All I can say is thank God its Thursday…. Woke up today feeling a little more rested than the past few days, but still tired. Got ready for the day in a daze and made my way to the metro. Took the Metro to the Bus… and the bus to school. Did a little review on the bus, but spent most of the time asleep.
Walked on over to the HUSS building and into my first class, media. Went over a long article on the Pakistani riots. I really love the topic matter, but at times it feels like we are being hit by a tidal wave of new vocab. This week has kinda felt like that. I am able to translate the material only with the assistance of a dictionary, and I am left with no time to review the vocab so that I’ll have long term retention. However, I am seeing the words over and over in context which I teacher is preaching as the best method… so maybe she knows what she is doing. Sometimes it just feels overwhelming.
During our 15 minute break Max and I walked to McDonalds and grabbed some Sausage McMuffins. I feel really bad eating it, but I was absolutely famished. It also helped in perking me up so that I could stay awake in the next class.
MSA was a pretty typical day. We went over verb form 7 a reflexive form. We had gone over verb forms in SD, but I really like the approach Prof Iman is taking. Verb forms play a big role in Arabic and she is helping us see the differences between each form and how each form can be changed into another… I realize this probably sounds boring to anyone else, but it is such a useful tool for unlocking this language.
After MSA I had an hour break. I decided to spend the break doing some packets that were assigned for the weekend. I really wanna try to be on top of this homework so next week isn’t so hectic. After an hour I had completed two packets that had been assigned and just had 2 bulky readings left over.
Wills and Ruben were missing from colloquial today, which made it a really small class. Just Ben, Andrew, Prof Iman, and myself. Just went through the vocab and the associated story today. However, everyone in class had the same feeling of the week being over. Was a real relaxed attitude and led to some good impromptu discussion (which in my opinion is more enjoyable).
After class I headed over to the gym to do my last installment of air alert week 5. Made sure to do plenty of stretching and a good warm up prior too starting. I don’t know if it helped, but my knees weren’t hurting after the workout, which is probably a good thing. I would rather not end up with a knee injury. After my workout I went into the locker room and took another hot shower. It felt so good..
Took the bus home at around 4. Read my Bible on the way back. Currently working on a conquest of Genesis. 45 minutes later I got off the bus and walked to my apartment. Did some review and then called Sara. Talked allot about the future. It’s a hard topic when neither of us know what the future holds…
Evan got home and we went out to grab a bite to eat. Predictably we ended up eating Koshri. The people at the shop near us must think we are crazy. We eat there almost every day. After dinner we called Kevin and walked to meet him halfway between our place and his. It had been a long time since either of us had seen Kevin. It was good to see him again, and he seems to be doing allot better than a few weeks ago.
The three of us wandered the backstreets for awhile, stopping in a few shops and eating some sweet bread called Fatiir. Eventually, we made our way into downtown and to a local hangout spot called Café Horiah. It’s a cross between a pub and a café. A very weird crowd ends up in there., the more liberal Egyptians and allot of ex-pats.
We stopped in for an hour and had a few beers. Afterwards Evan wanted to head over to Jessie’s and Kevin needed to get back and get some sleep. I decided to tag along with Evan and visit with people over in Zamalek.
A short taxi ride later we arrived at Jessie’s, where she was having a few people over to drink wine and finger paint. We went up and hung out for awhile. At 1am people started heading their separate ways. Evan decided he was going to stay the night and I took my cue to head home. Caught a taxi back with the least talkative cab driver in all Cairo. Kind of disappointing really, cab drivers are real easy to talk to and generally laid back.
Got back shortly before two. I decided I wanted to call the family and see check in. However, that meant I had to wait until 4 to call…. Watched some television and browsed the web for awhile. At 4 I called the family and talked with them for awhile. Seems like everyone is doing well. Andy Just finished cross country yesterday, but unfortunately had to run his last race of the year sick… He also just got back from his missions trip to Mexico. I laughed a bit at that, I live right next to Mexico and have yet to go….
After my call home I made a quick call to Sara to wish her luck on the medical trip she is going on. She was leaving at 7pm so I wanted to say bye before she did. After that I crawled into bed, closed my eyes, and passed out.
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