bvasher
bv Joined: September 2nd 2008
Logged in: September 1st 2009
Logged in: September 1st 2009
+Life in Cairo as a grad student at the American University in Cairo (2009-??)
Travel Blog Posts
So, I got tired of sitting around doing nothing so I thought I would have a mini adventure today. Well, I did..it wasn't all that exciting. I intended to go to Khan al-Khalili, which is the most famous (and touristy) souq in Cairo.. I thought I would be bold and take the metro and then walk down the giant main street until I got there..well, that turned out to be a bit of a failure. Because of course once I got out of the metro I had no clue where I was and the streets weren't marked. So..haha..I ended up wandering through this tiny little streets, it kind of reminded me of Fez in Morocco.. but they were very...not touristy..that is to say, I must have looked ridiculously odd wandering through there. Well, eventually, I made ... read more
Well,thanksgiving in Morocco... I was sad to be spending the holiday away from my family for the first time ever..but honestly, this turned out to be one of my favorite thanksgivings ever. we had a dinner with basically all of the American students and staff as well as some Moroccan guests,of course. The food was great..and we had a muliti-denominational blessing..which included a bit from the Imam (which was beautiful..I love listening to Qur'an), and then a reading from both the old and new testaments as well as a secular song. I had a great time. Today I went to Sidi Aidi with three girls that I tutor English to at the high school. I spent the afternoon in Laila's house with her family. It was really wonderful. They didn't speak English and not really French ... read more
So, I've officially been here over a month. It's so hard to believe that a month ago I was just meeting all of these people..going through orientation trying to make friends with Moroccans..and exchange students..and getting used to the Ifrane area...and then of course, Ramadan. It feels like this month has gone by so quickly but I also feel as though I've been here forever. It's a weird feeling. And not that Ramadan is almost over I'll have to adjust again to a new schedule. Well, anyway..Saturday Kelly, Marybeth, and I went to Meknes..sadly, our goal was to go to McDonald's and it was so wonderful to eat the fast food. I felt kind of bad to be so excited about it, but it was wierd how I was craving it. I think it was more ... read more
Well, I don't know..that was Kelly's insight on going all day without eating. she might have a point. Anyway..yesterday was a pretty decent day. We had Asian dinner in Yesenia's room. I brought Maha and I'm really glad she came. I love our thursday night group dinners. I also had my first Moroccan soccer game. There was a men's IM tournament for Ramadan and before the final last night we had a scrimmage of the girls soccer team. It was quite interesting. I give the Moroccan girls a lot of credit for trying and some of them really weren't all that bad. We just need to work on the concept of positions..and patience. Today Kelly and I ventured to town to buy ingredients for an attempt at dirt cake. we found oreos (essential), gummy bears (yay ... read more
yesterday was actually somewhat interesting..I mean, most of the day was the same old routine. But we had a nice ftour with all the study abroad/exchange/international students + all the Moroccan students who went abroad last spring and the AUI president and several deans at AUI. It was really good. It was kind of awkward because they gave us assigned seats and my table was basically all Moroccans and so I didn't really talk a lot but I did listen..as always... Afterward I hung out with Marybeth, Yesenia, and Maryam for a while. It felt good to be outside and with my friends..we made a plan to go to Fez on Saturday evening for Ftour. A reward after our day of classes..ugh. Later I had a really good talk with my roommate. I always enjoy talking ... read more
so let's see. I missed the midnight curfew on campus for the first time...5 minutes, seriously! It was annoying. They took our names and id numbers..I'm not really sure what is going to actually happen because of this..but..whatever. stupid AUI rules. yesterday was quite boring. today was also quite boring. this school is boring. Morocco is not boring but I'm not getting to see much of it right now :( and now I have to attend class on SATURDAY....yeah,it gives us a niiice long weekend in november, but..geez. today a bird flew into my window..I didn't know what to do, I just stood there in the corner watching it desperately try to escape..and eventually it returned from whence it came.. It was very odd but I was literally sitting at my computer wondering what would happen ... read more
I'm not going to lie..AUI is really a pretty dull place. I feel like I'm just spending my whole day waiting for night...although this is mostly due to Ramadan. life will be much better when I can eat regularly again.. Otherwise..it's kinda blah..I wait for Ftour,which is hopefully with some of my friends or else with Zakk. and then...back to my room to do homework...which I've usually finished most of during the day anyway. There just isn't a lot to do here. Ifrane is a nice town but...yeah.. again, I think a lot of this is Ramadan and I expect it to be a bit more interesting in a few weeks. we shall see. Thankfully we've had our weekend trips. ... read more
whoever designed the dorm buildings should be shot for the fact that I can hear every breath my neighbors take..this person also did not seem to realise the Moroccan girls like loud shoes and also talking at the top of their lungs..and somebody on my hall laughs like a monkey. on the bright side, I think I'm going to the beach this weekend........ read more
I'm not going to lie, I'm getting a little frustrated with Ramadan scheduling. I'm still doing the fast and all, but it's hard to operate when the country is following this for a whole month..sometimes I want things and I just can't have them....like yesterday I reaaaaaaaaallly didn't want ftour food. As I said, I was still fasting but I wanted a MEAL. and they wouldn't let me..I had to wait until 10.00 to get a pizza.. so I got free harira and went back to my room to wait..I feel like I do a lot of that during Ramadan... to pass the time when I get hungry in the afternoon I just kind of turn off and sleep. but anyway, the big interesting event today was a hail storm..we were sitting in class and could ... read more
Ramadan round 2... was slightly harder today, probably because I was less busy and had a lot more time to think about my empty stomach while I slowly counted the hours until ftor.. and it came! I went to the marche with some of my fellow study abroad students and we had a nice ftor of shabakia, dates, harera, bread (oh what is the name!) and of course, the famous Moroccan mint tea. Afterwards we returned to school to find that there was a concert of chaabi music, preformed by Moroccan singer Khalid Bennani. It was amazing. I am 100% in love with Arabic music.. some girls were dancing and eventually much of the crowd joined.. three of us were coaxed into dancing by some guys we have been hanging out with, even though we had ... read more
