We're Going to Europe! and Other Causes for Excitement

Gaam'at Al-Azhar, one of the oldest universities in the world.

Hello everybody! So our long, tiresome search for a good Easter Break destination is at an end. It actually wasn't all that tiresome, or long... we were basically deciding between the Sudan, Paris, and Amsterdam. Unfortunately our little poll down below didn't do much to help us. There were only five votes at the time of writing: one for Paris, one for Amsterdam, one for Helsinki, and two for Khartoum. Oh well. There's still one day left to vote, so do it up. Anyway, I think

Phil and Stoo chucklin' up a storm.

the Sudan was winning until, after copious internet booking problems, we found a round-trip flight that goes into Amsterdam and flies out of Paris for compar- atively cheap. On Wed- nesday, March 18th, we head to Cairo International to fly EgyptAir to Am- sterdam where we'll stay for two nights. That Friday, we'll catch the high speed train to Paris. It's about a four hour ride, but it's a wicked nice train, so we're excited about that. In Paris, we'll meet up with my good friend Franny Brock from Oberlin for some French fun. We'll be there until Tuesday afternoon, when we head back to Al Qahirah. Peter and I are both wicked excited. As most of you probably know, I lived in Holland for ten months when I was twelve and thirteen years old. I've been back once since, but that was freshman year of high school, which believe it or not was already six years ago! Gee ain't it funny how time just slips away. Anyway, I can't wait to go back and experience the city and nation as an adult. We're staying in Amsterdam, but one

Kellie and Ross. This and the last picture are both in Ross' room, which is pretty much hangout central.

day we're going to take the train up to Alkmaar and rent bikes to go to Ber- gen, the little town by the North Sea where I lived. I've contacted a bunch of my friends from my time there, and hopefully I'll get to see a few of them, though many have dispersed around the world. Friggin' cosmopolitans. As for Paris, although I was just there a year ago (almost to the day!) visiting my sister, I'm still wicked excited. It's a great city, and it'll be awesome to see Franny and hopefully Rebecca Balmer as well, though I haven't gotten in contact with her yet. I'm also very excited to see how Peter likes these places. It's going to be really fun.

Some other interesting happenings over the past week or so:

KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNN!!!!!!

Last weekend, despite an overall aura of extreme lazi- ness, we did manage to get out and ex- plore the city a little. We went to Khan El- Khalili, which is Cairo's big- gest and most notorious ba- zaar. It dates back to 1382, and it's bas- ically miles upon miles of winding alleys, small stores, and people... lots and lots of people. The sights are quite impressive. Peter and I spent a mere hour or so in the actual market, and in that time, we saw two different men each carrying about ten live chickens by their feet, presumably to their death. People were arguing loudly over prices and whatnot, touts were tracking Americans and

Al-Azhar Mosque.

trying to overcharge them, rabbits were sitting in cages ready to be slaughtered. All in all, it's quite an im- pressive and stimulating place to visit. While in the area, we also visited the Al-Azhar Mosque, one of the prettiest and most famous mosques in the city. It's right next to Al-Azhar University, one of the oldest universities in the world. This was the first mosque we'd actually been inside since our arrival, and it was an incredibly serene and relaxing experience. In some parts people were on their hands and knees praying, in other places they just lounged around, talking softly or reading books, and in the central area, children played. The atmosphere is so different from a church. Kwayyis awi (which means "very good").

Inside the mosque.

One of the biggest new things in our lives is STAR, or Student Act- ion for Refu- gees. STAR is a group commit- ted to provid- ing affordable instruction in the English language for refugees living in Cairo. Peter and I had heard great things about the program, both before coming and since being here, and I was definitely interested in taking part. After going to the orientation meeting, Peter jumped on board for sure as well. We teach in Nasr City, a poor suburb constructed within the last century in the desert northeast of downtown Cairo. It's about an hour away in a microbus. We've had two classes so far. Students are split up into groups according to their proficiency, with zero as the least experienced and five as the most. Peter is doing Level 5, but I, for God knows what reason, decided that I wanted a challenge and chose a Level 1 class. On top of that, it's a Level 1 class with lots of Somalis, who don't even speak Arabic particularly well either. Fortunately some of the students speak French, and my partner Abd El Aziz is a native speaker of Egyptian Arabic, so together we can get the points across... most of the time. It's definitely tough, but I can't tell you how much I've been enjoying myself so far, which bodes well

My students.

for my prospective teaching ca- reer, I sup- pose. The students are really inter- ested in learn- ing the lang- uage, and they're also quite funny. My favorite moment came last class when we were dis- cussing capital letters and the appropriate use thereof. We got proper nouns down, and then we were doing beginnings of sentences. I wrote the sentence "My name is John" to show that both "My" and "John" are capitalized, though for different reasons. I then wrote the sentence "Did you know that my name is John?" to show that "my" does not always have to be capitalized. After most things that I say, Abd El Aziz has to translate it into Arabic. He reread the sentences with his name inserted, and when he got to "Did you know that my name is Abd El Aziz," one guy in the back piped up and said "Yes." It was pretty funny.

I should probably stop trying to tell humorous anecdotes on this blog. They probably don't come across as all that funny. Oh well.

So three or four weeks ago, I got a very unexpected email from Martha Hoffman. Martha is my ex-girlfriend Zoe's good friend and cousin. While Zoe and I were dating, Martha and I used to talk to each other online here and there, and though we only met once, we liked each other a lot. I hadn't heard from her much recently, however. That is until I got this email, which informed me that she was coming to Cairo for three months to teach kindergarten. I was very excited to see her and to have another friend in this faraway place. She flew in two weeks ago, and since then we've seen each other two to three times a week. She lives in Maadi, which is a nice suburb about a twenty-

At Hardee's, Peter and I each enjoyed a traditional Egyptian فلي تشيزستاك بورجر, or "Philly Cheesesteak Burger." Allegedly, the Pharaohs were buried with several in their casket so that they would not get hungry on the journey to the afterlife.

five minute metro ride south of downtown, where I live. It's really great to see her and to have an- other person here besides Peter whom I know from back home, however cas- ually. Appar- ently, she's been called in as a replace- ment kinder- garten teacher for a woman who couldn't take the pres- sure and left before the end of the year. Martha says she's not the biggest fan of teaching kindergarten, and her first week was pretty rough, but she seems to be enjoying herself a little more now, which is good. On Sunday, she and I took a long walk around town to visit the musical instrument district. We're both interested in the oud, and since they're so cheap here, we've thought about picking one up and bringing it back to the US. They're pretty cool instruments, but despite their resemblance to the guitar, they're tuned more like a violin. They're also fretless, so I assume the learning curve might be pretty high. But still, you can get a very nice oud for sixty to eighty American dollars. So, as they'd say in Egypt, mumkin ("it is possible" or "maybe").

Who's a happy Peter!

In other news, it's looking more and more likely that my parents will come and visit! My mom is pretty much definite (she's hopefully going to book her flight today!). She's thinking of flying into Tel Aviv at the end of our Spring Break trip and meeting us there for a few days, then taking the bus to Cairo with us, hanging out around town for a little while, and then, before she heads back the next weekend, going to Alexandria for a night or two. I'm really excited to see her and have her here. I think she's going to like it a lot. Plus, she'll be around for my birthday! As for my dad, his is less certain, but he's definitely interested in coming out here. I really hope he does, too. He hasn't left America that much, and I think he would really enjoy the alternate perspectives that one encounters here. Plus he loves old stuff, and Egypt is pretty much the best place in the world for that. He'd be more likely to come a little closer to the end. Perhaps he'll fly in right around the time finals finish up, and then we can hang out for the few days between the end of school and our return home. We'll see though.

Fans of Peter, fear not: a post is forthcoming, ostensibly on the Opera House. Like most of Peter's posts, it's been kicking around in his head for at least three weeks, so I'm sure it'll be chock full of goodies. Hope all is well with you guys, wherever you are.