Cairo begins...

Yesterday was my first day of teaching. And it was FANTASTIC. Im teaching 3 classes of two different levels. The students in the classes exploded into conversations and debates about everything from professions in Egypt to movies. Everyone was really eager to teach me about Egypt and what it means to be Egyptian- it's good and it's bads. And just to reiterate what Kate said below, every single class asked me what my religion was. Actually I think it went something like this : "You are Jewish" thanks to my name...ha! I had to explain to them that my father is Jewish and my mother is roman catholic and that i was basically raised catholic. But they didnt really get the idea of two religions and the idea of religion as seperate from culture. Interesting. The students discussed the role of religion in Egyptian society (in English...) in a really interesting way. I just sort of stood back and answered questions about grammer. It's cool to see how these young people here think. Anyway the students are really eager to better their english which is awesome and the classes all have their own unique dynamic so woot woot! Everyones really interested in learning more idioms....so if anyone thinks of any good ones let me know!

Day before yesterday Rachel, Mama Kath and I explored a little bit of Islamic Cairo. Woah. W.O.A.H. It's such a trip. We went to buy more headscarfs (Which im slowly starting to realize are more vital than i originally thought...they are the only way to semi-ward off potential marriage proposals/claims of love/general actions of sexual harassment) and had tea with the man selling them in his little tent/stall. It was pretty fantastic. One thing Im quickly realizing is that if you tell a Egyptian that you like something of theirs they will literally take it off/remove it and give it to you. Apparently it's bad luck not to. The correct thing to do is then to give it back with a response of "Mashallah". I like that. It really tells you something about this culture which is soooo community orientated.

Having a lot of conversations about religion too. Mostly it's just me listening and people teaching me. So I guess you could say im just learning a lot. A whole lot.

Ma'as-salama,
Sharon