Here's the latest selection of photos, including my escapades in the desert, Allison's 21st birthday dinner, and a trek through Islamic Cairo.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2287871&l=3d15b&id=825591

Wowza! Thank heavens it's the end of the week--we made it! I think everyone was feeling the pressure this week, what with midterms (although I was mercifully spared) and a gross lack of sleep. What better way to celebrate than to go out dancing and stay out all hours of the night?! Now that is Egypt style.

So what happened this week? Well, last Saturday evening I returned from the desert and gathered up a stockpile of sleep, 11 hrs, which I felt so grateful for later in the week.

I think Sunday and Monday passed without much excitement, just homework and spending time with friends.

But along came Tuesday, a grand extravaganza! I got the day started off write with some coffee and my 8 am Arabic class--2 hrs. Then I met a friend to grab falafel, smoke sheesha like an Egyptian (ie. at a surprisingly early hour of the day--sorry mom!), check out his amazing downtown apartment literally a block away from campus, and to watch an old Comedy Central show called Stella. I had classes from 2-4, and then I waited around for a bus for an hour, again in true Egyptian form. Nothing more Egyptian than waiting. The bus intended to take us to Sixth of October City to teach the refugees never came, so we grabbed mini-bus and went throttling down the dusty highway toward class. I have to admit that I was feeling terribly insecure about teaching as of last week, and I was considering resigning my position. I just felt incompetent, unsure of how to approach the teaching and frustrated. But as my partner Tom and my dad both guessed, after class on Tuesday I was glad that I stuck with it another week. This class went just a bit more smoothly, and I think we covered just a bit more ground. In shah Allah, we will actually arrive at class on time next week, and things will only continue to get better. After an hour long ride home, I got picked up for dinner and coffee, so that I ultimately rolled on home to the dorm at about 11:30. At point I smelled strongly of smoke, as seems to always happen here, due to the extreme addiction of the population as a whole, so I showered. Then there was a spot of homework done and a few hours of sleep before my 8 am Wednesday began. Let me tell you, it was a good day. I felt pretty proud of myself afterward.

Wednesday was my dear friend Allison's 21st, so of course, in between classes we had to get our hair done and go shopping for a birthday outfit for the lovely lady. In the evening, it was the Hard Rock Cafe for a huge group dinner and La Piste for salsa dancing afterward. In my case, there was more watching and talking than dancing, but I'm considering taking lessons starting next week.

Allison and I met again at 8 today, cause we have that delightfully early class together. Throughout the day, there was laundry, a cat nap, homework, a colloquial quiz, sugar cane juice, learning how to play backgammon, dinner with friends, a trip to the grocery for muesli and the atm, and now I sit preparing for the evening ahead. We're heading out to After Eight for a live music boogy night, and then don't worry, I can sleep in tomorrow morning. Woo! Although I did get an offer to get up at 8 to head to the Birqash camel market, which I'm so tempted to do. Somehow, though, I don't think I'll make it this time around.

What a whirlwind!

For Those Without Facebook

Despite the fact that I'm in Cairo, one of the strangest developments in my recent life happened back in the States: My dearest mother joined Facebook. Holy Cow, my universe has been realigned. However, Dad hasn't hopped on the bandwagon yet. So for his sake, and for all the rest of you who are far too cool for school, I shall continue posting links to my photos:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2284285&l=3ef46&id=825591

This album includes photos from my scuba trip to Dahab, from a raucous evening at the local dive, and from the Citadel (including the mosque of Muhammed Ali and the Military Museum).

"Islamic Fervor"

Here is a New York Times article discussing the poor job market facing young Egyptians today and the effects it has on their prospects for marriage and a viable future in the community. It explains how these problems have propelled Egypt's youth toward conservative Islam as an outlet for their frustrations and how the government is reacting to this recent trend. The arcticle appeared in the Times a couple weeks ago, but I just got around to reading and thought you might be curious as well.

Cheers!


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/world/middleeast/17youth.html?ex=1361854800&en=8fb6470cb5fbb4b1&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Morning Romance:

Haha, don't get your hopes up for any racey stories. Although a number of seemingly forbidden things have proven possible here (wink wink), I don't have any steamy romance stories to pass along this morning. Instead, I thought I'd provide you with a snippet of poetry from my most recent Classic Arab Lit. homework. I don't love the class--the professor has no knack for facilitating evocative discussions--but some of the texts are really lovely. This may be my favorite so far:

Excerpt from Dhu al-Rumma's "To the Encampments of Mayya," from Michael Sells' Desert Tracings

"After sleep she is languor.
The house exudes her fragrance.
She adorns it
when she appears in the morning.

As if her anklets and ivory
were entwined around a calotrope
stopping the water's flow
in the bed of a wadi,

With buttocks like a soft dune
over which a rain shower falls
matting the sand
as it sprinkles down,

Her hair-fall
over the lower curve of her back,
soft as the moringa's gossamer flowers,
curled with pins and combed,

With long cheek hollows
where tears flow,
and a lengthened curve at the breast sash
where it crosses and falls.

You see her ear pendant
along the exposed ridge of her neck,
swaying out,
dangling over the abyss.

With a red thornberry tooth-twig,
fragrant as musk and Indian ambergris
brought in in the morning,
she reveals

Petals of a camomile
cooled by the night
to which the dew has risen at evening
from Rama oasis,

Wafting in on all sides
with the earth scent of the garden,
redolent as a musk pod
falling open.

The white gleam of her teeth,
her immoderate laugh,
almost, to the unhearing,
speak secrets.

She is the cure, she the disease,
memory of her, misgiving,
desire dead
were it not for the affliction of distance."

Quite nice, if I do say so myself.