الاسكندرية

After an 11 hour layover in Frankfurt, Germany, we finally arrived in Alexandria, Egypt, and we made our way to our dormitories on the coast of the Mediterranean. Although arriving at about 3:00 am, we were greeted at the door by the girls and directors of the girls dormitory for the University of Alexandria. Most of the Egyptian girls who stay here are from Alexandria, but there are some international students (mostly from Malaysia) as well as a few girls from the country. At first we were quite surprised that so many people were waiting to greet us, but by now we've learned that staying up late is not only a vocabulary word in Al-Kitaab (the main text used for studying Arabic) but it is a vital part of the culture here. People wake up early and in the middle of the day eat a huge lunch (the main meal of the day) after which they take a long nap (conveniently avoiding the hottest part of the day). Needless to say, we are still adjusting to this schedule....Anyway, after being greeted by the women in the dormitory we were given a quick tour and then shown our rooms, where we gratefully succumbed to a very deep sleep.
After a few hours of sleep, we got up and made our way to our school, the TAFL (Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language) Center at the University of Alexandria, where we began the very hectic process of trying to figure out class placement in Modern Standard Arabic, Egyptian Dialect, and Media Arabic. At this point classes are running fairly smoothly, and we're beginning to get out and explore the city (more on that later). One of the hardest things for us to adjust to was the daily schedule and the other girls in the dorms. Egyptian, indeed, Middle Eastern culture, is extremely social- people are always talking together and eating and hanging out. For many of us, it is nice to meet people and talk with them and get to know them, but at some point we feel the need for privacy, whether to read or do homework or sleep or even just think. We have not quite mastered the balance and etiquette required to really gauge these social interactions, but I feel we're getting better. To further confuse these societal differences, there are some very strict rules and expectations here: almost everyone is muhajiba (covered) and some women go all out and wear the niqaab (no skin showing at all, and even gloves!), making us "westerners" feel incredibly foreign and self-conscious in our T-shirts and jeans, and many of us at this point have tried adopting some of the Egyptian style. However none of us have really felt judged by the other girls, and everyone seems genuinely interested in getting to know us and spending time talking to us. Another issue we had to deal with was the 9:00pm curfew that was upheld by the dormitory, which was eventually changed to 12:00am. However, despite the differences, people here are very warm, encouraging and even tolerate our Egyptian Arabic, or lack thereof. Most of the Arabic education in the United States is focused on Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) which is used in radio shows and journalism and other official and professional purposes. However, all Arabs use a dialect specific to their region. Egyptian dialect is well-known throughout the Middle East for many reasons, chief among them being the extensive entertainment industry. This linguistic phenomenon is known as diglossia and it is one of the most difficult features of learning Arabic (at least in my opinion). Dialects can differ greatly- for example, if a Moroccan spoke in his dialect, and an Iraqi spoke in his, it would be very difficult if not impossible for the two to understand each other even though they are both technically speaking Arabic. This is one of the main reasons why studying abroad is so crucial- even if one has many Arabic materials at his/her disposal, they may not really have an opportunity to practice the dialect that they're wishing to learn because the focus is largely on MSA. We are indeed having a lot of dialect practice here and hopefully we will continue to progress. We are also beginning to get out more and more, and the routine of school is beginning to be felt.