I have now been in Cairo for a few days and am adjusted. Yesterday, we had orientation for the Arabic program at AUC. I’m familiar with where everything is on campus, and what to expect with the program. I will be placed at the intermediate level for Fusha (MSA), which is what I hoped for. I will also have a course on colloquial Egyptian Arabic, and other courses/activities.

Today is Jumah (Friday), which is the weekend here. During the afternoon, I went for a walk around Zamalek, found a local grocery store, and figured out where other things are. It’s not so easy to find one’s way here, since the streets follow no logical pattern. We got mixed up coming back and used some Arabic to get directions, including فين (feyn) - where, يمين (yamin) - right; شمال (shamal) - left; طول (tool) - straight or على طول (alaa tool) - straight ahead.

In the evening, I got experience with taking cab rides and dealing with paying the fares. I went with a group to downtown, to take a ride on a felucca - this is the arabic word for a small, wooden sail boat. The word for a regular boat is مركب (markib). Anyway, we know how much the cab fare is for going that distance, and gave the cab driver that amount. When we got out, he argued with us, wanting 2-3 times the normal price. The thing to do is just walk away. That’s how it works here.

After the felucca ride, we went to an Egyptian restaurant (مطعم - mata’m) where I had a vegetable (خضار - khudar) dish with rice (أرز - aruz). I’m used to saying “shukran” - شكرا (thank you) very often. The food was good (كويس - kwayis) and delicious (لذيذ - laziz). Then we asked for the bill. (ممطن الفابورة, لو سمحت - momkin el-fatoora, low samaht) We walked around the Tahrir Square area, looking at the shops. Though the area was very crowded, so we went back.