found myself to be much more productive at home than at school… part of this is probably due to long commute. I lose two hours a day by going to school.

Went back to bed and slept for another hour and a half. Woke up feeling allot more refreshed.

Immediately sat down to make use of my day. Spent the first couple hours doing some solid vocab review. Reading the word lists and then going over them in context (I find that’s the best way to make them stick).

After that I started working on all the homework assignments that had slipped through the cracks over the past few weeks. This was a rather daunting task, but by 6pm I had finished everything. It was like a weight being lifted off my back.

Went to grab my first meal of the day, koshri, at 6:30. Wolfed it down and returned to work on homework due tomorrow. Called Henry and got the assignments and made short work of them. By 10 pm I was homework free.

Spent the next hour reading and finishing the book of Deuteronomy. This means I’m finally out of the Pentateuch… which in my opinion is the slowest reading.

Afterwards I gave Sara a quick call and went to bed.

Day 105: December 7

Another early morning. Did the usual routine and ended up at school shortly before 9.

Went to media class. The topic we are currently covering is elections, and we spent the entire class going over various articles covering parliamentary presidential elections in various countries. Afterwards we had MSA where we covered the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives… pretty old stuff, but good review. Afterwards we went over some other adjective forms found in Arabic. Some of it is pretty hard.

Anyways lunchtime came and I went with Henry up to the food court to eat. Grabbed some food and knocked out a good portion of the media homework for the today.

Went to colloquial where we talked about the break and what we did… etc etc. pretty standards stuff.

After class I went to the gym and worked out. First time actually using a gym in awhile. I was starting to miss it.

Took the bus home and read some of Deuteronomy. Got home and set to work on homework. I hadn’t had a chance to finish the MSA chapter over the weekend so I spent most of the night going over that and some worksheets handed out during class. Around ten I hit a wall. I don’t know what it was but I just could not mentally do any more work. Watched an hour of TV and then went to bed.

Day 104: December 6

Ugh… woke up to go to class, way earlier than I had become used too. 7:15 is way too early. However, I forced myself up and out of bed. From my apartment to the metro… from the metro to the bus… from the bus to school.

Media consisted of a BBC article followed by some review of the workbook. It is always surprising how much we can understand from BBC. At the beginning of the quarter I would have considered these articles untouchable. Now I am working at a complete understanding. I can pull meaning out of most of the articles… can’t grasp the entire meaning… but still.

Conversation class was a bit disappointing. Our teacher was sick and we had a substitute. Our sub treated us like 5 year olds and thus got very little accomplished. However, we actually got out on time (that’s a first).

Went up the gym and did one of the squid track workouts. It was tough, but I survived. Afterwards I walked to the bus and made my way home. Read some in the Bible and took a nap on the bus.

I arrived and walked up to the apartment. I still had allot of MSA work to finish before tomorrow. I immediately set to work. However, it was a daunting task. I finished a good portion by nine and then walked to the nearby koshri joint to grab dinner.

Afterwards I walked back and reviewed some media with Evan and finished my MSA vocab activities. Gave Sara a quick call and wished her good luck on her finals.

Day 103: December 5

Woke up today at 11AM. Almost a half day of sleep. I felt 100% refreshed… albeit a bit lazy. Classes start up again tomorrow and I absolutely must finish the final draft of the essay. I spent all day today working on the translating and editing of my paper. It took multiple hours of sweat, tears, blood and good old fashioned hard work, but I am done with the rough draft. As Jessica put it, I have something to show for this quarter….. however, it’s still not done.

Evan and I decided to grab food at around 8. We walked by the metro and decided to go to Maadi. Evan hadn’t gone to Lucille’s and I was more than willing to lead the way. We sat down and ordered some American favorites. Evan got the enchiladas and I got the taco salad. However, Evan’s cold (which he probably got from me…) got the best of him. He finished about half and called it quits. Felt bad that that was his first impression…

We returned home and I set to work on my MSA makeup work. There is allot to do, but it isn’t due till Monday (day after tomorrow). That gives me an extra day to finish. I worked on MSA till around midnight. Then went to bed in preparation for tomorrow.

Day 102: December 4

Woke up at 9:30 to meet Henry. Hit snooze a few times and then rolled out of bed. Got ready and took a taxi too the old campus (Tahriir). Met out front of the campus. Henry wanted some breakfast so we stopped by the McDonalds across the road. Grabbed some egg Mcmuffins then we were off to studying.

We found an empty classroom and set up. We started working by 11:00. We spent the next six and a half hours doing our media homework. We were assigned a full chapter and some listening exercises as make up for this week. We worked together(ish). Henry was allot quicker than I was, so we just consulted each other when we ran into trouble.

It took a long time, but by 5:30 we were both mentally exhausted and called it quits. Henry had finished all the exercises and I had finished all but one. I call that pretty good for one day.

Walked back home from Tahriir. Got home around six and immediately set to doing my laundry. I hadn’t done it since before the trip so I had a large pile. I threw my socks, boxers, and towels in the machine and did the rest by hand. Luckily I had another Paul Washer sermon to listen too while doing it. An hour later I was all finished with my laundry and spent the next half an hour finishing the sermon.

Set my computer to download the latest episode of Always Sunny and walked to get some Fatiir. Got my usual 2 sausage 2 sugar and walked back. Ate my dinner while watching Always Sunny and then did some journaling.

After a few journal entries I made a call home to check in and see how the family was doing. Mom wasn’t home, but I talked to dad for an hour. Afterwards I called Sara to see how her things were going with her. Talked for another hour…. Just a chatty Cathy today.

It was nearly midnight and I was still feeling a bit tired from being sick. Decided to turn in early and get a good night’s sleep

Day 101: December 3

Woke up feeling significantly better. Not 100%, but better. I hadn’t eaten in over 36 hours so I decided I had to eat.

It was around noon so I walked down to the koshri place. Walked back and devoured my food. Did some studying and decided it was time to get work done on my paper. Spent the next couple hours finishing the essay in English so I can translate it over.

Henry and I have been talking earlier and were going to have a Bible study if I was feeling better. At around six he called and we decided to meet up. I walked to the Metro and met him there. From there we went up to Maadi and hit up Lucille’s.

On the way we were accosted by some Mormons. I never expected to run into them in Cairo.

I love American food…done. We split a nacho appetizer which I followed by a cheesesteak. Sooooooo good. Anyways we sat and talked about life and how we had done with our devotions over the past week. Neither of us had really done much due to our travels (he spent the last week in Turkey). However it was still good to sit and talk.

Afterwards we left and headed back to the metro. There is a McDonalds on the way back to the metro and Henry decided he needed to use the bathroom. We entered and Henry made his way towards the bathroom. He made it a few paces before he noticed the birthday party in between him and the bathroom. It was a group of twenty Egyptian kids surrounding and dancing with the Hamburglar. He decided against using the bathroom…

We both left laughing. We caught the metro back and I got off two stops short of downtown. Walked back home and sat in front of the computer to do some more writing. Putting my thoughts down in Arabic took awhile longer, but I got them out. Didn’t finish but I made good progress.

Watched some TV and went to bed early.