Thursday, September 22, 2011

Mughumara!


مغامرة

This word means adventure, and the past week and a half have truly been one, in all the word's possible bad and good connotations. I'm writing this blog, which will (Insha'allah, God willing) be updated every Friday, from Alexandria, Egypt, my home for this next year! I'm with a group of almost thirty Flagship students (Flaaaahgsheeeb, in regal-sounding Egyptian accents) studying Arabic, here at the TAFL center at Alexandria University. Most of us are from UT, along with a smattering of excellent folks from Michigan, Maryland, and one great guy from Oklahoma.

I'm living in a 3 bedroom apartment in the Sporting neighborhood of Alexandria - a city of around 4 million people, 90% Muslim. From our 7th floor balcony, the gigantic "nadi sporting", sporting club, is visible to the right, and the Mediterranean is visible to the left, past the confusing, circular intersection of shaariya delta and shaariya port sa'id. (BUT we might have to move. Actually, almost definitely have to move. Thievery, lies, broken keys, fights in the stairwell… Big problems related to our little apartment, and THAT adventure's not over. More on that later. The finale is yet to come.) 

Alexandria is a city imprinted with millenia of indelible history, and is beautiful and still bursting with energy, but is run-down, and trash-filled as well. It's going to be a fantastic place to study, because young Egyptians are eager to speak with and help us. (More so than American students are typically willing to help foreign exchange students in the states.) We also have an intensive curriculum, homework, events, and internship responsibilities that will keep us busy, all to advance our Arabic, and to really throw us into Egyptian culture. The goal is to get us all to a level 3 on the government's ILR scale of fluency by the end of the year, and most of us are at 2 or 2+. Apparently the one point jump is incredibly difficult. Insha'allah, next August, we'll see.

It was surreal meeting Arabic classmates and friends at the Austin airport, realizing that we're finally embarking on the trip we've been dardashaing about in Mezes for years. When the revolution happened in January, it looked like the program might be dropped altogether. We're EXCITED to be here and know it's a privilege and a gift. But the difficult, little realities of living here are hitting home. Things that should be simple - making copies of keys for our apartment door, convincing our landlord to provide the water heater, internet, gate key, armoire, and bed he promised, disengaging from conversations- are simply harder, longer tasks than they would be in America. But with my roommates Kelsey and Enas, everything is put in a more positive light, and we easily laugh about everything. We have to! We've spent hours scrubbing the apartment together, chattering in simple Arabic (Enas is Egyptian and will be Kelsey and I's saving grace as we continue to learn to really live and enjoy it here)

We started classes this week, after a long week of orientation. Fabulous activities were had and friends were made, but the week lacked a lot of true "orientation." I still need a map of the city, and I figured out only how to do basic things like pay my utilities, flag down a mashruwa (, and order food from observation or from new Egyptian friends.

Et voilà, some photos from the past week and a half! Insha'allah, I'll update more frequently, once a week. And with less generalizations and boring summaries. And with a more steady internet connection. God willing!




Zack and an 'uTa in front of the 'ela (castle!)

View of Iskandriya! (Alexandria)



Ze castle. I remarked on how old it must be and our Egyptian friend and tour guide basically said "Uh, yeah, so how about those pyramids?" Whoops. Forget that EVERYTHING is ancient here.

View from the women's section of the Abu al Abbas el Mursi mosque

Montazah beach and gardens

Some of the binat (girls), before a Sayed Darwish concert at the Alexandria Opera House

Opera House. Masha'allah.


Lunch time at Al-agamy beach

Baba ganoug, chicken, stuffed peppers, liver, dill and coriander potatoes. Nomnom.

Nom.

Al-agamy at sunset!