Hey so I'm still here. I started my Arabic course this morning at 8am. There are only three of us in my class, a girl from Australia and a guy from France. The teacher speaks pretty good English, and I think she may like me the best. This is probably just because I smile and nod my head a lot. I am the only one who can read and write well at all, so that makes me feel good, except speaking is all that I really care about. I met a pretty Japanese girl, thats different right? I still don't have an apartment, I have just been staying with a guy I met at a book fair. Thats weird, but I think tonight I am moving in with some American dudes, insha allah. Today I had two fish sandwiches and a coke for 6 EGP, which is like $1.10, so thats pretty sweet. Then this Egyptian guy asked me and Frenchy from class to go to a coffee shop. French guy doesnt speak much English and the Egyptian dude couldnt say much, so it was an interesting two hours. Lets see, my beard is still growing, I havent shaved all year. I have a pretty nasty mustache, I think I will trim it soon. If Ben is reading this, I am sorry, but I can not go by your advice of just "letting it go". Lets see, when I do move into my apartment tonight, inshaAllah, I will have to take the metro for 30 minutes to get to the metro strop close to my school. That will kinda stink, but maybe I can just attempt to chat with people on the ride down. So the book fair I mentioned earlier, that was interesting. The head guy at my school his name is Ahmed, he may just be the nicest man I have ever met sans Hu Morris of course. Anyways Ahmed has been more than helpful, and yesterday he took a lot of us to this international book fair downtown. Well 99 percent of the stuff was in Arabic, but its so strange to just see people behaving exactly as they would in America. I just pictured the fair grounds, wherever that is in Nashville, and people going to a huge book expo. It was the same thing, except a majority of the books had President Bush's face alongside a flag of Israel and pictures of explosions or dead people. Oh and they had a lot of Dr. Phil books, how weird is that? Dr. Phil, but no Oprah. Other than that, I dont know whats worth writing down, uhm people really want my money here, it gets pretty annoying after awhile. I sometimes say la aarif Inglezee in response to the heckling which is just "I dont know English". Then they ask where I am from and I have replied with such places as Lichtenstein, Narnia, Sweden, and Chechnya. Most people get confused for a little while, but then leave me alone because they dont know what language I would know.
Well I have written too much. I hope America is doing well, I am sure Obama will have all our problems fixed by the time I return. I can not wait for the free gas vouchers. I am sure you are all already feeling the positive effects of the most recent stimulus package.
AlhamduAllah- Blake
-Sorry for the rambling, but its kinda hard to focus here.
2 comments:
I love the updates! And I thought it was hilarious that you tell people you're from Narnia. I laughed out loud for a couple minutes. Glad to hear you're doing well! Praying for you!w
Ill be in egypt next weekend for a couple days if you wanna meet up and speak arabic. Ill be at the ahmed alla abba house. Big hotel if you were wodering.
Post a Comment