We got to sleep in a little, went on a walking tour of Zamalek, bought faulty international phones, ate lunch at a restaurant called No Big Deal, got evaluated for our proficiency level in Arabic, ate dinner at Cafe Noir (where Nick had an interesting encounter with sweaty spaghetti bolognese AND there was some Arabic karaoke going on upstairs), visited the rooms of the Arabic students staying at the other hotel (the Flamenco) and then went back to the phone store to try and fix the problem with them (using Jamieson and Jimmy's good cop/bad cop routine), then stayed up until 2am finishing a paper on The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit.
1. TRAFFIC: rule #1: there are no rules. rule #2: dodge pedestrians while slowing down as little as possible. rule #3: you decide where the traffic lanes are. rule #4: don't be nice, honk your horn. It just might save your life.
2. "Americans don't like contracts": this is what Jimmy told the guys working at the phone store when we were told that we had to open a contract in order for our international phones to work. I guess what he said is true; when we finally got our phones fixed the next day (WITHOUT signing any contract), it was oddly fulfilling to know I was leaving that phone store with no strings attached.
3. Arabic???: so... that evaluation didn't go so hot. we took a written test which was pretty brutal, and then our teacher (Hasna) had us go around the room and answer some questions out loud. I think we really succeeded in setting the bar pretty low. We were all jet-lagged, exhausted from staying up to write our papers, and fumbled over every word pretty badly. It's only been a couple of weeks since our Arabic final, but I feel like the whole language is rapidly seeping out of m brain. Hopefully we'll be able to pick it back up once we get going in this class.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Sunday, May 9, 2010
How to Spend an Entire Weekend Getting to Egypt
Step 1: book a 4:30pm flight at Logan on Saturday
Step 2: have flight delayed until 7:30pm due to unruly Icelandic volcano
Step 3: arrive in Frankfurt at 10:15am and miss 10:30am flight on Sunday
Step 4: get re-booked for 3:15pm flight on Sunday
Step 5: have 3:15 flight delayed until 7:30pm on Sunday
Step 6: arrive in Cairo at 12:30am on Monday
Jidhr for the day:
1. patience: there is nothing quite like waiting around the Frankfurt airport for 9 hours, having your gate changed 3 times, and knowing that you were a few minutes away from making your originally scheduled flight that makes you appreciate finally arriving at your destination. Also, paying $5 for iced tea and $8 for Haagen Dazs because you don't have any Euros is 100% OK in this situation.
2. good-humor: By the end of the day, we came to realize that people usually were not kidding when they informed you of yet another flight delay or gate change. I can't tell you how many times I heard "That's not funny." But I guess reality is usually the best comedy. Anyways, on top of all the delays, we had a boarding pass lost and missing baggage. While these things aren't really funny at the time, looking back once we finally made it to Cairo, I know I laughed. I think "How did we get here?" sums up our day pretty well.
3. passing the time: Watching Curtis and Caitlin critique the "How to Spend it" magazine: priceless. The sight of 90% of our group passed out asleep at the final gate for our Franfurt-Cairo flight: priceless. Blaming Iceland for our flight delays and wanting to send them the bill for the mineral water we mistakenly ordered: priceless.
Step 2: have flight delayed until 7:30pm due to unruly Icelandic volcano
Step 3: arrive in Frankfurt at 10:15am and miss 10:30am flight on Sunday
Step 4: get re-booked for 3:15pm flight on Sunday
Step 5: have 3:15 flight delayed until 7:30pm on Sunday
Step 6: arrive in Cairo at 12:30am on Monday
Jidhr for the day:
1. patience: there is nothing quite like waiting around the Frankfurt airport for 9 hours, having your gate changed 3 times, and knowing that you were a few minutes away from making your originally scheduled flight that makes you appreciate finally arriving at your destination. Also, paying $5 for iced tea and $8 for Haagen Dazs because you don't have any Euros is 100% OK in this situation.
2. good-humor: By the end of the day, we came to realize that people usually were not kidding when they informed you of yet another flight delay or gate change. I can't tell you how many times I heard "That's not funny." But I guess reality is usually the best comedy. Anyways, on top of all the delays, we had a boarding pass lost and missing baggage. While these things aren't really funny at the time, looking back once we finally made it to Cairo, I know I laughed. I think "How did we get here?" sums up our day pretty well.
3. passing the time: Watching Curtis and Caitlin critique the "How to Spend it" magazine: priceless. The sight of 90% of our group passed out asleep at the final gate for our Franfurt-Cairo flight: priceless. Blaming Iceland for our flight delays and wanting to send them the bill for the mineral water we mistakenly ordered: priceless.
WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT
Ahlan! One of the things that I find most interesting about the Arabic language is the جذر, or jidhr. Every Arabic word has 3 root consonants that make up its jidhr and provide its basic meaning. The other vowels, prefixes, and suffixes of a word only compliment the jidhr by giving the more specific meaning of the word.
I decided that just as there is a jidhr to be found in every Arabic word, there is a sort of jidhr to each day: three basic ideas, thoughts, memories, images, sounds, etc. that are the root of that particular day. I hope that at the end of each day I spend in Egypt I can look back and pick out جذر يومي, the jidhr of my day, to showcase what this trip has really meant to me.
I decided that just as there is a jidhr to be found in every Arabic word, there is a sort of jidhr to each day: three basic ideas, thoughts, memories, images, sounds, etc. that are the root of that particular day. I hope that at the end of each day I spend in Egypt I can look back and pick out جذر يومي, the jidhr of my day, to showcase what this trip has really meant to me.
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