Tuesday
Cairo
Colloquial, again was good, not tip top, but good. I think I'm going to pay for two weeks and see from there. I have a feeling the teacher doesn't like me/has already placed me in a category.
Today we learned about dates. The fruit, that is. Khaled talked about dates for like 25 minutes. This was interesting, not at all boring, rather, super cool. We went on a tangent from Ibn Batuta -a traveler/explorer- (he traveled the desert on dates and water) to dates and the different kinds of dates and date trees and date production. haha
Did some shopping. Home for a bit, homeworked. saw Islam for 30 minutes at the ahuah. Came back home and did more hw. went to bed around 23h.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Day 125 Cairo
Monday, Cairo
First day of my last month of school.
Started off with the bad news that Media Arabic level two would not be offered this session. Bummer. Went to Colloquial level 5 to see how the teacher is, possibly to take the class depending on her. She's alright. Mostly, the cool thing is, there are only 5 people in the class, not like last semester's where there were about 10.
Had koshary with Ian and a friend of his. Regular back to school talk "how was your break" etc...
Formal Arabic, level 7 with Khaled. I can see why Angela had a crush on him.
I have a man crush.
He's an awesome teacher. I think for a teacher to be awesome one must be slightly infatuated with them.
Right from the start he captivated my attention. He speaks super clearly, uses words he knows we know/ words we don't but in context it is guessable.
The class is composed of Khaled, Ivan and Sonia. Ivan is studying Arabic here until he goes on to Bahrain to do research there on a fellowship. He seems kick ass. American of Mexican descent from California. Sonia, whom I know from my past two classes is here studying to improve her Arabic. She is British-Egyptian. She's 24 I think but looks like she's 20. She learned French in college and taught English at a university in Strasbourg, France for two years. I think she got bored of it and decided she should get back in touch with her roots and learn Arabic. Good for her.
In the evening, met up with Atef again. Then Sarah and her visiting friend sat with us. Met Chris' parents, who are both SUPER American. His dad did not like Egypt at ALL and couldn't wait to go back. His mom seemed to have been more relaxed and easygoing throughout their trip therefore seemed to have enjoyed it.
A hilarious excerpt from an email Chris sent me a week ago:
"though this shouldn't be shared, my mom told me that on their first night here my dad freaked out saying that he wanted to take me home with them when they return to the states b/c he's so worried. he also has recurring nightmares about having to return to egypt to claim my dead body."
Got home, did hw. lol.
First day of my last month of school.
Started off with the bad news that Media Arabic level two would not be offered this session. Bummer. Went to Colloquial level 5 to see how the teacher is, possibly to take the class depending on her. She's alright. Mostly, the cool thing is, there are only 5 people in the class, not like last semester's where there were about 10.
Had koshary with Ian and a friend of his. Regular back to school talk "how was your break" etc...
Formal Arabic, level 7 with Khaled. I can see why Angela had a crush on him.
I have a man crush.
He's an awesome teacher. I think for a teacher to be awesome one must be slightly infatuated with them.
Right from the start he captivated my attention. He speaks super clearly, uses words he knows we know/ words we don't but in context it is guessable.
The class is composed of Khaled, Ivan and Sonia. Ivan is studying Arabic here until he goes on to Bahrain to do research there on a fellowship. He seems kick ass. American of Mexican descent from California. Sonia, whom I know from my past two classes is here studying to improve her Arabic. She is British-Egyptian. She's 24 I think but looks like she's 20. She learned French in college and taught English at a university in Strasbourg, France for two years. I think she got bored of it and decided she should get back in touch with her roots and learn Arabic. Good for her.
In the evening, met up with Atef again. Then Sarah and her visiting friend sat with us. Met Chris' parents, who are both SUPER American. His dad did not like Egypt at ALL and couldn't wait to go back. His mom seemed to have been more relaxed and easygoing throughout their trip therefore seemed to have enjoyed it.
A hilarious excerpt from an email Chris sent me a week ago:
"though this shouldn't be shared, my mom told me that on their first night here my dad freaked out saying that he wanted to take me home with them when they return to the states b/c he's so worried. he also has recurring nightmares about having to return to egypt to claim my dead body."
Got home, did hw. lol.
Day 124 Ghent--> Brussels--> Luxor--> Cairo
Sunday Brussels-->Luxor-->Cairo
nice day. met a cool person on the airplane, shared a taxi with them back to Dokki. Ate two hawaushees and a koshary and chilled at two coffee shops on three occasions, mostly reading Le Monde. Did not do any homework as I should have but still feel productive.
Perhaps my only regret of this whole trip is not going to the Opera. :-)
nice day. met a cool person on the airplane, shared a taxi with them back to Dokki. Ate two hawaushees and a koshary and chilled at two coffee shops on three occasions, mostly reading Le Monde. Did not do any homework as I should have but still feel productive.
Perhaps my only regret of this whole trip is not going to the Opera. :-)
Day 123 Ghent
Saturday
Ghent
Quite a nice day, and a sad one, understandably, but positive, happy, plain old good as a whole, and referring back to the entry about my grandma, I only get sad when I know I'll never see someone again, which I don't feel is the case here.
Got some more xmas presents. Probably the most useful ones. A guide of Buenos Aires and a guide of Latin America! Totally going to start reading them like now.
And holly heraldry wreath! Chocolates! with alcohol in them! delicious!
Ghent
Quite a nice day, and a sad one, understandably, but positive, happy, plain old good as a whole, and referring back to the entry about my grandma, I only get sad when I know I'll never see someone again, which I don't feel is the case here.
Got some more xmas presents. Probably the most useful ones. A guide of Buenos Aires and a guide of Latin America! Totally going to start reading them like now.
And holly heraldry wreath! Chocolates! with alcohol in them! delicious!
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Paris day 122
Friday
Paris
Woke up early, got out of bed late. Probably the best I've slept since I've been in France, although I've been sleeping like a baby on tranquilizers since I've been in France, so can't complain. That's probably due to the reduced nocturnal noise levels.
Cursorily organized a meeting place with Gwladys at Montparnasse. Of course I was 20 minutes late, but of course, I left about 20 minutes after Sophie advised me to leave... We talked, and talked, and talked more. Good times. and ate some too. good times, again. Then I took the metro to Oberkampf where I met Doumitra and Sophie at Doumitra's hotel (where she works, not her hotel).
We hung out at a cozy tea shop across the street from the hotel. Talked about what happiness is, as Sophie is super interested in that kind of stuff (wisdom too).
sophie-ryan.
doom-work.
gwladys-charles.
They accompanied me to la gare du nord. goodbyes... -they were great! hehehe
And now on my way back to Brussels where, I doubt I will see Nadine, because I'm out of credit. Plus I don't feel like getting something to eat yet. Going to Ghent for one night and then antwerp for a short night, then, Cairo for about 40 more nights... :ooOOOOoo
Have a small plan for ghent tonight. Involves a cool tree, a pizza places and a bench by some weeping willows along a river.
Paris
Woke up early, got out of bed late. Probably the best I've slept since I've been in France, although I've been sleeping like a baby on tranquilizers since I've been in France, so can't complain. That's probably due to the reduced nocturnal noise levels.
Cursorily organized a meeting place with Gwladys at Montparnasse. Of course I was 20 minutes late, but of course, I left about 20 minutes after Sophie advised me to leave... We talked, and talked, and talked more. Good times. and ate some too. good times, again. Then I took the metro to Oberkampf where I met Doumitra and Sophie at Doumitra's hotel (where she works, not her hotel).
We hung out at a cozy tea shop across the street from the hotel. Talked about what happiness is, as Sophie is super interested in that kind of stuff (wisdom too).
sophie-ryan.
doom-work.
gwladys-charles.
They accompanied me to la gare du nord. goodbyes... -they were great! hehehe
And now on my way back to Brussels where, I doubt I will see Nadine, because I'm out of credit. Plus I don't feel like getting something to eat yet. Going to Ghent for one night and then antwerp for a short night, then, Cairo for about 40 more nights... :ooOOOOoo
Have a small plan for ghent tonight. Involves a cool tree, a pizza places and a bench by some weeping willows along a river.
Day 121
Thursday
Lyon --> Paris
Difficult wake up. Looking forward to sleeping in the train. Had a enjoyable ride to the train station with Pyrrhus. Goodbyes always suck, although not as bad when you know you'll see the person again.
Now in the TVG about 30 minutes out of Lyon. Looking forward to getting picked up at the Paris Gare de Lyon by Sophie R. (for my few readers who might be confused).
Finally did end up getting a different cell phone from Pirus which is practical in itself although the phone isn't too great. I think it'll be a good opportunity to improve my memory by just memorizing all my numbers... (good luck!-)
time to take a nap in this lovely bundle for French technology...
Sophie picked me up at the train station. Walked our way over to her apartment. Chilled there for a while... until... more precisely SURPRISE!!! Bennet Smith arrives at 18h! Ben is so cool. He was here visiting Paris with his family for one week. We hung out a bit, watch a few episodes of Entourage, which, by the way, has gone bad, like not entertaining at all, the script seems to have changed from awesome to bad, right after episode 7. and the story writters changed around episode 4. sigh... petering out...
So we made some delicious pasta, well, Sophie made it, I just ate and critizised... but really, it was delicious. Had some wine too. Then we went out to meet Gwladys and a ton of European ex-study abroad students. Hung out at an Irish bar and talked, had fun, goofed off, some "what ifs" with Ben and Sophie who always have awesome just-as-ridiculous replies.
oh! and what a shame! Ben didn't get to see le centre Pompidou as we would have liked!
Lyon --> Paris
Difficult wake up. Looking forward to sleeping in the train. Had a enjoyable ride to the train station with Pyrrhus. Goodbyes always suck, although not as bad when you know you'll see the person again.
Now in the TVG about 30 minutes out of Lyon. Looking forward to getting picked up at the Paris Gare de Lyon by Sophie R. (for my few readers who might be confused).
Finally did end up getting a different cell phone from Pirus which is practical in itself although the phone isn't too great. I think it'll be a good opportunity to improve my memory by just memorizing all my numbers... (good luck!-)
time to take a nap in this lovely bundle for French technology...
Sophie picked me up at the train station. Walked our way over to her apartment. Chilled there for a while... until... more precisely SURPRISE!!! Bennet Smith arrives at 18h! Ben is so cool. He was here visiting Paris with his family for one week. We hung out a bit, watch a few episodes of Entourage, which, by the way, has gone bad, like not entertaining at all, the script seems to have changed from awesome to bad, right after episode 7. and the story writters changed around episode 4. sigh... petering out...
So we made some delicious pasta, well, Sophie made it, I just ate and critizised... but really, it was delicious. Had some wine too. Then we went out to meet Gwladys and a ton of European ex-study abroad students. Hung out at an Irish bar and talked, had fun, goofed off, some "what ifs" with Ben and Sophie who always have awesome just-as-ridiculous replies.
oh! and what a shame! Ben didn't get to see le centre Pompidou as we would have liked!
Lyon day 120
Wednesday
Lyon
woke up 9h, worked on my Argentine internship application some more.
RDV for thibault and I to get our haircuts. Pretty short, I like it, I think, makes me look more thin, I think, as short haircuts always do, which is neither a good nor bad thing in this case.
Didn't do too much the afternoon besides have a really delicious meal and work on the app more and goof off with pirus a bit.
The new year's was spent at Loic's. Antoine and Pirus were there which was the most important, along with Loic, Anne-Claire, and Elsa and some of her friends towards with beginning of the night. He also invited a good group of his friends from medical school. I had a really fun night. Antoine is his good old self which is awesome.
Speaking of awesome, received a really sweet text message from a special someone, which helped make my night.
And we didn't even smoke a sheesha! which, perhaps isn't a bad thing. It's funny how tuberculosis is such a deterrent to smoking while lung cancer isn't. Maybe it's the idea of catching a disease from someone else which does the trick.
Jeeze... we left around 4h40 after hanging out on the couch for a good hour.
It's too bad I didn't stay longer in Lyon. Maybe an extra night could have been worthwhile although there are still people I should see in Paris, and I did get to see everyone I wanted save, perhaps Mr. Z who I probably would not have seen anyway because he's probably in the U.S.
Lyon
woke up 9h, worked on my Argentine internship application some more.
RDV for thibault and I to get our haircuts. Pretty short, I like it, I think, makes me look more thin, I think, as short haircuts always do, which is neither a good nor bad thing in this case.
Didn't do too much the afternoon besides have a really delicious meal and work on the app more and goof off with pirus a bit.
The new year's was spent at Loic's. Antoine and Pirus were there which was the most important, along with Loic, Anne-Claire, and Elsa and some of her friends towards with beginning of the night. He also invited a good group of his friends from medical school. I had a really fun night. Antoine is his good old self which is awesome.
Speaking of awesome, received a really sweet text message from a special someone, which helped make my night.
And we didn't even smoke a sheesha! which, perhaps isn't a bad thing. It's funny how tuberculosis is such a deterrent to smoking while lung cancer isn't. Maybe it's the idea of catching a disease from someone else which does the trick.
Jeeze... we left around 4h40 after hanging out on the couch for a good hour.
It's too bad I didn't stay longer in Lyon. Maybe an extra night could have been worthwhile although there are still people I should see in Paris, and I did get to see everyone I wanted save, perhaps Mr. Z who I probably would not have seen anyway because he's probably in the U.S.
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