Monday, June 28, 2010

Average Day

Since Sherri (hi Aunt Sherri!) expressed curiosity about it, I thought I'd post on what an average day is like for me here.

6:45 am: My alarm goes off. I promptly ignore it.

7:40 am: Finally get out of bed. Shower and get dressed. Check email, etc.

8:20 am: Eat breakfast downstairs. Breakfast options usually consist of any combination of the following: beans, cheese, pita bread, Egyptian-style baguettes, jam, honey, eggs (scrambled or hardboiled), falafel, corn flakes, milk, mango juice, or apple juice.

8:45 am: Depart for school.

9:00 am: School starts. Most days during the morning we work on Modern Standard Arabic.

9:50 am: Break. During breaks I sometimes go upstairs to find Ahmed, who will sell you pastries, snacks, and various beverages, all at low Egyptian prices.

10:00 am: More Modern Standard Arabic.

10:50 am: Breaktime once again.

11:10 am: More class. Depending on the day, either Modern Standard Arabic or Egyptian Colloquial.

12:00 pm: Break!

12:10 pm: Classtime once more.

1:00 pm: Class gets out. At this point I usually head to lunch. Depending on how I'm feeling, I either go to get lunch at the dorms or go with some of the guys in my class to a local place that sells Egyptian street food. Dorm lunch usually involves rice or koshari (which is mostly rice) and chicken or kofta. If I go with the guys, I usually get a falafel sandwich and a beef shawarma, which is beef and vegetables on a hoagie-ish bun that's been grilled. This usually runs me around four and a half Egyptian pounds, which works out to around 75 cents American. Egypt is a land of cheap, plentiful, delicious food.

2:00 pm: At this juncture, anything can happen. Depending on the day and how much homework we all have, this time can be used for homework and studying, or for an outing of some sort. This may include museums and other historical monuments, like mosques or Coptic churches.

6:00 pm: Dinner. Dorm dinner usually involves bountiful carbohydrates, along with chicken, fish, or kofta. Sometimes we go out to dinner, either by ourselves or with one of our professors.

7:00 pm: Same rules apply as the 2:00 schedule.

11:00 pm: Start pondering sleep.

11:05 pm: Put on pajamas, etc.

11:15 pm: Get into bed.

11:21 pm: Remember something I need to google. Proceed to also check my email, etc.

11:45 pm: Drift off to sleep.

Weekends are fairly similar, with no classes and more sleeping. (It should perhaps be noted that the weekend here is Friday and Saturday, so I have classes from Sunday to Thursday.)

Alex

1 comment:

  1. Yeah for Allie!! Thanks for posting that for me! Sounds like a good way to spend your time! Love you!

    ReplyDelete