I must say that as adaptable as I may be, I am not really happy about all the changes that have been going on since I have been here. My class started with minimal difficulties, but as the group class consisted of me and one other person who has a background in Arabic, this was a little tough. Yes, he can speak it; he is just attempting to lessen the Sudanese accent he has. Also they were already 25 - 30 hours ahead of me, so a lot of what was being done in the book was with vocabulary I hadn't gotten too yet.
They decided to put me in a class by myself. This is often what people think of me, but this is the first time they have actually physically done it. This makes hiding way more difficult than even with one other person. Have you ever tried to let your mind wonder in class when you were the only one there? It is not an easy task. In fact, I would say it is a lot less work just to pay attention! This change in class also caused a change in time. Unfortunately they didn't tell me this until two hours after I showed up for class the next day. I was sitting in the school waiting for the teacher, and finally someone came up and told me that my class wouldn't start until 2pm and it would go until 7pm. 5 hours is probably better than 6, but it is still a lot of work and very intensive. I am not sure if I am going to be able to handle this for a month or not. I guess we will just have to wait and see.
I am in the process of meeting many people here, however. I met up with one person two nights ago after class, and I was supposed to meet up with her again last night, but for some reason I didn't hear from her. Perhaps she was scared away by my rather odd demeanor ;) . On Saturday I will meet up with a British woman who is living here in Cairo. She wants to hear all about my life in Kurdistan, Iraq. I am sure she will be terribly disappointed to learn that it is just like anywhere else, but the company will be good nonetheless. And after hearing her voice on the phone when she called, the accent will be an interesting thing to work through as well.
Yesterday I took a random microbus home from class. I know what number I take to get there, but that bus apparently doesn't come by very often. The driver hollered out the destination near where I wanted to go, so I got in, paid, and hoped for the best. When we pulled into the bus station (beyond where I was told to take the bus to), he attempted to ask where I wanted to go. There was a passenger who spoke English, so the translation worked. I showed the address of my hostel, and they said "you should have gotten off back there at Ramses. You are now lost. You can take anyone of these busses and tell them you want to go to Ramses." Well, I would have none of this. I just started to walk and follow the signs toward Ramses. All of the sudden I realized where I was: I was at the same bus station that I take the bus from in the morning! To think, I went from being lost to being exactly where I wanted to be. Now how often does that happen?
Hopefully today will be a good day as well. I am not sure how long it is going to take to get to the school because I don't know the schedule for the bus or how traffic is at this time. It has been fairly bad, so getting on here at the beginning saves me from hanging out of the bus (think van) door. Coming back can be just as scary, so I am not sure what to think..and as always, I really hate doing things like this. There are too many people, I can't speak the language, and I have no idea where I am going!
Soon I have to go shopping and do laundry. I am not sure where to go for the shopping thing, but I am sure I will figure it out. As for the laundry, the hostel charges by the piece, which I thought was quite strange. 1 pound per shirt or trousers and 1 pound per 2 pieces of underwear. I would rather just pay 20 pounds and pay for the whole water and time of the washer. Perhaps I will ask if this is a possibility. Perhaps I could just wash them by hand, but that is such a time waster, and I have been finding it to difficult to study as it is...I really need to work on getting my vocabulary memorized.
No comments:
Post a Comment