Midterms and All That "Jazz"
07.08.05 (8:39 am) [edit]
It is time for communities to speak out against terrorism! It’s about a change of “hearts and minds”. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/0...
After a long, restless, sick night I am able to relay to you the events of yesterday that I am sure all you anxious readers have been waiting to hear. The evenst of today will have to wait until after my midday nap and my shopping excursion and will be posted later this evening. It seems that if I skip a day of posting the world—by the world I mean my friends and family—all worry themselves to death. So here are the events of yesterday’s midterm, jazziness, and complaining. . . .
On Wednesday night I celebrated not feeling sick for a week! However, as soon as my body realizes how wonderful that is and I brag about, Cairo interrupts and wreaks havoc once more. I woke up yesterday morning earlier than normal to study for my Arabic midterm and to meet with my poli sci professor to see if I could miss a class for a trip next week; I just didn’t realize that these everyday tasks would take twice as long. After a bit of dying I decided to hydrate myself and somehow make it to campus.
Two juice boxes and 48 ounces of water later I managed to climb the stairs to Kazziha’s office to discover he had slept in that day. It was totally imperative to get an answer on missing class—it’s a seminar only twice a week so missing one is huge—to know if it would hurt my grade or not because I have been looking forward to the Nile Cruise for over a month. I slipped him a note under his door, assuming I was breaking some sort of cultural norm of some sort, and to the one positive aspect of my day, he wrote me an email in the affirmative that I could miss class, it wouldn’t hurt my grade, and if enough of us go on the trip he’ll hold an extra session for us! It was all downhill from there!
I ate a banana, yogurt, and granola bar—knowing the few pieces of food that are safe—and headed to the library to study for my exam. Before I knew it Arabic class had come. Fifty percent of the grade for the midterm was a presentation, which seemed to go decently well, but the other 50% was a listening test—some parts manageable, others not so much! Regardless it was done!
I went book shopping for American children’s books in Arabic—bought the Little Princess, Peter Pan, & Charles Dicken’s Christmas Story—then I came home feeling a bit better, got my weekend’s Arabic homework done, and then got ready for our night out at the Cairo Jazz Club.
All was going well when the six of us piled into the table at the relaxing atmosphere of the Jazz Club. We were enjoying the calamari, wearing Western amounts of clothes, and the fabulous gnocchi I had when the band start around midnightish. Saera and I started to die of smoke as more and more people filed in for the performance, and we went outside for a quick break. Unfortunately, everyone else felt bad about us being outside so they all left the Jazz Club even though I tried to tell them not to—step one of my ruining everyone’s night. What wonderful friends I’ve made to put up with this.
Next step was going to go chill somewhere—finding “somewhere” (esp. in a taxi) is always an adventure and this time I was not let down!
After unsuccessfully trying to fit six people into a taxi since Tim “knew where the dessert place was” we agreed on following his taxi and ended up spending a bit of time driving around Sh. 26th of July. I can not forget the picture of Tim leaning his newly bald head out the window and shouting “ah-la tuul” (go straight) and my taxi driver making fun of him for the next twenty minutes while their taxi driver kept driving up next to our car and winking at Sarah and I! It was quite a ride—fun although my stomache was starting to hurt and my eyes were still stinging. I figured it was nothing chilling and drinking tea and eating icecream couldn’t solve. I was wrong!
We did not end up finding the “somewhere” and instead ended up paying the taxi drivers a huge fee to bring us to where they liked the desserts. They pulled one of those moves where they took us up and down side streets so we got lost and didn’t know how much to pay them so we paid too much! Oh well!
When we got out of the taxi Tim decided that he knew a place nearby instead of the one the taxi drivers brought us to. Now remember, I’m usually a HUGE fan of walking around with no destinations—in fact, it’s one of my favorite things to do (even when Rebecca goes nuts because she always needs a destination and I never do)—but at this point my stomache-ache was getting worse each step. Then my poor friends. . .my complaining began! Finally after a few unsuccessful attempts I declared the dreaded “we arre going home”. I feel awful still for ruining the night—first the jazz club then the dessert place—but this city’s pollution and food and my little Midwestern body don’t go together well.
Sarah took good care of me and gave me a bottle of water while the boys apologized profusely—even though it was clearly my fault I ruined the night. I owe them all big time now! Sheesha or icecream on Ally soon! After Sarah took care of me I called the family at Lake Mary and interrupted their wine and (most likely) gazebo session. They had no choice but to listen to me complain. My dad said he knew I must really have been sick if I skipped out on icecream—I tell ya, everyone knows about my addiction!
At about 3am I finally fell asleep to wake up at 8am for church today. After I get back from shopping I’m relay all of today’s events. But so everyone knows—the little bit of sleep, the large quantities of water, and taking a nap this afternoon will make me better! So no worries. . .I won’t go ruining anyone’s night tonight. Besides, even if I was sick still/got sick latera, how could I ever skip out on shopping? :)
After a long, restless, sick night I am able to relay to you the events of yesterday that I am sure all you anxious readers have been waiting to hear. The evenst of today will have to wait until after my midday nap and my shopping excursion and will be posted later this evening. It seems that if I skip a day of posting the world—by the world I mean my friends and family—all worry themselves to death. So here are the events of yesterday’s midterm, jazziness, and complaining. . . .
On Wednesday night I celebrated not feeling sick for a week! However, as soon as my body realizes how wonderful that is and I brag about, Cairo interrupts and wreaks havoc once more. I woke up yesterday morning earlier than normal to study for my Arabic midterm and to meet with my poli sci professor to see if I could miss a class for a trip next week; I just didn’t realize that these everyday tasks would take twice as long. After a bit of dying I decided to hydrate myself and somehow make it to campus.
Two juice boxes and 48 ounces of water later I managed to climb the stairs to Kazziha’s office to discover he had slept in that day. It was totally imperative to get an answer on missing class—it’s a seminar only twice a week so missing one is huge—to know if it would hurt my grade or not because I have been looking forward to the Nile Cruise for over a month. I slipped him a note under his door, assuming I was breaking some sort of cultural norm of some sort, and to the one positive aspect of my day, he wrote me an email in the affirmative that I could miss class, it wouldn’t hurt my grade, and if enough of us go on the trip he’ll hold an extra session for us! It was all downhill from there!
I ate a banana, yogurt, and granola bar—knowing the few pieces of food that are safe—and headed to the library to study for my exam. Before I knew it Arabic class had come. Fifty percent of the grade for the midterm was a presentation, which seemed to go decently well, but the other 50% was a listening test—some parts manageable, others not so much! Regardless it was done!
I went book shopping for American children’s books in Arabic—bought the Little Princess, Peter Pan, & Charles Dicken’s Christmas Story—then I came home feeling a bit better, got my weekend’s Arabic homework done, and then got ready for our night out at the Cairo Jazz Club.
All was going well when the six of us piled into the table at the relaxing atmosphere of the Jazz Club. We were enjoying the calamari, wearing Western amounts of clothes, and the fabulous gnocchi I had when the band start around midnightish. Saera and I started to die of smoke as more and more people filed in for the performance, and we went outside for a quick break. Unfortunately, everyone else felt bad about us being outside so they all left the Jazz Club even though I tried to tell them not to—step one of my ruining everyone’s night. What wonderful friends I’ve made to put up with this.
Next step was going to go chill somewhere—finding “somewhere” (esp. in a taxi) is always an adventure and this time I was not let down!
After unsuccessfully trying to fit six people into a taxi since Tim “knew where the dessert place was” we agreed on following his taxi and ended up spending a bit of time driving around Sh. 26th of July. I can not forget the picture of Tim leaning his newly bald head out the window and shouting “ah-la tuul” (go straight) and my taxi driver making fun of him for the next twenty minutes while their taxi driver kept driving up next to our car and winking at Sarah and I! It was quite a ride—fun although my stomache was starting to hurt and my eyes were still stinging. I figured it was nothing chilling and drinking tea and eating icecream couldn’t solve. I was wrong!
We did not end up finding the “somewhere” and instead ended up paying the taxi drivers a huge fee to bring us to where they liked the desserts. They pulled one of those moves where they took us up and down side streets so we got lost and didn’t know how much to pay them so we paid too much! Oh well!
When we got out of the taxi Tim decided that he knew a place nearby instead of the one the taxi drivers brought us to. Now remember, I’m usually a HUGE fan of walking around with no destinations—in fact, it’s one of my favorite things to do (even when Rebecca goes nuts because she always needs a destination and I never do)—but at this point my stomache-ache was getting worse each step. Then my poor friends. . .my complaining began! Finally after a few unsuccessful attempts I declared the dreaded “we arre going home”. I feel awful still for ruining the night—first the jazz club then the dessert place—but this city’s pollution and food and my little Midwestern body don’t go together well.
Sarah took good care of me and gave me a bottle of water while the boys apologized profusely—even though it was clearly my fault I ruined the night. I owe them all big time now! Sheesha or icecream on Ally soon! After Sarah took care of me I called the family at Lake Mary and interrupted their wine and (most likely) gazebo session. They had no choice but to listen to me complain. My dad said he knew I must really have been sick if I skipped out on icecream—I tell ya, everyone knows about my addiction!
At about 3am I finally fell asleep to wake up at 8am for church today. After I get back from shopping I’m relay all of today’s events. But so everyone knows—the little bit of sleep, the large quantities of water, and taking a nap this afternoon will make me better! So no worries. . .I won’t go ruining anyone’s night tonight. Besides, even if I was sick still/got sick latera, how could I ever skip out on shopping? :)