LE Egypt

Greetings from the Library of Alexandria! A lot of this post is lifted from an e-mail that I just sent the fam. at home... And this is my first one on the blog since when I first introduced Julie to the cyberworld! (I feel a little guilty about this, but I think I'll try to be more vigilant about it from now on). This is actually my second time here and its really a magnificent place despite some of the most ridiculous policies in the universe. First, you can't bring books into this library. I was walking through with my tome of Shakespeare and they made me turn back and stick it with my bag. Second, you can't bring bags into the library - a little more understandable for security reasons and such, but still sort of ridiculous in my opinion. Finally, you have to pay five pounds to enter... I don't think you can check things out either... So what sort of library is this??? It goes against all of my library ethics so I think I might boycott. This is why education is such a problem in Egypt (or at least some of my students tell me)... the libraries are expensive.

So, over the weekend the crews from Cairo and Minya came to visit. This weekend it will be the Cairo team's turn to host us. We took them around the city a little and shied away from the tourist attractions to give them the authentic tour of Alexandria. That included a day at Aida beach, some of our favorite local quisine (shwarma, pizza, and falafel) , as well as some time in the ancient parts of the city. So we went to the catacombs which are buried 90 feet beneath the ground and have a mixture of Roman, Greek, and Egyptian flavor. They were created at times when all of these cultures were mixing around (as I understand). We also went to Pompey's pillar (which actually has nothing to do with Pompey - again as I understand) where I refused to pay the entrance fee because I could see it from outside... You see, the government has created a giant wall around this block of the city where the ruins are and you have to pay to enter and enjoy their history. But it defeats the purpose when you can enjoy the pillar from the street. And its only a pillar anyway. Despite these things, I love Egypt.

So I skipped out on going close[!] to the pillar, but I was there. It was more fun to stand outside and wait for the others (4 of us opted against entering) and watch the guards. One of them just kept saluting us. I also took the oppurtunity to practice my Arabic and ask for directions to the cataccombs (we actually visited these second). I've been trying to practice a lot and the people really love it when you try. They're pretty eager to teach you and practice their own English. As I said, we're going to Cairo tomorrow night so yesterday I had to go to the train station to buy my tickets (Christine hadn't decided at the time that she was coming). We arrived and I realized that I had no idea when the trains ran and remembered that I had been warned that the train stations (especially the one in Cairo) aren't very non-Egyptian friendly. So, I started by asking the guard which window to go to if I wanted to get to Cairo and from there I made it to my window, ordered my tickets (times, destination, return) and had a chat with the ticket guys while I waited for them to print, all in Arabic. I was pretty impressed, and Christine was actually there to witness it - so someone can vouch for this miracle.

As I was saying we went to the catacombs. You essentially descend down 30 meters into the ground by way of a sort of staircase that spirals around and shaft in the ground that looks like an extra wide well. This, our friendly tour guide (he took it upon himself to do us this favor) told us, was to lower the bodies into the catacombs.

After our friends left on Saturday night, I was confronted with my teaching for the next week. Starting a kids class on Monday, as well as my usual adults classes that run through the week. They don't meet every day though, so we teach 27 hours in the week. It ends up being far more work than it sounds because of the preparation that is involved. Why else would I be in the Library of Alex. than to be lesson planning on a Wednesday? I'm in the home stretch now because I had my last kids class for the week today and tomorrow I have my last two adult classes. Then, right after the last adults class I'll head to the train station with Christine and we'll get on the night train (first class) to Cairo. We'll get there quite late at night to be greeted by Julie.

The kids classes have been going really great. Every day we choose a theme and spend four hours on it. So the first day I chose autism and savants, yesterday was ghosts, and today was movie reviews. Next week I'm planning on doing Shakespeare, music and something else. Any ideas (they're smart)? They're all about 15 years old and they've been studying English for eight years more or less, so they're intermediate-advanced.... mostly. A couple struggle to keep up. They really enjoy listening to music and reading the lyrics while filling in blanks - this is one thing we did today with Jack Johnson. The classes are really going well and they're great for me because I just wouldn't be able to manage the little ones... I'd have health problems at least after being through with them. And its great because they've got personalities and they're interesting people. So I look forward to the mornings.

I'm going to go soon because I've got to plan my adult classes for tomorrow. I'm giving them their first quiz on the first units of the book, so cross your fingers. I think it will be easy for most of them... the grammar is pretty simple and I'm a splendid, modest teacher so they should be well-prepared. I look forward to hearing from everyone!

Jake

(pardon any errors in here, because I'm not checking...)