Friday, February 19, 2010

My Schedule

I'm taking four courses at the American University in Cairo, and classes are held four days a week: Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. On those days I wake up at 6am to take the 7am bus from Zamalek to New Cairo. I don't enjoy waking up early, but I do enjoy the bus ride. It gives me a chance to listen to music while I watch Cairo wake up. Cairo is known as the "City of a Thousand Minarets." I'll have to post a picture to prove my point, but it should also be known as the "City of a Million Satellite Dishes."

Each day my classes start at 8:30am with Egyptian Colloquial Arabic. There are under ten people in the class. The professor's name is Galila, and she is a sweet, older woman. This is by far my easiest and most boring class. It's mostly about learning vocabulary. I feel bad for the students without any background in Modern Standard Arabic because they need to learn how to read, write, and pronounce the alphabet in such a short period of time.

My next class is Modern Standard Arabic at 10am. It's my favorite! It's an accelerated course, so class lasts from two to three hours and covers a year's worth of material in one semester. The professor is Suzanne, and she's incredible! Because there are only three people in the class, we meet in her office. She treated us to tea the first time we were there, and she also offers us snacks. In addition to all of this, she is a great teacher, and I feel like I'm learning so much from her. I'm being challenged.

On Sundays and Wednesdays, I have Art and Architecture of Cairo at 2pm. It's a decent class, but the Egyptian students ask countless irrelevant questions. Fortunately, the professor, Doctor Chahinda Karim, is extremely frank with everyone. I like her, and I'm learning from her, but it's just an okay class.

On Mondays and Thursdays, I have a history class at 2pm instead. It's the Middle East in the 20th Century. The professor is American, Doctor Jennifer Derr. She seems nice, approachable, and funny, but she speaks way too fast and her lectures aren't connected. This class is by far my most difficult.

I'm always done with classes at 3:15pm, so I catch the 4pm bus back most days. The ride that takes 45 minutes in the morning takes over an hour on the way back. Sometimes it takes an hour and a half. I generally close my eyes and attempt to sleep, but that's next to impossible on a bus in Cairo.

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