I'll tell you, I was so excited to start classes yesterday. I mean, I'd been here more than a week and there really isn't that much to do on campus, even more so because it's Ramadan so the busses are all strange. I'm still just excited after two days and homework and everything, so I think this will be a good semester.
5/9/10
I had a lot of trouble getting up this morning for my 8:30 class even though I went to bed around 11:30 last night. My day went pretty excellently, though, so I'm glad I dragged myself up. To start my day I had Fusha, or Modern Standard Arabic. This is the Arabic that is written down and that is used in government, etc. I was a little disappointed that we are starting at chapter 7 because I've gotten through chapter 10, but the next class up starts at chapter 14, so I don't think I should switch. Also, my teacher brought us all presents!! They were just little mini pyramids that probably cost a pound or 2, but it made my day to get to unwrap a present at 8:45 in the morning. After Fusha was my Amaya class. Amaya is Arabic for colloquial, so my class is Amaya Misriia, or Egyptian Colloquial. This is the Arabic that people here speak at home, on the streets, in shops, taxis, etc. and will help me to get around Cairo without getting ripped off, etc. A lot of what we went over on the first day (differences in how to introduce yourself between Fusha and Amaya) was stuff that I knew from my survival Arabic class, but this guy has an odd accent so I had a bit more difficulty understanding him. After those two classes I have a long break (supposed to be from 11 to 2, but is more like 1030 to 115 because of Ramadan) and then I had Politics in Egypt. I spent 15 minutes trying to find the class, and about 3 in the class: receiving a syllabus and leaving. This would have been great if it were my last class for the day, but I had another class at 2:30 (supposed to be 3:30, but Ramadan), so I went and got my colloquial book and bought a notebook (2 seperate stores) then went to my final class of the day: Macroeconomics. The prof seems like she's trying to be all strict with attendance, but apparently it never actually works when teachers try that, so I don't know. The class seems like it's going to be really easy, it's mostly freshmen and sophomores and here you're supposed to take Macro before Micro (which I've already taken), so I think that should be an easy class for me. Finally the end of my classes came and I took another trip to the bookstore to buy my economics book (375 LE!!) and then went home and did homework and talked to my mom, who I hadn't talked to in forever (hi, mom!) and Keith, who I talk to like daily. And yes, that does say homework on the first night.
5/9/10
I had a lot of trouble getting up this morning for my 8:30 class even though I went to bed around 11:30 last night. My day went pretty excellently, though, so I'm glad I dragged myself up. To start my day I had Fusha, or Modern Standard Arabic. This is the Arabic that is written down and that is used in government, etc. I was a little disappointed that we are starting at chapter 7 because I've gotten through chapter 10, but the next class up starts at chapter 14, so I don't think I should switch. Also, my teacher brought us all presents!! They were just little mini pyramids that probably cost a pound or 2, but it made my day to get to unwrap a present at 8:45 in the morning. After Fusha was my Amaya class. Amaya is Arabic for colloquial, so my class is Amaya Misriia, or Egyptian Colloquial. This is the Arabic that people here speak at home, on the streets, in shops, taxis, etc. and will help me to get around Cairo without getting ripped off, etc. A lot of what we went over on the first day (differences in how to introduce yourself between Fusha and Amaya) was stuff that I knew from my survival Arabic class, but this guy has an odd accent so I had a bit more difficulty understanding him. After those two classes I have a long break (supposed to be from 11 to 2, but is more like 1030 to 115 because of Ramadan) and then I had Politics in Egypt. I spent 15 minutes trying to find the class, and about 3 in the class: receiving a syllabus and leaving. This would have been great if it were my last class for the day, but I had another class at 2:30 (supposed to be 3:30, but Ramadan), so I went and got my colloquial book and bought a notebook (2 seperate stores) then went to my final class of the day: Macroeconomics. The prof seems like she's trying to be all strict with attendance, but apparently it never actually works when teachers try that, so I don't know. The class seems like it's going to be really easy, it's mostly freshmen and sophomores and here you're supposed to take Macro before Micro (which I've already taken), so I think that should be an easy class for me. Finally the end of my classes came and I took another trip to the bookstore to buy my economics book (375 LE!!) and then went home and did homework and talked to my mom, who I hadn't talked to in forever (hi, mom!) and Keith, who I talk to like daily. And yes, that does say homework on the first night.
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