Woke up and rolled out of bed after only hitting the snooze button once. I’d say that’s pretty good for me… Got ready and walked to the metro with Evan. Did some last minute studying on the bus, but I’m feeling ready(ish).
Walked into class ready to take my listening test. I had completely spaced that I had a presentation to give still. So when the teacher asked if I was ready I was kinda shocked. I had already prepared so it shouldn’t be too bad. Well as always I am really bad speaking in front of groups. I got through it but with a couple pauses, but it could have been worse.
Took the listening test immediately after. The first three broadcasts were easy to understand. The last one was from BBC. So much harder. I still think I did well, just would have preferred to not have that last one.
That took all class period. During the break I walked to the Italian restaurant and grabbed the ‘American Breakfast’. Most food for the best price. Even better price today, free. Used another one of those meal tickets.
Ate as I walked back to class. Entered a few minutes early and finished up. The professor went over some final questions and we were handed our test. I felt really good about it. We then went over it in class. Apparently the few I was on the fence on…. Well they were wrong. I still did well, just not as well as I had hoped. Oh well.
Anyways the next class was MSA and was pretty typical. We spent the class doing some vocab drills. Mostly matching and fill in the blank. Hard, but good for memorization.
Only three of us showed up for colloquial. We talked about verb forms and their meanings. Pretty much a review. There are some differences from MSA, but it’s mostly the same. We were really just biding our time until break. Counting down the minutes.
We were finally released just after two and flocked towards the bus. I got on and pulled out my laptop. Did some work on my journal. Got home and went up to the apartment. Packed up while watching American History X. Really good, but sad movie. On a side not Edward Norton is jacked.
Anyways finished packing and waited for 5pm to roll around. At 5 my time its 7 pacific time and I can call and wake up Sara. Talked for half an hour and said goodbye before I left for the weekend. I hung up, grabbed a few last minute things, and dashed out the door. On the way out Evan and I gave our Boab (doorman/woman) her Eid gift (gift given for this holiday). Of course, when we are strapped for time we run into everyone we know leaving. All of them wanting to stop and talk. We finally escape and jump in a cab.
Ten minutes later we are in Zamalek and walking with Jesse and Mike to the travel office. Along the way Mike and Jesse told us the news that next week’s classes are cancelled. The break we are having is for the Hag. It is to allow time for those that want to make their pilgrimage to Mecca. The Egyptian government is worried that people will go on their pilgrimage and return with the swine flu. Because of this they are cancelling all classes for an extra week. They figure this will allow for anybody who has it to present symptoms and be quarantined. It just sucks because we are now missing another week of class. Grr.
The four of us arrive there and are told we have a half hour before we need to leave. I decided this is a great time to grab some food. Walked to the nearby Hardies and grabbed myself a burger.
When I returned everyone had gathered. We have nine people in total: Mike, Evan, Sundes, Rachel, Jessie, Ruben, 2 random people, and me. We hammered out the last few details with the ‘travel agent’ and were on our way. We caught two cabs over to the Giza train station and got out.
From there we proceeded to the platform. We were stopped twice and asked for our tickets. The agent told us to tell them we were students from AUC and they wouldn’t bug us. Amazingly this worked. We were treated like royalty… kinda weird actually. This is probably good considering our guy got the tickets through some shady back market deal (cus most of the trains were sold out).
Anyways we got to the platform and waited for half an hour before our train arrived. We entered at the front where we were told our car was. We then proceeded all the way to the back before we found our car… go figure (This is Egypt aka TIE, a popular phrase among the American students.).
However, our seats were currently being occupied. We quickly assessed that the people in our seats were people who paid to get on but not for seats. They had just occupied them hoping to get away with it. I felt bad asking them to leave, but we had already paid.
The train started moving and we were on our way. Mike Ruben and I put on Harold and Kumar and watched the movie until 11.
Evan, Mike, and I walked down a few cars and stopped by the’ club car’. We each grabbed a beer and talked for awhile. We eventually got our tab, and realized that our beers were forty pounds apiece… a bit pricy, but we are on a train. Oh well.
We walked back and I did some reading from Deuteronomy. Went to bed afterwards.
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