Day 50: October 13

Woke up a little early today and decided to walk to the bus stop. Got there and got on the bus.

Went to MSA and talked about the case endings under special circumstances. Also talked about the us of Kan… In writing we worked on tweaking our country assignments and improving the structure. During the break I got lunch with Max at Omda and reviewed my notes for the quiz.

Our Colloquial quiz was a spoken conversation with our instructor where she would ask us questions and we would respond. Basically, she wanted to know how well had learned the material and directed the conversation appropriately. The main topics were apartments and markets. I felt pretty good, but wasn’t 100% on my pronunciation.

After class I went to the track and did another Air Alert workout. After that I took the bus home… slept on the bus and arrived back home in short order.

Spent the rest of the night doing homework and eating koshri.

Day 49: October 12

Woke up and made my way to the metro/bus/school.

Had a pretty typical day at ALI. Went through media, MSA, and colloquial without to much interesting happening. Had lunch with Henry. Did vocab activities in all my classes. A pretty standard day. After class I went to the track and did a short run. After that I took the bus home.

Came home and started doing homework. Called Kevin and we decided to meet up and get some dinner. He knew of a small place that was supposed to have excellent lamb. We met in front of the children’s hospital and he took me down the back streets to this hole in the wall restaurant.

He was correct it was really, really good. We sat and talked for awhile. He told me how life had been going, and I was glad to see him more chipper than the week before. Apparently he had decided that he wanted to enjoy his last month in Cairo and try to stay on the positive side.

We did have an exciting moment when he almost chocked on a piece of the meat while talking…. Luckily he coughed it up and I didn’t have to use the Heimlich or anything from CPR class. ‘excuse me sire, I’m trained in CPR, may I help you…’

Afterward dinner we went on a short quest to find the necessary ingredients to peanut butter and jelly. We found peanut butter… but not jelly or bread. I guess I’ll have to look next time I’m in Zamalek. After our search Kevin showed me the way back to my house. I tried remembering so that I could go back to that restaurant in the future…. However it was allot of back streets.

Returned home and studied for the following day’s colloquial quiz.

Day 48: October 11

Woke up and did my normal routine. Got to school on time and went in feeling ready for our makeup exam.

Took the makeup media exam and rocked it. Now that I had taken one of her quizzes I knew what to expect and how to study. After the exam we went over some vocab from the new sections.

After class we had our usual 4 hour break. Max, Colin, and I went up to McDonalds and grabbed a table and some food and started doing the homework we still had piling up as a result of our two week break. We worked on a good chuck of it.

My next class was conversation. Today we just practiced the vocab in mock dialogues. Nothing crazy.

After class I went to the track and did my first day of the Air Alert jump workout. Its designed to increase your vertical… which I feel will help for the ultimate season. It’s a fifteen week program, and I am starting on week 2 because week 1 is a laughably easy…

Took the bus home. Did homework and got Koshri for dinner. Called Sara. Went to bed.

Day 47: October 10

Woke up at around the this morning. Had a bite of breakfast with Evan and Mahmood. After that Mahmood went to work and Evan went to Zamalek to hang out with Jessie.

I was left in the apartment doing homework. I was productive for the first couple of hours but soon got restless. Watched a little tv, browsed the internet, even played a video game.

I felt real homesick today. I miss living with my friends back home. Evans a nice guy, but its different back home. There’s always something to do and somebody to hang out with. I felt lonely and isolated. Everyone I know in Cairo lives in Zamalek and I’m stuck by myself in Garden City. Just kinda a sad day.

Made a few calls back to the states. Called home, called Chris, called Sara.

Eventually ended up finishing my homework and falling asleep early so I’d be rested for the next week.

Day 46: October 9

My original plan for today had been to pound out some homework and do some studying…. Ya well so I woke up at noon and decided to roll over and get a few more minutes of sleep. The next time I opened my eyes it was 4 pm… oops

Dragged myself out of bed and started studying immediately. However, Evan brought one of his new friends from the Metro over to hang out. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to converse in Arabic and hang out. Mahmood, Evan’s friend, is a 25 year old from the city of Hanafia. Really nice guy.

He ended up spending the rest of the day/night with us hanging out. He took us shopping and showed us some places in Garden City. He even made us dinner. After dinner we watched Jumangi (with Arabic subtitles) on the tv.

So much for studying…

Day 45: October 8

Rolled over this morning and looked at my phone. It was 8:30…. Not sure how that happened. I guess when I set the time on my phone I didn’t hit that activate button. Jumped out of bed and ran to the bus stop. Caught the bus to campus and ran to class. Apologized to my professor and caught the last 15 minutes of media class. Did some listening exercises and then was off to my next class

The next class was our Modern Standard class. Pretty standard class. Had lunch afterwards with Henry and Max. ECA was pretty much the same as always. Just another day.

After class I met up with Nick (the ultimate player from Georgetown) and went to the soccer field to throw a Frisbee around. It was nice to just relax and throw. He had class at 3:30 so we parted ways after an hour. From there I did a sprint workout on the track. Running was fun, but it is really hot in Cairo…

Took a nap on the bus. Got home and did some homework. At 7 I left my place and walked to Tahriir Square to meet with Nick and head to ultimate. I arrived at the Tahriir Metro station at 7:30 and met up with Mido, Nick, Mike L., and Brendan. From there we caught the metro to Maadi, the expatriate area of Cairo.

We play at a small high school in Maadi called the Cairo American College, or CAC for short. There were about 14 of us there and we played for a few hours. Playing savage seven after a sprint workout was exhausting. However, the level of play was significantly better than last time, so I was happy about going.

After Ultimate we took the metro back towards Tahriir. It was decided that we would all head back to Zamalek and meet with a group that was going out to the Cairo Jazz club. Unfortunately this meant that I was unable to change or drop off my bag… oh well. On the metro we met an Arab guy that was about our age that really wanted to talk about soccer with Americans. Interesting albeit strange guy.

We took a taxi from the Metro station and arrived in Zamalek 10 minutes later. We stopped by the dorms so that Nick and crew could change. I decided to leave my ultimate bag in his room so I wouldn’t have to carry it all night.

From there we went to Mike/Jesse/Ben’s apartment. Max met us there, we picked up Jesse and were off to the club. There was a birthday party for one of our friends/acquaintances there that we joined. It was a fun and very packed club. Drinks were also very expensive.

Stayed for a few hours until Nick and Challid got kicked out. We decided that maybe we should leave…

I caught a taxi home and went to bed.

Day 44: October 7

Same song and dance to school. Felt good this morning after a solid night’s sleep. Made my way to school without any trouble.

In media our professor told us that only one person got a passable grade on the previous days test. She decided that we needed some review of the stuff we covered prior to the break and then retake the test next week. Kinda sucks that we didn’t do well, but at least our teacher is understanding.

Did some review sheets that focused on the vocab. She also took time going over areas she felt we needed work on. Felt allot better with the material after going over it with her…

Today is our long day which means back to back classes until 2 pm. After media we had Modern Standard followed by writing. In between the two Max and I ran to the food court to grab a snack to hold us over. In the writing class we have been working on describing a country using connectors (like, as, and, or…. Etc). It’s pretty cool to see how large my vocabulary has become.

Had discussion class and did some role playing where we were shopping in the market.

Afterwards I met up with Max to take the bus back to his place. Our media professor had assigned allot of work so we thought we would work together. Took the bus into Zamalek and got out at Metro Towers. Grabbed some falafel and went up to Max’s apartment. We worked on some reading exercises together.

We eventually took our work down to a local café and worked there for a few hours. Had some dinner and tea while there. Max is a smart guy, but doesn’t really stay on task very well… However, we did get everything done. After awhile I caught a cab back to Garden City.

Back in Garden City I did some homework until it was time to go to bed. Got to sleep shortly after midnight.