2/2

2/2/09

I went to dinner with Nicole and her assistant Esham, last night. Then we went to a cool tea cafe and visited with another gal Lilly, a violinist on Fulbright too. Got back to the hotel about 1 am. Nicole had a spare cell phone that she and Esham set up for me to use while I am here so that we can stay connected and I can make local calls. She says she has even used it to call the school to help her in situations where she needed a translator. Well, got to get ready to head out for my testing and registration. If the flat and roommate situation don't measure up, Nicole and Esham will help me find something else. I can either stay with Nicole or at the hotel another day or so too. There are several requests for roommates and subleasing of flats on the "Cairo scholars list" which Nicole hooked me up with too.

 

I ordered room service for breakfast again today- their “Arabic” breakfast of foul (beans), labnah (thick yogurt), hummus, feta, olives, tomatoes, and pita. I get enough oatmeal in the states and this stays with me longer. Both days the waiter arrived and looked at me, then the order, then me, and said “Arabic Breakfast?” Yes, I said, and they both still looked dumbfounded!

 

Well, I’m back from ILI. I walked to and from with it taking me about 45 minutes each way. The walk felt good, and with map in hand, I was able to find my way through a new (to me) section of the city. The school personnel were very friendly. They were having problems with their Internet line and couldn’t run my credit card, so I have to wait till tomorrow to get my official school ID. Most of the new students are college age kids, but there was a retired Italian gentleman too so we are the other end of the age spectrum in the class. There were about 5 Swedes and a couple each of Great Brittan, American, and Dutch students. We were given an oral exam and based on that, a written exam. The teacher gave me a level 2 Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) exam that was all about past verb congregating which I had been introduced to, but never practiced. Since she said that she thought it might be too tough for me I could take the level 1 exam if I wanted too. Since I felt overwhelmed, I did ask to try the level 1 and found that to be the other extreme- very easy. So level 2 is where they placed me. If I find that a lot comes back to me after a day or so, they will let me move to another level if I want. The MAS class will be from 9-12 each morning, and then the Egyptian Colloquial will be from Noon-2. It looks like the classes will be small- 4-6 students. The school fed us a light lunch- cheese, tomato, and cucumber sandwiches, chips, juice/soda, and water and then an orientation about living in Egypt – not anything new to me.

 

We then had to wait about 30 minutes as the real estate guy was stuck in traffic-, which happens a lot here. Most of the students went into shell shock when he did arrive and told us the going rate for flats. Since most of us are renting very short term – 1-3 months – it isn’t a real surprise to me that we would have to pay more for that privilege, and it was still within what the school had told us to expect. I met a nice young Dutch woman that is willing to share a flat with me. We didn’t get a chance to see it today but will tomorrow after classes. It will be available to for immediate occupancy. Annik (she was told she had to be Annika here as annik was not a “good “ word in Egyptian) was staying at the same hotel I ran screaming from, so she is very anxious to move. Insha’Allah, tomorrow we will see.

 

Well, it has been a quiet night catching up on email, this journal, and dinner here at the hotel. Nicolle had a couple of meetings and I was just as happy to stay in a night. If I do end up moving into a flat tomorrow after school, it will be plenty busy. I was going to check out tomorrow, but I may just hang on another day to see what happens in the flat department. Then I would have time to research a few of the smaller hotels as another option.