Lots of New (and some Old) School

Captain's Log 8.26.08 (or for those in basically anywhere but the U.S., 26.08.08)

Good.

I'm in Alexandria! I arrived two days ago by train from Cairo. I met other students in the Midd program at the train station on the 24th and we rode together. I enjoyed meeting everyone. I think the group will be delightful. These past few days have been an orientation to the city of Alexandria and to the program expectations and rules. The orientation has been a little dry but it has been nice having more time to get to know each other before our language pledge begins. Everyone in the program knows Arabic well enough to communicate and interact so we will not be totally silenced but I definitely do not take for granted the freedom of expression that comes with English. I am trying to get it all out before Thursday when we sign the pledge.

My few days in Cairo were great. Anne, a friend of mine from Midd, and I went on a culinary tour of Cairo. Egypt, at least I have heard, really does not have much to boast of when it comes to food when compared to other Middle Eastern countries. That may be the case but I was quite satisfied with what I ate. Both Anne and I ate more than we should have eaten. We just found ourselves moving from one restaurant or cafe to the next. It was probably not healthy but it was amazing. I am looking forward to eating some good seafood in Alexandria.

In other news, I joined a gym today. It is pretty darn nice. It will probably be good to exercise after all these yummy meals. On yet another related note, I saw the most incredibly muscular human being with my own eyes the other day. I was with the other guys living in the dorm waiting for a mashro'a when Whey Protein with legs walked by us looking for a taxi. His biceps were literally the size of bowling balls. I was afraid that he would give up on trying to hail a taxi and just grab one (and start eating it). When he finally gets a taxi (by this point we are all watching), there was legitimate concern that his arms would not fit in the cab. They were that big. It was like his body gave birth to twin super Goliath arms that would only eat nails and fear. Oh my.

Other things of note:

The other day in Cairo Anne and I were totally scammed. We were looking for a market and this man, detecting our confusion (and apparently our gullibility) offered to help us. I mean, he was just a nice, friendly man on his way home who only wanted to help us reach our destination. How humane of him! Wrong. He some how convinced us to visit this mosque (oh now I remember how, he lied to us) and then told us that in order to see the mosque, we had to contribute to the mosque's collection. He told us it would be 50 pounds. I paid the 50 pounds and then he said, "No, no, no. 100 pounds! 100 pounds!" At this point, Anne and I both were like, "No way, chico" and left.

I felt silly. I was also frustrated that some one would offer their assistance freely and generously only in an effort to take your money. I certainly do not want to say something extreme like 'Humans can not be trusted' but to an extent, it makes me hesitate before I accept someone's help, no matter how congenial they are. I do not want to be that way at all but being scammed definitely makes you cautious of others' intentions.

Yesterday I played soccer along the Cornishe (the main road along the Mediterranean Sea in Alexandria) with some Egyptians. I was walking with none other than Anne when the guys were like "Yo, come play!" (rough translation). It was fun. We played 3 v. 3 on a side walk. (It was a pretty wide sidewalk.) My team lost unfortunately. I am now historically 0-2 against Egyptian teams in soccer. During sports camp the American counselors played the Egyptian counselors in a game that we also lost. I would like to think both matches were well played but perhaps the Egyptians were just going easy on the ol' amrikee.

I am living in the Alexandria University dorms. They are small but cozy. I have a single. I am excited to buy posters of Egyptian pop stars to decorate my walls. I got to be cool, you know.
Our program coordinator has arranged soccer games for Friday afternoons for the students living in the dorms. I am so excited. The field next to the dorms is one of the nicest I have seen in Egypt. It should be great.

I have been writing this while washing my cloths. I sweat a lot in Egypt. I will end here because I think I may have just broken the washing machine. Oops. Let's hope not.

The sea!, cell block 1 building B, and cross cultural jam sessions