Right now is mad paper writing mode. We don't have a lot of free time before our travel component kicks up and we take off to turkey, syria, jordan, israel/palestine for a month.
Monday we wrap our Islamic thought and practice with our final/ turning in of research papers. I wrote mine on an Inheritance passage in the Qu'ran. It was assigned, not chosen, 'nuff said.
On tuesday, we get a break and head south to Upper Egypt to Aswan where we hope on a Nile Cruise and take it up to Luxor to check out the valley of the kings and all the gnarly stuff. It's a five day trip. Apparently our cruise is pretty luxurious, so i'm looking forward to relaxing a little inshall'ah.
Once we get back, we head to our week-long homestays and stay with an Egyptian family. Should be quite the experience, I'm pretty stoked for it.
Then, at the end of the month, we finish our Arabic class and turn in three papers for our peoples and cultures class. On the 1st, we head to Istanbul, insha'llah. Cool beans, y'all.
Some of my favorite things about Egypt:
Friendly people on the street staying up really really late (all the action happens like after 10), and using the little Arabic I know.
The cars weaving everywhere, coming up behind you and scaring the shit out of you
The hustle and bustle of Cairo – I’m going to be so bored when I get back to the U.S. – no stimulation
The cheap food – falafel (tamaya in Arabic), foul (kinda like refried beans), kosheri, shwarma, hummus, mcdonald’s delivery
The call to prayers from different mosques going on throughout the day – muslims have five daily prayers, they have a call to prayer (a guy sings over a speaker phone throughout the neighborhood) for each one
The fresh fruit (especially the mangos and guava) and their smell and the juices
Fayrouz – like a sparkling juice drink in apple pear and pineapple flavors
The smell of shisha (hookah) from men smoking it while drinking tea in a clear glass while playing dominoes or backgammon
The cats everywhere…sleeping on car hoods, crawling through restaurants, running around in the streets and on walls, beautiful cats everywhere
A few other Egypt tidbits: we live in the neighborhood of Agouza - which is sweet because it's quintessential Cairo. Ramadan finished today with the holiday of Eid, so I can finally start finding places that'll serve me lunch again.
I think Egyptian culture is really similar to Latin American culture – more laid back, people are always late, super warm and friendly, which is interesting because Islam demands some kinda rigorous practices. It’s kinda cool how an easy-going culture is still committed to a spiritually disciplined religion.
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hookah..we got a hookah bong, Jeff and Gabe bought one. neat. When you're in Istanbul, you can say been to a city that is in 2 continents at once. lucky.
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