I feel immensely guilty about my lack of insightful posts recently! I have been reading other people's blogs, and they say much more interesting stuff than I do. So, since I can't organize my thoughts right now, I'll instead post some random...tidbits? Items? I don't know. Anyway.
The TramEvery day we ride the tram to school and then back home again. The tram is this rickety old metal train thing, generally with three cars, that trundles along a mostly straight metal track (there are cables above it, too). The cars themselves are quite past their prime, and there is not that much seating room so I generally stand. The tram is generally not super crowded in the morning, but in the afternoons and at other times it is super crowded, to the point of being ridiculous. It's like rush hour on the most heavily trafficked subway system, or something even worse. All this, only with the added benefits of being in a mostly hot climate and being filled with women wearing far too much clothing who are inclined to shower less than I would deem necessary. It is quite the experience. Social norms on the tram are super bizarre to me, as well. For example, sometimes I will get on the tram, and be greeted by just flat out hostile stares from women. It is like the very fact of my presence is offending them. I thought maybe it had to do with how much skin I was showing, but apparently not, as some days I am super covered and I get it even worse. Then there are the girls who will just unabashedly stare and talk about me and whoever I'm with. It's really super uncomfortable to be subjected to that, so I just make a game of staring back, not looking away, and maybe throwing in some arch glances and eyebrow-raising just for good measure. People will also try and cheat you out of your standing space if you are lucky enough to get a spot next to the wall or window. It's so weird.
Weather So, last week or so, we were having this weird spell where it was super ridiculously humid, and there was horrible smog or something everywhere. It was like Texas weather. It was gross. Now, after some normalcy, we have been having rain! We had some on and off rain recently, and then at the end of last week (I think) there were some thunderstorms, complete with lightning and everything. It had already been chilly (or just cool) in the evenings, and now it is even chillier. It rained like monsoon style yesterday (imagine those news clips of hurricanes, or a rain storm in Texas), and it is still damp and cool outside. There was sun earlier, but intermittent clouds have been hanging around in a very serious fashion. Last night I was actually cold, and right now in my apartment I feel a bit chilled. Craziness! Is there truth to this rumor of Alexandria actually having a winter?!
SiwaWe're going back to Siwa this weekend!!! I'm super excited. Pretty much half our group hasn't been before, so that's going to be interesting. We're staying two nights in a hotel and one in the desert, and doing the bus rides there and back during the day (as opposed to our crazy night bus trips last time!). I'm just excited to run around in the desert. I do love being in the desert, particularly in the late afternoon and close to sunset. It's just so fun and pretty. It's going to be pretty cold to sleep outside, though, so I'm getting ready for some epic cuddling.
Classes and confrontationsToday there was a semi-epic throwdown in my translation class. We have all been complaining about it, but we never actually complained to the teacher, and so she found out from one of the directors. She's pretty disappointed in us, meanwhile, since a lot of us didn't hand in some assignments, and lots of people have just been not giving the class a lot of effort. It's a tricky subject, as it is both hard to teach and hard to do (translation, I mean). I don't want to go into the specifics, but there was some ranting in class and the teacher took it quite admirably, but still did not handle it that well (a main complaint against her is that she does not explain things, and she handled this by...not explaining things). Oh well. The point is: I still don't understand Arab social norms. I just don't. I was so surprised that she didn't lose her cool or yell back when things were getting heated in class, and she mostly seemed upset that we didn't go to her first. I just don't know. Maybe I'll write more about this later.
The whole education system here is different, of course. The teaching style is much more different from what we are used to, as are just the social interactions in school or office situations. Teachers always want complaints brought to them directly, but I have not met that many Arab teachers who I felt comfortable bringing complaints to. They also all have a very lecturing style (by this I mean that they talk and talk and you sit there and, I don't know, absorb or something). We have one teacher who just talks the whole class and then sometimes says that he knows he talked throughout the whole class just this once but there was good reason. He never lets us talk, and tells us semi-interesting stuff about literature and history, which would be acceptable if the class was not in fact an Arabic language class in which we are supposed to be learning and using the Arabic language. It is quite annoying.
My roommate and I have been watching spooky movies lately, since we both got into the Halloween spirit and decided that it was time to catch up on scary movies. It has been going well so far, except that we've watched very understated and atmospheric creepy movies, which does unsettle the viewer some. This was not helped by the super creepy howling wind yesterday.
I've kind of run out of coherent thoughts for now, so I'm going to go and try to get started on my homework for this weekend. We leave for Siwa tomorrow after class, and we're coming back Saturday night. Hopefully I'll have all sorts of good pictures and such to post then!
I hope it is nice wherever you are, and that you are having a good time!
