48 new words a day

Well, they did say it was a winter intensive. Basically an entire semester packed into twenty days. What I didn't know is that there is no recognized standardize Arabic instruction - but - this center is well know with the UN and other governing bodies and is well respected. As usual - I am the only American (though the pension has been at least 1/2 full with them the entire time).

It's been intense at the more mellow times, so I haven't had the energy to blog after 5 hrs of class, 2 hrs of to/from class, 3 hours to find a shop that sells paper or pencils and 4-5 hrs of study. Still, for a relaxed people who offer up "Inshalla" for every intention/action, they sure can pile on the vocab and expect it to be memorized the next day, use it in a sentance (conjugated properly) then ask random (albet basic) questions and expect you to switch modes immediatly. My age, you ask? Whatever number I happen to think of first. Who cares as long as the sentance is correct.

Ah - back to class. It's very traditional. Men in one building, women in another. The initial test is done in the admin office which are all men - so it's in the men's building. I'll have to go and take a few pictures of that. Night and day compared to the women's side. They get the hand-me-downs. Maybe next time I could argue a discount based on that fact alone?

Anyway - Madeha is an excellent instructor. She does wear the full abaya but uncovers for the class. There was an afternoon where one of the guys from Admin wanted to check in on us. No problem, but it took a few "my god's" plus 5 minutes for Madeha to put everything into place so only her eyes showed. It was an interesting process to watch. She treated it as an inconvenience, we thought we might have screwed up at something - though we had done well on our in-class tests.

Only one out of twelve vocab were part of the past semester, so much of this is completely (if not randomly) new. If someone hadn't made a joke about wanting to be the first person to go to Cairo for a month and never see the pyramids - I would seriously not make the time to go. Now - I'd be an absolute looser (thanks for calling me out in advance!) so I'll go out first thing tomorrow, take a few pics and leave. And add that entry under "speed walked the Champs Elysée in under 10 minutes after quaffing 2 espresso's with my sister in the Jardines de Tulliries."



There are many pictures I'd love to take but out of respect for the people (I am here for a month) especially the women, I've refrained from photographing some things - for now. Most do wear a hijab - which deserves it's own entry. Do I stand out? Yes. Does anybody care? No. So it's a non-issue.

There is one person here from Sydney to study while working on her masters thesis and a Jewish girl from London both staying in an interesting flat. I'll have to blog separatly about it(they're staying down the street from the school while I'm in the city center)- and I'll have to get some video uploaded. You're not going to believe their place!

This is outside the school. Sadly, this is an all to typical site around Cairo.