Early Entry - Monday, September 1, 2008

So today was amusing, if by amusing I mean I had a very difficult time going without food or water in a strange country while the sun was up. In case you didn’t guess, today was the first day of Ramadaan, which proved to be quite an amusing change in the city’s character.
The day started with me being indecisive on whether or not I should fast. I opted to try for a day and see how I ‘liked’ it, so I got very grumpy very quickly. We started classes today, which for me meant one two hour length class for FusHa (the literary Arabic), which may prove to be a half a level or so over my head. I may stay in the class, but if I drop down the level will be too low, so we’ll see. I want to maximize my Arabic learning in the program, so I may just try to figure something out to reconcile the issues at hand. At any rate I was excited to find that I landed myself in the highest FusHa level with the placement test – and a bit scared, because the most-learned people in the program are a good deal ahead of me. We’ll see how a few weeks treats me.
So I was basically dead tired, dehydrated, hungry and quite grumpy once we finished class. I schlepped to the boys dorms to hang out with the other guys (and to fall asleep on Matt Lowes’ bed), before we all went out to a café along the corniche (everything relatively nice is on the corniche – it just sounds nice to begin with). Before that I broke the fast (IfTar, it’s called) with Adrian, a British Muslim in the program, and Joe, who was just fasting for kicks and giggles. It tasted so, so good. And dessert was watermelon.
The café was alright. I have to find somewhere decent near the water that isn’t too expensive. It’s not as if it translates into much in American money, but I’d like to economize and keep my future options open. It hasn’t been too bad since I’ve started to get a general idea of the city layout. I know sort of when to take a taxi and when not. Tomorrow for sure I will explore my neighborhood on foot, so I know where local shops, cafes, etc are. Also for tomorrow is a visit to Medan Ramal (the center of the city), hopefully by the tram – so I can get used to that. It’s ridiculously cheap: 25 piastres, or 5 American cents, to ride on it. Awesome.
I feel like my speaking is getting a little better, but my comprehension is improving at a much more rapid pace. Hopefully the spoken Arabic class will be helpful.