So I'm back from Luxor/Aswan and it was pretty amazing! It was hard being away from family for various reasons but all the amazing things I saw made it enjoyable nonetheless. We started the trip off with a flight to Aswan and checking into our cruise ship. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty skeptical of the cruise ship. Imagining what kind of "discount" ship we would get (read: roach-on-a-boat) I was preparing myself for the worst. Luckily I was extremely surprised by the 5 star ship we landed on! It had about 5 floors and the roof had a beautiful pool and spa. Our ship, the beau soleil (fancy, eh?), had pretty nice rooms as well. The food was catered to foreign tastes and thus was a bizarre fusion of westernized Egyptian food and "cruise ship food." Unfortunately for my now swollen tummy there was a dessert buffet and they had new pastries at every meal. Naturally I had to try every single one 'for science.' Besides the ship itself we were escorted on a variety of trips to temples and sites along the Nile. We saw the Temple at Phillae, the Temple of Kom Ombo, the Temple of Edfu , a Nubian village, Karnak (which was amazing!), Hatshepsut's Temple, and the Valley of the Kings. It was pretty amazing seeing all the colossal statues and buildings that people thousands of years ago were able to build. The hieroglyphics were astounding. Our guide had a lot of information about what each symbol represented and I found myself getting accustomed to the style just within a few days - already being able to recognize gods and goddesses by sight. I was able to associate the symbols of each god/goddess, too! Facebook will soon have photos uploaded - I took about 150 if not more! All in all it was a really great trip and I loved how it was packed with a variety of locations. Unfortunately our flight from Luxor to Cairo was at 2 AM and I didn't arrive back at my apartment until 5 AM on Sunday morning...the first day of school.
So the first day of school was....hard. I was pretty much dead for the entirety of the day and for some reason ALI didn't get the "the first day of school is a blow-off full of get-to-know-you games and icebreakers" memo. Instead, they seemed to think it was 5 minutes of "Ismee Ashton, ana min Amrika fi medinat Dana Point wa adruss fi gam3at al Austin fi Texas." After that it was instruction from about 8:50 until 3 PM (with a 1 1/2 break for lunch...seriously). In total I'm taking 5 different classes: Modern Standard Arabic Grammar, Modern Standard Arabic Vocabulary, Printed Media (MSA), Survival Colloquial Egyptian Arabic, and Egyptian Conversation. I was debating signing up for an additional class entitled Reading and Vocabulary as an elective but I think I may audit a course outside of Arabic instead. Unfortunately my 5 classes translates to only 3 classes in Austin College terms - an inconvenience that I find extremely frustrating. It makes little sense that my hours and hours of Arabic only count as 3 courses to AC but I guess that's how they make their money.... :| The course I'm planning on auditing is by Ezzedine Fishere, a distinguished visiting professor at AUC who only teaches a few courses. He's pretty much awesome and I've stalked him for awhile now. I would kill to take a class with this guy. The one I want is called Global Conflict and Security and it's a graduate level political science course. He emailed me the syllabus (potentially as a deterrent from taking his course since he did hear that I'm a junior in undergrad...) and it has 11 books for required reading plus an additional 6 books as supplementary material. Oh and that includes about 20 articles that aren't in books. Wow. But they all look SO interesting. I really hope I get the chance to audit it. Since I am part of ALI I can't take the class for a grade but that may be for the best since I will have so little time to spare. My printed media course is...well...hard as hell. We walk into class and the professor is handing out copies of newspaper headlines asking us to read it silently and underline the words we recognize. Uhhh, really? I tested into these courses because I can read and write the alphabet - NOT because I have a working knowledge of Arabic vocabulary! I was able to recognize a few words (only the prepositions, to be honest) and was extremely intimidated right off the bat. Her fast-paced class bulldozed through about 50 different vocab words like NATO, the Arab League, transitional council, etc. I had no idea this vocabulary was classified under "middle Elementary." I shudder to think what the Intermediate kids are learning! Needless to say I will have my work cut out for me this semester. Each professor seems adamant that we read and re-read all of the homework assigned and spend hours on each worksheet. This will be interesting indeed. Yet each successive day got a tiny bit easier as my confidence in Arabic grew. Unfortunately a lot of the other kids in my class have had a semester or more of Arabic - yet somehow they tested into my level? Read: lazy kids who wanted an easy A. Either way they screw up the curve of the class and make me feel like even more of a loser when I have to read aloud in my Hooked on Phonics Arabic. Egyptian colloquial is awesome though. Since it's almost completely oral I have little opportunity to read aloud and I can rely upon my ears and mouth to guide me. Much more preferable!
The biggest downside to AUC is definitely the food. The food is limited to these tiny kiosks and the random McDonalds, Cinnabon, or similar Egyptian chain like Cilantro (I know, this is Egyptian...I think they believe Spanish is 'trendy') or Cafe Tabasco (again with the trendy Spanish). Bottom line: it's gross. I had my first attempt at homemade breakfast bars last night. I found a copycat LaraBar recipe that has very few ingredients - all of which are easily available in Egypt like dates, coconut, cocoa powder, and peanut butter. I used generic Arabic peanut butter because the American kind was double the price it is back in the States. Bad move. The bars were tasty but definitely lacked the sweetness and consistency they needed. Since American peanut butter has an extremely dense consistency and high level of sugar I'm assuming this is what my mistake can be attributed to. However the bars aren't gross by any means and they are now in cute little foil-bars in the freezer ready to be thawed when needed.
I also utilized Drinkies, the home delivery liquor/beer/wine shop in Egypt. I have been wanting to cook with wine for some time now and since it's no longer Ramadan the shops are back open! I called Drinkies to hear "thank you for calling Drinkies call center, a customer representative will be with you shortly." Uhh say what? I was expecting to use my broken Egyptian to stammer my way through this conversation and I find out there's a call center?! A friendly Egyptian quickly answers the phone and asks me what my order is. Uh-oh, I was definitely not prepared for this level of specificity. Expecting the normal level of Egyptian ambiguity I said, "a bottle of red wine." He then asks, "what vintage and brand would you like?" ??!?!? Luckily my suitemate Ellen was nearby to supply me with a random name - Cape Bay wine. He then asks if the "summer vintage is okay"... uh hell yeah it's okay! The wine is then delivered to my door within 45 minutes at only a 4 le charge - the USD equivalent of was less than $1. It was awesome. I decide that this awesome wine (and it was awesome, by the way) merited a nice red sauce and pasta. I am usually highly critical of my food but this sauce was amazing! I caramelized some red onions and garlic in a pan which I then deglazed with the red wine and some beef stock. I added a bunch of fresh diced tomatoes and some tomato paste (plus salt and pepper, of course). I let it simmer uncovered for about 30 minutes when I added some fresh thyme and a pinch of cayenne pepper. The sauce was so good! I added a bit of the starchy pasta water to thicken up the sauce and allow it to bind to the noodles once mixed. It was so great that the next night I had leftover sauce so I had it again! I was so pleased!
So the first day of school was....hard. I was pretty much dead for the entirety of the day and for some reason ALI didn't get the "the first day of school is a blow-off full of get-to-know-you games and icebreakers" memo. Instead, they seemed to think it was 5 minutes of "Ismee Ashton, ana min Amrika fi medinat Dana Point wa adruss fi gam3at al Austin fi Texas." After that it was instruction from about 8:50 until 3 PM (with a 1 1/2 break for lunch...seriously). In total I'm taking 5 different classes: Modern Standard Arabic Grammar, Modern Standard Arabic Vocabulary, Printed Media (MSA), Survival Colloquial Egyptian Arabic, and Egyptian Conversation. I was debating signing up for an additional class entitled Reading and Vocabulary as an elective but I think I may audit a course outside of Arabic instead. Unfortunately my 5 classes translates to only 3 classes in Austin College terms - an inconvenience that I find extremely frustrating. It makes little sense that my hours and hours of Arabic only count as 3 courses to AC but I guess that's how they make their money.... :| The course I'm planning on auditing is by Ezzedine Fishere, a distinguished visiting professor at AUC who only teaches a few courses. He's pretty much awesome and I've stalked him for awhile now. I would kill to take a class with this guy. The one I want is called Global Conflict and Security and it's a graduate level political science course. He emailed me the syllabus (potentially as a deterrent from taking his course since he did hear that I'm a junior in undergrad...) and it has 11 books for required reading plus an additional 6 books as supplementary material. Oh and that includes about 20 articles that aren't in books. Wow. But they all look SO interesting. I really hope I get the chance to audit it. Since I am part of ALI I can't take the class for a grade but that may be for the best since I will have so little time to spare. My printed media course is...well...hard as hell. We walk into class and the professor is handing out copies of newspaper headlines asking us to read it silently and underline the words we recognize. Uhhh, really? I tested into these courses because I can read and write the alphabet - NOT because I have a working knowledge of Arabic vocabulary! I was able to recognize a few words (only the prepositions, to be honest) and was extremely intimidated right off the bat. Her fast-paced class bulldozed through about 50 different vocab words like NATO, the Arab League, transitional council, etc. I had no idea this vocabulary was classified under "middle Elementary." I shudder to think what the Intermediate kids are learning! Needless to say I will have my work cut out for me this semester. Each professor seems adamant that we read and re-read all of the homework assigned and spend hours on each worksheet. This will be interesting indeed. Yet each successive day got a tiny bit easier as my confidence in Arabic grew. Unfortunately a lot of the other kids in my class have had a semester or more of Arabic - yet somehow they tested into my level? Read: lazy kids who wanted an easy A. Either way they screw up the curve of the class and make me feel like even more of a loser when I have to read aloud in my Hooked on Phonics Arabic. Egyptian colloquial is awesome though. Since it's almost completely oral I have little opportunity to read aloud and I can rely upon my ears and mouth to guide me. Much more preferable!
The biggest downside to AUC is definitely the food. The food is limited to these tiny kiosks and the random McDonalds, Cinnabon, or similar Egyptian chain like Cilantro (I know, this is Egyptian...I think they believe Spanish is 'trendy') or Cafe Tabasco (again with the trendy Spanish). Bottom line: it's gross. I had my first attempt at homemade breakfast bars last night. I found a copycat LaraBar recipe that has very few ingredients - all of which are easily available in Egypt like dates, coconut, cocoa powder, and peanut butter. I used generic Arabic peanut butter because the American kind was double the price it is back in the States. Bad move. The bars were tasty but definitely lacked the sweetness and consistency they needed. Since American peanut butter has an extremely dense consistency and high level of sugar I'm assuming this is what my mistake can be attributed to. However the bars aren't gross by any means and they are now in cute little foil-bars in the freezer ready to be thawed when needed.
I can't wait to start cooking more. I finally found whole wheat flour, rolled oats, and oat bran. I think this means I can start making breakfast bars in lots of varieties. I already have dried apricots, dates, and coconut so I think this should make for a little bit of variety. So excited! I know that if I pulverize the rolled oats in the blender it can make a hearty base for a breakfast smoothie...although this all depends upon my ability to wake up in time for breakfast! I have been "pushing it" lately with the whole "waking up on time" thing... turns out I don't like to wake up at 6 AM every day. It sucks. Ah well, at least I get to make more breakfast bars! Maa Salaama!
